Shiira.Shiira

Tanaka’s House…

• There is a table, television and chair in the living room.
• There are flowers and a newspaper on top of the table.
• Tanaka-san’s wife is in the living room.
• Tanaka-san is in the garden with a young boy.
• No one is in the kitchen.

This is a [very] close approximation of what sensei wrote on the board in Japanese class the other day.  She asked us to translate the sentences to Japanese, writing them out in our practice notebooks.   Sounds so 3rd grade doesn’t it?

You’d think a task like this would be fairly simple but it took me 15 minutes of feverish writing before I realized  what I was writing was ALL WRONG!!!

How quickly we (okay, me …I) fall into a spasmadic way of thinking when I’m being tested.  Logic and common sense fly out the window and in their place, I get brain farts and burnt up synapses.  Luckily, I had the opportunity and the presence of mind, somehow, to slow down and really think about what it was I was supposed to be writing.

Once I stopped hyperventilating, huffing for air like a claustrophobic maniac, I managed to write the following:

いす と テーブル とテレビ が いま に あります。はな や しんぶん が テーブル の うえ に あります。 たなかさん の おくさん は いま に います。 たなかさん は おとこのこ と にわ に います。 だいどころ に だれも います。

Not too bad for a beginner, I guess.  Here is  the markup  sensei gave me at yesterday’s class:

いす や テーブル や テレビ が いま に あります。はな と しんぶん が テーブル の うえ に あります。 たなかさん の おくさん が いま に います。 たなかさん と おとこのこ が にわ に います。 だいどころ に だれも いません。

Can you spot the corrections?