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