Long time no see! I am kind of suffering from the summer heat. I've lost my appetite. I feel I've lost the power to write something in English. So I've been absent for a long time. Do you remember me & my blog? If so, I'm really happy.

Every summer vacation, I think I'd better stop studying English. I am a full-time housewife with two children. Especially in the summer vacation, it's so hard to find my own time to study English, which really irritates me. In mid summer, I have to be a mother all day long. So I really want to be just an English-learner once in a while. Maybe I'm a selfish mother. Sometimes I think, "If I'd spend as much time improving my cooking skill as I do studying English, I'd be able to become an excellent cooker & a respectable mother."

There are a lot of English learners out there who asked someone, "I'd like to improve my English skills. What should I do?" It might sound so arrogant, but I DO know what to do in order to improve my English skills. I have a lot of things I want to try. It's just that I don't have enough time to do all kinds of stuff. If I had enough time to study... If only I had 48 hours a day!

I am juggling three roles right now. A mother, a wife and an English-learner. Needless to say, the most important thing on the planet to me is being a mother. My childrren are so young that I should focus my mind on my children. Since every day we hear the news about tragic accidents, we, parents, have to watch them carefully. At the same time, we have to listen to them closely, spending a lot of time together.

Being a mother is my job? Defenitely not. That's my life. As long as my children need me, I'd like to spend as much time as humanly possible. Maybe I should forget English-learning stuff at least in the summer vacation... but I can't.

I'd like to read great English novels. I'd like to watch wonderful English dramas & movies.
I know if I get up earlier than usual, I can have much more time to study. But unfortunately,
I can't wake up early in the morning because of the summer heat.

Autumn is the best season for learning something, right? I can't wait for it.




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Continued from the previous article.

I was talking about the song 'home' by Yusaku Kiyama last week. I said I love both the melody and the lyrics.

I think it is so hard to translate Japanese lyrics into English. I feel it's so difficult to convey the intended nuance in another language... but I'd like to try it.

I like this part;

You've given overflowing happiness & straightforward love to me,
I wonder how much happiness & love I can give you in return within a given period of time

The more I love you, the more I'd like to say 'thank you' to your Dad's Dad and Dad's Mom.


Firstly, 愛しく思う is hard to translate, I think. If you look up the word in the Japanese-English dictionary, you can find the following explanation;
"いとしく思う one’s heart goes out to （a child）"

So I should've written 'The more my heart goes out to you'... But I thought 'The more I love you' is simpler and more impressive.
I'm aware that 愛しく思う is not equal to 愛してる, of course. It's just that I couldn't find the appropriate expression. I think the Japanese expression 愛しく思う is really beautiful.

Secondly, パパのパパやパパのママに… is also hard to be translated.
In Japanese, the word Papa can be used as a first personal noun （一人称名詞？）. So Papa means both I and your Dad.
パパのパパ means your grandfather, of course. But in the Japanese lyrics, the word おじいちゃん or じいじ is not used. So I tried not to use the word grandfather or grandmother.


After having children, I realized this;
'To be a parent' is to relive my life in my childhood, and to know how my parents feel while raising us. Now I understand how my parents felt when I failed the entrance exam and when I introduced my boyfriend to them for the first time...

I'd like many people to listen to the song 'home'. The singer Kiyama-san & the composer Tago-san filled the song with parental love. I'm sure the song reminds every parent of their own children. At the same time, the song reminds everyone of their own parents. I think the song makes you feel like saying 'thank you' to your parents.




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Do you guys know the song 'home' by Yusaku Kiyama? I really love this song. Every time I hear his clear voice, I feel something in my heart. That 'something' makes me cry.

There is a TV program named Uta-Sta （歌スタ!!）. The program carries out some auditions in order to discover good singers. My husband & I like this program and watch it every week.

Several months ago, Kiyama-san got to the audition. One of composers listening to his song asked him to sing another song. The composer was Kunio Tago.

