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.

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

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.