Learn to describe people. We cover basic language and expressions about appearance and personality. Best for beginner students!

Super Basic Spanish

Learn Basic Spanish: Descripciones personales (personal descriptions)

"The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it."

A 30-day positive affirmation journey with Rose

Day 22

在中国山西省的浑源县，有一座很老很老、但是很有名的寺庙，叫作“悬空寺”。In Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province, China, there is an old, very old, but very famous temple called "The Hanging Temple".
        说它“老”，是因为它建在那里已经有1500多年了。它是在中国历史的长河中，有一个叫做“北魏”时期建造的。It's "old" because it's been there for more than 1,500 years. It was built during a period called the Northern Wei Dynasty in the long history of China.
        说它“有名”，是因为这个寺庙建得太奇巧了：它是建在一座山的半山悬崖峭壁上的。It is "famous" because the temple was built in a strange way: it was built on a cliff halfway up a mountain.


新鲜事儿（Anecdote）

浑源的古寺庙

There are many types of dairy alternatives on the market today, often made from things like nuts and soybeans.

But have you heard they're now making butter from air?

A US startup called Savor is working on a range of dairy alternatives made using something that exists all around us: carbon.

Fats are made from chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Savor's process involves taking carbon — from, say, carbon dioxide — and adding heat and hydrogen to create chains that are combined with oxygen from air.

This results in fat molecules, like the ones found in dairy and other animal products.

Now, regular butter is about 80% fat — the rest is mostly water. So to make butter from its synthetic fat, Savor just adds water, as well as an emulsifier that keeps the liquids from separating, and rosemary oil for flavor and beta carotene for color.

What does it taste like?

"I couldn't believe I wasn't eating real butter," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote in a blog post earlier this year. Gates is one of Savor's investors.

He wrote that "it tastes really good — like the real thing, because chemically it is."

Savor has already run informal taste tests with small groups of people, and is working to get regulatory approval for its product in the US.

But why butter?

A 2021 study estimated that food production makes up about 35% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions — and Savor estimates that about 7% of greenhouse gas emissions are just from producing fat.

But Savor's process, Gates wrote, doesn't release any greenhouse gases. He added that it uses no farmland and "less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does."

Savor is focusing on butter to start with partly because its high price point makes it easier to compete on cost. But the startup later hopes to develop other products like milk, ice cream, cheese — even meat.





Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

US Startup Makes Butter from Carbon Dioxide

Being a picky eater can mean a number of different things. It may describe someone who doesn't like to try new foods, or someone who prefers plain meals. It can also refer to someone who eats quite a narrow range of foods.

It's quite common for children to be picky eaters. They may only like their pasta without sauce, or their bread cut in a certain shape.

Parents often feel they're to blame when their children are picky eaters. But according to a new study, picky eating is mostly caused by our genes.

Researchers in the UK looked at data from identical and non-identical twins who had been followed from birth since 2007.

Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share half, on average. Studying these twins allowed the researchers to compare the eating habits of people who were genetically the same and those who weren't, but still grew up in the same home together.

More than 4,800 twins were included in the study. Their parents completed questionnaires about how picky their children were aged 16 months, then again at the ages of 3, 5, 7 and 13.

Not all parents completed the questionnaires as their children got older, but from the results, the researchers found that the eating habits of identical twins were much more similar than those of non-identical twins.

They also found that genetic variation explained 60% of the differences in food pickiness at 16 months, and 74% between the ages of 3 and 13. Meanwhile, shared environment only explained 15% to 26% of these differences, and the environmental effect was strongest when children were younger.

However, the researchers added that environmental effects are still important: parents can still influence their children's eating habits by eating together as a family, and by offering a wide variety of different foods, for example.

Genes Biggest Cause of Picky Eating in Children

日本語では感情や他の物の状態を表すときによくオノマトペを使います。日本のアニメやドラマを観たことがあれば、一度は聞いたことがあると思います。

Japanese often use these Onomatopoeia to describe feeling and other stuffs. You've heard these once or twice if you watched Japanese Anime or TV series.

まいにち日本語 Daily Japanese Phrases

オノマトペ onomatopoeia

Practicamos frases con las preposicions más importantes.

A
Con
De
Sobre

...

A1.1. Español básico para principantes. 

Clase 3. Preposiciones.

It is August 29th today. The summer vacation for Japanese children will be ended soon.
Some…No!  Most of school children have tough time to finish their homework in this last moment of summer vacation, I think...
I'm talking about my memory of "Shukudai (homework)" of summer vacation.
********************************************************************
今日は8月29日です。
そろそろ　子どもたちの夏休みが終わるころです。
日本の学校の夏休みは　7月20日ごろから8月末までの学校が多いです。
1年のはじまりは　1月1日ですが、日本の学校や会社の1年のはじまりは　4月です。
ですから、夏休みは　1学期が終ったあとにあります。そして、夏休みが終われば2学期が始まります。

私が小学生、中学生だったころの夏休みの話をします。
夏休みは1年の中でも、いちばん長いお休みです。
私が子どものころは　今ほど気温は高くはならなかったので、
夏でもクーラーは使わずに扇風機とうちわだけで過ごしていました。
それでも昼間は暑いので、学校のプールに毎日のように泳ぎに行っていました。

そして、夏休みといえば、宿題です。いつもたくさん宿題が出されました。
漢字の練習、計算ドリル、日記などのほかに、ポスターづくり、読書感想文、自由研究がありました。　漢字や計算の宿題は毎日コツコツすれば、そんなに大変ではありませんでした。でも、ポスターや読書感想文、自由研究はとても大変でした。

ポスターはだいたい「自然を守ろう」のようなメッセージと絵をかきます。どんな絵に　どんな言葉を書くのがいいか　毎回とても悩みました。絵をかくことはどちらかというと好きですが、このポスターの宿題はあまり好きではありませんでした。

次に、読書感想文。これが一番苦手でした。毎年、課題図書という　子どもたちの年齢に合ったおすすめの本が　発表されます。どんな本で読書感想文を書いてもいいのですが、課題図書を読んで書くことが多かったです。高学年になると、1200字、つまり400字詰めの原稿用紙に3枚も書かなければなりませんでした。　感想や自分の考えを整理して書くのですが、「書かなきゃ！」と思えば思うほど、何も思い浮かびませんでした。　夏休みの最後の最後まで書けずに　机の前でえんぴつをゆらゆら揺らしたり、疲れて床にゴロンと寝転がったりしていました。
それでも、なんとか書き上げて、2学期の始業式の日に、先生に提出していました。

もう一つの大きな宿題は「自由研究」です。自由研究という名前のとおり、何を研究してもいいです。工作をしてもいいし、植物や生き物を観察して記録を付けてもいいです。ある年、私はクリオネのような生き物を飼育しました。学習雑誌の付録についていたからだと思います。たまごから育ててその成長記録を付けて、その記録をきれいにまとめて提出するというものです。その結末は、せっかく育てていたクリオネの水槽を　ひっくり返してしまって死なせてしまうというものでした。とても残念でした。

夏休みは　時間がたっぷりあるはずなのに、お盆を過ぎたあたりから　なぜか宿題に追われていました。　そのたびに、来年はもっと早く宿題を済ませようと思ったものです。でも、毎年毎年　夏休みの最後は　必死に宿題をしていました。

今日は夏休みの宿題の話をしました。


やさしい日本語（にほんご）

夏休みの宿題　

Every year in June, there are 2 days that are dead silent in Chinese cities when the most important exam in Chinese teenagers’ life is taking place - the college entrance exam.
In this Chillchat episode, Karen and Baiwei compared education and examination systems in Mainland China and the U.S..