about your class, are you teaching, or at least trying to teach, the kids to tell the difference between 'L' and 'R' and how to correctly pronounce those two letters?
Oh, and I have a question about Hanukkah. What does it symbolize? And what do you do durring Hanukkah? And then there's the candle holder. The menorah, right? What does that symbolize? I'm just curious.
The Ask Josiah About Japan Thread
((I know I'm breaking the day's rules but this'd be impossilbe to answer that way.))
However, that'd probably be different if I was teaching higher grades. Actually, I was just getting on some older people about the l and r thing today...
Here's the history in a nutshell. Back around 200 BCE Isreal had been taken over by the Syrian-Greeks and they weren't too fond of the Jewish religion (to put in mildly). King Antiochus IV desecrated the Jewish temple and began a series of forced conversion, killing and torturing those who wouldn't go along with it. A Jewish preist named Mattathias and his five sons (the most famous of which was known as Judah Macabee (Judah the hammar)) started a revolt and waged a guirrila war of sorts against Antiochus and his forces. They eventually suceeded in pushing the Syrian-Greeks out of Isreal (despite being greatly outnumbered). Once Jerusalem (Isreal's capital) was free the Jews reconsecrated the temple and held an 8 day celebration, which became known as Chanukah. The full story can be found in the book of 2nd Macabees (it's in the Apocrapha, Biblical books that didn't quite make it into the Old or New Testaments when they were cannonized).
A 7 branch menorah was an important fixture in the Jewish temple (you can read about that in the Bible when God is giving moses instructions on building the tabernacle). It was supposed to be kept burning at all times. Legend has it that when the Macabees reconsecrated the temple they relit the menorah but there was only enough oil to keep in burning for one day. However, it miraculously burned for 8 days, which was the time it took to make more oil. That's why Chanukah menorahs have 9 branchs instead of 7 (one for each of the eight days and one to light all the others with). However, that's just a legend and it's not mentioned in 2nd Macabees so it may or may not have happened. But, it's still become the central part of the holiday.
So, Chanukah lasts for 8 days with each day beginning and ending at sunset (which is how Jewish people traditionally counted days). Each night (at the start of a new 'day') you light the menorah, starting with just two candles (the lighting candle and one normal one) and adding another each night until all nine are lit. People will often tell the story of Chanukah (kinda like telling the story of Jesus's birth at Christmas). Other traditions include eating fried foods (to symbolize the oil for the menorah) like latkes (fried potato pancakes) and suf gan yot (which I'm no doubt horribly mispelling and are sorta like donut holes), giving gelt (money, although now a days chocolate coins are often substituted for real ones) to children, giving presents to family and friends (often on each of the eight nights), and playing dreidal (a dreidal is a four sidded top that is used to play a simple betting game, historically the dreidal game was used by the Jews as a cover when studying the Bible, which Antiochus has banned).
Since I'm teaching elementary school, the goal is more for the kids to have fun and hopefully memorize some simple words and phrases more than drilling them to get everything correct. Also, I've got to follow the town's special curriculum pretty closely and there's nothing in it about l and r. Generally, if I can understand what they're saying, I'll just leave it at that.Gardialvoir wrote:about your class, are you teaching, or at least trying to teach, the kids to tell the difference between 'L' and 'R' and how to correctly pronounce those two letters?
However, that'd probably be different if I was teaching higher grades. Actually, I was just getting on some older people about the l and r thing today...
Totally not a Japan question... But anyway, Chanukah, Hanukkah, or any of the other dozen ways to spell it, is a Jewish holiday also known as the festival of lights.Gardialvoir wrote:Oh, and I have a question about Hanukkah. What does it symbolize? And what do you do durring Hanukkah? And then there's the candle holder. The menorah, right? What does that symbolize? I'm just curious.
Here's the history in a nutshell. Back around 200 BCE Isreal had been taken over by the Syrian-Greeks and they weren't too fond of the Jewish religion (to put in mildly). King Antiochus IV desecrated the Jewish temple and began a series of forced conversion, killing and torturing those who wouldn't go along with it. A Jewish preist named Mattathias and his five sons (the most famous of which was known as Judah Macabee (Judah the hammar)) started a revolt and waged a guirrila war of sorts against Antiochus and his forces. They eventually suceeded in pushing the Syrian-Greeks out of Isreal (despite being greatly outnumbered). Once Jerusalem (Isreal's capital) was free the Jews reconsecrated the temple and held an 8 day celebration, which became known as Chanukah. The full story can be found in the book of 2nd Macabees (it's in the Apocrapha, Biblical books that didn't quite make it into the Old or New Testaments when they were cannonized).
A 7 branch menorah was an important fixture in the Jewish temple (you can read about that in the Bible when God is giving moses instructions on building the tabernacle). It was supposed to be kept burning at all times. Legend has it that when the Macabees reconsecrated the temple they relit the menorah but there was only enough oil to keep in burning for one day. However, it miraculously burned for 8 days, which was the time it took to make more oil. That's why Chanukah menorahs have 9 branchs instead of 7 (one for each of the eight days and one to light all the others with). However, that's just a legend and it's not mentioned in 2nd Macabees so it may or may not have happened. But, it's still become the central part of the holiday.
So, Chanukah lasts for 8 days with each day beginning and ending at sunset (which is how Jewish people traditionally counted days). Each night (at the start of a new 'day') you light the menorah, starting with just two candles (the lighting candle and one normal one) and adding another each night until all nine are lit. People will often tell the story of Chanukah (kinda like telling the story of Jesus's birth at Christmas). Other traditions include eating fried foods (to symbolize the oil for the menorah) like latkes (fried potato pancakes) and suf gan yot (which I'm no doubt horribly mispelling and are sorta like donut holes), giving gelt (money, although now a days chocolate coins are often substituted for real ones) to children, giving presents to family and friends (often on each of the eight nights), and playing dreidal (a dreidal is a four sidded top that is used to play a simple betting game, historically the dreidal game was used by the Jews as a cover when studying the Bible, which Antiochus has banned).
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Well, the manga has been running for ten years and it's one of the most popular manga in Japan - volume 45 placed 9th in the topselling books this year - so you may be surprised...
I, however, am not at all surprised that most of the students thought Jingle Bells was a Japanese song.
I, however, am not at all surprised that most of the students thought Jingle Bells was a Japanese song.
"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
Very. The games are at least as popular as in the US, the anime runs during prime time, and the awesome Pokémon Special manga (Pokémon Adventures in the US) is still being serialized. Plus there's always a steady supply of pokémon toys and various themed merchandise for sale.simsmagic wrote:How popular is Pokemon in Japan? I ask because I just came back from a very authentic Japanese food store and Pokemon seemed very popular there.
Digimon isn't super popular. Not unpopular either but it's definately not huge and you don't see a lot of Digimon stuff around.Gardialvoir wrote:what about digimon or yu-gi-oh?
Yu-Gi-Oh cards are still quite popular but aside from that you don't see a ton of Yu-Gi-Oh stuff since it's already been a fews years since the main series ended and GX never caught on as well as the original (probably cause Takahashi isn't the one doing it).
Hontou is a word meaning "really" or "truely". A common use is as a response if someone says something you find hard to belive. For example...Shadowman wrote:What does "a hontou" mean?
Person A: "Kono hon wa, watashi o kakimashi-ta." ("I wrote this book.") (ignore the hyphen, needed it to get around the word blocker)
Person B: "Hontou desu ka?" ("Really?" / "Seriously?")
Since hontou is not a noun, there's no such thing as "a hontou".
Last edited by Josiah on Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.