Prime minister

The day before yesterday, former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda resigned and Taro Aso started to work as the new prime minister.

This is the newspaper which was issued the day before Aso was chosen.

Ususally, there's a corner which introduces what the prime minister is doing all the day in the newspaper.

At that day, they mentioned how Fukuda spent his last day as a prime minister as usual. Furthermore, they also said about Aso because we could expect Aso would be next prime minister. They still called Aso "Mr.Aso", not " prime minister Aso"

They mention all of things the prime minister did. For example, it said Aso got a haircut at a hotel in Tokyo at 10:59am.

What about the newspaper in your country? Does it include this kind of section?

The prime minister changed once a year...Is our country all right?? I'm not good at politics but I can't help thinking like that.

Lastly, new prime minister Aso is well known for Otaku, anime/manga nerd.

Lunch

This is my lunch I just ate.
I bought it for 250 yen (2.5 USD) in a supermarket.

Delicious=)

I'm getting sleepy...It's really nice weather for taking a nap...

But...I have to go to univ to attend the seminar...

Visit a grave

Tomorrow is autumnal equinox day, one of national holidays in Japan.

It's the day to visit a grave and show respects to our ancestors.

My parents and I did that yesterday. The grave for my paternal ancestors is near my father's home. That's less than two hour drive.

The grave is located at the top of the hill. We can see the sky and the sea well. The picture is a little bit dark but can you see some black stones? Those are common graves in Japan.

We offered some sweets called Ohagi and flowers in front of the grave.

After autumnal equinox day, the weather will be autumn one more and more.

Update-Feel identity in your mother tongue?

Right after I wrote down the previous article titled 'dissertation nerd', I got a message. Thank you very much. Let me talk about it.

I wrote down like this---is it possible for people all over the world to use only one language for communication? No. Not to mention, there are tons of languages over the world.

Actually,,,I should have said more precisely like---is it possible for us to use only one language? Can we imagine the world which has only one language?

As the person who gave me a message said, there's a language called Esperanto. This language was made for all of the people to communicate.

I have no idea how many people can speak Esperanto but there are not so many people, I guess.
That's the point. How come it's difficult to be familiar with Esperanto?

I can say two reasons.
One is that Esperanto is artificial language. It means it's not easy for human to learn it. I need Chomsky's theory to verify my opinion...I will just recommend those who are interested to read Universal Grammar theory by Noam Chomsky...Sorry, I can't tell well...

The other is related to the identity for their mother tongue. If there's only one common language, we don't have to have our mother tongue. If everyone speaks same language, we don't need our first language. Besides, as I mentioned above, it's quite convenient for communication.

However, in fact, we feel identity in our languages. Some people feel their language is one of their culture. I also felt that. I didn't notice that Japanese people tend to use 'sorry' so often until I came back to Japan.
I guess this represent though of Japanese pretty much. I don't think all people can reject their mother tongue to unify one language.


I don't think my explanation is clear enough to understand...ohh...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for some comments! I really appreciate it! This is the one of advantages blogs have. Even though I live in countryside in Japan, I can talk with people from other places. I thoroughly enjoy it now=)

Let me add some points based on comments I got today.

At first, I should clearly point out that Esperanto is constructed language, that is, artificial language, not natural language. It's also said international auxiliary language which aim at communication between people who have different mother tongue.

The discussion has started like this...some of my friends said 'Sign languages should be unified'. I thought it's nonsense. If we think this in spoken languages, it'll be good example. All spoken languages can be unified? I don't think so.

And here, I got an idea 'Esperanto.' However, originally, Esperanto is NOT for unifying one language. It's just international auxiliary language.

Difficult to make my opinion clear in English...Well, I want to write organized blog...

Thank you for reading. I hope you can come here again soon(^^)

←More blogs written by Japanese in English.

Dissertation nerd

I was working at the desk in my room all day. Of course, this is for my dissertation. On Thursday, I'll have my prof's seminar. I have to introduce how I will proceed my dissertation on that day to my prof and other students in our seminar.

In the last seminar, my prof said I should focus on sign languages. At that time, I talked what my job-hunting was going. My prof was pleased to hear that I got a job in the hospital. Therefore, my prof recommended me to work on something related to sign languages. Besides, I took American sign language class last semester in the States.

Some people just think sign languages are just 'sign', not languages. It's absolutely not true, I hope. Sign languages are human languages as well as spoken languages.

I hear some people say that they should make universal sign language which enables the deaf to communicate easily. It's not practical at all.

I should take spoken language as an example. Is it possible for people all over the world to use only one language for communication? No. Not to mention, there are tons of languages over the world.

This applies to sign languages also. There're many sign languages like Japanese sign language, American sign language, etc...

In my dissertation, I want to insist that sign languages are human languages through analysis of each language, comparing the features.

So far, I'm thinking of focusing on the 'wh-doubling constructions' in American sign language. I hope it's gonna be good topic to develop my thesis.

It took all day to think about what I said above. I read some papers and went to the library...I borrowed some book there (picture).

