I became a translation volunteer.

As I wrote here before, I started sponsoring a child through a NGO "World Vision."

The World Vision was recruiting translation volunteers, so I applied for it. The translation volunteers translate letters between sponsors and children. To be the volunteer, you have to take a translation test and pass it. I received the test and did it the other day.

It's very hard to translate in two ways. One is that their English grammar is not correct. It's not so big problem. More difficult thing is making out their handwriting. It's really really hard to read their handwriting. So it takes me much time to translate them.

Fortunately, I passed the test, and I sent the World Vision an agreement documents today.

I'm glad that I can do something to help.

Leading teams can't win.

The game Germany vs. Serbia finished just now. Germany lost...
I'm cheering for England and Denmark, but actually I also like Germany. After England was beaten in the last World Cup, I cheered for Germany and they placed 3rd! Many players from the last World Cup are playing this time, so I feel familiarity with the Germany team.

Although they won the first game, which was versus Australia, 4-0, in this time, they lost.
In the latter half, although Germany had a lot of chance to get scores, Lukas Podolski missed shots. He even missed a penalty kick. I can't believe! I'm sure everyone couldn't believe.

In this World Cup, strong teams can't win except for Brazil and Argentina, so far.
France ended in a scoreless tie in their first game, and surprisingly, in their second game versus Mexico, they lost!!
Spain also lost their first game versus Switzerland!!
England, Italy and Portugal ended in a tie in their first game.

I hope England can win the next game. They have to win!

Humid season has come.

Humid. TOO humid. Terrible horrible humid season has come here. I have to put up with incredibly high humidity until mid-September. I'm inpatientimpatient for autumn.

Difficult to pronounce

I'm very bad at pronouncing "S" and "C" sounds in English. Especially I can't say "except" well.

Yesterday, a more difficult word came out. It's "unsolicited."
Although I tried to say it repeatedly, it's almost impossible for me to pronounce. Whew...

Netherlands was stronger than I expected.

The game Denmark vs. Netherlands finished just now. Unfortunately Denmark lost 0-2 (Including an own goal).

Although Netherlands is stronger than Denmark, Denmark was playing really well. Really really well. But, Netherlands was too strong. Arjen Robben didn't participate in the game because of an injury. Given that he joins, Netherlands is definitely one of the favorites in this World Cup.

Oops! England!

The game England vs. the US was very exciting and I enjoyed it, although England couldn't win. It ended in a 1-1 tie.

The US's goal was due to fumbling by a England's goalkeeper Robert Green. He must be very shocked and depressed. I feel sorry for him.

Although the US's shot went straight in front of a keeper...

Oops, fumbling!

Ahhhh, shocked!!

Dejected Robert is consoled by his teammate after the first half.

The official ball of the World Cup 2010 named Jabukani has been very unpopular among players since before the World Cup started, especially among keepers and defenders, because the orbit of the ball changes terribly. (Does the expression of this sentence make sense? I'm not sure how I should say it in English.)
 So it probably caused Robert's mistake. However, he said in the interview that he didn't make any excuse.
I know you are a great goalkeeper, Robert!!

The first schooling

It's been about 2.5 months since I entered 3rd grade of a university. So far so good.

Yesterday, I attended my first schooling. The class was quite good. It was good for me that I got some information about examination from some other students.
I'm attending the class's second day. I's a bit hard to spend all weekend for the class, but students have to get some credits for taking part in classes, although it's a correspondence university.

By the way, it's 3am and I have already woken up, because I'm watching the game England vs. the US from now!

The World Cup will start soon!!

The World Cup is starting tomorrow. I'm very excited as usual.

But I'm very worried about terrible horrible public security. In South Africa, 19,202 people were murdered in 2006. Over 50 people a day!!!!! Also, 52,600 women were raped, there were 218,000 serious injury cases... It is said that stopping at a red light is an outrageous action in South Africa, because people are attacked by robbers during stopping. I can't believe that FIFA selected such a dangerous country as a host.

According to news, in this time, any TV companies in Japan won't send women reporters to the scene. Probably it happened for the first time.

In fact, some foreign journalists were attacked by robbers in South Africa for the last couple of weeks. One of them was attacked during staying at a hotel, although it was the four-star hotel!

I hope nothing happens.

Anyway, my lack of sleep will continue for about a month.

Expression of frequency

I just came up with a question about words which describe frequency, so I looked them up on the Internet.

According to some articles, frequency of each word is as follows;

usually 80%
often/frequently 60%
sometimes 50%
occasionally 40%

I didn't know that frequency of "occasionally" is lower than "sometimes." That's good to know. However what I wanted to know was words less than "occasionally", around 20 - 30%.

How about "once in a while"? I want to know some expressions without using negative words, like "seldom" and "rarely." I wonder if there are any other words.

How long is our new Prime Mister's tenure?

A couple of days after I wrote about our incapable Prime Minister Hatoyama, he announced his resignation.

His tenure was only 9 months. Japanese Prime Misters quit during their term. Their tenure is always very short. I don't think there is such a country of which leader change very often. It's impossible for Japan to secure international trust.

Now, we have new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. He is very famous for his short temper character, but at least, he has support from the public more than Hatoyama.

However, the Democratic Party is going to conduct the presidential election in September. So his tenure might be only 3 months??






By the way, I looked up the word "tenure" in a dictionary and used it for the first time. I wonder if my usage of it is correct.

Many players were injured just before the World Cup

The teams in the Group E which Japan belongs to are Netherlands, Cameroon and Denmark I'm cheering. Some star players of those teams were recently injured and might not participate in the World Cup.

Netherlands, Arjen Robben, who most of people know as one of the top players in the world, injured his left thigh yesterday during a game against Hungary.

Injured Robben surrounded by his teammates

Regarding Denmark I support, terrible. You can find many articles titled "Denmark full of injured players."
Here is one of the articles:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1228624/index.html#injury+worries+mount+denmark

These are kind of good news for Japanese fans. But for me, I'm worried about Denmark. Hang in there!

