Daio Seishi - English Class Journal

from Chile

2004-04-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

みなさんこんにちは。
チリは地球の裏側です。
暇なので
harajin@mb.infoweb.ne.jp宛にメールください。
特にジョージ。
チャオ

みなさんこんにちは

2004-01-29T04:30:00.000-08:00

小笹さん、ハワイではお元気にやっていらっしゃいますか？
渡辺さん、オレゴンへの出発はまもなくでしょうか？
思わず、投稿してみたくなってしまいました。
アディオス

2004-01-13T04:33:00.000-08:00

Without some intentions, I want to write about the recent circumstances about me so I will appreciate if you take a glance at my writing. You konw, I was transferred to the financial department and I'm gonna to be in charge of planning Daio's financial strateges. I'm very happy to work in such a significant department and I could be very positive about my career. I 'm sure it will be the great experience to work in this department. This opportunity is not always given to anyone. So I can say my situation couldn't be better. But one thing I have to have in mind is careless mistakes won't be acceptable. In the previous department I was surrounded by the budget world. It meant company wouldn't be damaged if I make some silly mistakes about the budget figures. But in nowaday's department if I make some stupid mistkaes, I will make company drop in the risky situation or company's profit will be reduced. In order not to do so, some considerate decisions about work and some technical konwledge are essential to me. At first my first priority is to get some konwledge about finance and the way of being skillful at negotiation to the banks and security companies.
Finally, God Bless You, Ozzie!! I hope your amazing success in Hawai from the bottm of my heart. See you then, everybody.

2003-10-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

At the end of the week I will graduate from this English course. I am supposed to offer my advice to the next class. I have studied English for one year, so I can offer some effective ways to improve listening or reading skill whether I did them enough or not. I intend to write these advices as follows.

1. What did I do to improve my listening ability.
2. What did I do to improve my reading ability.
3. What did I do for the preparation of TOEIC.

The final version of my speech...What do you think?

2003-10-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm very delighted to have the opportunity to make a speech here. I｡ｯd like to talk about what kind of purposes I had in studying English in this class and how I plan to make use of English after this course.
There were two objectives for me in this class. The first was to use English as a tool of communication. The second was to break 800 points on the TOEIC test.

When it came to the first one, I could accomplish it. But I needed to change my mind a little. At the beginning of the class I thought using English as a tool meant to be able to speak English like a native speaker. But I found it impossible to do it within a year because native speakers have been using English since they were born. Therefore I changed my way of thinking. I decided, instead, making myself understood with this language was a more realistic goal. When I considered this as the main purpose of this course, it would be OK even if my English were not fluent. The more important thing is if people can understand my English or not. The fact I am now making a speech proves that I could accomplish first purpose.

Speaking of the second objective, I am very satisfied with my result because I broke 800 points. But this fact does not necessarily show I can be skillful in using English. There are a lot of people capable of using English fluently although their scores are under 800. Taking this into consideration, to exceed 800 doesn't matter. A more important thing is the process I pursue in breaking 800 because to focus on the process means thinking about how to deal with the problem. I stuck to the idea of focusing on reviewing my class work as extra study without using other English reference books. I meant not only to focus on TOEIC study. As a result, my highest score was above 800.

Based on these two things I could learn two things from these methods. They were how to study English effectively and the basis that enabled me to use English fluently. Lastly I want to talk about how I can make the most of the English I learned in this class. My job is not the type that typically uses English. My job is much like that of an accountant. So there will be fewer opportunities for me to use English when I finish this class. In addition it will also be very difficult for me to keep studying English without some special motivation. So the best way is to make studying English relate to my job. So I decided to try to earn certification for English accounting. This qualification will soon be necessary for all Japanese accountant workers. And this qualification has to be up dated every two years. It will help me to keep my motivation high.

Anyway this class is just the departure point for further improvement of my English. The most important thing is to keep doing something. To keep studying English is a good long-term goal for me and for my career. Again I strongly believe I will keep studying English. Thank you for listening.

The advice for advanced class students

2003-10-28T06:52:00.000-08:00

Most important thing is to focus on keeping speaking practice every day. I highly recommend you start it from the beginning of the class. If you don’t intend to improve your listening skill, you will gradually be able to hear what English speakers say. Studying English includes not only hearing but also speaking. If you don’t make efforts to brush up your speaking skill, it won’t be improved. While you are in this English, please keep in mind that to use English means to be able to hear and speak at the same time.

2003-10-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Today, Mr. Nagao asked me to drop by the personnel department after class. So as soon as our class finished I went to the headquarters building to meet him. But unfortunately or fortunately, he was in a meeting with some managers. So I couldn’t meet him at that time. Although I waited him for more than one hour, the meeting didn’t finished. So I left a message for him and came back to my dorm for a moment. Finally, around 8:00, he called me. He apologized me and asked me to come to his office tomorrow morning again. He actually had some important information that he couldn’t tell me on the phone. So after hanging up the phone, I visited him directly to hear the information. The information was…I'll leave it to your imagination. Anyway, it was point less information and really far and away under my expectations. I’ll start to pack from tomorrow.
By the way, as our final assignment we have to leave some effective advices for next students. My advices are as follows,
1.What is the most effective way to improve the listening skill?
2.What is the most effective way to improve the speaking skill?
3.I’d like to introduce some effective textbooks that I used.

2003-10-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

This English class will finish in three days and next class fill start next month. I herd that the next class was advanced class which consists of four members. I think that all of them are good at English better than me. So I have nothing to advise them. But, as far as I know, I can give them the following advises.
1.vocavulary is a power.
2.contineuing is a power.
3.being active is a power.

2003-10-27T13:51:00.000-08:00

In the end we will come back to our previous department after the course. After that we will be transferred to some place in December or January. The reason was that the personnel department couldn’t earn CEO’s approval. We could predict the result easily because it’s an usual thing in this company. If I come back to my previous department, I will have nothing to do. In some senses, it will be bitter to me. For people, it is difficult to change their living environments. In this time I should do it. I prefer to go next department immediately, because the timing is appropriate for me to go. On the other hand, I don’t have to prepare for moving at least one month. I will be able to finish my tooth remedy in this city. I will able to choose things which I will abandon before moving. From the point of view, I could get extra time.

2003-10-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

In total today I almost spent my time sleeping in bed for bad cold. But I felt better because of my patient staying at my bed so I tried to write about my journal like this. I'm gonna to talk about the future thing. Now I‘ve been in the situation that makes me difficult to take effective actions about future things but I got some news about Ozzie. According to him we will be back after this class. I’m not sure it will be true but I was very happy to hear that because I will do something like an accountant. One of my hope was to work in the previous department. I’m gonna focus on working to be more skillful in budget planning with more enthusiasm. To my happiness, I’ll continue to study English compared with working in another department. Anyway what I can do is to wish that I can hear this news from personal department officially.

2003-10-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have a touch of a cold, so I can’t concentrate on anything. In addition to that, my favorite professional baseball team, Hanshin Tigers, is about to lose the Japan Championship now. I’m very tired and disappointed. Nevertheless I’m not good, I must prepare for a move. When I participated in this English class, I had a few goods. But, during the course, I bought a lot of things, such as a DVD player, golf sets, a MD player, some clothes and so on. The volume of my belongings obviously increased for this one year. All of them are my memorial goods of this course, so I intend to cherish them.

2003-10-27T03:24:00.000-08:00

Eventually, we’re having the final week of this English course. I’ll do my best during the last several days. By the way, today I got the information about our next place. According to the manager of the personnel department, we’ll return to our previous jobs for the moment. But he actually said to me, “for the moment”, it meant that I’ll be transferred to another department in the near future. During this temporary return, what should I do? Although I’ll return to the Osaka branch probably as a salesman, I will not be in charge of any clients because I’m a temporary salesperson. Will I have to clean my office all day? Will I have to clean up a lot of documents all day? Or I could keep this journal entry after I finished this English course. I have no idea. In addition, the manager also said to me that in fact we have some plan of your next place, but we couldn’t get the approval of our CEO. What is their plan? I wanted to know about it exactly, but he didn’t say anymore. So after I came back to my room, I made a phone call to my previous boss to know our company’s plan. And then, I also heard really shocking news from him. During the phone call, I said “really?” to him again and again. I couldn’t believe my ears, but judging from his information, I’ll be transferred to an unknown department that is completely beyond my imagination.

2003-10-27T03:14:00.000-08:00

When I was playing online poker through internet, one of chiefs in my previous department called me. He isn’t my direct boss, so I couldn’t see why he called me. But he asked me when I’d finish this English course, so I could understand the department which I’d work for next. If I returned to the same division as before, the first publishing paper sales division, my direct boss should call me. Probably I will work for the second division, but I don’t know how long I should work there because most of my classmates will be told where they will be transferred at the beginning of the next year. Strictly speaking, my classmates except for Mark and maybe me won’t be able to spend winter vacation happily because of anxiety for their next position. I’m feeling strong sympathy for them.
By the way, do you remember Alex? He also called me and told me that he would come to R&D at the end of this month in order to attend our graduation-like ceremony and express his thanks to us.

2003-10-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I felt sick so I went to bed till noon. After that I felt better so I went to the coffee shop for reading books. In the coffee shop I ate lunch while reading. I was planning to go home by 3:00 but I was absorbed in reading so I stayed there till 5:00. When I went back to my room, my co-worker called me and came to my room. We talked about his job and the thing after English class while drinking some beer. He went back to his dorm at 9:00PM and I realized I didn’t clean my room and cleaned my clothes so I started to do them. I was a little drunk so it was hard for me to do them quickly. After doing them I feel sick again so I fell in bed around 11:00PM.

2003-10-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

I went to Takamatsu City to rewrite my license to drive ship on Saturday. It had passed five years since I had had the license and it was the time to rewrite it. I went a course for thirty minutes and then watched video program about thirty minutes. That’s the all. The procedure was very simple even though I paid for it ten thousand yen. The expiration date was yesterday so I had to go for it on Saturday. I don’t know I will have a chance to drive a ship or not in near future. After the course, I went to some shops in Takamatsu. I don’t know where will I go after the English course, but there is a possibility to be transferred to another area. When I thought about it, some strange feeling was occurred in my mind. Again where will we go after the class？

2003-10-26T03:56:00.000-08:00

I participated in a graduation golf competition which took place in Elleair C.C. with George and Terry. It was the second time that I played golf in a golf course. The previous score was 140, and this score was 134 and was better than the previous one. But I’m not satisfied with the results because I didn’t hit balls well with iron clubs and a patter club. Only one thing that I could be satisfied with was that I could hit balls with a third wood club. I thought strongly that I had to practice pats in order to score under 130.
Anyway, it was the last time that I could play golf with classmates during the English course. I must find friends who can play golf with me after this course.

2003-10-26T02:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I went to the Elleair golf club Matsuyama with Mark and terry as we planed. We were really blessed with good weather, in addition I could get the second-best score over past five years. So I could have a great time with them. I could save five pars, including one chip-in par. As you know a women’s professional golf tournament will be held there next month, so the difficulty of the golf course was beyond my imagination. But as Terry wrote in his journal, the clubhouse was very beautiful and gorgeous. If I get the opportunity to play golf there in the near future, I want to go there again. However, playing golf is one of the expensive hobbies, so after I become a father, it must be more difficult to play golf than before.
By the way, as I said before, the manager of the golf course is my previous boss. I met him there for the first time in one year. Although he looked a little tired, he welcomed us.

