Mukomachi Coop EnlgishコミュのLet's keep each other updated!

What's 2/24?
Thank you for your approval.
At this time, I'm a member of this community.
I'll keep in touch with you all as often as I can, maybe,
at least, once or twice a week.
And today,1/24.
I finished reading Obama's speech at last.
It was really well made speech.
There some words that most Americans would be moved.
Like, peace, freedom, human rights, stories of founders and
late soldiers in Arlinton.
Some propaganda and some practical ideas.
I, even a ordinary Japanese, was going to be moved.
And he was a really good speaker.
Of cource I have good impression about him, too.

Tak

Hi Tak,

It's nice to have you as a mixi-friend.
Why didn't I think of this sooner?
This is a very good place to stay in touch,
to stay posted and to study English together.
Now that we have made this community,
let's get the most out of it.

Sorry about the date I put on my yesterday's entry.
I guess I was a bit confused and thought it was February.

Thanks for Obama's inaugural speech.
I have yet to read and listen to it.
I usually study when I commute.
So I will do it this week when I am on the train.

BTW (by the way), how was you day?
I had one of the test for this correspondence course today.
I have another one next weekend.
If I pass one of them, which I'm pretty sure of, I will be able to graduate.
The long eight years will be over at last.

I might have flunked today's one,
so I will definitely study harder for the next one.

Time to go to bed.

G'night,
Kazz

Good evening Kazz.

It was cold day today.
These are the coldest days of Daikan.
Do you know that in Nagano prefecure students have a week vacation
in this season, called Kanchu-Yasuni.
But here in Kyoto they don't have such a privilege.
And I'm working for a high-school in the evening.
It's not a hard work and it's just for two hours.
But I don't want to work in the cold evening times.
I have to endure another two or three weeks.
It's not so easy to have a work.

And tomrrow's class at Muko-comu-cen may have one or
two absentees.
I've got a massage of absence from Masako-san
But most members are coming cheerfully.
See you tomorrow.

Tak

Hi Tak,

I really like the idea of having a week long vacation at this time of the year.
And it would be nicer if not only students but also workers could get such a vacation.
We can just tay warm putting our legs into the kotatsu, eating mikans.

It may be too close to the New Year holiday,
only less than a month after it.
and it could make people lazy.
But hey, you can be lazy during a vacation, right?
And any holiday is a good holiday.
That's the way I see it.

It won't get warm for another month or so.
And I hope you can persevere until spring comes,
making sure all the doors and windows are shut after
the students are gone.

By the way, we still haven't got S-san, and Y-san here.
Have they got lost or something?
Or are they not coming at all?
Is this a case of waiting for Godot?
That's a play written by Samuel Becket.
In the play, a bunch of guys wait for this guy names Godot
who never shows up.

I really hope they can make it.

See you tomorrow,
Kazz

Hi, Scarlet,

Welcome to our community.
It's very nice to have you here.
I hope you, Tak and I can get a lot of interaction here.

Talk to you soon,
Karuna

Hi, Scarlet,

I've been expecting you.
I'm relly glad to find you in this community.
We always can exchage informations here and we can write
our daily news instead of sending e-mails.
It's much easier than before.
And we can have more experiences of making and reading
messages.
It's good at least for me.
I'm waiting for your writing.

TAK

Hi, Tak,

Good to see you!
You're absolutely right.
We sure can exchange our latest here,
talking about our day, and night if you like.

By the way, I had another test for my correspondence course this morning.
And I think I did pretty well.
So I will definitely be graduating at the end of March.

In the afternoon, I had my jazz guitar lesson.
My teacher is really good; he's good at teaching.
And he's very funny, too.
In other words, he's competent and has got a sense of humor.
That's a very good combination to have as a teacher.
Thanks to him, I can keep up my motivation.

That's it for today,
G'night

Hi, everybody,

This is my daily news.
1/31
Ah...today is the last day of this month.
Spring is just around the corner?
Or we have another big wave of cold?

