Free Japanese Classes in Tsukuba
(I have been asked to add some points for clarification, so I am reposting this message. Please read the following carefully if you are thinking of applying for these classes.)
International students and researchers and their families are eligible for free Japanese classes taught by undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in Japanese language education at the University of Tsukuba. The lessons are offered so that the graduate students can practice their teaching skills. The classes are videotaped and people observe the lessons from the other side of a one-way mirror. (These classes are not associated with the regular Japanese classes offered by the International Student Center at the university.)
Students should be able to read and write hiragana and katakana. If you are not familiar with these Japanese alphabets, they will send you a list so that you can learn them before the classes begin.
Students are divided into two classes according to the results of a placement test. J1 meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and J2 meets on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Students must agree to attend all classes.
The classes run from Monday, April 23 to Wednesday May 30. There are three 40 minute periods per day and students must attend all three classes. Period 1 is from 3:30pm to 4:10pm, period 2 is from 4:15pm to 4:55pm, and period 3 is from 5pm to 5:40pm. The content of the classes includes basic vocabulary, elementary grammar, everyday conversation, and cultural activities. Classes are held at the University of Tsukuba and the tuition is free. There are no classes during Golden Week (April 30 to May 4).
If you want to apply, send an email with your name, sex, nationality, native language, occupation, address, phone number, and email address to jissyu_yaru2007[AT]yahoo.co.jp by April 7, 2007. It is not possible to enroll in the classes after this date. The number of participants is limited, so it may not be possible for all applicants to participate in the course.
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Free Japanese lessons at TGU
[ This class has already reached maximum enrollment. Thank you. - Feb.20, 08 ]
Tsukuba Gakuin University students, who are studying to be Japanese language teachers, will be offering free Japanese course for non-Japanese speaking residents of Tsukuba. This course will be an ideal course for stay-at-home parents of preschool-age kids who are 3 years old and older because another group of students at TGU will be offering free exercise course for preschool-age children while their parents take the Japanese lessons! These students are the ones who contribute wonderful Japanese language articles to the Alien Times every month, so I am very sure that those who take part in this course will have fun learning Japanese!
Applicant eligibility: Resident of Tsukuba who can read Hiragana. Please note that priority will be given to those who are from non-Chinese character (kanji/漢字) cultural zones.
**************************
たのしく日本語を学ぼう 日本語教室のお知らせ
日本語の先生になりたい学生といっしょに日本語を勉強しませんか？
いつ：2008年3/3 3/5 3/7 3/10 3/11 3/13 全部で６回
9:30～12:20
どこで：筑波学院大学（つくばがくいんだいがく）（つくば市吾妻）
いくら：￥０
だれに：日本語初級の外国人 ひらがなが読める人
なにを：簡単な日本語の会話
そのほか：３さい～５さいくらいのお子さんがいる人は、お子さんといっしょに
大学に来てください。お子さんたちは、大学の学生といっしょに簡単なスポーツや
ゲームをしましょう。（保険（ほけん）\500）
メールをください。kanakubo[at]tsukuba-g.ac.jp
２月に一度大学にきてください。説明をします。
２月２５日（月）まで、うけつけます。
筑波学院大学 金久保紀子
Let's learn Japanese with univ. students!
Tsukuba Gakuin University are going to have Japanese language class on March. Intstructors are all students who expect to be Japanese teachers.
Date&Time：2008年3/3 3/5 3/7 3/10 3/11 3/13 Total 6days
9:30～12:20
Place：Tsukuba Gakuin University (Tsukuba Azuma)
Fee：￥０
Level：Beginners with Hiragana reading skill
Contents：Japanese daily conversation
You can come with your kids( Three years old or more).
We prepare Kid's exercise class（insurance\500）
Feel free to send us an email. kanakubo[at]tsukuba-g.ac.jp
We will have briefing on February. Contact us before Feb. 25
KANAKUBO Noriko @Tsukuba Gakuin University
[ This class has already reached maximum enrollment. Thank you. - Feb.20, 08 ]
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Free Rakugo shows at Seibu tomorrow
There will be two free 寄席(yose or traditional Japanese storytelling show) at Seibu department store tomorrow. Free 寄席s are Seibu's bimonthly events, so keep checking their website for the next ones as well: Seibu's events page
Bimonthly Free Yose
When:
June 2, Sat. From Noon and 2pm*
*整理券(seiriken or numbered tickets) will be handed out to first 30 people from 11am and 1pm in front of Seibu Hall.
