"Alright" vs. "All right"

I wrote "Are you alright?" in the title of the previous article. However, it seems that "Are you all right?" is correct.

I wonder what the difference is between them.

Are you alright, England team?

There was a soccer game, England vs. Japan. Although England won, their performance wasn't so good. With 11 days to go before the World Cup, I'm a bit worried about England team.

There are many excellent players, such as Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, J. Cole etc. but England is always kind of "the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts."

I'm cheering England and Denmark in the World Cup.
Go for it!!

an Incompetent National Leader

Among past Japanese Prime Ministers, there were a lot of incapable people. However, I believe that the incumbent, Yukio Hatoyama is the dullest and dumbest. Terrible!

He is from an incredible rich family and has had a pampered upbringing. His grandfather on the father's side was the former Prime Minister, and grandfather on the mother's side was the founder of Bridgestone. On this point, he is similar to one of the dullest and dumbest U.S. presidents, George W. Bush.

Hatoyama is really incompetent. But he might be better than Bush, because at least he hasn't started any meaningless war. (Oh, there is no meaningful war!)

Shaking of the leg

Shaking of the leg is called "Binbo Yusuri" in Japanese, which means "poverty shaking."
I really hate someone's shaking of his leg. I sometimes see people who are shaking his leg in public areas, such as in restaurants, libraries and on the train. I always feel bad and want to shout "Stop it!"

The other day, I was in a family restaurant and two guys were at the table in front of me. One of them was the "shaking the leg" guy... Boo...

They were studying spreading many books on the table. Judging from those books, they seemed to be medical students. Study hard and become a good doctor!

But... I don't want to see a doctor who is shaking his leg...

Bumemer!!

My PC started acting strange again.
In this time, the PC doesn't recognize something from input devices.
For example, from the keyboard. To input a character, for example "a", I have to push "a" key several times. The mouse pointer doesn't move as I move. It doesn't recognize "click" either.

Disgusting!

Distrust of a recruiting agent

I have had to do with some recruiting agents through my job hunting. I have met very nice agents which made me think that I wanted to work with. On the other hands, there have been untrusted terrible agents.

They see only their clients, which means they see only their profits. They don't care about candidates.

The other day, I told an agent that I want to decline the position he introduced me. I also told him the reason. However, because the client company is very interested in having me work with them, the agent told me the next step WITHOUT mentioning my refusal and its reason, as if he didn't hear my refusal. Isn't it strange? I have already declined and he also know the reason of my declining.
He only thinks about closing this deal. He doesn't care whether I'm happy or not after joining the company.
I don't think that it's professional job.

What I want to do for children is...

I've always thought I want to do something so that all children in the world get education. I sometimes wrote about that on this blog.
However, I'm wondering what I really want to do.

The other day, I watched an American TV drama. (ER XIII "Jigsaw")
One guy, who is probably around 30 years old, came to the hospital. He was very rude and vicious. But actually he suffers from a multiple personality disorder. He has another personality which is normal. He had been terribly abused by his foster parents when he was a kid.

When he was in a bed in the hospital, his third personality appeared, which was a small boy.
He saw another boy in the room next to him in tears and asked a doctor.

Guy (boy): Is he OK?
Doctor: Yes.
Guy (boy): His mother is mean. I wish she wasn't so mean.

Conversation is continuing.

Guy (boy): Don't tell my dad that I'm here. He is very intimidating. (sob)
Doctor: Your secret is safe with me.
Guy (boy): It's dark here. You are leaving early? (sob)
Doctor: No. I'm here.
Guy (boy): That's good. (sob and smile)

Then, they start talking about toy cars he likes.

There might be very few people who cry watching this scene, but while I was watching it, I couldn't stop the tears.

I realized that what I want to do is not only help children get education, but protect them from all harsh situation.

All children should be protected from conflict, cruelty, exploitation, neglect and abuse.

All children should be given peace, love, safe and education.

However, I have no clue where to start.

Losing my confidence about English

Although I started having a bit confidence about my English one month ago (here is my article), in the past few days, I'm losing my confidence.

Confidence is the most important for speaking English.

My job hunting is back to square one.

I had interviews with two companies the other day.

One was the third interview which was the final interview.
When I had the first interview with them, I got a strong interest in the position. However, in the 2nd interview, I began to see the real situation of the position and I had some concerns. In spite of that, I was still a bit positive toward the position, and the agent told me that I could talk about my concerns with the company. So I took the 3rd interview.
Although the CEO was very nice person and seemed to be very capable, the Regional HR Director was terrible. She was incredibly arrogant and her conversation kept being self-centered. Her behavior made me negate everything about the position, moreover the company. People other than her who I met were all very nice people though.
I've told the agent that I'd like to decline the position.

On the same day, I had another interview too. It was the 1st interview. This recruiting is being conducted in secret, and the interviewer said that they wanted to take a long time to find a person. So I can't reckon it.

So, my job hunting is back to square one.
I'm a bit discouraged.

The letter from Rubel

I got a letter from Rubel today! Of course it's was written by a local staff in charge, not Rubel himself. I assume that Rubel can't read and write.

Here is the letter written in Bengali.

The English translation was attached. According to it, he wants to be a teacher in the future. I hope the area where he lives is able to be an environment where he and all other children can make their dreams come true.

Of course this letter is not a reply to my letter which I wrote to him a few days ago. The NPO tells child sponsors to allow about 4 months to get a reply to their letter. (4 months! It a quite long time.) The letter this time is to thank me for becoming his sponsor.

Ruble's handprint was also enclosed with the letter.

What a small hand! Attain you dream with the hand!
I hope I can be of some help to you.

"Career down"

Japanese people sometimes use the words "Career up" and "Career down."
I know these are not English. They were created and used by Japanese people.

"Career up" means developing/improving one's career. An example of use is;
To achieve "career up", I'm now looking for a good job opportunity.

"Career down" is of course the opposite meaning.
For example, you found a job opportunity, but according to the Job Description of it, the position is quite junior level. If that case, Japanese people says;
If you got the job, it would be "career down."

I have been looking for the correct expression for "career down."
I wonder if how it's said in English.

By the way, Japanese people also use the words "Skill up" and "Skill down."
There are so many strange "Japanese-English words."

The first letter to Rubel

Today, I wrote a letter to Rubel, who I'm sponsoring.

I heard that he likes playing football, so I found a letter paper and envelope template with football illustration in the Internet, which a cute tiger cub is playing with a soccer ball. I also looked for other templates with cute characters, because I wanted him to be pleased. However... I came up with something.
I was wondering if he has seen a real soccer ball and cartoonish illustration.
I think there aren't TV and cartoons in his life. Japanese kids are pleased with cartoonish illustrations, but it's because they always see TV, cartoons or books.
I had something mixed feeling. I can't imagine about his life at all.

I hope he enjoy my letter, and also the letter paper and envelope.