Anyway, I have two ukulele meetings this week end.
Yesterday, I had a small trial of ukulele in our co-op class.
You know it wasn't difficult condition.
And I played an easy number.
So I had supposed I was able to play easily.
But I made a lot of mistakes.
And it let me know it was not easy to play music with an audience.

So we decided to try solo performances each other in the meeting today.
We have two private concerts every year.
And most of members used to get nurvous on the stage.
We think we can solve the problem by having more experiences.
Besides we get confidence through practicing the ukulele.
It's like how can I get a prgress in English conversation??

Bye for today.
See you next.

Tak

Hi, Tak and where's Scarlet?

Your show & tell was great.
We enjoyed your ukulele very much.

I know how difficult it is to play in front of an audience.
But I think you did a great job.
You've got a very deep singing voice, and it sounds very good.
So you should be more confident.

I used to play a lot in front of my friends, and I played fine.
No nervous feelings, no mistakes.
But once I was in front of a big audience,
I remember I got stage fright.

What is this?, I thought.
I can play when I'm around my friends,
but why not when I play before those I don't know?
This is the problem I used to have, and gee, I still have it.
I really hope I can get over it some day.

I think two things are necessary for that.
1. Get very good at what I do, and
2. Get lots of experience, or bakazu wo fumu.

We still have a long way to go,
but it's nice to have a way to go.
Why? Because when we don't, we are dead.

Signing off for the night,
Karuna

Hi, Scarlet,

Really welcome!
How much we've been expecting you!
I guessed you must have lost your way.
Anyway I've relieved and I'm so glad.

And I'm sorry I've had some crossings between us.
I didn't know you'd already reached here.
You're faster than me.
We'll keep in toutch so often.

Tak

Hey, Scarlet,

You're finally here! Great!
That makes three of us, you, Tak, and me.
It looks exactly like we're in a lesson at COOP on Fri.

Oh, but wait, where's Yukorin?
I don't see her.
She MUST be lost, don't you guys think?
I sent her an invitation with you two last week.
And she's not here yet.

But, I guess we'd better give her time.
Maybe something that happened to Scarlet is happening to her.
If we stay patine, she will show up one of these days.

By the way, I had a pretty good day today.
Woke up late, meditated a little, had a late breakfast,
played the guitar for a while, went to work,
had a couple of business meetings,
and had a nice dinner at this natural restaurant
near the Sanjo Post Office after work.

The name of the place is Bio-tei.
They serve good stuff, very safe and very good.
It's one of the oldest natural food places in Kyoto.
I remember going there with my sister in the early 80's.

Here is some info about Bio-tei.
If you find yourself in the neighborhood in the evening,
and if you find yourself starving then,
this is the place to go.

Enjoy! Bon appetit!

http://r.tabelog.com/kyoto/A2602/A260202/26000623/

Anyway, it's nice to have you Scarlet.
Let's keep talking.

Yes, Setsubun means devision of season.
So spring will start tomorrow.
But how cold it is for that

I went to Rokuhara-mitsu-ji this afternoon.
It's famous for Rokusai-nenbutu.
I didn't know what Rokusa** is.
But I'd heard we can see it on Setsubun day.
I had an meeting with reunion members gathering for lunch today.
And we went there while I was gathering near the temple.

It was two o'clock when we reached there.
But the Roku** were going to start at three.
And none of us wanted to stay there for an houre in the rain.
We had hot drinks at a cofee shop and went home.
It was my story for today.

See you on Friday.
Tak

Hi guys,

I didn't know 'setsubun' means a watershed that divides winter and spring.
This means winter ends and spring starts on this day.
I mean that's what is supposed to happen on the calendar.

But of course, that does NOT happen in the real world.
It's still pretty cold, with spring still say a couple of months away.

Having said that, I do feel like spring is just around the corner.
That's because of the altitude of the sun.
It's come up pretty high in the south sky.
And as the sun is getting higher, it is getting much lighter out there.
Now that's what makes my heart sing, a lot of light.

