strict and serious teachers WANTED!

[StripMahjong]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

(well, actually this word is often used among young Japanese people who live or have lived overseas!)

(but we don't call "Japanese restaurants" in Japan "Japa-res" .)

ああ、分かりました。　

When I made up that quiz, I didn't think much,

but now I am thinking.... and

You may find this story a little bit intersting,so I am trying to explain it both
in Japanese and English.

Hmm, this is probably too much to fit properly into one sentence. I think the best thing would be to split it into two different sentences, such as:

"When I made up that quiz I wasn't thinking about it much, but now that I am, I think you may find this story interesting. I will try to explain it in both Japanese and English."

That is only one way to have said what you wanted to say differently. Since there was so much being said, there are a few different ways you could have changed it, but that's what I would have chosen.

(Have you heard of a word "わようせっちゅう"?)
もし　なければ　ぜひ　辞書でしらべてみてくださいね 。おもしろいと思います。
(If you haven't, plase look it up on your dictionary.It may interest you)

"If you haven't, please look it up in your dictionary."

I agree, わようせっちゅう is a very interesting word! I didn't know such a word existed.

The food we eat at home/restaurant isn't always a typical Japanese food which you may see on the MENU at a Japanese restaurant in your town.

"The food we eat at home/restaurant" doesn't really make sense in English. I could understand what you meant by looking at the Japanese, though, and I think the best way to have said it in English would have been: "The food we eat at home or in our restaurants in Japan".

"a typical Japanese food" should be "the typical Japanese food".

You can say "which" in the sentence, but "that" sounds more natural to me.

So, all together it becomes: "The food we eat at home or in our restaurants in Japan isn't always the typical Japanese food that you may see on the menu at a Japanese restaurant in your town."

We have varieties of "Japanese xxxx" type of foods, such as
Japanese-pizza, Japanese-curry, Japanese-Pasta....
which are nealy totally changed from the original way of cooking or seasoning.

"type of foods" should be "type food" or "type foods". "have many varieties" sounds a bit more natural than "have varieties."

There should be an "and" between "Japanese curry" and "Japanese pasta."

"Almost" is indeed a better word than "nearly" here. Also, instead of "totally changed", it sounds more natural to say "completely different."

Finally, "their original methods" sounds better than "the original way".

So, all together it would be "We have many varieties of "Japanese xxxx" type food, such as Japanese pizza, Japanese curry and Japanese pasta, which are almost completely different from their original methods of cooking or seasoning."

These foods could be on the menu at Japanese restaurants overseas.
(May be not at the traditional/sophisticated type of J-restaurants though)

"Japanese curry" was one of the most populer foods in the ジャパレス　where I used to work in Sydney.

"May be" should be one word here: "Maybe"

"populer" is "popular"

I LOVE Japanese curry, but I've never had Japanese pizza or pasta before. I've heard that corn is a popular topping on pizza in Japan. Is that true?

but in Japan, the restaurants which have Japanese-curry on their menu, not many people call them "a Japanese Restaurant" （和食レストラン）, I think.

"But I don't think that the restaurants with Japanese curry on their menus are called 'Japanese restaurants' by many people in Japan."

so when you hear 「ジャパレス」, maybe it's about a Japanese restaurant in a foreign country.

Even though the meaning is the same, "it may be" would sound more natural than "maybe it's" here.

and since we have varieties of restaurants in Japan,
Chinese,Italian,Korean and more of わようせっちゅう type of restaurants,
we use the word " 和食レストラン" when we want to talk about the Japanese restaurants which have "traditional/reguler type of Japanese foods" on their menus.

"Also," would sound better than "and" here.

"many varieties" sounds better.

Putting the list in parenthesis "()" and adding "such as" before it would make the sentence flow much better. Also, you don't need the "of" before or after わようせっちゅう here, and "other" would sound better than "more" so it would be "...Korean and other わようせっちゅう type restaurants...".

"more" before traditional/regular sounds better.

"reguler" = "regular"

"type" should have an "s" on it, while "foods" should not.