By the way, Stone did the good job in Shizuoka as a runner of the Ehime prefectural team at the Shizuoka national athletic meet. His record is here.

2003-10-26T01:39:00.000-08:00

According to the plan, I went to Elleair Matsuyama golf club with George and Mark. To my regret, I couldn’t get up in time, so they came to my room to wake me up. On the way to the golf course, I kept sleeping in Mark’s car and woke up when we got to the course.
Anyway, when I entered the club house, I was surprised to see its gorgeous building. It was the most gorgeous building that I’d ever visited in Shikoku area.

The third correction of my speech

2003-10-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, everyone. I’m very delighted to have the opportunity to make a speech here. I’d like to talk about what kind of purposes I had in studying English in this class and how I plan to make use of English after this course.
There were two objectives for me in this class. The first was to use English as a tool of communication. The second was to break 800 points on the TOEIC test.

When it came to the first one, I could accomplish it. But I needed to change my mind a little. At the beginning of the class I thought using English as a tool meant to be able to speak English like a native speaker. But I found it impossible to do it within a year because native speakers have been using English since they were born. Therefore I changed my way of thinking. I decided, instead, making myself understood with this language was a more realistic goal. When I considered this as the main purpose of this course, it would be OK even if my English was not fluent. The fact I am now making a speech proves that I could achieve the first purpose.

Speaking of the second objective, I am very satisfied with my result even though I couldn’t reach 800 points. But even if I could get this score, it wouldn’t necessarily show I could be skillful in using English. There are a lot of people capable of using English fluently although their scores are under 800. Taking this into consideration, to exceed 800 doesn’t matter. A more important thing is the process I pursue in breaking 800 because to focus on the process means thinking about how to deal with the problem. I stuck to the idea of focusing on reviewing my class work as extra study without using other English reference books. I meant not only to focus on TOEIC study. As a result my highest score was close to 800.

Based on these two things I could learn two things from methods. They were how to study English effectively and the basis that enabled me to use English fluently. Lastly I want to talk about how I can make the most of the English I learned in this class. My job is not the type that typically uses English. My job is much like that of an accountant. So there will be fewer opportunities for me to use English when I finish this class. In addition it will also be very difficult for me to keep studying English without some special motivation. Therefore, the best way is to make studying English relate to my job. So I decided to try to earn certification for English accounting. This qualification will soon be necessary for all Japanese accountant workers. And this qualification has to be up dated every two years. It will help me to keep my motivation high.

Anyway this class is just the departure point for further improvement of my English. The most important thing is to keep doing something. To keep studying English is a good long-term goal for me and for my career. Again I strongly believe I will keep studying English. Thank you for listening.

2003-10-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I am happy to graduate from the English course and give a speech in front of you as a result of my study today. Before participating in the English course, I had been interested in the music and movies of foreign countries, especially the US and the UK. Although I had had a desire to master English, I had not done anything for it and only time had passed. I still remember vividly my surprise and delight when I was told I would participate in this course under the circumstances.
After the course began I realized immediately that written English is completely different from spoken English. In the class, using Japanese was forbidden and I struggled because I couldn’t express easily what I wanted to say. Additionally, I didn’t understand even basic grammar at first. It made me realize how superficial my learning was back in my school days. Sometimes I was irritated by my slow improvement of my skill. But I managed to finish the course while maintaining my motivation because I could continue to envisage an ideal image of myself of being a skillful English user when I finished the course. At this moment, I think back with pride that I often had to keep late hours in order to finish my homework.
We had not only lectured textbooks, but a wide variety of things, such as U.S. news programs, movies, dramas, music, and English papers. I wanted to study not only the language but also the way of thinking, or culture, so all of those offered fresh perspectives. Because of these teaching materials, I could continue studying without becoming bored even though I usually get tired of things easily. Practical use of the Internet was very effective for me. There were abundant sites for English study, almost as many in number as there are stars in the sky. It was an effective way to read articles which I had interest in and develop my vocabulary and language ability. As for me, it was killing two birds with one stone.
Although the course will end today, I think rather that the future is more important. It will be different from this year as I will have to do business and study English at the same time. Fortunately in this class I could rediscover the pleasure of learning which I had forgotten. I intend to establish an on-going routine and continue studying for the sake of enjoying it. I think that I want to become a man who can think flexibly. To do that, I intend to gather information by using both English and Japanese.
Although we come to the end of the course, I am truly thankful to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Wright who taught tenaciously for one year, and the classmates with whom I studied and worked hard. I am looking forward to the day when we might work together. I appreciate your listening.

2003-10-23T22:31:00.001-07:00

I am very glad to have the opportunity to make this speech today. Thank you for your attendance.
I want to try to look back to this year and talk about what I was thinking throughout my English study.
The targets I made for myself when the class began have almost been achieved. One year ago I had three general targets, achieving a high TOEIC score, improving my speaking skill, and trying to learn not only the language but also the culture of English speaking countries as well. Now I feel my TOEIC score is high enough to let me live in foreign countries. The company’s speaking test shows my speaking skill has improved. I could learn both English and culture through many media, conversation in the class and so on.
To achieve the first two targets, TOEIC success and conversation improvement, I focused on how I should concentrate on the class. In class, we could talk with our classmates as well as our teacher in English. While talking with our classmates, whenever we made a mistake about our usage of English, the teacher corrected us. In the class, our teacher spoke only English so we had to communicate with him in English. I thought the class was the best and the most proper place to study English.
Everyday we spent one third or one fourth of the day watching ABC News and discussing some of the stories. Due to my lack of English skill, I couldn’t take part in all of the discussions. The same thing happened when I didn’t have sufficient knowledge of the news. When I couldn’t say anything during the discussion, I knew it was because of my ignorance about common things. I realized some amount of knowledge was necessary in order to have meaningful discussions. To participate in the discussions, I tried to absorb various information. I could acquire a lot of knowledge about things like history, economies, society and science, I had not known about before through different mass media both in English and in Japanese. The deeper knowledge I got, the more significant remarks I could make, and at the same time my English improved. Since I saw news from various viewpoints, I realized it was important to consider other ideas from many viewpoints. In addition, I could learn English culture.
English is just one language. Like Japanese, to speak refined English, I have to be a sophisticated person. To do this, although the class ends today, I will try to continue broadening my mind about the world from a worldwide viewpoint.

2003-10-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

I’m happy to finish this one-year English course under the new system. I thought before participating in this English course, "This course will be like magic, and I can improve my English skill by only taking lessons." Now that I’ve finished it, I can say that we can’t improve our English skills without effort.

I had two targets, before participating in this course.
The first target was to enhance my listening ability up to the level at which I could understand spoken English without relying on interpreters. For example, like being able to understand what was said during meetings with overseas companies.
The second one was to improve my speaking ability so that I could express my opinions in English.
As a concrete target, I used the scale which the Personnel Department set up. Judging from my grades and assesments, I think that I’ve achieved acceptable results. But, in my feeling, even now I don’t think that I’ve reached the level at which I can use English in business.

In order to achieve the targets, I first tackled memorizing a lot of words and idioms. I thought it was impossible to understand a conversation if I didn’t know the meaning of each word, even if I could hear them perfectly. However, since I memorized the words by sight, at first, even if words I had already known appeared in conversations with Ron or on ABC news, I couldn’t catch them. So, I changed my method to memorizing orally. I think that my listening ability dramatically improved because of this change.

On the other hand, even now I can’t recomend what is the best method to improve one’s speaking ability. Many instructors often say, "Think in English and talk in English," or "Don't translate Japanese into English in your head," but I think that it is very difficult to reach that level in one year. So, even if I made a mistake, I concentrated on talking without hesitation. Whenever I made a mistake, Ron or my classmates would correct me. I could improve my speaking ability by their grace. And, in order to confirm whether my English skill was functional or not, I went abroad for this summer vacation. Even though I ended up answering some questions in English in spite of them having been asked to me in Japanese, I was very happy to be able to listen to and speak English better than in earlier travels.

Fortunately, before participating in this English course, I was given a lot of opportunities to use English in business; such as having meetings with overseas companies and going abroad on business trips. I think that I was chosen for this English course to deepen and extend relationships with overseas companies further. After this course, I’d like to continue to study English so that I can reply to this company’s expectation.

Last but not least, I thank Ron and my classmates who taught me not only English but also various fields’ knowledge.

Draft of my speech (Final Ver.)

2003-10-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, I’d like to express my present feeling honestly. I’m very pleased to make this speech in front of you. As I look back on this English course, it’s a huge boost to my confidence that I could complete the entire course. Even though we started with 12 students because of our class’s elimination system, at the end of the course, the number of students had been reduced by half.
About one year ago, when my boss informed me that I would be able to participate in this course, I was really grateful. I had wanted to join this course for more than three years. As I mentioned at the opening ceremony, when I invited a printer from Thailand to our factory, I couldn’t make myself understood in English at all. At that time I strongly felt that it was very important to learn English. However, my boss also said, “If you cannot achieve the performance target, you will have to return soon.” When I first heard this, I did not take it earnestly. I believed that it was just the language of encouragement coming from him. I think that probably the other students had similar feelings. However, when training progressed and the first two students were chosen to return to their previous jobs, it became a real thing and the class atmosphere dramatically changed. I think it is a fact that this system became a big driving force for this class. On the other hand, we had to spend more time studying for TOEIC than for speaking practice because the standard of omission was mostly based on our TOEIC scores. And as a necessary evil, my speaking ability was lower than I’d expected. But in total, due to this system, students can maintain their motivation during this English course, so I think this system should continue from now on. Moreover, I felt that the class was a kind of cross-industrial association, because our class consisted of engineers, accountants, and salespeople, and they were from various departments like printing paper division, home paper division, or our company’s subsidiaries, so it seemed very significant to me.
Next, I’d like to turn to the contents of our lessons. We watched ABC news every day and learned a lot of new words and idioms through the news. In addition, we had discussions about several topics from the news in class. Because of that, I could learn not only English, but also the historical backgrounds, economic situations and the policies of other countries. Our teacher always tried to make his lessons interesting. For example, we planned TV commercials, and made a presentation to other students as a client. At the beginning of the Iraqi War, he said that many marketing and sales expressions came from military terms. So I could learn not only a lot of marketing terms but also about the marketing strategy from the war. I also made some English-speaking friends who live in the United States, Spain, and Australia through e-mail.
During this English course, I was always thinking about how I could manage my time effectively. And my greatest discovery through this training is that in fact I can make a lot of free time and use it for my own indulgence or use it towards my own development. Although it may be a little difficult for me to find free time from now on, I’ll try to continue to study English and improve myself.

2003-10-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is my turn to choose a movie for our class. Maybe this is the last chance that I choose a movie for the class. I tried to choose as good movie as I could. I wondered which one I choose. At first I choose “Shining”. The movie was directed by Stanley Kubrick, very famous director. He is well known as his masterpiece “2001: a space Odyssey”.
But I had to give up both of these movies. The reason was very simple. They are too long. Both of them are almost three hours. It is also the fact that I prefer to watch long movies to short movies, of course long good movies. At last I choose “The Graduate”. The main actor is Dustin Huffman as I mentioned it yesterday. It was his major debut as actor according to the DVD jacket. I have ever watched it when I was in college. I don’t remember the detail, but it was interesting. It’s a very old movie, produced in 1967, but people should watch it. The movie is a sort of general culture I think. I hope classmates will enjoy the movie.

