From the Heart of Tokyo 東京の中心から

New Puppy

新しい子犬

私とマーティンは子供の頃犬についていい思い出があります。アメリカに住んでいたときにいつも犬がいったけど、日本に引っ越したときに犬をマーティンの姉に上げました。残念、本当にさびしい。子供は犬を飼いたいですけど、大きい町で犬を飼いにくいですよね。マーティンは犬が大好きだけど、彼は実際的な人です。何度もマーティンに聞いたら、だめと言っています。

最近、彼はちょっと優しくなっているから、それに対して賛成反対の 討論をしていました。計画を作りしました。多くの研究をした、準備をした、たくさん問題を解いてみました。子供たちは手伝と約束しました。ついにパパは賛成してくれました。したがって私は直ちに、犬の品種を選んで、犬に必要な物を買って、いろいろ準備しました。

近所のペット店(ZOO)はいいです。６年間子供たちはよくペートを見に行っています。店の人はすばらしいし、店は清潔だし、動物は元気そうです。昨夜犬を買いました。トイプードルは５ヶ月の男の子です。今日彼と私はいい日を過ごしました。まだ名前を決めていません。どんな名前がいいか考えています。皆さんの考えを教えてください。

１月２５日の改訂･クラスで先生と上の日本語を訂正しました。いい勉強ことです。

  When we lived in America, we always had a dog.  I have many wonderful memories of the dogs I had in my childhood, and so does Martin.  We often talk about Ziff, Bonnie and Shelby, the dogs that we've had since we've been together.  But when we moved to Japan, we couldn't keep our dog, and gave her to Martin's sister.  We really missed her.  The kids really want a dog, but it's really difficult to have a dog in a big city.  Martin also loves dogs (He wants a golden retriever) but he is a practical person.  Everytime someone asks if we can get a dog, Martin says "No."

Recently, he's been softening.  So we discussed the pros and cons about getting a dog.  I started making plans immediately.  I did a lot of research, learned about boarding , and resolved many issues. The kids both promised to help.  Finally, he gave his approval, so I began to seriously consider the breed we would get, bought the stuff we would need, and got our home ready. 

Our neighborhood pet store is really good.  For six years, the kids have been going in there to visit the animals and the people are always nice, the place is clean, and the animals look healthy.  So last night we went to ZOO and bought our puppy.  He is a 5 month old toy poodle.  He and I had a nice day together today.　　We haven't decided on a name yet.  What do you think we should name him?

Goals for this blog

First a little background. 

I’m an RN, specializing in Critical Care and Emergency Nursing.  My work experience has been very interesting, with stints in Head Trauma, post-op Open Heart, Cath Lab, Burns, Multiple Trauma, etc.

I’ve worked in nursing for over 25 years, working very hard, usually 12 hour shifts that stretch into 14 when we're especially busy.  During this time, while raising four children, I've usually worked 2- 12 hour shifts per week. I think that I’ve had a positive impact on my patients and their families. 

It is a good career match for me, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this break from work for the last four years while we’ve been in Japan.  During our time in Tokyo, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to travel within Asia, learn about Japanese culture, and TRY to learn the language.  In addition, I’ve taken classes in Indian and Japanese cooking, I’ve taken up Yoga, I’ve learned to ski and to in-line skate, and I spend a lot of time volunteering at the kid’s school and our church. 

One thing I wanted to accomplish during this time was learning website creation using FrontPage. However, (like Nihongo) this has turned out to be more difficult than expected. 

私は２５年間アメリカの看護婦でした。

しかし東京で、私は働きません。

ヨガをしたり、調理クラスを取ったり、スケートをしたり、日本語を勉強をしたり、協会と子供の学校でボランティアしたりします。

自分でウェブサイトの作成を仕方を学びます。

Now I’ve got the website framed up and working properly. Since our family takes a lot of photos with our digital camera, I will take advantage of the website to share them with family and friends.  There’s already a couple of photo albums on the site, and plans for many more.  Now that I understand what to do, it’s just a matter of finding and spending the time.

これブログの目的　・ Ｇｏａｌｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｂｌｏｇ

KEEPING IN TOUCH       This can be a good interactive tool.  I hope that my family and friends will use it to communicate with me and with each other.  Jay and Steve, you hear?  In the future, I plan to make a way for folks to contribute comments off topic.  I also plan to make a separate blog for Martin, as he wants to talk about things like politics and world events. 

LEARNING JAPANESE      I have been studying Japanese for over four years, but making very slow progress, as I am not immersed and my brain is made of concrete.  I have lots of chances to practice Japanese, but not in the constant steady way that would bring fluency.  However, one thing that has helped a lot during the last year, has been writing in Japanese on my pc.  Emails, message boards, that sort of thing.   A couple of friends have been very good about giving me direct feedback and correcting my feeble attempts at Japanese.  I appreciate this so much.  My sensei for the last 9 months, Matsui-san, is so totally fabulous.  I wish she would come live with me.

So, what I hope we can do with this blog, is write in both English and Japanese.  It takes me a very long time to write even a short note in Japanese.  I try to write it as correctly as I can, considering my limited vocabulary and grammar. I use the translation websites, my electronic dictionary and my paper dictionary to check and recheck.  I write everything out with a pencil before I type it. 

I hope that friends who are bilingual and those who are trying to learn either English or Japanese will also try to write in both languages.

 

このブログには言語交換の練習するのために使いしょう。

私は英語に書きて次に日本語で同じ事を書きみってします。

日本語、英語にまたは両方書くことができます。

私達は互いを助けることができます。

SELF EXPRESSION  At this stage in my life, I find that I really need to express myself creatively to maintain and enhance my self esteem.   

ADDING VALUE       Maintaining my friendships and making new friends has added so much value to my life experience.  Similarly, this blog can be used to widen and strengthen our circle of friends as we share our thoughts.  Everyone wins.  皆さんは勝ちます。

Website ありがとう

    As the first entry in this blog, I want to give credit to the guy who helped me get it started.  Kusacchi is one of the skaters in my group and works for Mac here in Tokyo, and definitely knows his way around a パソコン.  Last weekend he came over and we worked together to make me a blog.  Since his English is only a little better than my Japanese, it was a bit challenging, but very interesting and fun.  Here he is working away...

 

かわいいですね

Trouble is, even with all the translation help now available, it was impossible for me to negotiate the dark tunnels beneath the site alone.  Though I am studying 日本語 like a maniac, I'm still pretty下手、and it doesn't really make sense for me to use a service with the instructions in Japanese. (I think he tried to tell me this, but at that time I hadn't found an English version of what I thought I wanted so I wouldn't hear it.)  On my own, I spent several hours trying to upload a photo and other easy stuff, not understanding the dialog boxes I was getting, etc.  Presumably there's an interface issue between my English Operating System computer and the Japanese remote server.  In any case, I learned A LOT from my pal, and used that new wisdom to find "Typepad" which might work out okay.  In a future post I'll outline my goals for the blog.

My learning curve is very steep right now,

so we'll see where this takes us.

どこに行きたいですか。　　           上に。

Pamela