Full-scale winter

It becomes very cold at a stretch from tomorrow. Bye-bye autumn I like. (It's winter already though.) It is sad that autumn finishes but I like winter better than summer. Most winter's days are fine in Tokyo. Not a cloud in the sky. So I can see the Sun every day. But fine day is very cold. The basis of Tokyo's winter is...
Fine day -----> Very cold
Occasional cloudy or rainy day -----> a bit warm

I hate summer in Tokyo. Temperature doesn't matter. VERY HUMID!! I hate humidity very much. (So I don't like sauna so much.) I love Tokyo so I don't want to leave here. But summer is...
I wish Tokyo's summer were like Hawaii's one.

To change the subject, I had a coffee with co-worker, Joe today because I had an errand to go near his office. He said that he went to New York on business and came back two weeks ago. I'm jealous. I want to go to Manhattan. And he stayed the $1,000-a-night hotel. Wow! I haven't stayed at such an expensive hotel, and I'm sure I never stay for years to come...
He said I might write about this on my blog. Yes! I wrote!

By the way, I wonder the title of this article "Full-scale winter" is correct English... It's strange??

The lecture about Denmark

I who am interested in Denmark went to hear the lecture about Denmark after taking TOEIC mock exam on Sunday.

Its title was "wisdom of living and design in Denmark". Speaker was Mrs. Takako Bundgaard. She is a Japanese and has lived in Denmark over 30 years after she married Danish.

Her talking was interesting. Unfortunately, she somewhat denied Japan when she conveyed Denmark's good points comparing with Japan. But I became more and more intrigued with Denmark!

I'd like to go to Denmark sometime. Before that, I want to know more about Denmark.

The result of the TOEIC mock exam

As I said yesterday, I went to take the TOEIC mock exam this morning.
Score was 590. When I tried the book of mock exam at my place, the score was 730. I'm sure that today's result appreciated my real English skill properly.

The exam was hard for me. In the listening section, I couldn't catch English a lot. In the reading section, there wasn't enough time so I couldn't answer the last four questions.

There is much challenge I face. I plan to take a real exam on March and the target score is 660. And I want to get over 730 in a year. But it seems that is my wishful thinking. According to a person of the English conversation school, you must study English over 200 hours to raise your score by 50 point.

I'll go to take the TOEIC mock exam.

The other day, I took a TOEIC mock exam. It was just I bought a mock exam book and took it at my place. But the exam I will take tomorrow is almost same as real TOEIC exam.

One English conversation school hold it under the same conditions as real exam. Probably the school holds it to get customers (students).

The score of my last mock exam I took at my place was 720. I wonder how many scores I will get tomorrow.

I will report the result tomorrow.

My name's movie

One Hollywood movie will come out across Japan and the U.S. next month. Its story is about a Japanese geisha girl. So of course it set in Japan. The movie's title is my first name! It's name of the geisha who is a heroine of the movie. (English title is different.) I wonder why this name was chosen.

English site => http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/memoirsofageisha/
Japanese site => http://www.movies.co.jp/sayuri/

Many Japanese actors and actresses appear in it. BUT an actress who plays HEROINE isn't a Japanese! Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang plays it. WHY??? I shake my head...

And everyone speak English in daily conversation. It's really strange. That can't be it. In another Hollywood movie "The Last Samurai", Japanese samurai also spoke English.
Story of movie "K-19" (leading actor was Harrison Ford) was about A-sub of Soviet. The story was played out almost in the A-sub. Of course crews were Russian in story... but it was Hollywood movie and actors were Hollywood stars. So everyone was speaking English in A-sub. I have heard that many people felt strange.

Walking around Tokyo station

It was ve--ry fine weather today!! It was warm (better to say hot?) It's "koharu-biyori". Koharu-biyori means..., literal translation is small spring weather day. It seems it's "Indian summer day" in English. Summer? But Indian summer is suitable for today's weather.

I went near Tokyo station on business. So I came by the hot new place "TOKIA". And then, I walked around Tokyo station because of fine weather. I like the Marunouchi exit side better than the Yaesu exit side. That area weaves old historic buildings with new intelligent fashionable buildings. And there are wonderful nature "Imperial gardens" nearby. Great!!

Tokyo station

My PC is in danger!!

My note PC is in pretty bad shape. Actually it hasn't been good since I bought it. Problem is its hard disk. It always hangs and doesn't shut down properly. And it is getting worse recently. It is in danger! I guess that it will stop moving soon! Before that I need new PC.

I was planning to buy a sheet-like piano for Christmas, but I must buy PC?

Denmark missed 2006 World Cup berth.