The crisis

2003-10-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

I read an article in a magazine. The second most terrible crisis of a marriage couple will come when their children leave their home because they start to work or go to colleage. When is the most terrible crisis?
It is when the first child is born. To look back to the last year, I can agree this article. It couldn't be called crisis but I felt strange because I had a daughter. After my daughter was born, everything was changed. The T sheet of pro and con was dramatically changed. Things I could do before of the delivery became things I couldn't do. Time I could spend became much less. So I want to recommend to someone who will have a new child that they should receive the change.

2003-10-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to the golf range with Mark and Terry. It was for the first time in about one month; actually I didn?ft hit the ball after I went to play golf in August. So my swing was terrible, and I couldn?ft hit the ball at all. I?fm very afraid of this weekend?fs golf. Though it may be the last time that I play golf in Ehime, I?fm seriously wondering if I could hit the ball in Elleair Matsuyama Golf club. Anyway, I hope that it would be fine day on Saturday, and I could enjoy playing golf with my classmates.
By the way, today I got new information about my next place. According to a manager who is working in the Osaka branch, there is a possibility that I will be transferred to the Gaizai department in Tokyo headquarters. Anyway I?fd like to know where I would be transferred to as soon as possible. So I?fll go to the Personnel department to ask my next place tomorrow because if I were transferred to another area, I would have to look for my new apartment.

2003-10-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

I was a little relieved because I could decide a treatment of my car after this English course. My wife called me and told to me that her sister wanted my car. She has never driven a car since she got a driver’s license. My car has a lot of scratches and dents, so I think that my car is suitable for a layman to drive because a driver doesn’t have to care about making scratches and dents. And she is living in Kanagawa Prefecture now, so it is very easy for me to take my car to her house and exchange ownership.
Anyway, I’m very glad because I don’t have to worry about my car anymore. I can sleep well from now on.

The second time correction of my speech

2003-10-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, everyone. I知 very delighted to have the opportunity to make a speech here. I壇 like to talk about what kind of purposes I had in studying English in this class and how I plan to make use of English after this cause.
There were two objectives for me in this class. The first was to use English as a tool of communication. The second was to break 800 points on the TOEIC test.

When it came to first the one, I could accomplish it. But I needed to change my mind a little. At the beginning of the class I thought using English as a tool meant to be able to speak English like a native speaker. But I found it impossible to do it within a year because native speakers have been using English since they were born. Therefore I changed my way of thinking. I decided, instead, making myself understood with this language was a realistic goal. When I considered this as the main purpose of this course, it would be OK even if my English were not fluent. The fact I am now making a speech proves that I could accomplish first purpose.

Speaking of the second objective, I am very satisfied with my result even though I couldn稚 reach 800 points. But even if I could get this score, it wouldn稚 show I could be skillful in using English. There are a lot of people capable of using English fluently although their scores are under 800. Taking this into consideration, to exceed 800 doesn稚 matter. A more important thing is the process I pursue in breaking 800 because to focus on the process means thinking about how to deal with the problem. I stuck to the idea of focusing on reviewing my class work as extra study without using other English reference books. I meant not only to focus on TOEIC study. As a result my highest score was close to 800.

Based on these two things I could learn two things from methods. They were how to study English effectively and the basis that enabled me to use English fluently. At last I want to talk about how I can make the most of the English I learned in this class. My job is not the type that typically uses English. My job is like an accountant. So there will be fewer opportunities for me to use English when I finish this class. In addition it will also be very difficult for me to keep studying English without some special motivation. So the best way is to make studying English relate to my job. So I decided to try to earn qualification for English accounting. This qualification will soon be necessary for all Japanese accountant workers. And this qualification has to be up dated every two years. It will help me to keep my motivation high.

Anyway this class is just the departure point for further improvement of my English. The most important thing is to keep doing something. To keep studying English is a good long 釦erm goal for me and for my career. Again I strongly believe I will keep studying English. Thank you for listening.

2003-10-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

I went to Toyo golf range with George and Mark. This practice will be the last one in this area and also was the most important because we’re planning to play golf at Elleair golf club on Saturday.
After that, we went to Kaikatei which was started on October 10th. George treated us again. Thanks to him, we could have a good meal there.
By the way, today was the last day of Mishima Taiko festival, so roads around this area were very crowded. I can’t understand why people in this area are so enthusiastic about such a festival.

2003-10-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am very glad to have the opportunity to make this speech today. Thank you for your attendance.
I want to try to look back to this year and talk about what I was thinking through out my English study.
The targets I made for myself when the class began have almost been achieved. One year ago I had three general targets, achieving a high TOEIC score, improving my speaking skill, and trying to learn not only the language but also the culture of English speaking countries as well. Now I feel my TOEIC score is high enough to let me live in foreign countries. The company’s speaking test shows my speaking skill has improved. I could learn both English and culture through many media, conversation in the class and so on.
To achieve the first two targets, TOEIC success and conversation improvement, I focused on how I should concentrate on the class. In class, we could talk with our classmates as well as our teacher in English. While talking with our classmates, whenever we made a mistake about our usage of English, the teacher corrected us. In the class, our teacher spoke only English so we had to communicate with him in English. I thought the class was the best and the most proper place to study English.
Everyday we spent one third or one fourth of the day watching ABC News and discussing some of the stories. Due to my lack of English skill, I couldn’t take part in the discussions. The same thing happened when I didn’t have sufficient knowledge of the news. When I couldn’t say anything during the discussion, I knew it was because of my ignorance about common things. I realized some amount of knowledge was necessary in order to have meaningful discussions. In order to participate in the discussions, I tried to absorb various information. I could acquire a lot of knowledge about things like history, economies, society and science, I had not known about before through different mass media both in English and in Japanese. The deeper knowledge I got, the more significant remark, I could make and at the same time my English improved. Since I saw news from various viewpoints, I realized it important to consider other ideas from many viewpoints. In addition, I could learn English culture.
English is just one language. Like Japanese, to speak refined English, I have to be a sophisticated person. To do this, although the class ends today, I will try to continue broadening my mind about the world from a worldwide viewpoint.

2003-10-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Today I watched a movie in the class. The title was “Kramer vs. Kramer”. It was the third time for me to watch it. About ten years ago, I watched it at the first time. At that time, I was really impressed with the movie. It is a little ashamed to say, I watched it with tears in my eyes. I watched it again about six months ago. At that time, I was not moved than before. I thought that if my sensibility was decreased. Today I reconfirmed that the movie is one of the masterpieces in the movie history. I have watched a lot of movies in my life, but there are only few movies which I had really impressed. Dustin Huffman had become one of my favorite actors after I watched the movie. I can recommend everyone to watch the movie which he played. I think he had selected the movies and roles carefully which he played. Because it is difficult to find out trash which he starred. I mentioned before, “Serpico” is one of my favorite movies. I remember that I was very impressed when I watched it.

Doping

2003-10-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Do you know "doping"? I am not sure that this word is used in English as same meaning as in Japanese. When we take part in sport competition, we use some medicines in order to make our body or our mental stronger. Ben Johnson was famous for his doping discovered. From this year, in the National Athelete Competition they will test the doping. Randomly some players will be chosen to test, not only No. 1 player. I can be tested next week. I got a booklet about the doping. The book says what the doping is, what purpose the doping has, what procedure the doping foce us to do, and what medicines are possible to be black. Cafeine is bad, for example. I have to stop drinking coffee, green tea, tea, chocolate. There are a lot of prohibited medicines and drinks. From today, I have to be careful about it.

About the collection of my speech

2003-10-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everyone. I’m very delighted to have the opportunity to make a speech here. I’d like to talk about what kind of purposes I had in studying English in this class and how I plan to make use of to use English after this English
There were two objectives for me in this class. The first was to use English as a tool of communication. The second was to break 800 points on the TOEIC test.

When it comes to first one, I could accomplish. But I needed to change my mind a little. At the binning of the class I thought using English as a tool means to be able to speak English like a native speaker. But I found it impossible to do it within a year because native speakers have been using English from the beginning of their birth to the last. Therefore I changed my mind. I decided instead making myself understood with this language was a realistic goal. When I consider this main purpose on this course, it will be OK even though my English is not fluent. The fact I am now making a speech proves that I could accomplish first purpose.

Speaking of second objective, I am very satisfied with my result even though I couldn’t reach 800 points. But if I could get this score, it wouldn’t show I could be skillful in using English. There are a lot of people capable of using English fluently although their scores are under 800. Take this into consideration, to exceed 800 doesn’t matter. A more important thing is to the process I purse in breaking 800 because to focus on the process means thinking about the process in dealing with the problem. I stuck to the idea of focusing on the review of the class work as an extra study without using other English reference books. It means not to only focus on the TOEIC study. As a result again my score was almost close to be 800.

Based on these two things I could learn two things from these purposes. They are how to study English effectively and the basis that enables me to use English fluently. At last I want to talk about how I can make most of English I learned in this class. My job is not the type of using English. I am some kind of accounting person. So there will be fewer opportunities to use English when I finish this class. In addition it will also be very difficult for me to keep studying English without special motivations. So the best way is to make studying English relate to my job. So I decided to get the qualification for English accounting. This qualification will soon be necessary for the accounting worker. And this qualification should be up dated every two years. It will help me to keep my motivation high.

Anyway this class is just the departure for further improvement of English. Most important thing is to keep up doing something. To keep studying English is also the same thing. Again I strongly believe I will keep studying English. Thank you for listening

2003-10-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

Today's movie, "Kramer vs. Kramer" was interesting even though I was not satisfied with its last scene. Because I'll be a father within two months and my wife's character was partly similar to the mother's, I could easily imagine the father's feeling. When I was watching this movie, I was seriously worried about the possibility that I would be in his situation. After class, I talked with my wife about the movie. She also has seen it before and she said, "The most striking scene of this movie was that the father tried to make French toast for his son." To my surprise, the scene that she told me was also one of the most impressive scenes for me. Just before I hung up the phone, I said to her, "If you suddenly left our house alone, you would not be able to meet your son forever!" But my wife's response was stricter than I'd expected; she said, "No way! If you did something wrong that made me sad, you should have to leave our house alone." After hanging up the phone, I decided not to fight with my wife any more.

2003-10-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Kenpo-Kaikan to take the annual health check today. I couldn’t have breakfast for the health check, so I was very hungry. It took about three hours to take it, but I thought that there was much waiting time. There could be more efficient way. But, most of the nurses were young and very beautiful. I wondered that most of the beautiful women in Iyomisha were working for the hospital. Even if I am sick, I will get better by just looking at them. I’d like to come here to take the health check next year too.

2003-10-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

I watched a movie named “Kramer vs. Kramer” for the first time in class. I’d known the movie is famous and a moving one before I saw it today, so Stone’s choice of the movie looked good. Even after watching it, my opinion didn’t change. It lived up to my expectation perfectly and taught me that parentage is very difficult. Before I marry someone, I must check carefully whether my wife will betray me or not. If she left after having a child, I might kill her.

2003-10-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went to TSUTYA to rent some DVDs with Ozzy because today was Tuesday. On Tuesday we can rent a DVD for only 100 yen. I rented “Monsters, Inc.”, “Toy Story 1 & 2”, “Little Mermaid 1 & 2 ”, “101 Dalmatians”, and so on. In total, I rented 10 DVDs for my future son. I have a DVD player and a VCR in my room; it means I can make copy tape using both devices. I found this way of recording DVD software last week even though it was very easy. If I had found it as soon as I got a DVD player, I could have had more than 50 movie titles. Anyway, I’ve made some copies and I’ll try to do it as much as possible until I leave this city. If I start recording just before I go to bed and go to my class, I can get two copies. I’m looking forward to watching those movies with my future son.
By the way, today I heard Stone’s first son’s name and it sounds very good name. Because I’ve been thinking about my future son’s name, I’m very interested in other children’s name especially in their sons. Name is very important for everyone, so it’s very serious problem for parents. If you have some good name, please tell me your idea.