But again, it's still pretty cold, like tonight, I'm freezing.
I feel like I'm in the freezer.
But I'm glad that I know what 'setsubun' means now.

Hi, Scarlet,

Let me answer your question.

I have been taking subjects in developmental psychology.
That's a division of psychology that deals with human development.

We are born as new-born babies and develop as we grow up.
In fact, we keep developing throughout our lives.

We go through stages of development as we grow up and as we grow old.
At each stage there is a certain developmental task that we have to learn.
Only when we learn each task can we move on to the next stage.

When we get around 20 years old, we are considered adults.
But human development does not stop there.
We keep developing in many aspects.
As we grow old, some of our intellectual faculties decline.
But others stay as they have been or even get enhanced.
And then one day, we die, we say good-bye to this world.

Anyway, I have studied many aspects of human development
through this correspondence course.
I am going to graduate in a couple of months.
Where am I going from here?
I have not decided.
I may start a Master course one of these days.
Or I may just think what I have learned is enough.
Either way, I have learned a lot about humans through this course,
and I have had a great time studying.

I am not sure I have answered your question fully,
but I had better go back to work.

By for now,
Karuna

Hi, Scarlet,

Yes, I do want to be a Buddha.
But of course, I won’t be one in my lifetime,
the next life, or even in the one after that.

The Buddha says the following in one of his sutras, or ‘okyo.’

There is a mountain 10 kilometers long,
10 kilometers wide and 10 kilometers high. J
ust picture Mt. Everest – it’s a mountain like that.

Every 100 years, a bird flies over the mountain with a silk scarf in its beak,
a scarf so huge that can cover the whole mountain
when the bird is right above it.

Every time the bird flies over the mountain,
it drags the scarf over it, wearing it away ever so little by little.
Think of how long it takes before the whole mountain is worn away.
That’s how long you have to incarnate before you get enlightened.

*We learned the word ‘incarnate’ yesterday!

So I don’t know how long I have to live before I reach ‘satori.’
Maybe you will get there first.

About your English, you’re doing fine, trying very hard.
But you do have to be an attentive writer.
That helps you a great deal.
And one more thing, I think you will be better off
if you use a bit more difficult materials when you read and hear English
such as English daily papers & CNN.

Keep studying, I won’t rat out on you.

Today’s mistake:

Please don’t expect me to be perfect like you.
You need ‘to’ before perfect. Got it? Good.

See you next time,
Kazz

Hi, everybody.

How are you?
It's too hot for the evening early in February.
Oh,sorry..I'm just in front of the heater.
I'm relaxing and having a good time.

I don't have any thing to do this week end.
I'll call it ukulele holiday.
I had my ukulele class this afternoon.
And I'm going to play the ukulele all day tomorrow.

I think I'm going to change my course of ukulele.
Mostly, ukulele plyers are separated two according to
thier plying style.
One of them is the group of traditional Hawaiian musitians.
And the others are solo players rising up in this decade.

I haven't had a certain course of playing the ukulele these days.
But I've decided.
I'll keep practicing solo-play at least next couple of years.
I have a certain target for my playing.
So I have some pleasant feeling now.

Good night, everybody!
Tak

Hi Tak,

You must have had a good ukulele lesson today.
I am happy for you.

When you have a good time in the lesson,
it stays with you for the rest of the week,or even for the next week.
(This 'you' is generic you, or general you.)

That's when you can have a good outlook on your playing.
Maybe that's why you were able to decide on your playing style today.
I hope your ukulele dream will come true.
And you know what?
When you make enough efforts, you can make almost anything happen.

I had my guitar lesson today; I started my second song.
My first one was Mack the Knife.
I have been practicing for almost 3 months. but I still can't play it well.
But since I have been doing it for a long time, I have sort of gotten bored to it.
Which mean I don't have much motivation for it left in me.

So I asked my teacher to move on to a next song.
So today, we started doing my/our next song, Blue Bossa.
It's a very beautiful song with a bossa nova rhythm
written by the American trumpeter Kenny Dorham.

