Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Electronic Dictionary

     The photo shows my electronic dictionary. It has English-Japanese, Japanese-English, German-Japanese, Japanese-German dictionaries and some other dictionaries about Japanese. It always helps me to write this blog. I can easily carry it in a pocket of my white coat, even in the ward. I'm wondering about getting the Korean-Jananese or Russian-Japanese version now. Those are a little expensive because of the smaller demand than the English version.

 

Learning

     I'm thinking, just thinking of learning another new language. Mandarin Chinese? or Russian?
     A motorcycle trip around the Sea of Japan is one of my dreams after retirement. Starting from Shimonoseki in Japan, to Pusan by ferryboat, going up the east coast of South and North Korea, entering into Russia, crossing Mamiya Strait (the Strait of Tartary in English) to Karafuto (Sakhalin in Russian) and coming back to Wakkanai in Hokkaido. Both Mandarin Chinese and Russian look so difficult to learn, even if I only learn daily conversation in those languages.
     I know that there is so much still to learn in this world. I turn 49 in September. Though it means that I've already passed a half of my life, I feel that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of all there is to learn. Maybe if I can learn some of what there is to learn, I can pass that on, but I know that there is so much that I will never begin to learn.
     Anyway, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

(Vocabulary)
scratch the surface
表面を引っかく、上っ面をなでる、上っ面だけを扱う［論じる］
〔研究・学習などを〕ほんの少し学ぶ［かじる］
やらなければならないことがまだまだある
Your explanation's just scratched the surface of the matter.
君の説明は上っ面をなでたにすぎない。

(KW:間宮海峡 樺太)

Korean Student

     A Korean student saw me today. She cut her little finger accidentaly with a kitchen knife. She tried to stop the bleeding in vain. After the treatment I tried to talk with her using some Korean words. I'm eager to use Korean now, but my speaking ability turned out to be very poor. Something must be done to become a good Korean speaker. I'm thinking of asking her or her friends to see me once or twice a month in a cafe or something like that and talk in Korean.

Hangul Test

     I passed the 4th grade of the Hangul language proficiency test. I got the news today. See http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/11/november.html

     I ordered the certificate at once. I'm going to put it up on the wall of my study. The next target is the 3rd grade and this grade is my last goal. I need to increase my vocabulary of Korean words to pass the test. Though it's hard work for me, I think I can in the near future.
     By the way, I'm wondering what language to learn next. I'm hovering between Russian and Pekingese. I heard that Russian has six types of declinations. I had managed to learn the declination of German nouns into four types. Six types of declination must be more difficult than that of German. As for Pekingese, the pronunciation looks difficult. It's completely different from that of Japanese.
     At any rate, I will slowly start learning one of two languages next spring. I hope I'll reach the beginner level in two years.

(Vocabulary)
proficiency  熟達, 熟練, たんのう
decline  (専門) [他] 〈名詞・代名詞・形容詞〉 を語形変化させる [自](専門) 語形変化する

Fly Away Home

     This novel seems to be a story that is made into a movie. There are a dozen photos from place to place in the book. These photos show the key points of this story. A photo shows the scene where the heroine is walking with her geese. Another shows her training to fly. She must take 16 geese to the south by plane. The story of this novel was simple, but heart-warming. I'd like to watch the movie of this novel.
14: Fly Away Home (MMR2+: Macmillan Readers Beginner Classics) (11000 words/ 71139words in total)

The Last Leaf and Other Stories

     It's the anthology of O. Henry's short stories. Each story had an unpredictable ending and I was surprised at each ending. I knew only the name of O.Henry before and read some of his stories. In the opening of this book there was his autobiography. It was completely different from what I expected from the style of his writings.
     He committed a crime, flew the country, came back to the US and was arrested and taken into custody. Did he thrive on such experiences of adversity?

13: The Last Leaf and Other Stories (MMR2+: Macmillan Readers Beginner Classics) (9900 words/ 60139words in total)

(Vocabulary)
anthology (物語・歌などの) 選集, アンソロジー
thrive on sth  ＜逆境など＞をばねにする, の中でうまくやる
Some people thrive on pressure.  プレッシャーをばねにうまくやる人もいる．
adversity  逆境, 不運

The Big Picture

     I could guess the storyline when I'd read half of it but I enjoyed reading and thinking in English. A famous sumo wrestler, Takahanada, showed up in the story. At first, I thought that this story was about him or sumo but it was not. It was a mystery.
12: The Big Picture (CER1) (3400 words/ 50239words in total)

The Secret Garden & Little Women

The Secret Garden:
I've known only the title of this story before now. This story was interesting, and I could read it at ease. I didn't know 1 word and some phrases in the whole story, but I could easily infer the meaning. I think I can graduate from Penguin Readers Level 2 but I'm going to read some more books at this level because I can enjoy reading books at this level. After that, I'll go up to the next level.
10: The Secret Garden (PGR2) (9800 words/ 41839words in total)

Little Women:
This was less enjoyable. The story was sort of jumpy.
11: Little Women (PGR1) (5000 words/ 46839words in total)

Jojo's Story

     Is this a reality? This is my first impression just after finishing reading this book. The story starts with the scene where Jojo is hiding in a field. The scene is described using the whole of page 1 with very short sentences. It contains some abstract expressions and I couldn't understand it all. Sentences are short and written with easy words, but I felt it was a little bit hard. However I easily realized that Jojo confronts the serious threat of something. I thought and hoped that the unhappy central character, Jojo, would get a better life. To my regret, Jojo is going to be a soldier! I felt depressed.