2003-10-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today I recorded my speaking the copy of my speech onto the cassette. I realized how difficult I can read something without any mistakes. Although I practiced speaking before recording, I made couple of mistakes in recording. In addition I also noticed my pronunciation was not clear enough to understand. And it rhizome was not speedy and smooth. I thought I need more practice speaking.

2003-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

After the class, I went to electronic store to buy headset microphone. After came back to my dorm, I tried it. According to the manual, this headset can be adjusted so that everyone can wear it comfortable. Though the manual said that, I couldn’t use it comfortable. When I use it, my head was fastened too hard. The reason was very simple. The size of my head is too big. It is not joke. Originally my head is big. I remember that my previous boss’s hat size was as same as mine when I was the first grade of elementary school. I always wonder that if mans ability depends on their head size, but unfortunately, there is no relationship between them. After that I read my draft for graduation speech and recorded it. I noticed that my recorded voice was far different from what I had expected. I also felt that listen my own voice was somewhat disgraceful. But it’s a effective training, I should do it again and again.

2003-10-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

As usual, I went to play soft volleyball today. While playing it, I found that I got not to be able to hit a ball strongly because I was afraid of a miss hit. So I aimed at a corner of the court and hit a ball with 50% strength. When it comes to golf, the same thing has happened to me recently. When I hit a ball with my full power, the ball surely turns right or left. I thought that my sport style has become older man’s one. I must admit the fact that I had been changed like middle-aged men without notice even though I want to play sports like a young man.
By the way, I asked about what I’d done last Sunday after parting from George and Mark to the female team member who drank together on the day because I’d lost my memory completely. But she didn’t answer anything, and she said that she would tell the truth at my farewell party on Friday. Also she added that she hadn’t known how I would change after I get drunk. I’m sure that I didn’t do anything bad, but I’m feeling some anxiety a little.

2003-10-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

I called my wife and asked her whether she got some information from my boss about my next working place. But she hasn’t heard anything about it. Where I will be transferred to might not be so important to my boss. My boss and my coworkers may believe that I’ll be back to the same department.
By the way, she seemed to be a little disappointed, so I asked her what happened to her. She told me that nobody noticed her changed hairstyle nevertheless she had her hair cut on Sunday. I think that women are women even if they become adult.

2003-10-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

After class I went back to my room and looked around the shopping site at Internet. I found a nice down jacket but something is different. It is not like a coat but like a shirt. According to the explanation at the site, it was originally made for mountain climbing. But it can be the town usage. I was very impressive with this clothes but I couldn’t get the detail about it such as size so I didn’t know which size matches me. But the price is very reasonable and I thought it must be very convenient in this season. I sent a E-mail to ask its product’s size to this shop. When I receive the response, I will chose the suitable one and buy it.

2003-10-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to the city gym with Mark and Terry as usual. This English course will finish within two weeks. It means I will leave this city soon. So when I ran around the city ground, I was thinking about the days I spent at this luxurious city sports park and how many times I could come to this city gym. Judging from my calculation, the rest of our English course are 13 days; on this Saturday I?fm going to play golf with Mark and Terry, and on this Wednesday, even though usual Wednesdays are training days, the gym is going to be closed because of this city?fs local festival. So I?fll go to the city gym on this Friday, next Monday and Wednesday. I?fll be transferred to another city as a salesman, so I decided to go on a diet again because it may be very difficult for me to continue doing exercise after I move to the sales department. I could lose about 10 kg after I came to this city and joined this English course, so I want to keep in shape. Anyway I?fm going to enjoy the rest of Iyomishima life.
By the way, after I came back to my room, I watched a NFL game, which was Miami Dolphins VS New England Patriots, on NHK BS channel. It was very interesting game, so I could enjoy their performance. To my surprise, this game was held at the Pro Player Stadium in Miami. According to the Dolphins web page, this stadium is basically their home stadium and also the Marlins?f home ground. The Marlins is now playing the World Series with NY Yankees, and the third match will be held at this stadium. At least today, this stadium is still a baseball park. There were beautiful grass outfield and reddish soil infield. I thought that this stadium was not suitable for playing football. I also thought that for the groundkeepers of this stadium it must be very hard to fix the ground because of NFL players?f spiked shoes. NFL teams and MLB teams should not share their home stadiums.

2003-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

After the class, I cleaned my dorm’s rest room with three people who live in same floor of mine for about one hour. It was a kind of punishment for us, because some stupid guy smoked at the rest room even though smoking is prohibited at the place. It was ridiculous, but we had to do it. Although the reason was ridiculous I could know what kind of people were there in the same floor of mine. It was a little valuable thing for me. I tried to create a meaning of this ridiculous activity to think about that. Because of this activity I couldn’t go city gym today. Even though I decided to do exercise as possible as I could, I went to the gym only one time last week. I am a really lazy man. In addition, I ate two hamburgers as my dinner. As you know it is the worst food for fat body. The food contains too much fat and I know the fact, but I couldn’t conquer my lust. By the way, I read an article about hamburger. According to the article, there is an around the clock hamburger shop in Pyongyang. It is not Macdonald obviously. Someone said that their products are more delicious than that of Macdonald. I became interested in with it a little.

2003-10-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

Today, we were supposed to get information that where we will be transferred to after the English course. As we had imagined, the Personnel Department didn’t give the information to us. I can’t understand why their jobs or decisions are always too late. They should report important issues to CEO much earlier because they have known that it takes lots of time to get CEO’s approval.
I don’t worry about my next working place at all. But I’m concerned about how I should treat my car. At first, I thought that I would give it to Terry or Mel, but the car might not necessary for them if they are transferred to Tokyo. I might have to send my car to my house in Saitama due to the late decision. I don’t know how much it costs to send my car from here to Saitama, but this company must pay the cost. I think that it is bad for both the company and me.

2003-10-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

After class, I went to the personnel department in order to ask Mr. Nagao where I should have a bookkeeping test. When I visited there, he was talking on the phone, so I couldn’t help keeping waiting for him until he finished talking. Due to his long call, I had kept Ozzy and Mel waiting for a long time. Finally I was told that I would have the test as a member of the publishing paper sales division which was my previous department. Judging from that, my boss sent the plan that asked the personnel department to get me back to my prior division. But the personnel department is waiting for Daio’s top executive’s permission for the plan. It means that my future depends on the only one person. I hope that he won’t make any change in plan.

2003-10-19T16:30:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. I am happy to graduate from the English course and give a speech in front of you as a result for one year today. Although I had interested in the music and a movie of a foreign country especially the United States, and Britain, and had a desire to master English from before, only time had passed deficiently in the drive which is going to make it realize it. I still remember vividly my surprise and joy when attendance of English training is told under such circumstances. After the course began I realized it immediately that "reading or writing" of English is completely different from speaking. In the class, using Japanese is forbidden and I was struggled with it because I couldn’t express what I wanted to say easily. Additionally, I had not understood fundamental grammar knowledge, I was made to realize how it was learning externally in my school days. At this moment, it is a good memory that I often had to keep late hours in order to finish the homework.
Sometimes I was irritated, because I didn’t improve easily. But I managed to finish the course to maintain the motivation in order to continue envision the ideal image of mine when I finished the course.
At the lecture, not only the textbooks but all things, such as a report of a U.S. news program, a movie, a drama, music, and an English paper, were used as teaching materials. Because, I originally thought that I wanted to study not only the language as a tool but also the view of thinking or culture in the U.S or U.K, all were fresh, I could continue studying without bored even though I get tired of things easily. Moreover, it also turns out that there are too many teaching materials around us but I couldn’t use them before. Practical use of the Internet was very effective for me. There were abundant sites for English study as stars, it wad also effective to read English of the site which I had interested in. As for me it was killing two birds with one stone.
Although the course is ended by the end of today, I think rather that future is important. It will be different from this year, the situation I could concentrate on English study, and have to do business, I have to maintain English skill and it must be raised. Fortunately I could rediscover the pleasure of learning which I was forgetting. I intend to establish my study style and continue studying with the feeling of enjoy it. I think that I want to become a man who can do flexible thinking and selection by making the amount of information gathering expand using a tool called English.
Although it becomes the last, it is truly thankful to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Wright who taught tenaciously for one year, and the classmates who have learned, working hard together. I am looking forward the day when we meet again. I appreciate for listening.

2003-10-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

On Friday I was absent from the class. I had a terrible headache and sore throat because of cold. In addition, one of my teeth was removed by the dentist when I went to see him on Thursday. My mouth was filled with blood glob. I feel ill to recapture the situation at that time. I stayed in my room all the day.
On Saturday evening, I came back to my hometown. I had an important errand in my hometown. It was a sort of private issue, so please allow me not to write about it in detail. Anyway I came back to my dorm in Sunday night. It was a little busy day and I was exhausted. When I tried to translate my draft of presentation from Japanese to English, I noticed that it was difficult. To choose appropriate words was very difficult and I had to spend a lot of time. From now until the end of this month, I have to do lot of things. It includes rewriting the license of driving a ship. Next Saturday I have to go Takamatsu City to do it. I have to attend the lecture and pay ten thousands yen for it. Even though I don’t have a ship, I have to do it for my future. Someday I might a ship and the license will be necessary, I hope.

2003-10-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

I could finsh making the content of the speech so as an assignment I will show this on this site. My speech will be like these.

Good morning, everyone. I’m very delighted to get the opportunity to make a speech here. From now on I’d like to talk about what kind of purposes I had in studying English in this class and how I make use of to use English after this English
There were two purposes in this class. First is to use English as a tool of communication. Second is to break 800 at TOEIC.

When it comes to first one, I could accomplish. But I needed to change this a little. At the binning of the class I thought using English as a tool means to be able to speak English like natives. But I found it impossible to do it within a year because they have been using English from the beginning of their birth to the last. Therefore I changed my mind. I was trying to make myself understood with this language as a substitution. When I consider the purpose, it will be OK even though my English is not fluent and enough. The fact I am now making a speech proves that I could accomplish first purpose.

Speaking of second purpose, I am very satisfied with the result even though I couldn’t reach 800 points. But if I can get this point, it won’t show I can be familiar with English. There are a lot of people capable of using English fluently although their scores are under 800. Take this into consideration, to exceed 800 doesn’t matter. More important thing is to the process in breaking 800 because to focus on the process means to think about the process in doing business. I stuck to the idea of focusing on the review of the class work as an extra study without using other English reference books. It means not to only focus on the TOEIC study. As a result again my score was almost close to be 800.

Based on these two things I could learn two things from these purposes. They are how to study English effectively and the basis that enables me to use English fluently. At last I want to talk about how I can make most of English I learned in this class. My job is not the type of using English. I am some kind of accounting person. So there will be fewer opportunities to use English when I finish this class. In addition it will also be very difficult for me to keep studying English without special motivations. So the best way is to make studying English relate to my job. So I decided to get the qualification for English accounting. This qualification will soon be necessary for the accounting worker. And this qualification should be up dated every two years. It will help me to keep my motivation high.

