Word of the year

Hmm... This is rather biased, I believe.

Don't too much rely on your dictionary.

Need to update this blog...

When I got back to Japan and started working at an English language school, one Japanese bilingual teacher asked me this question.

"How many fingers do you have?"

"I think, I have ten (fingers)," I answered.

But, he didn't say that my answer was right. Why? Let's take a look at a dictionary written for ESL learners.

According to Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary of American Enlgish:

Your hands are the parts of your body at the end of your
arms. Each hand has four fingers and a thumb.

He insisted that a person have eight fingers, relying on this dictionary definition. Well,...

I am not a native speaker of English, so I have been asking my American friends this question. I haven't found anyone who immediately answered "eight" yet.

Dialog for English conversation

Kana and Hide are having a conversation. Hide showed up ten minutes late. Kana looks mad.

Kana: You're late. What have you been up to? I've been waiting for you.
Hide: Sorry. From now on, I'll try not to be late.
Kana: You've said something like that before. This is the second time.
Hide: This time, I'm serious. Believe me. Give me the third chance.
Kana: Some people say, "Misfortune always comes in threes."
Hide: Well, don't get so serious. Haste makes waste.
Kana: You are driving me mad. Three-strike-out, okay?
Hide: Don't scare me, please. I am too timid to take strong words.
Kana: Whatever. Whenever I say something important, you're not listening, you know.

This dialog above was written to explain that if you put too many idioms in conversation, it would sound strange. Anyway, the dialog seems to sound strange.

After reading some comment about the dialog, I've changed a bit. It became more idiomatic.

=====================================================

Kana: You're late. What have you been up to? I've been waiting for you.
Hide: Sorry. From now on, I'll try not to be late.
Kana: You've said something like that before. This is the second time.
Hide: This time, I'm serious. Believe me. Give me a third chance.
Kana: They say, "Misfortune always comes in threes."
Hide: Well, don't be so serious. Haste makes waste.
Kana: You are driving me mad. Three strikes, you're out, okay?
Hide: Lighten up, dude.
Kana: Whatever. Whenever I say something important, you're not listening.

They should be "stamps" and "others"

Hmm...

Who is the woman?

Is she really Winona Ryder?

I can't say anything about the picture...

TOEIC Part 1 Question

a) The woman is carrying a lot of drinks.
b) The woman is putting on her glasses.
c) There are a lot of beef in her hands.
d) The woman is talking with a lot of people.

Sprite and 7UP

I found the information below through the internet. It is surprising to know that Sprite and 7UP are not sold well in Japan. Tastes differ.

Softdrink you would like to drink once again:

1. Mellow Yellow
2. Hachimitsu Lemon ("Honey Lemon")
3. Ambasa
4. Sprite
5. 7UP
6. Kiriri
7. Kocha Kaden
8. Mountain Dew
9. Dr. Pepper
10. HI-C

http://narinari.com/Nd/2006066108.html (Written in Japanese)

Never-ending journey

Keep going.

Keep going.

Even if you can't see the goal yet.

Take the same route.

Take the same route.

Even if other routes seem right.

Hold your dream.

Hold your dream.

Even if you look stuck.

Write a poem.

Write a poem.

Even if nobody reads it.

Sing the song.

Sing the song.

Even if people laugh at you.

What is the most important thing?

My room is very messy because there are a lot of books. However, I haven't even touched most of them. While trying to touch any of the stacks around my desk, I drop by a bookstore and buy another book that looks interesting.

Why does it happen? Partly because I am interested in many things, which is not a bad thing. Mostly because I can't control my schedule, though, which is a really bad thing.

Actually, I must have much more free time than most of Japanese business people. I am not working as a parttimer. I teach a few classes in a week, and I have to prepare for them. The rest is my free time.

I can see a picture hung on the wall. That says "New Year's Resolution: 2008." It says:

-Get a TOEIC score of over 950
Did I? Not yet. My maximum score is 945. Maybe the one I took last Sunday might be. But, God only knows the result so far.

