Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Miscellaneous Impression About Korea

     I make it a rule to see a student from Korea once a month for half a year. She has been studying economics in a college in my city. I asked her to be my teacher. I'm learning Korean now and she checks my pronunciation and grammatical mistakes. I started learning Korean one and half year ago, and have learned by myself. However, because self-taught knowledge might be often wrong, I asked her to see me for 1 hour a month. She is a good teacher and I'm a little more confident.
     By the way, to learn another language is to know another people, another culture and their history, I think. I got to be able to understand the Korean way of thinking.
     "Ann-Nyong ha-se-yo" is Korean for "Hello". It can be used anytime, anywhere. When I knew the meaning of this greeting, I was very surprised and realized Korea's sad history. This phrase doesn't expect anything new, happy, or good. This greeting means "Something unusual or something bad may not happen!" They couldn't have wanted anything better in their long history.
     I can guess the miserable history of Korea, which has been ruled and looted by other peoples; Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese and South-East Asian peoples all the time. Even now they are struggling, divided into 2 countries, in the midst of the Korean war after World War Two.
     I just hope they will be united into one country in the near future.

　この半年、韓国人留学生に韓国語をみてもらっている。月に一度会って、しゃべるのを聞いてもらうのである。全く独学でやってきたので不安ではあったがあまり間違って覚えていることはなく、自信を持った。
　ところで、言葉を学ぶことはその国の民衆、文化、歴史を知ることだと思う。韓国人の考え方が少しわかるようになってきた気がする。
　「안녕하세요」は韓国語のあいさつであるが、いつでもどこでも使うことができる。この言葉の意味を知ったとき、驚きもし、韓国の辛い歴史にも気がついた。このフレーズは何か新しいこと、幸せなこと、良いことを期待しているものではない。只単にいつもと違った悪いことが起きていないことを確認するだけなのである。良いことを期待できない歴史とは、、、
　有史以来、他国からの略奪を受け、常に支配されてきたみじめな歴史。今でさえ同じ民族が分割されている状態である。
　ただただ、近い将来に統一されて一つの国になることを望むのみである。

To Korean Readers

한글  문자를  표시하기  위해서,  무엇인가  특별한  소프트가  필요하다고  생각했지만,   윈도우즈에  표준으로  부속되어  있었어요.
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자기소개를  써봐요.
저는  KUMO(닉네임) 라고  합니다.  일본  사람  입니다.
에히메현  마쓰야마시에  살고  있습니다.  직업은  외과의  입니다.  위나 대장 간장 등을 수술 합니다.  가족이  다섯명  입니다.  딸이  세명  있습니다.  각각  대학생  고교생  중학생  입니다.  장녀는  동경의  대학에  다니고  있어서,  지금은  네명이  살고  있습니다.

저의  취미는  많이  있습니다.  먼저  등산  입니다.  삼십년전  부터  산에  오르고  있습니다.  최고도달고도 는 3954 미터 입니다.  산에서  먹는  식사  와  마시는  술은  맛있습니다.  산의  친구둘은  최고  입니다.  언젠가  히말라야에  오르는  것이  저의  꿈  입니다.  꿈은  클수록  좋거든요.

다음은  바이크  입니다.  대학생  시절에  운전면허를  따서,  계속  타고  있습니다.  결혼  하고나서  부터는  삼년에  한번정도  바이크로  여행하고  있습니다.

금년  여름은  아오모리현,  이년후에는  한국를  오토바이로　달립닐게요.

그리고  스키도  합니다.  삼월에는  카나다로  스키를  갔어요.  스키도  학생시절에  시작했어요.   그러니까  이제　20년  이상에  됩니다.

잘  부탁  합니다.

Kansai International Airport(KIX)

     I'm in KIX for the first time in five years. I flew to Hokkaido last time with my motorcycle. There are several new things. Firstly, there are many Korean characters. I'm not sure, but that feeling of mine might be because I'm learning Korean. Japanese, Korean, English, and Chinese are on most information boards. I'm trying to add all of those Korean words into my vocabulary. It seems that Korea has become closer to Japan. The second is internet accessibility. I can access the internet freely. Incredible! I can access any information freely with my cellphone, M1000.

