My watch's destiny is...

A couple days ago, I received a call from a watch repair shop. A staff said the problem of my watch was not only running out of battery. What!? He also said it would take 2 or 3 weeks to get an estimate. 2 or 3 weeks JUST for the estimate? Whew...

Just battery changes cost 6,800 yen. I wonder how much it would cost to repair. I feel gloomy. I really like my watch.

By the way, just after the call from the repair shop, a light bulb in a hallway of my place blew out. There are 2 lights in the hallway and one of those already blew out a few weeks ago. Before that, I changed a light bulb in a bathroom due to its blowing out. Although I just moved to this place 3 months ago, no less than 3 light bulbs have blown out.

Too many things are breaking down one after another around me.
I want to break up this bad flow of prana.

"In", "of" and "for"

My Murphy book says, when you express about time that takes to do something, you use "in".
For example;

"I learned to drive in four weeks."
"I read this book in a day."

I see. But when I want to say those sentences, I probably say "for" instead of "in" unconsciously. Meanings are changed... right?

The Murphy books teach me one more thing.

"What was the happiest day of your life?"
"Yesterday was the hottest day of the year."

"Of"? It's not "in"? Why??
I still think "in" is more appropriate. Haha.

I found an appropriate word "doze".

I learnd a word that is very useful for my life. It's "doze".

I had said for a long time that "I love sleep." or "I love napping."
But! I can say now that I love to have a doze. It's apt expression!

My bad listening comprehension #12

"American auto-parts manufactures are tired of bilingual overseas competitors."

?? Bilingual competitors? Usually most companies are bilingual as long as they are in business internationally and not in English-speaking countries. And what is a problem for American companies about bilingual?

The correct sentence is;
American auto-parts manufactures are tired of battling their overseas competitors.
It's different AT ALL!
It's the case of disappearing "T" pronunciation.

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-bad-listening-comprehension-11.html

Shigeo Nomo

A Japanese baseball player, Nomo announced his retirement the other day.

Now many Japanese plays in MLB, but at the time Nomo started to play in MLB, it was very hard for Japanese to move to MLB. He moved to MLB getting over many difficulties. He was a pioneer for Japanese to play in MLB.

And he played very well. He was elected the Rookie of the Year in his first year. The then president of the US, Clinton (probably Clinton) praised that Nomo was the best import from Japan.

He really loved baseball. He must want to continue playing. I can't watch his play anymore. It is very pity.

Thank you for showing nice and exciting play, Nomo!

Another word which express "dollar"

In a drama, a man said "200 box". It seemed to mean money, probably dollar. I wondered why it's "box".

In another drama, a guy said, "could I borrow a couple of box?"

Oh, it must mean dollar.

I checked "box" in a dictionary. But there wasn't a meaning of dollar.

Next, I checked dollar".
Oh, "buck"! I see. It was "200 bucks" and "a couple of bucks". I didn't know this word.

I can learn new words from English dramas.

Just one happy thing among many bad things

My watch was running out of a battery so I had to take it to a shop.
I can't remember how long it has been since I had the battery changed last. It was lo---ng time ago. The battery lasts quite long. So why now?

My bicycle was stolen. My hair dryer was broken. Then it's the watch this time. Whew...

In case of Japanese watches, a shop changes its battery on the spot and the cost is cheap. But my watch is TAG Heuer... so...
It takes TWO WEEKS! and costs 6,800 yen! (64us$, 40euro) I can buy another cheep watch for 6,800 yen.
And life without the watch is very inconvenient for me.

But regarding my stolen bicycle, I received a letter from Shinjuku Ward office yesterday. The letter says that they have removed my bicycle so come to take it.
Oh!

But, my bicycle was removed on 20th of the last month. The notice is too late. Some people might buy new one by the time they receive the notice. And, I have to pay 3,000 yen for removing fee. Boo...

As bad things is going on happening around me recently, but at least there was one good thing. My bicycle will come back, I'm a bit worried about its condition though.

Pronunciation of "T"

Native English speakers strongly pronounce plosive, such as "T", "P" and "B", for Japanese. Japanese don't pronounce them so strongly. So when I hear English conversation, those sound a bit too much, especially "T". They pronounce "T" very strongly.

On the other hand, sound of "T" sometimes disappears.
For example;
Twenty --> I can hear "tweny".
Internet --> I can hear "innernet"

Hmm... strange...

The building opposite to my apartment

This is a high rise new building across the street from my apartment.


It was completed last month. It has not only rent room for individuals but also offices for the companies. Since a couple of weeks ago, companies moving has started.


Actually I was thinking of living in there during it was under construction. But its completion was a bit too late for me.

But... I found that... even if it had completed earlier, I couldn't have lived there. Because its rent is expensive.

"Electric" vs. "electronic"

I often confuse those words. When I use either of the words, I always have to think "well, which is..."

Probably I sometimes say, electronic wire, electronic power or electric dictionary.

Haircut

I had my hair cut today. I ordered to cut my forelock shorter than usual. So it is a bit too short. Hmm... OK, hair will grow soon.

