Yuki's Web

Tag: English

  • Visiting Hong Kong

    A few weeks ago I visited Hong Kong to deposit part of my fixed amount savings, deposited in Japan’s post office and matured last month, in HSBC Hong Kong where I’ve had my bank account for 13 years, and to buy some gold which was a bit inexpensive than what you buy in Japan. Since nobody can predict what will happen to Japan and its economy in the future, I think it is reasonable to diversify assets both nationally and internationally to reduce risks of the loss due to possible economic confusion. I found out two notable things through this trip. One is that Kagoshima is in fact one of the […]

  • A walk in London

    (Continued from A stroll in Haworth) On the third day, I checked out of the Heathfield B&B on the rainy morning. Since it was a weekday, Keighley Worth & Valley Railway was out of service. The mistress took me to the nearest bus stop on Rawdon Road and told me to wait there for the bus for Keighley. While waiting for the bus, an old lady talked to me. She asked me where I was going. I answered that I was going to London. Another lady joined us, and they and I talked a bit until the bus was coming. On the bus, I sit on the upper front seat, […]

  • A stroll in Haworth

    (Continued from A trip to real England) Breakfast served at Heathfield Bed & Breakfast was really British-style, with a fried egg, fried potatoes, and mushrooms, a fried tomato cut in half, two slices of bacon and two sausages as well as cereals, slices of bread, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. I have a good appetite for breakfast in England because when it’s breakfast time in England, it’s time to have dinner in Japan where it’s nine hours ahead.

  • Paju English Village

    Visiting England is one of the things I want to do in the future. I planned a trip there in the middle of September. I purchased air tickets to and from London and booked hotels there. To my sorrow, however, I was forced to cancel all of the reservations because of the hectic work I had for almost two years. The British Hills is one of its alternatives, but I get tired of it as I visited there many times. One day I heard that there was such a place in South Korea mocking English streets. That’s why I visited South Korea this month, though I didn’t understand Korean at […]

  • British Hills in spring

    I visited British Hills first in this year because the snow melted and it became accessible by car.

  • My current views in English

    We Japanese know that English is the world’s de facto standard language everyone in the world needs to learn to communicate with each other in this fast-globalising society. Mastering English is, nevertheless, one of the greatest hardships for most of Japanese who were born in Japan and raised by Japanese parents within Japan. They learn English as a mandatory subject in middle school, high school, and even college for up to eight years, but very few of them have a good command of it. Quite a few analysts have given comments on why most Japanese are weak in English. Some say it’s because English’s structure of language is quite different […]

  • Deep in England

    Last weekend was happy days for me because I deeply experienced a British taste last Saturday and Sunday. From the beginning, I preferred the USA to the UK or other English-speaking countries. Still, my affection has been shifting to England for years since I happened to read Kaoru Mori’s Emma, a romance manga about a maid in England in the Victorian Era who falls in love with a member of the gentry. On the first day, the first thing I did is to see Oliver! by the Musical Club of Kokugakuin Tochigi High School playing for the school’s cultural festival held this weekend. Oliver! is, as you may already know, […]

  • Kelso Heartland Homestay Program 2008

    In addition to the musical SHOW BOAT by the Musical Club, one of the Cultural Festival's attractive displays I wanted to visit was the reports of "Kelso Heartland Homestay Program" by some students who visited the United States. Devin Kelso, born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, working for Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School as a communicative English teacher, hosted the home stay program with his family.They arranged the host families in Mount Vernon to encourage them to accept each of the participants. About a dozen of high school and junior high students took part in this program. They spent about two weeks with the host families, learning English, and taken to […]

  • Write what you hear

    Before watching the musical show Sunday afternoon at Kokugakuin Tochigi High School, I visited a classroom where the English Club had a demonstration in the cultural festival. When I entered the classroom, a schoolgirl belonging to this club and a directing teacher welcomed me. They encouraged me to try to have the “dictation quiz,” where you listened to several short English sentences a native English speaker spoke over the audio cassette recorder and you wrote the actual words of the sentences. Its difficulty ranged from Level 1 to Level 6. Level 1 was the easiest and Level 6 the most advanced. Of course I chose Level 6 because I was […]