Japanese traditional culture ~21~ Yuinou 結納（ゆいのう）

  What tradition do you have in your culture before
get to marry? In Japan, there is a tradition, called Yuinou.
This ceremony is held before you get married.
  The man and woman get together at one place with their
parents. Maybe it will be held at women's house.
Or the bridal company may prepare for the ceremony.
The man gives money to woman's family. It is said that
the amount should be about 3 times of his salary in my area.
  And the other day, woman gives a present for the man.
That's the return by woman. As I introduced here, Japanese
people often exchange gifts in various situations in our
daily life.
  But I guess there are many kinds of customs in Japan.
It would depends on the district where he or she live in.
  This tradition may be held so that the couples would
not divorce easily. This kind of tradition may be lost in some
places in modern age although.

Japanese education ~5~ manuscript paper 原稿用紙（げんこうようし）

  I  guess this manuscript paper is peculiar to Japanese culture.
There is common manuscript paper in our culture. On this manuscript
paper, there are four hundred squares to write Japanese characters.
  And there is a rule to write sentences.
  As you may know, sometimes we write letters from top to down.
This way must be unusual for other cultures.
And if you read on this way, you may feel uneasy.

  I've started to use this manuscript papers to write my work.

Japanese expression ~13~ borrowed words and English made in Japan 外来語（がいらいご）と和製英語（わせいえいご）

In Japanese, there are many "gai rai go".
Gairaigo means borrowed words.
For example, these words below are ones which were imported
directly from abroad.

ドア　（doa）= door (from English)
イエロー（ierou）= yellow
アルバイト Arubaito = Arbeit (from Germany)
カステラ　= Castela (from Portuguese)
Each words are pronounced so Japanese can pronounce easily.
These borrowed words are written in Katakana.

  But there are words, called Wasei eigo (English made in Japan)
Wasei = made in Japan
Eigo = English
  These words are written in Katakana. So those seem to look like
borrowed words. But, they are not.
  For example....
  We call a modular bath "Unit bath(ユニットバス)".
  We call outlet "consent（コンセント）"
　We call windshield or windscreen "frontglass(フロントガラス)".

  Japanese people misunderstand those words as borrowed words
if words are written in Katakana. So they get surprised when they
know that those words are made in Japan.

  It is said that Japanese culture absorbs various cultures of abroad
and arranges those cultures by mixing our own cultures.
That's the history of Japanese culture. We imported various
religions, clothes, lifestyle, foods, music, paintings, theater play,
books....and so on.
  In my impression, there are "not" so many people who are highly pride of
our own cultures. Japanese's self-evaluation toward our cultures is not so high.
Maybe that may be because our culture strongly focuses on the sense of
modest. So, foreign people get surprised to know Japanese people
don't have a lot of knowledge about our own cultures.

My story(children's story) ~10~ A white cat

  This work I wrote the story has passed the first judge of
Kamishibai contest!
  As a drawer, my father entried this work in the Minoo Kamishibai competition
in Osaka. I am just pleased.
  At the second judge, the tntrants need to play the performance of Kamishibai.
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Japanese lifestyle ~63~ language lessons on radio and TV

  What kind of languages are learned on radio or TV in Japan?
In Japan, we have radio or TV program of English, Chinese, Korean,
French, German, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Italian.
  I have listened to the radio program of English when I go to my
workplace in my car. Some Japanese businessmen have interest
on business English. So, there are some kinds of English radio program.
And recently, Chinese learners are getting more and more.
I sometimes learn Chinese. There is a Chinese restaurant in front of my
house. So, I sometimes go there and learn some words or phrases
from the owner.
 

Japanese expression ~ 12 ~ weeds

  They are  as tough as weeds.
Do you call the person who is very tough "weeds"?
  Japanese culture basically has the idea, Life is hard to live, I think.
So, we sometimes train people to live like weeds.
And when people say, I want to live like weeds, that means,
he  wants to live strongly even if he is not known his effort by
many people.

  I just wondered if there is this kind of expression in your culture.

Japanese saying てte

Japanese saying that begins from てte is...
てつ(iron)は　あつい(heated)　うちに　うて(strike)
You have to strike iron before it gets cold.

  This saying tells you have to train yourself
before you are willing to do something. Otherwise, you
may lose your interest in a while.
  If you decide to train yourself, maybe it would be the
best chance to do that. Or you may forget to do that.

  When I write a story, I try to write sentences as much as
possible so that I won't lose my idea. I keep writing a story.
 

Japanese Education ~4~ English part 2

 When I am teaching students English, I found a few things.
The English beginners often make some mistakes because of
the differences of rules between Japanese and English.
 Today, I introduce some of them.

1  The beginners don't start writing from the big character,
such as... what time is it now?
   Our language doesn't have the difference of big character
and small character.

2  The beginners don't add "?" at the end of the sentence of
an interrogative sentence.
   We don't usually use "?" in the literary expression.
(Casually, people may use it)

3  The beginners tend to have difficulties to distinguish between
 "b" and "d". For example, students write "dook" instead of "book".
 Or, "Yes, I bo." instead of "Yes, I do."

4  Japanese language don't have the concept of "the plural". So,
  we need to study it, taking time.

5  Japanese people have a lot of difficulties to distinguish "r"sound
 and "l"sound.

6  Japanese learners(including me) have difficulties to know in what
cases we need to use "a" and"the". Actually, there is a general
explanation. You use "a", you should use it if it's countable noun.
But it's confusing. And I don't know exactly in what cases people need to
use plural expressions.