For the second audition, Kiyama-san sang the song 'Piano Man'. After listening to his song, Tago-san (The host Higashino-san calls him 'Tago-chan', though) said, "I also love Billy Joel. I'd like to cherish this kind of coincidence. I'd like to write a song for you."

Tago-san made a beautiful song for him. The title of the song was 'home'. Kiyama-san sang the song in front of a representative of a record company. Unfortunately, the rep refused to release his CD. Kiyama-san's dream seemed to be shattered. But, the composer Tago-san didn't give up easily. He made up a long-version of 'home'. Kiyama-san sang the song again, and the rep of the record firm finally decided to release his CD.

Tago-san wrote the lyrics as well as the melody. I love both of them.
I might possibly talk about those lyrics next week.

Anyway, if you have a chance to hear the song, I'd like you to feel deeply those lyrics.




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I SECRETLY decided to post my piece at least once in a week, on every Thursday. (I know it isn't a secret anymore since I've said this here on this blog.) But yesterday, on Thursday, I didn't post my piece. I have my own reason. Although you might not be interested in my reason, let me explain it here.

I was going to post yesterday afternoon. When I started to write something in English, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and I found three guys standing there. They came from the company which built my house ten years ago. (I don't know if I can call the company a 'housemaker.' I heard that a 'homemaker' means a housewife in the U.S., though.) They visited my house in order to make an inspection of my house.

About a month ago, one of them called me and said, "Your house is ten years old. So I strongly recommend that your house should be examined. Oh, don't worry about the cost. We'll give it for free." "For free? Then I'd like you to check my house carefully. Thank you in advance."

One guy climbed on the rooftop of my house and checked if the waterproof sheets worked properly. Another guy crawled under the floor and look over the foundation of the house.
After the examination, one of them said, "There's no problem in your house now. We don't see any termites (white ants) in the basement. Everything's fine."

They bowed to me in a courteous manner and left. The moment I thought, "Now I can start writing," my son came back home. I have to listen to him saying the multiplication tables up to 9, which means Kuku.
He had made an appointment with his friends. As soon as he finished his homework, he dashed out of the house like a bullet. "I can do what I want at last..." I said with a sigh of relief, but again, someone rang the door bell. That was a gas company guy...

To be continued... (Maybe)

Oh, some might think, "This is a lame excuse for belated posting!" But All I said above is true. Believe me!

◇ ◇　Karen ◇ ◇        

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In order to get the certificate of the accident, I had to call the police. Otherwise I would have to pay the damage for myself. That must cost a fortune. I had to avoid further useless disaster.

I finally called the police. I thought I just had to report the details of the accident on the phone. However, a policeman anwering the phone said, "We'd like to see the scene of the accident and examine how the accident happened. So we're visiting your place soon. Wait for a while."

The police's coming to my house? The things was getting worse and worse.

30 minutes later, two policemen visited my house. They parked a big police car, with an electric bulletin board on the roof, next to my house. Some neighbors walked past my house, throwing a quick glance at the police car. I blushed for shame.

Unexpectedly, my son & daughter got really excited. Since they hadn't seen police officers in uniform up close before, they seemed to find those cops so cool. My children had the courage to talk to those policemen. The officers were so kind that they pleasantly chatted away about this and that.

After the examination, one of the policemen said, "The inspection is done. We can issue the certificate of the accident. I'm gonna close with this warning. You'd better watch carefully where you're going. You might've broken someone's car, or worse, someone's body."
"I totally understand. I'll be careful hereafter", I replied with a serious look on my face.

He said to my son, "Have you finished your assignment for the summer vacation 'a picture diary'? I recommend you to write about this accident, like, "My mom almost got arrested by the police. I was so scared." Ha-ha."
"Yeah, I will", my son answered vigorously.
Needless to say, after that, I managed to discourage him from writing about the accident on his diary. Phew!


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