Anyway this class is just the departure for further improvement of English. Most important thing is to keep up doing something. To keep studying English is also the same thing. Again I strongly believe I will keep studying English. Thank you for listening.

2003-10-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

Oct. 19 (Sun)

Today, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and as soon as I got up, I took a bath. I had a little headache because I went out for a drink last night for the first time in a couple pf weeks. So I took a shower to ease my hangover. After that, I had breakfast and read English and Japanese newspaper for about one hour. I could make meaningful use of my morning time. In addition, today was very fine day, so I decided to go cycling. But to tell the truth, I went to the Tengoku and lost some money. After I wasted my time, I went back to my room and did the laundry. And then I took a nap for four hours.
By the way, do you know a paper company in Thailand called A.A. (Advanced Agro Public Co.,Ltd.) Its paper production capacity is 217,000 ton per year for domestic and export sales. I think it is the biggest paper manufacturer in Thailand. Anyway, I’d like to introduce a TV commercial film of its main product to you. In Japan, I’ve never seen any kind of paper’s TV commercial films. But this company had some TV commercials and cartoon adds for its copy paper. In addition, they are very funny. As a paper company’s employee, you should click here to watch it.
If you have any prblems to watch, click here and download the TV commercial. We’ve studied English for about one year so we should be familiar with foreign paper companies. Here are two cartoon adds of its copy paper. They are for Korean, but don’t worry, they have English subtitles.
1. "No Jam"
2. "No Fanning"

2003-10-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I asked Mark to take me to Jusco in Niihama because I’d longed to buy a spoon. There is a big sport shop called Sports Authority in Jusco, so I saw a lot of woods there. I had my head speed checked and decided to buy a spoon made by Taylormade. It cost about thirty thousand yen and it became the most expensive club in my golf set.
After getting back to Iyomishima, we went to a restaurant with George because he won a lot of money at Tengoku. We enjoyed a meal watching Japan Series. Thanks to George, I had a good time.

2003-10-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

I went to play pachinko for the first time in about one month. I had been stopping playing pachinko in order to concentrate on English during the rest of the course. It was one of the reasons that misfortune recently had continued in my life. I invested in pachinko, but I didn’t get money at all. My unlucky seemed to be continuing still. As you can imagine easily, I was strongly corrected by my wife. I was forced to swear not to go there again. So I won’t go to play pachinko any more while I’m here.
On the other hand, even though George also went to a pachinko parlor for the first time in long age, he won over \150,000. So, he took Terry and me to a restaurant and treated us. How generous and cool he is! I wanted to win at pachinko so that I could treat a meal for them.

2003-10-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to write a subscription for the closing ceremony. But I am not in the place to be able to write down the subscription. First I have to catch up with them. Tomorrow I seem to have to try to write down the preparation.

Three days have passed. I have not done the homework we received on Wednesday. So today I will start the theme of the homework.
Review for the TOEIC exam
I have some excuses to explain why my score was not so good. My score has not changed since this spring.
1) The exam was held in the afternoon. The period just after human beings eat something is the worst time to concentrate on something. I had to fight against the desire for sleeping as well as the will to get better score.
2) TOEIC had not been in the center of the my life when I was in Hawaii. Before going to Hawaii, I was living for TOEIC. TOEIC was my life. Staying in Hawaii for six weeks was sufficient to forget TOEIC.
3) I had a baby four days before of the TOEIC exam. Which do you think is more important for our life, TOEIC or my first son. The answer is obvious.
There were many excuses. But my score was not so bad. I want to praise myself for the result. I expected I would get worse score.

Story elements for the closing ceremony
1) I studied English like this
I focused on concentrating on the class well.

3) I will study English forever
How will I study English from now?

2003-10-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

I managed to be able to finish this English course for one year under the new system. I thought before participating in this English course, "This English course will be like magic, and I can improve my English skill by only taking a lesson." Now when I finished it, I can say that we can’t improve our English skills without efforts.

I held up two targets, before participating in this course.
The first target is that to enhance my listening ability up to the level which I can understand partners’ English without interpreters in a meeting with overseas companies.
The second one is that to improve my speaking ability so that I can express my opinions in English.
I used the scale which the Personnel Department set up as a concrete target. As long as these scores are seen, I think that I could leave the appropriate results. But, in my feeling, I think that there is nothing in the level which can be used on business still more.

In order to achieve the targets, I first tackled to memorize a lot of words and idioms. It is because I thought it was impossible to understand the conversation if I didn’t know the meanings, even if I could hear the words. However, since I memorized the words by my eyes at first, even if the words already known in the conversation with Ron and ABC news appeared, I couldn’t chath them. So, I changed into the method of speaking orally and memorizing by my ears. I think that my listening ability dramatically improved because of this change.

On the other hand, even now I can’t understand what is the best method to improve speaking ability. It is often said that "Think in English and Talk in English" or "Don't translate Japanese into English in your head", but I think that it is actually difficult to reach the level in one year. So, even if I make a mistake, I concentrated on talking without hesitation. Whenever I made a mistake, Ron and my classmates corrected my mistakes. I could improve my speaking ability by the grace of them. And, in order to confirm whether my English skill is current or not, I went abroad for this summer vacation. Even though it happened that I had answered some questions in English in spite of having been asked in Japanese, I remember I was very happy to be able to listen to and speak English better than earlier travels.

Fortunately, before participating in this English course, I was given a lot of opportunities to use English on business, such as having a meeting with overseas companies and going abroad on business trip. I think that I was chosen for this English course to deepen and extend the relationship with overseas companies further. After this course, I’d like to continue to study English so that I can reply to this company’s expectation.

Although it became last, I thank Ron and my classmates who taught me not only English but also various fields’ knowledge.

Draft of the speech (George)

2003-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

First of all, I’d like to express the present feeling honestly. The joy, which I can make a speech in this graduation ceremony, is appreciated. Of course, I understand that this English course is just a part of long life in Daio Paper which continues from now on and it is a part of in-house training, which I had have been able to take part in because I could completely part from everyday business. However, when I looked upon this English course that I felt short and sometimes long, it is a fact that it became the big confidence for me that I could complete this English course. Because of the first severe omission system, even though it started with 12 students at the beginning, at the time of an end, the number of students became half.
About one year ago, when my boss informed me that I was able to participate to English training, I was really gratified at the news because I have longed to join this English course for more than three years. As I mentioned about it at the opening ceremony, I strongly felt that it’s very important for me to learn English, when I invited the printer of Thailand to our factory, and at that time I couldn’t make myself understood to them in English at all. However, my boss also said, “If you cannot achieve the target, you will be made to return on the way.” When I heard this first, I had not made it earnest, yes and I believed that it was the language of encouragement from him. I thought that probably every other student had same feeling. However, when training progressed and the first two return-to-their-post persons were determined, it became the real thing and the atmosphere of class was dramatically revolutionized. I think it is the fact that this system has become the big driving force of this class. On the other hand, we had to spend more time to study for TOEIC than for speaking practice because the standard of omission was mostly based on the TOEIC score. And as the evil, my speaking ability was lower than I had expected. However, by this system, students could maintain their feeling of strain in a good meaning during this English course, so I think that it should continue this system from now on. Moreover, I felt that the class organization beyond occupational descriptions, such as printing paper division, home paper division, engineers, and salespeople, was a kind of cross-industrial association, and thought that it was very significant.
Next, I’d like to turn round about the contents of a lesson. We watched ABC news every day and learned a lot of new words and idioms through the news. In addition, we had discussion about several topics from the news in a class. Because of that, I could learn not only English, but also the historical background, the economic situation and the policy of other countries. Our teacher always tried to make his lessons interesting. He always put creativity so that lesson might not become monotonous. For example, we planed TV commercials, and made a presentation to other students as a client. At the beginning of the Iraqi War, he said that many marketing and sales expressions came form military terms. So I could learn not only a lot of marketing terms but also about the marketing strategy from the war. Although I had felt strong pressure, I could have a great time and the deepest density year. I could have some English-speaking friends who live in The United States, Spain, Australia, etc through e-mail. And the greatest discovery through this training is that in fact I can make a lot of free time and can use or have to use the time to grow up myself. Although it may be a little difficult for me to make create some free time from now on, I’ll try to continue to study English and improve myself.

2003-10-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Thank you for attending this ceremony today during your busy time. Time went by early because a year has passed since we started studying English here. Our English class adopted the system for the first time that forced two men to leave the class every three months, so twelve-member class at the beginning finally became six-member class. Because our company intended to enhance our English levels by letting us compete each other, my boss told me to complete this one-year English course perfectly before sending me out. Therefore I’m glad to be able to make a speech in front of you at the end of this course.
At the beginning of this course, I felt frustrated because of English environment and spent days reluctantly, but gradually I began dealing with the surroundings. From the halfway of the course I could get used to it. And I got to know world affairs from American view by watching and listening to American news everyday. I got interested in world affairs and started thinking them mainly because I wanted to keep up with the class. But compared with previous me who hadn’t shown any interests in world news and had judged everything by watching only news from Japanese view, getting to think about something from different view is great progress to me.
When people are surrounded with the same members and environment for a long time, their way of thinking become similar to others’ and it may be difficult to see something from another angle. So during this course we discussed a lot of topics with colleagues from factories, headquarters, different paper sales divisions, and native American, Ron and we could share opinions and ideas from various points of view. In order to make good use of this experience, I won’t stick to an idea and I want to look for new points of view and way of approaching solutions every time.
Finally, this English course ends today, but it doesn’t mean that my own English study also ends. I have to be ready to do jobs relating to English whenever the company orders me to do them. Also I want to continue to study English for my cultivation and for my pleasure.
Thank you for your attention.

2003-10-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

If you are the strongest baseball player, you sometime may be interviewed by news reporters or in press conference. If your condition is best ever been and you want to show them you have a lot of confidence, you may say “It couldn’t be better”. It means in Japanese “最高です”. You can use this phrase in every situation. This is very common usage and very convenient.

2003-10-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce two English phrases which we can use at business scene. The first phrase is as below. 'Well, not really.' In Japanese, "それほどでもありません". As you know, people tend to praise their customer. At the moment, you should show definite feeling. You had better to say fuzzy answer. This phrase is useful to say at the situation like that.
Next phrase is like this. " I look to you for guidance." In Japanese, "よろしくご指導願います". When we meet a businessman, especially elder people, at the first time, we often use the phrase. Of course, we don?ft expect their guidance at all. This phrase is a kind of social etiquette. When people hear this phrase, they must not have bad feeling, even though they know it's a sort of social etiquette. To show humble attitude is very important when we meet strangers. If you show humble attitude to others, they would help you in the future. It seems like dirty trick, but I think it's also an important thing for businessman.
These two phrases which I mentioned are two sides of same coin.

2003-10-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today we were talking about some common phrases in Japanese and English, and we made some sample questions using such a common phrases. I talked about some of them in class, so I’d like to write about the rest of the sample questions. At first I’ll describe the situation that a common phrase will be used in and then I’ll write about the phrase in Japanese. Finally I’ll tell you it in English. So before reading my English expression, please guess it on your own.

1.You are not good at using computer. One day, when you are in your office, your boss calls you from outside. He asks you to check his e-mail. He says, “Can you check my e-mail?” But you don’t know how to check e-mail.
In this case, you’ll say to him, “どうやればいいのかわかりません。Dou yareba ii noka wakarimasen.”
What should you say it in English?

You’ll say, “I’m not sure how.”

