ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

I visited Tokushima recently. There are a lot of interesting things and places in Tokushima. I particularly like the rope-way. I had never ridden a rope-way before the one in Tokushima. It was a beautiful ride up and a great view from the top, but I also got a wonderful view of Tokushima city before I went up. I think nature is always wonderful to experience, but the city has beauty too.


  

The weather has been so nice lately.



Even though it's still a bit cold, the sun has been out. When it's not windy, it's really nice.

I love Saijo when it's like this!  

This weekend I went to a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu concert, it was so exciting! I was very lucky to be able to get the tickets from some very kind people.
When I was in Canada I listened to Kyary a lot, I really wanted to see her live, and finally I was able to. The concert was amazing, it was so awesome to see her in real life. She sang lots of popular songs, and taught the audience a few simple dances to do with our glow sticks.
I was able to buy lots of merchandise from the concert, I think I went a little crazy and bought too much, but I'm still happy.
Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures since it isn't allowed, but I wish I could show you!   

I feel lucky to be living near friends. They even live in the same building as me. I really value girl time, so I often meet with my friends for girl time. We do yoga, cook dinner and eat together, make art, and a lot of chatting.
  

Pictured above is the very same guitar I bought the last time around, two years ago in 2015 when I first started working at Gem. It is still in good shape, enough to jam with. I had imparted it to some students of mine before I left because I couldn’t find a buyer for it on my way out in December 2015. The interim owners and I would talk about music in our class so I knew that they would be take care of it while I was gone. They were very grateful to have received it, and very kind to have returned it once I made my own return. I wonder though how much they took advantage of it though, as the strings currently on them are the very same strings that the guitar was equipped with when I originally left it in their trust! Which is to say that I am recommending Elixir strings for your own acoustic! I am no good player at anything, but I am happy to have my old partner back with me. I used to ride with this thing on my back to and fro the shotengai by bike to hang out with a street musician there I befriended. I won’t be doing that this time around, as she moved to Tokyo to further her career, and I am not even really seriously playing it. However, I do use it for vocal training, switching between it and my piano for scaling, harmony, and pitch accuracy training for voice. Doing such vocal training exercises on the guitar is more convenient than it is on the piano since the guitar has the advantage of presenting scales in one finger position, while on the piano it is required that the player must move horizontally as a scale is ascended or descended. With the guitar, I can simply close my eyes and play up and down a scale with minimum distraction from my hands that on a piano would force me to watch them so that the right note can be played. Since the New Year I have been keeping to my resolution to practice singing more often. I didn’t set a a hard quota to fulfill, say one hour everyday, since I know that having boundaries entails finding ways to bend or break those boundaries. Rather, the true motivator in my own practice is the amount of humiliation I suffer from not suffering! Everyday is a constant trial and representation of my character. Am I serious about signing? Am I serious about making promises? So far, yes, I am, when it comes to my resolution to practice more. At least four mornings of the week I sit at my piano and go through various vocal exercises, going up scales chromatically, along the major scale on every key, doing arpeggios and counterpoints and slides, and free singing in the shower and when I’m traveling. It’s doing my voice a lot of good, though admittedly I am still rather bad. And all of the same goes for my Japanese! Did I ever express my gratitude for the fine example of all of you learners and students? You are really setting a fine example for your interest in English and actual carrying out of ways to practice it. It is really hard for use foreigners to stay focused on our own Japanese studies, despite having the advantage of our environment being immersive. Just think that if you showed the same drive that you do not in your learning but in an English-speaking environment, you’d be far along in your language training than I am in my Japanese! Really, you reader and learner should feel at ease and confident at your abilities and drive. The more I practice singing and my Japanese the more and more I realize how difficult it is to learn anything, which is why my motto is Slow and steady. Just keep at it, slowly but surely, and you’ll get to where you want to be soon enough.

And today’s quote comes from a memory athlete: “We’ve forgotten how to remember, and just as importantly, we've forgotten how to pay attention. So, instead of using your smartphone to jot down crucial notes, or Googling an elusive fact, use every opportunity to practice your memory skills. Memory is a muscle, to be exercised and improved.” - Joshua Foer  

There are many things I want to accomplish in my life. One of those things is successfully growing and maintaining a vegetable garden. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I love science. I learned a lot about plant anatomy and physiology in college and being a vegetarian, I am absolutely in love with plants! From the molecular level, to the cellular level, to the way they reproduce, and to their internal and external structures, I think plants are simply fascinating. It is a dream of mine to one day grow my own garden full of various vegetables, herbs and flowers, of which I can use in my cooking. I'm all about sustainability! I know this will take a lot of trial and error, and that is an aspect of this dream that excites me. I want to get my hands dirty, be more connected with my food, and hopefully share it with those around me. I am determined to make this dream a reality.

