私は 週末に 何を しましたか。

先週末は　よくありません　でした。かのじょと私の　友だちは Weddingが　ありました。アトランタでありました。ひこきの　きっぷは　だめでした。だから私たちへ行きませんでした。

金曜日に　どこも　行きませんでした。土曜日に　Statue of Libertyへ　行きました。いいてんきでした。とてもたのしいです。八時に　えきへ　あるいて　行きました。South Ferryへ　ちかてつで　行きました。それから　ふねで　Statue of Libertyへ　いきました。Ellis Island Museum へも　行きました。Ellis Islandで　昼ご飯を　たべました。お土産を　買いました。私のかのじょは　かばんを　買いました。

土曜日のばんに　ちゅごくのたべものを　たべました。

日曜日に　どこも　いきませんでした。日本語を　勉強しました。それから　私の猫は　日本語の本を　たべました！　いま 本は　かばんの中です。

ありがとう。
よい一日を！

(Last weekend was not good. A friend of my girlfriend and I had a wedding. It was in Atlanta. The plane tickets were wrong. And so we didn't go.

Friday we didn't go anywhere. Saturday we went to the Statue of Liberty. The weather was good. It was very fun. At 8 o'clock we walked to the train station. We took the subway to South Ferry. And then we took a boat to the Statue of Liberty. We also went to the Ellis Island Museum. At Ellis Island we ate lunch. We bought souvenirs. My girlfriend bought a bag.

Saturday night we ate Chinese food.

On Sunday I didn't go anywhere. I studied Japanese. And then my kitten ate my Japanese book! Now the book is in my bag.

Thanks.
Have a good day!)

私のしごとが好きです。

私のしごとが好きです。毎週末はたらきます。休みは金曜日と土曜日と日曜日じゃありません。大抵やすみは火曜日と木曜日です。三時から十一時まではたらきます。時々十一月と十二月に十六時間はたらきます。いいですよ。どうしていいですか。ホテルではたらきます。

毎日私はみなさんと話します。エギリス人と話します。中国人とフランス人とオーストラリア人とドイツ人も話します。みなさんは元気です。時々日本人は私のホテルへ来ます。私はてーちょがあります。日本語のれいばんの中です。私は日本語で手を書きます。毎晩手は日本人のドーアの下です。

れい：（私の手）

わなたべさまへ、

お元気ですか。ちょとさむいですね。あしたも　ちょとさむいです。

ニューヨーク・マーリオット・マーキスへ　よこうそ。りょこうは　たのしんでますか。どこから　きましたか。

スーテーシです。フロントで　はたらきます。八っかいです。日本語を　勉強します。たのしいです！

どうも　ありがとうございます。

よい一日を。

スーテーシ・スプラウス

「フロント」

I like my job. I work every weekend. I don't have Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays off. Usually I have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. I work from 3 o'clock to 11 o'clock. Sometimes, in November and December I work for sixteen hours at a time. It's good! Why is it good? I work at a hotel! 

Every day, I talk to everyone. I talk to British people. I talk to Chinese, French, and Australian people, too. Everyone is happy. Sometimes Japanese people come to the hotel. I have a little notebook. In it I have Japanese example sentences. I write letters in Japanese. Every night the letters are under the door of the Japanese people. (I couldn't figure out how to say I put the letters under their door .. anyone know?)

Example: (of my letters) 

Mr. Wanatabe, 

How are you? It's a little cold, isn't it? Tomorrow it will also be a little cold. 

Welcome to the New York Marriott Marquis! Are you having fun on your trip? Where have you come from? 

I'm Stacy. I work at the Front Desk. It's on the 8th floor. I'm studying Japanese language. It's fun! 

Thank you very much, 

Have a good day. 

Stacy Sprouse
[Front Desk]

おととい 何をしましたか。

おとといに日本語のきょうしつへいきました。あの人は　コロンビアの前に　いました。どうして？　私は　コンピュータを　しました。ここです。

クーリック

(The day before yesterday, going to Japanese class. There were men in front of Columbia. Why? I went on the computer. Here it is.)

*Sorry about the very basic Japanese .. this kind of strained the limits of what I know how to say! But if you were in the 12 o'clock class on Thursday, and noticed the minor disturbance out in front of the gates, this is apparently what they were protesting. If you didn't notice it, it was kind of scary/interesting. Some men were hassling each other up and down the sidewalk, shouting something in another language, waving posters, shaking their fists .. several police officers showed up, and ended up having to arrest several men, because they started surging out in to the street, and throwing things at cars. Of course, this being New York, more than one tour bus passed by, with people snapping pictures .. figures.

A Southern Influence

When people ask me why I chose Japanese--out of all the languages I could have learned--I laughingly refer to my Southern-US accent as the cause. I did try German in high school, I explain, but it didn't work out so well; as languages go, German is full of harsh consonants one after another. Japanese, like my southern accent, leans towards a heavy use of vowels. For someone who can say the word "southern" with more than three syllables, the vowel-laden syllabaries of Japanese are a relief.

This is, of course, not the entire reason, though it makes for an excellent introduction and often leads to dicussions of what actually makes the Japanese language different from other languages. For me, many of these reasons also help explain why I selected Japanese as my language of interest; its peculiar history and unique composition make it a fascinating study. Of my native language, English, the best that historians can say (after asserting that British and American English may as well be different tongues) is that it is a hodge-podge of different tongues, much of it so bewildering as to be untraceable.

[In one of my favorite movies, the title character--a British professor in 1900-1910--complains that English people seem incapable of speaking their own language correctly. In fact, he laments:

"Why, there even are places where English completely disappears--In America they haven't used it for years!"] "My Fair Lady," (1964)

Despite its confusing past, I have always loved both reading and writing in my native tongue, and traditionally Japanese have a strong respect for both the written and the spoken word, seeming to appreciate that even the smallest change in a single phrase can have a great change in meaning. How can I not admire a culture where language is taken so seriously? To me, language is something magical, and the written language is particularly so; there is something astonishing about being able to make a series of marks upon paper that convey, in the words of Johnny Cash, "the truth in the heart of the far-off man." 

To have open to me an entire new culture, a new literature that I have not read, is a giddying thought. 

I have no doubt there will be challenges and things that I find difficult (reading Japanese, for instance, is worlds easier for me than translating English sentences into Japanese ones--which is nothing to speaking it, something that often causes me to freeze in uncertainty and terror), but I am fortunate to consider these challenges to be both enjoyable and rewarding.

はじめまして。

はじめまして。なまえはスーテーシです。コロンビアのだいがくいんせいです。私は日本語をべんきょうします。日本語をきれいです。

きょねん、アトランタ からきました。ニューヨークが大好きです。でも、たかいですね！

私は二十五さいです。猫があります。なまえはモイーラです。いっさいです。

ありがとうごうざいます。
どうぞよろしく。

Moira sleeping peacefully.

<How do you do? My name is Stacy. I'm a Columbia Graduate student (or a close approximation of one--any guesses on how to say "Post-Baccalaureate Student?" :) ). I'm studying Japanese. Japanese is a pretty language.

Last year, I came here from Atlanta. I love New York! But it's expensive.

I'm 25 years old. I have a cat. Her name is Moira. She's a year old.

Thank you very much.
It's a pleasure to meet you!>