ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

This building was my favorite in Ubud. The royal family commissioned this temple and water garden, dedicated to the Hindu goddess of art and learning, at the end of the 19th century. The main shrine is covered in detailed carvings, and interesting giant barong masks. We also ate the traditional dish of suckling pig and tried our luck bargaining in the marketplace.

  

Kelly and I are getting ready for a trip home in August. I can't wait to see friends and do and eat some of the things that I am so used to back home. I have a pretty nice car back home, a Toyota Corolla. It's a metallic blue car with sport seats and an awesome radio sound system. I'll be able to drive that but one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is seeing my friends and family. My nephew just turned nine yesterday and we got the chance to Skype with each other. His lego collection is growing and he is growing too.



Don't worry we will be back in September   

Are you having a hard time finding time to practice your English? Here are a few quick easy things you can do that only take a few minutes.
1. Listen to English language music or podcasts in the car. Even if you're not paying attention to the words this can help you get used to the way English sounds. If you do pay attention you can practice comprehension.

2. Listen to Japanese news radio, and try translating it into English in your head or out loud. This will get you used to speaking quickly without thinking too hard and will show you what important words you haven't learned (or can't remember). Don't worry about accuracy, try for speed.

3. Write your grocery list in English. Easy and fun!

4. Anytime you see a number on a sign, read it in English to yourself (in your head).

5. Instead of talking to yourself in your head about your day in your native language, think to yourself all day long in English. "First I have to go to work at 9:00, then I'm going to see my sister, later I'll make curry rice for dinner" etc.

Are there any easy ways you like to practice at home?  

Kanonji beach is great. The long stretch of beach with the trees behind it is so nice to walk along. It's a real plus to living here. I go there almost everyday, even in the winter. But after Sendai, there always comes to mind all the places I use to go to on a day off in Miyagi that were pretty much washed into the sea. I can't forget that ever. I hope others don't either. The people there need your interest and concern. They're not doing well at all. Some of us are moving on, if they can. Some can't, nor can there children. Let's not forget them even now, please.   

I know it's a bit early, but I am already excited to go to the beach. The water is going to be freezing, but just laying out on the sand is going to be a treat. Back in Florida, we could start going to the beach in March if we were lucky. The Gulf of Mexico is a very warm body of water. In the summer, it can get up to 30 degrees! I hope to see you all out at the beach this summer!  

Good morning, how are you? I hope you are doing well today.

Saying hello to someone is the very first spoken interaction you will have with a person typically. There are many different ways to greet people around the world. In some European countries a kiss on the cheek is how to say hello, in Japan, bowing, but in America we have different ways to say hello in different scenarios. If you meet for business the main focal point of the greeting process is the handshake. The first step to presenting a good handshake is to wait for the person who invited you to extend their hand (this will typically be within a few seconds), during the handshake you want to have a firm hold on the other persons hand. Don't squeeze it to the point of breaking and don't be too soft. This step will show if you are nervous or confident. You will pump the handshake 2 to 3 times, typically 2 and no more than 3. While you are giving the handshake you will greet each other verbally by saying something like this:

A. Hello, I'm John Doe from ABC Company.
B. Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Josh White.
A. Nice to meet you, too.

Be sure to have confidence with your words. Confidence is key in English conversation.

I hope these tips help you in the future.

As always, thanks for reading!

Leigh   

I enjoyed hanging out at the beach and people watching. There were so many different kinds of characters, not just surfers! My friends and I hung out every day with some surf shop guys and a musician who entertained us with live music during out surf breaks. Occasionally the peanut man would come around selling freshly picked peanuts very cheaply. It was a nice treat. Dexter might be my favorite though because he was the boss of the beach. Dexter was a medium sized chill dog that ran around all day randomly barking at nothing and pretending to be the king of the beach. He was very friendly to me.



  

It's been a long time since a new video XBox and Playstation has come to the video game market. Both are offering a lot of cool new features. One feature that I am really interested in is on the XBox. I am normally a Playstation guy but what they are calling a "passive listening device" on the XBox is amazing.




The console turns on just from you saying "Xbox on". It starts with the thing you were doing last on the XBox, like playing a game or listening to music. It also integrates right into your TV. "Xbox, watch TV" drops you right into a live television feed. The amazing part of this is that you can switch quickly from movies, TV, games, a web browser or anything else, just by saying "Xbox, go to", or even just "Go to movies".

This is a piece of technology that I have wanted in my home for a long time. I've watched movies where someone goes into their house and says "Lights" and the lights turn on. This is the first step towards the future and it's coming from gaming. This is exciting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TP_E6Bn6fWM

Check out this video for some more XBox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QhUL8NUK4

and this one for Playstation 4.

What one would you get?  

As some of my students know, I speak Spanish fluently. In 2005-2006 I lived abroad in Spain and at that time my Spanish ability was at its highest. Living in a place where you're fully immersed makes it easy to practice and increase your language capability. Since then my spoken Spanish skill has significantly decreased. I'm now trying to make an extra effort to practice in my free time. You must devote specific time to practicing a language otherwise your pronunciation gets sloppy, your grammar may become confused, and vocabulary will disappear from memory. As the saying goes "Use it or lose it!"  

Hi all!

