天気

Assuming you're not a complete beginner, you've probably learned a few basic phrases about the weather, which is especially useful in Japanese since they discuss weather as greetings instead of saying something like our "how are you?". However, watching the weather reports, or even reading the weather reports is a much more difficult task. Unfortunately, meteorologists don't just say いいお天気ですねえ。

So, let's take a few excerpts about today's weather in Japan, and learn some more complicated details about the weather.

Today's weather forecast for Osaka:
今日から明日の近畿地方は、引き続き高気圧に覆われて晴れるでしょう。

First, let's run down the vocab words which you may or may not know (leaving out some basic things):
近畿地方：　きんきちほう, the Kinki (Kansai) area of Japan, i.e., the western area.
引き続き：　ひきつづき, continuing.
気圧: きあつ, pressure. In terms of the weather, atmospheric pressure.
覆う: おおう, to cover, to blanket.
晴れる： はれる, to be clear.

So, roughly translating: Starting today and continuing through tomorrow, the Kinki region will be covered in a high pressure system, with probable clear skies.

How 'bout this one from Tokyo:
また、東京地方では引き続き明後日にかけて空気の乾燥した状態が続く見込みです。

Possibly new vocab:
明後日：　あさって, the day after tomorrow (also the title of a movie concerned with weather!)
空気：　くうき, the air.
乾燥：　かんそう, dry.
状態：　じょうたい, status, conditions.
見込み：　みこみ, forecast, possibility.

Roughly: In the Tokyo region, it is forecasted that the air will remain dry continuing through the day after tomorrow.

One last one for now, from sunny Okinawa:
沖縄地方は、沖縄の南海上にある停滞前線の影響で曇っており、雨の降っている所があります。

新しい単語（たんご）：
沖縄: おきなわ, Okinawa.
南海上：　なんかいじょう, on the south sea.
停滞：　ていたい, stationary, stagnant.
前線：　ぜんせん, (weather) front.
影響: 　えいきょう, influence.
曇る: くもる, to be cloudy.

英訳（えいやく）：
In the Okinawa region, due to the effects of a stationary front over the Okinawa's south sea, the skies will be cloudy, with rain in some places.

I hope that helps to introduce you to learning how to really discuss the weather. Feel free to leave questions (if I have left out things which are unclear, etc.).

Stories, and why they are great for language learning

When you were growing up, whether it was in recent times, or ancient times, without doubt your parents read you a number of stories. Maybe you were told the stories of Dr. Seuss, or maybe stories of princes and princesses in far-off mythical lands. In any case, the stories were probably replete with simple words and phrases which form the basis of the language you learnt (be it English, Russian, Swahili, whatever). Furthermore, they contain a large number of phrases which you only hear in story-telling ("Once upon a time", "and they lived happily ever after", etc.), but which are necessary to understand a story.

From this basis, I put forth that learning children stories are a great way to expose yourself to language. You avoid the technical terms which might otherwise hold you up, and you learn the basic words which every child knows but might not be taught in a language class. Moreover, there are a number of references in popular culture to children stories, in every culture I know of.

The above holds true for Japanese. A couple of sites for your reference: a translated, annotated collection of Japanese children stories, some stories from traditional Ainu culture, narrated and translated into Japanese. The first site is great for the beginner: the stories are translated line for line, with annotations on all the Japanese phrases. The second site is a bit more advanced, since nothing is translated into English. However, it narrates a number of Ainu children stories with subtext. The stories are not too hard to follow, and it is certainly worth the listening practice, regardless of whether you catch every word.

So, get out there and learn your children stories! It will pay off in your comprehension of many things!