27th September 2012
issue 7iJapanese Newsletter

Published by iJapanese Language & Culture School

END OF
TERM EVENT
Let’s EnjoyJapaneseCuisine
Date:

Sushi すし 寿司 — Everyone loves sushi!
Sushi is the one of most common representations of Japanese food that is now become
popular among foreign people.
But, wait!
What is Sushi?
Sushi is a slice of raw fish or other seafood(neta) dabbed with wasabi (Japanesehorseradish) and placed on top of cooked
vinegared rice (shari).
It is believed that the original roots of sushi
originated in Southeast Asia where fishand meat were salted and then fermentedTime:

for long periods. This original sushi wasPlace:

documented in Japan in the 7th century. It
was later in the Heian period, during theCost:

10th century, when uncooked rice wasstuffed inside the fish after it was gutted,
cleaned using sake or Japanese rice wine
before it was fermented.

OUR
THANK YOUPROMOTION

It was anearly form ofwhat we call
fast food that could be eaten in public orJapanese theaters.

Today's ‘sushi’ is known as the original
Edomae zushi 'Edo-style sushi'. Edo is theold name for the city of Tokyo. This is fast
food invented by Hanaya Yoohei
towered the end of Edo period. Not much
has changed with people from Tokyo one
hundred years as they still
live in a hasty society.
The sushi invented byHanaya was not
fermented and designed
to be eaten using yourfingers or chopsticks.

Sushi became popular in the city of Edo in
the 1820’s and spread throughout the restof the country in the twentieth century.
Traditionally, sushi was considered to be aluxury food and often eaten at special
celebrateion or when entertaining special
guests. However, now that kaiten-zusi(Sushi Train) has spread across Japan,inexpensive sushi is now readily available
at kaiten-zushi restaurant chains thought
out Japan
There are various types of sushi. Whennormally we say ‘Sushi’, it is Nigiri-Zushi,
sushi served rolled in nori (dried seaweed)
and called maki-Zushi (rolls). Sushi madewith toppings stuffed into a small pouch offried tofu is called inari-Zushi; and sushi
made with toppings served scattered overa bowl of sushi rice iscalled chirashi-zushi.

To Our Cu rrent & Past Students
Thank y ou all fo r le arning at iJapanese.
To extended ou r th anks
we are offering y ou our special term sav er!

Introduce One new student,
Get 40 % off your term fee.

Introduce Two new students,
and the whole term is FREE.

Page 2 of 4

iJapanese Newsletter

Let’s try cooking
Japanese food!

Student’s Story - Thomas Yeo
Hello, my name isThomas Yeo and I’mcurrently attending
high school at
Parade College.
Every year Paraderuns an exchange
program with oursister school in Japan called Takada.

A Simple&DeliciousSeafoodRecipe

Stir Fried Calamariwith garlic salt
Ingredients:
1 Squid hood (fresh or frozen)
1 Spring onion (or Leek)
1-2 Garlicpinch of salt
1 tbs sake (rice wine)
Method:1.Cut squid into bite-size andmarinade with sake.
2. Cut the leek diagonally into
slices and chop garlic.
3. Heat oil in a pan & add chopped
garlic until aromatic.
4. Add spring onion and stir well.
5. Add squid with sake and a pinchof salt.
6. Continue stirring until cookedfor approx 3mins.

iCulture Workshops

Well this year I was lucky enough to hosta Japanese exchange student. She wasalways very polite and kind. I loved
having her stay with us; it was aninteresting experience even though I
couldn’t speak Japanese at the time.
After my student left I became moreinterested in Japan and took on thelanguage course at iJapanese. After that I
applied for the exchange program to goto Japan. My application got acceptedand I was allocated a host family.

I am extremely excited about going toJapan with my friends especially now
knowing a bit of the language. I will begoing to a city called Mie and will bestaying for 2 weeks. I have thought about
what Mie is going to be like and I think it
will be really green and colourful but over
populated at the same time.
As much as I want to see pandas runningaround in the forests I doubt I will.
Apparently there aren’t any pandas
where I’m going :(I hope the food will be amazing. I wonder
if Japan will be like the animes I watch;really cute and colourful. I really can't
wait to go and explore new things andhope I will make new friends. It’s going tobe an amazing trip!

文化講座

We will continue to hold our iCulture Workshops as they have been welcomed by our students.

Calligraphy Class

Pop Culture ClassThis workshop is designed to teach the basics of Japanesecalligraphy as well as creating your very own piece ofJapanese Calligraphy works.
You will also have the opportunity to keep your calligraphy
tools so that you can continue practicing at home.

This course introduces Japanese popular culture, especially
focusing on Amime, Manga and young people’s fashion.
You will have a basic understanding of Japanese pop culture
as it relates to anime and develop or adopt specialized
vocabulary for anime analysis with fun .

More NEW iCulture Workshops Available
Japanese History Class
Manner and Custom in Japan Class(Public or Wedding, or at a meal)

Anime ‘One Piece’ Studying Class

Kanji Class
Tourist Destinations Class
Giongo & Gitaigo Class(Onomatopoeic words)

iJapanese Newsletter

Page 3 of 4

From Mari まりより
As a continuation of the previous newsletter, I would like to introduce to you some more fun e-learning tools that will help
you improve your Japanese.
Hiragana and Katakana for beginners:
HIKACHAN and Dr. Moku’s Mnemonics are apps that willallow you to memorise both Hiragana and Katakana. Eachcharacter comes with an image and a short story, making iteasier for you to remember. It is said that using images tomemorise characters is a particularly effective method forEnglish-speakers. These apps are available for iPhone, iPadand Android.

