Saturday, 16 February 2013

作文練習 Japanese Composition Practise.

毎週練馬で日本語の授業に行きます。最近先生はわたしに作文を書かせました。作文はたいてい最近学んだ文法を練習のためのテーマがありました。このブログにその作文と家で書いた作文を書き表して、日本人に直されてもらいたいと思います。目的はもっと上手になって、ミステークから学ぶことだから、どうぞコメントやメールで正しい言葉や文法を教えてください。よろしくお願いします。

これは授業の宿題のテーマについてです。

テーマ:わたしの国で発明されたもの

オーストラリアで発明されたものは英語で「Black-box flight recorder」と言う。日本語で「飛行記録装置(ひこうきろくそうち)」と言うそうである。この発明はとても大切である。発明され前、たくさんの飛行機は墜落したが、なぜなのか理解できなかった。でも、飛行記録装置が発明された後、理由が見出せられた。それで、何か問題があれば、ほかの飛行機に直された。今飛行機は一番安全な旅行し方だと言える


I'm going to start writing up some posts in Japanese, mainly to practise my writing skills.  But for all you Curious Georges out there I'll write up an english translation for ya ;)

Every week in Nerima I go to a Japanese class.  Recently my teacher had me write some compositions.  These compositions usually had a theme to practise recently learned words or grammar.  On this blog I'm going to write up those compositions as well as any I write at home, and ask my Japanese friends to please correct them.  Because my purpose is to become better at Japanese and learn from my mistakes, please go ahead and teach me the correct words or phrases in a comment or email (for those who know Japanese of course!).  Thanks in advance.

This theme was given as homework in my class.

Theme: Something invented in my country.

Something that was invented in Australia is called "the black-box flight recorder" in English.  In Japanese it's apparently called "Hikokirokusochi".  This invention is very important.  Before it was invented lots of planes crashed, but it was not understood why.  But after the black-box flight recorder was invented the reason could be discovered.  Because of this, if there were any problems, they could be fixed in other planes.  These days, they say planes are the safest way to travel.  


Friday, 15 February 2013

Seize The Day - To Make Some Hot Fudge Sauce!

When you're told to bring souvenirs overseas from Australia to share, what do you bring?  Cadbury's Furry Friends Chocolates, of course!  And what happens when you realise there are just way too many teachers at your schools to give them all one?  You keep them all in your closet instead of giving them away.  And what happens when you keep a bunch of chocolates in your closet over summer?  They melt.  Multiple times.  And what do you end up with?  Seized chocolate.

Seized chocolate looks quite different to the original product you bought.  When you open up the wrapper you'll see something that looks more white than brown, and I kind of felt like some sort of sorceress, because the moment I touched it that stuff turned to fine power!

So, what do you do with a heck of a lot of seized chocolate?  I did some (internet) research, and found that while it's not too tasty on its own, it's still good to use in a lot of recipes.  So today I put that theory to the test, and used it to make a hot fudge sauce.  And you know what?  It tastes pretty darn good!  So I've decided to share the recipe.


Hot Fudge Sauce

100g butter
200g chocolate melts (or seized furry friends chocolates!)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

(I first melted the seized chocolate in a bowl sitting on a small pot of simmering water, adding some warm water to the powdery chocolate to give it a more liquid, creamy consistency.  I then followed the recipe, but melted the butter on it's own first)

Melt butter and chocolate melts together over medium heat.  
Add sugar and slowly stir in milk.  
Add vanilla and mix well.  
Serve hot over ice-cream, waffles, crepes, etc.  
Note: Sauce will keep stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I ate some on vanilla ice-cream, and whoa....that stuff is good!