strict and serious teachers WANTED!

[loveskyliemole]

Originally Posted by Ronin4hire

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.

In that case, we don't use 　「出る」but 「入る」.

入る大学がまだ決まっていないので、日本のどこにいく かはわかりません。

P.S. DO NZ people say G'day too?

[loveskyliemole]

Originally Posted by StripMahjong

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!

1) correct! but if you want to say you "will" understand (after the explanation), maybe it's natural to say like this: 「わかると思います」
2)yep!
3) & 4) are tricky ones. I think you understood, but I want to make sure.

3)This is used especially when you feel like this:
(don't worry, I do understand!Don't tell me again)

4)This is used when you want to say "I understood and I knew it but..."

"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 see.

Those stuff is always confusing me,
since we don't really use the/a and noun+s thing!

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.

I thought Italian pizza and American pizza are similar.

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

Does your dictionary say anything more?
dried plum sound sweet, but umaboshi is very salty!

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.

another information
corn+soysauce is one of my favourite combination!
Do you usually boil the corns and eat? (or just microwave?)
Anyway, after the corn is ready to eat, you can fry or toast it again after you put some soysauce on it!

Try!

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

haha
now I learned myself.
I am typing this while cooking dinner

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.

oh, that そば you had wasn't that そば（蕎麦） we were talking about.

「そば」　sometimes means thin noodle, too.
but real　蕎麦（そば）　means "buckwheat"　or "buckwheat noodle".

「やきそば」mmm, yum!
my friend from Brazile he loves yakisoba sauce! He put it on everything!

"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.

Yes, please try to visit Nagano, and when you really want the best soba,
TOGAKUSHI 戸隠　is the place you have to go!

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.

right! you can buy pre-made curry, that's handy.
Do you go for 甘口？　中辛？　辛口？ I always go for 辛口！(or 中辛)

よかったです。　本当に厳しすぎましたと思っていまし 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。

Thank you very very much for being 親切！

to be a strict teacher for you too,

厳しすぎましたと思っていました。

before 思う、you don't have to use formal form, but the basic form.

so for examles:

たぶん、明日は晴れる　と思うよ。

そんな事を言ったら彼女は傷つく　と思います。

ずっとxxxさんの事をかわいいと思っていました。

(this is one of the typical ways for boys to tell girls that he likes her and
wants to go out! Usually girls take this as a "hint" and they will know what you really meant. so usuful for you one day?

I am often asked for a help about relationships and stuff by foreign boys who live in Japan.They often use not-proper-Japanese to ask Japanese girls out, and get misunderstood.

I used to have a boyfriend from NZ and once he said to me

"あなたは　ぼくの　にんじん"

and of course I went like " What????? "

Can you guess what he really wanted to say?

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！

Thank you. I will go and check!

[Koir]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

I see. Naruhodo!
Aligato!

I learned a Japanese expression! And thanks to a recently viewed episode of "Karin", I know where it is used...arigatou Mayumi san!

[StripMahjong]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

maybe it's natural to say like this

"it may be more natural to say this way" sounds a bit better here.

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

3) & 4) are tricky ones. I think you understood, but I want to make sure.

3)This is used especially when you feel like this:
(don't worry, I do understand!Don't tell me again)

4)This is used when you want to say "I understood and I knew it but..."

Yes, that's what I was thinking. Whew! I guess I did okay on this quiz.

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Those stuff is always confusing me,
since we don't really use the/a and noun+s thing!

At the beginning of the sentence, you could use "those things" or "that stuff", but "those stuff" sounds awkward. If you choose to use "those things," then "is" should be "are" instead, so it would be "Those things are always confusing me..." Also, the comma "," isn't necessary here.

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

I thought Italian pizza and American pizza are similar.

Hmm, I don't know. I've heard that they're different, but since I've never had Italian pizza before, I'm not sure if it's true or not. I could have been given false information!

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Does your dictionary say anything more?
dried plum sound sweet, but umaboshi is very salty!

Nope, that's all it says. Maybe it isn't a very accurate entry? The dictionary I use is actually the website Denshi Jisho - Online Japanese dictionary. I have a regular paper dictionary, but it's pretty small and useless... I'd love to get an electronic one some day, but they're a lot of money. It's hard for me to justify the cost of one when I can just hop online and look up anything I need to.