Oh my goodness! On my goodness!!

Armando Galarraga of Detroit Tigers nearly pitched a perfect game. Only one more out!!!!!



The article on the Yahoo News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_sp_ba_ga_su/bba_indians_tigers

I feel very sorry for Armando. But actually I also feel sorry for the umpire Jim Joyce.
Thinking of his feeling, I really pity him.

A small determination, which is actually big for me

No matter how hard I study English, it's difficult to improve it like people who have lived in an English-speaking country. I have to speak English at work, and almost all Japanese people who speak English fluently in such an environment have lived abroad. Between them and me, there is a robust wall I can't break down.

It's impossible for me to reach their level, but I should close the gap as much as possible.
From today, I never watch TV in Japanese, but in English, except for an hour in the morning. (Allow me to watch it in Japanese only for an hour. I want to know important news or other events in detail.)

The interim report on my job hunting

I have had the final job interview with a company last month, and I'm visiting the company tomorrow again in order to talk with HR director about details of my work experience. They required that. It should be "to explain" rather than "to talk with." I have already had an interview with him though. I'm not up for it so much.

And the other agent contacted me to introduce a new opportunity. I'm going to call her tomorrow to hear more details about that.

Regarding my job hunting, I'm now feeling as if I'm in gloomy gray clouds.

"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.

The Golden Week has started.

In Japan, there are some national holidays from the end of April to the beginning of May, and it's called "the Golden Week."

This year, the dates in red are holidays.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
.	.	.	4/29	30	5/1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Many Japanese go to somewhere for pleasure during the Golden Week, so everywhere is TOO crowded. The worse thing is everything is TOO expensive. So I usually don't go anywhere in the Golden Week.

This year, I'm going to concentrate on preparation for job interviews, university studies and learning English. It's very good environment that I can stick to those things without being bothered with my work. Usually I can't help centering my life on the work.

I want to spend a quality time.

Meditaion Class

I attended Tibetan meditation class today. It was a bit disappointing. I'm now thinking that I should keep going the class or learn meditation myself by books.

I'm going to reading some books and at least attend the next class, then I'll decide.

The job opportunivy closed to my ideal

I was introduced two job opportunities this week, and I've just finished an interview for one of them.
I'm strongly interested in the position. It is quite close to my ideal in various aspects. Very high level English is required though.
I hope I can proceed to the next step.

Why do people wait in line so long?

About three years ago, the fist Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Japan opened in my neighborhood, Shinjuku.
My article back them:

http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2007/01/krispy-kreme-landing-to-japan.html

There used to be a long line, but now, you can buy or enter the shop without waiting in line.

A new shop opened in a local city, Nagoya last month. The news said that people had to wait in line for 9 hours. 9 hours!!
I can say for sure that doughnuts of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are NOT worth waiting for 9 hours.

Always tired after English conversations

I'm always incredibly tired after speaking English. Too exhausted like just after running a marathon.

Today, I attended a workshop provided by a bilingual Professional Network Group. It was for about 3 hours and half of it was conducted in Japanese. That means I had English conversations only for an hour and a half. But I'm very tired.

Ahhhhh! I want to be able to speak English without any stress!

My English isn't so bad?

I'm not confident of my English at all. That makes my English conversation worse.
But, I recently started feeling that my English is quite well, given that I've never lived abroad. Most of Japanese people who can speak English well have lived in an English-speaking country, or even grew up there.
But I need to be able to speak English like them, so although I started feeling that way, the fact that my English is still not enough hasn't changed.
I just gave myself a small praise about my English for the first time.

The cherry blossoms

Sunny day today! I have short-sleeved T-shirt now on.
The cherry blossoms season almost finished, but I still can enjoy them.
The photo is the cherry blossoms in my neighborhood.

Calvin and Hobbles came back!

About 4 years ago, I was subscribed English newspapers only for 6 months. In the newspaper, there was a cartoon I really liked. It's "Calvin and Hobbes."

My article back then,
Bye bye, Calvin

The other day, I found a website which Calvin and Hobbes is written!
Here it is:
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes

I can read a new cartoon everyday. I' really enjoying it, and actually it's very useful to learn English expression.

I wonder if Calvin and Hobbles is famous cartoon in the US and everyone knows it.

I'm going to see the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

I always write about big sports events on my blog excitedly, such as Olympics and World Cup soccer's World Cup. But during my absence from the blog, The Vancouver Olympic Winter Games started and ended.

Of course I watched many games, but I was less excited than usual Olympics. I don't know why though.
But I was very impressed with the opening ceremony as usual. I wonder why the opening ceremonies of Olympics are always so impressive. I've always wanted to see it live. After seeing the ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics, I took a firm decision to go to see the ceremony of the London Olympics!

By the way, a Japanese figure skater Mao Asada, I was cheering for, missed the gold medal. It was a pity. She was crying hard.

Update on my job hunting

I have been looking for a good job opportunity for a while. After *"Lehman Shock", number of positions decreased. Especially, my specialty, HRD/Training is very narrow area, and it's the first target for cost cut.

I went all out to get an ideal position a couple of months ago.
Last month, I met several recruit agents and they introduced me 3 positions. I was selected for an interview on one of them and had the 1st interview the other day. On the same day, an agent introduced me another position. My job hunting seems to start taking off.


Today, I heard the feedback from the company I had the 1st interview with. They decided not to proceed to the next step with me. Actually I feel a bit relieved, because I had some concerned about the job opportunity. As a company, it's a great company. But as a working place for workers, I hear a lot of negative stories. I also had some concerned about the interviewer who would be a direct boss. So it might have been a good result. I was also introduced one more new position today. Goody, goody.

My preparation for the interview this time wasn't enough. I'm going to prepare to perfection next time.

*"Lehman Shock"

In Japan, we call Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers "Lehman Shock." However, I haven't heard this word in English conversation or writing. I wonder if it is only used among Japanese people. We often say, "after Lehman Shock, blah-blah-blah."

