コロラドの天気

家族の子供について書くべきですが家族に関して書きすぎったと思います。だから、コロラドの天気に関して書きます。

コロラドで天よく変わるから面白いと思います。おとといはとても晴れでしたからT-シャツを着ていました。でも昨日は寒くなって雪が降りました。コロラドで住めばこれは普通です。しかも四季があります。春は暖かくて雨が降ることがあります。夏はとても暑いです。秋はすずしくて赤くて金色の落ち葉がたくさんあります。冬は寒くて雪が多いです。

最近、天気は大変になりました。去年の冬は１メトルぐらい雪が降りました。たくさんの学生は試験を受けられませんでした。しかも今年の夏はとても暑かったです。１００度F（３７度C）の日がたくさんありました　地球温暖化現象でしょうか。

アメリカの家族

アメリカで家族はとても大切です。ふつうの家族は父母と１～３人の子供がいるかもしれません。お父さんは働きます。赤ちゃんがいる時お母さんは働きません。しかし、赤ちゃんが子供になったらたぶん仕事をします。おさない子供はデイケアに行きますがあとで学生になります。

家お母さんが料理を作ったり、せんたくをしたり、時々そうじをすることはふつうです。お父さんはいえで色々な物を直すべきです。例えば、コンピューターや車やながしです。お父さんはちょっと料理を作れるといいです。子供はそうじをするべきです。そうじをすれば両親は子供にお金をあげます。年を取るにつれてもっとせきにんがあるけれどお金をもらいません。

Thanksgiving

Since it's that time I thought it would be pertinent to write about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is probably the most observed American holiday. It falls on the 3rd Thursday of November. Almost everyone will be given the day off and it's non-religious, so pretty much everyone participates in it.

The origin of Thanksgiving goes back to colonial era, where the "pilgrims," a group of Protestants, left Europe due to religious persecution in the year 1621 and came over to America on the ship, Mayflower. Once there they landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts they became unable to raise enough food and began to starve. They were saved by the local Samoset and Squanto tribes of Native Americans who gave them food.

Modern Thanksgiving is usually a large gathering of relatives with a large feast. It's still very traditional in it's nature. Foods consist of turkey with gravy (the staple), mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, as well as many other "harvest" vegetables and for dessert there is pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. Of course now there's a little more leniency, many foreign families will eat something more familiar to them, and for vegetarians there are a large number of meatless turkey substitutes (my sister likes one called "tofurkey", which I found to be absolutely disgusting). Thanksgiving is really about being with one's family though. Many people will have extremely large gatherings of extend family members, some with just there immediate family (I usually eat with my family as well as my Aunt, Uncle and 2 cousins, but this year it will just be my mom, dad and sister). College students usually go home for the occasion, but for people that cannot be with their family it's very common to eat with a friend's family. Besides gorging one's self with Turkey (leftovers result day after day of Turkey sandwiches until it's gone) there is a large televised parade in New York sponsored by Macy's department store, and often a few football games will be played that day.

Thanksgiving also holds another significance in that it is seen as the official beginning to the the holiday season. After this, people will start putting up Christmas decorations, like lights and trees. The day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday" and is in America the single most profitable shopping day of the entire year. It is called "Black Friday" because many companies will not make a profit the entire year (in the "red" of a profit line-graph) and since so many people do their holiday shopping on "Black Friday" these companies can completely make up for the entire year of losses (going into the "black" of a profit line-graph). As a result most stores have the best deals of the year, particularly on electronics. People will sometimes wait outside stores overnight just to get good deals on things they want. In many cases things are sold for less than retail and people will lineup to buy them only to sell them to other people. It can be pretty crazy (every year there are often a couple riots across the country) but it's pretty fun. I'd be interested to know if there is anything similar in Japan.

Shall we ダンス?

Shall we ダンス? はとてもおもしろかった映画だと思います。日本の文化とアメリカの文化はと違うみたいです。アメリカ人にはダンスは恥ずかしくはありません。上手な人は人気になります。若者はよくダンスパーティーをします。しかも社交ダンスではない、もっと体のせっしょうくがあります。

両親のような人には若者のダンスは恥ずかしいかもしれないけれど社交ダンスはいいです。二人はパーティーでおります。時々ダンスのクラスをともに取ります。夫婦は一人でダンスをしません。ちょっと変です。

私はダンスが好きでわありません。全然できません。

ふつな日

毎日８－９に起きたあとシャワーを浴びます。週末だけ朝ごはんを食べるので朝早く食べるとおなかが痛くなります。ひまがある時バスていへ行く前にコンピューターを使ってからバスていへ行きます。バスで大学に行きます。１５分後大学に着きます。朝のクラスのあと昼ごはんを食べます。時々大学に行く前に昼ごはんを作るのですがほとんどカフェテリアの食事を食べます。あとで日本語のクラスがあります。クラスが終わったバスで帰宅します。家でゲームをしたりテレビをみたりコンピューターを使ったりします。６時ぐらいに夕ごはんを作ります。夕ごはんのあと宿題をします。１１時ぐらいに寝ます。

Questions and Answers

Nobody gave me any instruction on how to respond to comments so I’ve decided I’m going to do another post in English that incorporates what I could pick out. Please excuse me for taking so long as well; I’ve been getting side-tracked.