9: Jojo's Story ( CER2 ) (9100 words/ 32039words in total)

 

Heidi

     "Heidi in the Swiss Alps" was broadcast as a cartoon in Japan when I was a little child. But I didn't watch it, so it was the first time that I knew the full story. I read through it in about 2 hours. I enjoyed it as much as I wasn't aware of time passing. I'm living surrounded by many artificial things; computers, cars, electric appliances, something else like that. I wondered if life described in this story was the real, happy life.

8: Heidi  ( Penguin Readers Level 2: PGR2   (8800 words/ 22939words in total)

 

The Coldest Place On Earth

     At the beginning of the 20th century, two adventurers headed for the South Pole. This novel originated from the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Every detail of the race is omitted but I felt the harshness of the natural environment in Antarctica. I sometimes climb up mountains in the winter. My mountain gear is extremely superior to theirs. My clothes and tents are warm and light. My food is light and compact, but contains high enough calories to survive in the harsh environment. I'm happy to be born in this era.

7: The Coldest Place On Earth: ( Oxford Bookworms Satge 1: OBW1 (6300 words/ 14139 words in total)

 

Inspector Logan

     This is the first detective novel that I have ever read in English. You might not believe it, but it's true. English has been only one of the real ways to get some information from out of Japan. I wondered if I could fully enjoy the novel. That concern proved unfounded. I could read it without translating English into Japanese. I input the story into my brain in English and could think in English. Besides, my thinking was always on the scent of the story. I could point out the criminal and the key of the heroine's deduction before the ending of the story. The central character (Inspector Logan) was a female. At first I was mistaken by a prejudice that the Inspector was a male. The pronoun "she" and "he" made me mixed up at first.
6: Inspector Logan (Cambridge English Readers Level 1 : CER1 ( 4200 words/ 7839 words in total)

(Vocabulary)
unfounded  根拠のない、事実無根の
on the scent of  （～の）手掛かりを得て、（～を）かぎつけて
deduction   〔結論を導く〕推論  〔推論で得られた〕結論

Start of Extensive Reading

     I started extensive reading. I set my goal to a million words in a year. I can buy Graded Leaders at Amazon.com. I bought some books.

1. The Rope Swing: It's too easy for me and my youngest daughter who is 14 years old. This book would be maybe for my children. (only 77 words)

2. Losing Lucky: It's also too easy. The story was beautiful and suitable for kid's reading. (478 words/555 words in total)

3. The Blue Cat Club (Penguin Readers Easystarts: (PGR 0) ): It's easy. I didn't have to translate it into Japanese. I could read and understand it directly in English. The story was not interesting. (884 words/1439 words in total)

4. Sally's Phone (Oxford Bookworms Starters): The story was interesting. I read this through in about one hour with a lot of enjoyment. It's a great experience to enjoy reading English books. (1300 words/2739 words in total)

5. The Long Road (PGR 0): A young man who suffered from bone cancer and had his right leg amputated tried to run from the east coast of Canada to the west coast for a campaign to collect funds for kids suffering from malignant diseases. It's an amazing story. The photo shows this paperback. (900 words/3639 words in total)

 

Extensive Reading

     Today I just stopped by to buy a few English books at the biggest bookstore in this city on the way back home. I directly went up to the 5th floor, where there are many foreign books. Many colorful English books line the shelves. There are a lot of original books which have been made into movies. I thought that I'd like to read one of those, but the book jacket of "The Old Man and The Sea" came up in my mind and I thought twice about getting those. The paperback of "Black Dahlia" seemed to be interesting. Speaking of which, I wonder if I could have read through the whole novel. An extremely high level of reading skill in English is required to enter the top Japanese universities. I read a lot of reviews or essays. I had to translate hard essays of Bertrand russell into Japanese as training for the translation. It was a reading for the sake of passing the university exam. If someone asked me how were the readings, I would answer, without hesitation, that it was not amusing. I'd like to have a great time reading books. I was looking for something good and found a book shown on the photo. This book had what I want to get. Today might be an epoch-making day. This book recommends extensive reading without a dictionary. This book says, "if you don't understand a word, skip it and infer the meaning from the words just before and after that unkonwn word, and read easier books than your level." Next, this book set the first stage of extensive reading to a million words. I decided to try to read a million words in a year. I knew the Penguin Readers, Oxford Bookworms, Macmillan Readers, Cambridge English Readers,,,. Wonderful! These books were categorized by their level. I'll report the contents of each book here. If I stop extensive reading, laugh At Me!