Where:
Tsukuba Seibu Hall (6th floor of Seibu Department)
落語家(rakugo-ka or comedic storytellers) who will be performing are:
柳家 〆治(Yanagiya Shimeji - watch his video here) and
古今亭 朝太 (Kokontei Chota - watch his video here)
[Please go to 落語協会/Rakugo Kyokai or Rakugo Association's websit for other "yose" information and for the list of "rakugo-ka." You can watch other 落語家 videos here.]
- What is Rakugo (from Japan America Society of Greater Cincinnati website)
- What is Rakugo? (from wiki)
Other events this weekend:
Namiki High School Festival
Yasato Pottery Festival
Map and Survey Festival
Mongolia Exhibition
Michi no Ichi (arts and craft fair)
Science Day and Environment Day at Ibaraki Nature Museum
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Having a Hard Time Reading Some Kanji?
Try going to http://www.rikai.com and using its helpful tool. The tool is especially useful for determining the meaning of some unknown Chinese characters. It can go both ways: Japanese --> English or vice versa. I am sorry to inform some of you (Japanese readers) that it works better from Japanese into English than the other way around. That and it probably works best for those whose Japanese level is intermediate or higher.
You can either plug in a website address or some text and the mouse pointer automatically defines some kanji. Just point and read! I often use it to read domestic news in Japanese because Japanese news translated into English often lacks essential details or at times, juicy background information!
You can even use this to 'cut and paste' messages sent from Japanese friends or colleagues. Because rikai.com is not a translating machine like Babelfish (Altavista), there is much less room for error. Try it out when you have the chance! I hope it makes your life in Japan a little easier.
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Having Evolved In A Very Rainy Country, The Japanese Language Is Unusually Rich in Words and Expressions Describing Different Kinds Of Rain
By Avi Landau
Some thoughts for the rainy season.
It seems only natural to assume that the vocabulary of a particular language should grow to reflect the culture of the people (or peoples) among whom it developed, as well as the natural environment(s) within which it evolved . An example which has been popularly used to illustrate this point has been that the Inuit Peoples (once erroneously referred to as Eskimos), denizens of some of the worlds coldest regions, have numerous different words for snow(with claims of up to 100 different snow-words having been cited in the past by respectable sources). And though you might be surprised to learn that now scholars have DEBUNKED this example for various reasons (most importantly that there are SEVERAL Inuit languages, and if each one is looked at seperately there seem to be no more words for snow in them than there are in English), I think it is still safe to say that language often DOES reflect environment, history and culture ( just think- English, which developed in northern climes, has as many expressions for snow as any Inuit Language, certainly many more than do , for example , Thai or Malay).
As I am completely unfamiliar with any of the Inuit-Aleut Languages, I cannot hope to add anything to the ESKIMO WORDS FOR SNOW debate. However, long experience with Japan, its culture and language, has made it clear to me that different cultural, historical and enviromental experiences lead to different levels of VOCABULARY RICHNESS between the various tongues, and thus different forms of perception between their speakers.
One of the first problems that a native English speaker (or anyone from a historically non-rice growing culture) has when begining the study of the Japanese Language is remembering that there are several different words that the Japanese use when WE would just say RICE. Rice still growing in the fields is INE (稲, though in English we have adopted the Malay word PADDY for the same meaning), uncooked grains of rice are KOME (米), and cooked rice can be either GOHAN （御飯) or MESHI (飯). This, of course, simply reflects the importance of rice cultivation in Japan (and Malaysia etc). At the same time we can see how, in conversation, the Japanense do not usually distinguish between wheat and barley, which are both simply referred to as MUGI (MUGI).
Another basic and interesting language learning problem for ALL students of Japanese is that while most other languages have words equivalent to WATER, and HOT WATER, the Japanese have completely separate terms for the two- MIZU (water) and OYU- (hot water). We CANNOT say that MIZU is hot. If it is hot , it is OYU-. I am not aware of any other language which uses this distinction and I believe that this must reflect the ABUNDANT HOT SPRINGS of the Japanese Archipelago which the Japanese have taken advantage of since time immemorial.