Until next time,

Cristina
  

I love coffee. It is my favorite drink in the world, but drinking too much isn't healthy so I have been drinking a lot more tea lately. I love drinking black tea peppermint tea, green tea, and chai. I'm still drinking coffee, but not as much as I used to! What is your favorite kind of tea? Do you have a tea recommendation for me?


  

I'm going to Miami soon and I'm getting things ready to go. Camilo and I are going to buy many things that we need in America, new clothes and more, so we don't need to bring a lot of stuff with us. We have some cute Japanese souvenirs for our parents and friends that we will bring and it's hard deciding what to bring and also what to bring back for our friends here in Japan.

What do you think I should take and bring back?  

So the end of the semester is here. I've had so much fun teaching everyone and I know some of my students will be moving to days I don't teach. I'll miss them. This particular starter class was especially fun. I know I'll get the chance to see the students I don't have every now and then, and get to know more students, but still, it's always a little sad at the end of a semester.
See you soon, everybody!  

I think I might have written about this before, but on the chance that I did, I'll write about it again. As the title of this blogpost says, I have been currently for the past month plus been studying Japanese. Now, my studying has been a little out of the ordinary in terms of studying. What i mean by this is that I have myself subjected a large amount of stimuli (this case being Japanese) and doing active studying of vocab, kanji, and some grammar related material, ALL via a method known as SRS. What SRS basically is a super version of flash cards, which if you're interested, please google "SRS" as it helps with memory in terms of vocab and other related language learning things.

I must admit, the more I study, the more i pick up from my day-to-day life here in Japan, whether that being able to read more things in public or understand a bit of the Japanese television programming i hear.

I think, to put it very briefly, that the language theory by Noam Chomsky and his "generative grammar" is really quite true. Which is to say that every human being isn't to have a bias towards what language a person can understand and not understand, but merely have enough brute force stimuli towards the subject that the structural system of the human brain (note that i didn't use the word "mind" here) for it to sort out on it's own and in a sense, create some sort of meaning for the subject.

It is rather dry to try to explain more of it, but to put in simply, if you have enough material (Japanese material in this case), a SRS system, and a will, then any language is doable.

How is your study of language going?


  

This week, my friend took me to a wonderfully Japanese style restaurant to try some great new dishes! No matter what I try...Japanese food is always so delicious!
  

This isn't a post about the movie, The Magnificent Seven, actually it's about the recent discovery of seven new planets that are orbiting a star, the interesting thing about these planets is that they are close to each other and in the habitable zone of their solar system. The picture above is an artists concept of what the planets may look like based on available data.

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets. The Solar system is called the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Oh space, you amaze me.

- James Barbosa  

Pictured above is a set I ordered from Kuroudo, or 蔵人・クロウド, the one right beside one of our schools. A student of mine shared with me in class that he likes to go there with his son, as well as another kissaten nearby. I can’t disclose which cafes in particular out of concerns for privacy and safety. Suffice to say that he has highly recommended the aforementioned other one for its high quality coffee and incredibly nostalgic feel (it is an old-style kissaten apparently). I haven’t visited that one yet, but I did take him up on trying out Kuroudo. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience. I like their interior a lot. It is very different from what I am used to in America and the Starbucks and Junkudo and Tully’s shops that I frequent. The ones I frequent are typical, shall we say, while Kuroudo is more traditional, though not as dark or narrow as the traditional kissaten. I appreciate Kuroudo’s spaciousness in fact, and how well lit it is. It has an airy atmosphere and high and relaxed color palette, its colors of choice in decor being brown and white. So simple yet elegant enough for a spell or bout of studying. On my particular visit I stayed only two hours to study a bit before I signed into work. Due to my coming alone and intention to just study and not eat too much, I was seated in the corner of the establishment, to the right of the entrance at a large group table. I ordered the most expensive coffee on offer, ticking in at about 1,100¥ for a small cup, in the set pictured above. I was not disappointed at all. The coffee had an oily yet citric mouthfeel without being astringent or acerbic, and a clean finish. It was highly acidic and…well I’m not very good at describing taste, or any aesthetic experience! But I’ll keep working at it. Though 1,000¥ might sound like a lot, consider that Starbucks at Yumetown offers their Reserve drinks at 800¥ a cup, and that the typical kissaten cup will cost you over 500¥ anyways. Besides, 1,000¥ is way cheaper than the 2,000¥ price tag that my student reported! Regardless, the taste was well worth the price. Besides, All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.  

