Writing about people/人物を描写している

Hello!

Image "Beautiful Young Woman" courtesy of posterize/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here's our 2nd writing assignment (作文 2): how to describe people (人物を描写).

1. Look at the picture at the top:

This person has black shoulder-length hair and dark eyes. She's slender and good-looking. 

2. Now here are some extra details about her clothes (洋服がさらに細かい描写): 

She's wearing a black sweater and gray scarf with blue jeans. 

3. So, a sample description (例え描写) about her looks like this: 

This person has black shoulder-length hair and dark eyes. She's slender and good-looking. She's wearing a black sweater and gray scarf with blue jeans. 

4. Now write about what you think the person's feelings are. 

This person has black shoulder-length hair and dark eyes. She's slender and good-looking. She's wearing a black sweater and gray scarf with blue jeans. I think she's...

Activity
Now let's try to do the same thing - choose one of the people in the pictures below. Write a paragraph (描写) about the person of 4-5 sentences about:

1. What he or she looks like and the clothes he or she is wearing.

2. What you think his or her feelings are. 

NOTE: In some of the pictures, you might not see the person's clothes, so you can just write about what  they look like and how you think they feel. 

1.

2

2. 
3. 

3. 

4. 

5.

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6. 

7. 

Have fun!

Photo credits: 1. "Beautiful Young Woman" (courtesy of posterize) 2. "Preparing For Dinner" (courtesy of imagerymajestic) 3. "Smiling little girl 

Photo credits: 1. "Preparing For Dinner" (courtesy of imagerymajestic) 2. "Seated African Child" (courtesy of africa) 3. "Older Man With Hat" (courtesy of Rosemary Ratcliff) 4. "Asian Woman Have A Headache" (courtesy of tiverylucky) 5. "Old African Man" (courtesy of africa) 6. "Young Man Thinking Seriously" (courtesy of podpad) 7. "Asian Woman Smiling On The Bedroom Floor" (courtesy of Feelart)/All pictures from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to use a, an, the/a, an, theの使うこと

Hello!

How are you? Here's a special post about how to use a, an, and the. Knowing how to use these words is very important!

Using 'a' or 'an'

We use a or an with any noun. (aとかan は何でも名詞を使う。)

1.  'a'

例えば：Here is a textbook. 

textbook     textbook     textbook

textbook     textbook     textbook

(何でもテキスト。)

I like to study in a coffee shop.

coffee shop     coffee shop

coffee shop     coffee shop

(なんでもコーヒーショップ。)

Mark is a boy in our class.

Keiko         Takeshi        Mark                   

Maria          Taro           Anne

Maria is a girl in our class.

She writes in a yellow notebook in English class.

We eat our lunch in a large cafeteria.

2. 'an'

*We use an with nouns that begin with vowel sounds, and nouns with silent “h.” (anは名詞の母音とサイレント”h”が始める 。)

例えば：I eat an apple every day with lunch.

(何でもリンゴ。) 

I like to have an egg on toast with coffee for breakfast.

(何でも卵 。)

He has an idea about what to cook for dinner.

(…)

She’s wearing an orange dress today.

There’s an umbrella on the floor next to Keiko’s bag.

Our class will start in an hour.

Using 'the'

We use the with specific or particular nouns. (the は特定の名詞を使う。)

例えば：Here is the English textbook.

history textbook     Japanese textbook    

English textbook    science textbook

Starbucks is the coffee shop I like.

Doutor     St. Marc     Tully’s     Starbucks

Keiko is the girl in the first row.     

                     1^st row: 

Keiko         Takeshi        Mark     

                    2^nd row:  

Maria           Taro            Anne

Taro is the boy in the second row.

Russia is the largest country in the world.

Russia: 17,098,242 km²

Canada: 9,984,670 km²

U.S.: 9,826,675 km²

China: 9,596,961 km²

(…)

Mr. Suzuki is the teacher for our history class. 

Keiko, Maria and Anne are the girls in our Japanese class. 

The English class is down the hall next to the computer room. 

(Finally - look at my picture for this blogpost. This is the moon - so I could say something like this: The moon is rising over the mountains!) 

I hope this can help you to remember how to use a, an, and the. 

See you again!

Writing about places/場所・位置を描写している

Hello!

Image "Ancient Ruins In Delphi" courtesy of thephotoholic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today, let's do some writing about places! 

Look at the picture above. What feelings do you get about the place in the picture? What adjectives (形容詞) do you think of when you see this place? 

Activity
Here is an activity for you. Look at these pictures. Choose one and write a paragraph of 4-5 sentences about it. 