Attending an English conversation Club

To improve my English conversation skills, I've always thought that I should have more time to speak English outside of my work.

I tried to attend an English circle today for the first time. People who want to improve their English gather and speak English.

Attendees were divided into 3 groups, beginner, beginner-intermediate and intermediate-advanced. I joined the intermediate-advanced group.
What I need to improve most is listening skill. I know I can't improve it in the circle, because all attendees are Japanese people and their level is not so high. But at least, it's useful for speaking. And the fee is only 500 yen for 110 minutes.

I'm thinking about going to an English conversation cafe. I've never gone such a cafe though. According to the info of its website, there is one native speaker for every table.

Speak, speak speak! and Listen, listen listen!

Child Sponsorship

I think I often wrote that I aim to make the wold where all children can receive education. I have been checking NPOs, but I haven't find one which is perfectly match to my thinking. Anyway, I thought I should do something. So I decided to start with donation and child sponsorship program.

I applied for child sponsorship the other day through a NPO, World Vision.
http://www.worldvision.org
The money is used not only for a child but also for development of his/her community.
I became a sponsor of 4-years Bangladeshi boy, Rubel. Very cute!

We can exchange letters, but I don't know Bengali, so I'll write it in English and the local people in charge will translate it. I hope he and other children in his community can have happy life and receive enough education.

It's very small help, but I thought it's much better than doing nothing.

I'm a university student again!

I'm not sure that I have written about my entering university here. I have been thinking about studying more details of my job academically. I was looking for a distance university because I'm working, but it narrows down my choices. However, fortunately I found an ideal university!!

The textbooks arrived the other day. Look at this. There are too many textbooks!

It must be very hard to study such a lot of things while I'm working , but I'm very excited!

Using my credits which I got at my previous university (very long time ago), I entered the third grade this time. (<-- I don't know how to express this sentence!) So I will graduate in two years. I aim at graduating top of the class!!

Long time no see.

I haven't written any articles here since last December. It's been a while. It's already spring!

I came back here and I'm going to write articles often.

Have you heard the word "meatware"?

English textbooks introduce a lot of words, idioms and expressions, but native speakers often point out that some of them are not used so often or not common expressions. It's often the case, so I'm not surprised.
However, it's the first time that nobody knows a word. It's "meatware."

This word was in my textbook, but it didn't exist in a dictionary. From the explanation in the textbook and information on the Internet, I found that it means "human relationships" or "human element."
The sentence in the textbook is:
All the software and hardware is one thing, but it's the meatware that counts.

I asked about it on Lang-8.
http://lang-8.com/sand/journals/310842
Almost all of the native speakers who posted comments in my entry haven't heard this word.

Do you think that it's OK to put such a word in a textbook?

Movie: A Christmas Carol

I watched this movie wearing 3D glasses. Here are the 3D glasses.

It was a bit annoying to wear them whole the movie, but 3D images were amazing. When I was a kid, "The Wizard of Oz" was on TV with 3D. At that time, we had to wear a cheap paper glasses with blue and red cellophane in order to see 3D images. However, even though I wore them, I couldn't realize 3D. Now that I think about it, the technological advance is tremendous. I think we will able to see 3D images without glasses sometime in the future.

As you know, in this movie, the technology called "performance capture" is used. Actually I don't like humans described by it. They look very scary. They are like dolls that are too much close to humans. Look at this.

S,s, scary!!


By the way, the original book written by Charles Dickens is very hard for me to read, because there are too many words I don't know. I feel that I don't know about 70% of all the words in the book. Does Charles Dickens tend to write with a bit difficult words? It might be just because of my poor vocabulary.

Rock and Roll?!

I'm using a business English textbook for my English study. All dialogues in it are conversations at work. In a dialogue I was studying yesterday, there was the phrase, "We are ready to rock and roll."

Rock and roll?!?! I was surprised because I couldn't associate "rock and roll" with a conversation at work. However, the sentence was taken up as a useful phrase.

According to the explanation of the textbook, it expresses the situation that everything is prepared and just waiting to get started, like a band has already prepared for everything and is waiting to be on stage. It's a colloquial expression that is often used in the US.

I see, but... Do you often use it at work? What is the difference from "We are ready to go"?

The draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

It's 2:20am in Japan.
The ceremony for the draw is being held. It's too long and unnecessary! There is always such a excrescent superfluous sideshow. I think it a waste of time and especially a waste of money.
I wish the draw started soon.
----------
3:10am
The draw has already started.
The opening game will be South Africa vs. Mexco.
----------
3:30am
Finally, the draw was finished.
Here is the result.

I think England and Denmark, which I root for, can advance to stage 2. Goody!
188 days to go until the World Cup!

Charlize Theron at the World Cup draw

FIFA announced that Charlize Theron, who is one of my favorite actresses, will serve as co-host of Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town. I thought why she, but now that I think about it, that's because she is from South Africa.

I'm very interested in the result of the draw, but in Japan, it will be broadcast on TV during midnight, so I planned to see the result on news next morning. But Charlize Theron will appear, so maybe I'll watch it.

By the way, I have no idea how I should say for the second sentence in this article. I feel that the title is also strange. I'll ask about it on Lang-8.

A sound made by a bone or joint

I post my article before this one on Lang-8. Of course, it got a lot of corrections. hehe.

Then I got to know how to describe a sound made by a bone or joint in English.
It's "click", "creak" or "crack."

I think "crack" is appropriate for the previous article.

Onomatopoeic words are really difficult because those are much different depending on each language.

Frozen shoulder?

I have had a pain in my right arm for more than a month. Especially I feel the pain when I lift the arm.

I felt the pain for the first time when I went to the relaxation salon to get massage in mid-October. When a massager stretched my arm after finishing massage, I felt a pain in my right arm. Since then, it hasn't cured.

