Want to swap a book?
Here's a link with a description. Also i forgot to mention, but this one is brand new ~
The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
Effortless English
Recently I've been really interested in the "Effortless English" system. For anybody studying at home independently, it seems like a really great way to learn a lot in a short space of time.
Click here to view more details
It's just a shame there isn't something like this for learning Japanese!
Learning effectively
What’s the most important thing when learning English, or any other language?
Is it grammar? speech? communication? body language? regular study? a great teacher? Living in a country where that language is spoken?
Actually I say it’s none of these things. The number one ‘must have, can’t learn a language without’ factor in deciding whether you become fluent or not is simply interest. This seems obvious, however many people often ask me questions like “why aren’t my kids learning fast?”, “Why did I study at school for six years, but still can’t speak English?”, “Why is it so hard to learn??”.
The answers to these questions are simple – do your kids enjoy their lessons? did you look forward to English class at school? did you spend time learning vocabulary relevant to you? do you consider learning a chore, or something you do for fun? If the answer is ‘yes’ to all of these, you’ll find it easy to become as good as a native speaker in no time. If it’s ‘no’ to these questions, you’re probably in for a long ride.
Even if you have to learn for your job, it doesn’t mean learning has to be boring. What are you interested in? what do you like to talk about in your native language? You’d never read a book in which you have no interest in your own language – so why read it in English?
My advice to anyone learning a language is to go with the flow – not against it. Focus on the things you love, have fun and let English come to you naturally!
Improving spoken fluency
Here’s a trick I used to build my vocabulary in Japanese, as well as improve my grammar and pronunciation at the same time with very little effort.
Find an English book (graded readers like these プリンセス・ダイアリーズ (洋販ラダーシリーズ) from IBC
First you should just listen to the audio recording. After you’ve listened once and gotten a feel for the text go ahead and read though the whole thing, underlining anything you don’t fully understand as you go. Don't worry about this too much now though, and it should be said that if you don't understand 90% of what you're reading, the book is too difficult! You shouldn’t be trying to force yourself to remember anything now – that’ll come naturally in later stages.
Once you’ve been though your text, and fully understood the overall meaning it’s time to go back to the CD. You should listen to the audio as much as possible – I suggest at least once a day until you get so board you can’t bring yourself to listen anymore. The best time to do this is on the train to work, in the car or whilst your doing the cleaning – anytime when you can make use the minuets that normally would be wasted. That way you can spend your study time on something else.
And that’s it. Just keep listening. The idea is to build your vocabulary by repetition, but also to acclimatize yourself to the English language. It is important to get used to hearing how grammar should be used so that you can recognize mistakes easily, without relying on complicated rules and grammar explanations. Once you know the audio well you can also try shadowing – that is speaking with – the CD, which will help pronunciation a great deal. Again, the idea is to become so accustomed to the way English sounds that you just know when something sounds wrong.
Practice your description skills
Describe the picture below. Pretend you were there, you took this picture. Where were you? Why did you take it? Remember there are no correct answers, and the more information you can give, the better! Be creative and above all – have fun!
Post your answer into the comments, and I’ll get back to you with any advice or corrections I may have!
動物に関する諺
初めの諺は“To rain cats and dogs”
直訳すると「猫と犬が降っている」で、ひどい土砂降りという意味です。これは他に複雑な意味がないので、僕が選んだ諺の中で一番説明しやすいです。
二番目は“Not enough room to swing a cat”
ちょっとひどい感じがしますが、イギリスではよく使う諺です。直訳すると「猫を（しっぽを持って）振り回す広さがない」です。意味は「部屋が猫を振り回せないほど狭い」。これは日本の「猫の額ほど狭い」とぴったり合います！
“To have kittens”
これは私の一番好きな諺ですが、意味は少し不思議で説明しにくいです。
直訳すると「子猫を産む」。意味は「何かを心配している」です。例えば、”George didn’t come home last night – his wife is having kittens!” は「ジョージが昨日家に帰らなかったので、奥さんはとても心配している」となります。
何故「子猫を産む」からこのような意味になったのかは全く分かりません。
最後の諺は、猫ではなく犬に関する諺です。
“Let Sleeping dogs lie” を直訳すると「寝ている犬を起こすな」になります。この諺は使い方が少し難しいです。勿論犬や赤ちゃんが寝ている時にも使えますが、この諺の本来の意味は、喧嘩や揉め事があった時に、収まったことをわざわざ持ち出して、再び問題を起こさないで！というもので、少し重大な時に使えます。
Writing practice
Where is your favorite place?
Maybe it’s a city, a country or just a park near where you live. Tell me about that place. Why is it your favorite place? How often do you go there?
Answers in the comments, and I’ll get back to you with any corrections/ advice!
"a", "an", "the"
Recently allot of people have asked me about the use of “a” and “the”, so here we go!
A/ An
- We can use “a” and “an” with singular nouns – She is reading a magazine.
- Before vowel sounds (a, e, I, o, u) we use “an” – An apple, An interesting book. We should also know that this is based on sound, not spelling. So “hour” (pronounced “our”) is “an” not "a".
- We use "a" and "an" when we don’t need to be clear which particular thing we’re talking about.
She is reading a magazine.
We understand that there are allot of magazines; she’s reading one of them, but it doesn’t matter which.
My father is a salery man.
There are allot of salery men; my father is just one of them.
He is an honest person.
Again, we understand that there are allot of honest people; He’s one of them.
The
- We use “the” before singular or plural nouns – The magazine, The magazines.
- We can use “the” with uncountable nouns (eg water, food, garbage) – please put out the garbage. We CAN’T use "a" or "an" with uncountable nouns.
- “The” is used when it is clear which thing or person we are talking about.
She was reading a magazine. She closed the magazine.
She closed the magazine that she was reading.
My father is the salery man sitting over there.
Not just any salery man, but the salery man over there.
I met him at the station.
The station where he go off the train, and I met him.
When not to use anything
- We do not use “the” before plural nouns (for example: magazines, vegetables) when we’re talking about something general – I read magazines, Do you like vegetables? .
- We do not use “a” or “the” before names of languages, meal names, station names, street names etc.
I speak English.
What time will breakfast be?
I’ll meet you at Shinjuku station.
Questions
Put “a”, “an”, or “the” into the boxes if they are needed, or leave them blank where nothing is required. When you’ve finished, copy paste the questions with your answers into the comments below for marking!
Example: I’m going to [ the ] supermarket this afternoon. It’s on [ - ] Rowan Street.
- I had [ ] sandwich for [ ] lunch this morning.
- We got off [ ] train at [ ] Shinjuku station.
- It was [ ] long flight, but eventually we arrived in [] Japan.
- I want to learn [ ] French. I will have [] lesson tomorrow.
- He made [] angry speech during [] meeting yesterday.
- She is [] famous chef and she will be appearing on [] 6 o’clock cooking show.
- They live in [] Tokyo in [] area near [] Tokyo tower.
- They said they want [] car like [] blue one my friend owns.
Practice your description skills
Describe the picture below. Pretend you were there, you took this picture. Where were you? Why did you take it? Remember there are no correct answers, and the more information you can give, the better! Be creative and about all – have fun!
Post your answer into the comments, and I’ll get back to you with any advice or corrections I may have!
