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【No. 0114】Beethoven Portrait

Apr 11, 2015 22:49
Beethoven Portrait
ベートーヴェンの肖像画

In most music rooms of Japanese elementary schools, a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven is displayed.
日本の小学校の音楽室には、ルートヴィヒ・ヴァン・ベートーヴェンの肖像画が飾られていることが多いです。

However, Beethoven is displeased look in the most famous portrait, which was drawn by Fernando Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller in 1823.
しかし、1823年にフェルナンド・ヴァルトミュラーが描いた最も有名な肖像画は、不機嫌な顔付きで描かれています。

Why was he so mad?
彼は何に怒っているのでしょうか？

According to the record of his pupil, Schindler, Beethoven was angry all day because his favorite food "macaroni cheese," that was made by his housekeeper tasted bad.
弟子のシントラーの記録によれば、家政婦が作った彼の大好物「マカロニチーズ」が不味かったため、一日中機嫌が悪かったそうです。

Although such a background, the Beethoven portrait is often used in ghost story in Japan.
そんな背景があるにも関わらず、日本ではベートーヴェンの肖像画はよく怪談話に使われます。

【No. 0112】Salt Content in a Ramen

Apr 9, 2015 23:12
Salt Content in a Ramen
ラーメンの塩分

Today, I went to a ramen shop to eat Szechuan spicy noodles with my friends.
今日は友人と、ラーメン屋に担々麺を食べに行きました。

The ramens, especially the Szechuan spicy noodles have a high salt content, and it's not good for our health.
ラーメン、特に担々麺は塩分含有量が高く、あまり健康には良くありません。

In fact, the salt content of the Szechuan spicy noodles is about 6.3 grams.
実際、担々麺の塩分含有量は約 6.3 g です。

According to the WHO, it is recommended that people limit their salt intake no more than 5 grams per day.
WHOでは一日の塩分摂取量が 5 g 以下になることを推奨しています。

Also, the US government recommends that Americans limit their salt intake no more than about 6 grams per day to prevent a cardiovascular disease.
また、米国では心臓血管病の予防のため、一日の塩分摂取量が約 6 g 以下になるよう呼びかけています。

That is, if you ate the Szechuan spicy noodles, your health would be exposed to risk.
つまり、担々麺を食べた時点でアウトです。

However, Japanese people get salt average 10 g per day.
しかし、日本人は一日に平均 10 g の塩分を摂取しています。

Therefore, most Japanese people have the problem of high-blood pressure.
このため、日本人は高血圧の人が非常に多いです。

I'd like to be careful not to become HBP.
私も高血圧にならないよう気を付けたいです。
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【No. 0111】When I post English sentences with my native language on Lang-8.

Apr 8, 2015 22:42
When I post English sentences with my native language on Lang-8.
Lang-8で母語の文章を掲載するにあたって

Recently, when I post an English article, I also post article in my native language (Japanese) at the same time.
私はLang-8に英語で記事を投稿するとき、母語（日本語）での文章も同時に投稿します。

And for now, I had written Japanese sentences in the form that is prepared for an article in a native language.
これまでは、母語で書くスペースがあったので、そこに日本語の文章を書いてきました。

However, I found that some people was writing sentences in a learning language and sentences in a native language alternately like this.
しかし他の人の記事を見ていると、このように学習中の言語の文章と母語の文章を交互に書いている人がいました。

Posting articles with our native languages is convenient to corrections, but if the distance between the article in their learning languages and the article in their native language was far, it might be a little troublesome to refer to their sentences.
母語での投稿は、添削をするにあたり便利ではありますが、文章が離れていると対応する箇所を参照するのが少し面倒かもしれません。

On the other hand, if we used this style, it would be easy to refer to corresponding sentences.
それに対して、このようにすれば、参照が容易になります。

Since I thought this idea was good, I am currently imitating that.
私は、これは良いアイデアだと思い、現在真似をしています。

For other people who are using Lang-8, what do they think about this style?
他の添削する方々にとっては、このようなスタイルはどうなのでしょうか？

I would be grateful if you could tell me about your views.
意見を頂けたら幸いな思いです。
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【No. 0110】Predicate adjectives that begin with "a"

Apr 7, 2015 23:53
Today, I learned an adjective that begin with "a" is a predicative adjective almost all cases.

