Recently in Japanese I have been sending my teacher a couple of paragraphs about whatever I have wanted to write about and we have been going through them together. The key phrase is always, 「これのほうが自然な言い方かな？でも、意味がわかりますよ。」 When you’re learning a foreign language, all pride kind of goes out of the window. Then we move on to an article from a magazine or newspaper and just go through any bits I struggled with etc.

I find it quite hard to think of topics to write about, so this week I sent this to read – 空洞. To me, this style of writing is very Japanese. Korean authors can also have this way of writing. It must be to do with the shape of the grammar of the languages or that’s my guess anyway.

• ザラメ　granulated sugar
• テープを剥がす・はがす　to tear tape
• かりかり vs ぱりぱり vs さくさく (I really struggle with onomatopoeia)
  • かりかり　bacon, nuts
  • ぱりぱり　nori, sembei
  • さくさく　crackers, biscuits
• 不興を買う　to offend
• みなす　to consider as/regard as
• 老舗・しにせ　I always struggle to remember the reading of this word
• 暗がり　暗い所
• 楕円・だえん　oval
• かたどる　 ある物の形をまねて，そのような形に作る。
  

I liked this wording a lot -　「自分の手が口とクッキー缶を行き来する。単調な機械のように。」