Students at Embassy

How are you doing everybody?

This post will be a kind of diary.
The reason I wrote this is I've felt many things and been given a lot of advice from people around me.

I've spent busy days recently. I don't even remember what I did last week. I tried to figure out that what made me like that last weekend.

From after a month I arrived here, I got tired, became lazy and started to think too much. When I was in highschool, I used to often speculate on my future, and it helped me a lot to decide whatever it was when I grew up.

But I figured that I'd better become more simple. Because I have things which I have to do at the moment and my thinking keeps myself from doing my duty.

Actually I was thinking of two things which are time I've got and the ways of studying English. I'm pretty sure that many young students don't know about the feeling of burden of responsibility.

The kind of resposibility which I feel is that I have to support my family after going back to Korea. My father will retire this year and my brother is still a student - he's 2 years younger than me. So if I can't find and get a good job enough to support my family, it will be a very bad situation that I don't want to imagine.

When I realized that my study was not better as much as I had expected, I started to be obsessed by the idea - "I don't have enough time."

My friends, flatmates, teachers and family felt that and everybody told me that don't be such in a hurry.
Honestly, it wasn't helpful but it made me think in different way (more positive) and then realized that it'd be much better to enjoy this time.

And I came to believe what Nadia,my teacher, said I've got enough time and I've been doing well. ^^ - I always thank you Nadia. -

So when I started to feel much better and got back to normal life, I started again to study. As I confess, I'm really, really bad at listening...
So Nadia told me a good way to practice listening skills.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/

 

If you Google "BBC learning English", you'll find this site and can study English. It has everything.

I practice with the category of "the words in the news". Its length and the level of words are suitable to practice listening.

How do I practice? - At first, I study the words which are bold, listen to the article and write it down without looking the script.

After finishing that I correct the script I wrote down and listen again till I can understand the article completely.

It seems a short article but the sentences are very good so if you can understand the article completely and use the sentences, your English will be considered very advanced.

I've been doing this for 3 weeks. I still have difficulty understanding the news but I'm quite sure that I'm getting better. If there are students who have the same problem as me, I really hope this will help them improve their listening skills.

Thank you for reading my boring story again. ^^
I promise that I'll be a good student and blogger!
Cheers~!

Think of manners, customs, and common sense

Do you have common sense? Do you have appropriate manners in the community? Actually, I can not say I have enough common sense. As we are living in such a small world, we regularly come across people in public places such as socials, school, the bus, bank, and so on. What we need when we are in such situations is good manners: thinking of the customs or feelings of others. There might be something you forgive in your own culture, but in other societies, manners can cause trouble or a reason for other people to think you are a freak.

Three months have already passed since I started to reside in the U.S. As I am getting used to the life here I have learned customs little by little. I was not familiar with some of the manners which I learned here. In other words, some manners are different from my country's. Depending on cultures or people's character, manners or rules could be changed. There is an interesting story. In a baseball game, a batter is occasionally hit by the pitcher's ball. In Japan, right afterwards, the pitcher takes off his cap and bows to the batter. It means that he is sorry to throw at the batter. Unlike in the U.S., where it goes that the pitcher did it on purpose. Guess what happens to him next.

A big key word is "distance" in manners. Do you know how far you should position yourself from strangers? In general, in North America, you should keep the distance which is the length of your arm away from them. It was suprising to me. I came from Japan but I have never heard or cared about the distance before, though I try to get not too close to women. I think Japan is too small to think of the distance. We, Japanese people are accostomed to riding in crowded trains.

After I learned some manners including the distance from others, I observed my mistake when I was in a bus. The bus was uncrowded. I was with my 2 friends and they sat the middle of the bus. As I wanted to sit near them, though a girl was sitting on the seat right in front of them, I sat on the same seat next to the girl. Before I sat, I asked the girl "can I sit here?" I did not contemplate but I can recall the image of her resigned and slightly worried face. In addition, I addressed her and asked a question about English grammar. What a freak man!

This trouble is such a small thing. Actually, I did recieve the answer for my work and she was willing to respond to me, even though she was doubting at first if I was safe. Anyway, what I want to mention is that it could make someone anxious or angry if you have no common sense or manners. When you are in a different culture from your own, you should be careful with your actions, and think of the feelings of others. By the way, why did I sit right next her? There were empty seats near them, Keita!   

More Jokes...

Hi, I have found new jokes!! I hope you'll enjoy!! The words that are in red can help you to learn some new vocabulary.

Loan

1.  A businessman walked into a bank in San Francisco and asked for the loan officer. He told the officer that he is going to Europe on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The bank officer explained that the bank needed some kind of security for such a loan. So the businessman handed over the keys to a Rolls Royce parked on the street in front of the bank. Everything checked out, and the bank agreed to accept the car as collateral for the loan. A bank employee drove the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parked it there.

Two weeks later, the businessman returned, repaid the $5,000 with interest, which came to $15.41. The loan officer said, "We are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why would you bother to borrow $5,000?" The businessman replied, "Where else in San Francisco can I park my car for two weeks for only 15 bucks?"

Memory problems

2. Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?" "Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques - visualization, association - it has made a big difference for me." "That's great! What was the name of that clinic?" Fred went blank. He thought and thought but couldn't remember. Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?" "You mean a rose?" "Yes, that's it!" Then he turned to his wife and asked, "Rose, what was the name of that clinic?"

The Lawyer and The Butcher

3. A lawyer's dog, running about unleashed, beelines for a butcher shop and steals a roast. The butcher goes to the lawyer's office and asks, "If a dog running unleashed steals a piece of meat from my store, do I have a right to demand payment for the meat from the dog's owner?" The lawyer answers, "Absolutely." "Then you owe me $12.50. Your dog was loose and stole a roast from me today." The lawyer, without a word, writes the butcher a check for $12.50. A few days later the butcher receives a letter from the lawyer: "$45 due for consultation".

If you know some jokes in English, don't hesitate to write them in this post!!

I think it's a great way to know some new vocabulary!!

Have fun!!