Family Life HOMEWORK

a. When do children usually leave home?
I regarded "leave home" as "an independent from parents" not just "leave for school". Is that correct? By the way, I'd like to talk about this question taking my older sister and I for example. She left home when she enterd unversity in Tokyo, and she started living alone. On the other hand, I live with my parents now because I study at local university, so I'll leave home when I get a job after graduating. Although the time for leaving home depends on person, it seems that there are just about two types in Japan. One example is the time when people enter university in another prefecture like my sister, and another is when they graduate and get a job.

b. How many people live in your home?
There are five in my family, but my sister lives in Tokyo and she works as an accountant, so five, my father, mother, a cat and me live togeter now. When my sister returned home at the end of the year, we had really nice time. After all, I think family is wonderful!!

c. Do you have a head of family?
Yes! My fater is in the position. Although he has been changing a little, he was formaly really obstinate and hardheaded, and he was exact "Kyushu danji". He has become rather soft recently, so I like him now better than the past. Actually, the most important person is of course my mother!! My father will not be able to live without her!!

d. Who does the housework?
My mother does. I sometimes help her but almost all of housework are completely by my mother. I think she is exast the mirror of the housmaker. Although there is ideal person whom I can learn a lot of things from, regrettably I'm not good at cleaning, washing and other wouswork, so I take charge of going supermarket to buy groceries, taking in the laundry from outside, sometimes cooking and so on. As you know, my father can do nothing of housework.

e. Who runs the family?
I have two answers. From the finance aspect, my father runs my family, but in essense, my mother runs. I think maybe both is necessary for running my family!!

f. How many rooms do you have to sleep in?
In my family case, my parents sleep in one room togeter, and I sleep in my room alone. When I was a child, we slept togeter in the same room, but since I got my own private room, I started to sleep separately. I really don't want to sleep with my father in the same room because his snore is very noisy and annoying!! (I'm sorry...)

Lesson 6 Names and Addresses HOMEWORK

1. Are feelings, emotioms and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc...?
Yes, I think so, but I have some ideas. I think the facial expressions are almost universal, so generally, we laugh when we are happy, and we cry and be downcast when we are sad, in addition, our faces sometimes might turn red when we are angry or ashamed. However, there are some exceptions, for example, we sometimes hide our feelings by showing the facial expression that is actually opposite to the true feeling, especially "sad" and "ashamed". This case doesn't always happen, of course we often show our feelings directly when we are happy, and even we are angry. One of the reasons why people hide the facial expression of sadness might be not to worry someone our friends and family. Altough it is often said that people say "Don't worry alone!" On the other hand, I think showing our feelings directly is also good and rational. I especially want to show happy feelings when I am happy and I also want to smile even if I am sad, because smiling will be sure to bring a lot of hapiness!!

2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese. And write the English translation.
①嬉しいureshii "happy" ②悲しいkanasii "sad" ③眠いnemui "sleepy" ④楽しいtanoshii "happy" ⑤うきうきするukiukisuru "exhilarate" ⑥がっかりgakkari "disappointed" ⑦待ち遠しいmachidooshii "impatient" ⑧くつろぐkuturogu "relaxed" ⑨不安huan "nervous" ⑩有頂天uchouten "enraptured"
I found that English feeling words have some meanings of Japanese ones, so we can use "happy" for both ① and ④. I think Japanese feeling expressions have many more varieties than that of English.

3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannnot be translated into English?
Yes!! When I stayed in England, it was hard to explain "もったいないmottainai"　feeling!! Japanese people often say "mottainai", but I don't know what is the best English translation, so I used the expression of "You don't have to do that." or another euphemism of "mottainai". There isn't the exact translation of "mottainai" in English, but we can say it in any way by using a lot of another English words!!

Lesson 5 HOMEWORK Names and addresses

1. How do you choose a child's given name in your family?
How to choose the given name for a child is very interesting!! (I like to think about name very much ^ ^) First names of Japanese are well-known for me although there are some rare and interesting names recently. On the other hand, foreign names are attractive for me. Actually when I was a child, I wanted one more neme of Westerner-like!!
By the way, there are five of us in my family. Father, mother, an older sister, a cat and me. My parents gave a common Chinese character which is my mother's favorite one, for our (my sister, my cat and me) names. This way of choosing the given name is common in Japan, and my parents also considered the number of the letter. Many Japanese think it will influence a child's life!

3. Does your given name or your family name mean anything?
I don't know my family name has some meaning, but my given name has. It means "To come true my dream early." This wish is shown in Chinese characters which compose my name. Chinese characters have their particular meanings, so it is also interesting to think and guess the meanings of people's name from their Chinese characters.

7. How do you know if names are boy's names, girls' names, or both?
Our Japanese name is rather easy to know their sex because as I mentioned above, we can guess the sex from Chinese characters as well as we can think about the meaning of people's name from them. In addition, there are some kind of rules which Chinese characters are usually used for boys or girls. However there are some names which are applicable to both, for example my classroom teacher in my 7th grade, I assumed my new classroom teacher to be a man when I knew the name of the teacher's name, but actually it was a woman!! I misconceived her sex because I judged the sex from the Chinese characters and the sound of her name!!
By the way, I really like your children's names, Ms. Meiki♪♪ I was impressed to hear that their names are all related to the earth. It's wonderful!!