英会話プライベートレッスン

Hello there everyone, I hope you are all enjoying your holidays. ?This of course is an assumption that you actually have holidays now…As you can probably tell, I am not on holiday, though the school is closed for the New Year. ?But this as actually a good thing. ?I have been aching for a chance to get some desk work done and I think I will finally get the chance today! ?And I will actually get a little time off after New Year’s Day, so I am looking forward to that.

Since it is so hard to ship presents overseas my family and we tend to just send each other stuff online. ?This year I got a subscription to the Japan Times. ?It’s a pretty good present for me, or at least I think so.

People tend to come to Japan in order to see what’s outside of their home country, ?but actually what ends up happening after a few years is that you just create a bubble for yourself. ?A lot of foreigners aren’t aware of the news in their own country, and what is worse, they don’t know what is happening in Japan either. ?Is this really broadening your horizons? ?In a way, it is more closed that being informed in your own country. ?I have been guilty of this for a long time.

The news is an important way to break out of this bubble. ?Naturally, even tho
ugh I read in English, I am still learning about Japan. ?I am also learning about how Japan exists and is seen outside of where I am. ?I consider it a small vacation from my Japanese life.

It seems like it’s the best vacation I will get for the time being!

Talk to you later,

Anand

Hello everyone, I hope you are all enjoy the unique Christmas atmosphere in Japan. ?I know I am, that I am currently at work. Christmas in Japan is a very strange thing. ?A lot of the focus is put on the shopping and dating aspects, but there isn’t much emphasis put on being with your family or being around the people you love. ?I suppose the Japanese save that kind of thing for New Years, when all of us foreigners are drinking ourselves silly. ? Instead of what I am used to, most Japanese people spend their time working on Christmas.

It is my first time working on Christmas in 30 years of life. ?Even though Christmas is technically tomorrow, it is a strange feeling being in an office on Christmas Eve, since I know that I have to work tomorrow as well. ?It is one of those times where I don’t feel like I belong , since everyone else around me thinks that this is normal whereas Christmas back home is the one day that everyone, no matter where you are from, considers a holiday.

And what is more, it shows just how much Western culture is ingrained into who I am, since I really don’t care all that much about Christmas when I am back home. ?However, now that I am here I find myself appreciating all the Christmases I got to spend with my brothers just a little more.

I suppose I must make the most of it. ?Though I have to work, I am privileged to work with some good people whom I consider my friends. ?It’s not Christmas back home, but I’ll take it.?

Hello everyone, Anand here as always with the Awesome English update! ?I hope you are all doing well in the cold, since it definitely seems to be extra strong these days. ?Granted, I am from Canada so I am used to cold winters. ?But winters in Japan are different, because while the actual temperature is not as cold, I find myself freezing indoors. ?I do miss central heating around this time of the year. ?In any case, whether you use a stove, heated floors, an air conditioner or a ton of sweaters, I hope you are staying warm somehow.

But central heating is not the only thing I miss of course. ?Having just come back from Hawaii, I realize how much I missed all of my favorite foods. ?Specifically I miss good burgers and pizza. ? Of course, it’s possible to get a proper burger around Japan if you look hard enough, but you end up paying through the teeth for them. ?With pizza this is even more prevalent, as it is near impossible to get a good, large pizza without paying less than 3000 yen. ?To any Canadian, this is absurd, as the amount of pizza that can be bought with that amount of money is ridiculous. ?I am talking two extra large pizzas with my choice of toppings.

The food I can get in Japan is great. ?I can get some of the finest cuisine a guy can ask for as long as I am willing to pay for it. ?However, I miss the sheer quantity I was able to get back home. ?If I went home I might pine for a good bowl of soba or a nice plate of Chinese food, but I might bee too full of burgers and pizza to do anything about it.

Hello there everyone, Anand here as always. ?I am back from Hawaii and though I had to spend most of the time doing work, I still got to enjoy some beautiful landscapes, some good food and some great weather. ?It was tough getting off the plane and getting back into the cold, but I guess it wouldn’t be all that special if it was my life everyday. ?I wonder what it must be like to grow up and live in Hawaii all your life…I imagine it is nice.

On the other hand, I feel sorry for people who live in Hawaii sometimes. ?I feel sorry for them because it’s hard to imagine them having anything but an awesome life. ?See, I am sure Hawaiian people have their own hardships – they have bills to pay, they go through divorces, they lose their wallets – but they do all of those things in Hawaii, so no one outside of Hawaii really feels sympathy for them. ?Well, at least I, being a person from a country whose winters hit -20 degrees Celsius, do not.

In any case, I was around Waikiki for a a few days, but in between bouts of work, I did manage to make it out to the beach a little and I got driven around to do a little sightseeing. ?Most importantly, I got to eat all of the food I have been missing – wings, burgers, macaroni and cheese, and so on. ?It was a good time, to say the least.?

Hello there everyone, Anand here as always. ?I am posting early this week, because I am going to be out of the country for a little while. ?More specifically, I am going to Hawaii! ?Technically I am going there for work, but thankfully I do get a little time to myself. ?One of the the things I will be doing is, of course, running. ?As you might have read, if you have any interest in this blog whatsoever, is that I like to run, and that I ran a full marathon about 2 weeks ago. ?In about 3 days (depending on the time zone) I will be running in another full marathon in Honolulu. ?It’s a different feeling than last week’s run for sure. ?For the last one I was pretty unsure of whether I could even finish, but in the end, despite a slow time, I felt fine. ?In some ways running was a mistake, because now that I know that I can run with a general sense of confidence, I don’t feel like training at all. ?I haven’t really done any training in the last 2 weeks to be totally honest . ?I am hoping I have enough fitness from previous training to power me through this run. ?If nothing else, I just hope to beat my co-workers, especially the girls at my preschool. ?I am a petty man that way. ?In any case, the info package finally arrived. ?This whole thing suddenly seems a lot more real.

See you soon!

Hello everyone, Anand as always with an update. ? If any of you are familiar with American culture, you know that one of the biggest days of the year was just last week, that day being Thanksgiving. ? Now it’s always weird to talk about Thanksgiving for me, since as a Canadian I celebrate Thanksgiving in October. ?But to the rest of the world, Thanksgiving is a November thing. ?In most cases I am pretty steadfast about maintaining the difference between Canada and America, but in this case I tend to relent. ?I especially do so now because I work in a preschool. ?See, if you were a three year old kid, would you rather have an awesome Halloween party, or a Thanksgiving party? ?With the busy schedule we have at our school there is only room for one party, so I tend to bite the bullet and treat Thanksgiving as a November occasion. ?It works out well, because then the kids get to celebrate and understand both events. ?At Sunrise we had the kids make several types of food out of paper, toilet paper rolls, tissue and so on.

Just take a look at this spread and tell me it doesn’t make you hungry (for the real thing).

You are looking at turkey legs, corn, salad, a stuffed turkey, rolls, pumpkin pie and some drinks to wash it down.

That is a proper Thanksgiving, if you ask me.