Are writing skills a gift?

Recently you can find many writers with little experience. Probably, you'd say that writing can't be learned. But, I kind of doubt that idea. I believe writing must be skills and anybody can learn them. However, it takes lots of time. That's why nobody can't be successful in writing.

If you always listen to too good English,...

Today I spoke with a native speaker of English. I understood what he said, but I felt that his English wasn't enough clear. He was from Ohio, which is not a place where people speak English with a strong accent. What made me think that his English wasn't clear enough is that I am always surrounded by native speakers whose articulation was pretty good. Therefore, it may not be good for you to try to listen to only perfect English, which is like English spoken in Mr. Sugita's radio program.

a simple but important tip

Which do you prefer, Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi?


What's the difference between these two questions?

1) Where do you live?

2) Which do you like better, New York or San Francisco?

1) is asking a fact. So, your answer should be simple. (ex. I live in Iowa.) However, 2) is asking your opinion, and you have to tell "why". So, the answer should be like:

I like New York better because there are many museums I would like to visit.

Of couse, real conversation doesn't always follow this rule. This simple tip will be helpful if you take any speaking test, though.

You don't want to use such words...

This year, in a gesture of humanitarian relief, the committee restores "truthiness," banned on last year's list, to formal use. This comes after comedians and late-night hosts were thrown under the bus and rendered speechless by a nationwide professional writers' strike. The silence is deafening.

PERFECT STORM-- "Overused by the pundits on evening TV shows to mean just about any coincidence."-- Lynn Allen, Warren, Michigan.

"I read that 'Ontario is a perfect storm,' in reference to a report on pollution levels in the Great Lakes. Ontario is the name of one of the lakes and a Canadian province. This guy would have me believe it's a hurricane. It's time for 'perfect storm' to get rained out."-- Bob Smith, DeWitt, Michigan.

"Hands off book titles as cheap descriptors!"-- David Hollis, Hamilton, New
York.

WEBINAR-- A seminar on the web about any number of topics."Ouch! It hurts my brain. It should be crushed immediately before it spreads."-- Carol, Lams, Michigan.

"Yet another non-word trying to worm its way into the English language due to the Internet. It belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything."-- Scott Lassiter, Houston, Texas.

WATERBOARDING-- "Let's banish 'waterboarding' to the beach, where it belongs with boogie boards and surfboards."-- Patrick K. Egan, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

ORGANIC-- Overused and misused to describe not only food, but computer products or human behavior, and often used when describing something as
"natural," says Crystal Giordano of Brooklyn, New York. Another advertising gimmick to make things sound better than they really are, according to Rick DeVan of Willoughby, Ohio, who said he has heard claims such as "My business is organic," and computers having "organic software."

"Things have gone too far when they begin marketing T-shirts as organic."-- Michelle Fitzpatrick, St. Petersburg, Florida.

"'Organic' is used to describe everything, from shampoo to meat. Banishment! Improperly used!"-- Susan Clark, Bristol, Maine.

"The possibility of a food item being inorganic, i.e., not being composed of carbon atoms, is nil."-- John Gomila, New Orleans, Louisiana.

"You see the word 'organic' written on everything from cereal to dog food."-- Michael, Sacramento, California.

"I'm tired of health food stores selling products that they say are organic. All the food we eat is organic!"-- Chad Jacobson, Park Falls, Wisconsin.

WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING-- "I've never read anything created by a wordsmith - or via wordsmithing - that was pleasant to read."-- Emily Kissane, St. Paul,Minnesota.

AUTHOR/AUTHORED-- "In one of former TV commentator Edwin Newman's books, he wonders if it would be correct to say that someone 'paintered' a picture?"-- Dorothy Betzweiser, Cincinnati, Ohio.

POST 9/11-- "'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You'd think the United States didn't have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, 'pre-9/11.'"-- Chazz Miner, Midland, Michigan.

SURGE-- "'Surge' has become a reference to a military build-up. Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power."-- Michael F. Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

"Do I even have to say it? I can't be the first one to nominate it…put me in line. From Iraq to Wall Street to the weather forecast-- 'surge' really ought
to recede."-- Mike Lara, Colorado.

"This word came out in the context of increasing the number of troops in Iraq. Can be used to explain the expansion of many things (I have a surge in my waist) and it's use will grow out of control…The new Chevy Surge, just experience the roominess!"-- Eric McMillan, Mentor, Ohio.

