カテゴリー: general info

NHK Anchor called Te-form “Tegata” which should be “Tekei”

Last night I was going to fall asleep in the bed at around 11p.m. At that time, I was leaving my radio on. I was feeling like I was listening to the news at 11 o’clock, but I don’t remember what I heard from the radio speaker. Soon after the news program ended, the late-night program started at 11:05, which was “Rajio Shinyabin” on NHK AM. The male radio anchor started the program with mentioning there were a lot of words that ended with “te”. Since I was about to sleep, I don’t remember exactly what he said, but words with “te” were used to describe order of two actions, conditions while the action, and cause/reason. And he added that Japanese teachers were making much effort to teach those words with “te” with calling them “Tegata”.

I am not sure how many Japanese teachers were listening to NHK AM radio in late night at 11, but I am sure that almost all Japanese teacher who listened to it must have shouted “That’s ‘Tekei’!”          

Perhaps the radio anchor was not saying what he thought himself, but reading what a broadcast writer wrote on paper. It seems like the writer researched well about “words with ‘te'”, because mentioning several functions of “te” like him was not what an ordinary Japanese could think of. 

What is called “Te-form” by Japanese teachers and learners is written in Japanese as “テ形/て形/てけい”. Spelling is “てけい/Tekei”, but the pronunciation is “てけえ/Teke’e”. So for the word “て形” , the Kanji “形” is read as “けい/kei” which is one of On-pronunciations. If you read the Kanji “形” as “がた/gata”, it is one of Kun-pronunciations. Since a Kanji has several patterns of pronunciations of On- and Kun-pronunciations, it is difficult even for Japanese to use the right one. Actually there is a word “Tegata” in Japanese and it’s Kanji is “手形” which doesn’t has to do with Japanese grammar. Since the Kanji “形” is used for conjugation patterns like “終止形”,”連体形”, and “連用形”, and all these “形” is pronounced as “kei”.

Someone might have pointed out to NHK saying it’s not Tegata but Tekei. But I don’t know if the collection was aired in the program or not (the program continued until 5 a.m.!) because I soon turned off the radio, and fell asleep.

Visited a Day-Service Facility for my Mother Today

I took my mother to a day service facility today. Actually, the place was the second one, I mean, last week we visited another day service facility. The purpose of visiting two places is to compare the two so that we can choose the better one. Before getting there at 2 p.m., we had a little late lunch in a Rahmen restaurant. Mine was Soy-sauce Rahmen with pork slice on top. My mother’s was a half Rahmen as the photo below. We visited the facility, got some guidance of the facility, looked around the rooms and the activity of the afternoon, and said good-bye to the people there. When we came back our home, I asked my mother which of the two day-service facilities she likes. She said that she had already forgot the facility we visited last week, so she couldn’t compare the two.

I have started saving up for my funeral expenses

Most of people in my neighborhood save up money for their own funeral expenses well before the last day in this world. There are two major funeral companies in this region, competing to get customers who could sign up such savings. Let me call them A and B. My father had paid for his own funeral to the company A, while he was still alive. After the funeral of my father, my mother started to pay monthly likewise. Her course was 36-Man’en(approximately 2,300USD), by paying 3000JPY every month, 120 times. She has already paid 70 times. Recently the company A said to me that they wanted to confirm her condition and to give her a birthday present. And today, one of their employees came to my home. I thought it was a good chance for me to start payment for my own funeral. Because I was satisfied with the service they provided in my father’s funeral, and it was a little nuisance that the company B made phone calls to me often.

I signed today the 24-Man’en course, which is way cheaper than my mother’s. I just thought my funeral would not cost so much because very few people will come to my funeral. My payment is 2000JPY, 120times. It continues ten years. I hope my funeral will happen after my payment has finished, but future is unknown. When it comes to predicting future, we Japanese think that “A devil will laugh at me”.

I went to medical check today

Since I am not a company employee, I don’t have a company health insurance. My health insurance is the national health insurance. Under that health insurance, I can get some health checks once a year. Last week I got X-ray chest test in the community center. And this morning, I went to a local clinic this morning and got urine and blood tests. I need to go to the clinic again in ten days, to hear the results. I hope there will be no bad result that needs a detailed inspection.

Rice Fields and a Local Train in Niigata, Northern Japan

I guess that people like these kinds of photographs better than my Japanese Learning posts. The reason why I am trying to posts about Japanese Learning is that I hope someday my posts will feed the database of AI. Probably my posts would not help Japanese learners directly, but if those posts could be helpful to learners indirectly through AI, I would be happy.

Three Photos in mid-October, Two Years ago

Tonight, I don’t think of what to write for posting. My (ex)students can tell where the photos were taken.

Area behind the Library

The Straight Road from the University cafeteria to the Tower

Boiled dumplings

It’s a little sad to say, but it seems to me they are things happened long time ago.