ポップコン日本語！
I'm an Elementary English teacher in Japan trying to tackle this still-confusing language.
I'm still studying, so take this page with a grain of salt... on your popcorn!
Let's trick myself into studying!
Let's Popcorn Japanese!
お祖父さん おじいさん grandfather
曾お祖父さん ひいおじいさん great-grandfather
and then you can just keep adding ひい to make it farther back.
also, if a kid were using じじ, which is like saying grandpa, then you could have じじ、ひいじじ、ひいひいじじ (at least colliqually - it’s what I heard a teacher and kid using this morning).
“Seahorse” in Japanese is 竜の落し子 (tatsu no otoshi go)
“The dropped child of a dragon”
Picture: Thorny Seahorse with Jockey - Hippocampus jayakari by divemecressi on Flickr.
![other-wordly:
submitted by | arghlblargh! [julieyumi] submit words | here](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m312cv4QUf1r6nm6ao1_500.png)
It occurred to me this morning, while trying to talk about body temperature, that no one was understanding me because there are so many words for temperature in Japanese and I was not using the correct one.
気温 きおん is atmospheric temperature (the weather forecast I check uses this word)
温度 おんど is, as far as I can tell, another word for temperature outside your body
体温 たいおん is the temperature inside your body
and now that I have said the word “temperature” about a billion times in my head, it no longer sounds like a real word. temperature, temperature…
出会う であう v. to meet by chance, to run across, to happen upon
間に合う まにあう v. to be in time for, to be enough, to be good enough
Turns out the more common way to say every month(毎月） is まいつき not まいげつ.
I mean, the latter is acceptable, and people understand it, but the former is what every one else uses around me.
NEWS TO ME. Glad I listened. (and glad the other is still okay so I don’t have to retroactively feel like a doofus.)
The vocab: 賢い かしこい
adj. wise, clever, smart
Based on how a teacher used it today, I think it can also have the conotation of being “mature,” like that kind of wise.
The grammar: のに
Ａのに、Ｂ
despite phrase A, phrase B
The sentence:
彼が若いのに、賢いです。
かれがわかいのに、かしこいです。
Despite being young, he is wise.
上旬 じょうじゅん the first ten days of the month
中旬 ちゅうじゅん the second ten days of the month
下旬 げじゅん the last ten (or so) days of the month
Important to know when checking your local Sakura forecast.
Mine is 上旬～中旬。楽しみ！
yessss, I love going over different animal sounds with my students. They definitely loved “oink oink” and “cock-a-doodle-doo.”
Also, an elephant goes something like パオパオ (pao pao) with their trunks and rabbits go ピョンピョン (pyon pyon) when they hop.
(Source: julieyumi)
(Source: julieyumi)
This is a grammar that I always want to use, but always forget where the より goes in the sentence. I’m trying to remember it as the より goes after the lower thing (the thing that has less of whatever you’re talking about).
(just practicing with nouns for now…)
手作りのハンバーガはマクドナルドハンバーガよりおいしいです。
A homemade hamburger is more delicious than a hamburger from McDonalds.
リラックマはミッキーよりかわいいです。
Rilakkuma is cuter than Mickey.
この本はその本よりおもしろいです。
This book is more interesting than that book.
ハリーポッターはトワイライトよりいいです。
Harry Potter is better than Twilight.
英語は日本語よりむずかしいですか？
Is English more difficult than Japanese?
The vocab: 臭い （くさい）
adj: stinky, smelly, foul
The grammar: より
a thing is more of something than another thing
item A is more something than item B
The sentence:
納豆は卵より臭いです。
なっとうはたまごよりくさいです。
Natto is smellier than eggs.
So I don’t know when renshuu.org had a huge overhaul, but sometime in between the last time I visited (a while ago, I admit) and now, they added little hanko rewards for your accomplishments.
It’s like internet stickers -
fake, wonderful, motivational internet stickers.
What a nice surprise after kicking my own ass so I’ll study tonight. And other nights. Not just once in a blue moon…
That site is the BUSINESS. I am tellin’ you.
だれがブーブーした？
a colloquial, exquisitely fun way of saying “who farted?”
thanks, 4th grade boys.
