今日、部長の誕生日よね。そうだよ。すっかりわすれてた。今年は還暦だね、部長に何をわけようか。ワインはどうだか。いいだね、２００６年ものはどうかな。いいアイテイアだね、１９４６年ものより、ずいぶん安いし、決まりだ、今夜の誕生日パーチーで渡そう。そうしようよ。

また、後で。

やっぱり、難しいですよね。でも、とても沢ら幸せしています。

ありがとうございます。勉強に成りました

デイブ

Alansan, yes I’ve seen all of those films. In fact, I’ve seen every movie to come out of Ghibli! Grave of the Fireflies is very depressing, yes, so I don’t own that one, though I’d say it’s in my top 3 favorite from that studio. If I need a good cry I’ll look into it again

Beltonsan, yes that’s so sad that Kundo died after “Whisper”–he had nothing but good things ahead of him, I think, as far as film is concerned. So sad!

Whisper of the Heart = 耳をすませば　(I can never remember that second word sumaseba) It was a Ghibli film but not Miyazaki.
It has a great version of John Denver’s Country Road.

Yoshifumi Kondou directed it. Unfortunatly he died a few years later, I’ll always wonder what other films he might have made.

Personally my take on his movies is that 千と千尋の神隠し (Spirited Away) is his best, and ハウルの動く城 (Howl’s Moving Castle) is probably second. I enjoyed 魔女の宅急便 (Kiki’s Delivery Service) and となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro). I’m not a fan of もののけ姫 (Princess Mononoke). Although very lush & stylish, it’s dark themes bothered me. Too 神道 (Shinto) for me.

usagi-san
Thanks.
Of course with me the higher up the organisation the less respect I have for my superiors It’ll have to be yaru then
Some day the concepts of relative status will finally click. (Sometimes I think I have it and then… it’s gone. )

Liz-san
Have a great holiday. I think you keep up with the lessons because they come so often that if you miss a week you’re scrambling to catch up again. I’m still working through the early episodes.
We expect a full report in Japanese with slides when you get back (warau)

– I had a conversation with a Japanese student. She pointed out a major thinking difference to me. If I met someone in the library I would say on leaving “don’t work too hard” not so with the Japanese “ganbatte” stick with it, do your all approach –

I too find the learning centre quizzes more advanced than the podcasts level and content. I don’t think it’s just a case of romaji dependence. (I’m ok with kana / kanji )
The JLPT4 quizzes are a bit more advanced than the actual test (IMHO)

There’s also the fact that although the podcasts are only 15 mins long they pack in what would probably be covered in a weekly 1 hour class. The daily pace is quite fast if you listen a couple of times, review, try to do quizzes, maybe write something, read a little about the grammar.
Then there’s a new lesson the next day.
I find it takes a while for the information to “settle” so it can be used. So it’s easy to find the 15 mins to listen but hard to find the extra time to process it… and of course there’s the time needed to hang out here too

I must have missed it because you stole my thunder.

ごめん！

That little bird can be a troublemaker at times.

Jonas

‘My Neighbours the Yamadas’ was interesting as a parady of japanese life. ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ was also interesting from that perspective, although too depressing to watch repeatedly. Both of those were directed by Isao Takahata rather than Hayao Miyazaki and have a different feel. In terms of shock value the non-ghibli ‘Bare Foot Gan’ also is worth watching from a war historical perspective.

I guess that ‘Pom Poko’ is my least favourite from the Ghibli stable. There were some interesting references to Japanese myths, but the story didn’t really grab me.

Straying away from Ghibli, both ‘Azu Manga Daio’ & ‘Fruits Basket’ give an interesting perspective on Japanese schools, while the ‘Oh my Goddess’ videos (not so much the movie), give some limited insight of college life. Apart from the aforementioned ‘My neighbours the Yamadas’ there doesn’t appear to be much based on realistic adult life. Maybe time to pick up a j-dorama.

Oh, btw, Joshさん、 from what I gather from “EYE-witnesses” Chigusaさん is a hottie, but you better be careful about your criteria. Did you ever see that Aerosmith video where the guy is calling a 900 number, but it’s really some old hag in curling irons?

Detail:
watasu = To deliver, to hand over
watashimasu = polite form of watasu (-su -> -shi, then add masu).
watashimashou = polite volition form of watasu (-su ->-shou).

Meaning:
watashimashou = Let’s deliver

Similarly, watashite is the te-form of watasu. (-su -> -shite)

Translated word by word its something like this:

konya no tanjoubi pati de watashimasho
Tonight’s birthday party at lets-hand-over

Note that the object (wine) is dropped. Putting it in, it would be like this:

Konya no tanjoubi paatii ni wain wo watashimashou.

Hope this clears it up.

As for 友(tomo) vs 友達(tomodachi), the first one is mostly used in expressions and in written language, and very seldom in spoken Japanese. For new learners (and probably intermediate and advanced too), the safest would be to stick to 友達. Both words are number neutral, so if you want to specifiy one or many friends, you would spesify that infront of 友達(一人の友達 - one friend, 沢山（takusan）の友達 - many friends)

Jonas

(Also, I think this might be the word that the poster above is referring to.)