I'm interested in Denmark. There are some reasons. I omit to write the reasons today. I wondered if Denmark earned 2006 World Cup berth, so I checked web site. Hmm... What a pity! They missed it.

Denmark was in Group 2 and it was called "Group of Death". Greece that was the last Europe Champion was also in Group 2 and missed the berth.

The number of the berth for Europe is 13 except Germany. 51 countries competed for it. It's fierce competition! Compared with that, competition in Asia is so easy. If Japan is included in the Europe competition, Japan could never play in the World Cup. It's impossible! It is said that the number of berth for Asia is too many.

The Final Draw will take place on 9 Dec. I wonder which team I cheer for instead of Denmark.

Refreshing change

My English doesn't improve AT ALL. My learning way isn't appropriate? What is better way for me? Recently I'm thinking about those and I feel woolly. (Woolly... I'm not sure that this word means correctly what I want to say.)
I realized yesterday that speaking skill was worse rather than not improve. Terrible.

So I planed to change my English material for a refreshing change. I don't change the way to study, dictation, overlapping, shadowing. Just changing material. I hope I can emerge from chaos.

It was said that with making a line graph of language proficiency level, the line isn't rise averagely. The line is horizontal for a while and then rises up suddenly. And it's horizontal again for a while. That is repeated. It seems that the sudden sharp rising is called "breakthrough".

I wonder when my "breakthrough" comes?

Bird flu pandemic

U.S. president Bush said about the warning of bird flu pandemic. U.S seems to put much money into the measures against that.

There is concern about stocks of Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) in Japan. In case new type flu appears by mutation in the bird flu, it is said that Tamiflu is useful for its treatment.

But!
Recently, it is reported that Tamiflu has side effects, for example abnormal behavior and hallucination. In fact, after taking Tamiflu, one high school boy ran to the driveway and got hit by a truck, and one junior high school boy died from jumping down from the 9th floor of building. Hmm... I hope flu pandemic won't happen.

But!
Some people perished by bird flu in China. And one boy has the bird flu, but China announced it ONE MONTH after his getting bird flu. I can't believe!
When SARS went around, China was criticized for its cover-ups by all over the world. China didn't learn anything from it! This isn't just Chinese problem!!!

The frontal lobe

Recently, many books about human brain are published and brain training is popular among Japanese. Especially, the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe. Main ways to train them are reading aloud and simple calculation.

I read some books that were written by Professor Kawashima who is a foremost researcher of brain imaging. According to him, the frontal lobe of animals isn't developed. To put it simply, it is responsible for humanlike behavior. And the frontal lobe is off work during sleeping. I understood!

In the dream, there are many unbelievable affairs, for example, I can fly in the sky, I talk with animals, etc... If those things happen in the real world, everyone are surprised and think it is strange. But in the dream, I am not surprised even if I fly in the sky. I always think why I'm not surprised and feel strange at all in the dream.

I understood now. It's because the frontal lobe is off work. Professor Kawashima said the dream is coherent if the frontal lobe works during sleeping. I see.

Princess Nori's wedding

It was Princess Nori's wedding today. Many TV channels featured it.

Her mother, Empress Michiko, married into the Imperial family from a civilian. At that time, it was very rare case so it was said that she had many cares. Princess Nori married into the civil family from Imperial family. I think it is harder. I wonder if her husband can support her well. He looks like a person who doesn't have what it takes.

Lazy Sand...

I neglected English study these few days. I'm really lazy person.

Reflection...

Tahitian Cafe?

I found new cafe near Shinjuku the end of last month. It's Tahitian Noni Cafe.

In the cafe, it was Hawaiian atmosphere. Hawaiian music and interior. Yes, I was wrong. Probably those are Tahitian music and interior but I don't know about Tahiti at all so I felt Hawaiian atmosphere. Winter is drawing closer in Tokyo, but it's summer in the cafe.

There are many cafes that are from overseas. But that is cafe I haven't heard of before. What kind of drink is Tahitian drink? And there were some foods. I ordered a chocolate drink. I could choose kind of chocolate. It's first time.

I will try to check more unique Tahitian foods and drinks next time.

Today is...

There was a bad thing. I am depressed. And I am disgusted with myself...

That is all today's blog. Sorry...

I will write proper blog again from tomorrow.

Giants should know better.

Giants is trying to get Mr. Noguchi who earns his free agency from Chunichi Dragons. I'm a Giants fan but I'm fed up with Giants which get anybody who earn their free agency. Anybody.

