Where is their sportsmanship?

I'm watching the World Cup these days. But today, I mention bad things about soccer I always think.

I always think there is no sportsmanship in soccer. Players are doing not only too much dirty plays but also simulations. Simulations! Shame of you! Rugby and American football are rougher sports than soccer. But they don't do foul plays as much as soccer, and they hardly complain to judges. There are too much complains to judges in soccer games.
If I have a son, I want him to play sports except for soccer.

But it is a fact that I enjoy the World Cup very much. (^o^)
Go for it, England and Ukraine!

Microsoft Office 2007

When Microsoft upgrades their products, they sometimes make strange changes. Even if it is the function that is not changed at all, its place for setting or even its name was changed. Why? I've been a computer trainer and when I teach new release products of Microsoft I sometimes have troubles. Especially Windows Server and functions of networking. Application is no exception. It seems to be HOBBY of geek engineers of Microsoft?

Microsoft Office 2007 will be released half year later. I saw about it in a computer magazine. New functions are not surprising but its screen and operability are much different. Wow.

I'm thinking of buying new PC after the release of Office 2007 (and Windows Vista). My PC is dickey, it's more like "it's broken". I wonder if the PC will keep until then. I hope so...

The supplement to the magazine was CD-ROM of beta version of Office 2007. But I shouldn't install it because of my PC's erratic behavior?

Interesting insurance for the World Cup

I've heard that there were some strange insurance.

"The trauma insurance" in England.
One man insure against psychological trauma when England team exits from the 1st stage of the World Cup. Its insurance fee is 105 pound and benefit is million. If England exits, the insurance firm asks 5 experts whether England's exit is too early or not. And the man has to prove medically that he suffered trauma.
The insurance firm added Rooney's match absence due to his fracture to the exclusion clause.

"Taking a sicky insurance" in Holland.
If employees are absent from work because of pretended sickness to watch the World Cup, the insurance firm compensates against the companies. According to the news site, when the 2004 European Championship was held in Portugal, the tens of thousands Dutchmen took a sicky in Holland. I wonder how the insurance firm judges real or pretended illness.

Those are interesting insurance in football-orientated Europe.

Japan exited from the World Cup.

Japan couldn't win even one game. Many Japanese supporters were very shocked but I know it's Japanese team's real ability. In fact, Japanese team's playing gained a bad reputation from many medias abroad.

Japanese players looked very very shocked. Not because they lost games... I'm sure because contents of their games were terrible.

What they are missing are...
1. Scoring abilities
2. Strong mental power

About "1", one media said there were no forward in Japanese team. It's an accurate expression.

As for "2", Japan often gives away goals the end of the game or even in added time. They have a short attention span.

And Zico who is a coach of Japanese national team said that they lack professionalism. It's also an accurate expression.

Fighting against English vowels

I think Japanese is one of the most difficult languages, but its pronunciation isn't so difficult, I think.

There are only five vowels in Japanese. But English has 22 vowels! 22!!
It's very difficult for Japanese to distinguish and pronounce English vowels.

For example, followings are same pronunciation for Japanese.
luck - lack
stamp - stump
bird - bard

I'm training English pronunciation using the text book "Eigo mimi" (= English ear)
It shows tongue position etc... by pictures.

I'm training every day but it seems that there are many pronunciation using the back of the throat in English unlike Japanese so my throat hurts, sometimes I feel like throwing up. Is it right training?

Ice cream corn??

I had thought that "Ice cream cone" was "ice cream corn" for a long time. I knew the correct word today... Pronunciation between cone and corn is different. And yes, ice cream cone is conical in shape. But cone and corn are same pronunciation in Japanese. And I had thought that ice cream cone was made of corn.

I think there are some Japanese people who think so... I think...

Foreigner's age

I'm enjoying watching the World Cup these days.
When I watch international sports events such as the World Cup and Olympics, I'm sometimes surprised to hear age of foreign athletes. Even if I think they are veteran, actually they are 24 years old, 22 years old, even teenagers! Foreigners sometimes look old, I know Japanese (Asian) rather look younger though.

For example,
John Terry (England)
I thought he was older than Beckham... but he is 25...






Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
I also thought he was veteran. But when he got a goal, an announcer said "the young player Robben.....!" Young player? Yes, he was 22. I couldn't believe!





Djibril Cisse (France)
Unfortunately he isn't a member of the national team this time due to injury. I remember that he played at the 2002 World Cup and I thought he was a good player. I was very surprised to hear that he was 24. It means he was 20 at the last World Cup I remember?? Oh---!




I wonder how old Japanese players look for foreigners.

My bad listening again

Hmm... I found my bad listening again. This time is...

"---s to have"

I hear it one word "stahave". What is "stahave"? It's a sister shop of Starbucks? Haha.

It was going on bad season.

It's in the rainy season in Tokyo. Humid... very humid. I really HATE humidity. (So I don't like even taking a sauna.) After rainy season, humid summer will come. Oh---! Summer in Japan (except for some areas) is very humid. High temperature or rain doesn't matter for me, but humidity is terrible. So I like summer like in Hawaii, haha.

