http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/rss Tomo's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Sat May 25 03:06:31 UTC 2013 Sat May 25 03:06:31 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8
By the way I often hear people use the word "suck", but this is a slang word, isn't it? I'm not sure how often this word is used, in what kind of situation this word should not be used, what people think of when they hear this word, or what image people have on this word.

Slang is always difficult to me. Can anyone tell me exactly how this word should be used?

Posted at Sun Dec 25 02:52:34 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1239315 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1239315 Tomo Sun Dec 25 02:52:34 UTC 2011 你怎麼打字?



你現在用注音字母.

我的室友說了於台灣大家用注音字母, 因此我想學習注音字母.


注音字母很好...

Posted at Sat Oct 15 05:24:16 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1140604 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1140604 Tomo Sat Oct 15 05:24:16 UTC 2011
来週引っ越しをします。
台湾の人とルームシェアをします。

日本では引っ越しをしたら、近所の人に挨拶をして、何かをあげるのがマナーです。
だから、同居人には故郷の有名なお菓子をあげるつもりです。
でも、もっと他にいいものがあれば、それを贈りたいと思っています。

そこで、台湾の人に質問です。
台湾で一般的なマナーや贈り物、もらったら嬉しいものなどありますか？

住む場所は東京なので、基本的には日本のマナーや伝統のとおりにしようと思っています。
でも、もっと喜んでもらえるものがあるなら、それにしようかとも思います。

他にも、日本人は知らないけど、台湾の人にとっては常識なこと、
日本人の言動で台湾の人が好きではないものなど、何かアドバイスなどあったら教えていただきたいです。

よろしくお願いします。

Posted at Sat Sep 24 10:43:06 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1111032 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1111032 Tomo Sat Sep 24 10:43:06 UTC 2011 好大的雨。我期待明天天气很好。



Posted at Tue Sep 20 06:45:56 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1105168 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1105168 Tomo Tue Sep 20 06:45:56 UTC 2011 就我繁體字比簡體字很容易，因此我學習簡體字。
繁體字的文法和簡體字的文法一樣？

Posted at Mon Sep 19 07:32:12 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1103764 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1103764 Tomo Mon Sep 19 07:32:12 UTC 2011
流鼻涕。。不停止。。。

我好像患了感冒。(;´Д`)

Posted at Mon Sep 19 01:50:32 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1103439 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1103439 Tomo Mon Sep 19 01:50:32 UTC 2011 how great. i can live with the guy from Tiwan! The time i can speak 3 languages is near!


Posted at Fri Sep 16 16:30:53 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1100540 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1100540 Tomo Fri Sep 16 16:30:53 UTC 2011
I have nothing to say...

Posted at Thu Sep 15 14:42:43 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1099027 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1099027 Tomo Thu Sep 15 14:42:43 UTC 2011 I had my hair permed today!

This is second time. I did it around 5 years ago so its like very new thing to me.

It's very interesting that my hair is always waved, I feel a little strange though. lol

I though it was very expensive, like over 10000 yen, but it was not.

It cost me 6000 yen. It is still expensive, but cheaper than I thought, so it's ok haha.

This was an good experience, but there is a problem now.

I'm not sure if my permed hair matters when I get a job in Tokyo.^^;

Maybe it's fine if it's a store clerk like in a convenient store,

but I think of working as a private teacher.

I hope I can do that.

Posted at Wed Sep 14 14:16:54 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1097577 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1097577 Tomo Wed Sep 14 14:16:54 UTC 2011
So here is another one!


「畑に大根が10本うえてあります。7本ぬきました。あと何個？」


Very few people have answered this immediately so far.

So, can you answer this? lol

Oh, don't forget to write the number and "the reason"!

ちょっとずるい問題だけど、ちゃんと答えは出せます笑（実際に解いた人もいるし）

Posted at Tue Sep 13 14:24:39 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1096163 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1096163 Tomo Tue Sep 13 14:24:39 UTC 2011
This can be understood in three ways.

