Family Life

For homework please answer the questions in the textbook on page 14, section a-f.

a. When do children usually leave home?

Children usually leave home after graduated high school or university. Some of them go to university far from the hometown or they leave home to live their own life as a chance to get a job. Also, some of them start to live new house to marry.

b. How many people live in your home?

I live alone now, but there are four people in my family. My family is my father, my mother, one older brother and me. So I had lived four in my hometown before.

c. Do you have a head of the family?

Yes, I do. A head of the family is my father because he works hard and support my family.

d. Who does the house work?

My mother does the housework. Everyday she cooks, hangs out the washing and clean the room etc.

e. Who runs the family?

Basically my mother runs my family. She takes care of various things in my family.

f. How many rooms do you have to sleep in?

There are three rooms in my hometown. They are my parents' bedroom, my brother's room, my room.

Names

To prepare for the class, answer questions in the text book on page 9 number 1, 3 and 7.

1. How do you choose a child's given name in your family?

Japanese people choose their child's given name freely. Some of them think from good number of strokes in chinese character, imply their various wishes and use one letter from their name. In my family, my brother's name is given one letter from my father's name because of good number of strokes in chinese characters. My name is given the last letter because the letter means 'child' is used girl's name from old days.

3. Does your given name or your family name mean anything?

I don't know my family name's meaning. Perhaps it may be have some meanings in history. My given name was named by my parents. My parents seem to have wanted to choose the name that was easy to be called by a nickname from another person. In addition, they just used the chinese character from the woman entertainer that was good personality and had naiveness in those days.

7. How do you know if names are boys' names, girls' names, or both?

There were much typical names such as the last letter of girls' name is 'ko' and the last letter of boys' name is 'o' or 'rou' in the old days, but there are various names now. I judge it whether the name is used by many boys or the name is used by many girls. I don't know the name that seems to be both.

Feelings


1. Are feelings emotions and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc..?

Yes, they are. How to express about them may be different in each country, but I think they are basically common all over the world. Especially smile is a universal facial expression.


2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese. (10 minimum) Now write the English translation.

happy(楽しい）, sad（悲しい）, painful（苦しい）, hard（つらい）, angry（怒る）, envious（羨ましい）, love（愛する）, hate（嫌う）, scary（怖い）, disappoint（がっかりする）, glad（嬉しい）, regrettable（悔しい）


3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannot be translated into English?

Yes, there are. I have no good example, but Japanese has much vague expression. Therefore, I think that there are any feelings in only Japanese.