Others:Human Japanese is a learning software with multiple ways ofpracticing your Japanese: taking Hiragana and Katakana
quizzes, playing vocabulary games, testing your grammar
and checking pronunciations. This
tool also provides you with a great
deal of cultural information about
Japan and its language.
http://www.humanjapanese.com/home.html

My Japanese Coach is a video game for Nintendo DS, which
http://www.hikachan.com/appshikah.html

http://drmoku.com/Kanji learning:

漢字忍者(Kanji ninja) is a Kanji learning app for Japanesechildren and students that lets you practice kanji by writing
the strokes on the touch screen. The kanji is grouped
depending on the year level (Year 1 to University). iKanji
covers kanji for all levels of the JLPT (Japanese Language
Proficiency Test). This app may be a good supplementary
learning tool for those studying for the JLPT.

http://www.gakko-net.co.jp/#product?itunes
http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/ikanji/

Dictionary:
Kotoba can help you translate English into Japanese. Thisapp is a perfect for travellers of all levels of proficiency. It
provides both the translated word and the readings of thekanji, so it will help you develop your vocabulary. For words
that you cannot read (and therefore cannot input by keypad), this tool has a touch screen kanji
recognition that will allow you to search for
any word by copying the kanji characters
directly on the screen.
http://www.tofugu.com/japanese-resources/kotoba/

was released in 2008. Now iPhone and iPod touch versions
are available. It not only allows you to compare yourpronunciation with that of native speakers, but also use thetouch screen to practice writing Japanese characters withcorrect stroke orders.

http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=7042
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-japanese-coach/id317651269?mt=8These are just some of the tools that will help you improveyour Japanese. Try looking around on the internet as there
are plenty of others. They are perfect for using on your daily
commutes, when you are waiting for the tram, in the waiting
room or whenever you have a couple minutes to spare.
Having fun is the most effective way of learning.

Unfortunately, this article will be my last one, as I am leaving
iJapanese at the end of term 3. My deepest appreciation to
all of the students and staff who made my time at the schoola very memorable and an enjoyable one.
Minasan arigatougozaimashita!

iJapanese Newsletter

Page 4 of 4

Introducing Our New Teacher 新しい先生のご紹介
Hello everyone !
My name is Kisai Furukawa, and I
am a new teacher at iJapaneseLanguage & Culture School.
I will start with introduce myself. I
was born and brought up in Osaka,
Japan. I have taught Japanese tointernational students for 9 months in Osaka.

South Korean culture is very much resembles Japaneseculture, however they both also differ slightly with customs.
Knowing other cultures help me to understand myself and myown culture.
After leaving Korea I endeavored on expanding my teachingexperience by moving to Australia. This was in the hope ofteaching Japanese to English-speaking people.
I love to travel and have visited over 20 countries where II lived in South Korea where I taught Japanese for 2 years. Itaught various conversation -based classes and Pop cultureclasses.

have experienced many interesting places and unforgettable

I love Japanese Manga (comic) and Anime (animation), I am
actually an Anime Otaku (geek), which helps me to teach mypop culture class. I am able to teach Japanese youth culture
such as fashion, J-pop, games and anime as well as
traditional culture.

This is the first time I have traveled to Australia. I am looking

From Noriko

Did you know that...?
1. It is said there are 50,000 Kanji
in Japanese, however about 2,000
Kanji are used in daily life.
2. It is considered inappropriate
behaviour in Japan to blow yournose in public.
3. In Japan non-smoking areas are
difficult to find in restaurants,
however you are not allowed tosmoke on the street.
4. Streets in Japan don’t havenames and the number system isinconsistent.
5. In Japan Green traffic light iscalled ’Blue light”.
6. There is almost no Graffiti inJapan.

memories, India being the most memorable.

to experience your customs and culture to expand myunderstanding of other cultural differences. I hope that youcan tell me about your culture.

のりこよりOne day I was talking with a group ofpeople and some one said ‘Melbourne isa multicultural city where we can eat
many types of foods from different
counties. But I thought to myself, the foodis not quite the same as it originally camefrom, isn’t it?’ So I responded ‘That’sright! When I came here, I was surprised
Sushi is called fast food in Australia!’ Allof them looked at me and said ‘Isn’tit!!??’

Term 4 InfoYes, Sushi is not fast food for Japanesepeople. We can even buy them atconvenience stores, Sushi is thought of as
fancy food.
You can eat nice sushi in Melbourne, so
please sit down and try ata restaurant, not takeaway sushi rolls!

お知らせTerm 4 will commence from the 24th of
September and run until the 8th ofDecember.
In order to organise our new termschedule we ask that you please confirm
your next term scheduling with yourteacher.

Please note :Tuesday the 6th of November is a public
holiday (Melbourne Cup). Consequently
there will not be any classes running on
this day and we will replace these classes
on 11th December.
Tuesday Class Replacement
6th November ⇒ 11th December
iJapanese Language & Culture School
Level 2, 488 Bourke Street Melbourne
0401 886 629
Info@ijapanese.com.au
www.ijapanese.com.au