2016-09-04 22:25 The wild life around me
Y (Kuma's owner)
Australia is a great place to observe wild life.
I have seen an advertisement which was written as "Let's get into the nature!" How an adventurous and attractive catch phrase! If you would like to see wild crocodiles or dingoes, maybe it's right. You better go into the wild nature. If you would like to encounter smaller and much safer wild animals, you don't have to go there. You are able to enjoy wild life even in a residential area. The wild life comes to see you.
The most common wild animals are birds, especially the Rainbow Lorikeet, which is common in Queensland to South Australia and Tasmania.
I remember that a woman who came from Italy was talking about lorikeets excitedly. She said she saw colourful birds on the veranda where she rented an apartment. She looked happy to have lorikeets.
After a week, she didn't look so happy with them. I wondered what made her change? She said she has got many bird droppings.
I heard similar stories from others as well. Firstly, people who come from overseas are excited to see colourful birds. These colourful birds like the Rainbow Lorikeet, The King Parrot and The Galah easily get foreigners' attention. People tend to pay attention to its colours, and then they will notice what will be left after these birds left. I live in a single house and there is a backyard which wild birds love. I cannot see what they drop on the lawn, so I don't care.
However, I experienced a similar thing as the Italian woman did. When I moved to the house I live in now, I saw a big white parrot flying over the roof. It was a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and it was screaming while flying. I think it's suitable to use the verb "scream", it wasn't singing or chirping, it was definitely screaming. I cannot describe their way of singing, it's more like a dinosaur. I sometimes think their way of screaming might be similar to the Pterosaur's.
Oops, getting back to what I was writing, I was very happy to see Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. They looked gorgeous and beautiful. They were noisy but still attractive. I had some spare feelings at that time.
Three years passed, and I realised that they are pranksters. One day, I glanced at the window and noticed that two Cockatoos were picking the tulips and hyacinths. Those flowers were the result of my efforts. This area is subtropical, therefore I had to keep the bulbs of tulips and hyacinths in the refrigerator for a while, otherwise they wouldn't bud. I spent lots of time on them and just as they started budding, those pranksters came and bit off petals. Later they also came to our backyard sometimes and bit the garden bed's timber or flowers.
I'm not happy with wild birds biting off the flowers but try to think that this land is originally for them. This is like paying tax for nature. Actually, I love wild birds and I want them to come to our backyard, that's why I change the water in the basin in the backyard every morning.
Well, I want them to come but I don't want them to bite my flowers. If so, what should I do? Things don't go as I want to. That's nature.
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.