I wonder if it's frozen shoulder.
Frozen shoulder is called 四十肩 (しじゅうかた) or 五十肩 (ごじゅうかた) in Japanese. Those mean "40 years old shoulder" or "50 years old shoulder", and it's one of the symbols of getting old. No way!

When I moved in bed this morning, my right arm made ボキッ sound. （ボキッ is a typical bone or joint sound. I wonder what you say it in English.) Then the pain decreased a little.

I still have the pain but it got much better after ボキッ. I hope it completely cures soon. I also hope it isn't frozen shoulder. haha.

My bad listening comprehension #18

"If you look across the top of the spreadsheet, you'll see production volume XXXXX by site."

I didn't catch the part of XXXXX. It sounds "word" to me, but if it was "word", the sentence would be weird. I heard it repeatedly, then I finally came up with the word "ordered"! In this case, the sentence makes sense, doesn't it? (No?)

However, it wasn't "ordered", but "worldwide." Gah... Those are completely different.

In the dialogue, this sentence was said by a person who was supposed to be Indian. So she pretended speaking with Indian accent, but it's not so strong.

Do you think it's possible to mishear "worldwide" and "ordered"? It's probably only me...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-bad-listening-comprehension-17.html

Henry's handball put Ireland out of the World Cup.

The participating countries for the 2010 World Cup have been decided.
To my delight, Denmark is playing in the World Cup this time. Goody! I will cheer for Denmark, and England as usual.

Did you see the game, France vs. Ireland? France won for a hair and qualified for the World Cup, by Henry's goal with handball. It's called "New God's hand."

The handball scene couldn't be seen by a referee, so it can't be helped. It's often the case in sports games. However, for Ireland, it's not only one game lost. They lost the qualification for the World Cup. It's a really big matter. I feel very sorry for Ireland. When I think of feeling of the Ireland's players, I can't help feeling distress.

I feel a cold coming on.

I feel I'm going to get a cold.
So I'm going to bed early. I hope I'm fine tomorrow

.

The Giants won the championship!

Following the World Series in the US, a winner of Japan Series has just been decided. My favorite team, Yomiuri Giants won!! That's great!! However I missed the game. It's stupid of me. Now, I'm watching interviews of the manager and players.

It's for the first time in 7 years. 7 years is too long for the Giants, as well as the Yankees. It was really long way. The manager Hara must be having deep and various feelings.

Ah---! Why did I miss the game?

Giants Manager Tatsunori Hara being tossed in the air by his team members after winning the Japan Series

Matsui accomplished incredible thing!

The Yankees won the World Series for the first time in 9 years!! 9 years is a bit too long for the Yankees, isn't it?
And the most incredible thing is that a Japanese player Hideki Matsui, aka Godzilla, was chosen the World Series MVP!!! He showed the outstanding performance in the games, and when he went to bat, there was "MVP calls" from the spectators.

Hideki Matsui raising the MVP trophy

Although his goal had been winning the World Series, the Yankees was not able to win for a long time. The Yankees won for the first time since he joined the team 7 years ago.
When I saw him hug his teammates, such as mate Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, I was very impressed.

Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter

His contract with the Yankees expires this year, and it has been said that the Yankees wouldn't renew the contract. Although he was MVP, it seems to be unavoidable. It's a pity. But it was good that his long-cherished dream finally came true and even he was chosen MVP, in his last year in the Yankees. After the World Series, he stated positively that he came to the US and joined the Yankees to achieve this goal.

By the way, during his MVP interview, he was speaking through an interpreter. What!? He has lived in the US for 7 years. No less than 7 years!! No way!

Book: "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

(I read this in English.)

I went to see the movie, "My Sister's Keeper" the other day.
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/10/movie-my-sisters-keeper.html
Whenever I see movies after reading the book, I'm a bit disappointed, so I saw the movie first this time.

I always find a lot of words I don't know when I read English books, and realize my vocabulary is very poor. In addition, there were a lot of medical terms in the book this time. It's very frustrating to read books which have a lot of words I don't know.
I don't know that was a reason but reading it was a bit painful in the first half. But in the latter half, I couldn't stop reading. I wonder if the story became interesting.

When I watched its movie, I thought each person's story and feeling could be described more deeply in the book, although I hadn't read it, and it was true.

The story and the characters were a bit different, but it's often the case when books are made into a movie, isn't it?
However, the ending was MUCH different!! Yes, it's also often the case, but it's completely different. The ending in the book was really sad and shocking.

I think the filmmaker should have followed the original story.

Windows 7

Windows 7 finally went on sales.
Three editions out of six are released in Japan, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate.


I really want to upgrade my PC to Windows 7 because my PC is damn VISTA, but it will probably take some time. I'll wait and see. Then, I might end up not buying it. haha...

Happy Birhtday to me!

I set my goals on my birthday every year, but I have never achieved them. Too bad.

This is the year that I do my best and achieve my goals. I make a pledge to do that regarding the coming year is my last chance.

Get out of the laziness life, Sand!

Happy birthday to me!

Movie: My Sister's Keeper

I have watched several movies in the past few months, such as "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "Miracle at St. Anna" etc. Those were impressed and I was going to write about them here, but I goofed off.

Today, I went to see "My Sister's Keeper."
Too see the Japanese trailer, I got the impression that the movie would revolve around the youngest child Anna. But the story focused on each member of the family.

I couldn't stop my tears throughout the movie. The story is simple and there wasn't any surprising.
I even could predict the end of the story. But Thinking and feeling which each person have were very impressed and those moved to tears.

I'm going to read the book in English.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

About just one hour ago, it was announced that the American president Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One of main reasons of his receiving the award is kind of "the abolishment of nuclear weapons."

That isn't quite convincing for me. He hasn't do anything yet. What he did is only saying. He hasn't achieve any results yet. It's easy to just say. Everyone can do that.

I hope he will achieve the results which is commensurate with the Nobel Peace Prize.