I want to work on my thesis from the perspective of syntax, the analysis of sentences. I studied kind of latest theory called minimalist sintax before going to the States.

One year has passed....totally forgot about it....(=0=)

Though that theory was born in the States, I learned the old theory there. Actually, both theories are complicating pretty much. Even though I read them in Japanese, I can't get it well. Rather, it's more difficult to understand them in Japanese than in English. The techinacal terms are hard to get. It's driving me crazy~~

...Can I finish my preparation for seminar until 2:30pm on Thursday...? Haha...whatever...



←You can go and meet many blogs written by Japanese in English.

Respect for the aged day

It was 3 holidays in a row this weekend. It's because today is respect for the aged day(Keirou no hi,敬老の日 in Japanese),one of national holidays.

I saw many elderly people walking like this picture. I guess...more than 200 people?? This event seemed to be related to the respect for the aged day.

Well...this weekend, I was looking for a car for commuting. I will need it when I start to work next spring. I will talk about this later.

Crows vs My father

Well, I could hear two crows cawing.

These guys suddenly appear from somewhere every day. I don't care about that. The only problem is that these crows attack my father when he is walking.

My father walks to the bus stop to go to his office. While he was heading for it, he was attacked by them....maybe twice? I'm not sure because it happened while I was in the States.

I just went to the porch to pick up some clothes hung on the laundry pole there. One of guys was looking (down) to me...

Where are they in the night? Where do they sleep? What time do they leave from here?...Should I observe them all day? No way~~a little bit curious though.

←more English diary

Dissertation

I'm wondering about my dissertation topic. No matter which topic I choose, that will be related to syntax.

My prof recommended me 2 topics and told me to choose one of these. The one is about ellipsis. The other is sign language...Now, I'm trying to find some papers about them.

Getting tired...

class, humming road

My class will start in 3 hours. Actually, new semester called second semester will start on 1st Oct.

That class is about the graduation thesis. We have to give a presentation about our thesis in the middle of Nov. It's earier than usual. Therefore, our prof. suggested us to start our class now. It would be a little bit late to start it on Oct.

Actually, I should call that class seminar. Students learn in the prof's office. In our case, we give an individual presentation about the graduation thesis and discuss it. At the same time, we have to write paper, that is, graduation thesis.

My prof, Japanese, is used to work as a prof in famous univ in London. When I was freshman, he came back to Japan after 10-year staying overseas. He said it was really fun to discuss with students in London but he also wanted to share this experience with Japanese students, especially in country side.

Seems like many prestigious universities in Japan have tried to hire him but he chose my university which was not famous for linguistics. He said he wanted to let students know how linguistics is interesting.

Usually, graduation thesis is written in Japanese....except my prof.'s seminar. Yeah, we have to write it in English.

Even though he stayed in the States as a grad student, his staying in London is longer than that. His English is British one. He always asks students to pay attention to express clearly in English.

My English is far from the academic English he likes.

Anyway, I have to go to univ after lunch.

I usually go there by bicycle. It's 4 km, 20 mins cycling. It's always windy here so hard to keep going. The scenery in that picture is on the way to my home from univ. This road is called 'Humming road' for the pedestrian which surrounds the elementary school. Many flowers are in bloom. I will let you see them later.

←You can go and meet many blogs written by Japanese in English.

Summer back

Summer was not over at all.
The summer weather came back. It's humid and hot every day these day. It's partly cloudy today.
I felt really hot because it's like autumn weather last week. The AC is working now.

I don't feel like doing anything.

Yesterday, the movie 'Terminal' was aired on TV. I realized I used to be like the main character especially when I arrived at Beijing airport. It was really like I was watching myself.


←more English blogs.

Walking in the night

Yesterday, around 9pm, I went for a walk.
In daytime, it's still hot and humid. Actually, summer weather came back from last week.

Weather in the night is suitable for walking. I don't care no matter how I sweat...even if my make-up runs...No one can see my face=)

I went out with wearing T-shirt, athletic short (high school uniform for PE), iPod. I chose safe roads. It's 30-min walking.

I passed some elderly people who were also walking. It breezed but I started to sweat. I could see clouds drifting in the dark sky. ----Where do these clouds move to?

I could feel refreshed after exercise. Well, I'm going out also today...??

←Blogs written by Japanese in English.

Hurt on Disaster Prevention Day

While I washed the bathroom, I cut my finger.

It's breeding for more than 20mins...

It still hurts.....oh my gosh~~

←The picture when I tried to stop the breeding on the porch.


Today is Disaster Prevention Day in Japan. This comes from 1923 Great Kanto earthquake on Sep 1st, 1923 in Kanto plain. The government, companies and schools held emergency drills.

As you may know, earthquakes happen so often in entire Japan. Especially when I lived in Tokyo, my elementary school held a emergency drill for the earthquake once a month. This is because it has been said the big earthquake would strike the Kanto area like Tokyo. In fact, this earthquake hasn't been happened so far. I hope it never happen for the future.


←You can go and meet many blogs written by Japanese in English.