GIVE BACK-- "This oleaginous phrase is an emergency submission to the 2008 list. The notion has arisen that as one's life progresses, one accumulates a sort of deficit balance with society which must be neutralized by charitable works or financial outlays. Are one's daily transactions throughout life a form of theft?"-- Richard Ong, Carthage, Missouri.

"Various media have been featuring a large number of people who 'just want to give back.' Give back to whom? For what?"-- Curtis Cooper, Hazel Park, Michigan.

'BLANK' is the new 'BLANK' or 'X' is the new 'Y'-- In spite of statements to the contrary, 'Cold is (NOT) the new hot,' nor is '70 the new 50.' The idea
behind such comparisons was originally good, but we've all watched them spiral out of reasonable uses into ludicrous ones and it's now time to banish them from use. Or, to phrase it another way, 'Originally clever advertising is now the new absurdity!'"-- Lawrence Mickel, Coventry, Connecticut.

"Believed to have come into use in the 1960s, but it is getting tired. The
comparisons have become absurd."-- Geoff Steinhart, Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan.

"'Orange is the new black.' '50 is the new 30.' 'Chocolate is the new sex.'
'Sex is the new chocolate.' 'Fallacy is the new truth.'-- Patrick Dillon, East
Lansing, Michigan.

BLACK FRIDAY-- "The day after Thanksgiving that retailers use to keep themselves out of the 'red' for the year. (And then followed by "Cyber-Monday.") This is counter to the start of the Great Depression's use of the term 'Black Tuesday,' which signaled the crash of the stock market that sent the economy into a tailspin.-- Carl Marschner, Melvindale, Michigan.

BACK IN THE DAY-- "Back in the day, we used 'back-in-the-day' to mean
something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as 'Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.'"-- Liz Jameson, Tallahassee, Florida.

"This one might've already made the list back in the day, which was a Wednesday, I think."-- Tim Bradley, Los Angeles, California.

RANDOM-- Popular with teenagers in many places."Over-used and usually out of context, i.e. 'You are so random!' Really? Random is supposed to mean 'by chance.' So what I said was by chance, and not by choice?"-- Gabriel Brandel, Farmington Hills, Michigan.

"Outrageous mis- and overuse, mostly by teenagers, i.e. 'This random guy,
singing this random song…It was so random.' Grrrrr."-- Leigh, Duncan, Galway, Ireland.

"Overuse on a massive scale by my fellow youth. Every event, activity and person can be 'sooo random' as of late. Banish it before I go vigilante."-- Ben Martin, Adelaide, South Australia.

"How can a person be random?"-- Emma Halpin, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.

SWEET-- "Too many sweets will make you sick. It became popular with the advent of the television show 'South Park' and by rights should have died of
natural causes, but the term continues to cling to life. It is annoying when
young children use it and have no idea why, but it really sounds stupid coming from the mouths of adults. Please kill this particular use of an otherwise fine word."-- Wayne Braver, Manistique, Michigan

"Youth lingo overuse, similar to 'awesome.' I became sick of this one immediately."-- Gordon Johnson, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

DECIMATE-- Word-watchers have been calling for the annihilation of this one for several years. "Used today in reference to widespread destruction or devastation. If you will not banish this word, I ask that its use be 'decimated' (reduced by one-tenth)."-- Allan Dregseth, Fargo, North Dakota.

"I nominate 'decimate' as it applies to Man's and Nature's destructive fury
and the outcome of sporting contests. Decimate simply means a 10%reduction-- no more, no less. It may have derived notoriety because the ancient Romans used decimation as a technique for prisoner of war population reduction or an incentive for under-performing battle units. A group of 10 would be assembled and lots drawn. The nine losers would win and the winner would die at the hands of the losers-- a variation on the instant lottery game. Perhaps 'creamed' or 'emulsified' should be substituted.-- Mark Dobias, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

"The word is so overused and misused, people use it when they should be saying 'annihilate.' It's so bad that now there are two definitions, the real
one and the one that has taken over like a weed.-- Dane, Flowery Branch,
Georgia.

"'Decimate' has been turned upside down. It means 'to destroy one tenth,'
but people are using it to mean 'to destroy nine tenths.'-- David Welch, Venice, Florida.

