Japanese with anime voice: episode27
Hello, I’m Sachi.
April 9 is 良いピーマンの日 (Yoi piman’s day). ピーマン (Piman) means green pepper in English. The reason why it is called Yoi Piman Day is because the number 9 looks like the letter P in the alphabet. It may seem a bit unreasonable, but…. 良い (Yoi) in 良いピーマン (Yoi piman) is a play on words. し (shi) in 四月 (Shigatsu) is also read as よん (yon), so I guess it is a combination of よん (yon)’s よ(yo) and 良い (yoi)’s 良 (yo).
Green peppers are a type of peppers said to be native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, a vegetable that was not originally found in Japan. But for some reason, its name is ピーマン (Piman), not green pepper; in Japanese あいうえお (aiueo), it is a word in the Pa line, but it does not share a single letter with its original name. Why ピーマン (Piman)? It seems that it comes from the French language. Why is it derived from a word for a vegetable in another country, instead of the name of the vegetable in its country of origin? I don’t understand this kind of thing with foreign words that are read in Japanese using katakana.
Other than that, today is also 食と野菜ソムリエの日 (Shoku to yasai somurie)’s day, because April 9 can be read as “食 (shoku)” in Japanese, so it is 食 (shoku)’s day. There is a Japan Vegetable Sommelier Association, and it was established as “a day to raise a rich dietary life with vegetables and fruits.”
Do you like vegetables? I love vegetables. By the way, there are some weeds that grow around the house that can be eaten. I often hear about it in Japan, but what about overseas? Can you eat weeds that grow on the side of the road or in the grass? Since they are called “weeds” and not grown by someone else, they are naturally pesticide-free and fertilizer-free. Recently, I have been interested in this kind of thing. I would like to be able to distinguish between edible weeds and toxic weeds. Some weeds are toxic, so I can’t just go out and eat them without any knowledge because it would be dangerous. But I think people in the past were very knowledgeable about such things. Parents passed on their knowledge to their children, or adults in the community taught their children. I wish that schools would have taught this kind of wisdom for daily life to children, since we now have schools.
Well, it’s no use lamenting such things now. We live in such a convenient age of IT development, so I think it would be better to learn more and more on my own, instead of thinking passively. Besides, nowadays, if you take a picture with your smartphone, you can find out the name of the plant and other details on the spot. This is very convenient. It’s better to have an expert with you, but it’s a good way to learn. It’s very useful.
Yes, recently, many of my friends in my hometown are studying forestry. Some of them went to forestry school, some are going now, and some of my friends want to go. I have never been interested in such things, but for some reason, I have recently become more interested in nature. I think it’s largely due to the influence of the people around me. I was talking about it with a friend of mine. She also wanted to go to forestry school, so I said, “Why not go now? ” You have to act when you feel like it. Time is limited. And since she is pretty much free right now, I think this is the best time for her to go to school. If you think about it too much and too much time passes, your environment and situation will change rapidly, and you may not have time to think about it. So I told her that if she wanted to take action, she should do it now, but then she told me that she also didn’t want to make herself feel at ease by going to school. That made me realize something. Like I said before, I wanted to learn at school, but I am satisfied just by being taught, or as my friend said, I feel at ease. Like, “I am learning from others. ” For example, in the case of English conversation, whether it is online or in a classroom, you feel like you are learning something, and you think that you are gaining knowledge just by doing so. What’s wrong with that is that they don’t put in the effort themselves.
I go to school, so I’m fine. It was unconsciously. When I took online English lessons, that’s all I did…I thought I could learn to speak English in just 20 or 50 minutes of lessons a day. But it’s not like that. You have to have a teacher, and you also have to put in some effort on your own to acquire knowledge. So, even if a friend wants to go to a forestry school, there is a big difference between those who are satisfied with attending a school and those who read books, help people who are actually involved in the work, listen to their stories, and experience the real thing, not just textbooks. That is true learning, isn’t it? That is what learning is all about, isn’t it? Thinking about it, nowadays, you don’t have to rely on schools, there are YouTube and podcasts where you can listen to experts. You can really learn a lot just from that. The idea of relying on the school is something I should reflect on. Learning anything is possible if you put in the effort! I know.