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

corn+soysauce is one of my favourite combination!
Do you usually boil the corns and eat? (or just microwave?)
Anyway, after the corn is ready to eat, you can fry or toast it again after you put some soysauce on it!

Try!

I will! That sounds easy enough to make.

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

oh, that そば you had wasn't that そば（蕎麦） we were talking about.

「そば」　sometimes means thin noodle, too.
but real　蕎麦（そば）　means "buckwheat"　or "buckwheat noodle".

「やきそば」mmm, yum!
my friend from Brazile he loves yakisoba sauce! He put it on everything!

Whoops, my mistake! I thought it may have just been the fried version of the same noodle.

I didn't realize they used a yakisoba sauce when they made that, though. I assumed it was soy sauce. I need to stop assuming things about noodles. I don't seem to be very good at it!

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Yes, please try to visit Nagano, and when you really want the best soba,
TOGAKUSHI 戸隠　is the place you have to go!

I will write that name down for when I get a chance to visit Nagano. Hopefully I'll be able to save up enough money for another trip to Japan next year, but with the U.S. economy so bad right now, I may not be able to...

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

right! you can buy pre-made curry, that's handy.
Do you go for 甘口？　中辛？　辛口？ I always go for 辛口！(or 中辛)

僕も同じで、　辛口のほうが好きです。　とんかつとい っしょだったら、最高！

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Thank you very very much for being 親切！

to be a strict teacher for you too,

厳しすぎましたと思っていました。

before 思う、you don't have to use formal form, but the basic form.

Dang, I always make that mistake. I must be more careful. Please be as strict as you would like in correcting my Japanese. I want to become as good as I can at speaking it!

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

ずっとxxxさんの事をかわいいと思っていました。

(this is one of the typical ways for boys to tell girls that he likes her and
wants to go out! Usually girls take this as a "hint" and they will know what you really meant. so usuful for you one day?

覚えます！　いつか日本人の女に好きになったら、使い ます。　 (is this grammar correct?)

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

I am often asked for a help about relationships and stuff by foreign boys who live in Japan.They often use not-proper-Japanese to ask Japanese girls out, and get misunderstood.

"I am often asked for help with relationships..."

I used to have a boyfriend from NZ and once he said to me

"あなたは　ぼくの　にんじん"

and of course I went like " What????? "

Can you guess what he really wanted to say?

その話はすっっっっっっごく可笑しい！　（笑）

まゆみ先生はオレンジ色ですか？　

I'm not sure about the answer to your question, though. The only possibilities I can think of are 愛人（あいじん） or 美人（びじん）. What was he trying to say?

[loveskyliemole]

At the beginning of the sentence, you could use "those things" or "that stuff", but "those stuff" sounds awkward. If you choose to use "those things," then "is" should be "are" instead, so it would be "Those things are always confusing me..." Also, the comma "," isn't necessary here.

Oh, I always make that mistake! "stuff" isn't countable right?

Nope, that's all it says. Maybe it isn't a very accurate entry? The dictionary I use is actually the website Denshi Jisho - Online Japanese dictionary. I have a regular paper dictionary, but it's pretty small and useless... I'd love to get an electronic one some day, but they're a lot of money. It's hard for me to justify the cost of one when I can just hop online and look up anything I need to.

Since you can read and write hiragana katakana plus Kanji a lot, maybe a Japanese-Japanese dictionary (which I meant a reguler dictionary for Japanese) can be usuful and helpful for you, I think.Especially the ones for children are great because they have very nice and simple explanations on each words and sometimes it comes with the pictures!

I checked amazonJP and found this:
Amazon.co.jp： こどもにほんごじて&#x 3093;―ことばはともだ&#x306 1; (ことばはともだ&#x3061: 本

There are so many dictionaries !
Amazon.co.jp:

I will! That sounds easy enough to make.

You know what? I had that corn (we call it yaki-toumorokoshi or Yaki-Morokoshi) last night and that was yummy!

Whoops, my mistake! I thought it may have just been the fried version of the same noodle.
I didn't realize they used a yakisoba sauce when they made that, though. I assumed it was soy sauce. I need to stop assuming things about noodles. I don't seem to be very good at it!

haha
I don't know much about noodles anyway because
we have wide(?) varieties here in Japan.
You know ラーメン　right? (did you like it?)
In my area (around Tokyo:I am originally from Yokohama), we call it
「ラーメン」but some people in Osaka area call it 「中華そば」.
My friends from Wakayama was surprised when I said
「中華そば？おいしそう！たべてみたい！」 .
I didn't think that means ラーメン。
I thought something different!

