summer weather...

Hey guys, summer vacation is just around the corner... and things are getting way too hot in Japan~! So here's a quick lesson of useful vocabulary to talk about this kind of weather.

muggy

This means it is hot and  very humid, it is similar to 油照り (あぶらでり) or 蒸し暑い（むしあつい）. This kind of weather makes you sweat a lot and your clothes stick to your skin.

It's been really muggy lately, by the time I get to work my shirt is soaked with sweat! Gross!

sweltering

This means it is excessively hot and humid. It's too hot and humid and it makes you sweat like crazy. It is stronger than muggy, so muggy that you don't even want to move.

Let's go to the Japan Alps to escape the sweltering summer heat in the city.

boiling

This literally means 100C when water boils but it is used in casual English to say that it is REALLY hot. The opposite is freezing.

It's boiling. Let's go somewhere with air conditioning.

scorching hot

This means it is VERY VERY hot. It is hot and dry enough to burn.

It was scorching hot yesterday! I went to the beach and burned my feet when I stepped onto the sand!

stuffy

This means that the air is old and stale, it isn't fresh. We often use it to describe a house or room. In the summer, when you go away on vacation then come home your place is usually stuffy.

Hey open the windows, this room is too stuffy.

This month is vacation time so I am not sure how often I will be posting on my blog. I will aim for about 6 times. Wish me luck!


Phil


 

I'm feeling lethargic...

Do you understand this sentence? Recently, Kyoto has been really hot and humid and it is making me feel lethargic.

Now, the medical definition of lethargic is that someone is in an almost coma-like state, they can't speak, move, etc. But when people use lethargic in casual conversation they usually just mean they feel tired and don't want to do ANYTHING-not even move! So lethargic is stronger than lazy.

Lazy is when you don't want to work, you want to do nothing.

Lethargic is when you don't feel like doing anything. Maybe you want to do something but you just can't find the energy to do it.

Sluggish is similar to lethargic but, to me, when I hear sluggish I think of moving SLOWLY and not thinking clearly. Whereas, lethargic people don't want to move at all.

If I feel sluggish, maybe I still want to do something but because of a hangover or something I am moving slowly and can't think as quickly as usual.

The opposite of lethargic is energetic. In Japanese, lethargic is:

不活発; 不活溌 (ふかっぱつ)

Lethargic is an adjective, the noun is lethargy.

He suffers from lethargy. (n)

He is lethargic. (adj)

Hmmm, maybe it is natsubate that is making me feel lethargic~! hahaha

Have a nice week,

Phil

P.S. this page has many sample sentences using lethargic

Rainy day vocabulary...

Hey everyone, today in Kyoto it is a rainy day so I thought for my last lesson this month I would go over different ways of describing rain. If you are interested in studying the weather a bit more please see this old post ^-^

Ok so here are some examples, from weakest to strongest, on how to describe rain:

It's drizzly./ There's a drizzle.

It's raining lightly/There's a light rain.

It's raining.

It's raining heavily/There's a heavy rain.

It's pouring down/There's a downpour. (not so common in the US/Canada)

It's raining cats and dogs. (idiom for very heavy rain)

It's raining torrentially/There's a torrential rain.(not commonly used)

There's a torrential downpour.

All of these just refer to rain, a torrential downpour is a crazy heavy rain with some heavy wind but no thunder or lighting. When there's thunder or lighting you will say there's a storm/it's stormy or even more specifically there's a thunderstorm. There's a drizzle is when it is raining extremely lightly.

Also, you might hear the term "scattered showers" in a weather forecast. This means that it will rain off and on throughout the day in small bursts.

Hmm, I think that is enough for now. I hope the weather is nicer where you are~! Drizzly gray days sap my energy~! (meaning they take away my energy)

Phil

Weather words...

Today, I will give Mikan-chan what she wants and talk about weather vocabulary. Ready? Here we go~!

weather = 天気

sunny = hare 晴れ

cloudy = kumori 曇り

rainy = ame 雨

snowy = yuki 雪

windy = kaze ga tsuyoi 風が強い

climate = 気候

hot = atsui 暑い

nice/mild = sugoshi-yasui 過ごしやすい

humid(& hot) = mushi-atsui 蒸し暑い

cool = suzushii 涼しい

warm(& nice) = atatakai 暖かい

cold = samui 寒い

There are many words like rainy and snowy which I never really used before I came to Japan but now I find myself teaching them to kids~!

It's raining.
It's snowing.

This seems more natural to me than:

It's rainy.
It's snowy.

But I would say "It's a snowy day" or "It's a rainy night". In the same way:

There's a storm(heavy rain & wind).

but

It was a dark and stormy night.

So I guess sunny, cloudy and windy are often used to say "It's _____" but most of the other -y adjective weather words are usually used to DESCRIBE a day, night or other noun.

When you watch a weather forecast(天気予報) you will hear many words like:

partly cloudy = a little bit cloudy, but usually sunny
partly sunny = a little bit sunny, but usually cloudy

mostly cloudy = lots of cloudy periods but sunny sometimes
mostly sunny = lots of sunny periods but cloudy sometimes

You might also hear things about:

tornado =トルネード

hurricanes =ハリケーン, 台風 in the Atlantic Ocean
typhoons = 台風, in the Pacific Ocean

hail =雹 hyou (over 5mm) 霰 arare (over 5mm)

thunder =雷 kaminari

lightning = 襲雷 shuurai

thunderstorm = 雷雨 raiu

freezing rain = rain that freezes when it reaches the ground, quite dangerous

Well that is it for now, I hope it helped Mikan-chan!

Phil