So, all together it would be:

"Also, since we have many varieties of restaurants in Japan (such as Chinese, Italian, Korean and other わようせっちゅう type restaurants), we use the word " 和食レストラン" when we want to talk about the Japanese restaurants which have more 'traditional/regular types of Japanese food' on their menus.

oh, do you like Udon noodle? or Soba noodle?

When you come to Japan, if you want to eat really good Udon, or Soba
then you can go to Udon restaurants and Soba restaurants!

I like udon a lot (I had some when I was in Japan), but I've never had soba noodles before. They're supposed to be more healthy than udon, aren't they? Or do I have it backwards?

mmm, I am hungry now.
I have to go to the kitchen to see what I have in the fridge!

Me too. I wish I had some curry!

・・・これは、厳しすぎましたか？　

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

「そうですね」　の　ことですよね？

長野を知っています。
スノーボードはできないけど、長野でやってみたいです （or 挑戦してみたいです）。


臭味（しゅうみ）ではなくて　趣味（しゅみ）ですね。

臭=　"stinky"
味＝ "taste" なので　全然ちがいますね。おもしろいですね。


My friends of friends from NZ run a backpacker accommodation in Nagano,
and I heard that they have many many customers from NZ and OZ.

I agree , yes, it's an expensive sport but my husband loves it, so he
buys a season ticket and go to the snowy mountain as many as possible to make the use of the ticket(I mean if he uses the ticket as many time as possible, then the cost for one time can be very cheap).




miso soup は　「みそしる」　です。

「みそ」は　bean paste です。

日本食レストランで注文するときは

「おみそしる」と言う方がsounds nice　です。





景観（けいかん）

経験（けいけん）＝experience(s) です。


That's good!
Have you dicided which school/uni/college/institute to go and learn
Japanese?

If you would like to work as an English teacher in Japan,
if that's what you really want to do,
then you don't have to spend the money going to school to learn
Japanese, just come to Japan and get a job! It isn't hard to
find a job as an English teacher as long as you are a native English speaker (well, the condtions really depends on the schools/companies and you may get better job if you speak good Japanese though).




わざわざ　本当に　きいてくれたんですね。
ありがとうございます。

おもしろいですね。

やっぱり国や地域によってさまざまな違いがあるという ことですね。

勉強になりました。





I see the point now.

Yes, we have that tradition.

like my teacher at elementary school, she told me
don't use the same ending style more than 3 times in a row.

eg. self-introduction

わたしは　まゆみ　です。

日本人です。
　
学生です。　

(I am a part-time student. I work full time, so I am a very busy student)


Thank you for correcting my English again,
hope you learn something new today, too.

実は英語を教えたくないです。でも、日本に行った時、 働かなくてはいけないと思います。

日本語を習いたいし、日本は面白い国と思うから、行き たいです。

私に出る大学はまだ決めないから、日本の中に行って知 りません。

英語を直してあげて、No worries!

Anyway...there are some small mistakes in your post but they're really small and I get the feeling you know them already.

Thank you for taking the time to help me with my Japanese.

I will continue to try and be helpful to you

[filiadragongurl]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

They are so useful, thank you very much,

aligatoh!


I used to say

"to make a long story short"
When I want to summarise the story,


I like the sound of "to sum it up"
and I like "nutshell" one,too.

I hope I have a chance to use them tomorrow at work!

I thought of a couple others I use:

"In essence,"
"Essentially,"

I also use "To make a long story short," too^_^

[loveskyliemole]

I see. Naruhodo!
Aligato!

Originally Posted by Koir

Indeed you may.

I would say it is used when the speaker wishes to change the topic of conversation either slightly away from its present course or on to a completely different topic. "Anyway" and "anyways" are pretty much interchangeable, though in a purely grammatical sense there is a right way and a wrong way to use each word. In practice there is little difference.

"Anyhow" is a less frequently used word that means essentially the same idea. "Anyhoo" is a very informal, somewhat slang way of saying/writing "anyhow" and is best served in being used in an informal setting or in writings of informal tone.

[loveskyliemole]

Oh, there are many ways!

Are "In essence" "Essentially" very formal?
Can I use them in a casual conversation?