Q: Why are you taking Japanese?

I’ve always had a fondness for stuff from Japan, whether it be music, movie, games, television, ninjas, and what-not. Also, as you might have suspected I am of Japanese descent. I’m an academic type so I feel that everyone should know a language other than their own and though I took French in middle and high school (5 years total) it never really clicked. I always wanted to learn Japanese but alas, it would be until college before I could actually take it as it is not something you find in the curriculum of a small high school such as mine. Note that in America, foreign language, while recommend to look good on a college transcript, is not required. As such, middle schools tend to offer only introductory courses, and though while in high school you can get 4 year programs only larger schools offer languages outside of French and English.

Q: What sorts of things do you like to draw?

Recently I’ve been practicing pen and paper drawing, I guess my goal would be to make some sort of manga or comic book but I’m embarrassed to share my drawings even though I know I’m not bad. I’d like to get them looking more professional, and so I’ve taken to learning Photoshop but I’m still a beginner there. I also do a lot of game programming and I like do sprite art for those, though often times I spend weeks on just small stuff, get bored and forget about it.

Q:Have you ever been to Japan?

Unfortunately, no. Once I complete college I do intend to stay there for a while and hopefully bolster my language skills. It’s a personal goal of mine to become fluent in other language and there’s really no way around it, but I’ve always wanted to go regardless.

Note about my background:

So, my last name is Kumagai, I’m a quarter Japanese. My father is half-Japanese, half-Italian (though he looks far more Italian than Japanese). My grandfather on his side is full-blooded Japanese. My grandfather and his siblings migrated to America in the 1920s. Due to this very few people even in my extended family can actually speak Japanese. My great-grandfather spoke nothing but Japanese so my great-aunts and uncles can understand it but because they grew up in America and have not used it since they were children they do not speak it well, maybe about as well as I. On my mother’s side, it’s hard to say what I am. My grandmother on my mother’s side divorced when my mother was young, so my mother knows very little about her biological father and my grandmother doesn’t really talk about it. There was a falling out of sorts on that side of the family which contributes to this; two years ago I met my great-aunt on that side and learned a bit more, but before I didn’t even know she existed. All I know is that that side is generally of Eastern-European descent (Poland/Ukraine).

An interesting thing is that over the summer I actually met a relative who lives in Japan. He would be my grand-father’s cousin. I had a chance to speak to him in Japanese (since that was all he spoke) but I got really nervous trying to use my Japanese and ended up not saying much. Hopefully I can try that again sometime.

....And that's it. This probably long enough to have it's own set of encyclopedias so I'll stop here. Somehow I don't imagine anyone actually reading all of this. :p

私の家

私の家族は母と父と妹と私です。今、母と父はコロラド州のデンバー市に住んでいます。妹と私はコロラド州のボールダー市に住んでいます。私は家で住んでいますが妹はコロラド大学のりょうに住んでいます。私達はコロラド大学の学生です。時々週末にデンバーの家に行きます。ボールだーからデンバーまでは３０分ぐらいです。デンバーで妹はせんたくするのですが私はボールダーの家でせんたくできます。母はおいしい料理を作るのでデンバーに行くことが好きです。自分の食べ物を作ることが下手です。ベッドがないからソファーで寝ないければないのでデンバーへ行くことはちょっと大変です。

恥かしい...

自己紹介

私は熊谷・ダーグと言います。私はコロラド大学の三年生です。コンピュータが大好きだから私の専攻はコンピューターサイエンスです。家族はコロラドのデンバーに住んでいます。デンバーは私の出身ですが、今、ボルダーにある家に住んでいます。ルームメートが５人います。家は大学からちょっと遠いですがバスていが家のとなりにありますからとても便利です。大学でいろいろなコンピュータのクラスを取っています。たくさんの数学や物理学や日本語のクラスも取っています。ちょっとむずかしくて教科書はとても高いです。アルバイトをしたいけどひまがありません。

私の趣味はコンピュータです。コンピュータを作ることやプログラミングが好きです。テレビゲームをすることも好きです。冬は時々スノーボードをして、夏は泳いでキャンプをします。私の一番好きな食べ物はピザやステーキやホットウィングです。とても辛い食べ物が大好きです。飲み物は何でもいいですがお茶が好きではありません。