The result of the selection of the 2016 Olympic site

Tokyo was rejected in the second vote.
I was thinking that it was difficult for Tokyo to be selected, because the 2008 Olympic was held in Beijing where is in Asia as well as Tokyo, and 2012 Olympic will be held in London where is one of the biggest cities in developed countries like Tokyo. However, that's a real bummer!! I really wanted to have an experience that the Olympics takes place in my city.

Chicago was rejected in the first vote. It was a bit surprising.

The final vote has already finished, but the result won't be announced in over an hour. The results of the first and second votes were announced as soon as the votes were finished. It was disappointedly fast. In contrast, regarding the final result, don't you think IOC keeps people waiting too much?

I'm waiting the result, then I will be back here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, IOC President Rogge announced Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the 2016 Olympic. Congratulations.
The 2014 World Cup will also take place in Brazil, which is one of BRICs. I think Brazil will more and more develop in the future.

Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, so I will see the summer Olympics in winter!?

The site of the 2016 Olympic will be decided soon.

The IOC General Assembly is being held in Copenhagen now and the site of the 2016 Olympic will be decided in several hours!

Tokyo's presentation has already finished. I hope Tokyo is selected. Unfortunately, according to oddschecker.com, Tokyo is in last place.
http://www.oddschecker.com/specials/olympics-specials/2016-olympic-host/win-market/

However, the selection method is the conclave way, so it's possible that Tokyo is chosen!

A business trip to Singapore part 3 - the Second week

My cold was getting worse and worse, so the second week was tougher. So it became much harder to communicate in English.

As well as the first week, people in the Singapore office were kind enough to treat us very well, such as taking us to dinner. I was really thankful to them, so, although my health condition was terrible, I attended them.

One evening after work, a person was kind enough to take us to the Night Safari. It was a bit scaring for me but amazing! It was good to go there.

By the way, F1 Singapore Grand Prix will be held on 25th, 26th and 27th. So Singapore is preparing for that. I wish my business trip would have been a week later.

My last day in Singapore (19th Saturday), I went to the National Museum of Singapore. It was nice and I spent about 4 hours there.

I was thinking about going for shopping after that, but I was very tired, so I didn't go.
Before I went to the airport, I met my friend again. We had dinner and I enjoyed chatting with him.

It was really tough business trip. I was in tatters.
And I strongly realize my English doesn't cut it at all. I have to do something, but I'm not sure what I should do. I just keep learning English with the same way as before?

A business trip to Singapore part 2 - Weekend

After getting a cold on Friday, it was getting worse and worse, but thanks to my friend, I enjoyed sightseeing on Saturday. I met a friend in Lang-8 and he showed me around!!

First, he took me the URA City Gallery. There were miniatures of Singapore. Those were made very well. There were also miniatures of buildings which were built in the future. It was surprising. Although there are already a lot of high buildings in Singapore, Singapore is still improving.

Then, we had lunch at a food court. I ate typical Singaporean (Chinese?) food. Yummy!

After that, we went to China Town. Singapore is amazing. Several different cultures gather. It's amazing and interesting.

Next, we went to Little India. Almost all of the people there were Indians and most of the stores sold Indian goods and food. I felt as if I were in India. (I have never been to India though.) It was also amazing experience!

Then we went to see the Merlion!!! Wow!!

It's the first visit to Singapore for me. This is must-see, isn't it?

My friend's friend joined us there. He explained about a lot of things we could see in detail.
Three of us had Chinese food for dinner. It was the first time for me to see (and eat) black chicken! But its taste was the same as normal chicken.

If I haven't met my friend, I would have come back to Tokyo without such a wonderful sightseeing. I'm really thankful to him and his friend.

Next day (Sunday), my cold got worse. So I didn't go out. I stayed in my hotel room and did just my job. Because of a bad cold, my face was terrible. I thought I had to do something, then I called Spa of the hotel. Fortunately, I was able to reserve a facial treatment after 20 minutes. Even after the treatment, my face didn't recover, it cost 200 Singapore dollars though...

A business trip to Singapore part 1 - the First week

I came back from a business trip to Singapore. Two weeks in Singapore was very long and tough. I was tired.

I left Tokyo on 7th Monday morning. I used Singapore Airlines. Of course, most of the cabin attendants were Singaporeans and I couldn't understand their English with Singaporean accent. I really worried about what things would be like during my stay.
I arrived in Singapore in the evening. It was very humid, like Tokyo's summer. Ve--ry humid!

After checking into a hotel, I went to the Raffles Hotel with my co-worker, which is the classiest hotel in Singapore, and ate and drink a bit in a place like a courtyard.

Then we went to Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, which is known for the birthplace of Singapore Sling. Of course we drank Singapore Sling!
It was my first day in Singapore.

Next day, tough situation, where everything was in English, started. To make things worse, I started to get a cold on Friday, because it was very cold everywhere inside in Singapore.

People in Singapore office were kind enough to treat us very well. They took us good places for dinner.
On Tuesday evening, we had chicken rice. It's very tasty! After the dinner, we went to the Swissotel the Standard Hotel to see the night view. It was very beautiful!

On Thursday evening, we went to a Mongolian restaurant in Clarke Quay.

Although I was srruounded in English and in the tough situation, the first week wasn't so bad. I think I did well. However, I started to get a cold on Friday and it was getting worse, it became much tougher.

English with Chinese accent

I had a conference call with Singapore office today.

I couldn't understand a counterpart's English with Chinese accent at all!! During my two-week stay in Singapore on business, I need to talk with him.

How should I do??

English is from head to toe.

I joined a new project last Tuesday. Right away, I had a three-day meeting in English. Whew... The funny thing is that there was no native English speaker in the meeting. German, Belgian, South African and Japanese.

I was tired from 3 days in English. It was hard. However a harder thing is waiting for me. I'm going to Singapore on business and stay there for about two weeks. Two weeks in English.

I have to catch up tons of new things of the project. It's hard to conduct that in English. I want to get used to this situation as soon as possible. I'm sure that this experience would prepare me for working abroad.

My bad listening comprehension #17

The sentence which I heard wrong today is:

The learning purpose pretice cheep.

