英会話プライベートレッスン

Hello everyone, this is Anand with an Awesome English update. ?I hope you guys had a good week! ?I guess you could say I had a good one considering I just turned 32! ?I got myself a rather unusual present for my birthday…Indian citizenship, or the next best thing. ?After five trips to the Indian Embassy, I finally got my Overseas Citizen of India, or OCI card. ?What that means is basically I am an Indian citizen except I can’t work for the government or vote, which is fine considering I pay no heed to the news anyway. ?It’s a useful thing to have because it means I can come and go to India as I please without having to buy a costly visa with every trip. ?And of course, it is nice to reconnect with my ancestral home. ?I am still not sure if I will be back again anytime soon, but it’s nice to know that it won’t cost me as much – and that thought, perhaps more than the card itself, is about as Indian as it gets.

Hi there, this is Anand with another Awesome English update. ?Looks like rainy season is on its way out and there are plenty of hot sunny days ahead. ?For some of you, I am sure that is just as bad as the rain. ?If you see yourself staying in to beat the heat, I would recommend using that time to study. ?Thankfully study methods have evolved exponentially since I began studying Japanese, with specialized apps on the rise made to put a little more fun, practicality and portability into language learning. ?One of the programs I have been using is called Duolingo. ?It is a pretty simple, and surprisingly free app available for iPhone and Android. ?You can choose several different languages to learn, but I tend to stick to French. ?It’s a free program, but it makes a good supplement to textbook learning. ?A lot of the time you will be arranging pre-selected words into sometimes-clunky sentences and to be honest, you can usually deduce the answers instead of using the language to understanding them. ?In other words, no one is going to learn a language with this app, but if you have a long train commute or a few spare minutes at lunch, you might as well try it out.

Here is one of the odder sentences that it has come up with.

Hello everyone, this is Anand with another Awesome English update! ?I hope you enjoyed the short reprieve from the rain. ?Looks like it is coming back in full force! ?I managed to take full advantage of our sunny weekend with a trail run in Tanzawa. ?It’s the first time I have run since Gifu, so I was admittedly a little nervous. ?However, it was worth coming out of semi-retirement! It felt great running through the rocks and trees, even though it was really tiring. ?And admittedly, we spent most of the time climbing hills so steep that they were impossible to climb! ? We also spent part of the day getting lost and trying to find our way back on the trail. ?All in all, it was worth the tired feeling of the next day and I guess I will never be fully able to get running out of my system.

Hello everyone, this is Anand here with another Awesome English update! ?I hope the you all have been staying dry in what continues to be some of the crappiest weather I can remember short of Canadian blizzards. ?Speaking of Canada, we just celebrated our independence from Britain a few days ago. ?Canada Day is on July 1st, and while it often gets overshadowed by USA’s Independence Day, it is just as important to us Canadians. ?Though the celebrations are pretty similar, as with all things Canadian, it isn’t quite as flashy or as large scale, but it is a great chance to reflect on what it means to be a Canadian and just how lucky we are to be able to enjoy the privileges and benefits that Canada provides its people.

We had a few activities at our preschool to celebrate the two days. ?I guess my bias is pretty clear. ?

Hello everyone, this is Anand with the Awesome English update! ?I hope you are all having a good time in the rainy, rainy weather. ?I hope, if nothing else, you have all gotten ready for Tanabata! ?As I wrote last week, we recently got our hand on a bamboo tree for Tanabata. ?Well it’s been a few days since then and not only did we manage to put it up, we also have it fully decorated. ?If you look closely, you will see wishes, paper chains and a lot of other colorful doodads that make a wonderful tree and a happy school. ?I hope that if you haven’t put up a tree, that you at least have a wish in your life, or something to look forward to this Tanabata! ?Have a good weekend!

Anand

Hello everyone, this is Anand with another Awesome English report! ?I hope you all are enjoying the longer and longer days. ?The plus side to these longer days is that I get to see lots of sunlight on the way home…the problem is that it wakes me up in the morning!