2.Today, you are drinking with one of your friends. Your friend says, “I’m going to quit my job,” even though he doesn’t have a new job. You think that he shouldn’t quit his job. You’ll say to your friend, “後悔すると思うよ。Koukai suru to omouyo.”
What should you say it in English?

You’ll say, “You’ll be sorry.”

2003-10-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce two phrases which are famous among the Japanese business.
"We'll fake it?" in English. “適当にやりましょう"
This phrase is used in the following situation. We have already worked for about ten hours and all of us are exhausted. We want to go back to our houses early. But we don't finish our task yet. Then someone says that we don't have to finish our task perfectly. And then another person says that nobody will notice whether our task are finished or not. "We'll fake it?"
"I hope you don't mind my leaving now." "お先に失礼します"
We are working in an office. And it is six o'clock now. I'm going to leave the office, but some of my coworkers are still working. They might work overtime. So I have a little hesitation to go home earlier than them. At the time like that, we have only to say "I hope you don't mind my leaving now."

2003-10-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

“She’s photogenic.” or “Pictures flatter her.”
When someone sees pictures of her, he or she may say these kinds of impressions on the pictures because she looks better in the pictures than what she is.

When you go out somewhere and meet your friend by chance, you can use the following phrase.
“Imagine meeting you here!”

2003-10-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

I am going to start with talking about analysis about today’s TOEIC result.
The result was terrible but it was just what I had imagined because I knew I had had no time to use English for a while before this test. Especially, the listening part was worse than before because of this lack of the listening practice. It caused two problems. One is that during the test I couldn’t keep up with the speed of the conversation. Second is that I couldn’t hear the conversation better than usual. However I don’t worry about the result because in a few days my skill will come again.

Next I plan to talk about these five topics as a speech in graduation ceremony.
1, First is that my English skill at the time when I started this English class.
2, Second is that dairy work at class and after class for first three months.
3, Third is that importance of setting the short term target and long term one during this English class.
4, Fourth is that my recommendation of studying English.
5, Fifth is that my improvement though this English class.　

2003-10-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today I took a TOEIC test in the class. As other classmates mentioned, it was the last TOEIC test in our English course. As the proverb goes, All's well that ends well. So I tried to get the highest mark of mine. The bottom line is that I couldn't get it. Actually the score was not so bad even though I was not satisfied with it. After the test, I didn't know whether I could do it well or not. I didn't have any confidence. In consequence I got a certain level of score, but I couldn't feel any realization that I got the score. It is a sad thing for me, because I have belonged to the English course for eleven months. It can't be helped to think about the result too seriously. The thing I should do from now is to continue study English.
By the way, I have to write the manuscript of speech at the graduation ceremony by the day after tomorrow. Actually I have not thought about it at all, but I would like to write it as below.
1.My English educational background
2.The contents of the English course
3.My way of studying English
4.Give my impression after graduate the class
5.How to continue studying after the course

2003-10-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

We took the last TOEIC test in the English class today. Just after I took the test, I thought that the test was the most difficult that I had ever taken. But the result was much higher than I had expected. In fact, it was the highest score of all tests which I had ever taken. What do you think it means? Today’s result means that my intuition worked very well by chance. In other words, I didn’t answer the questions with confidence. I hope that the result of the official TOEIC test which I took last month would be the best score.
Anyway, there are only 20 days left until we finish the English class. So we must prepare a draft for our final speech from now on. I intend to write about the following things.
1. My frank impression about the English class (or course)
2. Goals and results
3. The way of studying English
4. How I apply my English skills to my next job
5. Thanks

2003-10-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

At first, I'd like to talk about today's TOEIC test. Though I have taken TOEIC test more than 20 times, and done a lot of sample questions during this English course, today's score was not acceptable result. Even though I felt that today's test was more difficult than I had expected, some classmates could get more than 800 points. In total, today's result obviously indicated the luck of study. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting it, so I decided to continue my education after this English course.
Anyway I took the final TOEIC test and interview test, so from now on I have to focus on the graduation speech. Today's assignment is to think about the speech and prepare the draft that should be composed of five topics. So I'd like to write about it.
1. At first, I'd like to talk about the initial enthusiasm for this English course.
2. And then I'll describe this English course, for example, what I did in class something like that.
3. Next, I want to talk about the good points and bad points of this dropout system.
4. And then, I'd like to talk about how I set up a study schedule and what I did after class.
5. Finally, I want to close my speech with expressing my future plan.

2003-10-15T04:37:00.000-07:00

Today we had the last TOEIC test in class. After the test, I had an impression that questions in Part five and six weren’t as difficult as I’d expected they would. But questions in Part seven were so difficult that I couldn’t consider and answer them within time. I don’t have any complaints about today’s test, but if I had been able to read articles more quickly, I might have gotten a better score.
By the way, as today’s assignment I must list five topics which I will present in a graduation-like ceremony at the end of this month.
I’m planning to talk about the following topics.
1. What I got during this English course
I got to know American people’s way of thinking (it may be only Ron’s way of thinking)
2. How I’ll make good use of this experience in business (even though that depends on my next job)
3. That I could talk with people whose previous jobs were completely different from
mine and how I was stimulated by them
4. The eliminating system that the personal department took for the first time
5. How boring this area is

2003-10-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I stayed in my room and watched movies to kill time. To tell the truth, I wanted to go for a drink with Terry. At that time his name plate which installed at the entrance of our dorm was turned red. I thought that he was out and not tried to confirm about it. I read his journal entry and felt regret for it. I was also so bored. The day, I watched four movies in my room.
On Sunday I came back to my hometown after a long interval. I had never been there for over three months even though my hometown is not so far from here. After the English course, I might be transferred to another district, so I tried to meet my parents, my sisters and their husbands. Now I can do it easily, but it might be difficult after I would go somewhere. My families were pretty fine and nothing was changed. I was glad to know it. After all hometown makes me feel comfortable. By the way, my father said to me that my face and body was swollen because of fatness. As a matter of fact, I have never been to gym for over two months. Recently I eat and drink immoderately. I decided to go gym from this week. It might be too late, but anyway I will do it.

2003-10-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Oct. 13 (Mon) "My name might have been Shouhei."

On Saturday, my parents came to Fukuoka to see my wife and me. Actually, they stayed at the Daikansou that was a hot spring hotel near Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine from Friday. So my wife and I went to the hotel to pick them up in the morning. After that we went to my wife?fs shop to meet my mother in law and my sister in law. We went to the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine and had lunch at the Shizen-an that was located next to the shrine. The restaurant, ?gShizen-an?h, which was managed by Ume-no- hana, was very famous for its original tofu foods. They served various kinds of tofu foods such as raw tofu, fried tofu, tofu ice cream, and so on. They were very delicious, so we had a great time. In addition, we had dinner there five years ago after we exchanged engagement presents in a customary ceremony. So the restaurant was a place that holds fond memories for both families. Anyway, it was the first time for my parents to see my wife since she got pregnant, so they seemed to be very happy. And it made me happy too. For both parents, my baby will be the first grandson; they looked very happy when they were talking about my future son. By the way, when we had lunch we were talking about my future son?fs name, and then my father talked about my name. My father said that he wanted to name me Shouhei at first when I was born, and finally he changed his mind to name Toru. Anyway, I have to decide my son?fs name within two months.

2003-10-12T02:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I ran to Mishima Park which was located on the hill. As you know, the course to the park was consisted of steep slopes, so I felt very tired when I got there. From the park I could overlook the area around Daio’s factory, so I said good-by to this area because I’ll never live here.
After I got home and took a bath, I felt like going out for drinking even though there weren’t any friends to invite. I went to Torizen alone, ate dinner and talked with its employees. Anyway I had fun though I drank alone.
On Sunday, I went to Jusco to buy the latest TOEIC friends and some textbooks for bookkeeping though they might become fruitless. I bought a pair of shoes for running and playing volleyball too because my old shoes were much worn out and their soles became slippy. On the way home, I visited Aoyama which is one of the most famous men’s clothing stores in Japan. My suits I have now haven’t fitted my body since I lost weight and became slim, so I needed to buy a new one in order to go to our Tokyo headquarters and meet customers in a decent way. I bought a suit, two shirts, and a necktie. If I were to stay here and need to wear a blue uniform, I would bill the personnel department for my purchases. But the possibility of sending the bill must be quite low.

10,000 or 25,000

2003-10-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

How many shops are there convenience stores, seven eleven, in Japan? I hear that there are just 10,000 shops. Compared with this Japanese convenience shop, there are over 25,000 restaurants of McDonald's all over the world. Which chain is more wonderful and amazing?
McDonald's has its restaurants in over 50 countries. In average, in one country there are less than 500 restaurants. But Seven eleven Japan has more than 10,000 in one country, Japan. It is suprising, I think.
In addition, in ten prefectures there are no shops. For example, in Shikoku island or Sannin region, there are no shops. So in the rest of the ten prefectures, there must be more than 250 shops in one prefecture. Every prefecture has twenty or forty cities or wards. And every city or ward must have about ten shops. This number is amazing, isn't it?
I am saying about one convenience store chain. There are other chains, like Sankus, Familymart, Lawson, and so on. How many shops there are in Japan!

Cold 2

2003-10-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I did not feel better. My flue did not get better.
So I had to continue something in order to get better.
I went to bed early. I ate mandarine orange to absorb vitamine C. I kept my body warm. While sleeping, I sweat a lot. Sweating would cause good result, if I change the drained clothes. And so did I.
This morning, I felt bad. But I felt a little better. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

2003-10-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail from the personnel department today. As you know this English course will be finished at the end of this month. We will make a speech at the ending ceremony which will be taken place at seventh floor. For us, the ceremony is the most nervous activities in this English course. Even though a speaking test causes me nervous, I should make a speech in front of a lot of people. Of course, my boss or coworkers will also attend the ceremony. When I met one of my coworkers, he said that he was looking forward to attending the ceremony. His words made me nervous more. Our classmates including me have to make a script within a week. At first we should make it in Japanese and then translate it in English. Originally I am not good at composition even in Japanese. I am also not good at presentation especially in front of a lot of audiences. I know that presentation in English is very effective for us to increase English skill, but I don’t like it. Now I am seriously worried about it.

2003-10-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Stone had planned to hold a party for himself in order to celebrate his coming back from Hawaii since he came back to Japan. Today our classmates gathered for his come-back party and went to a restraint which served Korean grilled beef. He said that he wouldn't drink more than a mug of beer because he suffered from a cold. But once he started eating the meal, he started drinking without minding his health. His first son may be born tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so he may be absent from our class. But now our situations are very tentative, so we can’t know when someone in our class will be absent. I think we should enjoy ourselves until this English course ends, so we shouldn’t mind our TOEIC score and speaking test results.

2003-10-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Oct. 9 (Wed) "IQ"

Do you know the word, “IQ”? It stands for Intelligence Quotient, and it minimizes the effect of cultural variables, such as language, mathematics, etc. And the test is based on logic, but is furthermore designed to test learning capability, memory, innovative thinking and the ability to simultaneously address several problems. Today I’d like to introduce an on-line IQ test to you. This test is developed to measure your general intelligence. Through this test, you can know how much your IQ is. For your information, my IQ was 120. I don’t know whether my IQ is high or not. According to the test evaluation, my IQ was almost normal. It will take only ten minutes to complete the test, so you should take the on-line IQ test as soon as possible, and please tell me how much your IQ is. This test consists of 40 questions, and the more questions you solve, the more difficult the questions become.
By the way, today I received e-mail from Mr. Kubo. He asked us to finish the draft of our commencement speech by Oct. 17. When I read his e-mail, I realized that this English course is near to an end. If possible, I want to continue studying English in this class. Anyway, I’ll try to do my best in the rest of Iyomishima days.

