Karaoke→Basketball

I sang at Karaoke U-Style with my ex-coworkers all through the night, and I got home now.


Exactly it was sooooo fun!!!!!.....but my basketball practice will start at 11:00 today...




How many hours can I sleep before the practice?? (_´Д｀)ノ~~

Heart Warming

I never thought that a birthday mail from my ex-student had woke me up this morning. (^□^;)


Thank you for your heart-warming mail, Sayuri.


I also really want to say 'thank you' to all the people giving me a mail or a comment.






And to my surprise, I found a birthday cake which my parents had bought for my birthday.

How long have passed since I got the last one?


I'm not sure why they bought it this time, but I was greatly touched with their kindness.




Of course there is no present.


But I think the greatest present is what my family stays healthy as long as possible.

My Birthday

Today February 25th is my birthday.

My birthday concurs with the test season, so everyone is apt to miss it.



But Eigonoie members held a small party for me 10 days early.


My birthday cake was like this.

I told Ms. Araki before that my most favorite fruit was pears.

Then she bought me that Flo's fruits tart.

Very good taste!!




And I'll show you my presents!


First, a book from Mr. Ogura.

"Teaching Language as Communication" shows some communicative methods to teach the target language.

Mr. Ogura always thinks that I'll be a good English teacher.




Next, a mug with a lid and jasmine tea leaves from Ms. Araki.

It's so cute and now I use it when I drink tea and coffee at Eigonoie.




The following goods (rather foods?) are from Rikiya and Rise.

This is my first time to see fig jam and rhubarb jam.

Yeah, the taste is like an immature strawberry, indeed.




And a present from Jo is here.

She gave me a fine quality notebook and unique design clips.

Jo and I prefer this shop. (see my former blog about Smith: http://eh-take.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-diary.html)




Thank you, everyone!

I hope to spend a good 23rd year of mine. ＼(≧▽≦)／

Pass or Not

It started raining...

Is this rain a joyful one or a sorrowful one?



Today the students recieve the announcement of the admission to public high schools.

Some 9th graders must be in raptures over their success in the entrance exam, but others not.



Because Eigonoie is not a cram school but a language school, we have little information if Eigonoie students have passed or not.



I hope to see their smiles...(≧へ≦)

Crisis Church

A state of emergency has been declared in Christchurch in New Zealand after an earthquake struck the city.

At least 65 people are reported to have died, while others trapped in the debris of ruined buildings.

One of the badly damaged buildings was Christchurch Cathedral.

This was the Cathedral, but the iconic building has collapsed...

The spire of Christchurch Cathedral toppled into the square below.

The collapse put an end to its standing for over a hundred years.




And one of the Eigonoie students is in Christchurch now.

I feel anxious about him, indeed.

2011 NBA All-Star

Kobe Bryant led West All Star team defeated LeBron James' East squad.

 

Bryant opened the game with 11 first-quarter points, and ended up with 37 and 14 rebounds as his Western Conference squad pulled out a 148-143 victory over the East.

The performance earned him MVP honors, which marked the fourth time in his career that Bryant has taken home the game's trophy.

When it comes to NBA All-Star, you do not miss the Slam Dunk Contest.

This year a rookie wunderkind Blake Griffin won Saturday night's Slam Dunk Contest by jumping over a car while a choir sang in the background.



Fantastic, eh?

He must be a wunderkind!!

Tachiyomi

No kidding!!!!!



Every Monday I do Tachiyomi(standing and reading magazines without makina purchase) at the convenience store by Eigonoie to read Weekly Shonen JUMP.



But today I found that all the magazines are wrapped with plastic tapes!!


How can I read the up-to-date chapter of ONE PIECE??


Tachiyomi must be a Japanese culture!!

Saitama City Cup

Urawa 0-3 Omiya


How disappointed...



Only one good point is the wonderful performance of the new Brazilian player Mazzolla.


I hope the team is going better little by little.

Terrific Taste

Sooooo exhausted.


It's hard to play basketball for two hours after the one month absence.


But I'm sure basketball makes my body and mind refreshed.



Anyway, don't you think the taste of ramen noodles after the hard sports terrific? (T▽T)

Urawa Reds 2011 Season Ticket

The headache has gone away!! ＼(^o^)／

Thank you Bufferin.




And one more happy news reached me this morning.


Here!!

The Urawa Reds 2011 season ticket!!

We can see all the games at the same seat in Saitama Stadium 2002 this year.

Our seats are just colse to the most enthusiastic supporter group BOYS.

So we can support Urawa Reds much more intensively than last season.

Of course I can hardly go to see the games because most of the them will be held on Satrurday and crash with my work at Eigonoie.

But I'm really looking forward to seeing fantastic performances in this season.

Go Reds Go!!! (≧▽≦)/

Migraine

Ughhh.....a fierce migraine....(_´Д｀)ノ


It's killing me...


Occasionally it attacks me.


I can't be absent from the classes tomorrow because my sudden absence is bound to trouble not only the students but also the teachers.


Bufferin bless me...

Oita Girl

Today my ex-student Mizuha came to see me and let me know how she's been getting along.

She quit Eigonoie two months ago in order to concentrate on studying for the entrance exam.

She told me that she could have had good marks in the Center Exams and would be a student of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in the end.

(If you're interested in this Univ, go to http://www.apu.ac.jp/home/index.php?sel_lang=english)

 

So she has to move to Oita soon after her school's graduation ceremony on March 11th.

She also said, "I didn't want to be a college student when you taught me English, but now I really want to."

Uh......it's difficult to express my feeling, but her positive attitude toward her future surprised me the most.

Wishing her best in Oita!! (^□^;)/

And she gave me a chocolate.  She must be a good student. lol

Entrance Exam in 2011 School Year

It is the day when 9th graders take the Academic Achievement Exam to enter public high schools in Saitama.