Homework
When you are finished, choose a different picture for homework. Write a paragraph of 5-6 sentences about it. 

Images: unattributed photographs in list from National Geographic except first image "Old Historical Church" (courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) 

and final image (personal photograph). I do not own the rights to the National Geographic or Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos images. They are uploaded strictly for educational use. All rights reserved.

See you next time!

More answers to your survey questions (Part 3)/アンケートの答えをつづき (Part 3)

Hello once again!

This is the last post to answer your survey questions about me! 

Some questions about books and movies
A student asked me: what's your favorite book?

I think my all-time favorite book is by Henry Miller, called Tropic of Capricorn. In Japanese, that book was called 南回帰線.  It's one of the funniest books I have ever read, and I have loved it even now.

If you want to know more about Henry Miller, click on this link.

One person asked: what is your favorite movie? That's a tough question, because I don't know that I have a favorite movie, because I have so many! So I'll show a clip of a movie I really liked when I was in university called The Unbearable Lightness of Being (in Japanese, 存在の耐えられない軽さ).  
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It is one of my most favorite movies of all time. Here is the Japanese promotional trailer for the movie:

This movie made me want to travel to eastern Europe - especially the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. On that point, one student asked me: where is the best country you've been to? Well of course, I live in and love being in Japan, and I grew up in Australia, but maybe the best country I have traveled to was Poland.

The food was great, the people were wonderful, and there are so many famous places there. I really liked the Czech Republic too - it was the background to 存在の耐えられない軽さ. 

Finally, a student asked me: how many countries have you been to? Well, I have been to Japan, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, Mexico, Canada, the UK, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria.

Some more questions about me
Finally, here's more about me! One person asked me: where did you enjoy hanami? 

Well, that person was asking about this picture:

This picture was taken in Shakujiikouen, in Nerima-ku in Tokyo. It was next to my wife's parents' house.

Another student asked me: what do you do on weekends? 

To answer that question: I get busy on weekends - walking our dog, cleaning our house, sometimes writing blogposts, and cooking dinner. My wife cooks on the week days when I'm working, so on weekends, I usually try to cook.

That's it! I hope I have answered all of your questions. Take care, and see you in class!

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the video, or the film in it. It is uploaded strictly for educational purposes. 

More answers to your survey questions (Part 2)/アンケートの答えをつづき (Part 2)

Hello again!

How are you? Here is another post on your survey questions.

Questions about Japan
Some students asked me this question: what do you like in Japan?

Well, I think the person is asking about places. There are many places I like! One place I like is Karuizawa, in Nagano. Another place I like is Fukuoka. The bayside of Fukuoka is a lot like two cities in North America I really like - San Francisco and Vancouver.

Another part in Japan I like is the train ride going down the Miura Peninsula (三浦半島). I like the small towns and cities there, like Taura and Zushi, and of course, Kamakura.

Another person asked me: where do you want to go in Japan? 

That's an interesting question. One place I have not been to that I want to go to is Nagasaki. It's a historic place and every time I see it on TV, I see video of their famous street cars, running on the rails in the streets. It's very European and charming. It looks like a very interesting city.

Questions about food
One person asked me: what do you like about Japan? It feels like a Japan question - but to really answer that question, I can say that like many things, but maybe most of all, I love the food here, especially the fish dishes. I love fish, so of course, I love sushi and sashimi!

Another student asked me what my favorite food was, and I can also say it is unagi. I love it! I love the smell, the taste, and the sauce of unagi.

One interesting question I got from a student was: what kind of curry do you like? My answer - spicy  curry! I love Indian and Thai curry. I like Japanese curry too, but Indian and Thai curry are my favorites.

Questions about animals
A student asked me: what is your favorite animal? Well, I love cats!

Last year, My wife and I went to Odawara with some friends. Odawara is a charming city and was fun to walk around in, and this picture above is from a shop window there. We saw this cat in the window! Maybe he was the pet of the shop owner.

We have three cats and one dog at home! Our cats' names are Czerny (ツェルニ), Sesame (セサーミ), and Pepper (ペッパー).  Our dog's name is Freddie (フレディー). Here are their pictures:

I don't want to make this post too long, so I will make one more post for you after this to answer all your questions.

See you there!

More answers to your survey questions/アンケートの答えをつづき

Hello again!

Here are more answers to your survey questions!

Questions about English and teaching
I got some questions about English and teaching.

One person asked me: what is the best way for me to study English? Another person asked me: what should I do to talk well to you? 

My best answer to the first question is this:

DON'T STUDY ENGLISH ANYMORE! START USING IT!  I'm serious. Don't study English any more - you have studied it enough! I want you to use it - in speaking and writing. Use it with me. Post comments to this blog anytime! That's the best thing you can use for your English.