EMOTIONAL-- "Reporters, short on vocabulary, often describe a scene as 'emotional.' Well sure, but which emotion? For a radio reporter to gravely announce, 'There was an emotional send off to Joe Blow' tells me nothing, other than the reporter perceived that the participants acted in an emotional way. For instance: I had an emotional day today. I started out feeling tired and a bit grumpy until I had my coffee. I was distraught over a cat killing a bird on the other side of the street. I was bemused by my reaction to the way nature works. I was intrigued this evening to add a word or two to your suggestions. I was happy to see the words that others had posted. Gosh, this has been an emotional day for me."-- Brendan Kennedy, Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada.

POP-- "On every single one of the 45,000 decorating shows on cable TV (of which I watch many) there is at LEAST one obligatory use of a phrase such as ... 'the addition of the red really makes it POP.' You know when it's coming ... you mouth it along with the decorator. There must be some other way of describing the addition of an interesting detail."-- Barbara, Arlington, Texas.

IT IS WHAT IT IS-- "This pointless phrase, uttered initially by athletes on the losing side of a contest, is making its way into general use. It accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also
being phonetically and thematically redundant."-- Jeffrey Skrenes, St. Paul, Minnesota.

"It means absolutely nothing and is mostly a cop out or a way to avoid answering a question in a way that might require genuine thought or insight. Listen to an interview with some coach or athlete in big-time sports and you'll inevitably hear it."-- Doug Compo, Brimley, Michigan.

"It seems to be everywhere and pervade every section of any newspaper I read. It reminds me of 'Who is John Galt?' from 'Atlas Shrugged.' It implies an acceptance of the status quo regardless of the circumstances. But it is what it is."-- Erik Pauna, Mondovi, Wisconsin.

"Only Yogi Berra should be allowed to utter such a circumlocution."-- Jerry Holloway, Belcamp, Maryland.

"This is migrating from primetime 'reality television' and embedding itself
into otherwise articulate persons' vocabularies. Of course it is what it is...Otherwise, it wouldn't be what it would have been!"-- Steve Olsen, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.

UNDER THE BUS-- "For overuse. I frequently hear this in the cliche-filled sports world, where it's used to describe misplaced blame-- i.e. 'After Sunday's loss, the fans threw T.O. under the bus."-- Mark R. Hinkston, Racine, Wisconsin.

"Please, just 'blame' them."-- Mike Lekan, Kettering, Ohio.

"Just wondering when someone saying something negative became the same as a mob hit. Since every sportscaster in the US uses it, is a call for the media to start issuing a thesaurus to everyone in front of a camera." -- Mark Bockhaus, Appleton, Wisconsin.

LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2008 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit_word.php.

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

This list is awesome.

Do they have cats in their stores?

The New York Times Weekly Review:

... there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless, and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons.

I like cats. I would feel uncomfortable, though, if I watched them walking on food items. Anyway, this article introduces a website about store-dwelling cats: http://workingclasscats.com/

Doraemon is a cat-shaped robot, although it looks like a racoon dog.

Kumiko Aso gets hitched.

I read the news that Kumiko Aso will get married. This new didn't surprise me, but it made me think that a lot of years has passed since she started out appearing in the media. I remember she was on a commercial of "Katei Kyoushi no Trai (Try tutor recruiting agency)." That was a long long time ago.

Japanese people eat chicken.

I went to KFC to get some chicken. That's what most Japanese people do. I like chicken, so it's not too bad. However, I really miss stuffing. Maybe I will go to some internatinal market to get stuffing and cook it at home.

Merry Christmas!

Don't wanna go to the hospital...

One of my colleagues has been away from work for a couple of days. Maybe he has the flu. But, he doesn't go to the hospital. Why? It isn't because he doesn't have any insurance here in Japan. According to my collague, people never go to the hospital unless it is very serious.

"I am a big boy. I can handle it."

I listened to two of my coworkers talking. One, an American guy, asked the other, a Japanese woman, the direction to the place to visit. She answered, but he wasn't satisfied with his explanation. And then, he said, "I am a big boy. I can handle it."

It cracked me up because he called himself a boy, which originally means a "male child." I don't know whether it would sound to native speakers, but "I am a big boy. I can handle it" should be used by a 10-year-old school boy who wants to go somewhere without his parent's protection.