When one delves a little deeper into the Japanese Language, and especially when one studies its traditional forms of poetry, one is struck by the UNUSUALLY MANY different terms which can be used to express different types of rain- with not only intensity, duration and temperature being indicated by each term, but often (and ALWAYS in the case of the HAIKU keywords) a specific time of year evoked.
Just why this rich RAIN RELATED linguistic legacy evolved in Japan can be explained by a combination of factors. First, Japan IS a VERY RAINY country ( 1800 mm in annual precipitation, twice the world average). Unlike other countries in Asia which also have a monsoon season, Japan has no dry season, with rain falling throughout the year. In each season, precipitation is brought by different seasonal metereological phenomena which do in fact have different characteristics. This alone , however, might not explain why the Japanese language developed so many rain expressions. It was Chinese civilization,which carried with it so much prestige (especially among the Japanese nobilty of the 7th-1oth centuries), which got the Japanese (first the upper-classes and eventually the rest of the nation) to look closely at the flow of the seasons and express what they found in various art forms- especially poetry. The Japanese, as they have done regularly throughout history, took this concept from the Chinese, and applied it WITH A VENGEANCE. In fact, it might be possible to say that the combination of taking note of, appreciating and reacting to the annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily changes in the natural world is the MOST important characteristic of TRADITIONAL Japanese culture. It was because the Japanese, and especially their great poets, took note of natural phenomena, that so many special expressions arose in an attempt to capture Japan`s many types of rain.
It is not my intention here to offer a comprehensive list of all rain words which are currently used in converstion or in poetry. That would be the subject of a much longer work.
I will, however, offer a sample of KIGO (season indicating key-words for HAIKU poetry) and also some expressions commonly used in daily life. Let me begin with spring and proceed through winter.
KIGO:
HANA NO AME (花の雨) Literally cherry blossom rain. This evokes not only the beauty of rain falling on and dripping from the cherry trees and blossoms, but also the regret of possibly having the delicate and much loved petals washed away
TSUYU (梅雨) Literally plum rain, this is the term used for the rainy season. This term is used because it is in this season, late june and early July that Japanese plums are ripe and ready to be harvested. They are either salted (to make UME-BOSHI) or used to make liquor(UME-SHU) or juice.
SAMIDARE (五月雨) Literally, fifth month rain. This is a popular key word for the long rains of June (which used to be the rice transplanting season)
KUSURIFURU (薬降る) Literally- Its Raining Medicine. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month was Medicine Day. Rain that fell on that afternoon was believed to have curative powers.
YU-DACHI （夕立) Literally Standing up in the evening, this is the common expression used for the frequent (and short lived) evening downpours of late summer. These are often accompanied by thunder and lightning.
TORA GA AME (虎が雨)
KIU (喜雨) Literally joyous rain. This is the rain which falls after a dry spell in late summer. The farmers are of course joyous when it falls.
OYAMA ARAI (御山洗い) Literally mountain washing rain. This is the rain which falls at the end of August when the season for climbing Mt Fuji is officially closed. The rain cleanses the mountain of the climbing seasons impurities.
SHIGURE (時雨) Literally time rain, this is the short rain of late autumn. It clear up before you know it.
HISAME (氷雨) Literally ice rain. This is rain mixed with ice.
KITSUNE NO YOMEIRI (狐の嫁入り) Literally a fox`s wedding,, this is an expression for a sun-shower. The Japanese traditionally believed that the fox is a trickster and rain while its sunny seems pretty tricky!
Here is an expression that I like- HIJIAME (literally elbow rain). This is a shower which sets upon you so suddenly that theres no time for an umbrella. You have to raise you arm over yor head and protect your head with your sleeve!
There is also NIWAKA AME (俄雨), a rain that starts abruptly, and ends just as suddenly.
For heavy rain OH-AME ,DOSHABURI or GO- U can be used. These days ,however, Ive been hearing an interesting new expression used to describe the torretial rain storms many believe to be the result of global warming. It is GUERRILLA GO-U.
Please remember that this is only the tip of the iceberg. I hope in the future to give you some more Japanese rain words AND some example of how they have been used in poetry.
Oh, by the way. Living in rainy Japan, I have was also been inspired to create a rain related work. Check it out at:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/157146
I didnt mean for this to be such a lengthy (and probably boring ) post. But what can you do- when it rains it pours!
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