2003-10-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

I called my wife to ask her this weekend’s plan. When I heard her voice, I felt her voice was a little different from her usual voice. She seemed that she was tiered. So I asked her what happened to her before asking the plan. She told me that she had a touch of cold and had a fever of about 38 degrees. But she didn’t say that she felt bad because she wants to go to a trip this weekend. She tends to conceal of tolerate her health condition so that I might not be worried about it too much.
Even though I was looking forward to going to a trip, I might not be able to do it. But, it doesn’t matter with me. So I said to her that if she gets better, we would go to a trip.

Cold

2003-10-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

I caught a cold yesterday. I have a sore throat. From yesterday I have felt terrible. After coming back to my house my condition became worse.
To resolve my bad situation, I do three things. I close my window to be warmer. Actually, it is getting colder so I have to consider my room temperature.
Second I go to bed early. I went to bed at 9. I slept for 9 hours.
Third I take vitamine C. This vitamine is supposed to be good for a person catching a cold.
But this morning (Wednesday morning) I felt worse. What can I do?

2003-10-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today I was very busy with doing my monthly report. My prediction was completely wrong. After class I went to the head office and I was told to correct the part of it. I was very shocked to hear that. It means my skill of writing reports didn’t improve. And then I quickly went back to my room and worked on the correction. While I was doing this, my father called me. According to him my mother will be in the hospital to take some kind of operation on Thursday. So in order to take care of her I am doing to go back to Tokyo. So automatically I had to take approval of my report by tomorrow evening. It meant I wouldn’t take the speaking test. I was sorry for that but I will have to go.

2003-10-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Today I lent five movies at Tsutaya, because the day was a service day and I could lend a movie only by one hundred yen. I lent two 007 movies and two " Planet of the apes " movies. After I did homework, I watched a 007 movie. The movie was " Dr. No ". It's a first film of 007 series. When I began to watch the movie, I thought that the movie was second time for me, but eventually it was the first time for me to watch it. The movie was produced in 1962, so it's a kind of classic film. Of course, techniques are cheaper than recent films. As you know, there are some secret weapons in the 007 movies. For example, invisible car or wristwatch with high-power magnet something like that. But in this movie any special weapon is not appeared. To stretch a point, Bond's boss forced him to change his gun, Beretta to Walther. As Stone mentioned about before, the story is very similar to another 007 stories. Even though story or scanning techniques are not good, I prefer old 007 movies to recent films. In my opinion, Sean Connery or Roger Moore is suitable for the role than Pierce Brosnan.

2003-10-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

The left time when I can play soft volleyball in this area was just three times including today. And I was sure that I would be able to get back to Tokyo, so I told my team members that I would quit the team at the end of this month. Because they knew the fact, they planned to hold a farewell party for me on October 24th. They told me that they would never let me go home until the next morning even though they knew that I would play golf the following day. I’m wondering if I will be able to do well on October 25th. Maybe it will be impossible, but I could get a good excuse for my poor golf score.

2003-10-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I participated in a presentation which was made by a manager who had studied abroad for about two years. He said in his presentation that statistical methods weren’t important to our company. I don’t think so.
I also had been thinking that statistic wasn’t important until last year. But, a female manager, who was working for P&G, came to our company last year and she taught me statistics. I began to think that statistics isn’t almighty but very useful. We can control our products’ quality and predict a result from some samples by using statistics. So, I stated to study statistics on my own and bought some softwares of statistics such as JAMP and SPSS.
But I was too old to get new knowledge. And, I had forgotten that I wasn’t good at mathematics from the beginning. So it was very difficult for me to study statistics and I was about to give up that. At the same time, it was decided that I would take part in the English class. But, still now, I think that at least workers who work in the R&D department should learn statistics. After finishing the English class, I intend to study it again.

2003-10-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Oct. 7 (Tue) "M. C. Escher and LEGO"

Do you know a famous artist, M. C. Escher? He is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. He was born in Holland, and is most famous for his so-called impossible structures, such as “Ascending and Descending,” “Relativity,” and so on. In addition, he had been in Japan for about five years from 1873 to 1878. His art works are very famous and popular, so probably you have seen his works at least once. I love his graphic arts and when I was in Osaka I sometimes visited his museum. Today, I’d like to introduce a funny web page to you. You can see some interesting pictures on the web page. In the web page, someone is trying to describe his works using LEGO blocks. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the pictures at the first time because his pictures are called as trick art. Some of his LEGO’s works are amazing, so you should see them. They are completely beyond my expectation and also must be beyond your imagination. Click here!! You can see one of the M. C. Escher’s most famous graphic arts called “Waterfall” and also the picture rendered in LEGO. You can also know how they made them with the producer’s explanation and some pictures. Could you enjoy it?

2003-10-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today I read an article about bullet train, Shinkansen. The article was in The Daily Yomiuri, so many of my classmates may have already read it. According to the article, the state of California has a plan of high speed railway system. As you know, there are a lot of bullet trains in the world. Now, Japan is competing with France and Germany to get a contract. It has not decided yet which one will be chosen, but Japan is the most dominant according to the article. Japanese bullet train has the longest legend and the safest one at the same time. In addition, the circumstance of the state is a little similar to Japan. There are a lot of earthquakes at the state as same as Japan. When I was a child I wanted to become a driver of the train. As a matter of fact, I was thinking about it seriously when I was even in high school. I am not a railway mania, but I still like it very much. I think that Shinkansen is one of the biggest Japanese original technological achievements. I am looking forward to getting on the train at the state of California in the near future.

2003-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

After class I went to the head office to hand in the monthly report. Actually I had already submitted it to one of my bosses one week before but he had no time to look through and correct it. Until yesterday he had seemed to be tide with something. I thought he seemed to quickly look at and modify it yesterday. This time my report was not corrected so much so one and a half hour later since I went to the head quarter I accepted my boss’s acceptance. But today I have to go there again and take the permission from another boss. It is more difficult to get go-sign form him but he seemed not to be interested in my report because this class will almost finish and he doesn’t need to take care of me. So I am sure or I hope he will accept my monthly report without saying anything.

2003-10-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

I went to the municipal gym with Terry. But I was afraid of whether I would feel a sharp pain again while running. Fortunately, I didn’t feel any pain. On the contrary, I could afford to run 5.7 km for 30 minutes. Even though I though that I could run another five kilometers, I stopped running just in case. Instead of running, I did sit-ups and weight-lifting hard.
It has been about six months since I started to go to the gym. I succeeded in losing weight by about six kg during the period. I will have been here for at most one month. I wondered how many times I’ll go to the gym and how much weight I can lose while I’m here. After I go back to Saitama, I don’t think that I can continue to go jogging or work out because I’ll become busier. So, it is very important for me to lose weight as much as I can while I’m here.
But, during the rest of my Iyoishima life, I’d like to go to restaurants which I’ve never been, like a seafood restaurant “Banya” and a yakiniku restaurant “Sumiya”.

2003-10-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Mark had a possibility of angina, but he and I went to the gym as usual. He limited only the number of sit-ups, so I wondered if the control of exercise’s volume would be effective to his health or not. After leaving the gym, we went to Daiei. I took 31 comics and three video games to BOOK-OFF and HARD-OFF which are located on the upstairs of the supermarket and sold them. I sold the books and the games at 1840 and 4300 yen respectively. When I received money from a clerk, he asked me in front of the clerk, “Maybe you could sell the books and games at higher prices than the prices which you bought them at, couldn’t you?” Whoever thinks about it, it is quite clear that what he said never happens. So I was embarrassed by his careless words. Probably he wanted me to feel ashamed in front of the clerk. Tomorrow I’ll ask him to think about what he’s going to say carefully before he says it.

2003-10-06T02:56:00.000-07:00

Oct. 6 (Mon) "Surprising party"

On Sunday, I took part in the marathon race in Fukuoka with one of my previous customers. He is the president of a packaging material company. Though he was my customer, because of his caring character, I was treated by him many times when I was working in the Kyusyu branch. So I invited him to my wedding party and since then I’ve maintained good relations with him. Though about 5 years has passed since I was transferred to the Osaka branch, he always invites me to some events that he plans. This marathon race was also one of his projects and on Sunday about 20 people attended it. After the race, I attended a party that he designed. Today, I’d like to talk about it. For the party, he chartered one of the food stalls in Hakata that he usually goes. As you know, the food stalls are one of the most famous things in Fukuoka, so his unconventional idea surprised everyone. In addition we could have a lot of delicious foods at the party such as sliced raw whale, flied globefish and so on. He treated us such a delicious and expensive foods, and chartered the food stall, so he must have paid more than 500 thousand yen, I guess. By the way, in the middle of the party, a foreigner walked by the food stall, and at that time, my previous customer asked me to invite the foreigner to our party because he knew that I’ve studied English for about one year. Somehow I could invite him to our party and drink together. According to the foreigner, he is a student of Kyusyu University and he would start to study from today. He came to Japan on Saturday, and at that time, he was just walking around the center of Fukuoka city. I enjoyed a conversation with him and exchanged e-mail address, so I could make a new foreign friend. Though I couldn’t complete the marathon race I had a great time in Fukuoka.

2003-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I got up and found a piece of paper inside the door. Someone delivered the paper to me. The paper said that I would not able to smoke at my room for a month. In addition I will have to do cleaning bath room or laundry room several times. The reason was that some stupid guy smoked at the bath room even though smoking is forbidden at the place. When I knew the fact, I got angry. Only one month ago labor department decided the rule and informed everyone. I think it is too easy to keep the rule. I don’t know who broke the rule but the person is apparently fool or selfish. If the company knows such a person, the company must dismiss him. Anyway I had to clean my room preparatory for the room inspection which will be done by dormitory manager. If I will stay this city after this English course, I intend to lend a room at somewhere. I am tired of living with foolish guys. By the way I couldn’t use internet during the weekend at all. I irritated the situation. Now I am really mad because of these reasons. I want to leave the dormitory as soon as I can.

2003-10-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

Oct. 5 (Sun) "Marathon race"

Today, as I mentioned before, I attended the Fukuoka city marathon race. To my regret, I couldn't complete the race. Because time ran out, I had to give up the race at the point of 14.5 km. According to the race's rules, we had to run 15 km within 90 minutes. Last year, I couldn't run 10 km within 60 minutes, so I had to stop running at the point of 9.5 km. Compared with the last year's result, though I couldn't complete the race, I made a new record. Last year I didn't practice for the race at all, so I had a painful experience. This year, because I could lost my weight about 10 kg, and did some exercises, I had no trouble running 10 km. It made me very happy, but when I passed the 10 km point, I felt a terrible pain on my right knee. I've never run more than 10 km, so I entered uncharted territory. And because of that, I hurt my right leg. After the race, I couldn't go up and down the stairs and I had to walk along with dragging feet. Because of the pain, I almost missed the train; after I got off the Shinkansen at Okayama station, I had about 15 minutes to make a transfer to Shiokaze express train. Usually it takes me to get to the local train's platform about 5 minutes, but today it took me to get there about 15 minutes. Somehow, I could take the train, but I still have a terrible pain on my right leg. Anyway, I decided to run the race next year, so I have to practice hard to improve my record and complete the race.

