語学の勉強

※文法や単語が必ずしも正しいとは限りませんのでご注意ください。 These days, I watch TV programs featuring Maki Horikita that I had recorded before she left show business. I still think she is beautiful and she should have remained in show business even after she got married and had a baby. I can't help but hope for her comeback. #english — ひでかん (@pkc107) 2018年8月1日 These days, I watch TV programs featuring Maki Horikita that I had recorded before she left show business. 最近、堀北真希さんが芸能活動を休止する前に録画しておいたテレビ番組を見ています。 I still think she is beautiful and she should have remained in show business even after she got married and had a baby. 今も彼女はきれいな人だと思いますし、結婚して子供を産んだ後も芸能界にとどまってほしかったと思います。 I can't help but hope for her comeback. 彼女の復帰を願わずにはいられません。

出典： Lang-8 Some British people reportedly regret that they voted for leaving the EU. They are complaining that the leaders of the Leave campaign told lies. The lies are mainly about the immigration issues and the UK's contribution to the EU budget. Many people took the lies as truth. After the referendum results were released, the Leave campaigners began to change their words, and people began to feel that they had been deceived. There was a similar situation in Japan seven years ago. It was when the Democratic Party of Japan won the general election and came into power. Before the election, the leaders of the DPJ said that there were great amounts of financial resources hidden by Japan's bureaucracy, and they would reveal them. The DPJ leaders also said that they would relocate the Futenma U.S. air base to a location outside Okinawa, or do away with it completely. Eventually they gave up both promises. We have to be able to judge whether politicians' words are tr...

出典： Lang-8 Some people say, "Anybody would be better than him/her," to express their complaints about the leader of some organization. However, they should remember they said the same thing about the previous leader, and they will also do that with the next one. It would be great if things could get better and better gradually through the replacement of leaders, but people sometimes want to get back to the past. In such cases, people say, "The previous leader was better than the current one." Thus, things never change at all.

出典： Newsy It can be a common sight these days — you're browsing some web page or another and then all of a sudden you have an ad or video jumping to get your attention. Google's hoping to put an end to that with their latest update. Google Chrome Beta will automatically pause what it deems to be Flash content not central to the webpage. The everyday Google Chrome browser will get the update in the coming weeks. deem … ～と見なす central to … ～の中心となる、～の中核をなす What that means is, if you go to a webpage where a Flash video or ad would normally automatically start, Google will pause it right off the bat so you're never distracted by its animation, or worse, its audio. right off the bat … すぐに、直ちに Google's pinning the update as a battery-saving measure and it'll be turned on by default, though we're guessing just about anyone who uses Chrome, laptop or not, will be pleased with the change. pin (sth) as … （物を）～と判断する、見定める As Fortune's Dan Kedmey poi...

出典： Lang-8 I went to the theater to see the play "Nocturne". It was written by Sou Kuramoto, one of the most famous scenario writers in Japan. I was deeply moved by the performance. I couldn't hold back my tears. It's a little difficult to explain the story even in Japanese, but I'll try it in English. The story was about a man who lost his two daughters to the huge tsunami 4 years ago. When the earthquake occurred, he was working as a plumber in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. His wife was working as a nurse in a hospital. Both of them couldn't get out of their workplaces because they were busy with handling the emergency situations. They both believed that their spouse was taking care of their daughters in a safe place. However, despite their expectations, their daughters were waiting for a train at a station near the ocean and were swept away by the tsunami. The man and his wife blamed each other for the death of their daughters. Each of them felt gu...

My Rolex watch, which I bought 14 years ago, suddenly stopped working last week. Ideally, I should have had it overhauled every 5 years, but I didn't. I took my watch to a watch shop near my house that deals in expensive brand watches. The shop sent my watch to the Rolex authorized service center to get a quote for the repairs. get a quote … 見積もりを取る The shop called me yesterday to say that the repairs would cost about 69 thousand yen. To tell the truth, it was even more expensive than I expected. I had an option to cancel the repairs and send my watch to an unauthorized repair shop that offers more affordable services. However, the shop strongly recommended that I have my watch repaired by the authorized service center. They said that if I sent my watch to an unauthorized repair shop that might make improper repairs, the authorized service center would no longer accept the watch for further repairs. I was convinced by the shop's explanation and told them to start the...

<Revised on Dec. 12, 2019> Yesterday my wife told me that Thailand Fair was held at a nearby shopping mall, and authentic mango parfait was available there. We immediately set off to enjoy the parfait with our children. After arriving at the mall, we looked for the sign of Thailand Fair, but couldn't find it. Instead, we saw a sign of "Taiwan Fair," which served mango parfait at one of the booths. My wife said, "Oh, I mistook Taiwan for Thailand." However, I couldn't understand how she could have mistaken them. In Japanese, Taiwan is written as "台湾" in Kanji characters, and Thailand is written as "タイ" in Katakana characters. There is no possibility of mistaking them. I didn't ask about it persistently because it wasn't a big deal after we enjoyed excellent mango parfait.