Can you guess the correct sentence?
First, there isn't the word "pretice." It sounded such pronunciation to me, so I thought it was a new word for me. I guessed this sentence meant that a person had lost sight of his purpose of learning or something like that.

The correct sentence is:

The learning curve is pretty steep.

Even after knowing the correct sentence, "curve is" sounds nothing but "purpose" to me, I listened it over and over again though.

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-bad-listening-comprehension-16.html

Book: The Girl with the White Flag

(I read it in English.)

In August, 6th is the day the city of Hiroshima was atom-bombed, 9th is the day the city of Nagasaki was atom-bombed and 15th is the anniversary of the end of World War II. So when I was a kid, there were a lot of TV programs featuring wars in every August. However, there are few those kinds of programs recently. It's a pity.

I always think those programs are very welcome and everyone should watch them. I mean, everyone should know how wars were horrible.

This book was written by a Japanese woman, who survived a terrible horrible ground war in Okinawa when she was 7 years old.

Many of the people who survived the ground war in Okinawa or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki describe, it was like nothing from this world, it was just a scene from hell, or it was inferno. Not only solders, but also many civilians had to experience such things.
In the ground war in Okinawa, about 240,000 people died. Among them, civilians were about 100,000.

Major attacks toward Japanese civilians by the US.

6th Aug. 1945, Hiroshima atomic bomb. Number of the dead --> about 260,000
9th Aug. 1945, Nagasaki atomic bomb. Number of the dead --> about 150,000
10th Mar. 1945, Great Tokyo Air Raid. Number of the dead --> about 85,000

There are still people who are suffering from the after effects of the bomb's radiation. The number of dead by atomic bombs are still increasing.

By the way, regarding 9.11 Terror Attacks which American were terribly shocked, made a big deal, and even they started the war, the number of dead was 2,973. I wonder if how many people will suffer from the after affects of the attacks 60 years later.
Compared with what I listed above, 9.11 Terror Attacks are really small, tiny things.

Atomic bombing is one of the most horrible things which human have done in history, as well as the Holocaust.
Fortunately for the US, they won the war, so they justified atomic bombing as necessity things to finish the war. And most of American people believe it, because they don't know about the real devastation of atomic bombing, even they don't intend to know it. It was hundreds of times as horrible as 9.11 Attacks. If you know the real devastation, you can never say atomic bombing was necessary.

The most horrible thing is, although the US saw the horrible situation of Hiroshima after atomic bombing, they did again in Nagasaki, only because they wanted to experiment. It's hard to believe. I think if people find the real devastation of atomic bombing and those were conducted by themselves, they would go stark raving crazy due to what they did.

My PC is acting up again.

It's been about three months since my PC stopped working and I reinstalled OS. My PC started working strangely again.
For example,

Even though I close the window of Firefox, its process is still alive. So when I try starting Firefox again, the message always appears and I have to end its process myself manually.

Characters sometimes aren't converted to correct Japanese.

When I move files, sometimes it remain "in moving", and it never finishes.

I'm using OneSeg on my PC, but recently, the TV programs I programmed recording failed to be recorded.

etc. etc...

Isn't it a problem that PCs have such lower reliability? I'm really disgusted.

Shinjuku Eisa Festival 2009

Today, I went to see a festival in my neighborhood. It's Shinjuku Eisa Festival.

It's a contest of Eisa dance. Eisa is actually Okinawa's dance. I don't know why Okinawa's dance festival is held in Tokyo, but this festival is held every year. I know the similar Eisa festival is also held at Sapporo in Hokkaido every year.
About Eisa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisa_(dance)

Traffic was blocked over 300km of Shinjuku street, and many groups danced Eisa there.
Okinawa's traditional culture is pretty unique compared with other areas in Japan. It sometimes seems to be another country. It's interesting.

I've never been to Okinawa and I've always wanted to go there. I hope I can go there October this year. (I say it every year though. ^^;)

Performers waiting for their turn

Performing to the Okinawa-style music

My bad listening comprehension #16

I heard the following sentence from a dialogue which I studied today.

There's a load of technical manuals tree.

I wondered what "manuals tree" was.
I imagined that it refers to the manuals which are gotten lined up systematically.

I checked the text book and it actually wasn't "tree", but "to read." Gah!

By the way, although "manuals" is plural, I wonder why it's "there's", not "there are." OK, I'll try asking it on Lang-8.

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-bad-listening-comprehension-15.html

Rain, rain, rain

Although the finishing the rainy season has been announced, it has been raining this week.
Today is also rainy day, but the sun came up a little while ago, so I decided to go out by bicycle.
When I thought of going home, it started raining again, then it is raining heavily now!
I have an umbrella but bicycle... so I'm waiting for the rain to let up.

Oh!! While I'm writing this article through my cell phone, the rain is letting up! Goody!
I'm going home.

But the saddle of my bicycle must be very wet...

I dumbed down my English material.

I had used "Advanced Business English" material, but I changed to "Introductory Business English." I dumbed down a notch.

In the Advanced material, although the conversation of each episode was conducted among co-workers and their boss at work, its topics were always away from business itself, and I often felt that the idioms or expressions which were introduced in were not commonly used.
When I browsed the Introductory material, I thought that it was really useful for actual English conversations at work. So I decided to change to it.

The dialogues became a bit easy. It's easy to distinguish words, and there are not so many new idioms and words. On those points, changing the material doesn't seem to be good. However, I can learn many common expressions in business. It has been two weeks since I started using it. I think that it was good decision.

A new cell phone charm

I bought a new custom-made cell phone charm today.

I had it make with power stones. "Power stones" seems to be a Japanese-English word, but I don't know what they are called in English, so I'm using this Japanese-English word here.

First, I want stones which are good for job-related things. There are some, and I chose Chrysocolla. (Green ones.) I also chose Chrystal (transparent ones) and my favorite stones Rhodochrosite (Small pink ones). Then I ordered making a charm with those stones.

