Thursday, April 08, 2010

Language Lessons

The kids have been practicing and hearing Nihongo (Japanese) all month. I've been traveling. I'm rusty. I expected to be rusty for tonight's Japanese lesson. I did NOT expect to be the comedy relief.

We had fun talking about all the places I traveled in March. Akiko had to point out that I was pointing to NORTH Korea. ::snort::

Funnies:

Akikosan - De'Ettasan, ashta wa tabimasu ka?  (Or something similar)  (De'Etta what will you feed these kids tomorrow?)

De'Etta - Ashta wa pitsu o tabimasu. (Tomorrow, they'll eat pencils!)

Pitsu (peet su) and Piza (PeetZA)....ah well.

She wrote the symbols for "no agricultural medicine" - ORGANIC for me.

I was on a roll so asked about the house repair that our landlord hasn't taken care of. She told me I need to keep calling them....I still think I'll take the piece of gutter in to make it clear.

I told her that my laundry is blowing, literally, all over the neighborhood... I asked her to write the phrases out for me to ask about getting the bars for my roof like many Japanese homes have or to ask if I could put concrete on my laundry rack. She wanted to see. It HAPPENED to be STANDING with laundry - nice and sedate on my patio. She looked. She smiled. She said, "De'Ettasan....." and I could tell she was trying not to laugh. I beat her to it....."You're going to tell me this isn't a laundry rack?" She told me it's for inside. We had a great laugh imaging what our friendly farmer was thinking as the thing kept blowing over and I chased it - and the laundry - around the yard.

There are much bigger and heavier ones for outside laundry. She told me that it WON'T blow away, and I won't need to tie sand or concrete to it....She says it's heavy.  She told me I'd better take Jared with me to buy it.  THEN she offered to go shopping with me on Saturday...so we will. Another chance to build a bridge.

I told her my Coach bag was, "yasui desu" and she gave me that, "try again look".  I told her I bought it in Korea (it's a knock off) and she understood and laughed. LOL
Akikosan loved the little mirror I got her in Seoul and the snow globe from Detroito.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

5 comments:

Renee said...

Do you rent directly from the landlord or through the AF???
I know in Heidelberg, we lived offpost in private housing but the govt was the one that did the leasing so they were also in charge of repairs.... is that maybe why the landlord is not understanding?

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

We rent directly from the landlord. The AF does not pay our repairs. Mike went in over 6 weeks ago. They SAID they'd have someone out "right away". I've been traveling - as has he - and suddenly realized - it's not fixed. LOL

Deja said...

What a great opportunity you and your family has to influence her life! Funny thing, the first thought I had when I saw the drying rack was, "Those look like the kind we use here for indoor drying. She needs a clothesline!"

all in the family said...

All these things remind me a little of the humors in the Karate Kid movies, lol. Especially the "detroitio" lol

Mary Q Contrarie said...

I don't know what type of laundry rack you have but I have found the clothes drying racks that are round are much more stable than the accordion styles. Though my round one has blown over as well when the wind decides to be really gusty. I hope you found one that works for you.