In the other words, this adjective don't modify nouns, but is used for a complement.

For example, afraid, alike, alone, asleep, alive awake, etc.

(Of course, there are exceptions such as unable, well, glad, worth, pleased, liable.)

I became curious, so I searched for them.

In Old English, these adjectives had a meaning of progressive, or was a past participle, so they often represent a state.

Also, a progressive form in Old English was represented like "bēon + on + V-ing."

Through Medium English from Old English, prefixes "an-" and "a-" came to be used instead of "on."

It is said that "alive" or "asleep" is exist as a vestige of that.

This is the reason why an adjective that begin with "a" is a predicative adjective.

Also, a present participle was represented like "bēon + V-ende" in Old English, and this became "be + V-ing," and finally, a progressive form "be + V-ing" was born by combining a gerund and a present participle.

Ah, I think my sentences are so hard to understand. I'm sorry.
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【No. 0108】Important to me or important for me

Apr 5, 2015 22:47
I heard a phrase like "that is important to me," in a US drama.

I often use the phrase "important for me," but have never used the phrase "important to me," so I searched them.

As a result, I found the following things:

・In the case of using a sense subject like "it is important for me to...," we must use "for me."

・In the case like "this is important to me," we usually use "to me."

・In the case like "you are important for/to my life," for specific purposes, we can use both "for" and "to."

However, the nuances might differ.

Also, I found sentences such as the followings:

It is important to you for me to become a doctor.
It is important to me for you to become a doctor.

When I see these sentences suddenly, I would be thrown into utter chaos. Haha.
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【No. 0107】The Tourism Ambassador Godzilla

Apr 4, 2015 23:56
In Tokyo Shinjuku on April 17, a building will open that is attached the head of the Godzilla.

In this opportunity, Shinjuku decided to issue of residency cards for the Godzilla, and to appoint the Godzilla to a tourism ambassador.

By establishing the Godzilla in a symbol of Shinjuku, Shinjuku harbor designs on attracting many tourists.

【No. 0104】April Fool's Rule

Apr 1, 2015 23:27
Today is the beginning day of the new semester in Japan, and new members were joined our laboratory.

Today is also April Fools day that we can say lying, but in around me, there were no people who were lying.

By the way, do you know an April Fool's rule?

There is a rule that we can say lying only in the forenoon in April 1.

It is a lie that is popular in Japan in recent years, haha.

However, this rule is not a complete lie.

I heard this forenoon rule is a general thing in Britain, Australia, and South Africa (Maybe this is true).

In the UK, there is an anniversary of the Restoration called "Oak Apple Day," and there is a traditional custom to wear oak apples up to noon.

It is said that this custom influenced April Fools Day.

For now, we can say lying all day in April Fools day in the US, Russia, France, Japan and many other countries, but in the future, there is a possibility that the forenoon rule become used in general.

【No. 0103】Hackers and Crackers

Mar 31, 2015 23:18
Today, we could not access the internet at our university.

The cause was unclear, and we could not use internet almost all day, so it was really inconvenient.

Someone might attack server of our university.

We (this may be applied only to Japanese people) often refer to a person who attack network system et cetera as a hacker, but this is not correct.

Hackers have a deep technical knowledge that is related to computers or network, and they use the knowledge for system improvement or problem solving.

In other words, hackers are good people.

Although hackers also refer to people who look at inside of computers, when accompanied by illegal acts such as unauthorized access, destruction or falsification, they are called crackers.

However, since hackers and crackers are often confusing, we sometimes refer to a benevolent hackers as a white hat hacker, and refer to a cracker as a black hat hacker.

Also, an especially good hacker is called "wizard" or "guru."

I sometimes hack Java, but I'm not villain.
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【No. 0102】Meaning of "K" in "4K"

Mar 30, 2015 18:55
We recently came to use the word "4K" or "8K" as an resolution indicator.

If we use the word "4K," it probably means the resolution of 3820x2160, and this is comparable to four times the Full HD resolution(1980x1080).

Therefore I thought "4" of "4K" means "4 times."