My best answer to the second question is:

USE ENGLISH WITH ME ANYTIME YOU WANT! That is the best way to talk with me.

Some questions about teaching:

Why did you become a teacher? Well, I became a teacher because my best friend is a teacher - a high school art teacher in my hometown. He was first an English teacher - in Poland. He was a great example for me to become a teacher.

Another question: what makes you happy as a teacher?

This is great question! I love this one. well, my best answer to this question is this: what makes me happy as a teacher is when I see students doing things they have never done before, and having a good time doing them. 

I hope, in this class, that I can show you things you have never seen before, and help you in your writing to do things you have never done before. I will try!

Questions about my wife
Some of you have also asked: are you married? Well, the answer is yes!

Some of you who knew I was married asked: where is your wife from? Well, she is Japanese - she was born in Shinjuku, but was raised in both Tokyo and Saitama, in Sayama.

Another person asked me - how old is she? Well, she's now 48 years old.

One person asked me what she cooked that I like. Well, she's a great cook who can cook many dishes very well, but maybe I would say that one dish of hers I really like is grilled salmon. She does that especially very well!

Another person asked me: what did you say when you proposed to your wife? Well, I said - "so…how would you like to get married?"

Questions about music
I got one question about music: what kind of music do you like?

Well, I will answer this so I can post videos of the kind of music I like! I like rock and jazz, especially rock music from the 1960s and 1970s. Here's an example of one rock musician I like - Jimi Hendrix:

Here's an example of a jazz musician I like too - John Coltrane:

I have some more questions to answer, so look for Part 3 of my answers soon!

See you then!

                            All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. They have been uploaded here strictly for educational use.

Answers to your survey questions/アンケートの答え

Hello!

How are you? As I have promised, I will answer your survey questions.

Questions about me
First, many of you have asked this question: how old are you? Well, I'll tell you. I'm 52 years old.

One or two people asked me: where are you from? Well, I put this on my profile on this blog in both English and Japanese - I'm from the U.S., but grew up in Australia.

One person asked me: do you like turtleneck sweaters? The answer is yes, I do! 

Another person asked me: what's your favorite kanji? Well, that's a hard question, but I guess one kanji I really like is this one:

園

In English, this is "garden." It's very simple, but I love the design of the kanji. It's like a woman in a beautiful kimono in a nice space!

I also like my wife's kanji too, because it's a beautiful one too: 愛香 (あいか).  In English, this means "beautiful fragrance."

Questions about sports
I got some questions about sports. Here's one:

What's your favorite baseball team? I don't know that I have a favorite baseball team, but one major league team I like is the Detroit Tigers. Detroit, as a city, has had a lot of problems, so when their sports teams play well, I'm very glad. The Tigers were a poor team for a long time, but over the last few years they have gotten much better.

I think for Japanese teams, I really like the Hiroshima Carp and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Carp weren't very good for a long time, but they also are playing much better now. The Golden Eagles are still a new team, and they beat the Giants for the Japan Series last year! I was so glad!

Another person asked me: what's your favorite basketball team? Well, right now, maybe the Portland Trail Blazers, because they're doing very well in the NBA playoffs right now. They're the closest good team to my home state of Idaho in the U.S., so I'm really happy for them.

A student asked me: do I know world soccer teams? The answer is yes, I do! I know all the English Premier League teams. I also know the big Serie A teams, and the Liga Espanol teams too. Of course, I also know the Bundesliga teams too.

Maybe my favorite English team is Wigan Athletic. They were a small team that went all the way up in English soccer to the Premier League. They won the FA Cup last year of the first time. Here's a video of Wigan Athletic FA Cup victory highlights:

But one question another student asked me was: what's your favorite sport?

For me, that would be ice hockey. This is my favorite sport. It's fast, hard, great scoring, and I love it!

This was a clip of Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup finals - the championship of ice hockey in the U.S. and Canada.

I have many questions to answer! So this is Part 1 of my answers. Look for Part 2 next!

See you then!

All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. They have been uploaded here strictly for educational use.

Writing about a gift/プレゼント、おみやげを描写している

Hello!

Image "Orange Colored Box" courtesy of adamr/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today let's begin our first writing assignment (作文1) - writing about a gift. 

Activity

Look at the gift box in the picture. What do you think is in it? Imagine what kind of present is in the box. Who is it for? Is it expensive? Where was the gift bought? 

Thank about all these things, and write a short paragraph, 4-5 sentences long, about it.  

Good luck! See you next time!