Word Borrowed Perfectly: Japanese to English

This post reflects a note I scribbled on a bit of paper while watching television months ago, October 28, to be precise. It was about a word borrowed from Japanese, and - if my ears had not deceived me after two listenings (17:00+ and 21:00+) - perfectly so into English.

I say perfectly, because an NHK News in English announcer's usage of the adopted word represented adaptation of a common, stand-alone Japanese noun generally unmarked for number, to make it into a plural noun marked with an -s, or rather, with the sound /-z/.

Can anyone guess what that word was? There will be a grab-bag surprise for the author of the first accurately spelled guess in a comment on this post by a current Writing Studio participant. You must appear in person during a class meeting to collect the prize.

Here is a bit of context from the note for a hint; the "It" refers to a letter reportedly discovered in Kumamoto:

• "It had been sent to ...-s [n., pl.] of the Fukui domain."

Good luck brainstorming! Please post your best guesses in comments on this post.

[188 words]

Did You Know? 3.0: Broadband for the Brain

Are you in ... [a] broadband backwash [bayou], or [a beach in] Bermuda?

Source: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8
(buencaminos, November 07, 2008)

Where would you rather be? Get a load of the new stat's in this video, and find out!

Blogged with the Flock Browser
Revised in Blogger

[40 words]

Website review: Introducing the People Tree

I'd like to introduce a socially and environmentally responsible fashion company, especially to students interested in business entrepreneurship [added, 2007.07.04]. The Fair Trade Fashion Company - People Tree is all about supporting independent producers, promoting fair trade, and protecting the environment (Mission Statement). I learned about the People Tree from a recent documentary on NHK TV.

Safia Minney, the founder of People Tree, calls her blog the People Tree. Most if not all of the snapshots in her recent post about establishing organic cotton farms in Bangladesh are from scenes shown in that TV documentary.

People Tree currently makes more than half of its clothing from cotton grown organically in India, and is now promoting organic plantations in Bangladesh, too, where most cotton fabricated comes of non-local sources (Poisoned any farmers recently, darling?). The Organic Cotton page explains both problems related to cotton that isn't grown organically, and benefits of growing it organically.

A little over a month ago, representatives from People Tree took part in World Fair Trade Day celebrations in Tokyo. Events included a fashion show including Vogue fashions crafted from organic cotton (World Fair Trade Day - May 12). To find out more about how fair trade influences children around the world, please check out the World Fair Trade official web site for 2007.

[215 words]

Ideas for quickposts from Pukman @ WinK

Are you short of ideas for quickposts? One thing you can do is scan the 2007-1 WinK Superfeed to find out what your classmates and near-peers are writing about, whether what they write about interests you, and whether your ideas might interest them, too.

Another is to check out a list of ideas to use to as springboards for quickposts that Pukman @ WinK has posted for another class in the WinK community (Basic English 3). Since Writing III is an English writing class, and we do book reviews already, I'd like to recommend Pukman's suggestions three, four & five, namely:

• Website reviews,
• Reflections on TV programs, &
• Weekend and vacation experiences and plans.

That last bullet point is really about four different suggestions rolled into one. Please take your pick, and blog on!

Sean Bean in Sharpe adventure films

Sean Bean, who may be best known for playing Boromir in the Lord of the Rings (official site & IMDb), stars with Daragh O'Malley in this series, part of which, Sharpe's Gold, originally ran on British television (ITV) starting in 1993 (Wikipedia). It is "loosely based" on historical novels that Bernard Cornwell published from 1981 onward.

I've started watching Sharpe's Rifles (DVD, 1993), which recently came to the fore in local video shops. I can hardly wait to lay eyes on the next one! Granted, my reading speed can hardly keep up with the Japanese sub-titles, but it's fun to try.

This Mr. Bean stars as a fictional soldier who became an officer for bravery in the field during the Napleonic Wars (1804-1815). There's romance, of course, an official Sharpe website with "images, "stories, trailers" and more, plus lots of info. and links to explore on Wikipedia. Check it out!