New function on the blog

I shifted this blog to "blogger in Beta" today. There are new functions including "labels". I wanted this category function very much.

I set label to my article from now but I also want to set it to my all articles I have placed. It's very hard... so little by little.

I'm happy to use this function but why there is the lineup of categories on the blog? Boo... Do I have to set it myself using HTML tags?

Attempt to make minor revisions in my learning method

Like I keep saying, the part of English I'm poorest at is "listening".

I use CDs for my studying English and I can almost catch English in the CDs. But I can barely catch what people say in usual conversation, in interviews in TV, in movies and so on. The reason is apparent. Although text of the CD says that speakers speak at the same speed as native speakers, they speak much more clearly.

So I'm thinking about adding usual conversation audio to my studying, such as someone's speeches, interviews and movies. Fortunately there are many sites that provide such audios free of charge.

I don't know if it's useful for improving my listening skill, but I'll give it a try!!

My ex-language partner came (back) to Japan.

I had a language exchange partner last summer. He was a nice person and highly motivated to study Japanese. His staying in Japan was temporary because he was a student, and he came back to his country. So unfortunately, I lost a very good language partner.

He graduated from his school and he came to Japan again at the beginning of this month. But he lives in Osaka, not in Tokyo. His cousin lives in Osaka and runs a business, he also do the business with his cousin.

According to his mail, he really enjoys to speak and listen Japanese since he came back to Japan. He was studying Japanese even in his country. His present situation is the best to learn language. If I see him sometime, his Japanese must be MUCH better than my English...

The Abe Cabinet's inauguration

The Abe cabinet was formed on Sep. 26th.
Abe calls his own cabinet "the beautiful nation building cabinet". Hmm... I don't know well what it means though. I hope it wouldn't end up with just a slogan.

The first smell of orange osmanthus

Although midnight, I went to a convenience store and came back just now.

When I went outside, there was a good smell of orange asmanthus. It's the first time in this autumn. It's one of autumn features. I smell it every year and I'm happy when it smells.

Orange osmanthus is "kin-mokusei" in Japanese. I didn't know its English. Hmm... orange. I liked English name. In Japanese, "kin" of "kin-mokusei" means gold. Yes, gold osmanthus. I like orange better.

Becoming a member of the Imperial family

Son of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko, Prince Hisahito who was born 6th this month, was registered in the Imperial Family's registry today. He is 3rd in line to the imperial throne. By his birth, the issue of revision of the Imperial House Law to allow a woman to ascend to the Imperial Throne, was shelved. I'm dissatisfied with it though.

I hope the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess Masako will have a boy sometime.

Which English?

Reviewing the TOEIC mock exam I took, I found one of reasons why I couldn't catch at all what speaker was saying.

Of course, main reason is my poor English. But other reason is difference of English. As I mentioned before, British, Canadian and Australian English (including New Zealand) joined in the listening section. I found I couldn't catch one pronunciation. It is... I can't explain how the pronunciation is... it sounds somewhat being dragged?? But it's for certain that plosive, such as "t" and "p", were pronounced very strongly. Is it British, Canadian or Australian? Which English?

I wonder how I should study those English...

LDP's leadership race; Shinzo Abe won

As was widely expected, it was a clean sweep for Abe. He garnered about 66% of the votes. But according to a news article, his campaign office aimed to have over 70%. Hmm... it means Aso and Tanigaki made better fight than expected?

Abe's wife who will become the first lady appeared in a TV program. She looks very young!

There is no surprising in the result of the election, of course. I focus on Abe's Cabinet that will be established on the 26th.

By the way, newspapers overseas call him a nationalist. I wonder why. I don't think so though.

I get discouraged very much...

Today, I reviewed the TOEIC mock exam I tried yesterday.

Even if I see the scripts, I can't catch the English!! I can't hear what speaker says!! Oh no...

Is it because British English, Canadian English and Australian English (including New Zealand) joined in the listening section? I don't think so. Are those English different that much?

What should I do in my studying English? I feel like crying.

Oh no, terrible result of mock exam

For taking the TOEIC exam next Sunday, I tried to take a mock exam at home today.

I couldn't understand what speaker said at all!! I wanted to stop in the middle of the exam.

Percentage of questions answered correctly was 48.5%. Terrible!!!!! Shock...

My misunderstanding of English #1

The theme of today's dialogue I study is "a good flight".

One girl says, "I feel a little sleepy now. I was a little too excited to sleep on the plane".

"Excited to sleep"? It means sleeping much and very deeply? I thought she was fast asleep on the plane so she was sleepy. Yes, I'm also sleepy after sleeping all day. (I LOVE sleeping.)

But!! of course it's my misunderstanding. I found it to see the Japanese translation. And then I found that there is "too". Oh---!! It's "too --- to ---" construction!!

My motivation to study English is a little up?

I don't like being praised. It sometimes makes me uncomfortable. (Am I strange?)

