2017-02-23 04:07 Let's keep writing!
Y (Kuma's owner)
I have been writing this blog for improving my English. It started on 1st of January, 2016. What I have been writing were about my cats, wild birds, puzzles and other desultory topics. The Japanese language does not have a word equivalent to "the" therefore I have been making many mistakes related to "the." Luckily or unluckily, I have friends who have an excellent imagination that can guess what I want to say. They can understand even if I forget to use "the" in the sentences. I know that it's awkward to point out when I say something wrong grammatically every time. They are not my English teacher, I cannot expect them to correct my English. If they can understand the meaning of what I said, they wouldn't tell me the mistakes that I made. People ask me only when they cannot understand what I said. It's very difficult noticing my own mistakes, you know. This is one of my issues. I wonder if I could have a gilded robot that is in the movie "Star Wars", he is talkative and good for correcting my mistakes, I guess.
Another issue of my English is that I don't know the differences in the delicate meaning of words. I'm still unsure of the difference between "large" and "big." I think I may use the wrong expression in the bad situation and I might be misunderstood.
I don't like grammar but I have to learn. One of my Japanese friends who has been living in Australia for a long time said to me that I can live well in Australia with the knowledge of English that I already have now. Well, I know I'm not going to be a novelist but I want to learn, I want to write English like my Aussie friends do. So, I'm not going to stop writing my blog.
One day, I read a blog that was written by a man who lives in New Zealand. I don't know his nationality but he seems not be Japanese. His blog is written in Japanese, it was amazing that his Japanese is excellent like a native speaker of Japanese. I wonder how he has learnt Japanese? I had been working in American companies when I was in Japan. I had some colleagues from different nationalities and they were all born and grew up in Japan but no one could write Japanese like the guy who lives in New Zealand. On his latest blog, he wrote when he started the blog about ten years ago, he spent a week to finish writing a half page of Word.
Then I thought, I should spend more time to finish writing. Usually, I write quickly, maybe I write too quickly. I must write more carefully.
In addition, I must check the mistakes I have written otherwise I will write the same mistakes again and again.
Reading books is also important. I can learn new expressions from them. During these past three years, the best book to me was "Jasper Jones." It's nice to come across the good books. I have a habit to read books that I like several times and it helps remembering new words and expressions.
My strong point is not giving up easily, my weak point is I don't know when to give up. If I give up, that means improving my English writing skills also stops. I won't stop it until I'm able to write good English. Let's keep writing!
Oh, I almost forgot! In the end, I should say I spent about 100 minutes for finishing this blog.
2017-02-22 06:45 Cat Day
Y (Kuma's owner)
The 22nd of February is Cat Day in Japan. Every language has different expressions of animal sounds, for example in Japanese a cat's voice expressing "meow" is "nyan" or "nya." These sounds are similar to the pronunciation of "2 (ni)" in Japanese. You see, the 22nd of February has three 2s, "nyan nyan nyan" (meow meow meow) therefore Japanese cat lovers decided to call it Cat Day.
Cats are common animals in Japan and when I was small people kept cats freely, cats could go outside as they wanted. Nowadays people, especially those who live in big towns, keep cats inside of their houses. According to one of the surveys in 2014, 75% cats are indoor cats in Japan. Personally, my friends who have cats all keep their cats indoors.
I saw the website of many cat shelters when I was looking for a cat in Japan, and I noticed that all shelters required giving cats a vaccination and keeping them inside the house. If there's someone who cannot keep a cat inside the house, shelters don't give cats to them. Commonly, rented houses or apartments are not allowed to keep pets (except small animals and birds), therefore most cat shelters make sure that someone who wants to adopt a cat lives in a pet friendly house or owns a house. Some of the shelters are very careful and they visit the applicant's house to make sure.
I adopted a cat in Australia two years ago. I thought that the shelter was going to ask me if I was able to keep a cat inside of the house but they didn't. It was surprising because I heard that there are many indigenous animals in Australia that are facing danger by cats.
One of my Japanese friends loved cats very much. One day, I went to a mountainous area with her in Japan, which has a variety of birds. A souvenir shop displayed bird's postcards that would be a donation for a wild bird foundation. She said that it's very important to protect those wild birds and I agreed.
However, after that I heard that she was talking about her cat and said proudly "My cat is wild, he is good at catching birds."
What!? She did not notice that she contradicted herself.
I have heard that some people think that cats are mysterious animals, but to me human beings are more mysterious. People say something completely opposite on a different occasion.
Cats and other pets' lives depend on their owner. If they cannot find good people to live with, their life will be miserable. I hope that cats in shelters are able to find good people.
Happy Cat Day!
2017-02-06 03:25 The last lettuce that remained on the plate
Yukari
Recently, Sushi is becoming a popular food all over the world. Here in Australia, Sushi is not an exotic food anymore. Almost every shopping centre has at least one Sushi Bar. Therefore, people are getting used to using chopsticks and some people use chopsticks really well.
However, when I was young (I won't say how long ago it was), Australians didn't eat Sushi and as is obvious people had no chance of using chopsticks. I remember that I was asked how I managed to use two sticks to pick up food. People seemed to think that I was good with my fingers.
If I wasn't Japanese, maybe I would have thought as people did but if I look from a different viewpoint, Australians or other people who live in the world where using knives and forks are good with their fingers as well. The reason is a thin leaf of lettuce.
One of the things that annoys me is a salad which contains lettuce. I don't mean I don't like lettuce, I like lettuce. I always have trouble picking up the last thin leaf of lettuce from the plate. It's too thin to stick a fork into a lettuce leaf, you know. It's lucky if the last lettuce leaf is on something like tomato or avocado, I can stick lettuce together with other vegetables and it's easy. The most difficult one is a thin lettuce leaf on the plate by itself.
Even I know it's almost impossible, but I try to stick it with a fork at least one or two times. It's not often that my effort is rewarded. When I can pick up the last lettuce leaf with a fork, I feel like that I have accomplished a difficult task. I want to say "I did it!" but my common sense stops me saying it in public and stops people thinking that I'm a weird woman.
My teacher when I was at elementary school used to say "Never give up, if you try to work harder, you are able to do anything you want!"
I knew that the teacher wanted to encourage kids but even when I was small I knew it wasn't true. He didn't notice how difficult it was to pick up the last lettuce leaf from the plate.
When I went out for lunch, I paid attention to how other people manage to pick up the last lettuce. I couldn't stare at other people eating so I mostly tried to pay attention to my meal and glanced at them only a few times. The result was I missed them seeing me eat the last lettuce!
I gave up learning by watching other people do things. I do what I can. I use a knife together with a fork and pick up thin lettuce, this is my method. Holding a lettuce leaf with a knife and pushing it with my fork. If I'm lucky, lettuce bends and it can be stuck with a fork or scooped with a fork. I hope this method isn't a breach of manners.
Back to the first topic as people seem to think that using chopsticks is difficult but it isn't. It's easier to pick up thin lettuce with a pair of chopsticks rather than a fork. Can't you believe it? Please try!