二十年後のわたし

二十年後、わたしはタイにすんでいます。

だいがくではたらいています。

こどもがひとりいます。

毎日おいしいタイりょうりをたべます。

ときどきかぞくとうみへ行きます。

あたたかいくにですから、わたしはタイがとてもすきです。

そして、タイじんはとてもしんせつです。

二十年後のわたしのせいかつはたのしいです。

Ramen Teh ラーメン・テー A Singapore-Japanese-French movie 映画

今年（ことし）の三月、シンガポールと日本とフランスの映画（えいが）を見ました。
ラーメン・テー（拉麺・茶）です。

This is a story about a Japanese-Singapore boy going to Singapore to find his roots and reconcile family problems.
He has a Japanese father who used to run a 日本の料理（りょうり）やand and his mother came from a Hokkien-Cantonese family in Singapore. They run a family business selling the traditional Hokkien cuisine Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶 (pork rib soup). But his parents' marriage did not receive the blessing from his maternal grandmother. His maternal grandmother disowned his mother. Later, his mother fell sick and died a young age, without ever seeing her mom again.

A lot of bitterness in this story.

Now, his uncle runs a large bak kut teh store. So the young man wants to learn to make bak kut teh and make a special ramen teh (ramen + bak kut teh) for his grandmother.

In the end, he succeeded.

A lot of tears.

わたしのやすみ、大阪ののスターバックスの抹茶ラテ

こんしゅうの月曜日と火曜日はやすみです。
ともだちとばんごはんをたべます。
抹茶（まっちゃ）クレーペをたべます。
抹茶はにほんのspecialtyです。
大阪のスターバックスは二十歳(はたち)です。
11月12日から11月21日Limited editionの抹茶ラテがあります。

写真はしたです。voilà!

https://jw-webmagazine.com/starbucks-japan-is-releasing-osaka-limited-matcha-drinks-in-2018-2b16a7fa60dd


このspecial ラテは１.５times more 抹茶　powder than normal 抹茶　ラテがあります。

どうして大阪ですか？

大阪はせんのりきゅう(千利休)のhometown ですから。
千利休は茶道（ちゃどう）の　founder  です。

渡辺淳一の化身を読みました

渡辺さんの『化身』（けしん）を読みました。

とてもおもしろいです。

霧子はきれいです。サバの味噌煮（サバのみそに）がよく好きです。
英語があまりわかりません。

まず、せいかつはひまです。
秋葉とスペインへいきます。
それから、しごとは忙しいです。
一人でニューヨークへいきます。
たくさんのAntiqueをかいます。
秋葉さんはお金がたくさんあります。

秋葉さんはに娘（むすめ）あります。
秋葉は霧子にお金をあげます。プレゼントをかいます。レストランでばんご飯をたべます。

秋葉さんのおかあさんdies at the end of the novel.

In the end, it is like そろそろ失礼します。

わたしのスケジュール

わたしはまいあさくじにおきます。あさごはんはたまごとぎゅうにゅうです。うちでたべます。それから、べんきょうします。げつようびとすいようびは１１じにじゅっぷんにだいがくへ歩いていきます。金曜日と木曜日はくじよんじゅうごふんにいきます。

ごごしちじにうちへかえります。ばんごはんはにくとくだものです。はちじからじゅうにじまでべんきょうします。

きんようびはやすみのにち。ときどきともだちにあいます。

Why I study Japanese

Besides fulfilling the PhD language requirement, I study Japanese because I want to be able to read and communicate in Japanese.

One particular incident triggered my interest for the language. In 2017, when I was attending a summer school on Digital Humanities at Lausanne, I subsequently made a tour to Matterhorn, where I met a Japanese traveller. He was a hearing-impaired architect but we had a great time communicating, through gestures and by writing down words in English and kanji. I really admired his courage and passion for learning. He inspired my interest in the Japanese sign language, among other things. We keep regular contact over the Internet (in English for the time being) and I hope that one day I would be able to communicate with him fluently in Japanese.

I also read lifestyle and productivity books by Japanese authors, in Chinese translation. These books cover topics as varied as effective note-taking, organization method, daily routine management, voice training, etc. Although they are already massively helpful to me, I figure that if I learn Japanese, I would be able to discover more of interesting books are available in that language.

I spent over a decade living and studying in Singapore. There is a vibrant Japanese community in the West Coast region, where I used to live. Although the size of the Japanese community in Singapore is not particularly large (numbering 36,423 as of October 2017 [1]), they have a comprehensive range of amenities. Walking past the Japanese Primary School and the High School Affiliated with Waseda-Shibuya is a daily experience for me, not to mention time spent in the numerous Japanese restaurants, the gigantic bookstore Kinokuniya and department stores such as Takashimaya and Isetan. They are very impressive. Coincidentally, one of my first hiking tours in Singapore took me to the quiet (imagine the difficulty of getting quietness in Singapore) and well-maintained Japanese Cemetery. I will never forget the combination of perfect sunshine, brilliant flower corridor and the reassuring aura surrounding the shrine on that day.

This semester I am taking a course on Japanese esoteric Buddhism, in which I study the various gods, such as the Myōken 妙見菩薩. My readings also take me to the various places for important shrines, such as 山口Yamaguchi, 八代Yatsushiro, 日枝Hie, 千葉Chiba, the 房総Bōsō peninsula, etc. I look forward to embark on a field trip in the future to see the shrines and their collections. In sum, this Buddhism course gives me great exposure to the names and pronunciations of the different deities in Japan. An interesting link to what we have learnt in the First Year Japanese course so far is the names of the days of the week, i.e. the five planets plus the sun and moon have connection to the seven stars, an important contribution of esoteric Buddhism to Japanese culture [2].


References:

[1] https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/singapore/data.html, retrieved 1 Oct, 2018.
[2] Bernard Faure, "Under the Gaze of the Stars: Myōken and the Northern Dipper", The Fluid Pantheon, University of Hawai'i Press, 2016.

さくぶん １

はじめまして。
わたしはフランシス・チョーです。
ちゅうごくじんです。
ちゅうごくの無錫からきました。
コロンビアだいがくのだいがくいんせいです。
PhD program のいちねんめです。
どうぞよろしくおねがいします。