movies

Some movies I recommend watching to get the idea of America, and that you can talk about with people.

1. Legally Blond-It's about a "blond" going to Harvard and getting a law degree. A bit preppy but really good movie and proves that "blonds" are able to be smart lol.

2. Mean Girls-Getting revenge on "plastics"(popular girls) by joining them and eventually being one of them. Kinda shows what high school is like only a bit exaggerated.

3. Super Bad-Comedy same as above the setting is in high school, except a bit dirty at some parts xb (same directors as 40 year old virgin, knocked up, all very good movies though)

4. Pirates of the Caribbean/Harry Potter- Very popular and easy to talk about.
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But watching the latest films that came out are fine too but if you are planning to study abroad or just visiting go search for movies on yahoo or msn or any search site for the latest movie, plus it's definitely much cheaper watching movies in the state than watching it in Japan.

difference between u.s. and japan

There isn't a huge difference between the united States and Japan, other than the races of people living in the county and the holidays that are celebrated.
The difference is in the U.S. you are finally legal when you turn 18 but the drinking age is around 20-21 depending on which state you live in. But you are able to buy tabacoo, vote, and join the army when you are 18. Also the driving age in the U.S. is usually 16 so there are tons of people in high school driving to school in their cars. Other than that probably most girls in the U.S. would rather buy a computer, or really expensive brand clothes, unlike girls in Japan who brings brand bags to class. (That was a real surprise for me) Also nobody really dress up for class and every one comes to school in sweats, jeans, any thing rough. You usually dress up when going out with someone, eating at some where fancy, or for a party. So if you think of studying abroad I reccomend to don't dress too fancy like wearing shorts and tights xb

service hours

To graduate high school other than getting all the credits, you also need to get service hours.
You need to get about 60 hours of volunteer work, it's like going to work except you don't get paid.
A lot of people volunteer as a staff for summer camps called CIT (Councilor In Training) or go to parks and pick up trash, help out at retirement homes, wrapping presents during holidays, and so on. I worked as a CIT at an art camp, which I thought was a good experiment for me handling with young children, and that the responsibility as beeing a role model for young children was harder than I imaigned. Since there were many kinds of different kids like kids who had food allergies, mentally-ill kids, and a kid who couldn't really talk english. But overall it was really fun at he end.

How to make smores

Does any one know about s'mores?
Well its an all time favorite snack while you go out camping!
You need to prepare
1 or 2 graham crackers
1 bar of chocolate
1 big puffy marshmallow

first stick he marshmallow to something long (like a stick) and roast the marshmallow over a fire place or any where that has heat

then break the graham cracker and chocolate bar into half, put the roasted marshmallow between the chocolate and graham cracker

Finally eat and enjoy!!

Better image of how you are making it

Schools and back packs

At school unlike Japan where you leave your stuff in your locker and move around class with a few note books and stuff every body carries a back pack around with their binders with your notes, pencils, keys, and stuff. we do have lockers but our reason for carrying around a bag was because not only personal belogings but the text books we use are too heavy to carry around. They are practically a size of a phone book with a hard cover. We could leave it at home but most times the teachers wanted us to use it in class plus we needed to bring them back home too... which was a big pain in the butt. Other than that a lot of grown ups worried that if we would get back problems as we got older. But eventually as we turned 16 most of us high schoolers got a car so that problem was solved. (except while in school)

simple txting

texting or txting is the u.s. version of mailing to someone to their phone except you don't need an e-mail address.
And since it's a pain in the butt writing out the words you abbreviate most of it.
Example:

you-u
lol-lots of laughs/laugh out loud
thnx-thanks
why-y
see you later-c u l8ter
and-nd

But since every body are abbreviating words, it gets a bit confusing when you write essays. Other than it's fast and saves up time :D
Other than txting by phone you can use the above abbreviation when chatting with someone!

Books I recommend to read

Probably if you think of a really good english book you might think of Harry Potter or The Davinci Code. I dun't know about Harry Potter but the Da vinci code is really uver hard for people who just sarted english. So I really reccomend books by Roald Dahl. He is my favorite author all times next to Arakawa Hiromu my favorite manga artist lol. He wrote books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Witches, BFG (Big Friendly Giant), and James and the Giant Peach. Especially "Matilda", it was the top selling children's book before Harry Potter came out. Why I strongly reccomend Dahl is, all of his stories are fabulous, it draws you right into the story so you can't put the book down, and it is not too easy and not too hard so it's perfect for tweens and upper elementry students in English speaking coutnries.

the otaku bunka in the U.S.

You think that Japan is only the major country that filled with nerds aka otakus... you are wrong!! America also have a high rate of cosplayers, unlike the comic conventions over here, in the U.S. otakus are having fun getting to know Japanese pop culture like AKB48, meeting dub voice actors and Japanese voice actors, cosplaying as their favorite chacter from any TV show, buying merchandise like actual swords from the anime, Japanese candy like pocky, stuff animals, and much more. I was actually really surprised at the convention that I went with my friend, the people cosplaying would make their costume with stuff you never imagine like halloween.

pronunciation of stuff in the u.s.

ikea-イケア
godiva-ゴディヴァ
costco-コストコ

Hey, just listed some names of some shops that are also in the U.S. but are pronounced differently.
It's usually pronounced...

ikea-アイキア
godiva-ゴダイヴァ
costco-コスコ

So that was a wierd thing for me pronouncing the shops. Other than that the slang-ヨーチェケラッチョ I dunno if every one who knows a bit English recognized this but it's actually "Yo check it out you all". which was a bit a surprise to me lol.

