a traveler

Um.... How come I'm always doing like this?

I was just looking for a language partner who study Japanese. However I decided to contact a German traveler. Why? Because I couldn't leave the site as if I pretended not to see his ad. I like those who are trying to challenge something new.

The German is going to go on a trip by bicycle from Tokyo to Hokkaido in July. He can not speak Japanese at all, and he don't know where to buy a bike, where to find a good map etc... He needs some help to prepare for the trip while he stay in Tokyo for several weeks.

And... Although I don't know anything about Hokkaido and where he should buy a road-worthy bike, I really wanted to support him somehow. Then, I said to him that maybe I could ask to Japanese bike freak on the Internet anything he wanted to know. I'll translate whatever he asked me, and seek the answer, then let him know.


Of course, it is better if he could contact a well-traveled-in-Japan man. It is hard for me to give him some advice he expected. But I got a lot of support from local people while traveling abroad. So, it is pity that he hasn't any offer of support in Japan.

Thank you for reading.

aversion therapy

I'm studying for my next test, psychiatric medicine and psychologic treatment. What I should memorize is extremely huge. I really hate the rote exercise. And in the test, there are some questions that the students can never give an answer to even if we memorized whole of the text book. That sort of test lose my motivation. I'm sure the professor is so mean that she makes her students be lost in a maze. But my obligation as a student is studying hard. So, it is no use complaining a lot to the professor...



Anyway, reading my psychologic treatment text book, my eyes were fixed on a word, "aversion therapy". The major use of aversion therapy is for the treatment of a bad habit. Whenever patients start the bad habit, simultaneously doctor gives patients "aversive stimulus" such as electric stimulus or chemical drug.

The therapy is a kind of punishment. I really surprised that the therapy is permitted by law.

The aversion therapy reminds me of a movie. Have you ever seen a movie titled "A Clockwork Orange" directed by Stanley Kubrick?

In the film, there are a scene of a fictitious therapy which based on aversion therapy. A doctor forces a prisoner to look at violence scene, and keeps giving drugs of vomiting simultaneously. So, after the therapy, the prisoner can not help vomiting whenever trying violence.

I never recommend you to see it if you are suffering from trauma of violent action. There are a lot of ultraviolence scenes and horrible rape scenes.

However I recommend you to see it if you have a lot of social conscious. Because you can not help considering the ultimate social ills from the film.

Thank you for reading.

Japanese grammar

As I mentioned before, I am looking for a language exchange partner who is a native English speaker and a basic learner of Japanese. But I wonder whether I can teach Japanese grammar. I know that between English language and Japanese language has very different grammar.

So, I wanted to know what kind of question a basic learner has. Then, I read several articles at a English forum for a learner of Japanese.

And one good question jumped to my eyes. The title was "The difference between wa and ga." Actually I tried to explain this difference in English as a trial before I read this article. What a coincidence!

A questioner thinks "wa" and "ga" mean the same thing, but he knows they cannot be use interchangeably in every situation. Then he asked to give him an easy to understand explanation what the difference between these two sentences is ; "Watashi wa gakuse desu." "Watashi ga gakuse desu."

I had though if there was no good answer on the site, I would try to post my explanation. However much better answer than me was already posted by non-Japanese. Now, I have no confidence to explain Japanese grammar better than a learner of Japanese.

I'll put the best answer by Mark below.

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That is a good question. Both are correct. The difference is:

If I say: Watashi wa Mark desu. It means that the information I want to highlight is after the "wa".

If I say: Watashi ga Mark desu. It means the information I want to highlight is before the "ga".

Here are two examples:

If someone asks me "What is your name?" and if someone else asks "Who is Mark?" In English, the answer to both is "I am Mark".

But in Japanese the answer to "What is your name?" is: Watashi wa Mark desu.
Because "Mark" is the information I want to give.

For the question: "Who is Mark?" for example when a teacher is asking a group of students, then I will answer: "Watashi ga Mark desu".
Because "Mark" is already given, the unknown information is who. So in the answer, I want to highlight "I", therefore I use "ga" to indicate that is the information I want to focus on.

I hope you can understand what I am trying to say.

by Mark
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Don't you think this was a perfect answer?

I wanted to say the same thing about this answer, but I didn't know the proper word for "highlight". It is not good too much explanation for a beginner. A beginner just get confused if I didn't know the proper word to explain. In addition, it would be possible that a beginner grow to hate Japanese language.

After that, I read "A Japanese guide" on the Internet. But I gave it up after reading a little.
What a complicated language!!
I really hate to read grammatical explanation. I want to say it to those who want to learn Japanese:

"You shouldn't study Japanese!!!"

I'd better look for a language exchange partner who learned already a basic Japanese grammar...

Thank you for reading.