She’s a great observer. I find myself nodding along as I listen - I was thinking about her & Japanese literature - how autobiography has always seemed to be a big part of it. Sei Shonagon & her lists.
2 Likes
9月22日 (日)
Daily brief
Rebuild #392 (1:50-2:41/2:41)
Chinese phrases from this YouTube playlist, about 13 min from the start.
9月23日 (月)
本好きの下剋上 Vol.5 (4:23-5:24/12:18)
+11 min to Chinese phrases
9月24日 (火)
YUYU, the latest episode
Remaining 12 min of Chinese phrases
5 Likes
＊９月２４日＊
Listened:
・２．４３ 清陰高校男子バレー部「英雄のいちごタルト」
Listening to both this and Jeweler Richard in a short span of time, Yuni and Seigi strike me as pretty similar in some respects. Also, you totally forget he’s a bocchan until he pulls stuff like this lmao
6 Likes
9月25日(水)
Today’s 日本語の森 grammar lesson had an example sentence very pertinent to WK users: 日本語をマスターしたいなら、漢字を覚えるほかない。
5 Likes
9月25日(水) continued
4989 American Podcast # 13
Summary
Part 1: It’s already May and summer is approaching. She wonders if any of her Japanese listeners who live overseas have plans of returning to Japan for the holidays. - she’d like to but can’t afford it. Instead she’s thinking of visiting friends and doing some camping.
The topic for today is her new job working at the community college she attends. She holds a h4 spouse visa which would usually mean that while her husband has permission to work, she doesn’t. However, there is a special scholarship system enabling students without working visas to work within their institution - aimed at immigrant students (many of whom are not legal) from South America, it is meant to help finance their studies and get them necessary work experience. Utaco manages to negotiate with the college director to get accepted into the program! She works a few hours 3 days a week. On Mondays and Wednesdays she works in the campus gym helping people with physical disabilities with their training, and on Fridays she helps out in a special computer room set up for people with physical disabilities (身体障害) and learning disabilities (学習障害)
At first she was incredibly tense because she had to use English - she especially finds the gym work hard, having difficulty understanding what people are saying to her. The program runs only for a term so she’ll finish up at the end of May.
Part 2: She’s finally found a mascara she likes - Maybelleine New York Sensational curvature(can’t understand word here???) waterproof mascara. She imagines her listeners thinking - what? A forty year old using a pharmacy mascara brand? To which she replies that she doesn’t buy expensive make up.
In Japan she always used a Fasio mascara but because it was hard to get hold of in America, she’d taken to buying pharmacy brand mascaras with the result that her lashes lost their curl after she applied the mascara - at first she thought this might be due to age but when the mascara she’s been using ran out, she spied the Maybelleine counter with products promising curl at the pharmacy and bought a mascara which worked, and as a result for the first time in a while has got excited about putting on makeup
Part 3: Too many people in America don’t use indicators 方向指示器 - despite them (as she and her husband often note) requiring little effort to use (a flick of the finger) and being essential for road safety. She gives the example of people not using them even on crowded freeways when they lane change 車線変更, saying how dangerous this is and how terrified she is never knowing when people are going to cut into the lane in front of her. And when you drive in town, because people don’t indicate, you don’t know if they are going to turn or continue on straight.
And then there are the people who use indicators but forget to turn them off! - on the freeways and in town, mile after mile with the lights flashing. She wonders why they can’t hear the sound? Maybe, they’re listening to loud music but surely they can see the lights on their dashboard? Nobody’s indicators in America are to be trusted! Although it’s been a while since she’s driven in Japan, she believes that while there might be some people who don’t use indicators, there are very few who would forget and leave them on. Amusingly, when she talks to other non-Americans about this, not only are they not bothered by the situation in America, they actually think that compared to their own countries, driving in America is pretty safe. Hearing that she decides there’s no way she’s driving in other countries. To wrap up, she says that in Japan, the word ウインカー is often used (from British English) whereas in America it’s “blinker” or “turn signal”.
Part 4: Here she warns about the confusion in English between “this Friday” and “next Friday” & suggests using more explicit terms (like using a date) so there are no misunderstandings like what happened when an ESL classmate organised an outing for “next Friday” meaning “this Friday” which they all attended except the one whose English was more proficient (they’d thought the outing was the following week).
5 Likes
9月26日(木)
More 日本語の森 grammar
4989 American Life Podcast # 14
Summary
Intro: In America, the school year ends around the end of May/ beginning of June so everyone is now making plans for the summer holidays including her and her husband.
Part 1: here she talks at some length about her nervousness about taking up the scholarship work she had been offered. Nervousness not just about the language difficulties she might encounter, but also the cultural ones. Having never worked in an American workplace, she worries about how much she should ask her boss, when she should ask to talk to them, how she should contact them (phone? email?). She’s aware that her boss is incredibly busy so although she would like to know more about what’s expected of her in her new job, she is afraid to ask. So when she was asked if “adaptive PE” was okay for her, she just said yes without really understanding what adaptive PE was.
At first, when she starts her work as an assistant helping people with physical disabilities with their gym programs (setting up the machines, monitoring the program, monitoring the client) she has a steep learning curve - no specialist health experience (unlike the other helper and person running the program), lot’s to memorise (people’s programs, set-ups, faces& names - the last being particularly different because as she mentioned in the last episode, it’s difficult to remember foreign names), and of course the difficulty of conversational exchanges in English (some of the older clients & some of the disabled ones are particularly difficult for her to understand).
Anyway, the job is only a term long so will finish soon & she’s happy to have the experience.