Tomorrow Sadie and I will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary. We have two anniversaries which can sometimes get a bit confusing. Originally we planned to get married on the same day as our dating anniversary. Our trip to Japan complicated things and being married in a foreign country was just easier. So we got married 6 months earlier than we wanted to. Our original anniversary is still equally important to both of us so we still celebrate it. It doesn't feel like seven years to me, it still feels like we just met yesterday. Happy Anniversary Love!!!  

It's my Kagawa-versary! As of yesterday, I have been living in Kagawa for 2 full years. I'm often impressed and terrified about how quickly time seems to pass as a teacher.

This picture was taken at the Taiwan airport. I scheduled an 8 hour layover on my way to Japan and was stuck trying to sleep. I dragged around my cart that had carry-on luggage on it and kept looking for places that felt safe to sleep. Never did find a good place, so I ended up reading a book for awhile. It was pretty rough. I haven't considered a layover longer than 4 hours since!

Onward, to my third year at Gem!

  

I'm sure many people have played an escape the room game at least once, whether on the computer, a console game, or (most likely) a smart phone. And why not; it's interesting, it makes you think, and when you get frustrated, many of them provide hints (or even the answer). I've been playing a lot recently, and it got me thinking: how would this work in real life?
They actually do have real life escape the room games, I think even in Japan. And I have heard that sometimes it doesn't work out so well. In the cellphone games, you are often tapping at random all over the screen, especially when there is nothing obvious showing. Also, in games that have you use and combine items, more often than not it seems like two items work together that is not obvious until after the puzzle is solved. (More often than not I am trying to combine everything with everything, to see if it works or not).
In a real life game, you can't just randomly put stuff together to see if it will make a new item. I have read that people will often try to force an item because they so strongly believe that it should work. Many escape games end up with broken items in this way. I have even heard people just break down s door when they can't solve a puzzle. Doesn't seem so fun that way, hahaha.
I would like to try an escape the room game for real some day. I wonder if I am up for the challenge!  

When I first came to Japan, I was afraid to try sleeping on the train. I knew that people did it all the time, but I was worried that I would fall deeply asleep and wake in Matsuyama or Takamatsu. Once I fell asleep between Kanounji and Niihama, and woke up in a panic, because the train was between stops and I had no idea where I was! (It was fine; we were only at Minoura, but it freaked me out so bad!) My friend told me to just set an alarm before my stop, but that only made me worry about disturbing other people on the train. So, I managed to make it through several months in Japan without truly falling asleep on a train. But, last weekend, the time came. I needed to board a train at 6:00 in the morning, after a very long night, and a very long day beforehand. I knew there was no way that I was going to stay awake on the hour-long train ride. Luckily, I realized that my big winter coat had a small breast pocket that would keep my phone against my chest. I would certainly feel it buzzing even if I turned the volume way down. So, I set the alarm just as the lightest gray was touching the mountains in the distance. I closed my eyes…and almost immediately, it seemed, my phone was buzzing. I opened my eyes to full daylight, and seconds later came the announcement that the next stop was Niihama. Mission accomplished!  

Hello!

Well, the month is closing fast upon is, and soon we'll be into the spring time! I love Spring in Japan. The weather is warm and mild, the flowers start blooming again, and I can finally stop running the heater in my apartment! I'm excited to start wearing shorts again, and working on my summer tan (hopefully this year I don't just burn again!)

Do you have any special traditions around spring time? Do you have your family have a special thing they like to do when the weather turns warm? Let me know!

  

Warmer weather is on the way. I can't wait for summer. I was at the beach on this sunny and clear day; it was breathtaking. Although, it was still cold. I had to get a picture to remind myself of what's coming. On this day, it was so clear I could see so many islands in the distance. It's usually much foggier in this area, but that day was wonderfully clear and sunny. I love it.


  

Recently, I've been following lots of cooking channels on Youtube. My favorite is a channel that only shows 18th century recipes!
It really interesting to see how people in the past ate, and some of the recipes are simple enough to make very quickly and easily. My favorite recipe from the channel is their recipe for crumpets, it's delicious!
Crumpets are a traditional food from England, their very much like English muffins. When I was in Canada I ate them a lot, but I never made them.




They're very good with butter, I like to eat them for breakfast. They're so quick and simple that I've made them 6 times now!