Posted at Tue Sep 13 04:37:17 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1095460 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1095460 Tomo Tue Sep 13 04:37:17 UTC 2011 今天我交换车的油了。 jin1 tian1 wo2 jiao1 huan4 che1 de you2 le

费钱四千日元了。 fei1 qian2 si4 qian1 ri4 yuan2 le

太贵了。。。 tai4 gui4 le



漢字の意味はだいたいわかるんだけど、読み方が難しい…。


I'm really sorry but I'm completely a beginner, so please comment in Japanese or English...

Posted at Mon Sep 12 10:10:36 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1094274 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1094274 Tomo Mon Sep 12 10:10:36 UTC 2011 I wrote a journal in Chinese to practice it. I'm a completely beginner so even writing a short sentence requires a very hard effort. But there is one thing I'm very happy about. As soon as I wrote, 3 people corrected my journal, and my Chinese seems to be better than I thought.

By the way, I'm taking TOEIC tomorrow. I think I'm better at speaking than before, but I have not studied grammar, words, and phrases. So I'm not sure if I can get as good score as the one I got before.

Anyway, it's impossible to make my English better by tomorrow, and I think I can get the same or even higher score on the listening part.. maybe... perhaps....

Well, all I have to is just sleep and get ready to do my best!

頑張ってきまーす。

By the way, seeing the title of this journal, it sounds like I can speak THREE languages, doesn't it? That's cool, haha.

Posted at Sat Sep 10 12:56:28 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1091613 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1091613 Tomo Sat Sep 10 12:56:28 UTC 2011
我知道我的中文不很好。

不过我加油。


あぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ難しい。
始めたばかりだから本当に何もわからない。
とりあえず単語覚えるためにも、適当だけど中国語を並べてみました。
中国語だなんて言えるレベルじゃないけれども。
まぁ、少しずつ覚えていけばいいかな……(;´Д`)

あ、添削していただけるなら、日本語か英語でお願いします。。。
まだ中国語は全然わからないので…。申し訳ない。

I'm afraid but please correct using Japanese or English because I'm completely a beginner so I hardly understand Chinese. (Maybe I know some kanji though)

Posted at Sat Sep 10 12:29:22 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1091570 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1091570 Tomo Sat Sep 10 12:29:22 UTC 2011
In Japanese, every word has an accent. When we speak and listen to Japanese, we always pay attention to an accent. For us, it sometimes difficult to understand foreigners speaking Japanese because many foreigners don't know about pitch accent or how to make pitch change.

Let's practice pitch accent.
As I said before, please prepare an instrument. To speak Japanese, you have to make low pitch sounds and high pitch sounds like you do when you sing.

Please make a sound (any pitch is fine. Fa is easy to say for me.) Then, make a higher sound than the sound you made first. You can practice speaking Japanese by combining these two sounds. (Precisely speaking, we use three or more sounds. Words that are emphasized tend to be pronounced in higher pitch. But, first of all, you should start from these simple sounds.)

First, let's say こんにちは. Foreigners (especially English speakers) tend to make "ni" storong like "konNIchiwa" but it sounds very unnatural. It's typical English Japanese. Correct こんにちは must be pronounced like this: こ in low pitch, ん, に, ち and は in high pitch.
こL んH にH ちH はH。 This is how to say こんにちは。

http://www.coscom.co.jp/learnjapanese101/learnjapanese104-k.html
You can listen to correct こんにちは here.

It may be diificult to make different pitches. So until you get used to doing it, practice slowly.

それでは、頑張ってください！

Posted at Fri Sep 02 10:31:31 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1080843 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1080843 Tomo Fri Sep 02 10:31:31 UTC 2011
I have no friends to studyy English with here.

Everyone says "I'm interested in learning English! ...But I'm too busy, and it is very difficult, isn't it?".

Yes, it IS difficult, but that's why learning English is fun!

Do you have friends to study your target language with?

Posted at Tue Aug 30 12:52:25 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1076517 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1076517 Tomo Tue Aug 30 12:52:25 UTC 2011
I'm drinking with my friend tonight. It must be fun!

