英会話プライベートレッスン

Hello everyone. It looks like our little taste of spring was in fact just a taste since it is pretty darn cold today. I am coming off of a pretty good weekend. While I did get out to Shibuya for a few drinks with my friends, I also managed get some important stuff done. I am part of a dying breed of people who still write letters to their friends. I mean hand-written, pen-on-paper letters. I originally started writing them as a way to practice my kanji, but over time I started writing to my friends back home.

While instant messaging is convenient, it is also not a very personal way to communicate. People just leave conversations without saying good bye, and they generally don’t put much thought into what they want to say. Writing a letter forces you to think and forces you to make sense. It also forces you to slow down. Most people faster than they think (or faster). No one can write faster than they think. Writing a letter also makes you accountable for your own spelling. Nothing is going to do the spelling for you, so you have to check yourself or risk not making sense.

Letters are a great thing, but there are downsides as well. Specifically, they take a long time to write. Of course, you have to wait for a response. And perhaps the hardest thing about writing a letter is that there is arguably no need to. We do have Facebook, Line, and Twitter, so why bother spending time writing a letter?

Well Facebook, Line and Twitter are all useful and powerful applications, but they aren’t accessible to everyone. I find myself writing mainly to senior citizens or shut-ins who can’t be bothered to use their computers. It’s a niche crowd, but they are diligent when it comes to the craft and are the most thankful when someone younger makes the effort to communicate.

So while I still suffering from sore hands from a Sunday of writing letters, I have no regrets.

Hello there everyone, it’s Anand as always. ? You’ll notice you don’t really see any more updates about me running these days. ?There is a good reason…see, I generally don’t spend most of my time in my apartment eating candy. ?Yes, I love running, but I am not a fan of being cold. ?It is like two parts of me are fighting.

On the other hand, I have been trying to train my mind a little more. ?These days I try and get as much studying and reading in as I can, and it has been a lot of fun. ?Of course, there are plenty of ways to train your mind, a lot of them being conventional. ?I do a lot of kanji practice, studying French and so on.

However, I think there are plenty of other ways to keep one’s mind sharp. ?For instance, I am trying to read more, reading the newspaper to be more specific. ?I am also trying to study new things, like geography. ?I have spent so much time in Japan I think I have created a bubble for myself which has cut me off from a lot of the world.

But in addition to expanding my mind, I am also trying to be more focused. ?Now that I have a sweet computer and a sweet smartphone, I find myself being distracted by one thing when I am trying to do another thing. ?As a result, I just do a lot of things poorly.

But I am starting off slow. ?I am trying to watch movies in the theater more often. ?When I watch a movie at home, I usually watch 15 minutes of the movie and then end up chatting on Facebook or looking at a youtube video. ?If I feel particularly committed, I might watch another 15 minutes later.

To show you just how slow I am starting out, I picked one of the most mindless, pointless films I have ever seen to start. ?I picked “Escape Plan”, starring Stallone and Schwarzeneggar (I think I spelled it right). ? They were icons when I was a kid, but at this point I think their best days are behind them. ?Still, it was nice to go out to a theater again, and who knows…I might even drag myself to a Japanese movie one of these days.

Until then, I will stick with mindless action.

Hello everyone and Happy New Year again.? If you guys are feeling cold, just keep in mind that it’s been incredibly cold back in Toronto where I am from.? Just for fun, my friend threw some boiling water out of his window and watched it turn into snow.? Yes, it was minus 38 with the windchill last week.? Every time I think I miss Canada I guess I should temper it with the fact that I don’t have to deal with those kinds of temperatures anymore.

Anyway, I thought I would write out a few of my New Year’s resolutions so that we can share and compare.

1) Improve my Japanese?
When I lived in the countryside I had to use my Japanese every day since there were so few people who spoke English, even at work.? However I never get the chance to use it now.? I need to keep moving forward.

2) Improve my French?
I have always thought that if you are going to be an effective teacher, you have to be learning things.

3) Keep Running, and run further!?
I signed up for an ultramarathon…now I have to train for it.

4) Save money!?
Somewhere someone wiser than me said “It’s not how much you earn, it’s how much you save”.? I am going to try and set a little more money aside and, well take fewer hot showers I guess.

Anyway, I am hoping that I can keep it up.? Best of luck on keeping yours!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! ?I hope you guys all had a wonderful holiday. ?I am feeling pretty good after finally getting a few days off, and it:s (kind of) good to be back to work. ?Well, who am I kidding, another week would certainly be welcome.

In any case, I had a good holiday and I hope you did too. ?I guess Japanese people celebrate the holiday a little differently that us foreigners do, but I am starting to see the value in their way. ? I must be getting old.

Last weekend I did the traditional thing and tried going out to a club to countdown to the new year. ?To be honest, I don’t know why I keep doing it. ? I guess I feel obligated to do something versus staying home. ?But the older I get, the less appeal I see. ?It’s crowded and smoky and the countdown is a little underwhelming. ?To be fair though, I heard there were some pretty good fireworks in Minato Mirai by the ferris wheel.

I prefer to do things like I did the day after. ?I took the train to Asahi, which is in the Northern part of Chiba, relaxed and played some video games with my friends in Chiba. ?There was nothing crazy, just a good, peaceful time. ?I think we all need that every so often (though when I lived in the countryside I got it a little too often).

Though I didn’t eat any of the traditional Japanese stuff this year, my friends and I did whip up some pancakes, sausages and eggs for a proper Western breakfast. ?That means we naturally topped everything with some maple syrup.

I think I needed that too.

Happy New Year, everyone.