Originally Posted by filiadragongurl

I thought of a couple others I use:

"In essence,"
"Essentially,"

I also use "To make a long story short," too^_^

[loveskyliemole]

実は英語を教えたくないです。でも、日本に行った時、 働かなくてはいけないと思います。

そうなんですね。でもRonin4hugre さんは　よい先生だと思います。
ぜひ　私に教えてくださっているように　たのしく　わ かりやすく　日本の生徒さんに
教えてあげてください！

日本語を習いたいし、日本は面白い国と思うから、行き たいです。

そうですね。

日本語を習うには日本に住むのがベストですね！

はい、日本は面白いと思いますよ。　

私に出る大学はまだ決めないから、日本の中に行って知 りません。

出る大学？
the college you are going to graduate?

You haven't decided which college to graduate from?
mmm, ちょっとよくわかりません。

日本の中に行って知りません。

mmm, when you go to Japan, and you don't know???

can you try again?

英語を直してあげて、No worries!

ありがとうございます。

Do NZlanders use "No worries!" too?

Anyway...there are some small mistakes in your post but they're really small and I get the feeling you know them already.

I don't know about that, haha, but if they were small,
thanks for forgiving them (me)!

Thank you for taking the time to help me with my Japanese.

I will continue to try and be helpful to you

Thank YOU mate

I will too!

I hope I can be a help for you to improve your Japanese by the time
you are ready to leave for Japan!

[loveskyliemole]

めちゃめちゃ　ありがとう！(very casual way)
厳しくて最高です

Hmm, this is probably too much to fit properly into one sentence. I think the best thing would be to split it into two different sentences, such as:

"When I made up that quiz I wasn't thinking about it much, but now that I am, I think you may find this story interesting. I will try to explain it in both Japanese and English."

That is only one way to have said what you wanted to say differently. Since there was so much being said, there are a few different ways you could have changed it, but that's what I would have chosen.

I really like it!
I will practice them, saying them aloud many many times
until I feel "I've got them!".

"If you haven't, please look it up in your dictionary."

That's right.
The words ON the papers(pages) but
It's IN the dictionary.

I agree, わようせっちゅう is a very interesting word! I didn't know such a word existed.

でしょ？(very casual way) 　Isn't it?/Doesn't it?

"a typical Japanese food" should be "the typical Japanese food".
You can say "which" in the sentence, but "that" sounds more natural to me.
So, all together it becomes: "The food we eat at home or in our restaurants in Japan isn't always the typical Japanese food that you may see on the menu at a Japanese restaurant in your town."

とても　よく　わかりました！

"type of foods" should be "type food" or "type foods". "have many varieties" sounds a bit more natural than "have varieties."

I see.

I remembered that I used to wonder
if I could say " I saw " (to mean "I understood")
since I can say "I see" (to mean " I understand") ?


Now, a quiz time for StripMahjong!

Can you tell me the differences of these?

1)わかります
2)わかりました
3)わかっています (often we sound like わかってます)
4)わかっていました(わかってました）

There should be an "and" between "Japanese curry" and "Japanese pasta."

That's right.
I leant it at school, but I forgot when I was typing it.

oh, I remeber.
May I ask you another question?

Do not many people spell the past tense of "learn" "learnt" but "learned"?
I learnT, "leant" at school in Australia by an English teacher from Manchester.
However I often get corrected by other English speaking people and they said
it's wrong, spell it "learnED"

So, all together it would be "We have many varieties of "Japanese xxxx" type food, such as Japanese pizza, Japanese curry and Japanese pasta, which are almost completely different from their original methods of cooking or seasoning."

わかりました！これも練習します！

"May be" should be one word here: "Maybe"
"populer" is "popular"

oopsie!

I LOVE Japanese curry, but I've never had Japanese pizza or pasta before. I've heard that corn is a popular topping on pizza in Japan. Is that true?

Yes, I think so. I often see corns on the pizza.
Don't you put them on yours?

I think
if you ask Japanese people "What's Japanese pizza like?"
Some people might not know what to say.
They don't know the original pizza (Italian Pizza)is like,
so they can't compare.

