Author: Peter-Wang-Mobile-2026

Notes:
loanwords: 外来語
original: 本来の
shorten: 短くする
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The Japanese language has many loanwords from English. Sometimes they keep the original meaning, but sometimes they don’t. A “stove” in Japanese is something to heat your house with, but in American English it is something you cook food on. When loanwords are shortened, they can change their meaning entirely. My students use “pine” for pineapple, but they don’t know that a “pine” is actually a tree, not a fruit. Many loanwords for sweets come from French. “Chou a la creme” (シュークリーム) is a “cream puff,” and “marron glace”（マロンクラッセ） is a “candied chestnut.”　　(by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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Notes
overfishing 乱獲、濫獲;
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Last night the hot weather made me think about eel-eating day. I checked and found out that it was on Tuesday this week. I missed it! I won’t be able to eat eel for another year! That’s a joke. I like eel a lot, but it’s expensive so I don’t eat it very often. These days, I don’t really feel like eating eel because there are fewer and fewer eels in the sea. If everyone keeps catching and eating them, there will be no more eels for our children and grandchildren. The same is true for many kinds of fish. I hope that the countries of the world can get together and stop overfishing. (by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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