A shop staff designed and added one more stone, Madagascar Rose Quartz. (A big pink one.)

I'm really satisfied and happy. And I'm expecting those stones will show their power maximally!

Movie: Empire of the Sun

This is a Spielberg's move and it's the story of a 13-yaer British boy during World War II.

The boy, Jamie, grew up in a rich family in Shanghai. Japan invaded China and he was separated from his parents. Then he was sent to a camp. The movie describes the growth of the boy in the terrible situation.

The child actor was great. He played Jamie very well. So I wondered he is still active in the front lines. I checked the child actor and I was very surprised. He is Christian Bale who plays the role of Batman and John Connor in Terminator 4. I didn't know he has been an actor since he was a kid. In Japan, it's often said that child actors can't achieve great success though.

John Malkovich also appeared in the movie as an important role. Although the movie was made about 20 years ago, he was not different from the current him at all. Haha.

John Malkovich and young Christian Bale in the movie

Meeting my friend of Lang-8

One of my friends on Lang-8 came to Japan and I met him yesterday.

We had lunch and I enjoyed conversation with him.
Although he rarely has opportunity to speak Japanese in his country, his Japanese was very good. On the other hand, my English was... very bad as usual.

His good Japanese conversation proves that people can improve their language skill they learn even though they are not surrounded by the language.

I have to do my best.

New job opportunities

Last week, a recruiting agent contacted me to introduce job opportunities. I have been contacted by several recruiting agents before, but he was the first person (and I think he would be the last person) to contact me through LinkedIn. So I was surprised. I don't input much information of mine on LinkedIn. I just input my job summary. There is no information about my job history, education etc.

I met him this week at a coffee shop. He introduced me two job opportunities. Each situation is different, but both are very interesting. I hope I get good feedbacks from the companies.
I think both of the positions require high level English. Again... What I worry about the most is English.
The agent is from the US, but he has lived in Japan over 10 years. So I think he can speak Japanese fluently, we spoke in English though. Whenever I meet someone who speaks a foreign language well, I'm a bit depressed because of my poor English.

I checked the photo of the agent on LinkedIn before meeting him, but I bet he didn't know what I looked. In spite of that, he found me before I noticed him in the coffee shop. I wonder why???

The rainy season has finished.

There was the announcement of the end of the rainy season in Tokyo today. It's very earlier than average year. Terrible horrible humid summer has finally come. Gah---!

I have to have patience for about two months. Although the summer has just come, I'm already inpatient for autumn.

Book: Norwegian Wood

(I read it in English.)

About a month ago, I heard Norwegian Wood written by Haruki Murakami will be made into a movie, though he had refused it for a long time.
When I heard this news, I somehow realized I have never read any of his books, they are Very popular not only in Japan but also in other countries though.

So I decided to read Norwegian Wood, and even in English.

Whenever I read books in English, I feel stress because I can't read in English as fast as in Japanese. I can hardly go ahead. I need to be patient.

While I was reading it, I was wondering why this book became a bestseller around the world. Nothing special. And there are too many people who died in the story. Besides, most of them killed themselves. Suicide tends to become a shocking and surprising matter in a story, but because of too many suicide, when I found third suicide person, I thought "Ah, again."

Reading what the characters in the book said, I guessed those must have expressed much more subtle nuance in Japanese. English tends to be simple.
And I found that my guess was correct. After reading it, I checked Japanese people's impression about the book on the Internet. They said, for example, "the choice of words is extremely great!", "I felt that it was good for me to be born as a Japanese because I can read it as my mother language." and so on. Ah---! I should have read it in Japanese. I seemed to miss the greatest part of this book. So I will try reading it in Japanese.

During reading it, I didn't think the book was so good, but after finishing it, I thought it was quite good. But I still can't understand why it became a bestseller around the world.

The Tanabata Star Festival

Today is the Tanabata festival in Japan.
People write their wishes on strips of colorful paper and hang them on bamboo branches.

One Tanabata event is been held in a high rise commercial building in my neighborhood, and tree bamboo branches and strips of colorful papers are prepared.

I wrote my wishes on the papers and hang them on the branch. Of course my wishes include the two which I wrote on the previous entry.

The papers are a bit too much for the branch. haha. There are my papers in that.

They are going to be burned in a shrine near there to hope people's wishes come true.

Declaration

I declare two things which I am achieving.

To join an up and coming company and conduct business internationally as a Human Resource Development/Talent Management expert, then help the company to grow.

To internationally play a role in activities that help children all over the world receive educatioin.

I really want to improve my conversation skills!

On the comment of the article on 24th, Herm was kind enough to offer me to talk on Skype.

I finished talking with him just now.
We talked for 30 minutes in English and for 30 minutes in Japanese. I enjoyed chatting with him. Thank you very much, Herm.
However, my English was terrible as usual.

Ah---, I hope I can speak and hear English much better!! Practice, practice!

Movie: The Reader

As I wrote, I have read the book "The Reader" a couple months ago, and I had been looking forward to watching the movie.

I think it's a great movie. Although I didn't cry when reading the book, the movie caused eyes to water.
However, I'd prefer the book to the movie. Because, in the movie, I thought the early years of the leading character was described a bit flimsily.

The leading character is Michael. The story consists of two parts, his young age and adult age. As long As I read the book, I thought the main part of this story was his young age and the leading character was obviously a young Michael, not an adult Michael. He had many kind of complicated feeling toward a woman whose name was Hanna. Hanna did, too. The book described them very well.

On the other hand, the filmmaker described the movie with another approach. They put the adult Michael on a leading character, and described the story of young Michael as just a page of his youth. It's a pity.

Whenever I watch movies after readng original books, I'm a bit disappointed. It can't be helped. It's hard to condense a story into an only two hours movie, especially if the book is a masterpiece.

All actors were great, especially Kate Winslet who acted Hanna. She won the Oscar for best actress in a leading role.
I heard that the filmmaker pushed her to the best supporting actress nomination, but the Academy recommends the best actress nomination. She was great in the movie.