Are you young?

One of my American colleagues wondered why most of Japanese teenagers are afraid of becoming their 20s. He said, "20 is very young," and then "25 is young." "30 is still young," and then, "maybe 35 is still young."

I don't know if you can call an 35 year old person a youngster. But, basically I agree with him. Japanese people think about their ages too seriously and it doesn't make them happy so far.

Of course, she is very young.

Probably, most Japanese think that the best time in their life must be when they are high school or college students. In the other parts of the world, people would think 20s and 30s is the best.

She is young without a doubt as well.

Take a note!

Taking a note is very important when you are working. If you don't do that, you have to ask the same questions of your coworkers over and over. And you ought to write it down in a notebook rather than scratch paper. If you try to do this easy thing at your workplace, you may be much more productive than you are now.

Why am I writing a thing like this? An old guy sitting in front of me doesn't understand this. And he seems to have difficulty doing some works properly. His boss asked him to take a note, but he doesn't. I often sigh.

Movie Day!

Yesterday was a movie day, which you can watch one with only 1000 yen (usu. 1800 yen). Then, my friend and I went to watch movies. We watched TSUBAKI SANJURO and Beowulf.

The former wasn't that good. It is a remake of an old movie, which I haven't seen, but the story was too simple and kind of boring. If you are a big fan of Yuji Oda, though, you should see this.

Beowulf, the latter one directed by Robert Zemeckis, was pretty good. This is IMDB's plot:

The warrior Beowulf must fight and defeat the monster Grendel who is terrorizing towns, and later, Grendel's mother, who begins killing out of revenge.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/

But, what you can learn from this movie is the supidity of the heroes, including Beowulf, who have made a lot of mistakes because of desires. Grendel's mother must be the symbol of satan but who wants her is human. The way this discrepancy is described is the best part of this movie.

http://www.beowulfmovie.com/

This movie is based on Neil Gaiman's novel. Neial Gaiman is a best-selling author. One of my friends in the United States recommed me to read his novels. Although I'm busy reading other stuffs, I want to read some of them soon.

Hawkins who isn't a scientist...

I went to ABC Mart at Shinjuku this afternoon to get a new pair of business shoes. I was shocked that everything was so expensive... But, I found some slightly damaged items were sold in a particular corner. "I don't care," I said to myself. I got one pair. It wasn't too bad and it was much cheaper.

By the way, I didn't know "G. T. Hawkins" is a British brand. I might be a little bit too far away from what's in.

A man who cannot get married will get married.

The Sankei Shimbun reported that Hiroshi Abe would get hitched with a 28-year-old office worker. He became very popular because of the TV drama named "A man who cannot get married." But, he will get married.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20071120-00000946-san-ent

Already the fourth? I still haven't seen the other three...

I remember my previous roomie recommending this series. But, I have been busy to do other stuffs. I got suprised that they made already four. I gotta see the other three first.

The B-word that rhymes with "witch"?

According to CNN, there's an argument about the fact that John McCain said "an exccelent question" responding to a woman who called Hillary Clinton "b*tch." I am not interested in talking with this issue politically. However, I wondered how many times the anchorman said "the B-word that rhymes with 'witch.'" This phrase really caught my attention.

Few Japanese people would concern much about rhyme. However, it plays a really important role in the English language. Phonics is somewhat relevant to it. And kids will play with it. Maybe one of the reasons few Japanese people hardly master native-language fluency in English might be that they don't try to think it is important.

What's in?

It seems like Yui Aragaki is gaining more and more popularity. But, I wonder why her nickname is "Gakkie," which isn't as easy to pronounce as her first name.

I'll take a nap 'coz that's the way of my life.

Sometimes I wonder why every is in faste so badly. And to be worse, I feel myself in haste at times. I want to be able to say that life is just a waste of time, relaxing and doing nothing. But, it doesn't seem to happen to me so soon. I envy Nobita.

Are the winners happy?

I just found this quote on today's International Herald Tribune:

"I enjoy sitting on nice beaches and hanging out with my girlfriend and playing with my dog, but that's three hours a day. What about the remaing 18 hours I'm awake?"

This is a word of Max Levchin who sold Paypal and made a fortune. Sleeping 3 hours a day? Well, I choose to be poor and have more free time. That's why I'm a loser, maybe.