Vi un programa de Netflix llamado “Todo sobre los Tacos” que presentaba diferentes tipos de tacos mexicanos. Ya no recuerdo bien los detalles y los nombres de tacos, pero todos los tacos presentados parecían muy deliciosos. Una cosa que re…

Today it was as if winter cold already came at my office during the day. I wore two jackets while sitting at my desk. Near the end of working hours, a coworker switched the heater on. As soon as the heater was on, I could feel warm wind co…

Yesterday, I was unexpectedly hooked on YouTube videos by a professional fighter and spent most of the afternoon watching them. He was quite rough-and-tumble in his childhood. On one video, he recounted how his life was in his teens and it…

Looking back, I messed up on most occasions in the past where I had to talk in front of people. I especially remember three distinct times of such occasions. The first time was when I gave a presentation at a history class in university. I…

I think I have some kind of identity matter since my childhood. I don’t remember exactly when it started. This is partly due to the usage of the Japanese language. What I’m talking about is what pronouns you use to call yourself when talki…

My five-day break is starting today. I’m really happy to have some time to refresh myself since I would somewhat feel down these days. Some updates on my life are 1)I registered for a translation company to do freelance translation jobs, 2…

Today, my 9 day summer break has started. I don’t have a lot of plans in particular, but I like the idea of having this long break. This afternoon, I’ll be going out a little bit or reading at home. I’ve been reading this book for a long t…

Today, I’m going to the dentist to have a checkup for some of my teeth treated for hypersensitivity before. As far as I know, sensitive teeth are mostly caused by gum recession. In my case, they drilled the sensitive parts of teeth a littl…

Today over 1100 cases of the coronavirus infections were confirmed in Japan. Not sure what the government comments about it, but it seems to me that they have been taking the situation too casually and bragging about their approach to the …

Now I’ve finished prepping something called peri peri chicken. It’d probably not exactly it, but something alike or semi-peri peri fashioned chicken. I referred to a recipe that I found on the internet. In the list of ingredients, I saw se…

Starting today, there are two national holidays in a row, and combining them with a weekend, many people have a four-day weekend this week. So, I have four holidays now. On top of that, for better or worse, my family went to a friend’s hou…

It seems that my throat is getting better gradually. On top of the clogging feeling in my throat that I had had since March, I suppose that the new English pronunciation practice that I started several weeks ago and put on hold last week a…

Today, I took a day off. I woke up late. I was thinking of going out to a clinic and a pool in the afternoon, but I changed my mind and went to a pool after late breakfast. Now I’m already back home from there. As for my strange throat con…

I feel like I have something around my throat. This feeling maybe started around March. At first, I secretly suspected that I might have contracted the coronavirus, but since any other symptoms didn’t happen to me, I decided I didn’t. Howe…

Yesterday, my family and I went to a yakiniku restaurant. The last time we went out to eat was at the beginning of March, so it had been about four months since then. While refraining from going out to eat, I tried making yakiniku at home,…

After stopping smoking, I started having a lot of candies, basically to fill the void that I can’t help but feel inside. I felt like I could get by without smoking if I kept sucking candies all day long. I continued so and it seemed succes…

I’ve come to a bike repair shop to change a front tire and oil of my scooter. Come to think of it, it’s quite rare for me to write about this kind of thing, so this might not make sense. Anyway, this shop was transferred here from my neigh…

I believe I don’t eat too much, but my belly might be starting to stick out. Some possible reasons cross my mind. One thing is that I quit smoking about two months ago. They say that once you do so, your stomach works better and so intakes…

For the first time in a long time, I bought an English practice book. It’s called 英語喉50のメソッド. I’ve been teaching myself English for 7 years now, but pronunciations are still very hard, especially when it comes to listening to Engli…

Yesterday, I posted a want ad on a bulletin board website to look for Japanese English learners who I can practice English with. A woman sent me a message last night and this morning we talked over Skype for a bit. She works as an English …

よくネットで見かける英語学習法で多読というのがあります。学習法といっても要するにたくさん読むことだと思います。 僕も一応意識して読む量を増やしたり読むもののレベルを選んできました。 もともと2013年に英語学習を始めた時は、特別に読む量を増やそ…

前回書いた通り、僕のスピーキングの主な練習は言語交換を通してでした。 はじめてから最初の2、3年はほとんど毎日誰かしらと話していました。基本は固定で定期的に、週1、2回で日時決めてやっていました。年齢層は最年少は中学生で上はたしか40代位か。大半…

ところでこのスピーキングって日本語で言えば何だろうといつも悩みつつ、しっくり来る和訳がないので、とりあえずスピーキングで。 一般の日本人英語学習者の例に漏れず、僕もスピーキングには苦労しています。英語を話す際には、なぜ自分はこれほどまでに惨…

英文法の勉強方法について、これが一番大事と自分の子供には口すっぱく言ってるようなことを書き忘れた。 これは自分の過去のスペイン語学習経験からの教訓ですが、僕は2013年以降、英語の勉強でほぼ完全に手書きをやめました。文法学習をしながら全くノート…

2013年に基本独学で英語学習を始めて以降はもちろん、学生時代にもまともに英文法を勉強したことがない。だから、それほど文法知識はないですけど、英語ネイティブからは文法すごいと言われてきましたので、まんざらできないわけではないかもしれません。 そ…

I didn’t feel very motivated yesterday, so I skipped translation practice. I couldn’t concentrate just as other days lately. Part of the reason might be social media. When I’ve finished my translation, I post it to my blog page. To spread …

語学研究において、インプット仮説という語学アプローチに関する研究がある。これは一言で言えば、第二言語獲得において、上達に資するのは有意味なインプットだけだよ、みたいなことと理解している。つまり聞いたり読んだりすることだと思う。このことは、…

Today, there was news at work that caused mixed feelings for me. In my company, the management decided to put an end to a tentative four-day work system at the end of this month unless the infections increase. This work shift has been tent…

英語を学んでる人なら、大抵の人が英語を話せるようになりたいと思います。話せなくても読み書きできればいい、もしくは聞き取れればいいという人もいるかもしれませんが、読み書き、聞き取りも、話す能力と密接に結びついていて、単純に分けることができな…

英語を学んでる人なら、大抵の人が英語を話せるようになりたいと思います。話せなくても読み書きできればいい、もしくは聞き取れればいいという人もいるかもしれませんが、読み書き、聞き取りも、話す能力と密接に結びついていて、単純に分けることができな…