I'm not feeling very good.

I'm not feeling very good today. I wonder what is a cause.
I went to watch the movie "The Reader" today, but I'll write about it tomorrow.
I'm going to bed.

Talking on Skype

I talked with one of my friends on Lang-8 on Skype yesterday. It's the first time for me to talk on Skype fully.

At first, we communicated on IM, then we talked. He spoke Japanese very well with good pronunciation. I wish I were you!
In contrast, my English conversation skill is terrible as usual. My weakness has been conversation, especially listening, since a long time ago. It hasn't been changed.

I have been using English almost at work, but in a new project I'm joining next month, I don't need to speak English. It means I wouldn't have any opportunity to speak English. It's a critical situation for me to improve my English, isn't it?
So, I think I should have more opportunities to speak English outside of work, like talking on Skype. I wonder if I should look for more people I can get together with on Skype to improve each language.

We tried to do video call on Skype. I could see his video, but he couldn't see mine. I changed the setting of video, but it didn't work. I wonder why. I should get used to using Skype as well as speaking English. haha.

Movie: Terminator 4

I went to watch "Terminator 4 (Salvation)" yesterday. It was awesome!

The visuals were really powerful. And the battle and action scenes continued in almost all of the parts, so I hardly had a chance to breathe. Those were too powerful, so I was scared and sometimes I had trouble keeping watching a screen. Although I don't like movies filled by battle and action scenes, I think it was a great movie. It was a definitely different movie from the past Terminators.

A special note of the movie is Marcus Wright. I think it's fair to say that this is a movie of Marcus Wright, not of John Connor. John Connor was as if he was just a supporting role.
I didn't know Sam Worthington who acted Marcus, but thanks to this movie, he must become a famous actor.

When I saw the face of John Connor in the movie, the first thing I thought was why he didn't have scars on his face. Haha. He was supposed to have scars, wasn't he? I could understand it at the last of the movie though.

A 9 year-old girl whose name was Star appeared in the movie.
Her facial expression was very cute and I was very impressed by her. And I bet she will be a key person in Terminator 5.

There was a pity. When John Connor got a serious injury at the end of the movie, I easily could see what would happen next.

Terminator 1 was made as a low-budget B film, after all, it become a big hit though.
I like the past Terminators, but I deeply felt that the Terminator series have grown up well. haha.

--- Addition ---
There was another one that has also grown up.
Actor who played Kyle Reese is Anton Yechin.
He appeared the movie "Hearts in Atlantis" starring Anthony Hopkins. Yes, he is that boy.

Book: "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink

(I read this book in English)

I read this book several months ago.
This story was made into a movie, and Kate Winslet who played the leading character of this movie, won the Oscar for best actress in a leading role. I didn't know about this book till then although it has become a bestseller in the world. I checked the sites of the movie and I found its ad copy, "5 million people cried reading the original." That's why I decided to try to read it.

First, I didn't cry.
The story is developing quite calmly without any surprising or exciting matters. However it was profound. And most people must think "why" at the shocking ending, but there was no answer to why in the story. Each person has to imagine "why" by themselves.

The movie will hit the screen in a week in Japan. I'm going to watch it.

Book: "Holes" by Louis Sachar

(Reading this book in English)

It was very interesting story.
A main character is a boy whose name is Stanley. But other 3 episodes are also told in this story, about Stanley's great-grandfather, great-great grandfather and another one which is very important.
At first, those episodes seem to have nothing to do with each other, but there are many foreshadowings and the episodes link each other. It might be a commonly-used approach, but it's really superb and fun.

After reading this book, I read the brief plot of this story in Japanese. Then I found there were some links between each episode which I didn't realize when I read the book. Oops! One of them is revealed around the last part of the story. Before that, readers must be impressed with a lot of amazing links. Then when they read the last part, they must be surprised, "Oh, even this is linked!" Due to my poor English, I missed some fun parts. It's often the case for me.

I need much higher English skill to understand stories in English perfectly.

My English doesn't improve at all.

I'm taking TOEIC exam on Sunday. I didn't do any preparation for that again. Lazy Sand, as usual...

I took a mock exam just now.
I'm depressed. I realized that my English doesn't improve AT ALL!!
My weaknesses are as the same as before. One is that I can't read English quickly. The other is listening. I wonder what I have been doing.

Should I rebuild my studying scheme more strictly?

Anyway, I will take another mock exam tomorrow in order to getting used to an exam, then I'm going to take the real exam the day after tomorrow.

Book: "Buddhism for Busy People" and going to Meditation classroom

I've been interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and recently I thought I wanted to know its teaching a bit more deeply. (A little bit)
First, I tried to read "Buddhism for Busy People" written by David Michie. Japanese title is different at all. If I translate it into English, it's "Travel of Awareness."

I was not going to belong to any religion and not going to do any training. I just want to know the teaching. However, after I read this book, I started to think about doing meditations. The book says that just knowing is meaningless and practice is important.

There seems to be many kind of meditations. The book introduced some of them and I paid attention to Thong Len meditation. Anyway, any meditations seem to be difficult.

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A few days after reading the book, I found that Thong Len meditation workshop would be held soon. What a coincidence! I applied for it soon, then I went to participate in it yesterday.

Hmm... I was a bit disappointed with the workshop, but at least I could learn correct pose (the way of sitting). I think I got much less value for money though...

I'll start doing meditations, anyway.

My Sansevieria was reborn!

I got a small Sansevieria about a year ago.

Sansevieria should become very big (tall), but my sansevieria doesn't grow at all. On the contrary, it started dying.

The left photo is a year ago. The right photo is now. It doesn't grow at all and I left a few leaves because they have died. Poor sansevieria.

It's my fault. I should have taken care of it more carefully. But I didn't give up. I was trying to make it alive again.

Then yesterday, I found that new small leaves came out!!!!!
I'm really happy!
Look at the small leaves!!

OK, I will cherish it.