But the rhythm of bossa nova is very difficult to follow.
So I was made to sing it instead of play it today.
If you can't sing it, you can't play it.
That's what my teacher told me.
And I totally agree. It's like English.
If you can't write, you can't speak.
If you can't speak alone, you can't speak to someone else.

Oops, I didn't mean to talk about English.
Sometimes I don't want to think about English.
Maybe that's why I listen to jazz and play the guitar.

Well, it's getting really late; I'd better hit the sack.

Sweet dreams,
Karuna

Hi guys,

How was your day?
My day was pretty relaxing.

I had just one lesson today, and that was in the afternoon.
So I slept in until about 11.
After I got up, I had branch, and I was able to put in some time
practicing the guitar before I left home.

I practiced some basic scales; a major scale,
a natural minor scale & a melodic minor scale.
I also practice some arpeggios.

It's always nice to feel the sounds of the guitar on and in my body
even when I am only doing basic practice.
It feels very nice.
Maybe that's why people like to play musical instruments.

In the afternoon, I had a lesson with this woman.
She's pretty good, but she's still got a long way to go.
If she were a plane, I'd say she is not really flying yet;
not for a long time can she stay aloft.

You see, for you to enjoy flying, you have to fly first.
Only then can you have a good time flying.
You can get a thrill when you get off the ground,
you can have a have a bird's eye view of the earth below from up in the sky.
You also get a lot of pleasure when you feel you're in control of the plane.
But you can't get all these enjoyments until you fly.

So I told her, please try to fly, try to get off the ground.

But it takes some dedication to get to the point where you can actually take off.
You see a chicken may be able run pretty fast, but it will never fly.
Something is missing in its takeoff run.
It needs more velocity; it needs more acceleration.
Simply put, it needs more effort.
Only after that will it be able to fly into the air.

By the way, my guitar is definitely not flying yet.
I'd like to fly with my guitar some day.
And for that, I I need more dedication.

Karuna

Hi, everybody.

How are you?

I'm just getting to start my time for English.
And this is a little sideturn.
It's enjoyable for me to have a small look at 'mixi'.

Scarlet, will you skip next lesson?
That's not good.
Ok, I'll take some thing for our 'Show and Talk'.
We must be able to have a cheerful lesson even if you
won't there.

And my news.
Two pigeons in the lavatory.
As you know, I'm working at a highschool in every evening of weekdays.
The day before yesterday, while I was looking around the schoolrooms,
I walk into the boys' lavatory and was really frightened.
Two birds suddenly flapped and flew around the room.
They were pigeons.
They likely came into through the window that was widly open.

I tried to chase them out through the window.
But they flew about just below the ceiling and never went out.
I gave up and returned to my job.
I asked it to schoolteachers and left the work.
They didn't say anything about it yesterday.
And they, pigons had disappeared.
Maybe some one chased them out while I was off.

That's for today.
See you next time.

Tak

Hi guys,

Scarlet, how was your day?
I hope you had a relaxing day today.
I can see you're really trying to write correct sentences.
It really shows, and it is already working isn't it?
Good for you! I knew you could do it.

Today's advice:
You say, "The discussion grew heated."
In this sentence you seem to be talking about the process.
But you are really not talking about it.
Rather you're talking about the whole discussion.
In that case, you should say, "The discussion was heated."
If you want to talk about "before and after the discussion grew heated,"
you have to talk about both. Like: Before the discussion was heated,
I could understand it, but as it got more and more heated,
it got more and more difficult to understand....

Tak, you had to try to chase a couple of pigeons out of the school you work at.
And you had no luck. Maybe they found their way out by themselves.
Things are sometime like that. When you try to make it happen,
it doesn't happen, but when you stop trying, and let nature take its course,
it happens by itself.
I mean things happen like this from time to time, don't they?

My day: I had a hell of a day, meaning I had a great day.
I had a date with someone, a real woman.
She is nice, beautiful, and intelligent.
Is this really happening? Isn't this a dream?
I guess my life is finally coming together, some 50 years after I was born.
You know, I told you about one of my New Year's resolutions.
That is, getting married. Maybe that's not that far-fetched.

