corvid-language-library

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 28/04/24

akvarell (m) - watercolour

en akvarell | akvarellen | akvareller | akvarellene

Hun foretrekker akvarell over maling. (She prefers watercolours to paint)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 27/04/24

maling (m/f) - paint

en/ei maling | malingen, malinga | malinger | malingene

Hvorfor har du ikke noen gul maling? (Why don't you have any yellow paint?)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 26/04/24

pensel (m) - paintbrush

en pensel | penselen | pensler | penslene

Jeg har aldri sett så mange pensler på ett sted før! (I've never seen so many paintbrushes in one place before!)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 25/04/24

fargestift (m) - crayon

en fargestift | fargestiften | fargestifter | fargestiftene

Guttungen var trist fordi han hadde glemt fargestiftene sine. (The boy was sad because he'd forgotten his crayons)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 24/04/24

eske (m/f) - box

en/ei eske | esken, eska | esker | eskene

Kan du bare sette alle de gamle bøkene i den eska der borte? (Can you just put all the old books in that box over there?)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 23/04/24

papp (m) - cardboard

en papp | pappen | papper | pappene

Han ville ikke si det til henne, men kanelbollene hennes smakte papp. (He didn't want to say it to her, but her cinammon buns tasted like cardboard)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 22/04/24

frimerke (n) - stamp

et frimerke | frimerket | frimerker | frimerkene

Jeg har ikke kjøpt frimerker på flere år. (I haven't bought stamps in several years)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Future Plans

This is mostly me thinking aloud (or rather, writing shit down), so feel free to ignore (it's gonna get long).

Basically, I'm trying to decide what to do in regards to staying in Japan/moving on.

I love living here. I love my job. After a year of doing it, I've learned from my mistakes and I feel like I've become a much better teacher. With the new school year I've implemented some changes in my approach that I know are going to have positive outcomes, and I want to see it through. I want to keep working with these kids, I want to help them grow.

But... I have reasons for wanting to go back to the UK (never thought I'd say that):

Top of the list is my nan having quite severe dementia. That in itself doesn't affect me greatly as I've not seen her for years and was never close to her. However, I know my mum is struggling to look after her. She frequently drives 3 hours to see her, then spends a week caring for her, and while she tries to put a humorous spin on the stories she tells me I can tell it's hard for her. I want to be there for her, maybe even go with her to help look after my nan just to take the burden off of her.

Related to that... I worry that my mum will develop dementia later on and I'll regret not spending the years we could've had together with her. She's the only family member I'm close to really and honestly, I miss her.

Also family-related... I'm missing my niece growing up. I'm not a part of her life at all and that makes me sad.

I'm still considering studying Education Psychology in the city where my brother lives. It would be expensive and I'd need to rely on my dad's money, which I don't really want to do, but it would set me up nicely to either go into research or then apply to do a teaching Masters degree in Norway (plus I'd get to actually be a part of my niece's life for a bit).

I miss having a fucking oven oh my god I want to bake so fucking badly you have no idea.

At the moment I intend to see my contract out for at least the rest of this year. After that, I'm not 100%. I might continue another year and stay until my visa expires (depends on the situation with my nan I guess).

Another plan would be:

Go back to the UK either when my contract reaches its end at the end of January or when my visa expires at the start of January

Come March, apply to university in Norway

Move to Norway the following summer if I get accepted

I'm also considering transfering away from Yamagata if I decide to stay on for a third year, but I'm in two minds. As mentioned above, I want to continue working with these kids and see through what I've started. I also love Yamagata and my team are great and I'm finally making friends! But I also want to explore more of Japan. It's so expensive to travel here from Europe and I doubt I'd be coming back anytime soon, but it's difficult to get to different areas of Japan from Yamagata. If I were in, say, Osaka, it would be much easier for me to go to new places.

Other options:

Just stay in Yamagata and get my visa renewed and settle down properly

Go do TEFL in a different country that's slightly closer to home (maybe Spain or France)

So yeah, those are some thoughts I'm having. I don't really know what to do at the moment and most people just politely listen and then say "well, it's down to you really" and that doesn't help lmao. Thankfully I've got quite a while to decide anyway.

