こんにちは、美樹のブログです。

昨日はクリスマスでしたね。みなさんはどんなクリスマスを過ごしましたか？
クリスマスが終わると年越しの準備が始まります。家の中の大掃除をしたり、お正月の飾りを用意したりと、やらなくてはいけないことがたくさんあります。
年賀状を書くのも、年末の大切な仕事の一つです。みなさんの国には年賀状の習慣はありますか？年賀状とは、新年に送る葉書の挨拶状のことです。年賀状を出す枚数は、平均で１００枚位です。年賀状をお正月に届けるためには、年末までに書き終えないといけません。これは大変な仕事です。
最近は、年賀状を出す人が減ってきています。また、年賀状を手書きで書く人もとても少なくなりました。パソコンとプリンターを使って年賀状を印刷したり、メールですませてしまう人が多いです。パソコンを使えば、写真を使うこともできるし、手書きよりも早く簡単に作ることができて便利ですからね！

でも私は毎年、手書きの年賀状にこだわっています。手書きの年賀状のほうが、パソコンで作った年賀状よりも、気持ちが伝わるような気がするからです。
手書きの年賀状は墨や絵の具、ゴムの判子を使って文字や絵を書きます。そしてもっと古典的なやり方に「みかんのあぶり出し」があります。「みかんのあぶり出し」は、みかんの汁で葉書に文字や絵を書きます。それは最初、透明で何が書いてあるか分かりませんが、年賀状を受け取った人が、その年賀状を火であぶると書いてあるものが浮き上がる仕組みになっています。
その他にも、さつま芋に文字や絵を彫って判子を作る「いも判」というものもあります。いも判なら世界に一つしかない判子を作ることができますね！

今年の年賀状はどんな年賀状にしようかな。みなさんはどんな葉書をもらうとうれしいですか？

それでは、また来年！よいお年を！

Watermen, thanks for the feedback! Yes, we’re planning to enter this into the premium rotation. We arleady have some changes planned, and your feedback is putting us on the path toward more:
Please keep the feedback coming.

Japanesepod101.com — 2nd Anniversary!!!
おめでとう。

The Video Vocabulary is great!!!

Greetings

wooow video nice !

Greetings mina-san
Jpod101 happy anniversary
thank you for your hard work , the video vocab is fantanstic looking forward for more
also thank you for the holiday gits
Miki san thank you for todays blog i found the mikan no aburidashi very interesting although sounds like too much work
i usually send e-cards fast and cheap
Happy new year Miki san

JP101 Crew/Staff!
Happy 2nd Unniversary!!!

Ｍｉｋｉ美樹、
I am a old fashion way and I prefer New year cards by snail mail with music on it. Mikan no sounds interesting, I haven’t seen that in my whole life.

Well now Peter/Miki-san I’m going to sent by UPS one package for you and one for Peter-san on January 2008 so please be kind to me and receive them has a appreciation, you deserve them.

I will sent a e-mail to JP101 with more details ok when the time comes so enjoy and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008! S_R_C

誕生日おめでとう。
thanks guys without you i would not have passed my JLPT Lv2 last year

Mina-san!
I had only one right from the video vocabulary.
Feliz Cumpleanos!!! Joao Paulo-san. S_R_C

watermanさん、

actually, there is a flash version on youtube, but it wasn’t displaying.
but i fixed that now

so now you can watch on the website and you can download and take with you! all the bases are covered! woo-hoo!
(in the future, this will be a premium feature, so we won’t have a youtube link. a flash version might be possible, i’ll look into it.)

美樹さん、
おもしろいブログありがとう。
みかんのあぶり出しの年賀状は聞いたことがないから、
ほしいです。
ユーロッパにはクリスマスカードのほうが人気だと思いますけど、
最近ここもパソコンでE－カードを作る人も増えてきたそうです。
僕も手書きのカードのほうがいいと思います。でも時間かかるよね。
では　また、
ビヨン

Great idea, although could use some polishing. Here’s my feedback:

1) The English words don’t need to be repeated. For English speaking listeners, saying the word in English once is plenty. I even have reservations about having the word written in English on the screen. The goal is to associate Japanese words with actual ideas, not with their corresponding English words. In other words, more Japanese, less English.