- Pass STEP EIKEN (1st Grade)
Did I? Not yet. Actually, I surely know why I can't make it. Vocabulary. But, I haven't finished any vocabulary book since New Year's Day in 2008. The last time I took the EIKEN, I felt that my reading skills should be improved too. While taking the listening part, I couldn't choose the best answer despite the fact that I understood almost all of the tape because of being unable to finish reading the answer choices.

- Get a TOEFL score over 100
Did I? No. I even haven't taken the test.

And I have intended to take the Cambridge Exam (CPE) after the previous three targets are accomplished. But, none of them hasn't been conquered. So, I can't start to set a target for the Cambridge...

However, as a mater of fact, the most important thing is not to pass these exams. As you know, there are some people with higher TOEIC/TOEFL scores can't speak English fluently. Most of the EIKEN words are not frequently used. The Cambrige is said to be much better than other English language exams, but it is still just a test.

Of course, the most important thing is to keep learning English. I thought that I have learned a lot about the English language while completing my master's in TESL in the states. However, I can't be satisfied with my skills now, and I even feel my English is getting worse at times. Whenever I speak to native speakers in Tokyo, I can recognize how awkwardly I speak.

It is easy to say that it is because I don't use English now as often as I used to. But, I know many people who learned to speak better English than me only with domestic language learning. My English learning is not a competition, I am learning for myself. Whenever I hear about those people, I feel embarassed. If I didn't improve my English again, I would undervalue my MA-TESL and feel sorry for the professors who were really helpful.

Therefore, I have to try to use my free time in order to speak/write good English again and to understand English up to nearly 100%. Hope I can keep this motivation forever.

I am thinking of getting back to the states soon. Before that, though, I will start to learn English again.



Steve is a good guy. He reflects himself whenever he screws up. But, he often forgets what he reflects about. I'll try not to do the same mistake as he does.

What?

I saw these statues of owls for the first time. I have lived in Tokyo for more than 25 years, though.

Love in thoughts

Have you seen the German movie Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken (English title: Love in thought)? I saw it about a week ago and I was pretty much impressed.


The movie describes rich teenagers. The atmosphere of the movie is hardly shown in any American teen movies or TV dramas, though. In most of the American teen movies, main characters could make a mistake but all of them have positive thoughts. However, the main characters in Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken are rather negative and the fact makes the movie good.


I prefer the girl named Hilde. Probably most people thinks of her a bad girl. But, I kind of understand why she behaves. She knows that she won't be able to be liked by a lot of guys around her for a long time and tries to enjoy the short time that looks shining.

Leah Dizon gets hitched

Leah Dizon announced that she got married. But, unlike Howard Stern's news below, I couldn't find any article with the phrase "get hitched." Of course, you can't find much information about Leah Dizon in English. Is she really American?

the most important human of this century???

The news did not interest me, but the phrase "the most important human of this century" made me laugh. This is a good phrase to teach the superlative to ESL learners.

While we're speaking of prestigious female recording artists: Paris Hilton, singer, actress, and perhaps the most important human of this century, has released a new single entitled "My BFF"--which will coincide with the debut of her new MTV reality show, intriguingly titled Paris Hilton's My New BFF. In it, 16 women and 2 gay men will compete for the privilege of actually becoming Paris's "best friend forever" who, word has it, "is hot, loyal and has the energy to keep up with Hilton's hectic lifestyle." Extremely large mirrors need not apply!

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/thatsreallyweek/26036/sept-30-oct-6-politics-as-unusual

Howard Stern

Nobody in Japan would care about this news itself, but the bolded phrases might be unfamiliar with Japanese and should be learned. I 've seen this guy a couple of times on TV.

Quoted from Yahoo!:

Howard Stern gets hitched

Once avowing to never marry again, Howard Stern ties the
knot with model Beth Ostrosky.

