Hi David!

I found this blog by chance and read them with great interest.
It's a first time I comment to your Blog.

Having some pets may make us relaxing or it may be comforting, but I don't think I can take care of them now. In the future if there is a chane to live in country side(like Hokkaido), I want to have some dogs.

Anyway, I have a question about difference between English sentenses and Japanese sentences.

Japanese sentences include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.

I think we Japanese find these keywords(maybe automatically, not consciously) when we read Japanese sentences, so we can easily find the information which we need.

In contrast, in English sentences, there are only words. So I can not skip in reading.

How does native English Speaker skip in reading?

日本語は、ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字を組み合わせて使えるので、例えば新聞等を読む際に、必要なキーワードを拾って、必要な部分だけを拾い読みすることが比較的容易にできますよね？

英語の場合、全部がアルファベットなので、私には拾い読みができないのですが、英文を読むことに慣れてくれば、このような速読もできるようになるものでしょうか？

•  sisilemon
• 2009年8月 7日 20:52

Hi David and everyone,
David, thank you for your feedback!

> whereas ポチwas male and always baking. (I know this is just a typo, but it made me laugh - I had an image of a dog in the kitchen wearing an apron!)

Did you enjoy reading it? Great! I forgot to add 'R '; the right answer is 'barking' not ' baking', of course!
A dog is baking something in the kitchen.....It's like a scene in a Disney movie. Actually he was not such a lovely dog!

>a bundle of old cat magazines →It's new to me.
>"put down"and "and " put to sleep" are also new to me.
>And, he said, "Oniichan, Okite!! Okite!!" to me with rubbing his beak to my mouse. (Using 'with' like this is a very common mistake among Japanese learners.→It's tricky. I checked it in your book.

Have a lovely weekend,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2009年8月 7日 22:10

Hi David,

>> By the way, did you know that the word 'bitch' actually means 'female dog'? That is why the expression 'son-of-a-bitch' is so insulting - when you call someone that, you are calling their mother a dog.) <<

I note that 'bitch' is often used to describe a woman that one dislikes or thinks is unpleasant in the TV programmes and the Hollywood films. I've heard a song "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. Here are the lyrics. "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint, and I do not feel ashamed", which means, "I　have many aspects. I'm not simple." It seems to me that 'bitch' in this song doesn't have a negative meaning.

Ash

•  匿名
• 2009年8月 7日 22:27

Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback!

*a dundle of old cat magazines
*"put down" and "put to sleep"
These are also new to me.

Hi sisilemon,
Welcome to the blog!

Hi Everyone,
I'm having a summer holiday from tomorrow.;-) I don't have any special plans, but I'm so happy!

Have a lovely weekend!

Talk to you soon,

Maki

•  Maki
• 2009年8月 7日 23:17

Hi Sisilemon,
Welcome to the blog! Your question is interesting, but I have no idea, sorry. I sometimes skip some parts when I reading English books, but it's just that I skip parts I don't understand, so it's not 速読. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading your next comment!

Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback.

＜She says that her eyes get itchy just by looking at them! (This is not wrong, but there is another way to say it that some of you might not know - She says that just looking at them makes her eyes itch.)

I see, the subject of the sub-clause is opposite, isn't it? It's interesting. I knew the way you wrote, but I didn't think of it when I was writing that sentence. I'll try to make a sentence like that next time;-)

＜I have a lot to say about..
＜I have a lot more to say about..

have の後ろを変えればいろんな言い方ができそうですね。
I have a little/a little more to say about.. とか、 I have little to say about.. とか。

＜I guessed what “put down” meant, but not for sure (I guessed what 'put down' meant, but I wasn't sure - by the way 'put to sleep' is also used with the same meaning.)

I didn't know 'put down' or 'put to sleep', either.

＜Her death is very shocked. (Her death came as a shock.

The expression 'come as a shock' is new for me.

Thanks again for your help. I learned a lot!

Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday.

Tomo

PS Maki, enjoy your holiday!

•  Tomo
• 2009年8月 8日 00:13

David,
Thank you for your feedback.

I'll try to change my expressions in my way below because I wanted to use attendant circumstances.

And, he said, "Oniichan, Okite!! Okite!!" to me with his beak rubbing to my mouse.

Sometimes he fell asleep on my breast with his head letting fall back against my chin when he came to awake me.

Yoshi-

•  Yoshi
• 2009年8月 8日 00:46

Hi sisilemon,
Welcome to the blog!
About 速読　in English, I have no idea as well, but I wish I could read the book more rapidly! There are a lot of books on my desk which I haven't read yet.
By the way, do you like 'シーシーレモン’？

Hi Maki,
Enjoy yourself!^^)

I tried to post a comment again last night, but I couldn't access.