Anyway, with the summer months in full effect, it is time to get ready for Tanabata. ?Although I run an international school, we try and enjoy Japanese culture, since most of our kids are Japanese. ?In any case, this year we decided to get a piece of bamboo and make a real tree.

We managed to find a patch of bamboo near one of our kids’ homes so we drove one over and snatched one up (and be snatched I mean asked the landlord politely). ?We haven’t shown the kids yet, but the Japanese staff were pretty excited!

Now all that is left is to make a wish…

Hello everyone, this is Anand with another Awesome English update! ?I hope you guys managed to stay dry in the crazy rain that came around Yokohama…is it rainy season already? ?Father’s Day is still a few days away, but I hope you guys have all done your shopping and have gotten all of your items ready! ?Father’s Day is always fun when you work with lots of kids and that is basically what I do. ?I have been working pretty hard in our international preschool to deliver as many quality lessons as I can. ?I like to think that I do all right. ?This year I put a lot of focus on face parts. It’s good fun playing with kids and they always seem to make wacky faces – much wackier than the ones I come up with. ?It gets even funnier on Father’s Day, because I throw in words like “mustache” and “beard”. ?The kids love it, and so do I.

Hello everyone, this is Anand with the Awesome English update!! ?I hope you are all managing to get out and enjoy the great weather we have been having. ?As you know, this blog basically covers my running progress and the variety of things I like to eat. ?This post is no different. ?I just got back from a very busy weekend at Gifu prefecture. ?I ran my longest run yet – 71 kilometers in the city of Takayama! ?I had a pretty good time there (except for the painful part where I had to run for 10 hours) and got to eat lots of Hida beef in the process. ?I also got to check out a great hostel – K’s House Takayama, with its friendly staff and great facilities (and low price!) ?The run itself was a beautiful course, but much harder than I expected. ?My habit of doing no research before running turned out to bite me big time, as I found myself having to run up a mountain for about 40 kilometers only to destroy my knees running downhill for the last 30. ?Needless to say, I will run another one, but not for a long time.

Hi there, this is Anand with another Awesome English update! ?I hope you guys are all enjoying the nice weather and getting out and about. ?I took a trip to Shimokitazawa and visited a place called Robson Fries. ?It’s a french fry store with a Canadian bent, and that means lots of poutine! ?You know, when people ask about Canadian food, the easy answer is “maple syrup”. ?But actually, a much better answer is poutine. ?Poutine is a French Canadian food – in its most fundamental form, it is french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. ?There are many theories as to why it’s so popular, but I suspect that it’s because poutine is a warm comfort food that helps people get through cold winters. ?In any case, Robson Fries claims to serve authentic poutine…and well, as a Canadian the taste is good, but they fail in the cheese department. ?While I am sure that the uninitiated will approve, the cheese curds are really what make poutine what it is. ?That said, it’s probably the closest thing I will ever get to the real stuff, so if you want to try something that kinda tastes like poutine, give Robson Fries a chance!

Hello everyone, this is Anand with another Awesome English update! ?I hope you guys are keeping cool in this crazy heat. ?My only worry is that it will somehow get even hotter in the coming months…In any case, I was walking in Don Quixote the other day and as I walked aimlessly around the show section I found myself with an old dilemma. ? You probably can’t tell from any of my blog posts, but I am a pretty short guy at around 160 centimeters tall. ?That is the kind of short that crosses international borders. ?No one in the world would consider me anything buy “short”. ?But in any case, I came across a pair of elevator shoes – the kind of shoes that can add a couple inches to your height. ?Anyone who is even near my size has thought about buying them, including myself. ?I however, refuse to use them. ?I feel like wearing them would be an admission that my height bothers me and would be a far bigger statement than just being short would ever be. ?The fact of the matter is that there are things in our life that we have no control over, and to try and change these things speaks volumes, as does continuing to live your life and not letting them bother you. ?So while I do contemplate walking around a couple of inches taller than usual, I don’t think I will be wearing those shoes anytime soon.