Posted at Fri Aug 26 12:48:18 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1070844 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1070844 Tomo Fri Aug 26 12:48:18 UTC 2011
東京に引っ越したら、近くに住んでる人いたら一緒に飲みましょう（笑）

Posted at Thu Aug 25 22:28:35 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1070031 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1070031 Tomo Thu Aug 25 22:28:35 UTC 2011


I took two pictures to put on lang-8.
I usually don't use a software for pictures, but this time, I got one so I tried to use it.
The first picture was just made clear. The second was little darkened and used a little color. They were originally the same picture but now they look very different. It's interesting!

Posted at Sun Aug 21 17:19:03 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1063593 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1063593 Tomo Sun Aug 21 17:19:03 UTC 2011
For example, think about this situation.

You are going to go to watch a movie. You and your friend talked about the plan the day before and made a promise to go together. But suddenly something happens at your office and you have to go there, so you can't make the promise.
What do you say to your friend? I would say 「ごめん、急に仕事に行かなければならなくなった。」
This implies my feeling of "I want to make the promise", "I never expect this would happen", or "I'm sorry I break the promise but I have to go".

If I said 「仕事に行かなければならない。」 instead of 「～ならなくなった」, it sounds like I made a promise which I initially knew that I cannot make.

Could anyone teach me how to express the nuance of 「～しなければならなくなる」?

Posted at Sun Aug 21 13:19:04 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1063216 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1063216 Tomo Sun Aug 21 13:19:04 UTC 2011 I have no doubt about that learning with speaking and listening is really effective way.
We, who want to learn languages, must talk more and more!

I'm too shy so always hesitate to call someone but apparently this is not a good way.
Don't be shy. What I need to learn English is talking!!

というわけでみなさん電話してください。
I am a guy who is studying how to teach Japanese.
My job is a teacher at a cram school, so I have not got the license to be a Japanese teacher, but I think I am good at teaching!

簡単な英語は喋れます。英語圏の人ならだいたい言っていることがわかります。
こちらの言いたいこともだいたい言えます。

Please do not hesitate to talk to me. I can understand simple English, and I can tell you what I think.

Any languages can be used. English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, France...

The more languages and poeple, the more talking become fun!

You can find my skype om my page.

PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO TALK TO ME!

Posted at Fri Aug 19 13:39:34 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1060600 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1060600 Tomo Fri Aug 19 13:39:34 UTC 2011 It shows how to a sentence into other sentences like this:

1 Ten years have passed since my uncle died.
2 It has been ten yeras since my uncle died.
3 My uncle died ten years ago.
4 My uncle has been dead for ten years.

I understand these sentences grammatically but some of them sound weird to Japanese people, especially the last one.
Do English speakers use all of them? Do they all sound natural?

Posted at Mon Aug 01 23:13:10 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1036836 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1036836 Tomo Mon Aug 01 23:13:10 UTC 2011
If I could go and study abroad, how long should I go? Does anyone have friends who have been to foreign countries? How long do(did)they stay? How well they are at foreign languages?
Please tell me!

Posted at Fri Jul 29 14:24:07 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1032349 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1032349 Tomo Fri Jul 29 14:24:07 UTC 2011 It's been long since I speak in English last. Today I talked with a guy who met on the lang-8. He can speak English so our conversation must be done in English but I remained how my speaking skill is bad.
Sometimes I am said that my writing English is good so people tend to think my speaking level is high but it is definitely not. When sitting in front of a mic, I cant start conversation from me. Is this because of my English skill or... my personality?

Those who want to hear my poor English, please don't hesitate to call me. I can give you terrible ENGRISH sounds. lol

Posted at Fri Jul 29 14:17:38 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1032334 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1032334 Tomo Fri Jul 29 14:17:38 UTC 2011
Accent is one of the most important things to speak Japanese like native speakers. But Japanese accent is very different from English one. It may be a little similar to Chinese four tones.

English accent is made by pronouncing some parts of words strongly. Your mouth opens widely and the sound becomes louder.

In Japanese, however, there is no strong point in a word. Then how can we make accent? We make accent by changing pitch. Japanese accent is sometimes called "pitch accent".

