PeteHのブログ

ASKING QUESTIONS

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:58:56 +0900

The English have a saying, ' The only stupid question is the one you don't ask'.

So, would it be considered polite, or even acceptable, to ask a blog writer to take the time to explain something they've written that I don't understand?

Anyway, no-one should ever feel awkward or embarrassed about asking me to explain something I've written, or about how British English is used in daily life - I'd be dead chuffed if you did. :-)

Back

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 09:41:42 +0900

After a long absence I'm finally back.

To cut a long story short I was cutting the hedge outside my house and keeled over with a suspected heart attack. Oh well, at least now I've got plenty of time to get started trying to get my head around the Japanese language.

If I got it right it says hello in Japanese.

I'd give myself -5 out of 10 if I had to score it.

Please, be honest. Is it as bad as I think it is?

Moving House

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 03:12:00 +0900

Finaly, I've moved into my new flat and my internet access is up and running again so I should be more active now.

Still got the rest of the unpacking to do, followed by redecorating, plus at some point I'm going to have to deal with the garden, which is very overgrown as the place has been unoccupied for over a year.

I'll see if I can get some pictures up later.

It's the one on the bottom right right hiding behind the hedge, and is part of a block of four flats.

Bought a hedge trimmer today so I'll make a start on the hedge at the weekend if the weathers ok. This is the first real garden I've ever had apart from a concrete yard with a couple of potted plants so it should be interesting.

Just another day...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:35:38 +0900

A 1/2" of snow and the electric goes off. The British realy don't do bad weather.

My phones unrepairable so I've got to get a new one. A Blackberry or Samsung

Decisions, decisions. At least I won't have people phoning me while I'm trying to sleep till it's replaced.

Had an interesting talk about how difficult English is to learn (Japanese is a lot harder). From what was said a lot of it's to do with the way the British use words in unexpected ways. 'Give over' instead of 'Stop it' is one example, but I guess that's true of any language.

Watched some more of Shimokita Glory days. My favorite character so far is Uehara Mao played by Hashimoto Manami, probaly because Mao reminds me of a girl I used to know. Best actress? A tie between Yabuki Haruna for her scene with her characters daughter and Sigimoto Aya as Enoki Tsuyako, brilliant because it's so over the top.

Exiting night at work. One of the clients tried to off himself. Overdosed and tried to cut his wrists. Very messy but luckily he didn't know how to do it properly. Still that's the first time I've had to use first aid since I left the army. Heard later from the hospital that the drugs he'd tried to overdose on would only have made him sick.

Heard there might be layoffs at work untill april due to a lack of funding, but that's one of the pitfalls of working for a charity.

Had my yearly gas safety check this morning after I got home from work, which was a pointless exercise because I'm all electric. So now I've got a certificate that says my non-existent gas supply is safe. :)

Random Ramblings

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:34:54 +0900

It' been snowing!!!

Everything looks so fresh and clean.

My mobile died this morning :(

It's inconvenient, but at least now I have an excuse for not answering it. :)

On Peta and other things

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 05:52:14 +0900

In the twelve years I've been using the 'net I've never come across anything quite like peta or Japanese Text based emotes. The peta I understand (I think) but the emotes baffle me. Why so many? Do they have specific meanings like western emotes?

I'm watching episode 6 of Shimokita Glory Days (with English subtitles) and in places it reminds me of the 'Carry-on' films of the 1960's

I was going to try and upload a picture of my first attemts to write Hiragana but it's realy bad and far to embarrassing to upload - that's assuming I can work out how to upload a pic in the first place. :-(

First steps...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 04:34:14 +0900

So what am I, a Brit, doing on Ameba?

That's easy to answer. A search on Google threw up the fact that it's the largest Japanese blog site and I needed an incentive to learn.

So now I feel like a kid in primary school learning the alphabet by rote after I made my first attempt to try and get to grips with the Hiragana character set and it's associated phonetics yesterday.

The sounds (r) and (tsu) are going to be a real problem to learn to pronounce. Can anyone suggest any websites or blogs that might help me get it right please?

For someone who flunked French at school this isn't going to be at all easy.

Got home from work at 9am this morning and now I'm off untill I start again on Tuesday night so hopefully that should give me enough time to learn my way around the site.

Had a full English breakfast when I got up this afternoon. That's Bacon, egg, sausage, beans, mushrooms and fried bread. Not what you would call healthy eating, but it was so tasty. :->

Met up with a friend of mine, Stuart, who now thinks I've completely lost the plot ((he meant I must be crazy)) for trying to learn even a little Japanese. :-/

I've added a couple of blogs I came across to my favorites...

The firsts aimed primarily at Japanese learning English but it works the other way too. Very useful and well worth a look.

The second belongs to a girl who's been one of the wallpapers on my computer for the last five years.

Only ones showing up though and I've no idea why.

Last, but not least. If you have difficulty understanding what I've written you're more than welcome to contact me, either here or on Twitter, and I'll explain - and when I do mess things up regarding anything Japanese could you please point out my mistakes so I can correct them. :)