I caught a cold... medical words part 2

Well, I seem to have caught a cold so I figured it was a sign from God to do part 2 of my medical vocabulary. So let's start with the common cold.



I caught a cold.



I have a cold.



She gave me her cold. (Wow! That's a gift I don't want ^_-)

Now, the other common sickness people get is the flu. In Japanese, you call it influenza. But, if you say "I have influenza" in English it means you are seriously sick! People will be scared of you! We usually think of influenza in terms of an epidemic.

Now what's the difference between a cold and the flu?

" Flu symptoms usually come on quickly (within 3-6 hours) and consist of a fever, body aches, dry cough, and extreme tiredness. Cold symptoms are less severe and people experience a stuffy nose, productive cough, slight tiredness, and limited body aches." (http://www.flufacts.com/about/cold.aspx)

For the flu, you will say:

I have the flu.

I caught the flu. (grammatically correct but it sounds a bit strange)

She gave me the flu.

Now, let's talk about our stomach and digestive systems! yay! hahaha

I have a stomach flu. (sick to your stomach, maybe vomiting, usually last 24 hours)

I have an upset stomach. (your stomach is bothering you, not seriously sick)

I have a stomachache. (your stomach is bothering you, painfully)

I have heartburn. (you have a burning feeling in your stomach 虫酸 [むしず])

Sometimes, when you have a stomach problem it might move to your digestive system. There are two problems you might have:

constipation: this is when you have trouble going to the toilet, 便秘 [べんぴ]

diarrhea: this is when you always have to go to the toilet 下痢 [げり]

Ok, there are just a few more words I would like to talk about. First, there is insomnia. This is when you are ill and can't sleep. In Japanese, it is 不眠 [ふみん].

Next, I would like to talk about the word fever. Be careful, fever is a noun so you must use the verb to have.

I have a fever.

I am feverish. (adjective)

Hmmm, ok that is enough. Have a great week people!

Phil

Si and Shi...

I recently noticed that many of my students have a hard time with the "si" sound. I think this is because in Japanese there is no "si" only "shi" or "し". So in Japanese you have sa さ, shi し, su す, se せ, so そ, which makes it very difficult for Japanese English speakers to pronounce the "si" without the "sh" sound attached to it.

I went over a tongue twister before to practice the "shi" sound:

She sells seashells by the seashore.

This will also help you with the "si" sound. All of these are pronounced the same:

C = see = sea = si(like the Spanish word for yes)

Now let's break down the previous tongue twister.

し sells si-shells by the si-shore

That tongue twister is a bit challenging and I would like to focus on the "si" sound without dealing with the "sh" sound at all. So, I wrote a simpler one to get you started.

Here it is:

Silly Sid sips single malt whiskey in the city of Sidney.

So you can practice the "si" sound 6 times in one sentence!

頑張れ！！！

Medical words part 1

Ok, so here are some medical words for mikan-chan. This will be a two or three part series because there are alot of words used to talk about being sick.

So to get us started let's go over three words, sick, ill and injured.

Sick and ill are adjectives. So to use them you must use the verb to be and say:

"I'm sick."

"He's sick."

"They're ill."

They have the same meaning, the only difference is that ill is a bit of an older word so we don't use it so often. This means that ill sounds more formal than sick. "I'm ill" sounds a little strange, you should say "I'm sick".

Now, both ill and sick can be turned into nouns by adding the suffix -ness to them. So ill becomes illness and sick becomes sickness. They are now nouns so you must use the verb to have:

"I have a sickness."

"I have an illness."

Here, things change a little. They no longer have the same meaning. Their meanings are slightly different. Illness is used for physical conditions and sickness is used for mental conditions. Also, both are usually used to talk about SOMEONE ELSE or about the disease itself.

"His illness is spreading quickly."

"That sickness is highly contagious."

Oh, contagious is an adjective which means the virus or bacteria can easily be given to someone else.

Let's talk about getting into an accident and breaking your leg...

"I broke my leg so I have to wear this cast for two months!"

A cast is a wrapping made of plaster that stops you from moving your body so that the bones have time to heal. When you are hurt in an accident, we use the verb to injure. So, "I injured my leg when I fell down the stairs", you are not sick or ill... you are injured(adj).

Sick and ill are used for medical conditions caused by your body(ex: cancer, metabolic diseases) or by bacterias and viruses. Injured, is used when you break something in your body, usually by accident.

"Help! I'm injured, I can't walk".

Injury, is the noun form of injured. So;

"He has a head injury."

"Her injury is not severe so she will be fine in a few weeks."

Well, I think that is enough for now, drop by for the next part in this series!

Phil

It's cleaning time~!!!

Hey everyone, how are you? This in Japan are cool but there seem to be some typhoons or something coming to Japan this week which is kind of annoying when the forecast says it will rain 10cm in a day... ...especially, when it barely rains~!!! hahaha

Anyways, due to the forecast I decided to skip going to the beach and instead went to Osaka. I picked up a Nintendo Wii and managed to set it up even though it was all in Japanese. Good practice for me, I guess. ^-^

I had picked up Red Steel from Book Off last Saturday for 10 bucks and it was cool trying it out. It was made by Ubisoft who have a HUGE office in Montreal so it is nice to support my hometown. The game is a first person shooter(with Japanese subtitles) which also involves some sword-fighting too! It is cool playing with the wii controllers, much more exercise than a regular game console. I look forward to playing it some more and picking up the wii fit.

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Well, it's time to talk about learning some English ^_- today, I am going to go over some useful vocabulary and phrasal verbs that have to do with cleaning.

messy

This is an adjective meaning disorderly, untidy, etc. To me, it is not really dirty, more it is clean but things are all over the place, nothing is put away...

