There's a way.

I've been struggling with my limited listening skill these days. I'm apt to feel lost when I'm listening to CNN news or an interview program in English. I'd say it doesn't happen to me all the time. I suppose I have no trouble when I'm in conversation with people. Why is that? If I don't get what they are talking about, I can ask them to explain to me. However, I have no chance to do it especially when I'm taking a listening test. I want to fix my weakness.

This is why I've just started to study how to pronounce from the start. If I can pronounce words properly, I should be able to understand them appropriately. I need to make progress for my listening.

This is "my pronounce" you can hear.

I'd say my English writing is getting better. I used to take lots of time to write things in English, and I also made countless grammar mistakes in them. I still do sometmes, of course, but it's becoming easy for me to express my feelings in English. That's good progress, I should say. Somehow, I'm a bit nervous.

If I were a grade-schooler, I wouldn't mind what my writing looked like. As an adult, however, I suppose I need to aim at sophisticated writings even if they are written in English. I'd like to write something interesting. I'd like to amuse you with my writings. What should I study for it?

Do I have to read good writings? Learn from them? It might be right.

I used to enjoy a lot of books when I was a child. I loved spending time at a library and my mother called me bookworm. Before reaching the age of 9, I strained my eyes and needed to wear glasses in school. My mother tried to keep me away from books, but yet I couldn't stop reading. I guess my reading helped me a lot write things in Japanese.

I believe reading is a key to success. The problem is, which one should I choose to learn proper way of writing? There are so many books that I can't seem to pick right ones. Some people say "Huckleberry Finn" is the one to read for children, but others completely oppose to the notion.

I can't be choosy, but I'm interested in right ones to read.

I took several English classes last week, such as "Reading and Listening class," "Advanced English speaking class," "Intermidiate English speaking class" and "English writing class." All of these classes inspired me a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed studying with a teacher.
One of teachers told us an interesting theory. He said we should start to learn a second language by the age of 9, because our listening skills are dwindling down after the age of 10. He also said that if you are over 9(already, unfortunately), you can't master a second language exactly the same way as little children do. According to his theory, there's no difference between the age of 10 and 80 when they study a foreign language. Curious, isn't it? In a way, I think he is right.

My 7-year-old son understands Japanese grammar perfectly. He has never been taught what the Japanese grammar is. When it comes to mother tongues, children don't need to take any grammar classes. They can learn things from people being around.

So, what should adults do for improving English skill? The teacher insisted on just listening.
"Don't waste your time to read grammar books. Listen to music. Listen to people speaking English. You'll get what I want to say," he assured.

My husband says I have gotten very good at cooking. I think it's true. My cooking used to be horrible, no kidding.
He is especially fond of gyoza, so I made it yesterday. Gyoza is a kind of dumpling stuffed with minced pork and vegetables. Although I usually use cabbage and Chinese leek, I used only onion. It worked well! The taste depends on how to bake.

イカ刺し ... Ika-sashi

I love Saga prefecture because we can always have fabulous seafood there! My husband drove to Yobuko last weekend; it's a town famous for Ika-sashi. Although we got to a restaurant before lunch time, there were a lot of people waiting to be served!
Sashi is short for sashimi. It also means fresh. I was astonished when I tried Ika-sashi for the first time, because it was so fresh. It was completely transparent as well.
After enjoying the sashimi, make sure to have the squid tempura.





Once you taste this tempura, you won't be satisfied with any other tempura. I was a bit full, but I couldn't stop eating. Squid tempura is the best in the world. Well, are you skeptical? Try it sometime just for the heck of it.

Harry Potter. I guess everyone knows him.
It was almost 8 years ago when I read "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." I've already finished all of "Harry's books", and now my daughter is a huge fan of him.
I'd love her to enjoy reading books. Reading can expand our horizons and also helps us to be imaginative. However, my daughter tends to be into reading too much, and this is a problem I can't ignore! Other than reading, she needs to do homework and help me to do chores as a member of our family.
"I don't have time for it," she sometimes replies.
She frequently forgets to go to bed by 10, and I have to end up raising my voice to say "It's high time!" I'd be happy if I could have a spell or something. What's it for? You can ask a mother who is struggling with raising kids. I'm sure she can relate to me.

