7/05/2016

My 6-year-old daughter's wishes for Tanabata

Since the Tanabata festival will be held on July 7th at my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school, she wrote her wishes on the strips of paper last night.

Tanabata (Star festival) is on July 7th.

It is the festival based on a story from legend.

A beautiful weaver princess named Orihime (Vega) and a young cattle herder named Hikoboshi(Altair) fell in love with each other at first sight.

They had been absorbed in each others love, and they did not perform their duties well.

Then God got angry and decided to separate them by The Milky Way.

And they were able to meet once a year on July 7th.

We decorate branches of bamboo grass with strips of paper, celebrating reunitign of Hikoboshi and Orihime.

When we write a wish on the strip of paper and hang it on the branch of bamboo, it is said that the wish will come true.


Her first wish is "I want to be a pastry chef (ぱてぃしえになりたい) ".

The second one is "I want to be more punctual (じかんをちゃんとまもれますように)."

Since she can't wake up in the morning even though I wake her up so many times and she takes too long for breakfast and dinner, I often scold her.

I was glad to know she also wants to improve her own habit.

The third one is "I want to live in peace getting along with everyone (へいわなじだいでみんなとなかよくくらせますように)".

I was surprised with her third wish, but I knew why she wrote it.

Because when we watched the TV drama before, it was a story during World War 2.

She learned the fear of war from it.
She said:

"War is scary. I want to get along with everyone. I love everyone! I love mom, dad, my brother, friends, teachers...."

I really hope no more war and no more tears from losing their families.

(Her wishes written on the stips of paper which includes some mistakes.)


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5 comments:

  1. Good morning. I had came from G+ and because I'm inquisitive, I have read piece of your blog.

    Your daughter's wishes are really serious. You are surely proud of her.

    Your tradition to write your real wishes on たなばた is very interesting and ...useful. In our country you must think about something when „star“ is falling and mainly you can't say it to anybody, if you want it will be fulfilled. So I have no chance to know what my children have in your heads ;)

    Thanks for your and your's daughter goodwill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Skogen.
      Thank you for the comment!
      We also have the custom of shooting star, but nowadays, unfortunately the night is not so dark in urban areas and we realy can see shooting stars.

      Delete
  2. Hello Kumi-san,

    As far as I know we do not have a similar festival to Tanabata here in England. It would be nice if we did. Here is hoping that all your wishes come true. We can hold out hope that your daughters 3rd wish is granted. We would all be better off in the world if that particular wish came to pass.

    Here is a list of some of the other issues found in the rest of the post:

    Part 1:

    This line:
    My 6-year-old daughter's wishes of Tanabata

    Should be:
    My 6-year-old daughter's wishes (on/for) Tanabata

    Reason: Makes sentence sounds slightly more natural.

    This line:
    Since Tanabata festival will be held on July 7th at my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school, she wrote her wishes on the strips of paper last night.

    Should be:
    Since the Tanabata festival will be held on July 7th at my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school, she wrote her wishes on the strips of paper last night.

    Reason: Added "the" filler word.

    This line:
    It is the festival from the old legend story.

    Should be:
    It is the festival from a legendary story.

    Or:
    It is a festival based on a story from legend.

    This line:
    A beautiful weaver princess named Orihime (Vega) and a young cattle herder named Hikoboshi(Altair) fell in love with each other immediately.

    Reason: A common idiom that we use in English when we want to indicate that two people fell in love very quickly on encountering each other is "love at first sight"

    So your original sentence could be reworded as:
    A beautiful weaver princess named Orihime (Vega) and a young cattle herder named Hikoboshi (Altair) fell in love with each other at first sight.

    Or:
    It was love at first sight for A beautiful weaver princess named Orihime (Vega) and a young cattle herder named Hikoboshi (Altair).

    This line:
    They have been absorbed in love, and they did not work seriously.

    Should be:
    They had been absorbed in each others love, and they (did not perform their duties well/take their work seriously).

    This line:
    The God got angry and decided to separate them by The Milky Way.

    Should be:
    (The Gods/Then God) got angry and decided to separate them by The Milky Way.

    Reason: If there is more than one god (as there often are for Greek/Roman gods) you would use "The Gods". If you are having a single god only then it would be "Then God" or just "God got angry".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Part 2:

    This line:
    We decorate branches of bamboo grass with strips of paper, celebrating the reencounter of Hikoboshi and Orihime.

    Should be:
    We decorate branches of bamboo grass with strips of paper, celebrating the (re-acquaintance/reuniting) of Hikoboshi and Orihime.

    Reason: re-encounter when hyphenated is a word but it is probably better to use reuniting.

    This line:
    Since she can't wake up in the morning even though I wake her up so many times and she takes too long times for breakfast and dinner, I often scold her.

    Should be:
    Since she can't wake up in the morning even though I wake her up so many times and she takes too long for breakfast and dinner, I often scold her.

    Reason: removed "times" as not needed.

    This line:
    The third one is "I want to live in piece getting along with everyone (へいわなじだいでみんなとなかよくくらせますように)".

    Should be:
    The third one is "I want to live in peace getting along with everyone (へいわなじだいでみんなとなかよくくらせますように)".

    Reason: Changed word "piece" to "peace". Piece means a tiny section or fragment of something or an individual item of something. Where as "Peace" is the word used to indicate that something is quiet or is not at war or fighting.

    Examples:
    I ate a piece of chocolate cake.
    I found a piece of paper on the steps.
    I dropped a bowl and it smashed into a million pieces.

    I wish for world peace (a world with no fighting or war)
    I just want some peace (could be a world without war but can also have the meaning of I just want some quiet time to relax)
    I enjoyed the peace and quiet (I enjoyed the relaxing time and it was quiet).

    This line:
    Because when we watched the TV drama before, it was the story during World War 2.

    Should be:
    Because when we watched the TV drama before, it was a story during World War 2.

    This line:
    I really hope no more war and no more tears losing their families.

    Should be:
    I really hope no more war and no more tears (of/from) people losing their families.

    This line:
    (Her wishes written on the stips of paper includes some mistakes.)

    Should be:
    (Her wishes written on the strips of paper which includes some mistakes.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Terry.
      I appriciate your help.
      I didn't know how to express God and the idiom (love at first sight).
      They are really useful for me.
      As for the idiom, we say it "hitomebore(一目惚れ)" in Japanese.
      By the way, I have not exprerienced falling love at first sight)(^^)!
      Thank you so much!

      Thank you so much!

      Delete