What language (other than English) do you speak?

[GoktimusPrime]

From here

Wow, google says it's a way of spelling Jail from the 18th century. Get with the times people. It's jail.

In American English, yes. But Standard English (including Australian English) traditionally spells it as "gaol." Some of us evidently still like to keep our English un-Americanised.

But I personally prefer...
* Programme instead of program (unless I'm talking about software)
* Mould instead of mold
* licence instead of license (unless I'm using it as a verb)
* practise instead of practice (unless I'm using it as a noun)
* Latin based ~ise ending instead of Greek based ~ize ending (e.g. recognise, Americanise, theorise etc.)
* I only use the word "ass" if I'm talking about a donkey; if I'm talking about buttocks I use the word the word "sparse" minus the first two letters.
* premiere instead of premier (unless I'm talking about a head of state)
* parlour instead of parlor

Just for fun: How Australian is your English? (quiz game)

[gekisou]

Just for fun: How Australian is your English? (quiz game)

Huh... evidently, my English is more American than Aussie... wtf?

[DELTAprime]

So that quiz says I'm more Aussie. But I use some American terms and some Aussie terms. Mostly my spelling is American except for the letter "u" in colour, mould, etc. It's just what you come across more often on the web and since I never learnt well in a classroom environment I failed English at both levels of school. As for Gaol I've never seen it spelt like that ever. Probably doesn't help that around here someone on the news doesn't get sent to Gaol or Jail, they get sent to a "Correctional Facility".

[Bidoofdude]

Mine was definitely Australian. I didn't use dunny, but I think that's about it.

[GoktimusPrime]

I didn't use dunny, but I think that's about it.

So do you use washables or disposables?

[Bidoofdude]

So do you use washables or disposables?

I use the toilet...

[GoktimusPrime]

I use the toilet...

Okay, I say "toilet" too, but given a choice between 'dunny' and 'bathroom,' I'd definitely take dunny. I've never ever referred to a toilet as "the bathroom," maybe unless the toilet itself was located inside a bathroom.

[Bidoofdude]

Okay, I say "toilet" too, but given a choice between 'dunny' and 'bathroom,' I'd definitely take dunny. I've never ever referred to a toilet as "the bathroom," maybe unless the toilet itself was located inside a bathroom.

Isn't the word 'toilet' taken as offensive in the US? I recall hearing that's why they say bathroom.

[Thurmus]

Hey GoktimusPrime,

My daughter is in Grade 3 next year. At her primary school, (public) they do Japanese. She enjoys learning it.

Are there an good books or CDs I could get her to help her?

I know they were also learning some of the writing this year and her teacher said she is going well but needs to practice.

Thanks in advance.

[GoktimusPrime]

Hi Thurmus,

Here are some tips:

+ Use flashcards to help her learn Hiragana. I recommend trying 1 or 2 sets at a time (e.g. あ(a) い(i) う(u) え(e) お(o) as one set, か(ka) き(ki) く(ku) け(ke) こ(ko) as the next set etc.). She should be able to sight read them pretty quickly in the first session; once that happens, reduce the amount of time that she has to look at each character before eliciting her to tell you what it says. e.g. show her the card for あ(a); give her 3 seconds before putting the card away and ask her to tell you what it is. Next time give her 2 seconds, then 1 second, then a fraction of a second. Shuffle the cards and repeat. This is why they're called 'flash' cards because you're visually "flashing" them before her eyes.

+ Play flash card games. Once you have gone through all of the sets, shuffle them and repeat the above process. You might also give her some simple Japanese words and ask her to form the words using the cards (which should be spread out in front of her in random order), e.g. you might say "sushi," and elicit her to find the flash cards for す(su) and し(shi) and place them in order. I've found that the use of flash cards helped my 5 year old daughter learn to read Hiragana really well (she reads with about 80% accuracy now). Here's a pretty good site for Hiragana flashcards that you can print out:
http://happylilac.net/hiragana-match.html
And there are other good printable Hiragana resources for children here:
http://happylilac.net/hiragana-h.html

+ Flash cards for sight words. This is something that I'm going to do with my daughter soon. It's similar to what they do in Kindy when they're learning to read with the high frequency words (e.g. this, that, he, she, was, were etc.).

+ As for books, I would just recommend reading children's books in Japanese. My daughter is currently read Frozen in Japanese. I'm not familiar with Japanese book stores in Melbourne. Amazon Japan does ship books internationally, and I think Kinokuniya has online shopping. Japanese books can be somewhat expensive when purchased new (especially from import stores), but second hand stores are a LOT cheaper, but again, I don't know of any 2nd hand Japanese book stores in Melbourne. Also, 2nd hand stores have a more limited range.