#chough chatterings

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 21/04/24

konvolutt (m) - envelope

en konvolutt | konvolutten | konvolutter | konvoluttene

Denne konvolutten er ikke stor nok. (This envelope isn't big enough)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Another one from my italki lesson the other day:

Wanted to say I got sunburn in Utsunomiya. Didn't know the word for sunburn. So I settled for, "the sun injured my face."

Today on brute-forcing my way through the language barrier:

Can't figure out how to say "I'm desperate to get my wisdom tooth removed". Settle for "I really want to do this tooth bye-bye."

[corvid-language-library]

Observations about Japanese children and their English handwriting

Even the older kids who've been learning for years still mix up b and d (which makes me feel better about messing up さ and ち)

The younger ones also confuse n/u and m/w a lot (the older kids too on occasion)

They frequently write r to look like n or even h

I see backwards Ss a lot, which I'm pretty sure is also common in kids whose native language uses Latin alphabet

Despite their writing notebooks clearly showing that 'o' is written starting at the top, almost every kid starts at the bottom and I have no idea why

I also frequently see them write 'b' as a backwards c and then add the vertical line afterwards for reasons I'm yet to uncover

Because Japanese allows you to split single words across two lines, most kids under 10 will just continue words on a new line if they run out of space

They also typically need to be reminded that English words need space between them

Many of them write the dot of the i/j and cross of the t/f before the rest of the letter, probably because kanji stroke order rules are typically top-to-bottom and horizontal strokes first

#jackdaw in japan #treepie teacher time

[corvid-language-library]

I logged out for like 10 days because I've been wasting my time playing Pokemon and doing Sporcle quizzes instead 😅 Not that it's wasting my time given I've been having fun! And I've been playing Pokemon in Japanese and learning lots of new words, so I'd say it's a pretty productive way to spend my time actually!

Anyway, some updates:

I booked my next trip last week, so during Golden Week I'll be going to Tsuruoka, Niigata and Koriyama! I don't have much in the way of plans yet, although I have a few ideas about things I want to do. We'll see what happens though.

I think I'm acquiring a taste for matcha? I've been sampling the seasonal doughtnuts at Mister Donut, which are matcha flavour, and then I got some sakura/matcha wafer things from the supermarket and they were actually pretty nice. The sweetness of the sakura kinda offsets the bitterness of the matcha. I'm now obsessed with wanting to bake matcha/sakura cupcakes but alas, no oven, boo

I've been trialling an actual physical bullet journal rather than my usual excel spreadsheets because I wanted to take more time away from my laptop but I keep forgetting to use it, oops

I'm still considering/debating my future plans. It's kinda complicated, I might make a post about it. Basically I'm thinking of returning to the UK after my visa runs out and then going on to Norway, but there are lots of things to consider.

#chough chatterings

[corvid-language-library]

English added by me :)

#corvids 🖤 #language library

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 20/04/24

brev (n) - letter

et brev | brevet | brev, brever | breva, brevene

Jeg synes det var veldig modig av deg å sende det brevet. (I think it was very brave of you to send that letter)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 19/04/24

stiftemaskin (m) - stapler

en stiftemaskin | stiftemaskinen | stiftemaskiner | stiftemaskinene

Stiftemaskinen er i den skuffen der. (The stapler is in that drawer there)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 18/04/24

mappe (m/f) - folder

en/ei mappe | mappen, mappa | mapper | mappene

Hvilken mappe er dokumentene i? (Which folder are the documents in?)

Many Norwegian words resemble their English counterparts, but you have to watch out for false friends like these! And this one leads to a whole chain of false friends:

a map -> et kart

a card -> et kort

a court -> en bane

a barn -> en låve

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Word of the Day 17/04/24

kalkulator (m) - calculator

en kalkulator | kalkulatoren | kalkulatorer | kalkulatorene

Trenger du virkelig en kalkulator til denne oppgava? (Do you really need a calculator for this problem?)

#nutcracker norsk #norwegian langblr #learning norwegian #norsk #norwegian #my oc: norwegian #norwegian word of the day