However, the meaning of "K" was "kilo."

That is, "4K" represents that the width of the resolution is around 4000 pixels.
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【No. 0101】Irregular Verbs

Mar 29, 2015 19:57
I sometimes suffer from irregular verbs.

When people began to use English, almost all verbs were irregular.

It may be said that there were some sort of rules.

However, by many wars, many words with various origins came to be used as English, and English words and grammars became more and more irresponsible.

In order to organize them, people established a rule that past tenses/past participles put [-ed], as a result, many irregular verbs disappeared.

Currently, the number of irregular verbs that are taught in the United States high school is around 160.

Because people have a leaning toward simplify things, it is said that almost all irregular verbs will disappear in the future.

By the way, there are no irregular verbs in Esperanto, which is artificial language, and this language is registered in the Guinness Book as the language which have the smallest irregular verbs in the world.
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【No. 0099】"Because" versus "Since" versus "As"

Mar 27, 2015 16:53
I didn't aware of the difference between "because" and "since" and "as," which can represent reasons as conjunctions.

However, I am sometimes corrected about how to use these conjunctions, so I'd like to summarize the differences of their nuances.

・"Because" is used when the reason is very important, or the reason is new/difficult information.
・"Since" is used when the reason is not important, or the reason is already known.
・"As" is a more casual expression than "since."
・"For" is also used as a conjunction that represents reasons, though, it's a bit old usage.

Since there are no clear rules about using these conjunctions, maybe no need to become nervous.

However, if we used "because" for a matter of course, it would sound as if mocking.

For example, "because it raining, it is humid."

I'd like to be careful.

【No. 0094】Baumkuchen

Mar 22, 2015 20:26
Today, I ate a slice of Baumkuchen that is my junior's souvenir.

Baumkuchen is a cake that originated in Germany, balm means a tree, and kuchen means a cake.

Also, Baumkuchen has two etymologies.

One is that it had been baked while entwining soft doughs and a stick of oak trees.

The other is that a cross-section of this cake looks like tree rings.

Baumkuchen is very famous as a German cake in Japan, and we often use Baumkuchen as a gift of wedding etc.

However, I heard Baumkuchen is not very famous in Germany.

Someday, I'd like to eat Baumkuchen that are sold in Dusseldorf, Germany.

【No. 0093】Cactus

Mar 21, 2015 17:16
Today, I bought cactuses as graduation gifts for my juniors in next week's graduation ceremony.

I usually buy bouquet flowers as a graduation gift, but my juniors said like they want succulent plants like cactuses in advance, so I chose pots which several cactuses were planted.

It is easy to grow cactuses, and it will not wither easily.

Cactuses have thorns, but actually, they are leaves of the cactuses.

It is said that by the leaves shaped like thorns, the surface area would reduce, and it would prevent the evaporation of moisture.

In addition, the thorns have a role of cooling their bodies by scattering strong sunlight.

If you pulled out all the thorns, the surface temperature of the cactus would rise 10 degrees.
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【No. 0092】Traffic Light Color

Mar 20, 2015 11:26
　Traffic light colors are based on universal standard. According to the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), colors that can be used for traffic lights are "red, yellow, green, blue, purple and white," but we use only "red, yellow and blue-green" in most cases. Although a green light might look completely green, the actual color is usually blue-green. Since our eyes are sensitive to green, we view the blue-green light to be green light.

　Also, Japanese people refer to a green light as "青信号 (blue light)," though, we look it's green. It is said that the reason is that we represented all colors from green to blue using only the word "blue," or we thought the contrast of red is blue.
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【No. 0091】Japanese Loves Bath

Mar 19, 2015 12:54
Most Japanese love baths, and get in a bath everyday.

We take average thirty three minutes for a bath, and this is the longest time in the world.

I'm also get in a public bath that is attached to a sport gym everyday.

Since I can relax and feel good by taking a bath, I usually take about an hour for the bath.

I think the public bath is also excellent as a place of communication.

However, when you take Japanese public baths or hot springs, note that there are some bathing etiquette as the followings:

・You must wash your body before you get in a bath.
・You must not put your towels into a bath.
・You must take a shower after you use a sauna.
・You must wipe your body carefully before you return to a changing room.
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【No. 0090】Mouse and Mickey

Mar 18, 2015 18:56
In most cases, a mouse is a necessary component for us to use a computer.