2003-10-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I didn’t have anything to do and felt bored, so I ran to the gym. It took me 30 minutes to get there. Judging from the time, the distance from our dorm to the gym was five kilometers. After taking a rest at the gym for a while, I started to run to our dorm. After I came back to my room, I found on my cell phone display that Ozzy had called me, so I called him and decided to go out for dinner with him. We went to the restaurant where we held a farewell party for Tom and Reggie before. It was so cool that I ordered and drank hot sake for the first time in seven months. I got drunk a little, but we went to the bar after we left the restaurant. And there a hostess drew my eyebrows with her eyebrow pencil. Because of that, my eyebrows’ thickness was doubled, and many people in the bar laughed at me. As even Ozzy couldn’t stare at me without laughing, I was shocked by that.

2003-10-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I went to Takamatsu to go shopping and watch a movie with my co-workers. We went around some clothes shops but I was surprised I couldn’t find anything that I want to buy. I tried on wearing some clothes to make sure if they match. But something was different from I had imagined. Basically there were few shops I want to go. In addition items were limited. So I realized again Takamatsu was not suitable place for shopping. I ended up buying nothing. So I would go buy some clothes when I go back to Tokyo. After boring shopping we went to the theater in MYCAL. We were also very surprised that there were very few people there. We were planning to watch the movie that was going to start Saturday. In spite of that, there were only five people including us in the screen room. But because of that we were most relaxed and enjoyed watching the movie while stretching my legs on the seat. I didn’t mind making noise when I ate some snacks and drank Coca. In this day what was new to me was Takamatsu is not the place for shopping but watching the movies.
On Sunday I stayed at my room almost the whole day while I was cleaning my room for the movement, watching some videos, reading newspaper and doing my homework.

2003-10-05T03:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday
As I wrote in the yesterday’s journal, I went to the hospital to have an examination in the morning. I had an electrocardiogram but there wasn’t anything bad. The doctor said that my illness might have just a cramp of my stomach. When I come to think of it, I did sit-up too much in the gym on the day before I felt the sharp pain. I wondered that it had been bad. Anyway, I was relieved to hear that there is no anxiety anymore.
I went back to my dorm because I had a couple of hours to go to the class. And then I was watching TV while drinking a caned juice. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my mouth. At first, I thought that I had bitten my tongue on my own. But, when I looked at the inside of the can, I saw a bee there. Yes! My tongue was bitten by the bee. My tongue gradually swelled and paralyzed. So I went to the hospital which I went to in the morning.
How misfortunate I am! I don’t have any good thing during these two months. I think that the TOEIC test which I took last week could be a bad score. I might have written my answers in wrong places. It is natural that I couldn’t win at the pachinko.

On Saturday
It was fine today, so I cleaned the inside of my car for the first time in long ages. I must say good-by to my car in one month because I will leave for my house in Saitama prefecture and can’t afford to keep it there. So I did the last cleaning for it.
It was in winter about five years ago that I bought the car. At that time, I lived in Fuji city and had a motorbike. But it was too inconvenient to go to somewhere by motorbike there. So I decided to buy a car and met the present car in Simizu city which is far from Fuji city. At first I wanted a black car, but I came to like my red car at a glance. The color of my car was the same as my wife’s car’s color. What a coincidence! It was my wife who first sat on the passenger seat of my car.
The car expanded the range of my activities. My wife and I went to various places by the car, talked, laughed and fought in the car. I could experience a traffic accident by the grace of the car. I often used to wash the car on my own.
But, I must part from the car in one month, even though the car can work sufficiently. I hope that someone who cherishes the car owns it.

2003-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Do you support or oppose the plan a new restaurant may be built in your neighborhood? How do you think the plan of high school construction?
I may disagree with the plan of a new restaurant or theater construction in my neighborhood. Those places are always open until midnight. Many people may walk around those facilities around midnight. Some people may be drunk. Some people may be criminals. Some couples may kiss each other on the street. The street around my house may become dirtier. There may be some homeless people starting to live around here. But I live here. I prefer quiet life. I don’t need unknown people. I only need friendly and known neighbor.
I may accept the plan of a new high school. Academic city is suitable for residents, too. No pachinko shops, no bars, no gamblings are needed. Residents may be able to live calmly. There may be quiet nights. There may not be many crimes. My high school was in an academic city. There seemed to be good place to live. So I am confident of my decision of accepting this plan.

2003-10-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today after class I went to the cleaning shop to receive my clothes. And I asked an old employee if your shop can mend suit’s buttons. But she answered "No". I was disappointed at it because I will have to bring this suit to the department where I bought it. In addition it is located in Tokyo. I felt inconvenient about this but it was the only way to repair it. And then I arrived at my room dorm and went straight to the dorm’s cafeteria. During dinner I met George and we sit around the same table talking something. After eating I went back to my room and quickly fell asleep. After two hours’ nap, I tried to connect the Internet and fortunately I could. But recently I felt bored of writing something in this journal possibly because I chose the same topic.
But I received the writing topic lists in the class so I chose one of them. It was as following: Do you agree or disagree with the meaning ”Never, never give up”? By the way in the case this phrase meant keep trying and never stop working for your goals.
I disagree because I thought sometimes to give up and correct our goal is necessary when we find it difficult to accomplish. To persist the difficulty may get the situation worse. Take it for example the people trying to be accountant. You know if they become to be so, their future will be promising because this profession can make a large amount of money and it is highly socially accepted. But if they can’t after a couple of year effort, it means they waste their life. And almost anything is not left. It is like a gambling. It is very risky. They’d better change their mind and get another job. My friend is in the same situation now but he has the same thought as mine. He said to me he would give way to being an accountant if he fails in the entrance exam this year. I think is it is wise decision.

2003-10-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

I got an annual health check today. The people who work for our company have to get a health check at least one time a year. It is one of our duties. The reason I wrote “at least” was that the people who have some health troubles have to get a health check twice a year. I am almost healthy, but as you know, I am relatively fat so my blood also contains too much fat. I forgot to get the check last February, so it was the first health check for me after fourteen months. I had several kinds of physical exams including x-ray, blood test, blood pressure and somethings like that. I noticed that I had gained a lot of weight. I gained four kilograms in fourteen months. I know the reason. It was a negligence of physical exercise and excessive alcohol intake. It was obviously my own fault. I should do exercise more. At last I had an interview with a counselor. She of course mentioned my living conditions. I had been warned about by the same counselor several times since I entered the company. Originally the woman, the counselor, was fat. So her advice had not been persuasive over the years, but this time she was obviously thinner. I thought that she had made a lot of effort to lose weight. I tried to take the advice seriously because she showed by her appearance that her advice is effective for us .

2003-10-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

I read an article about antismoking. In kingdom of Bhutan, a small country located south of the Himalayan Mountains, smoking will be banned in several months. Recently, smoking is more commonly considered as bad behavior. The antismoking movement is gradually spreading all over the world. As you know a lot of cities have already instituted laws to ban smoking in some particular places. Speaking about Bhutan, smoking has been considering as bad behavior by tradition, related to religious reasons. The smoking rate in this country is less than ten percent. It is obviously a small number compared with our country. The rate in Japan is maybe around fifty percent. Now people in Bhutan can’t buy cigarettes in their country. I am sorry to hear that. To try quit smoking causes anguish to the smokers. The more people are forced to quit the behavior, the more they want to continue it. I think there will be some illegal business in selling cigarettes. I don’t know what kind people are there in the country, but the law will cause some troubles there. It is apparent we should think about the old prohibition law in the U.S.

2003-10-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

According to So-net news, Toyota Motor Co. announced today that they received about six times the number of orders for its new hybrid car, Prius which was launched last month, than their planned monthly goal of 3000 cars.
To my surprise, Prius can get 35.5km per a liter of gas, which means that the car has the most economical mileage, and its operating efficiency was improved dramatically compared with the previous model. So people of many ages have been attracted by the car, and they want to get it as soon as possible. Although Toyota produces as many as they can by working day and night and on weekends, the number of Prius they can produce for a month is only six thousands. So customers must wait for over three months to get the car. Because of this news, I’m convinced that Toyota is the best car manufacturer in the world.

2003-10-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

Today, after class I had my hair cut. Contrary to my expectations, the barbershop that I usually have my haircut at was a little busy. Actually, the shop is managed by one person, so if a customer is there, we have to wait. Today I had to wait for about one hour to have my haircut. During the waiting time, I read some magazines in the shop. Because I waited there for one hour, I was a little exhausted. So while I was having my haircut, I took a catnap almost the whole time. By the way, I think that it’s very comfortable to take a nap during the haircut. What do you think about it?
After that I came back to my room and started to do my packing for my weekend short trip. When I was packing up, my cell phone suddenly started ringing. The phone call was from one of the chief managers in the Osaka branch. Because it was the first time that he called me since I came to this city, I thought that he called me to notify me informally about my next place of work. But it was not an unofficial announcement call but a thank-you call. When I was working in the Osaka branch, I visited his customer to introduce our new products. But the client was quality-conscious so we had to take some quality verification testing. It slipped my mind completely that the tests would take about one year to complete, according to his explanation, we passed the test and could open a new account. Because about one year has passed since I joined this English class, I tend to forget about my real job. His phone call really made me happy and encouraged me to think about the pleasure of sales. I have to gear up for the sales job.

2003-10-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

When the class stated, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest. It was a pain that I’ve never experienced before. At first, I thought that I had eaten rotten food by mistake and come down with food poisoning. But, I neither had diarrhea nor felt nausea. But I couldn’t even sit at my desk because of the pain. So I decided to go to see a doctor.
At first, I went to the Kempo-Kaikan which Daio owns. I had a lot of examinations like electrocardiograms, X-ray photos, taking blood and taking urine, and I had two injections. I felt better suddenly just after I had the examinations, even though I didn’t know whether it was because of the shots. But, the doctor told me that he didn’t know why I had become sick like that. While I was having the examination of electrocardiogram, I saw a bill on the wall. According to the bill, my symptoms were similar to the symptoms of angina pectoris or cardiac infraction. So I was worried about my condition and I decided to go to another hospital in order to have more detailed examination
I went to Iyomishima hospital in the afternoon. I had the exact same examinations there. It took me about four hours to finish them. Even though my illness wasn’t cardiac infraction, the doctor didn’t know what in the world my illness was.
So I must go to see the doctor to have another examination. I’m sorry, but please let me be absent from the class in the next morning.

2003-10-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Just a short reminder for students:

You are expected to write a journal entry everyday. Recently, I've only required you to write one entry on the weekend. But you should have four entries for each work week (Monday - Thursday).

If you miss a day you should enter an extra essay to make up for that entry.

Journals will be checked and graded often.

Thanks.

2003-10-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

I drank some alcohol alone last night, because in the refrigerator there was a bottle of wine. This white wine was opened a few months ago. I drank one third of the bottle before I went to Hawaii. So two third of the bottle was remained in the refrigerator.
The wine became less delicious. It was changed badly. But after drinking wine, I drank a little cognac and it was delicious even if this cognac bottle was opened several months ago. And it was presented to my father-in-law several years ago.
I wondered why wine became tasteless easily and cognac didn’t change the taste at all while drinking and being drunk. Wine is a kind of brew. Brew is made by fermentation. The specie depends on what is fermented. Wine is from grapes, Sake is from rice, beer is from wheat and so on. Cognac is a kind of liquor or spirit. Spirit is made by distillation. For example, brandy is distilled from wine. I knew the difference between wine and cognac. But I couldn’t know the reason why the taste was changed.