さくぶん

山田さんへ、
はじめまして。私はマグヌス-ファーガソンです。十八さいです。コロンビア大学の一ねん生です。六日十月に日本にいきます！　私はここで日本語をべんきょうしています。EALACは私のせんこうです。
ニューヨークはいまちょとさむいです。さむいのがすきじゃではありません。
私はあにがひとりといもうとがひとりいます。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

十月三十日　マグネス　ファーガソン

カタカナの俳句

ゴロゴロロ

無くなったもも

飢えている。

ゴロゴロロ

なくなったもも

うえている。

ファーガソン

私の俳句

秋雨も
俳句で読めば
一雫

あきさめも
はいくでよめば
ひとしずく。

ファーガソン

カタカナのしゅくだい

The two expressions I would like to choose are found are on an advertisement for Subway sandwiches and a Lemon & Vinegar flavored KitKat Bar. 

This is a Nestle KitKat Bar from Japan.  The most interesting part of this picture is the "flavor" of chocolate it is because we don't really have flavors of KitKat here in the United States.  The flavor itself is pretty unusual for candy:  Lemon Vinegar.  In and of itself, this sounds really really unappetizing.  

The Katakana on this wrapper is used as a "loanword", in that it translates two western words into Katakana.  Though there is a japanese word for "lemon" and "vinegar", the fact that it is a flavor on a Western chocolate bar results in the use of Katakana.  This may make the bar seem more foreign and interesting.  It's possible that "Western things" are more popular in Japan, and therefore making a product seem more Western

This is an advertisement for a new sandwich at subway.  I found this ad very interesting for several reasons.  First of all, it is almost offensive in its portrayal of Indian men and women.  I also found it interesting that the man in the ad uses kanji to speak, while the woman uses only katakana.  The name of the new sandwich is "Sando-Indo", a condensed version of "Sandwich Indian".  

The reason the sandwich advertisement is in Katakana is possibly because it is referring to a loan word, or in this case an Indian-style influenced sandwich.  Also interesting is the romanized English lettering at the top.  It would be interesting to know whether English is successfully used often in Japanese advertising.

When we studied the uses of Katakana in class, I did not find any large discrepancies between the textbooks.  Though Katakana has some set uses (onomatopoeias, loan words, foreign names, emphasis), I believe now it is being used for a wide variety of contexts and scenarios.  It will be interesting to watch how the use of Katakana develops in Japan over the next few decades.

 





ファーグソン

Bizarre Japanese Aerobic English Lesson

CLICK HERE...なにもいえません。

ポケモン！

みてください!  An artist named Gavin Mackey sketched what he thinks Pokemon would look like in real life.  Here are a few favorites:

ファーガソん

Bonobos

Click here - Good Music

宿題、宿題、宿題！

こんばんわ、

いま私はバテラです。おおくの宿題があります！日本語の宿題とエンギリスの宿題とかがくの宿題。。。むずかしですね。ねたいいいいいい！

ファグソン

First Impressions of Japanese Class

It is very exciting to be studying Japanese in college.  I have traveled to Japan many times to visit my friends and study religion in Kyoto, so I am very motivated to take this course.  I hope that I can impress my friends with my language skills this coming summer.  Class is a lot of fun, though it is difficult to keep up with some of the daily vocabulary.  I am looking forward to learning kanji and more advanced forms of sentence structure so that I can send my friends a postcard telling them about my class.

はじめまして！

はじめまして。私はファグソんです。コロンビヤの大学のいちねんせいです。ぼくは十八さいです。アメリカ人です。とうぞよろしく。