English speakers praise my English. But I'm sure it's a flattery because I know well my English is very poor. In fact, I praise foreigners who speak Japanese even if their Japanese are not so much. (But I really praise their effort to learn Japanese that is much more difficult than English.)

I had the interview with CEO of one company yesterday and he praised my English. I know it was flattery as usual. But he also said that my pronunciation was good. I was a bit glad even if it was flattery too. Hehe... :-) I thought I would continue my studying English for believing my way.

By the way, his character was very nice and amiable. I think he has an ability to create a favorable impression. I realized I was with people around me with a soft heart for a while after the meeting with him.

Amazing Godzilla!!!!!

After adjustive playing at the minor league, finally Matsui came back to the New York Yankees. In spite of the first game in the Major League in 4 months, his result was 4-for-4! It's remarkable thing!

I've known him since he was a high school student. I know well he has very strong mind.

He got a standing ovation before getting to the first at-bat and he acknowledged the cheers of the fans by taking his helmet off. It was a very splendid scene but I felt a bit lonely. He isn't a player of Japanese baseball more. He is a real major leaguer.

I started a SPECIAL correspondent study.

Like I wrote on this blog, I met my friend who lives in Australia and came back to Japan temporarily last month.

Her husband is an Australian and I started to the SPECIAL correspondent study with him. I write English sentence and have it corrected by him. I received the first correction. Wow, it's very useful for my studying English.

I pay correction charge but they set reasonable price. Thank you!

The most difficult language?

I always think Japanese is much more difficult than English. So I compliment foreigners who speak Japanese or study Japanese. But there are languages that are more difficult than Japanese. What language is the most difficult?

I studied a new English idiom the other day. It's "be Greek to". For example, "it's all Greek to me.", "it sounds Greek to me." and so on. Hmm... Greek is difficult that much? I've never heard Greek.

By the way, I think it is right that English is an international language, because English isn't so difficult, is very simple language. Despite this, why can't I speak English so well? Haha...

What was the cause of my cell phone's freeze-up?

I went to the Tokyo Dome to watch the baseball game, Giants vs. Swallows with my friend yesterday.

At the present time, Giants is 4th, Swallows is 3rd in the Central League and both of them are MUCH distant from 1st and 2nd teams. So I thought spectators were few but not really.

Giants won 2 -1.

My friend brought and gave me a cheer megaphone of Giants. I left my own one at my parent home, so thank you!

I'm a Giants' fan but she is a Swallows' fan, so she also brought a megaphone of Swallows and cheered with it. I took a picture of her cheering with the megaphone by my cell phone to put it on this blog, but my cell phone froze up when I tried to save the pic. Cell phone freeze up? It's the first experience and I've never heard freeze-up of cell phone. Any problem with her pic???

Godzilla, Comeback!

The New York Yankees player Matsui finally returned to the game about 4 months after he got injury! He played for Minor League team the Trenton Thunder as a DH cleanup batter and got good results. Good job! According to the news, his comeback to Major League will be at the game against Devil Rays on 12th.


Matsui wearing a uniform of the Trenton Thunder.
His comment: "I think it's cooler than I expected. How is it?"

Movie: UNITED 93

I watched "UNITED 93" today. Cram-packed with breathtaking scenes... It is the first time I watched such a tension-packed movie. I praise filmmakers of it very much. I was thinking which I would watch UNITED 93 or Pirates of the Caribbean. It was good to choose UNITED 93. (I intend to watch Pirates of the Caribbean sometime though.)

UNITED 93 was really remarkable great movie, except that its terrible occurrence was true story.

----------------------------------------------

I watched the trailer of "World Trade Center" before watching UNITED 93. Watching just the trailer, I was nearly in tears. The movie will hit screen next month in Japan. I will go to watch it.

Caramel Corn

Caramel Corn is one of my favorite snacks. I wonder it is sold in other countries. It's Japanese company Tohato's product and it remains a long-selling product in Japan.

The other day, I found new type products of Caramel Corn at a convenience store. It's "Caramel Mini Corn". As its name suggests, its package is smaller than normal Caramel Corn's one. And a piece of snack is also smaller. It's cute.

Caramel mini Corn - Royal milk tea taste

There are 2 kinds. One is the brown caramel taste. The other is royal milk tea taste. I tried to eat both of them. Oh, royal milk taste is very good. Its taste is much different from original but I also liked it. I searched and found English web sites that put Caramel Corn information. But it seems that Caramel Corn isn't sold overseas, I found mail-order site though. (Buying Caramel Corn by mail-order??) Hmm... Why doesn't Tohato sell Caramel Corn overseas? It must become big hit!

Getting into the 2nd song

I have finished "Yesterday Once More", and I got into the 2nd song "Top Of The World". I'm in step 1 phase so I'm listening it over and over without seeing lyrics. I don't understand what she says (sings)... I can't see any improvement of my English.

I hope "song phase" finishes soon.

Good Finish children

Do you know about "PISA"? It stands for Programme for International Student Assessment. It seems to be survey on abilities of children (15 years old) in the world. (I wonder people usually don't call 15 years old boys and girls "children".)