See? so don't worry about it!
(I guess you are not worried anyway)

I will write that name down for when I get a chance to visit Nagano. Hopefully I'll be able to save up enough money for another trip to Japan next year, but with the U.S. economy so bad right now, I may not be able to...

Yeah, I also want to save up enough money to travell overseas! My last overseas travell was 1999 to Australia for a month to see my friends.

At that time the Japan economy wasn't so bad.
But, it's not good anymore and also the airtickets are expensive because of the price of oil.

I really wish there will be some great substitute for oil,
whish is friendly to the enviroment
and to our purse!　
(It doesn't make sense in English does it? we say おさいふにやさしい for economy prices）.

僕も同じで、　辛口のほうが好きです。　とんかつとい っしょだったら、最高！

「カツカレー」ですね！

夫と私は「牛・豚・鶏　肉」を食べないので、シーフー ドやきのこをたくさん入れます。

Dang, I always make that mistake. I must be more careful. Please be as strict as you would like in correcting my Japanese. I want to become as good as I can at speaking it!

わかりました！

お互い　ビシビシ　いきましょう（笑）！

覚えます！　いつか日本人の女に好きになったら、使い ます。　 (is this grammar correct?)

「日本人の女」というより　「日本人女性」　「日本の 女性」　のほうが
丁寧です。　

日本人の女性を好きになったら・・・ですね。

"I am often asked for help with relationships..."
その話はすっっっっっっごく可笑しい！　（笑）
まゆみ先生はオレンジ色ですか？　
I'm not sure about the answer to your question, though. The only possibilities I can think of are 愛人（あいじん） or 美人（びじん）. What was he trying to say?

ね？おもしろいでしょ？

I don't think I am orange,
I think I have a reguler colour for an Asian!

mmm, your guesses weren't quite right, sorry

He wanted to say 「にんぎょう」！

「あなたはわたしの人形」

Do guys usually say " you are my doll?"

I told him that it didn't make sense in Japanese
and I don't want him to think I am his doll anyway!
NO!
Well, that wasn't the reason why we broke up, but
I said "Let's be just friends" about 3 months later.

It has been ages since I had a thought of this guy last time!
I was 22 and he was 21. oh It was a loooong time ago now.
We were in Melbourne, and he was very happy to have an oriental girlfriend,because いろいろな人にひやかされたり、うらやましがられたり しました　(I don't know how to put it in English).　
I thought I liked this guy cos we had a lot of fun time together with other friends, but since we started dating then I realized that he enjoyed "showing off". I got disappointed and thought that he wasn't the guy I respect.

Maybe it's me thing, or I don't know if it's a Japanese girls thing,
I don't like guys saying "you are beautiful","You are MY DOLL" or even " I love you" often. I get goosebumps!

After this guy, I fall in love with an Aussie guy who treated me as just one of his good mates! He was a guy didn't say those things to me and only one time he said that I was cute and I was genuinely happy, but anyway it didn't work out then I moved to Sydney and met a Japanese guy who became my husband in 10 years time!

So what I was trying to say is...
girls and boys things are not easy! haha


Oopsie, I spent over 1 hour for writing this, I don't know why I ended up talking about my ex!

hope I didn't make you bored.

[Koir]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Do guys usually say " you are my doll?"

Not usually, unless the guy in question is Andrew Dice Clay, or the male lead in a stage production of "Grease".

I told him that it didn't make sense in Japanese
and I don't want him to think I am his doll anyway!
NO!

Excellent instincts.

It has been ages since I had a thought of this guy last time!
I was 22 and he was 21. oh It was a loooong time ago now.
We were in Melbourne, and he was very happy to have an oriental girlfriend,because いろいろな人にひやかされたり、うらやましがられたり しました　(I don't know how to put it in English).　
I thought I liked this guy cos we had a lot of fun time together with other friends, but since we started dating then I realized that he enjoyed "showing off". I got disappointed and thought that he wasn't the guy I respect.

Excellent instincts again. No woman should desire to simply be a trophy to be shown off as a measure of status for the man.

Maybe it's me thing, or I don't know if it's a Japanese girls thing,
I don't like guys saying "you are beautiful","You are MY DOLL" or even " I love you" often. I get goosebumps!