There is a unit that represents a sensitivity of the mouse.

The name of the unit is "mickey," and 1 mickey means 1/100 inch mouse movement.

A mouse driver get information of how many mickey the mouse was moved, and then, cursor movements will be determined.

The godparent of this unit is Chris Peters, who was working at Microsoft as a programmer.

I'm not sure whether this name is a joke derived from some sort of characters or not, however, I think we should not poke into this thing to avoid a terrible eventuality.

Haha.
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【No. 0089】The Longest English Word

Mar 17, 2015 19:08
It was written that interesting things as the followings on a web site:

・"Almost" is the longest English word with all letters alphabetically sorted.
・"Rhythm" is the longest English word without vowels.

Since it was interesting for me that such familiar words are the longest, I searched these things.

Then, "aegilops" and "Adelops" were found as words whose letters are in alphabetical order.

That is, "almost" is an almost longest English word with all letters alphabetically sorted.

Also, "symphysy," "nymphly" and "TWYNDYLLYNG" were found as words without vowels.

Furthermore, it is said that the "y" of the "rhythm" is a vowel, isn't it?

In this way, there is a little difference between the facts and the written things.

I think that the author wanted to make an impact, so he used familiar words as the longest English words.
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【No. 0087】Today, I went on a trip to Chiba prefecture with my juniors.

Mar 15, 2015 23:57
Today, I went on a trip to Chiba prefecture with my juniors.

We departed at 5 a.m., passed through an undersea tunnel of the aqualine, and ate breakfast at umihotaru parking area.

The aqualine is a highway that connects Tokyo and Chiba, and this undersea tunnel is the longest in the world.

We exited the tunnel, and then, we arrived at the Umihotaru parking area, which is artificial island.

it was a really beautiful location.

Then, we went to capes and mountains, we ate a Lucullan fish cuisine at a hotel.

It was a fun day.

I'm drunk now, so maybe my post doesn't make sense.

I'm sorry in advance.
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【No. 0086】Why do we use the word "concent (コンセント)" as the meaning of "outlet?"

Mar 14, 2015 21:36
"Concent" is one of the most confusing Japanese-English words, which means "outlet."

I think almost all American don't know the meaning of "concent" as "outlet," while most Japanese don't know the meaning of "outlet."

Today, I'd like to introduce why "concent" came to be used for “outlet” in Japan.

About 100 years ago in Europe, outlets (sockets) that the one pole is in the center, the other pole surrounding the center had been used.

When the outlet was imported into Japan, Japanese gave it the name of "concentric plug" from the shape.

Afterward, the word "concentric plug" had been divided into "concent" and "plug," the meaning of "concent" became "outlet" of "plug."

Actually this story is one of the leading hypothesis.

There are other hypotheses, such as that it was derived from "consent."

When will the truth be revealed?
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【No. 0075】Sum of the Reciprocals of the Primes

Mar 3, 2015 23:23
Today, I'd like to talk about one of the most famous Euler's story.

Have you ever thought what the sum of the reciprocals of the primes will become?

Maybe most people know that the sum of the reciprocals of the natural number diverges to infinity (1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ･･･ = ∞).

(Note that the sum of the reciprocals of the square of the natural number converges to π^2/6.)

In 1737, Euler proved that the sum of the reciprocals of the natural number diverges to infinity (1/2 + 1/3 + 1/5 + ･･･ = ∞).

Although that the number of primes are infinite was known in about 300 B.C., anyone couldn't solve the problem during about 2000 years.

This is no wonder, since the divergence speed of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes is extremely slow.

It's known that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes from 2 until 1801241230056600523 is finally exceeds 4 (to be specific, 4.0000000000000000002).

In order to exceed 5, we need primes until around 65 digits .

This is a horrible amount of numbers.

It's not possible to store all of these primes even if we could use all storage media on the planet.

Euler had really great foresight.

Actually, he proved this problem when he was 28, and this year, I will become 28.

I hope to be able to prove something this year, hehe.