By the way, there is Teruteru-bozu in Japan and I thought there was that in foreign countries too. But I couldn't find English of Teruteru-bozu from dictionary. Why? Teruteru-bozu is only in Japan?
Japanese kids make teruteru-bozu and hang it up window when they want to have a sunny next day, for example there are a school athletic meet, a school picnic and so on next day.

England vs. Paraguay --- the 2006 World Cup ---

The game; England vs. Paraguay, was finished just now. England barely won. That was close. Was England really a favourite? Whew! Although most England players are top players in several famous club teams, especially MFs. Look England MFs! Formidable talented players.


(Lampard, J Cole, Gerrard, Beckham)


A goalkeeper of Paraguay was injured early in the game and changed to another goalkeeper. He was crying when he left the pitch. Very poor thing...
Many many players are striving to get regular positions. He finally has got No. 1 jersey and was on the pitch of the World Cup. But he played only 5 minutes. He must have felt frustrated and been sad very much.

I was playing sports when I was a student. Training was very very hard. So I know players feelings. I always tend to give an eye to players who missed the game or couldn't play because of injuries. When I see such a situation, I always ruminate about how hard they were practicing and so on.

I hope the goalkeeper will come back next game.

Origin of the word "Dutch treat"

I found a funny article in a newspaper.

There were postcards in a souvenir shop in Brussels. Its title was "the Perfect Europeans". Following phrases were in it.

- The good cook like a British
- The big name like a Luxembourger
- The humorist like a German
- The good mechanic like a Lusitanian
- The reliable person like a Belgian

Of course these are "sarcasms". Hmm... I see.

One more,

- The big spender like a Dutchman

Oh! So splitting the bill is said Dutch treat (account) or going Dutch?

The inauguration of the 2006th World Cup

Finally, the World Cup begins!

The team I cheer for best is Ukraine. The second is England. I cheered for England last time too. England is the country where soccer originated but they can't win the cup for a long time, they were not even favourite team. That is why I'm cheering England. But it seems that's not the case this time. It seems that England is one of favourite teams. Yeah. There are many talented players in England team this time, Gerrard, Lampard, Becham, Rooney...

As for Ukraine, player I know is only Shevchenko. I learn Ukraine team while watching their games. So please roll, Ukraine!

Before the inauguration, some players were injured. Cisse of France broke a bone. Poor things. He is a very good player and important to France.

Ballack of Germany was also injured and misses the first game. Germany, pinch!?

Oh! Polar bears I love are...

Like I wrote in this blog before, one of my favorite animals is polar bear. IUCN announced the Red List about one month ago. Oh! The polar bears were designated as an endangered species. Main cause is the global warning.

According to one new site,
They need lots of ice to hunt on and to raise their cubs. As more ice melts because of rising temperatures, they are finding it hard to survive.

Sad...

The movie "White Planet" will hit screens soon. I will go to see it of course. The director of the movie said that scenes in the movie would disappear in the future. Very sad...

http://www.whiteplanet.jp (Japanese site)

The game of Giants

I went to see the baseball game, Giants vs Swallows, with my friend in Golden week. (about 1 month ago) When I go to see the game, game was boring and Giants always couldn't win. But Giants won and it was a very exciting game this time. Wow!!

Giants maintained a lead in Central league and many people thought Giants was strong this year. But I was concerned as a fan. As suspected, Giants fell from the top after I went to see the game.

Giants was in the lead again a few days ago but my worries about Giants are endless.

Unfortunately, my camera has no zoom function. Players are very small...

If the world were a village of 100 people Part 4

I watched the TV program "If the world were a village of 100 people, Part 4" today.

It featured 3 children this time. One of them was a 9-year-old boy who was a street children in Ukraine. He escaped from his father's violence. He has HIV because of his father who is a drug addict.

He asked a Japanese reporter if she was hungry and eats food he had. He had food... probably it was not food for Japanese. And it was today's first food for him. But he considered her who probably has never have trouble eating. He also was worried about his younger sister who was in an orphanage. He said he hoped his sister didn't spend life like him and want her to go to school and spend normal life, he also wanted to go to school. I couldn't stop crying.

He is always running away from police. If he is taken into protective custody by police, he will be taken to the orphanage, and end up with going back to home where violent father is in. TV program staff tried to talk him into going hospital but he adamantly refused to do.

There are many street children who escaped from their family's violence. They have only 2 choices, being street children or living with violent family? Why country doesn't protect them?

There are many children who are under harsh situation. Many associations act for helping them. But I think the root of the whole problem is "country (government)". Each country must take appropriate policies to resolve this problem.

In Japan, there are no street children, no child labor, every child can go to school... although until about 60 years ago, many poor children couldn't go to school and did heavy work.
Why did Japan could make present good, and rare situations?

Japanese TV sometimes airs the program like this. And then? Is that all? For what purpose did they air those? Most Japanese who watched the program feel "poor thing!". That's all.
Japan (including me) should DO something.