One day I told my wife that I wanted to go to Hawaii someday. She said that she couldn't understand why I wanted to go there even though I couldn't swim and I didn't do any marine sports. I said, "I just want to go there!" [ source ]

In my last English lesson, my teacher told me to choose the most important thing for my happiness from several choices. I chose "not wanting more than you've got". The teacher asked me why I thought so. It was a bit difficult for me to explain the reason in English. I said something like the following. - The more we get, the more we want. - We can't be satisfied no matter how much we get. - We can't get everything. - We should live within our limits. However I'm not sure whether my answers were to the point. [ source ]

I went to see the movie "Godzilla" this morning. It was certainly a fun movie. However I felt the storyline was a bit shallow, though this could be said for all Godzilla movies. The movie was screened in two versions: 2D and 3D. The 2D version had English audio and Japanese subtitles. The 3D version was Japanese-dubbed. To be honest, I prefered the English audio version. But I actually chose the 3D version because I wanted to see how much the 3D effects provided realistic vision. My result was, to my disappointment, I didn't feel the movie took advantage of the 3D effects effectively. I thought it might have been unnecessary for the movie to be 3D. I should have seen the 2D version with English audio and Japanese subtitles. [ source ]

aptitude (n.) ... natural ability to do something I work with a lot of freelance translators. My job is checking translated documents for mistakes. Most translators are very competent. However, to my disappointment, there are some translators who I think lack an aptitude for translation work. predicament (n.) ... a difficult or unpleasant situation in which you don't know what to do Benesse is one of the largest correspondence education companies in Japan. One of the staff was arrested for hacking the personal information of several million customers. Benesse is in a predicament where it has completely lost its customers' trust. [ source ]

I've read in a web article that, in Australia, people celebrate Christmas in July as well as in December. According to the article, Christmas in December is in the hot season in Australia. Therefore people want to have a Christmas party in the cold season as people in the northern hemisphere do. I wonder how common celebrating Christmas in July is among Australian people. [ source ]

pang (noun) ... a sudden strong feeling of physical or emotional pain In my childhood, I accidentally broke my younger brother's plastic model while we were fighting. He picked up the plastic model and wept over it silently. I felt a great pang of guilt at the sight of his grief. [ source ]

It has been the rainy season in Japan. We have a lot of rain almost every day. I went to the bank to check the balance of my account a little while ago. It was very windy and the rain got blown sideways . I had to put my umbrella horizontally. I got soaked. sideways … 横に、横から、横向きに I hope the rainy season will end soon. [ source ]

Before going to bed, I usually watch TV shows over a few glasses of beer, wine, or shochu (distilled liquor made from sweet potato). Sometimes I fall asleep on the sofa while watching TV, and my wife wakes me up and tells me to sleep in my bed. I know this is a bad habit. I want to break the habit . break a habit … 習慣をやめる、癖を直す [ source ]

When I was in the 3rd grade of elementary school, I broke my right arm in an accident while playing with my friends in the park. I was absent from school for about a week because, with my right arm immobilized in a cast , I had trouble taking notes and using chopsticks. immobilize … （手足などをギプスなどで）固定する cast … ギプス After a week, I went back to school, though I still had a little difficulty using my right arm. My friends looked at me as if I was a physically disabled person. I felt alienated from my friends in my child's heart of hearts . alienate … 疎遠にする、仲間外れにする feel alienated from … ～から仲間外れにされたと感じる in one's heart of hearts … 心の中で、内心は、本心では in my child's heart of hearts … 子供心に [ source ]

Yesterday, I participated in the maintenance of the yard that belongs to my daughter's kindergarten. There were about forty fathers helping out . I was assigned to cleaning the ditches around the yard. I got rid of withered leaves and mud out of the ditches. It took about one and a half hours to finish the work. help out …（人を）助ける、（仕事などを）手伝う [with ...] ditch … 用水路、排水溝 withered leaf … 枯れ葉 [ source ]

My youngest daughter's kindergarten teacher visited my home yesterday. This was a part of the annual home visit. I was working at the office in my house when the teacher arrived. Therefore I just said "Hello" to her and went back to the office. My wife talked with her about how my daughter has spent her time in kindergarten. However my daughter seemed to want me to talk with her teacher. She repeatedly came to the office and told me to come to the living room. Unfortunately I was very busy with my job and I couldn't take the time to do it. [ source ]

The Disney animated movie "Frozen" is a big hit in Japan. We can hear the theme song "Let It Go" over and over on TV, in stores, and everywhere. My daughter said that she could hear the song in her mind even while she was sleeping. She is looking forward to going to see the movie with my wife sometime soon. However one of my friends said that she was fed up with hearing the song repeatedly everywhere. She seems to be uninterested in Disney's cartoons. It's a bit surprising to me that some women don't show any interest in Disney's cute characters. [ source ]