7 A preposition is one of the most difficult things when we speak
or write English.
 

Japanese education ~3~ English

  I have some English classes now. I started this job a few months ago.
And I noticed some things.
  Firstly, students need to start learning English from elementary school.
In my district, students have English classes from 5 grade.(from 10~11 years
old) They don't start writing from that period. Maybe that's because
there are not enough classes to learn things like learning Alphabet and
writing. They just learn listening. If there is chance to learn ALT( Teaching
assistant by native teacher), they can learn from native teacher. (They
are not always be able to learn from native because there are not so many
native teachers in the city)
  I think students who start learning English(Alphabet, writing, reading, and
so on) from junior high school have difficulties to get used to English.
Especially, pronunciation is very hard for children. They tend to have
embarrassments from this period. And some students tend to think
they don't like "studying".
  On the other hand, the students who started English from elementary school
don't have big barrier to pronounce unknown language. I focus on the pronunciation
skill in my class. So when I assign their homework, I ask students to listen to
CD many times. And I ask them for imitating the pronunciation many times.
If you missed the chance to get the sense of pronunciation
during this period, you would not be able to get better. I have heard that
children in this period can master the pronunciation almost perfectly.
  It is said that the pronunciation by Japanese people are characteristic.
It's because their pronunciation is affected by Japanese pronunciation.
I think Japanese people can improve their pronunciation by starting learning
English from their early age.

Japanese habit/custom ~50~ kiss in the public

  I have seen the article about "World naked bike ride" on Internet.
In Japan, this kind of event would never happen  forever in the future.^ ^ ;
I  guess it is not understandable for Japanese to do that. I feel the cultural gap.
  And one more thing, usually people do not kiss in the public in Japan.
I feel the cultural gap when I go abroad.
  It is interesting to imagine how people in other culture see the world that
surrounds you. Even it it is normal for certain culture, it may not be acceptable for
the other culture. So, every sense of your recognitions would be accustomed
by person's culture when they grow.
 

Japanese traditional culture ~20~tatami

This is renewed tatami.
Do you know "tatami"? Tatami is peculiar to Japanese culture.
You may have seen this kind of stuff if you've watch Judo.

  It is quite rare to renew tatami. Each tatami is not cheap. (The price depends on the
quality. Each tatami cost 10000yen)
  The history of tatami is very old. On wikipedia, it says the history goes back to
Heian period (1000 years ago). Each size is standardized. We express the  area of
the room by counting how many sheets tatami is laid out in the room.
Even western styled room, we do that. For example, if you can lay out 7 sheets
of tatami, you say "7 jou(畳)". This Chinese character　畳　means "tatami".

Japanese expression ~11~ Kansai ben

  Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto are famous cities in Japan.
Do you know there are differences in each region about languages?
First of all, the accent of each region is different.
And there are many words that are not used in other regions.
  The language in Tokyo is recognized as the standard language.
The broadcasters on TV speak the standard language.
The language which is spoken in west region, such as Osaka
and Kyoto is called "Kansai ben" Kansai= west  ben= dialect
And there also are differences between Kyoto and Osaka.
People in Kyoto and Osaka are proud of their languages.
For example the word "sensei" = teacher is pronounced like below

Kanto(Tokyo area)  sensei has the accent at the back.
But in Osaka and Kyoto, there is an accent at the former part.
And, what else...
Nande? = why?  (Tokyo)
Nande ya nenn? = why (Kansai Osaka)


There is a story.
A foreign people came to Osaka to study Japanese.
 She got shocked because people had not spoken like she
learned in her country.
The Kansaiben has a lot of differences from the standard language.
So, if you are the beginner in Japanese, you may not be able to
understand Kansaiben at first.

Japanese traditional culture ~19~ かざぐるまkazaguruma

Have you ever seen this stuff, called kazaguruma?

  This is like a windmill in Holand. This stuff maybe translated "Japanese
pinwheel". The wind of  this  kazaguruma I made grounds well.
I don't know if you could see in your country.
  Actually, I don't often see this stuff in Japan nowadays.
But I have seen this somewhere. And maybe children would see this
somewhere.
  It is easy to make.

Japanese custom/habit ~49~九九（くく）kuku

  I will tell you something about Japanese education on math.
When we get in elementary school, we start to learn how to
do multiplication.
  １×１、１×２、１×３...
  ３×１、３×２、３×３...
  9×１、９×２... 9×９
  As I showed above, we have to do multiplication quickly.
In Japan, we have useful way to remember each answers,
called 九九kuku.
　
  For example, we call １×１in（１） ichi（１） ga（＝） ichi（１）
in  ni（２） ga（＝） ni(2)
There are phrases to remember each multiplication.
　９×９　ku（９） ku（９） hachijyuu ichi（８１）.
  I heard this way is peculiar to Japan.
  In this way, maybe most of people can do multiplication quickly.
But I have heard that there are much more kinds of this
sort of phrases in India.
  I feel the deep history of India on mathematics when I hear of that...

Japanese lifestyle ~62~ school trip part 2

  The students who went for school trip came back a few days ago.
I did not expect to do the homework I assigned.(Talk to foreigners
in English in Kyoto.) Because you would need courage if you
talk to in second language.
  As I thought, most of students couldn't talk to foreigners.
One of the students said, "I found some people from abroad but
I could not talk". Maybe that's natural.
   But two of students said, "I was talked by foreigners."
He said he could understand  a few words. He was asked his name.
The other student was asked where the bus stop was. But
he said that he showed it in Japanese. hahaha.
  But both of them had nice experience. From my experience,
the guide for tourists is one of the international communication.
People from abroad get strong impression from the behavior
if you ask for the guide. And sometimes you make some
images of the country and culture from those people's behaviors.
  When I go abroad, I make some impressions from people I meet
unconsciously. A few weeks ago, students in my class learned how to
explain if you are asked for the guide. I taught them, "Don't run away,
you should guide. Gesture is OK."