Part 2: Here she talks about the kind of natural-sounding English usages she’d like to master. She gives the example of one usage of “then” - not the あとでusage, but the それじゃ/okay,じゃone. The second cool, native-sounding usage she wants to master is “though” used at the end of a sentence as in でもOOだよ. She gives the example sentence: “This green smoothie is very bitter. It’s good for your health though”. Also talks about the way you just learn a word /usage and then you start encountering elsewhere and the excitement that comes with that recognition. Also recommends not overusing favourite phrasing - she gives the example of her overuse of “you know”.
Part3: she talks about the idol group Morning Musume she’s into - all young, cute, great outfits (as an おばちゃん, she wants to support them). Her favourite “cheru” (colour purple) also comes from Shizuoka & grew up in America so speaks fluent English. Utaco can’t remember exactly how she got into Morning Musume, but somehow she starting watching earlier incarnations of the group on YouTube right up until watching the current one. Her favourite is a Basket ball ambassador and will be visiting L.A. so Utaco hopes to be able to see her. Utaco’s husband does not share her enthusiasm.
6 Likes
9月25日 (水)
るろうに剣心 S2E35
9月26日 (木)
本好きの下剋上 Vol.5 (5:24-6:27/12:18)
Georgia 
(the one that’s in Eastern Europe)
3 Likes
9月27日(金)
Having a break from my usual routine & watched “I want to eat your pancreas” instead - highly recommend if you like tearjerkers (and I occasionally do). Came across this very strange and off-putting proverb for the second time in just a few weeks: 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」
5 Likes
. I’ve never been there.
９月28日(土)
Just time for one podcast today:
Sayuri Saying: The Relaxing World of Head Spa 12 mins
5 Likes
9月29日(日)
Penultimate day of the Summer Listening Challenge!
Back to watching 日本の森 grammar videos:
4989 American Life: ビールで英会話力アップ？
Part 1: after the intro where she she says she’s been feeling sluggish recently, she says that her number of podcast listeners is growing and that there are now people who she doesn’t know or have any connection to listening to the podcast and that she’s even received mail asking for her advice on how to get better at speaking English and so she says that while she is by know means fluent herself, she has got better over time. Her first piece of advice is to make friends you can speak in English with.
If you attend an ESL class like she does, she strongly recommends making friends with other students - inviting people out & accepting invitations, creating study groups. One of the advantages of speaking with other ESL students is that some of the self-consciousness present when speaking with a native speaker is lessened.
Outside of ESL classes, you should start by just smiling and greeting people you come across in your everyday life - like in shops, when picking up or dropping kids off to school etc - and then from there you can start making small talk.
She also recommends getting outside interests - she herself does tap dancing and Zumba and while she hasn’t made close friends through these endeavours, she’s had plenty of conversational practice and felt like part of a community.
And then there’s beer! She likes it. There’s plenty of different kinds available in America. People who like beer, like to talk about it at length. Beer has provided many opportunities for her to practice her conversational skill! One great example is when she was at the library and was asked by a stranger if she likes beer on account of the beer stickers stuck on her laptop.
Part 2: Her favourite YouTube channels for English learning:
- Bilingual 英会話 as the name suggests the presenter Chika-san is bilingual - covers lots of topics and is already well known
- Hana English - similar to Chika-san is another bilingual living in an English speaking country (Australia) but because she’s an ESL teacher her language videos are particularly good
- (and favourite) happa 英会話 The presenter Jun-san is half Japanese and is based in California. She’s also an ESL teacher with an 英会話 school and her videos are full of native-speaker phrases (Utaco feels that Jun is like her own stalker since she’s always showcasing phrases Utaco has just learnt). She has a podcast too. Utaco has used this channel a lot for study purposes.
One day Utaco would like to interview Chika-san and Jun-san on this podcast
6 Likes
9月30日(月)
Last day of the Summer Listening Challenge
Thanks @hotdogsuplex for organising
Looking forward to the next one!
Yet another 日本語の森 grammar video
4989 American Life Podcast #16
Won’t do a much of a summary here except to say that I was amused when she got to the 英語コーナー section and confessed to preferring English street directions to Japanese ones finding the katakana really confusing. Me: あるあるあるあるあるあるー！
6 Likes
9月28日 (土)
本好きの下剋上 Vol.5 (6:27-7:05/12:18)
YUYU, the latest episode
9月29日 (日)
本好きの下剋上 Vol.5 (7:05-7:38/12:18)
Japan snack! 
9月30日 (月)
Round Up World Now! 2024.9.27. Hopefully I might be able to survive news podcast somehow with reading descriptions.
Purchase of manga…
About GDP
Onwards to the next seasonal challenge 
. I probably should try something different.
4 Likes
It’s super helpful to have your notes!
Summary
I listened to this one and got the gist and then read your notes. Aaaah LA!! I could not for the life of me get what she was saying when I kept hearing えるえい or however that is katakanised. And now listening again I pay attention to that and when it’s introduced the first time would have been my opportunity to have understood it. The same with the names Matt and Harry (or maybe Haliegh?) I only got Harry the first time, but the second time I clearly understood her introduction of them thanks to expecting it from your notes.
I hope she realises her dream of moving to San Diego someday, that comes up a lot!
2 Likes
Actually, catching non-Japanese names is really difficult. In a later podcast you’ll meet her first real friend in America. She calls her マルタ which I think may be Martha, but then again since her friend is Mexican, it’s possible her name is completely different. I’ll be interested to hear what you think it may be when you get to it.
3 Likes
Ooh I’m looking forward to that. It’s also ironic I had such a hard time with names on this one where she was complaining about names as well. I guess it’s just tough in a foreign language.
2 Likes
I think it’s really tough
2 Likes