A channel to channel stories about language and culture.

Midori no Heya

Every culture has its own unique tendencies when it comes to pronouncing certain sounds in other languages. For example, where I was born, many people find it tricky to pronounce sounds like 'f' and 'p.' Even simple English words like 𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 can feel like torture.

For this episode, I’d like to focus on my Japanese friends. I know there are certain English sounds that can require extra effort to pronounce. My hope is that today’s episode will give you some helpful insights and tips to make those tricky sounds easier to master.

𝟭.	𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 >< 𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗚
🪄 His heart sank when he heard her sing.
🪄 He thanked her for the song she had sung.

𝟮.	𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 >< 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗞
🪄 Watch out, boy! I think your toy will sink in the water.
🪄 When the ship was sinking, he began thinking, "Is this my last day on earth?"

𝟯.	𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 >< 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗘
🪄 How dare you enter my room when I'm not there!
🪄 It's very dark over there. Do you dare to go there?

𝟰.	𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 >< 𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗬
🪄 These blueberries are very sweet.
🪄 Actually, I like all kinds of berries very much.

𝟱.	𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 >< 𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
🪄 When it's right, the light turns green. When it's wrong, the light turns red.
🪄 Do you know what led the light on the right to turn red?

Don’t let tricky sounds stop you—practice makes progress! Book an English class with me and start improving today.✨

Tricky Pronunciation for Japanese Speakers of English

One way to improve our language skills is by expressing our thoughts in the target language. For that reason, I have prepared an English conversation class “Express Yourself through A Conversation”. Please feel free to check that lesson here: https://www.italki.com/en/teacher/24647106/english
I have a lot of interesting topics to talk about. But of course, you are welcome to bring up your own topic.

In this episode, I want to show you one example of the discussion topic. It’s about my imaginary city, Subara City 素晴市 （スバラしsu ba ra shi）.   The name is derived from 素晴らしい（すばらしい）and 都市（とし）.   素晴らしい means “wonderful”, “magnificent”.    市 means “city” and when placed at the end of a word can be pronounced as “shi”し.   So here I name my imaginary city 素晴市（スバラしsu ba ra shi）or “Subara City”.  In this episode, I’m introducing English lessons, not Japanese. I just want to let you know how I made up the name.

The theme of the story is that you have just been elected to the council for Subara City. You have 6 billion Yen in your budget. What can you do? Listen through. Below here is a simple worksheet to give you more ideas.

Total budget: 6 billion Yen.

(1) Carbon Footprint
Main cause of pollution is old factories on the edge of the city. They have to be relocated.
Budget: ………………….. Yen

(2) Deprivation and Inequality
You need to establish projects to reduce the percentage of people living below the poverty line.
Budget: ………………….. Yen

(3) Congestion and Mobility
Although the ground in Subara City is considered not suitable for subway infrastructure, recent research has been investigating solutions to tackle the ground issue. This research needs funding.
Budget: ………………….. Yen

(4) Education and Qualifications
The number of grants for teachers to study abroad should be increased.
Budget: ………………….. Yen

(5) Language and Cultural Integration
More investment is needed to ensure that migrants coming to work in your city adapt and integrate into the society.
Budget: ………………….. Yen

Make a Difference in Subara City

In these past months, it seems that a lot of political drama has been spinning around like a 24/7, in my world, in other people's world, everywhere. That has brought my memories to a bedtime story that I will never forget. I still can picture in mind how the book looked like, how I sat next to Mom as she read the book to me. The title was, "The Man, The Boy, and The Donkey". At that time I thought, "This boy and his father are foolish." That's why I couldn't forget the story. 

However, as I grew up, I realized that indeed, yeah, stupid things I do. Even worse, I do it because I have been told to.

The story I'm reading to you now is from https://www.fablereads.com/en/fable/the-man-the-boy-and-the-donkey. If you are interested in learning English through stories, please feel free to check out my lesson "Learning English through Stories" here: https://www.italki.com/en/teacher/24647106/english

#EnglishLeague #NewWord

Politics in Our Lives

Hajimemashite! Welcome to the first episode of "Midori no Heya". In this episode, I share how I came to learn Japanese for the first time. I will never forget my first Indonesian Japanese-teacher, Retno-sensei. When I returned from Japan, I looked for her, but I couldn't find her. The Japanese Language Course where I met her couldn't (or didn't want to?) give her contact.

How could a teacher, teaching at simply an evening course, turn the student's next course of life? She was paid just to teach a language. But the impact she made was beyond.