Vocation in the Valley

Japanese Baby Talk

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

I found a page that list some of the more common “Japanese” words that are used with babies. I write “Japanese” because I’m guessing that at least some of these words aren’t proper Japanese.

• nenne - sleep (from nemuru, to sleep)
• dakko - carry
• mamma - food (I always supposed from ummai, delicious)!
• Tatta - stand up (from tatsu, to stand).
• Iiko – good child.
• Chodai – give to me (from kureru, to receive and kudasai, the imperative).
• Jiji – dirty
• Pon-pon – tummy
• Pai-pai – throw away
• Nai-nai – put away
• Bocha for bath (BTY – We said Bocha-bocha)
• Dame – not good (or ikemasen – will not do) for no
• Abunai – dangerous
• Niko-niko – smile
• Itai – ouch
• Tai-tai – an injury (equivalent to an owey).

Then there were the body parts for all the pointing games –

• Me – eye
• Mayuge – eyebrow
• Matsuge – eyelash
• Hana – nose
• Kuchi – mouth
• Kami – hair
• Atama – head
• Kata – shoulder
• Senaka – back
• Te – hand
• Ude – arm
• Yubi – fingers
• Ashi – leg
• Koshi – lower back
• Oshiri – buttocks
• Hiza – lap

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From Great to Ordinary

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

We started using Blockbuster’s alternative to NetFlix less than a year ago and it was great. For the same price as NetFlix, you also got unlimited in-store rentals. If I didn’t have a movie my daughter wanted to watch, I could just swap one of the DVD’s for one at the store. Blockbuster had NetFlix beat by a mile.

Then a few months ago, they bumped the subscription price up a dollar and limited the in-store swaps to 5 per month. I thought about switching back to NetFlix, but I thought the 5 rentals might be worth it. A funny thing happened, I almost never went back to the store. The 5 rental limit had put up a giant barrier. I now had to consider if I had used up my 5 rentals and when my billing period was up, etc. This mental exercise caused me to simply stop using the option.

Last month, Blockbuster bumped the price another dollar and kept the 5 rental limit so I just switched plans to the “no in-store rental” plan and have the same service and price as if I were using NetFlix.

In a few short months, Blockbuster took me from being a big fan to considering switching back to NetFlix or no service at all.

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