2) You will probably do this anyway–new vocab entries need to be categorized by difficulty. “No good” and “stay at home Dad” are not exactly in the same category

Fantastic job, keep the ideas coming!

Its def nice to see the videos made me remember the ilove series– can we please have more video based lessons this year ?!??!?!?

thank you SOO MUCH japanesepod101!
i’m studying japanese for my final exams in year 12 in two years and these videos have been great! i agree with waterman, downloadable videos would really be great so i can put them on my ipod!
once again, THANKYOU
have a merry christmas everyone

ども ありがとう ございます!! この ﾌﾞｨﾃﾞｵ わ かっこい!! だい すき!

Please do keep them coming, it is a great way to review vocabulary quickly! I love having both the kanji with the hiragana on the top- that is incredibly useful!! ^_^b

You guys seem to keep getting better and better- perhaps I’ll subscribe this year!

ﾒｰﾘ ｸﾘｽﾏｽ! (:

Great sample! Keep it coming!
これは最初のメッセージです！いろいろありがとうございました！
来年もよるしくお願いします.
These video vocab lessons will be my New Years Resolution

I love the new video vocab. It’s visual and straight to business.

A quick concise little way that was perfect for me today.

I actually came across a word earlier today that I didn’t recognize, I knew it was a family related term, and I never bothered to look it up… it was the word for daughter.

Thse videos are great!!!

great idea
i hope you keep them coming ^_^

anyway, do u plan on making longer videos as this one? (more than 10 words?) that would be even better

Personally I still prefer having flash movies - as I have an old nano which wont play video so rather than having to download the full movie and then watch it id prefer the flash. Ideally I think you should go with both !!!

My computer is broken! Video is really great though. Of course Miki’s blog is excellent.

Hi!
I LOVE this idea!!!
Is it free, or for basic or premium members?
Something I would suggest is perhaps writing out the romaji as well? I know it can be hard for beginners, as I was once one, and still kind of am. Or perhaps making a video that teaches both kanas. That would be extremely helpful to all of those confused Nihongo newbies out there! I hope you at least consider it!

Thanks a lot! I’ll DEFINITELY be using these vids!!!

私 (I know that wasn’t the Japanese sentence order and is missing particles, but I think everyone gets the point )

Thanks Jpod, the video vocab is a great idea! Thanks for keeping learning interesting for us!
I have a couple suggestions for the video vocab. They could be a little too difficult to implement - I don’t know much about the technichal side of things, but here goes:

Lengthen the video by a minute or two,
to have the kanji/vocab introduced via animated stroke order (such as a Canon elec. dictionary does in Kanjigen) for the whole word. (just the first time the word is shown).

Also have a quick review at the end of the vid with the words pronounced in japanese & presented randomly, minus the hiragana reading of the kanji and the written english translation.

I think these ideas could really add to our recognition and retention of the words.

Thanks for your innovation jpod, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all.

a small correction as pointed out to me by my japanese wife -

一生懸命
いっしょうけんめい

whereas
一所懸命
いっしょけんめい

the video shows the second kanji with the first kanji’s reading which is not correct.

the format of the video is most excellent however!
thanks!

Wow!!!!! Thank you very much for these great videos. Please have somemore..
Thank you naomi - san, peter-san and technical people behind this ideas.

Thank you. Happy New Year…

ＪａｐａｎｅｓｅＰｏｄ１０１の皆さん、
ごめん、年賀状送ってなかったけど、
あけましておめでとうござます。
今年もよろしくお願いします。

今年一生懸命勉強したいです。

A good idea,

BUT! some of us learners are hard of hearing! The music in the background makes close listening impossible.

Music is great, but in the right place!

where did you get the music? Loved the video!