I found one article that mentions why Finish children's abilities were high. Following is the result in 2003.

Ranking	Mathematical literacy	Reading comprehension	Scientific literacy	Problem-solving abilities
1	Hong Kong	Finland	Finland	South Korea
2	Finland	South Korea	Japan	Hong Kong
3	South Korea	Canada	Hong Kong	Finland
4	Netherlands	Australia	South Korea	Japan
5	Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	New Zealand
6	Japan	New Zealand	Australia	Macau
7	Canada	Ireland	Macau	Australia
8	Belgium	Sweden	Netherlands	Liechtenstein
9	Macau	Netherlands	Czech	Canada
10	Switzerland	Hong Kong	New Zealand	Belgium
11	Australia	Belgium	Canada	Switzerland
12	New Zealand	Norway	Switzerland	Netherlands
13	Czech	Switzerland	France	France
14	Iceland	Japan	Belgium	Denmark
15	Denmark	Macau	Sweden	Czech

Hmmm... as the article said, Finish children are excellent. Didn't Japanese children also get good result? Other Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, South Korea, Macau, are also good. Liechtenstein got good result but I heard Liechtenstein for the first time. (I'm sorry, Liechtensteinian) So I checked this country. It's very very small country. Marquis governs the country! and it is absolute monarchy. Switzerland acts for Liechtenstein's diplomacy and there is no passport control between Switzerland and Liechtenstein and they can freely travel back and forth between the two countries. Liechtenstein is a permanent neutral country same Switzerland. That's all I know about Liechtenstein.

The U.S. never placed any sections. THOUGHT AS MUCH. Is the present situation that the US is leader in the world OK? I often wrote that there could be no peace on earth as long as the U.S. is leader of the world. (ref. my article 1, my article 2)
I wonder which country is appropriate for the leader in the world. Oh, there isn't name of the U.K. in the ranking too. Oh, German too, and...

Challenge to the 2nd TOEIC

Half year have passed since I took TOEIC exam for the first time. I intend to take TOEIC twice a year so I will take it again this month (24th).

My score was 660 last time and my goal this time is over 730. But it seems that it's impossible...

TOEIC exam changed to new version in May so I checked what was different from old version... There are 2 bad things for me.

One is that number of long sentence questions was increased and conventional long sentence questions became longer.
The other is that British English, Canadian English and Australian English (including New Zealand) joined in the listening section.
Whew... It's hard to meet my goal, I'm more likely to get lower score than last time.

By the way, I didn't know there was Canadian English. I thought Canadian spoke same English American spoke.

Story of my job opportunities #3

This is my 200th article on this blog!!
I had a telephone interview with a person who works for a headquarters in the US of opportunity 1 this morning 7am.
I'm poor at talking English on the phone as usual. Especially purpose of the interview was checking my technical skills. I usually explain technical matters to participants in my training classes, of course in Japanese. Explaining those matters in English was MUCH more difficult than daily conversation. So I don't think it proceed to next step.

Job opportunities Update

Job Opportunities		Progress
1	Technical Trainer	1st interview - PASS => 2nd interview-PASS => Telephone interview with person overseas -done and waiting for the results
2	Training Planning Manager	1st interview - PASS ==> Next step is 2nd interview next week
3	Instructional Designer	1st interview - PASS ==> Next step is 2nd interview next week

Atmosphere of Autumn

It's September! Of course the lingering summer heat is still here, but I feel autumn atmosphere. Mmm... I love this atmosphere very much. Happy! Summer I hate will leave and autumn I love will come soon!

Story of my job opportunities #2

About one year ago, I wrote about A Inc. (tentative name) that was a recruiting agency on this blog. It was very terrible company.

I wrote about my present job opportunities on previous article. One of them, opportunity 2, surprisingly a person in charge of hiring is that person of A Inc. It seems that she switched companies. The company of opportunity 2 is one of the biggest and most famous companies everyone knows in the world. But I started to worry about the company because they hired her. Hmm...

Story of my job opportunities #1

I found some good job opportunities on the web sites and contacted some recruit agents about those this month. And then, I have had an interview with one of them.

Surprisingly, at the same time, some other recruit agents contacted me after another to introduce job opportunities. I don't know why. Is it an oracle that I should find new job? Haha.

So now, there are 3 job opportunities that are proceeding.

Job Opportunities		Progress
1	Technical Trainer	1st interview - PASS => 2nd interview-PASS ==> Next step is telephone interview with person overseas
2	Training Planning Manager	1st interview - PASS ==> Next step is 2nd interview next week
3	Instructional Designer	1st interview - PASS ==> Next step is 2nd interview next week

Reading those job descriptions, I felt all of them require higher skill than mine. But I was selected for their interview, and I've had interviews with all of them. So I was busy this week. I went to have the interviews after working on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. After the interviews, I realized they required much higher skills so I didn't think those didn't proceed to next step. BUT!! they offered me the 2nd interviews! Wow. At the present time, it seems that they liked me.

All of three companies are famous global companies, so English skill is required...