みなさん、こんにちは！サンクスギビングの休みはよかったですか？The holidays are nearly upon us, so this post is a about gift-giving in Japan.
Gift-giving Occasions
御歳暮（おせいぼ）: Gifts that are given at the end of the year.
御中元（おちゅうげん）: Mid-year/summer gift
バレンタインデーとホワイトデー： On バレンタインデー, women to give chocolates to men. The chocolates can be 本命（ほんめい）チョコ, the "chocolate of love" that is typically hand-made, or 義理（ぎり）チョコ, "obligatory chocolate." Men return the favor on ホワイトデー, March 14. Reciprocity is often seen in Japanese gift-giving culture.
ご祝儀（ごしゅぎ）: At a Japanese wedding, this is gift money given to the couple. The average ご祝儀 is 30,000 JPY (about $300). It is also customary for the couple to give gifts to the guests, which is known as 引出物（ひきでもの）
手土産（てみやげ）: A gift that is given when going to someone else's house. Traditional Japanese sweets such as どらやき、だいふく（もち） are common as 手土産。おいしいですね。たべたい…
Etiquette
Gifts should always be given and received with two hands.
It’s common for the recipient to decline a gift up to three times before accepting it.
Timing is important. If you just met someone and gave them a gift, it would seem like you are trying to rush the relationship.
Phrases to Use With all that we've learned so far, we can actually translate these phrases ourselves!
つまらないものですが…：The most formal way to give a gift.
たいしたものじゃないんですが…: This is a little more informal, but it is still rather polite.
これ、どうぞ：Less formal and should not be used with expensive gifts.
えんりょなくいただきます: This is said when accepting a gift. Its literal translation is something like "I humbly receive without hesitation"
I have been watching anime every week and shadowing various phrases. It's been useful for learning new phrases and improving my intonation. I'm also able to hear phrases and vocabulary that we've learned in class more easily, which is exciting!
I've gone to the Japanese language table about 80% of the time. When I wrote my original activities, I thought I'd be able to make it every week, but the trek from Bloomberg to Mathey is a bit....too far...especially when I have a lot more work this semester than I anticipated (despite only taking 4 classes). I'm more comfortable speaking with others now, but that may be a byproduct of getting to know people better.
I continue to self-study and review daily, and I practice vocab-specific intonation.
I have gone to office hours once, but I think I should go more often for speaking practice. I need to improve my ability to have conversations and form sentences on the spot. To be honest, I think it's harder to practice this at the Japanese language table (perhaps the setting is too casual, or there's too many people?), so I will shift my activities focus a bit.
毎日とてもねむいです…
Goal Revision:
Replace "converse more naturally with others" with "improve ability to have conversations on the spot". This means (1) thinking of the correct grammar structure faster, (2) thinking of the desired vocabulary faster, (3) being able to say it.
My other goals will not change. I think I have improvement, but (unsurprisingly) it's nowhere near native-level yet
Activity Revision:
Try to go to Japanese table at least twice a month rather than every week