Wa Mu?

I don't have any special knowledge to talk about why Washinton Mutual has collapsed. However, I was very surprised by the news. One of my Japanese friends who lived in California had a bank account of this bank. Also, I had not known the bank is called "Wa Mu" until I read this news through the internet.

Should great detectives be test smarters?

Now, Veronica Mars has got it going on in Japan. I like this series in that each episode not only introduces one single mystery to be solved but also one big mystery to be solved in the final episode. I think that Veronica Mars, the heroine of this show, really looks like Nancy Drew. Both of them help their fathers who are professional detectives.

By the way, Japanese people really like mystery novels whose detectives are high school students. Jimmy Kudo (a.k.a Shinichi Kudo) in "Case Closed" is a highschooler. Also, Hajime Kindaichi, another popular detective in Japan, is also goes to high school. But, Hajime Kindaichi is not a top student. He often takes an F in class. One of my friends who love to read mystery
novels insists that great detectives be good at high school subjects as well as crime cases. Now, I would like to refute him, because I think that skills to solve crime cases are not related to those to get high scores in academic subjects of Japanese high schools. I will make three points below.

The first point is that knowledge to solve crime cases are hardly learned in school. Sometimes, great detectives may need knowlege of chemistry for cases in which some poison is used, but it won't be learned in highschool chemistry class. Although you may need language skills to understand dying message written in foreign languges (Nobody leaves a dying message in a real crime), you won't get high scores in tests of foreign language class in Japan, which is mainly occupied with fill-in-blank grammar questions. Social studies and math also seem to be irrelevant.

The second point is that in Japan, problem solving skills is not required to get high grades in any academic subjects. If you can cram, you can get high grades.

Now, you may insist that they try to cram if needed. In Japan, getting higher grades at school is very important to be successful. Great detectives are smart enough to know it. So, they will try to become top students to be successful. The answer to it will be my third point. Grate detectives in any mystery stories do not have any common sense. They are not interested in becoming a winner. They show up for any crime scene even when they are not asked
to come, which is unlikely to ordinary people in the world.

Therefore, great detectives are not always good at academic subjects, especially in Japan.

Get it back!

It has been more than two weeks since I wrote on this blog last. I have been busy learning English. I've forgotten many things since I left the United States. I used to think in English all day, but now I hardly do it. I hope I'll be able to get my English back by working hard.

Anna Faris often appears in teen movies but is not as famous as actors like Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson.

Draws to a close our holiday?

I started to like English partly because I liked the Flipper's Guitar, who sang some of their songs in English. However, I still don't understand some of their lylics. Is "Draw to a close our holiday" grammatically correct? I know it should mean "The vacation is almost over." Anyway, August is almost over. Probably, most of school kids are feeling kind of sad.

Friend Again

We first met by the sea
On the day I came here
You shyly showed to me
A picture on the pier

There you had painted summer
Just as I saw it
Since then we've been good friend
But last night I offended
Oh, silly me

So let's make friends again today
Draw to a close a holiday
Holdin' bouquet someday we'll part anyway
You in a grey beret
I will portray
Though we'll realize by hogmanay
Every word is just a cliche

Did you ever go abroad?

Yesterday, I talked with my students about going abroad. Actually, they have visited much more foreign countries than I have.

I've been to the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. But, one of the students told me that she's been to more than 25 countries. And I asked her which country is her favorite. Her answer was Tunisia. I couldn't think of anything about Tunisia at that time.

I want to visit more countries. But, I need to make some money in order to do it.

Across the Universe

I went to see "Across the Universe" at Shibuya. The movie was really good. Although the Beatles is not my favorite, I enjoy their songs in there as well as the story line and picture.

Evan Rachel Wood was really good in this movie. She acted as a girl who had lost her first boyfriend in the war and who were involved in the anti-war movement. I believe that there were a lot of girls like her in the 60s.