Depends on if they are "good" goosebumps or "bad" goosebumps, though by your admission it's not something positive.

So what I was trying to say is...
girls and boys thins are not easy! haha

Agreed.

Oopsie, I spent over 1 hour for writing this, I don't know why I ended up talking about my ex!

You may be comfortable discussing such things in this forum. Personally, I take it as a priviledge, something precious to be treasured and paid back in kind in some way in the future.

Not all learning occurs in the classroom, and not all lessons are as easily scripted and scheduled. Same goes for teaching.

hope I didn't make you bored.

You have not done so.

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

In that case, we don't use 　「出る」but 「入る」.

入る大学がまだ決まっていないので、日本のどこにいく かはわかりません。

P.S. DO NZ people say G'day too?

ああ！分かりました！

はい、ニュージランド人も"Gday mate"を時々使います。

ほかの特別なニュージランドの挨拶（greeting?)は"Hey bro"と"Kiaora"です。"Kiaora"はマオリ語ですけどたくさんマ� ��リ人じゃないニュージランド人もよく使います。
"Hey bro" is only used for close friends and between males though.

Are there any special Nagano sayings?

[StripMahjong]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

Oh, I always make that mistake! "stuff" isn't countable right?

I've never thought about it like that before, but yes, I suppose that's true. For example, you couldn't say something like "I have seven stuff", but you could say "I have seven things."

Since you can read and write hiragana katakana plus Kanji a lot, maybe a Japanese-Japanese dictionary (which I meant a reguler dictionary for Japanese) can be usuful and helpful for you, I think.Especially the ones for children are great because they have very nice and simple explanations on each words and sometimes it comes with the pictures!

"Since you can read and write a lot of hiragana, katakana and kanji, I think a Japanese-Japanese dictionary (by which I mean a regular dictionary for Japanese) could be useful for you (or "...could be helpful to you." Putting both "useful" and "helpful" together sounds repetitive). The ones for children are especially great because they have very nice, simple explanations for each word and sometimes even have pictures!"

For the most part the only problems with that paragraph were the placement of the words in each sentence. Very well done, considering how long it was!

I haven't ever considered getting a Japanese-Japanese dictionary before. I'll definitely think about it. Thank you for the links!

You know what? I had that corn (we call it yaki-toumorokoshi or Yaki-Morokoshi) last night and that was yummy!

"...last night and it was yummy!"

haha
I don't know much about noodles anyway because
we have wide(?) varieties here in Japan.

To use "wide" here, I would say, "...have a wide variety..."
Or, you could say, "...have many varieties..."

You know ラーメン　right? (did you like it?)
In my area (around Tokyo -- I am originally from Yokohama), we call it
「ラーメン」but some people in the Osaka area call it 「中華そば」.
My friends from Wakayama were surprised when I said
「中華そば？おいしそう！たべてみたい！」 .
I didn't think that meant ラーメン。 (or you could say "I didn't know that means ラーメン")
I thought it was something different!

Just a few minor corrections, which I put in bold in the quote.

Yes, I had ラーメン a few times in Japan, as well as once here in the United States in a Japanese restaurant. I like it a lot. It took me a little while to learn how to properly slurp the noodles, though. The way I used to do it would send broth flying all over the place. Fortunately, I don't have that problem any more.

Yeah, I also want to save up enough money to travel overseas! My last overseas trip was in 1999 to Australia for a month to see my friends.

At that time, Japan's economy wasn't so bad.
But, it's not good anymore and the plane tickets (or you could say "airfare") are (if you said "air fare" instead, "are" would have to be "is" here) expensive because of the price of oil.

I really hope there will be a great substitute for oil
which is friendly to the environment
and to our purse!　
(It doesn't make sense in English does it? we say おさいふにやさしい for economy prices）.

Actually, it does make sense to say "...friendly to the environment and to our purse!" Well done!

I also hope for that type of substitute to oil... A lot of people keep wondering how we can get more oil to help solve the energy crises, but I don't think the problem will go away until we find something else that replaces oil. We'll have to think of something eventually, since oil is a limited resource.

「カツカレー」ですね！

夫と私は「牛・豚・鶏　肉」を食べないので、シーフー ドやきのこをたくさん入れます。

あ、そうそう！　カツカレーです。　名前が覚えられて いませんでした。　カツカレーは僕の一番好きな和食で す。

まゆみ先生と旦那はベジタリアンですか？

「日本人の女」というより　「日本人女性」　「日本の 女性」　のほうが
丁寧です。

すみません。　

I think I have a regular colour for an Asian!

