(no subject)

[kittydesade]

Counting people, using 人; Counting age, using　さい; expressing the order within a family, using　番　（目）

Counting people, using 人.
私は　弟が　二人　います。　（ふたり）
I have two younger brothers.

私は　兄弟が　四人　います。　（よにん）
I have four siblings.

Counting age, using さい
お父さんは　おいくつですか。
How old is your father?
父は　四十五さい　です。
My father is 45 years old.

Expressing the order within a family, using 番（目）
石田さんは　何番目　ですか。
Where do you fit in your family/among your siblings, Ishida-san?
上から　二番目　です。　
I am the second oldest (literally: second from the top).

田中：　私の家族は　五人家族です。
My family consists of five people (literally: My family is a five-people family).
モネ：　由美子さんは　何番目ですか。
Where do you fit in your family, Yumiko?
田中：　私は　一番上です。
I am the oldest (literally: the highest).
モネ：　そうですか。　一番下は　どの人ですか。
I see. Who is the youngest (literally: the lowest)?
田中：　妹のきみ子です。　きみ子は　いま　１５さいです。　
My younger sister, Kimiko. She is fifteen years old now.


The funny advantage to this is that I have both a brother and a sister, although they're both younger. So I guess I can pretend I have an older brother or sister to practice, because I bet they're going to ask that next.

Meanwhile, I have become a serious knitting ninja. Which is good because I still have an overflowing mailtub of fiber I'm not sure what to do with. I have two knitting projects currently going on now, a scarf that is ribbing practice because, yes, until recently I wasn't comfortable purling, and a pair of very simple fingerless gloves on two circulars. Which are way better than double points. After the scarf I might tackle shawls, but I'm going to be doing fingerless gloves for a long, long while. I like wearing them.

I'm also hoping to be able to move the cat stuff out of the craft room now that, for all intents and purposes, Murdock is no longer in quarantine. He's still in there at night when we go to sleep, so I still have to maneuver around cat food, water, and a litterpan, and I haven't put the mail tub of fiber back yet because the door can't really be closed. But I'd really, really like to be able to lock it up and use it as a craft room again and, oh yeah, do some more spinning. A lot more spinning. It's relaxing, dammit! Actually, I might just take a bobbin to work tomorrow and set up on the wheel there. Hmm. But, yes. I have at least three people to spin yarn for for, roughly, winter holidays type things. Four people? Lots of people! You can all enjoy my learning yarn! I've gotten to where I can do a fairly consistent width and I think I even know how to get it the width I want, but finishing it off is kicking my ass. I wind up with, basically, a big poofy tuft. Ah well. Something to work on!

Also, I need knitting/spinning icons. Hmm. No interesting links tonight. If I'm very, very lucky (and if I can figure out why I can't upload anything to my website, grr, or I couldn't a couple days ago) I might start uploading Nano stuff or I might just wait till after November. Did get a few words written in Yuletide, but I still need the opposing force in the story, and that's apparently inclined to stay in the shadows. Stupid characters.