2016-07-22 04:33 Noisy Friarbird
Y (Kuma's owner)
People love birds because they are pretty and they can sing beautifully.
I love to take picture of wild birds. I always upload bird's pictures to my twitter account. My favorite bird is a Galah, so I upload the Galah's pictures a lot. Their pink feathers attract people. Superb Fairy-wren is a very small bird and the male has beautiful blue feathers as well.
One day, as I always do, I looked in the backyard to take pictures and found a bald-headed bird. It was a Noisy Friarbird. I remember I have seen him sometimes. Once I saw him, his unique looks caught my attention and I couldn't forget him. He has a naked head and that makes him look like a vulture.
When I upload colourful or pretty bird's pictures, people retweet them. However, nobody retweeted the Noisy Friarbird's picture. Maybe nobody liked him. Well, I can understand what people thought who saw the picture of the Noisy Friarbird. I think the Noisy Friarbird puts people off with their appearance.
In Japanese, the Noisy Friarbird is Zuguro Hage Mitsusui which means Black bald-headed honey eater. "Hage" (bald head) is a rude word. I cannot use this word to describe someone. I don't know why ornithologists use this word for this bird. It's a precise expression but I feel sorry for them.
The first time I saw him, I thought he was weird. After I saw more of him, I've been getting used to him. Once I got used to him, I feel familiar with him. To be accustomed increases the familiarity.
I remember my friend who saw the movie "E.T." and said that ET is pretty. At that time, I hadn't seen "E.T." and I thought that creature in the movie was ugly and couldn't understand why my friend said it's pretty. Then, I went to the movie theatre to see "E.T." Oh, it's not so ugly, is it? What made my image of E.T. change? I think it depends on experience, how long or how much do I know it.
Now I know Noisy Friarbirds well. They are regular visitors in the backyard. To me, they are pretty and whoever may say they are ugly, I like them.
2016-07-11 04:59 Homophone words
Y (Kuma's owner)
Long ago, my friend took a job interview in Tokyo. She said the company she had visited was creating new names for new products. What an interesting job! I had never thought that there's a company that creates new names. There are lots of companies that produce products and they have to name their products but it's not easy. They cannot use the same name that another company has already used. Therefore, some of them ask the company that my friend visited to create a new name. I heard that they find a name which has no bad meaning. There are so many kinds of language in the world and I think it would be so hard to find suitable words.
I sometimes notice that there are the same pronunciation words all over the world. One day, I was told that my twitter account name "Kuma" has a bad meaning in Swahili. A man who can understand Swahili told me that but it's too late to change my account name, so I still use the same name. In Japanese, Kuma means a bear.
There's an almost same pronunciation word between Aussie English and Japanese as well. It's "bugger". I sometimes hear my Aussie friends say "Bugger!" when they make mistakes or when things don't go as they expected.
The first time I heard "Bugger!" , I was surprised because this sounded almost the same as "Stupid!" in Japanese. I turned around and looked at my friend. He said "No, no. it's not you, I'm saying it to myself."
I think we should be careful with words that come out from our mouths unintentionally or instantly. If you have a habitual saying of "Bugger!" and you have a chance to go to Japan, you have be careful. I'm sure that Japanese who heard you saying "Bugger!" would misunderstand you.
There is also a partially common word between English, German and Japanese. It's the word "so". I don't think it's 100% the same but on some occasion it's used with nearly the same meaning.
Isn't it interesting? The world is so huge but people from different countries use the same pronunciation word.
2016-07-05 11:55 A Memorable Day
Y (Kuma's owner)
Today is a memorable day. A lawyer called me and said the application that my husband and I had sent for permanent residency was granted. It's finally granted!
I was so relieved to hear that news. That means my husband and I can stay in Australia and we are able to start our new puzzle business here.
I've been studying English and it worked for applying for permanent residency. I took an exam which is called IELTS. My result was not very good but good enough to get a discount of my visa application fee. (If you are not able to clear the lower score which the immigration office determined, you have to pay an extra fee.) There's four categories of IELTS, Listening, Writing, Speaking, and Reading. On my results, Speaking was the highest score. I think I've been trying to talk to people who I met at the local supermarket, local friends and the Red Cross where I was volunteering helped to improve my speaking skills. I really thank everyone.
Well, we have to get ready for our new life. The life we have been dreaming is coming.
I would like to say special thanks to my friends, Brian, Chatie, George, Jasmin, John, Matt, Ralf, Raza and Sue.