Cicadas are singing from early in the morning.

Talk to you soon,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2009年8月 8日 06:54

Hello David and everyone,

How are you? Are you having nice summer? It’s too hot today, so I’m like an ice cream in the heat wave.

Thank you for your correction. This time I have learned new phrases “put down” and “put to sleep”. When I read “put down” in David’s comment for the first time, as I told you, I guessed what it meant. I also reckoned that “put down” would not be used for human because it sounded kind of light. Then I looked up “put down” closely, I leaned it was used for only animals. 勉強になりました。

I think I sometimes write something “…with ～ing”, but this is a common mistake among Japanese learners, is it? I see. I will be more careful when I write this kind of sentence.

Hello Anne,
I also had an image of a dog baking a mountain of cookies! I ‘m sorry I don’t joke your typo. I really liked this baking dog. It’s so cute!　めちゃかわいいです。

Hello sisilemon,
As tomo said, your question is interesting. I’m sorry I have no idea about 速読. 英語でも同じようなことができるのでしょうか。興味深いです。

Have a nice weekend,

taco

•  taco
• 2009年8月 8日 18:19

Hello again,

I have one thing I forgot to say here.

Hello again,

I have one thing I forgot to say here.

If I tried to say the same thing, I would put “as” instead of “with.” This is a simple sentence, so I understood what it said. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of “with.”

•  taco
• 2009年8月 8日 20:51

Hi David

Thank you for your correction
>I don’t like dogs and cats, so I think the best pet is neither of them. (This is tricky - I don't like dogs or cats, so I don't think either of them make good pets.)
I sometime confuse when I use neither or either, so it’s really tricky for me!!!
This time I learnt some phrases; “put down (put to sleep)”, “come as a shock” and “a bundle of”. Thanks a lot.

Hi everyone

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend.
Good night

•  amo
• 2009年8月 9日 01:01

Hi David,

Thank you for your feedback.

"I can't help petting them occasionally. "

I got it ! Thank you.

See you all.

Kazu

•  Kazu
• 2009年8月 9日 02:58

Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback.
I'm looking forward to reading your feedback every time.
I found out and realized what I made mistakes, after I read them.

Hi sisilemon,
Welcome to this David's blog. I'm also looking forward to reading your comments.
Your writing the comment in English and in Japanese is easy to understand to me.

Hi everyone,
I'm enjoying a lot of your comments and studying from them.
I want to write more comments in English, but I can't... What is occupying my capacity?! (勉強不足なだけです！）

It's raining my area, so it's cool than usual.
Have a nice day everyone!

eeko

•  eeko
• 2009年8月 9日 09:48

Hi sisilemon,
Welcome to the blog! I’m glad to have you with us.
Your question about reading is interesting. I’m not sure either, but I guess English words are like Chinese characters and hiragana/katanaka for them. Maybe they recognize nouns and verbs as something like Chinese characters, and prepositions and articles like hiragana/katanaka. That’s my theory ;-) I’d love to hear David’s opinion.

Hi Everyone,
I went to see the fireworks show at Tokyo Bay last night. A friend invited me to an office party at her company, so I got to see the fireworks and the great night view of the bay from a prime spot in an air-conditioned, comfortable room. It was fabulous!!

•  Lily
• 2009年8月 9日 10:47

Hi David,
At last, summer has come to Hokkaido!;-)
The weather is getting better and better, though it isn't hot like usual. When will you come to Hokkaido?

Hi Tomo and Anne,
Thanks!! I'm having a relaxing time.

Hi Lily,
Lucky you!! I hear that the fireworks are gorgerous!
Besides, you saw them in an ideal situation.;-)

Have a lovely day!

Maki

•  Maki
• 2009年8月 9日 12:57

Hi folks,

Today is the second day of my summer holidays.

I can have a little more free time.

Talking about Sisilemon's question, I suppose many native English speakers use co-locations to understand many English sentences to understand when they read them.

If they can unserstand the story, they wouldn't care small mistakes in the sentences.

That's why they can read English setences quickly.

I'd like to ask you guys to my guess.

See ya,

•  Gussan
• 2009年8月 9日 15:32

Hi Gussan,

Long time no see!
I'm glad to see your comment.
Please, enjoy and relax your free time!

I agree with you about "I wouldn't care small mistakes in the sentences."

eeko

•  eeko
• 2009年8月10日 09:12

It sounds like youre creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place

•  Reynaldo Mihalek
• 2011年9月 1日 07:57