Giants has gotten many players who earned their free agency. They were certainly good players in their ex-teams but their peaks has already finished in spite of their high annual salary. Giants has had many fails about it. Many players, who came from other teams and Giants paid much money, didn't make their marks in Giants at all.

Giants should think of its team situation and strategies. Team doesn't need that many clouters. And Giants also should develop its own players without getting players from other teams.

Don't tell a lie to foreigners about Japan.

I was in a cafe tonight. Old Japanese man and young foreign woman were sitting next to me. They seemed to be language exchange partners. (But old Japanese man and young foreign woman... It's a bit rare combination...) The women asked him about Japanese and the man asked her English. They were speaking almost English so I eavesdropped on their conversation because I thought it was good for listening training. Hehe...

His English level was very low and his teaching ability wasn't good. But I think it's no problem. But his opinions that he thought her were very biased. For example, when she said she wanted to eat Yakitori, he said she should not have gone to Kabukicho in Shinjuku and Roppongi because of very dangerous. What??
In a sense, there are parts of danger in both place, and many country people think Kabukicho is dangerous. But I often go to Kabukicho to drink, watch a movie and so on, especially when I was a university student. And there are many nice restaurants, pubs and bars. His opinion (advice) that is she shouldn't go to those places is TOO biased.

Person who says biased opinions always doesn't know well about those. Probably he barely goes to Kabukicho and Roppongi.

The relation between music and learning language

One Japanese who is an expert of English said that many Japanese who can speak English very well like music, is good singers and have a good ear for music.

Hmm... It seems that music and rhythmic senses are important to learn English for Japanese. Japanese language has no intonation and stress accents so much. It's almost flat monotone. So I think Japanese are unused to speaking with strong stress and intonation. I've heard that it's good for Japanese to speak English as if they sing.

I advise foreigners who study Japanese that you speak Japanese as monotone as you can. So your Japanese is close to native speakers' one.

"Farm" and "Firm", "Travel" and "Trouble"

I often mishear English words.

I can't distinguish sounds between "farm" and "firm". Each pronunciation symbol is different. I heard both of words from CDs over and over but those sound all the same for me.

I also can't distinguish sounds between "travel" and "trouble".
When I heard the sentence "It used to cost a lot more to travel", I thought "trouble"? I couldn't catch "to" in front of "travel". So I heard "It used to cost a lot more trouble". ??? What did it mean?

I've heard that it's difficult for foreigners to distinguish sounds of following Japanese words.
kite (Come...)
kiite (Listen to...)
kitte (Cut...)
kiete (Disappear...)

Hmm... The only way is getting used to it?

TOEIC exam requires reading fast.

I bought one TOEIC mock exam and took it today. I've never take the TOEIC exam.

My score was 720. I think my English skill is lower than this score, I don't know well about TOEIC.
I always think my weakest English skill is listening and want to improve it. But I thought it was also important to READ FAST for TOEIC exam. There is no time for reading with caution.
I need to train my reading speed too.

Everyday I am reading English newspapers aloud as fast as I can. During taking TOEIC mock exam, I read it aloud unconsciously... I can't read aloud in the official exam site.

Holocaust Day

UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on designating Jan 27th as Holocaust Day.

The resolution underscores that it's the warning against the dangers of hatred, bigotry, discrimination, bias and so on for people. The resolution also declares to refuse to negate Holocaust as a historical event. According to the article, there's movement to negate Holocaust. Negating Holocaust? I didn't know. And I can't understand it! Why do some people negating it? What of Holocaust do they negate? I will check some books and the Internet about that.

I hope that A-bomb day also is designated worldwide. All people in the world should know horrors of A-bomb. But U.S. must reject it.

It was very hard to write today's article. I wrote many words I didn't know. I'm not sure that I chose appropriate words.

The lecture about learning English

I went to hear a lecture of Mr. Matsumoto about learning English and English conversation. He is a simultaneous translator.
Hmm... That was not good enough. Things I gained were not many.

I'm looking for the better way to learn English. He said English conversation programs on NHK were not good to learn English. I'm using one of them.

What are differences?

I found English sentences I didn't know. (There are many many sentences I don't know though.)

(1) "Do you happen to know ----- "
What is difference from "Do you know ----- "?

(2) "It's worth while to ----- "
What is difference from "It's worth to ----- "?

What are "happen to" and "while" for? Large difference or delicate difference?
Hmm... It's enough for speaking English to know only "Do you know" and "It's worth to", but I must master both phrases to listen to English.

If someone asks me "do you happen to know ----- ?", I would think "what's happened to me?" at first...

Halloween was finished. Halloween decorations disappeared from shops without trace and Christmas trees have been sold already instead of those. It's still 1st Nov.