2010年4月29日木曜日

NHK実践ビジネス英語


 This program is what I have listened to for several months. Though I know the name from long time ago, the level was a bit difficult for me. But I am now making an effort to catch up with it. Every morning study listening to this program and do "shadowing" based on the script have come to my daily work. This program is really fun with a variety of topics including from economic topics reflecting current American atmosphere covered with recession to daily lives of main characters. This is highly recommended!

2010年4月26日月曜日

White Wine














I opened a bottle of white wine for dinner on Sunday night. It was a present from my coworker, but we have't had it for several months. With vegetables and cheese and the like, we drank it. I have come to prefer to vegetables than oily stuff as something with which I drink. I got drunk a bit more than usual on Sunday night.

2010年4月17日土曜日

Welcome Party

The new school year has come! We had a party welcoming new comer to the school I work for. Every year, at lease 5 or 6 teachers leave and come this school. This year, the school welcome eight new staffs, and each seems to have a strong power to enjoy her/himself and teach something to students. I got out of work of a HR teacher for the first time in three years. Since I took it for granted to work as such, I have felt a bit empty these days. The party yesterday gave me a power to work one year here. The main job this year is supporting HR teachers, managing guidance section teacher as a vice leader in the section, and of course teaching English effectively in order to build up "integrative teaching style" every English teachers here can share in this school. I'll do my best.

2010年4月5日月曜日

TOEIC 950

I got a result of TOEIC last month. It is 950(Reading480, Listening470). When I finished answering the test, I felt I was able to answer more than those I took before. But the truth is the more I study, the more things I know I have to learn to master English. In other words, I begin to feel that "mastering" a second language or a foreign language is next to impossible. Despite the feeling, learning English is fun! Learning means knowing a variety of worlds, and knowing myself. I'll keep on learning.



Below was the comment I posted when I got 910 on the test I took previously(September, 2009). The comments somehow collected unbelievably lots of nuisance mails, so I deleted it. Since I would like to check what I wrote, I added it below.

この間受験したTOEICの結果がonline上に出ていたのでさっそくチェック。結果は910点でした。うーん、何か微妙な点数です。新形式になって初めての受験でリスニングにやはり手こずりました。旧形式で受験した前回よりListeningは15点もダウン。その分Readingで取り返しましたが、「英語力が伸びている」とは言えない結果に、物足りなさが残ります。まあ、でも新形式で900点を突破したことはよしとしましょうか。明らかに帰国子女や、この人はしゃべれる、という人は950を超えています。そういう人たちとの間に圧倒的な高い壁をかにじるこの頃。この壁を越えるには修行のような苦難の道を歩まねばならないのでしょうか‥。shadowingとか、dictationとか、部屋に閉じこもって苦行を積まなくてはならないのでしょうか。どちらかというと、自分の英語力は本を読んだり、講義を聴いたりと、content-basedでのびてきたと思っているだけに、そういった訓練のようなskill-basedなtrainingは辛いと感じる自分がいます。しかし、壁を越えたければやるしかないのかな‥。これまでのTOEIC受験歴をまとめてみました。

2009/9/13 Listening 445 Reading 465 Total 910(3回目。新形式で初)
2006/3/26 Listening 460 Reading 440 Total 900(2回目。大学院時代)
2002/1/27 Listening 440 Reading 420 Total 860(1回目。教員2年目)

2010年4月4日日曜日

Trip to Lexington


I had a trip to Lexington Kentucky in the U.S. for 9 days. I had this opportunity as a member of a delegation from shin-hidaka town where I live. Shin-hidaka and Lexington had a sister-city relationship for more than 20 years because both are known for "horse city(town)". We, ten members in total, had a home stay for several days, and staffs from city government took us to various places around there. We had very dence and meaningful days due to their great hospitality. After that we dropped by L.A. for two days seeing Universal Studio and the like, and then got back our daily lives here in Japan yesterday. It was really fantastic experience for me! The picture is where I went called Waffle house. It was what is called authentic restaurant I had dreamed of visiting for a long time because that kind of place were often featured on American movies I watched.