I had to make the best of some leftovers in my fridge because I didn't go shopping two days in a row. I found some slices of pork and eggs in it. "Umm...let me think."
Although I'm not good at cooking, I love to challenge myself to try new things. I used eggs and bread crumbs, and then! My kids love them. The vegetable inside is called "Okura" in Japanese.

I set up an English workshop around 4 years ago, and since then I've been studying English with my friends twice a month. I've got some new words from today's lesson. I'll make some example sentences using them.

1) embark on ... to start something
I wanted to embark on a new plan in my career, but I failed to.

2) sluggish ... moving slowly than normal
I don't know what I should do with a sluggish worker.

3)　hamper ... to restrict someone's movements or activities
Learning English shouldn't hamper child-rearing.


It'd be nice if you'd correct my sentences.

Although I've still been studying English myself, sometimes I am an English teacher. I started to teach adults, because I wanted to try something new for my English ability. In fact, teaching is learning. I've been learning a lot from my students.

Ikeda-san and Okamura-san are my students. I got to know them around two years ago, and they have always been with me since then. They are the same age as my mother, but I'm really comfortable with them like when I'm with my friends. Today, we went out for lunch after lesson.

What a spread! We enjoyed chatting over delicious cuisine. To my surprise, they bought me lunch! "It's no big deal. We'd love to," they replied. I didn't know what to say...

かき揚げ　Kaki-age

When you have onions, carrots and shrimps or corn in your fridge, you can make some vegetable fries. No need to have many of them. First of all, slice a onion and a carrot, then coat them in batter. Don't froget to put some chopped shrimp or corn and nip of salt into it. The rest you have to do is just to fry!
This is easy to cook and easy on the purse. What's more, Kaki-age is quite tasty especially when it's still hot.

I was at a loss for words to find that my computer didn't work well.
"Oh-oh. What did I do wrong!?"
I managed to hook up the Internet, but my data including my friends' mail addresses and backups of my blogs were completely gone. I spent plenty of time to figure out what had happened, but my effort seemed to be useless.
"You shouldn't rely on a computer too much," my husband said.
"It sometimes turns on you."
You can say that again, but not now PLEASE!!
Finally, I found the backup for my computer and got my whole data back.
I didn't realize how much I count on my PC until it crashed. Our computers are very useful, but they can't be perfect like us.

My friends visited me for an English workshop today and we spent lovely time together again. Since we were a bit hectic during our kids' summer holiday, we didn't have enough time to prepare for today's workshop. However, we spoke English to talk about our lives and learned a lot from each other.

Although we can study by ourselves, it's pleasant to have some company to aim at the same goal.

I joined "Coffee Morning," which is hour-long free conversation time at Alison's English school. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, English learners can enjoy chatting with a native speaker over a cup of coffee or tea. What's more, it costs only 500yen. How lovely!

I can recall the first time to visit Alison's school. Around that time, I was eager to study English, but I couldn't find any appropriate place for me. I needed to be with my 4-year-old son all day and I couldn't attend any English class with him. Right before giving up, I found her.

I have been busy these days and missed some chances to see her, but today I'm very happy to know that she has been waiting for me. She is not just a teacher but also my friend. I've learned a lot from her and her wonderful time "Coffee Morning."

I love spending time at McDonald's. It doesn't mean I fancy fast food. You may not believe me, but McDonald's offers us a cozy place to study. Actually, they have changed the atmosphere. In some McDonald's, the seats are no longer tiny. You can sit on a sofa in a cubicle, eating a big hamburger with fries!

I tend to be sedentary in front of my personal computer at home and do nothing but surf the Net, so these days I make it a rule to go out with my English textbooks and head for nearby McDonald's. I order a cup of coffee and take a seat near the window, then open my textbooks. Some people are chatting around me, but the noise is also comfortable to my ear. Although I happen to see unruly behaviour and feel annoyed, somehow I can focus on my studying.

Would you care for a piece of cake? How about some delicious desserts? You can have them as much as you want without worrying about their calorie, because they are all fake ones!

We went to a small museum the other day. The exhibitions teaches us how to provide dietary education to children. In a FAKE restaurant, we can choose whatever we want, and then we can check its nutrition or calorie with a computer.






I didn't realize how much I had taken high-calorie meal without knowing it!
Are you sure you've been having a balanced diet? Are you sure?
Can you avoid taking excessive amounts of desserts? Can you?
You can ask yourself. ;-)





When you consume a variety of food on a daily basis, a piece of cake will be no halm in taking...maybe.