Other pronunciation I can think of right now are air conditioning. In Japan it's "air con" but in the U.S. we abbreviate it to "A.C."
"coke a cola" in Japan it's "cola" but in the U.S. it's "coke"
"gum tape" in Japanese in the U.S. it's "duck tape"

well so on... xb

college dorms

Dorms are usually with the school so you don't have to take the train for two hours. Plus it's a great way to make friends other than class. But it depends how the college opporates. Like some college would have a co-ed dorm with either floors all girls or boys. The college I went to was co-ed through out the building except for the rooms. And usually at dorms you need to share a room with someone for about 2 years, other that with out too much privacy and if your room mate actually cleans the sink, bathroom, room, and takes out the trash it's fine. But the size of the rooms are usally very small with only two beds and desks in one room and the bathroom is out side your room. (I was lucky mine was inside my room lol). But since you are living with someone they can be your best friend through out your life.

high school graduation

High school graduation, when every body can act crazy after they are done B)
My high school graduation didn't get too crazy and I don't know about how Japanese graduation works but, every body wears a gown at my school. Girls wear white and boys where blue. And if you have high grades in a perticular class, like honors or AP or with over 100 hours of service hours you get a ribbon to wear too :D When the ceremony starts the best singer in our class sings the anthom, the class president gives a speech, a special guest speaker we hired gives a speech, then the teachers calls out our name and we get out deploma! At some high schools some times people get crazy during the speeches or name calling like bringing party crackers or something like that, mine some body just blew up a beach ball and every one was passing it around (lol)

high school prom

Before graduation, in the U.S. there is the "prom". Where every guy or gal dress up nice get a big limo go to a restaurant and after that dance then go to after prom or some one's house and just party all day lol. The best part is that it's every one's night. The worst part is the drama that happens and bunch a people try to find a date to go with. Xb I didn't get one and it's not the end of the world lololol

Any way prom day, a lot of girls will go around town asking to get their hair and make up done like the seijin shiki in Japan.
Then you go to your friends home since you go with a group on prom day on a limo xD
After taking photos and stuff you go a restaurant, then head to the place where your prom is held that. After dancing for hours you go home change go to after prom and hang out! My graduation year was 2007 so our theme was 007 >v<
It was really fun, except for the drama... What happen was one my "friend" hated this other "friend" we were suppose to go with so she didn't wanted to invited her and her reason was that it was "her" night. Which kinda made me snap but yeah.
Oh, you don't have to your school's prom. You can go to any prom you like if you get invited :D

educational system in the U.S.

First off unlike Schools in Japan, in the U.S., we don't have the "top student chart" which shows how you did on tests and stuff. Since in the U.S. every body is taking a different class and the system is more like the college in Japan. Also the grading system is different depending at the county you attend at. There are private schools in the U.S. but unlike the Japanese private schools a lot of the students just attended public schools since you can get the same or better education as if attending public. Any way, my school's grading system was from A-F. (no plus or minus)
A:100-89.5%
B:89-79.5%
C:79-69.5%
D:69-59.5%
any thing bellow that was a "F"

and don't ask about my grades... they weren't pretty...

International foods in the US

Being Japanese when you hear the term of "Japanese foods" you'll probably imagine sushi, tempura, miso soup.
Well all above are in the menu but, for Americans sushi=norimaki ex:California rolls (don't worry sushi=nigiri so you don't have to worry about eating norimakis lol). And there are bunch of wierd combiations with the sushi rolls like... spicy mayonnaise with tuna and lettece, cheese cream with maguro. Also did you know that there's actually a tempura ice cream?! Actually it tasted great.
Other than Japanese foods Chinese foods are very funky. Like the "sweet and sour pork/chicken", the sauce is usually red ;b but it taste alright. Instead of hoiko-ro or chinjyao we have "beef and broccoli" and "orange chicken" which are very popular.
Some of the Asian foods probably sounds funky or might look strange they actually taste really good and most of the American foods are like that which is the surprising part.

accents in the U.S.

Other than British, Chinese, Australian, Indian accents in English. Like in Japan you talk differently in different areas in the U.S. you talk differently base on the areas you live.

New York


Southern


Black


or what kind of personality you have lol

surfer


prep


nerd


yeah and so on ^^

the funny thing about language

To learn a different language from your native language is actually a very difficult thing to do.
However not all people in the United States or even if they live in a English speaking country are able to speak English.
Some very good examples are Chinese who live in China Town or the American troops living in Okinawa. Even though they live/born in a different country and been there for a long time some people can't speak that language and only their own native language.
Also if you don't have any interaction with your native culture for a long time you tend to forget the language and won't be able to speak it any more. So for me I was very lucky to stay in touch with my Japanese culture and deal with my American culture since I was young. Plus probably my motivation when I was learning Japanese and English was to be able to speak with my family and the people around me.

the use of the japanese "ga" and "wa"

Last month when Professor Shirai came, he talked about why and how a person is able to learn a second language.

He said that...
-youth
-motivation
-output and input

Which did made me think a bit about how I was able to learn English.
But lets talk about that later.

What I thought that really caught my attention was that "が" and "は" are very hard for people who don't know Japanese.
Not the pronunciation but to when to use the words.

When I thought about it "が" was more in the use of representing something that you are strongly sure of.
On the other hand "は" was the opposite way.

But when I asked the professor he did said I was kind of right but "が" and "は" are more like a past and present-tense in Japanese.

Overall it made me think twice about how language is actually hard to learn and fully comprehend.