In Japan, you can see Pizza or pasta with something like, many types of mushrooms,dried seaweeds,umeboshi (I don't know how to say it in English, but let me try...pickled plums with salt and red-shiso harb),dried bonito(katsuo bushi) and other seafood. Oh and they usually have soy-sause taste.

Did you know that cheese & soy-sause go well!


mmm, everytime I talk about food, my stomach goes "ぐるるるる" to tell me
it have to be fed!

So, all together it would be:

"Also, since we have many varieties of restaurants in Japan (such as Chinese, Italian, Korean and other わようせっちゅう type restaurants), we use the word " 和食レストラン" when we want to talk about the Japanese restaurants which have more 'traditional/regular types of Japanese food' on their menus.

わかりました！

I like udon a lot (I had some when I was in Japan), but I've never had soba noodles before. They're supposed to be more healthy than udon, aren't they? Or do I have it backwards?

ばっちり、あっていますよ！
Yes, you are perfectly right!

You know if you can come to Nagano (where I currently live),
you can have "Soba soft icecreams" (soft serve, you call?I don't remember the name for it, but in Japanes ソフトクリーム) and they are yummy!
and Soba-cha (tea) is also yummy.
Nagano is famous for Soba, so there are many restaurants you can go to,
and there are many varieties of soba noodles you can buy at a supermarket!

Me too. I wish I had some curry!

Do you know how to cook Japanese style curry?

・・・これは、厳しすぎましたか？　

いいえ！そんなことありません。

とっても勉強になりました。

でも、直してくれるのに　時間がかかったでしょう？

ご親切にありがとうございました！

[Hellkite]

Ok. cool. i have explained this in another way. i just wanted to give you some tips. because after sometime, you should be able to adapt to the language and use the rightwords anyway. here, some tips:

watch movies in english with english subtitle (so, not much CNN or BBC or so, just movies)

read english books, and use the dictionary as a help to understand the new vocabularies, and write the new words and the translation down on a sheet of paper (a small vocabulary book would be best for this).

try to speak english as much as possible, so, look for some persons, you know who can speak english, and talk to them 1 hour or so a day.


ok, i hope this helps! i tell it my students from the private lessons, and they did not even learn much grammar, but they can use the language proper now! well, i guess, it is the aim to speak a language proper without thinking at grammar all the time, and you assimilate this, by being surrounded by the language! I really hope, this helps a bit! hehehe!

[StripMahjong]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

I remembered that I used to wonder
if I could say " I saw " (to mean "I understood")
since I can say "I see" (to mean " I understand") ?

"I remember that I used to wonder..." "Remembered" sounds a bit awkward here.

But yes, I see how that could be very confusing to the English learner! It makes sense to assume you could say that, doesn't it? English has a lot of strange little rules and exceptions like that.

Now, a quiz time for StripMahjong!

Can you tell me the differences of these?

1)わかります
2)わかりました
3)わかっています (often we sound like わかってます)
4)わかっていました(わかってました）

Hmm... Well, assuming the subject is "I", I think it would be:

1) "(I) understand" or "(I will) understand"
2) "(I) understood"
3) "(I) do understand" or "(I) am understanding" (in a current state of understanding)
4) "(I) was understanding" (was previously in a state of understanding)

Here's hoping I did better here than on the previous quiz! I had a lot of trouble with the っていました form in the past for some reason. I hope I've finally learned it!

May I ask you another question?

Do not many people spell the past tense of "learn" "learnt" but "learned"?
I learnT, "leant" at school in Australia by an English teacher from Manchester.
However I often get corrected by other English speaking people and they said
it's wrong, spell it "learnED"

This is another one of those confusing things for people learning English. Both are correct and mean the same thing, but "learnt" is more common in British English, while "learned" is more common in American English. So the people who are correcting you are probably American. Being American myself, hearing someone use "learnt" does sound strange (even my browser's spell-checker is telling me it isn't a word, even though it is!), but grammatically there isn't anything wrong with it.

Yes, I think so. I often see corns on the pizza.
Don't you put them on yours?