In English, they say "I had my hair cut."
But in Japanese language, it's a bit different.
We say "I cut (my) hair" in Japanese even though we don't cut ourselves.
For example;

Next day of your haircut, probably your friends or co-workers say in Japanese,
"Oh, did you cut (your) hair? It's ---"

Another example;
"Where do you go now?"
"I'm going to cut (my) hair."

Such being the case, it's a bit difficult for me to adapt myself to the phrase "I had my hair cut".

"Even though"

I didn't know that the meaning of "even though" is a bit different from that of "even if". As far as I remember, I learned the both were the same in junior high school. So I always use just "even if". Ooh...

Even though I had to say "even though", I used "even if".

A boring American drama

The other day, I found that the popular American TV drama "SEX AND THE CITY" was on air. So I added it to my English TV drama line-up that was for my studying English.

But it was disappointing, because its story was very boring. "Desperate Wives" is MUCH more fun!
Many American TV dramas, which were grate hit in the US, are on air in Japan and those are amusing. (I think "24" becomes boring and boring though.) But I can't undertstand why "SEX AND THE CITY" became so popular in the US.

By the way, why aren't all of 4 actresses in "SEX AND THE CITY" so beautiful? I wonder if the producer chose them intentionally. Come to think of it, there are no cool guys in the drama, too.

Hard to pronounce

The words I can't pronounce well are "insist" and "expect".

I seem to be bad at "S" pronunciation. In "insist", there are two consecutive "S" with a vowel between them. It's very difficult for me.

I don't know why I can't say "expect" well. Actually it's quite new word for me. I learned the appropriate way to use it around the last autumn, and I knew it was very useful, more like essential word.

"I expected it to be -----."
It's almost impossible for me to say it.

I expect myself to be good at those pronunciations.
Is it a strange sentence?

Having entirely opposite meanings

"Temper" is a bit strange word.

1)
One of its meanings is kind of "mood" or "feeling".
For example;
She is a good/bad temper.

2)
Other meaning is "calmness" or "composure".
For example;
He lost his temper.
He is keeping his temper.

3)
On the other hand, one more meaning is "anger" or "conniption fit".
For example;
She is in a temper.

2 and 3 are completely opposite. One word has opposite meanings...
I wonder if there is such a word in Japanese. Could be.

The worst season

Although it's still rainy season, it's fair weather this weekend.

Over 30 C degrees temperature and terribly high humidity. It's almost mid summer.

Walking outside for a while, then on stopping walking, I sweat and sweat. It doesn't stop.
My body really doesn't like humidity. My skin condition becomes bad, I lose my appetite, and even feel sick.

Such a season has come, this year too.

The explosion of my hair dryer

A few days ago, when I used my hair dryer, I found the connection between the body and the codecord had very high heat. I thought I needed to buy new one.

Today, I was still using it. But it sometimes stopped working, so I checked the codecord and found a small burnt scratch. Oh, it's dangerous. I have to go to buy new one tomorrow.

I continued to use it hoping it works 5 more minutes. Suddenly, there was a sound "PUN!!" over my head, then it never worked again. The codecord terribly burned.

Ooh, it was dangerous. I know I should have stopped using it as soon as I found its trouble. It was good that nothing happened to me.

Sarkozy's ability

There are many police officers around the center of Tokyo these days, because the summit talks is taking place next week. The site is in Hokkaido where is far from Tokyo though.

The other day, morning news said that Japanese government was officially informed that one of the first ladies didn't want to move place to place with other first ladies on the same bus. Huh? Which country's first lady says such a stupid thing?
One commentator said in joke, "It might be French...". But he was right.

Evening news of the day said that it was decided that French President Sarkozy's wife won't come to the summit, due to her other job as a singer or something.

What a silly excuse! Everyone has known it's not due to her other job, but due to just her selfishness. I don't care about her character. The problem is Sarkozy who permitted that.

I doubt his abilities as the head of state.

Meaning of stranger

There was the following sentence in a mail.

"Keep in touch. Don't be a stranger."

Don't be a stranger? What does it mean?

For me, a stranger is a kind of weird, odd or suspicious person. So I checked "stranger" in a dictionary.

It was much different.

Example sentences in the dictionary are;

"I'm sorry I'm a stranger around here."
"A passing stranger"
I see. A passerby isn't a weird, odd and suspicious person. Haha.

"You're quite a stranger./Hello, stranger!"
I see, I see!

But when it comes to a stranger, my brain still images a weird, odd and suspicious person. It seems to take much time to change the image of stranger.

A new word "heck"

I learned a useful (at least for me) word the other day. It's "heck".

How in the heck ----- ?
What in the heck ----- ?

An expression that I thought is the most useful is "What the heck!". Hmm... I can use it in many ways.

But I wonder if I can say it on business, or in the situation where I should be polite.

I'd better learn not only business English but also...

There are words I won't be able to memorize. One of them is "ambulance".

Whenever I learn English, I put emphasis on business-related words and expressions. Basically I need to speak English just on business now. So even if I couldn't memorize "ambulance" that has nothing to do with business, I didn't care about that.

But! If I work abroad sometime, words for my daily life would become much more important than business English?!
If I were in an accident or something, I couldn't say, "Call an ambulance, somebody!". Ooh, it's in crisis.