He wanted to say 「にんぎょう」！

「あなたはわたしの人形」

Do guys usually say " you are my doll?"

I don't think so. なんか気持ち悪いってかんじでしょう？

I told him that it didn't make sense in Japanese
and I don't want him to think I am his doll anyway!
NO!
Well, that wasn't the reason why we broke up, but
I said "Let's just be friends" about 3 months later.

Probably a smart move! It doesn't make very much sense in English, either.

It has been ages since the last time I thought of this guy!

I was 22 and he was 21. oh It was a loooong time ago now.
We were in Melbourne, and he was very happy to have an oriental girlfriend,because いろいろな人にひやかされたり、うらやましがられたり しました　(I don't know how to put it in English).

うわ、難しかった！　でも、訳せたかもしれません。　 "He enjoyed doing things like bantering other people and making them feel jealous." どうですか？　そういう意味ですか？

I thought I liked this guy cos we had a lot of fun times together with other friends, but when we started dating I realized that he enjoyed "showing off". I got disappointed and thought he wasn't a guy I could respect.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's a Japanese girl thing, but I don't like guys saying "you are beautiful", "you are MY DOLL" or even " I love you" often. I get goosebumps!

I think this might be a cultural thing, actually. From studying the Japanese language, it seems to me that Japanese people don't like being very direct about anything unless they have to be. So, you might not like hearing those types of things because they are too direct. Even the example sentence you gave before (ずっとxxxさんの事をかわいいと思っていました。) is very indirect. I've also heard that you should generally use 「ｘｘｘのことが好き」 instead of 「愛してる」 when telling someone you like them, since it isn't as strong and is less direct. But, I could be wrong.

それとも、まゆみ先生はにんじんだから、そういう思い 方があるかもしれません。　

After this guy, I fell in love with an Aussie guy who treated me like I was just one of his good mates! He was a guy who didn't say those things to me and only once said that I was cute and I was genuinely happy, but it didn't work out. Then I moved to Sydney and met a Japanese guy who became my husband 10 years later!

So what I was trying to say is...
things between girls and boys are not easy! haha

でしょう？　

Oopsie, I spent over 1 hour writing this. I don't know why I ended up talking about my ex!

Hope I didn't make you bored.

いいえ、いいえ。　ぜんぜんつまらないじゃありません でした！

そして、僕も一時間以上かかりました。　今、晩ご飯を 食べます！

[loveskyliemole]

Not usually, unless the guy in question is Andrew Dice Clay, or the male lead in a stage production of "Grease".
Excellent instincts.

Excellent instincts again. No woman should desire to simply be a trophy to be shown off as a measure of status for the man.

haha
I totally agree.
I think your girlfriend is lucky.

Depends on if they are "good" goosebumps or "bad" goosebumps, though by your admission it's not something positive.

Oh I didn't know that there are good goosebumps!

May I ask you such as...?

You have not done so.

phew (Is this a right expression?)

I wanted to show my feelings: I am happy to know that:I am relieved.

またね～

[loveskyliemole]

ほかの特別なニュージランドの挨拶（greeting?)は"Hey bro"と"Kiaora"です。"Kiaora"はマオリ語ですけどたくさんマ� ��リ人じゃないニュージランド人もよく使います。
"Hey bro" is only used for close friends and between males though.

へ～。おもしろいですね。
Kiaora は　どのように　発音　しますか？　like.....key ah oh ra?

Are there any special Nagano sayings?

mmm, there is nothing I can think of...
especially because I am not from Nagano original,
but I haven't heard any local people say any special sayings.

It's not about greeting, but
once they said something to me but I had no idea what they were talking about was...

"You have ZUKU, Mayumi!"

I went like.... ???? zuku?

She said tha meant that I had some "guts" or"full of power" to do something.

She told me that I can call a person who has no guts (who is too lazy and saying "oh no, no, no, I couldn't do that" "I wouldn't do that" "Oh it's too hard for me" "Why don't you do that I will just watch"... )

ZUKU-NASHI (means person without ZUKU, NASHI means "nothing" or "none of XXX" , but NASHI also means "Japanese pears" mmm yum.)

Hope you enjoyed reading this