(Vocabulary)
line  並ぶ  （胃袋などを）満たす
think twice　〔実行する前に〕熟考する、よく考える　考え直す
Speaking of which,　そういえば◆相手の話した全文を受けて
extensive reading　多読
infer　〔見聞きしたことから〕推論［推察・推測］する、察する

(KW: １００万語多読入門)

A Paperback

     I've been writing this blog for one year. I often conducted searches of unknown words or phrases on Google and emulated examples which were written by native people. I have been managing to keep writing this blog, but I frequently realized the need for extensive reading.

     Today, the afternoon schedule was cancelled and I dropped in at an antiquarian bookshop near my hospital after lunch. There are many paperbacks here. I found a paperback book "The Old Man and the Sea", written by Ernest Hemingway in the corner of the shelf. It brought back memories of my junior high school days. I bought it when I was 13. I was just a first year student at junior high school, and just after I started learning English. I thought I could understand it with an English-Japanese dictionary. Of course, it was an illusion. I couldn't read it at all. Because I looked up every word in the dictionary, I couldn't go ahead. It was a reckless attempt, I think. I have never bought any paberback since that time.

(Vocabulary)
emulate  …を見習う, 手本にする
ntiquarian  古物収集［研究］家、古物商  古物収集［研究］の、古物［古書］売買の
antiquarian bookshop  古本屋、古書店

November

     It's November! I have 3 private events this month. The 1st event is to take an official exam of The Hangul Language Proficiency Test. I've been learning Korean for 2 years. It's the first time for me to take this test, like TOEIC for English. The levels of ability of Korean are categorized into 5 grades. The highest level is called 1st class, and lowest, just beginner level is called 5th grade. I'll take level 4. I'm confident.
     The 2nd event is that this month is the 1st anniversary of writing my blog. I started writing blogs in November last year. I'd like to congratulate myself on keeping it up for 1 year.
     The last one is that I have to be a house husband for 10 days during my wife's business trip. She's going to Europe at the head of the college trip. She is a teacher at a technical college. I have to get up earlier and prepare breakfast and lunch for the kids. I have to make dinner at night. I already feel depressed now.

(Vocabulary)
proficiency    熟達, 熟練, たんのう
at the head of   ～を引率して

Welcome E-mail

     I got a welcome e-mail from South Korea. The sender is a lady who was studying in Matsuyama city last year. She gave me a one hour lesson a month during her stay. Though she lives in Soeul, her e-mails reach me just the same as from Japan. It's really convenient. I'd like to see her in the near future.

Mr. Lee Kyung Won (李京源さん)

     Today I have been to Niihama city, about a one hour's drive away from here. I joined the talk show of a Korean movie star, Mr. Lee Kyung Won （李京源）. It's the first time for me to attend such a meeting. He performed as a supporting actor in the historical TV drama, "Daejanggum （大長今）," with Korean dishes and a medical theme. He told us untold stories behind the drama. It was interesting. To my utter surprise, he spoke to us in fluent Japanese. I was impressed that the acquisition of another language enriches life culturally and spiritually. I'd made up my mind again to learn Korean, German, and English. And if I can, I'd like to learn French, Spanish, and Swahili. It must be wonderful to communicate with those languages. After my early retirement, I really want to enjoy wandering all over the world.

(Vocabulary)
utter　全くの
・She's an utter stranger to me. : 彼女は赤の他人です。
・This is utter nonsense. : 全くの無意味です。
口に出す、話す、発する

Korean Star's Website

     I'm learning Korean since 2 years ago. However, I had no chance to visit South Korea and actually use Korean. I wanted to post some messages to Korean Websites, but I didn't have enough courage.
     The other day I knew a Korean movie star, Lee Kyung Won was coming to my prefecture. I'd like to manage to meet him and try to say hello in Korean. I've composed some greeting messages in Korean, and am memorizing it now. Besides, in order to raise the possibility of meeting him, I searched his official website in Korea, and posted a short message into his website, saying "I'm looking forward to meeting you in Japan." Several days later, to my surprise, he replied to me! I could understand his message in Korean. I was so happy. My learning Korean was paying off. His Website: http://hompy.dreamwiz.com/sun6pens

Korean Teacher

     My Korean teacher Miss Kim came to my house. She is going to be back at the end of this month. I invited her for lunch in my garden. I got to know a little more about her over tea.
     She learned English in London for 6 months. After that she came to Japan to learn economics and Japanese.
     Learning languages makes people more considerate, I think. My wife and youngest daughter could enjoy chatting with her. My wife and I are getting to think our daughters need to stay abroad for some time during their younger days.