Otto's blog

Craft Event Carpentry

Apr

23

"Wocha doin`?"
"Waddaya makin`?"
"Gonna pain`it?"

Can you understand these questions? If my kids were native English speakers, maybe they would pronounce these questions like this.

This is their meaning:

1. "Wocha doin`?" (What/you/doing) = What are you doing?
2. "Waddaya makin`?" = What are you making?
3. "Gonna pain`it?" (Going/to/paint/it) = Are you going to paint it?

My answers: 1. I`m making something for our September craft fair. 2. Guess! 3.Probably not.

Pronunciation:
In natural spoken English, some sounds change, e.g.
t+y --> ch (meet you --> "meechoo")
t --> d (little --> "liddle")
nt --> n (twenty --> "twenny")
oo --> a (see you --> "seeya", to --> "ta")

#アート

Great minds...

Apr

17

I saw this handkerchief in a shop. It looks like my poster, right? Great minds think alike!*

By the way, have you been watching my new YouTube series? Please take a look! There is a new episode every Tuesday.

* ことわざ: '偉人達は同じように考える' (誰かが同じこと考える時に使える)

Regular Color...?

Apr

16

I wanted to buy a white business shirt at Uniqlo. This sticker seemed to me to say 'Regular Color'. Hmmm. What is a regular color? White? What is an irregular color? Green? Or is there regular white & irregular white? If so, what is irregular white? Cream?" I was confused!

Then my wife explained that 'カラー' doesn`t mean 'color'. It means 'collar' (In English, pronounced "コラー").

A regular collar doesn`t have buttons.

こら!!! That`s confusing!

Alfa Romeo GT1300 Junior (1968?)

Apr

6

2 weeks ago I went to Gotemba, which is about 20 kms south of Mount Fuji. When we stopped to take photos, I saw this nice car. Can you see Fuji in the background?

I live in Ichinomiya, in the north of Aichi Prefecture. There aren`t any mountains in Ichinomiya, so it`s a big change of scenery to see Fuji.

Grammar:
- (be) IN the north/south/east/west/centre of __ = __の北部/南部/東部/西部/中心です
- (be) north/south/east/west of __ = __ 北側/南側/東側/西側に (あります)

#車

Kogane Shrine Lucky Charm

Apr

2

Last week Gifu Teragoya staff & teachers visited the nearby Kogane Shrine to buy a lucky charm for our school. While we were there, I noticed a lot of people lining up to have their temple stamp books (御朱印帳) signed & stamped. Do you have a temple stamp book? I hear they are very popular at the moment, especially with women.

Vocabulary:
line: 線, 列
line up: 並ぶ