English

     I'll be in an English environment in a few days. I feel I can't wait. I'm so happy. I'm going to try to talk a lot with native English speakers. I know my ability is not enough to enjoy chatting with native speakers because I don't have enough knowledge about reduced English or colloquial English. I am struggling to know how to use simple words, for example; "get", "come", "go", "hold", "put", "take","look",,,and so on. I'm going to try to use simple words.

Korean Road Map

     I met a Korean student today.
(See http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/01/korean.html)
I practised saying numbers in Korean as promptly as possible after seeing random numbers written on a card. There are 2 ways of saying numbers in the Korean language as well as many liaisons. It's not so easy for me for now.
     By the way, she presented me with a road map of Korea. Of course it's printed in Korean and not Japanese words. I don't have enough vocabulary now, but I can read it by following it with my finger. It's wonderful. Though only 2 years ago the Korean alphabet (hangul characters) meant nothing to me, now I have just started to understand the culture of our neighbor, Korea. I think the way of thinking is alike between Korea and Japan.

 

Cartoon Outrage

     I'm watching CNN now. It is reporting the story about the cartoon of Mohammed repeatedly. A phrase came up in my mind watching the news. So many men, so many opinions. However, they have no right to harm anybody for any reason. To express my opinion to the world is one of the reasons for me starting to write a weblog in English. Though I have many opinions about many things in the world, I don't have enough ability to express them in English properly now. I need to learn more and more.

風刺漫画論争

今、ＣＮＮを観ている。ムハンマドを冒涜した風刺漫画について話している。いろいろな人がいていろいろな意見があるのであり、どんな理由があるにせよ、人を傷つけることは良くない。

　世界に向けて自分の意見を書くことはこのブログを書き始めた動機の一つ。いろいろなことについて書いていきたいが、まだそこまでの英語力はない。もっともっと勉強しなくてはいけない。

Korean

     Today would be kind of an aniversary day, because I talked to an native Korean student for the first time. I was glad my pronunciation was good. When I was walking my dog a couple of weeks ago, I met some junior high school students who were North Korean residents in Japan. There is a Korean junior and junior high school near my house. I tried to speak a couple of phrases in Korean. "Hello!", "This dog's name is Mocha.", "See you!",,,. All these phrases were understood by them. However, they were born and grew up in Japan. I mean, they were not native Korean. Today's lady was literally a native korean. She has been learning economics at Matsuyama University since last September. I was lucky to know her. I asked her to meet me a couple of times a month, one hour each session, somewhere in her campus. Next time I will introduce myself in korean. I'm writing a text of self-introduction now. I'll have it corrected by her and memorize the correct text. I feel Korean spicy foods are waiting for me in the Korean Peninsula.

English speaking party

     Every Thursday night I attend the English speaking club. Last night a party was held for a newly married member. The city has many spots in the downtown and also in the Dogo Spa area and in other places. We went to a western style restaurant in the Okaido area.

Opportunity to speak in English

     When I got into a junior high school 35 years ago, I studied English as a subject of the school. In those days it was almost only through cassette tapes that I could listen to English conversation between native speakers. Fortunately, there were several Fathers in the priest's house adjacent to the school, because my junior high school was established by a Christian group. The Fathers were Spanish. They taught me English at the class, but I didn't have any interest in the English class. If I had been interested in English at that time, my knowledge of English would have been better now.
     Now I have many opportunities to hear English, even in Japan. I'm writing this over CNN. However, I seldom speak English in my daily life. In order to get opportunities to speak English, I'm attending an English class for working people. Various people are in the class. It is kind of fun to attend the class. One of the members got married last month, so we are going to have a party for her. There is a serious rule for the party. You know, we must keep talking in English only, never Japanese. However, the more alcohol gets in the body, the more broken my English gets.
     The photo shows today's class, in which a member is listing the Top 5 news stories in the world and in Japan.

 

Get started

   I've made up my mind to keep a weblog in English.  Today I became a member of TypePad.  Now, I'm testing functions of weblog;  posting, deleting, inserting of photos,,,,,.

   I've been learning English for more than 30 years,  but I can't get there.  In this weblog, I'll try various expressions.  If you find any mistake, let me know.  I'm glad if I could make friends all over the world through this weblog.

   Photo shows one of my toys.