My students are also taking the test now.


It's so hard to pass the exam in the Latter Round because the acceptance rate is only 20% or so.




I hope that all of my students will pass this First Round Exam.


I can't wait the announcement of accepted candidates for enrollment at 9:00 on February 24th.

White Valentine

Snowing heavily now.

A pavement in front of Eigonoie is covered with white snow and turning to slippery one.

Floating snow is glittering in the dimly street lamps.

I don't like the snow in Tokyo because it's almost the sleet.

But I like the snow only today.

This is White Valentine's Day.

India's Faux Pas at UN

It was an embarrassing gaffe.



India's External Affairs Minister SM Krishna accidentally read out the speech of his Portuguese counterpart at the United Nations Security Council meeting.



He read several pages of the wrong speech which included a point expressing his pleasure that two Portuguese speaking nations (Portugal and Brazil) were represented.

He did not realize his mistake until an Indian official pointed out.




But his mistake taught us how important it is to acquire an English reading skill. (^□^;)haha

Love Glaswegian?

Glasgow is one of the largest cities in Scotland.

And it's also known for its Scottish Premier League club Celtic, where Shunsuke Nakamura played from 2005 to 2009.




But...heve you ever heard the English spoken in Glasgow?



Intriguingly, the Glasgow accent (Glaswegian) came out on top for social attractiveness to Japanese learners of English, a new study has revealed.

This survey has been published in Dr. Robert McKenzie's new book "The Social Psychology of English as Global Language".

(See also the news page of The Northumbria University http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/browse/ne/uninews/JapaneseEnglish)





Well, the Glaswegian accent is quite different from the Standard English we leaen as if it were another language.


This video is the first scene of the Scottish film "My Name Is Joe (1998)".


Can you understan what he says?? (^o^;)

Mubarak Steps Down

What a amazing news!!


Egyptian President Mubarak steps down!!




Breaking news is saying "Egypt is FREE!"


And we can see the crowds erupt in cheer.



That moment must be Egyptian Independence Day!!

My Links

I creat the lists of my favorite sites on the left side of my blog.



My facebook and twitter pages are also pasted on the lists so that you can see my photo albums on my facebook page or you'll find some English news sites from following lists of my twitter page.


In addition, I set some English learning materials.

English Phonetics, which is produced by the University of Iowa, might be a great help for your English pronunciation practice. You can learn how to pronounce each segment in American English.


ONE PIECE and SLAM DUNK are my favorite mangas. When you jump to the sites, you can read mangas in English. Of course there are many kinds of Japanese mangas uploaded on this site Manga Reader.


If you're interested in it, go to its manga lists http://www.mangareader.net/alphabetical and have a look at your favorite manga!!

ROMANCE DAWN

The latest ONE PIECE manga volume 61 is on sale.

I've told you umpteen times that I'm a great fan of ONE PIECE.

※See also http://eh-take.blogspot.com/2010/08/yesterday-i-bought-new-manga-one-piece.html, http://eh-take.blogspot.com/2009/12/strong-world.html

I was overpowered with the author Eiichiro Oda's ingenuity as soon as I saw the cover of volume 61.

This volume contains the final chapters of Part 1 and the beginning chapters of Part 2, so Eiichiro Oda seems to draw characters in almost the same poses as volume 1.

And the title of volume 61 is "ROMANCE DAWN -for the new world-", which means the beginning of the adventure and riminds us of the very first chapter of volume 1 "ROMANCE DAWN".

Look at and compare them.

Volume 61

Volume 1

What's more, illustration of the first of Part 1 and that of Part 2 is quite similar.

Illustration of Chapter 1

Illustration of Chapter 598

Eiichiro Oda obviously expresses the new embarkation after two years of separation with using the same forms on the book covers and illustrations.

Not only its stories but also its illustrations and titles fascinate people deeply, indeed!!

Setsubun

Yesterday was 節分(Setsubun).

節 means 'season' and 分 means 'division', so Setsubun is the day before the biginning of spring according to the Japanese lunar calender.



And the most commonly performed Setsubun ritual is the throwing of roasted beans around the house.

When we throw the beans, we are supposed to shout "鬼は外、福は内(Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!; Devils out! Happiness in!)"

Afeterwards we eat the number of beans which corresponds to our age.



Of course I did that ritual (except shouting) yesterday.

I really hope 'happiness in'!!

17th Place

Japan moved into the top 20 of the FIFA world rankings after an absence of almost five years.


FIFA world rankings:
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html


Japan's record fourth Asian title lifted them 12 places to 17th, making them the Asian confederation's highest-ranked side.


And Japan's success is not the only one.



European champions Inter Milan made the last-ditch loan signing of Japan left back Yuto Nagatomo from Serie A rivals Cesena just before the Italian transfer window shut on Monday!!

Here is the Inter Milan's top page at that time!!

I'm really looking forward to seeing his play as a member of Inter.

200th Post!! - A Big Change -

Yesterday I was formally hired on the condition that my contract as a full-time worker be for one year.



Compared with the past two years I worked as a part-time teacher, my salary is going to be higher.


In addition, I'll have a social insurance and my working hours will be 14:00-22:00.




Very big change for me!!!



I hope to do my best on working here in Eigonoie and learn a lot from Mr. Ogura, Ms. Araki, and all the other staffs.


And of course, I'll devote all my energies to my students!!!!!

My Cactus

This is my cactus.

I had a great interest in animals and plants in my childhood, and I bought this on impulse.

It was a palm-sized cactus at first, but it grew bigger and bigger without any care.

And finally, its roots broke through the bottom of the pot.

Have you ever seen the root of a cactus?? (^□^;)