That's for today,
See you soon guys.

PS: Tak, thank you for taking the show-and-tell speech from Scarlet.
Scarlet, see you next week, right?

Hi, everybody.

Nasty day, isn't it?
Cold rain and dark sky.
And only your red heart is beating weirdly.
Sorry, I'm kidding.
We all appreciate your kindness, Scarlet.

And today, I was the only student of the class.
Yukorin didn't appear by some reason.
So my show was put off until, maybe, next next time.
But other programs for us were done.
NHK-compositions and three paragraphs of the Essay.
And we left words-test for you with goodness.

It was just a private lesson.
I got useful practice of reading aloud.
I realized I've neglected reading practice these days.
We do something and forget another thing.
But I think reading aloud is rather important in priority.

I ate Yakisoba for lunch today.
It was two or tree years ago last time I ate it at home.
My wife doesn't like to cook oily menus.
But I sometimes like to eat thick and oily dishes.
Today is good day.
This was my news.

I hope to see you two in the next class.

Tak

Hi, guys,

How are you? How was your day?
It's always nice to read your journal here on Mixi.
I can learn what you do on a daily basis.
I can feel close to you guys.
And this community helps keep me study English.

This may sound strange.
But it's difficult to keep my English.
I can't keep myself motivated.
But this community gives me motivation.
Thank you guys.

By the way, it's a rainy night tonight.
I can hear the rain falling on corrugated plastic sheet on the roofs.
This is another rainy spell that brings us closer to spring.
Wow, spring is really around the corner.

Tonight, I stayed in the office until 10:15 p.m.,
working on the textbook for this English course
for those working in the tourism industry in Kyoto.

Surely more English skills are needed by these people
because they are among the people who can affect
the opinions of Japan that tourists from overseas form most
as they travel around Japan.
They entertain such tourists, they take care of them, and they feed them.
When they try to extend their hospitality,
they should be able to communicate with them.
That's where English comes in.

If they can speak English, the quality of their hospitality will surely be enhanced.
Having said that, just because you can communicate in English,
that doesn't mean you can make the stays of guests from overseas enjoyable.
What is important first and foremost is not a language,
but warm hearts and the will to communicate
no matter how poor your English may be.

Oops, I don't know why I had to talk about
the English skills of those who are in tourism.

My workweek is finally over; thank God it's Friday!
I will try to relax as much as possible this weekend.
Or maybe I should NOT try too hard to relax.
Because that would go against the idea of relaxation.

By the way, reading aloud is very improtant.
I used to read aloud a lot. I read papers, news magazines,
English conversation skits, novels, etc.
I would read aloud for 30 minutes at a time until I got tired.
When I got tired, I switched to reading silently.
The more you read, the more you get used to the
natural flow of English.
So please try to read everyday, and maybe at least 20 minutes at a time.

Oops, getting late.
I still have some work to do.

G'nite,
Karuna

I can't

I went to this English discussion group tonight.
I rode my bike all the way to higashino-toin rokkaku.
It was a long way; it took me about 45 minutes one way.
I don't mind a long way, but riding a bike around in town is not too fun,
whether I go on the pavement or sidewalk.

There is too much car traffic on the pavement.
They go very fast, and unless you're very careful,
these cars can slam into you.
In fact, I had a few scary moments tonight.

There are also too many pedestrians on the sidewalk.
A bicycle can go too fast for these pedestrians,
and it could become a deadly weapon unless your careful.

But today's ride gave me a lot of exercise.
It has warmed up my body.
Maybe I should start riding my bicycle around more often.
Not like once a week like I had been doing these days.
If I want to get in shape and if I don't want to go jogging,
I should go riding my bicycle because that would be easier.

By the way, the discussion was about this idea of handing out
cash to all the citizens of Japan. It turned out many people
were against the idea. I am against it myself.
I hope the government will use the money for something more worthwhile.

Hi, I have created a new thread.
So please write there from now on.

Thanks,
Karuna