I've never seen corn as a topping on pizza here in America. I'm sure somewhere there is a restaurant that offers it, but it isn't common. I'd like to try it someday, though.

"I often see corn on pizza."

When talking about the food, "corn" generally doesn't need an "s" to be plural.

"the" should be taken out as well because you're talking about pizza in general. If you say, "I often see corn on the pizza," it sounds like your talking about one, specific pizza.

I think
if you ask Japanese people "What's Japanese pizza like?"
Some people might not know what to say.
They don't know the original pizza (Italian Pizza)is like,
so they can't compare.

I've heard this is the same for American pizza, too. I've never had real Italian pizza before, but I've been told it's very different from American pizza.

In Japan, you can see Pizza or pasta with something like, many types of mushrooms,dried seaweeds,umeboshi (I don't know how to say it in English, but let me try...pickled plums with salt and red-shiso harb),dried bonito(katsuo bushi) and other seafood. Oh and they usually have soy-sause taste.

Did you know that cheese & soy-sause go well!

My dictionary translates うめぼし as "dried plum," so I suppose that's how it's said.

We have a variety of toppings here for pizza and pasta, too, though they're all a lot more unhealthy than the Japanese toppings (which is typical for America, unfortunately!). We use a lot of meats such as sausages, beef, chicken, tomato sauce, alfredo sauce and more. We also use many different vegetables.

I didn't know that cheese and soy sauce go together. It seems like they wouldn't taste very good put together, but since I've never had it, I'm probably wrong! I'll have to try it some day.

mmm, everytime I talk about food, my stomach goes "ぐるるるる" to tell me
it have to be fed!

Me too, but I'm prepared today. I'm typing this while cooking lunch.

You know if you can come to Nagano (where I currently live),
you can have "Soba soft icecreams" (soft serve, you call?I don't remember the name for it, but in Japanes ソフトクリーム) and they are yummy!
and Soba-cha (tea) is also yummy.
Nagano is famous for Soba, so there are many restaurants you can go to,
and there are many varieties of soba noodles you can buy at a supermarket!

Now that I think about it, I have had one type of soba before. I had やきそば when I was at a festival in あさくさ. It was quite good, and very filling.

"Soft serve ice cream" is what we call ソフトクリーム here in the United States, but sometimes I've heard "soft serve" used as a shortened form, so I suppose either will work. Next time I go to Japan, I'll see if I can go to Nagano to try some of its famous soba! I'd also like to go to Hiroshima, which I hear is famous for its おこのみやき.

Do you know how to cook Japanese style curry?

I don't know how to cook it myself, but I live about a half hour drive away from a Japanese supermarket, and they sell pre-made curry sauce that I buy whenever I'm in the area.

My local supermarket has also started carrying it in the "asian foods" section, but they charge a lot of money for it because it is a specialty item there.

いいえ！そんなことありません。

とっても勉強になりました。

よかったです。　本当に厳しすぎましたと思っていまし た。　

でも、直してくれるのに　時間がかかったでしょう？

ご親切にありがとうございました！

どういたしまして。

時間がかかりましたけど、かまいません。　

By the way, I found a web site that may be useful to you. It has a lot of FAQs (frequently asked questions) about English grammar on it. The link is below.

Dr. Grammar - Frequently Asked Questions

またね！

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

ありがとうございます。

Do NZlanders use "No worries!" too?




I don't know about that, haha, but if they were small,
thanks for forgiving them (me)!




Thank YOU mate

I will too!

I hope I can be a help for you to improve your Japanese by the time
you are ready to leave for Japan!

はい、ニュージランド人も"No worries"をよく使います。

ニュージランドの英語を聞きたかったら、これはニュー ジランドのビデオです。

YouTube - One News 15/03/2008

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

出る大学？
the college you are going to graduate?

You haven't decided which college to graduate from?
mmm, ちょっとよくわかりません。

日本の中に行って知りません。

mmm, when you go to Japan, and you don't know???

can you try again?

私に出る大学はまだ決めないから、日本の中に行って知 りません。

Haha, I was trying to say that because the university I attend hasn't yet decided, I don't know where in Japan I will go.