My wife and I came back from vacation to find that the weather had finally turned for the better. It's funny what two weeks away can do. I mean we still were using our kotatsu before we left, and when we came back, I had to sleep with the windows open because it was so warm. Wi this change in weather came the budding and blooming of my wife's orchid collection. While most people rightly think of Orchids as tropical plants, they bud and bloom when there is a large difference between day and night temperatures. In Kagawa, this takes place in Spring and Fall. Right now our house is full of wonderful smells and sights thanks to our orchids.  

Going back home is always a great thing. There are always lots of things to look forward to: family, friends, shopping... and FOOD. In Takamatsu, while there are some very good restaurants, the diversity of food is lacking. I mean there is Japanese, Chinese, Indian... the usual. But there is only one Thai restaurant and no Greek. So when I go home, as i did recently I always look forward to going out with my family to eat Greek food. CAVA is some of the best Greek food you can find in Washington DC. Its delicious. I know most Japanese have never had Greek food, but if you get the chance, I recommend you give it a try it's my favorite.  

It's been a wonderful year for Manchester United Football Club. They won the Premier League Cup and had an overall great year. It is sad to see an end of era come to pass. Sir Alex Ferguson is retiring from the world of soccer management. He is a legend of the game with over 1,500 games as team manager and so many trophies to numerous to count. 'It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so', said Ferguson. That gives me hope that this amazing team will stay amazing even after the legend steps down. GO RED ARMY!

  

Over Golden Week I took at trip to Matsuyama. I visited Matsuyama Castle. Riding in the chair lift up to the castle looked scary, but it was actually relaxing. It was really neat to tour the castle. In the U.S. we don't have castles and no building is more than a few hundred years old, so it was very interesting to see. Outside there were a lot of high school students on a school trip. Some of them were brave enough to practice asking me questions in English. They did a great job. All in all it was a fun time.  

One of my favorite television shows back home is Supernatural. It's the story of two brothers that fight against evil things like ghosts, vampires and other crazy supernatural things. Last week I found out that it had been made into a Japanese animation. It's crazy that something I like and thought was pretty much an American thing is liked so much over here by so many people. If you have the chance the TV show is pretty amazing, Check it out.




  

Beauty is a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense. So, what defines beauty in the everyday mind of a human being? Well, that varies from person to person, but I believe that the heart of all beauty is the emotion you express and the smile that you wear. This photograph was from an experiment called "Dove Real Beauty Sketches". In the experiment, Dove brought in a Forensic Artist to draw the faced of the women based on description alone. They did not see the woman until the experiment was complete. Another aspect of the experiment was for the woman and another person to get to know each other and then the other person describe the person. On the left, you will see the drawing of how the woman views her own beauty, the second drawing is the description given by another person and the woman standing next to the drawings is the woman. This experiment was designed to show how a person views their own beauty and how another person views your beauty. Many women in the world lack self-confidence about the way they look, I am one of those people. Throughout my life I have tried to encourage people around me that they are beautiful without thinking of myself as beautiful. And one of my flaws in thinking is when someone tells me that I am beautiful, it is really difficult for me to believe that truth. When I saw this video (posted below) I cried and gained a little more self-confidence. And this doesn't only pertain to women, it can also influence a mans mindset on how he views himself and how he views others. I would advise everyone to watch this video. You may not be able to understand all of what is said in the video, but you can see by the finished product and the emotion the outcome.

I hope you enjoy this video!


Leigh   続きを読む

The monkeys at Uluwatu have a very bad reputation for stealing from visitors. My friends and I decided to bring some fruit to share before entering the temple grounds. We sat down to eat our snack when we noticed people staring at us and we thought it was kind of weird. Then I turned around to see a monkey galloping toward us. My friend grabbed the fruit and ran all the way back to the parking lot before the monkey got to us. It was scary but funny. Right after that I watched a monkey jump up on a guests shoulder and grab the glasses from her face. The monkey chewed on the glasses like a chew toy, immediately breaking the glasses. Crazy monkeys!!!  

During Golden Week, Sam and I took our first vacation together. It was also our first time travelling farther from Kagawa in Japan. Our destination for our first vacation was Tokyo. We stayed at Tokyo Disney Resort for four days. We went to Disney Sea the second day there, and to Disneyland, the third day there. This was my first Disney experience, so I had a lot of fun. After Disney, we traveled to Shinjuku and stayed there for another three days before returning to Kagawa. All in all, the trip was amazing! I can't wait for my next vacation!

Thank you for reading!
Leigh   

I love games. I can make a game out of anything. I have many siblings and we loved to make new games together. My father really enjoyed playing games with us and he taught us many old styles of games. I grew up enjoying many old styles of games because of my father. Anytime I can find a penny arcade I am very happy. I was able to enjoy this one with my wife. We had a lot of fun.

  

Kecak is a form of Balinese dance that started in the 1930’s. It also goes by the name of Ramayana Monkey Chant and is primarily performed by men. The men form a circle and chant for almost the entire show. They are wearing black and white checked cloths tied around their waists. They use their arms a lot too for dramatic purposes. The monkey characters helped the good guys defeat the bad guys in the story. They also offer comic relief by going into the audience and sitting with them and harassing people. It was funny.



  

I wanted to go to Bali for Golden Week to improve my surfing skills. I woke up early every day to surf until lunch and then again I surfed in the evening before sunset. Bali has some of the most beautiful sunsets. I felt very lucky to be floating in the warm water. The waves were the best I’ve ever experienced. I wish I could spend more time there. I improved a lot and I’m excited to continue surfing in Japan every chance I get!