For example, Japanese word "AME" has two meanings. One is "rain" and the other is "candy". I would like to show you how we pronounce this word.

Before you practice pronouncing "AME", please prepare an instrument. Anything would be ok as far as it can make two different sounds. If you don't have any instruments, download a software like this: http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/dl/win95/art/se204371.html

We pronounce words and sentences like singing. Please make tones of DO and MI. Imitate the sound like singing. It is a melody of "candy".

Next, please play MI and DO. The first sound is a HIGH pitch and the second one is a LOW pitch. Please sing again. This is a melody of "rain".

"AME" has two syllables. English speakers tend to pronounce either "A" or "ME" strongly and pronounce the other very weakly like they speak English while Japanese speakers pronounce this two syllables in the completely same strength. We don't change strength but PITCH.

If this entry helps learners practice Japanese, I will try write more.

By the way, I wanted to upload files of AME but I don't know any sites where I can upload mp3 files. Please tell me a good one...

Posted at Tue Jul 26 12:11:10 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1027997 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1027997 Tomo Tue Jul 26 12:11:10 UTC 2011 I was thinking of taking TOEIC until the quake but I could not. So I have stopped studying for it but I will take the next one so I decided to start studying again.

The score I got last year was 800 so I want to get better score!
I will move to Tokyo this fall so I have to get a job there. Higher score will be a good help to get a job. If I could over 900, I might get a job as a teacher for TOEIC.
I know my English is still poor so it may sound weird that I teach English.
However I can get a good score on TOEI with basic knowledge of English so it is ok lol.

My problems are vocabulary and listening skill. Now I'm listening a radio program in English. This would make my listening skill better. I will read as many books as I can to learn words. When I drive, I listen to CDs and repeat them. This is also for listening skill and for pronunciation. There is no speaking part on TOEIC but if I could pronounce like a native speaker, it must be good to listen and understand. This is what I do. What do you do when you study languages on your own?

By the way...
If a native speaker of English took TOEIC, what score would he get?
Does anybody know about it?

Posted at Tue Jul 26 00:46:11 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1027303 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1027303 Tomo Tue Jul 26 00:46:11 UTC 2011 Do you say "oh my god" when you talk?

Does everyone use this phrase?

I heard that using this phrase can be rude, especially to Christians.

Is this phrase just a phrase to tell you are shocked?

Does "god" always sound sacred?

I don't think Japanese are atheistic, but very few people know and think about religion.

So when it comes to religion, I really get confused.

Posted at Mon Jul 18 13:31:42 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1017251 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1017251 Tomo Mon Jul 18 13:31:42 UTC 2011

.....Does anyone know why "sister" doesn't have "ther" in it?

Posted at Fri Jul 15 13:00:18 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1013274 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1013274 Tomo Fri Jul 15 13:00:18 UTC 2011
I fuond some inetrseting books, it was abuot Japanese langauge.

Atfer that, I made lucnh for my grnadmohter, and then went to work.


Can you read the sentences above? How many mistakes do you find?

I read about it before. When we read something, we correct mistakes unconsciously.

What is interesting is that the more we are good at the language, the less we notice the mistakes.

People who are not good at English might think like "I fuond? hum, what is fuond?".

In this journal I used English but the same thing happens when I read Japanese.

I wrote this diary because of the last journal I wrote.

I didn't notice that I titled "WHNE being sleepy". lol

Posted at Fri Jul 08 00:28:44 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1003499 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1003499 Tomo Fri Jul 08 00:28:44 UTC 2011 What do you do when you are sleepy?

I like studying but sometimes can't help falling asleep when I'm studying.

Coffee doesn't work so I do some exercise or play with my dog for a while.

I can't sleep while I'm doing that.

But once I'm back to the chair,I feel sleepy again soon.

It is okay to go to bed if it is studying for myself, but what if it is for work or for school?

I must be fired or fail to graduate.

Do you know anything that keeps me awake?

Don't tell me something dangerous like drug. lol



Posted at Thu Jul 07 04:17:57 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1002352 http://www.lang-8.com/148500/journals/1002352 Tomo Thu Jul 07 04:17:57 UTC 2011