Look at this mess! How did you make our hotel room so messy? We've only been here 2 hours!?!?!

dirty

This adjectives means the opposite of clean, there is dirt present... so to me, it is stronger than messy.

Billy was playing in the park, he got his clothes really dirty!

clean up

This phrasal verb is telling you, make something or somewhere clean. You put things away and also get rid of any dirt.

Sorry guys, I can't go out tonight I have to clean up my room.

tidy up

This phrasal verb goes with messy; "you have to tidy up your messy room". It means, to put away things, to organize them. It does not really mean getting out the mop and cleaning in a serious way... it is a more casual kind of cleaning.

Oh! My girlfriend just called, she's coming over. Hurry, help me tidy up!

straighten up

This phrasal verb is very similar to tidy up, the main difference is that it is more formal and a bit of a higher level expression.

Smith, straighten up your office! Our clients will be here any minute!!!

Alright, that's all for now. I will try to think of some medical English for mikan-chan...

See you,

Phil

New Men's fashion in Japan... mullets???

Just wanted to say one quick thing, suddenly in Japan I am seeing a lot of freakin' ugly mullets on young Japanese guys. Seriously, this started just last weekend. I saw two guys(one a 12 year old boy~!) with mullets in one day!!! I have been in Japan for several years now and NEVER saw ANYONE with a mullet until recently. I thought it might be a fluke but then today, I saw a guy in my building with a mullet too. He had long hair in the back(plus some white extensions!?!?!?!) and really short hair on the sides with some patterns shaved into his head.

What the hell is going on??? How did this trailer trash fashion get to Japan? And why on Earth would anyone want to look like such an idiot?

For those of you who don't know, a mullet is a men's hairstyle where the hair on top and on the sides is quite short but it is kind of long in the back. In North America, it is associated with low class(i.e. poor) people who often live in trailer parks...

check out wikipedia for more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullet_(haircut)

Family members...

Ok, today I will talk about the changes that are happening with families in the West. You should all know the basic family vocabulary:

1. mother
2. father
3. brother
4. sister
5. uncle
6. aunt
7. cousin
8. grandfather
9. grandmother

Those are the words you need to know and cover most people's families. Recently, families have become more complicated due to rising rates of divorce and 2nd marriages. Also, adoption has become more common.

Adoption, is when your biological parents (biological mother, biological father) can't take care of you and so they give you to the government or an adoption agency. Then the adoption agency finds you a new family. This new family then becomes your adoptive family(adoptive mother, adoptive father, etc.).

Next we have the term "step-something", this means that you are not biologically related but that you are related through your parent's marriage. Think of Cinderella with her wicked step-mother and step-sisters.

For example; your parents have gotten divorced and the your mother remarries. Her new husband will become your step-father. If he has a family from a previous marriage you will have some step-brothers and/or step-sisters. In the past, people usually got remarried because their spouse(husband or wife) died. After a period of mourning, they would often get remarried.

Now, if your step-father and your mother (or your step-mother and father) have children together these will become your half-brothers and/or half-sisters. They are half- because you share one biological parent.

The next category are in-laws. This is your spouse's family. So your wife/husband's sister is your sister-in-law. Your spouse's father is your father-in-law and mother is your mother-in-law. We call them in-laws because you are related through a legal agreement but not biologically.

Wow, lots of vocabulary today! If you have any questions just ask,

Phil

I'm sorry, I'm a little rusty...

Today, I will go over a useful idiom. Rust is what happens when iron oxidizes due humidity(water). Basically, if you leave your metal tools outside they will start to turn a reddish-orange color. That is rust. In Japanese, you say:

錆(P); 錆び 【さび】 (n) rust; (P) この車は錆に強い。 This car is resistant to rust.

Rusty is an adjective which means something is covered in rust. It is also used to talk about a person's skills or abilities.

If I say: "I'm sorry, I'm a little rusty..." it means that I haven't used my skills in a long time so they aren't as good as they used to be. It simply means; I am out of practice.

Thanks to the JDIC, the best online Japanese-English dictionary for the translation of rust.

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Homonyms...

Hey everyone, first off I'd like to apologize about last month. I was busy back in Canada and then when I returned to Japan I had to go renew my visa and go on a business trip to Hiroshima~! Yup, I have been TOO busy these days and I am looking forward to my weekend so that I can relax.

Today, I will talk about homonyms. They are words that have the same pronunciation but a different meaning.

Sometimes, they have the SAME SPELLING:

a tick - a small insect that lives in tall grass

a tick - a metallic tapping or clicking sound, like a clock "tick tock"

Sometimes, they have DIFFERENT SPELLINGS:

sweet - 1. the opposite of sour, in Japanese 甘い

suite - in Japanese, スイートルーム

Homonyms are really interesting but a little difficult. You need to know which word someone means by looking at the context. If someone says "This cookie is sweet" they are probably not talking about a room!

When you are reading in English, it is a little easier because the spelling is often different. Japanese also has homonyms but you usually use the same spelling in hiragana but different kanji~! For example, 薄い thin, and 雨水, rain water can both be pronounced as うすい.

The homonym I have taught the most is: there, their and they're. These three words have the exact SAME PRONUNCIATION but different meanings.

there - is indicative, it indicates a place

He's standing over there by the fountain.

their - is possessive, like his or her

Did you like their new apartment?

they're - is a contraction of they are

They're about to start the show!

When speaking you will pronounce these words in the same way but please be careful when writing in English not to mix up the spelling~! This is a common mistake many University students in Canada make ^_-