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YouTubeHappy New Year 2013 (Feedback)
Thank you for all the comments, and for all the advice about getting a mortgage. I went to another bank this week. Their interest rate was a tiny bit lower than the first bank I went to, but there were a lot of conditions attached to it. When the time comes, I will apply to both and then choose the one that suits me best.
Here is some feedback on your comments:
I know exactly what you mean!
This is a useful sentence to memorise if you don’t know it.
Although we both had nothing to be ashamed of,
Although neither of us had anything to hide,
but the biggest event this year will be my son’s entrance of kindergarten.
but the biggest event this year will be my son starting at kindergarten.
I’m commenting from my iPhone for the first time in my life!
Congratulations! I hope you like the new smartphone layout.
David, I’m glad to hear you had a nice time in Australia.
Thanks, and nice sentence.
and in the lesson, I could talk in Japanese.
and in the lesson, we were allowed to use Japanese.
I think trying to speak English as much as possible is very effective to learn the language.
… is a very effective way to learn the language.
It seems like a real dream house!
Yes, but with a dream price tag too!
Second one is to lose weight.
The second one is to lose weight. (A-Z: a/the)
By the way, according to the newspaper today, they say that if
You can also say, “It said in the newspaper today that….”
and listen to BBC news
It’s usually the BBC news.
Could you please put the site here which we can check your books like Amazon site,
Could you please post a link to a site where we can see your books?
Second, not to work hard…
From reading your comments, I would say you failed in that resolution last year quite spectacularly!
I have gained weight since last year,
“Gain weight” is okay, but “put on weight” is more common.
Thank you for asking about my books (English and Japanese are written side by side).
Are any of your books available as e-books? I would like to get one for my Japanese studies.
If you keep studying English, someday you can speak English
…someday you will be able to…
Thank you for telling us information about your books.
“Thank you for the information about your books” or “Thank you for telling us about your books.”
>By the way, are there many vegetarians/vegans in
Japan?
Not only are there not many vegetarians in Japan, most Japanese people don’t really understand the meaning of the word. I have a lot of vegetarian friends who say Japanese people often tell them things like “But it’s not meat – it’s bacon.” They have no idea about things like meat stock, so most vegetarians who come to Japan find that they have to either cook all their food themselves or allow their standards to slip when they eat out.
I’m always choosey about what I buy.
Nice sentence.
That’s all for today. I’m going to join a new sports club tonight. I went the other day, but I couldn’t join because I didn’t have my inkan with me. I hate the stupid inkan system! The sooner Japan gets rid of this 15th century technology, the better.
Have a great weekend.
Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback!
Regarding your question in the last entry :
Sorry, I’m not really sure about it.
They say that in case you start living in the new house within 5 years from April 2014, you will be eligible for the new tax rebate up to 50,000,000 yen, though…
よくわからないです。
来年４月以降５年以内に入居する場合新しい住宅ローン控除の対象になると聞きはしましたが。。。
In our case, we bought a 建売住宅. We sign the contract in February 2010, but we payed=borrowed money from bank) in May when the house was completed = on the day we became the owner of the house.
我が家の場合は建売住宅を購入しました。２０１０年２月に契約しましたが、全部家が完成して引き渡される日に払いました（銀行から借りて）
FYI, 住宅ローンのレートは実際に銀行から借りた日（月）のレートが適用されるはずです、契約書にサインした日のレートじゃなくて。)
In your case, however, you’ll design your house all yourself, so I’m not sure when your payment date will be…
Davidの場合、注文住宅ですよね？その場合支払いのタイミングがいつになるのかよくわかりません。
By the way, the government is certainly 検討中 about the new tax rebate, but I don’t think it has been decided formally.
ところで政府は新しい住宅ローン控除について確かに検討してますがまだ本決まりじゃないと思いますよ。
Buying house is a big purchase, and I understand you don’t want to miss any advantage, so I think you’d better ask bank or house maker’s advice on those matters.
家の購入は大きな買い物だし、あらゆる優遇制度を逃したくないDavidの気持ちもよくわかります。だから住宅メーカーや銀行
などに一番得するタイミングを聞いてみたほうがいいと思いますよ。
I’m sorry, I can’t be of any help.
See you!
Hi David,
Thanks for your feedback. I wonder how your “inkan” looks like! (Sorry, if this sounds rude.) But I never thought people from other countries were required “inkan”.
By the way, can I make sure if the word order was correct in my sentence?: “I first must try to” Should I have written “I must try first to”? I think I hear people say both, but I’m not really sure.
I hope you get the best of the tax deduction!
Hi Biwa,
Thank you for googling my books.
I’m still grateful for all the experiences I had and appreciate all the lessons I learned from my colleagues and students.
I’m sorry but I can’t tell you which one you should read first.
In my first book I wrote various topics and translated my aunt and her friend’s war experiences into English. Also I was given permission to use some sentences from the Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling for my book.
In my second book I wrote about my teaching career.
Have a nice weekend.
Mika
Hi Fumie, Biwa and Anne,
>I don’t know anyone who’s a vegetarian/vegan.
When I was a child I didn’t know anyone either but now it’s quite common to be vegetarian (veganism is still uncommon though). I think it’s mainly because people don’t like the idea of intensive factory farming. There’s a vegan pub near us which is always packed, it serves vegan beer, as well as vegan snacks and meals. of course most of the people who go there aren’t vegans but they like the idea of veganism …and also the food is good, healthy and very, very cheap! I had heard that Japanese people often don’t eat dairy products but all our guests have, so I wondered whether this is a recent change. I would really like to cut down the amount of dairy we eat – maybe this should be another of my New Year’s resolutions!
>I try to buy good/safe food as much as possible, too. However, they usually cost more and also very difficult to find out because you cannot tell by their looks.
Organic foods and free-range meats are always more expensive here too but we don’t have a problem working out whether they are organic or free-range though because they are clearly labelled and everyone trusts that they are labelled correctly.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend
By the way, in this sentence ‘but we don’t have a problem working out whether they are organic or free-range though because’ I should not have put the word ‘though’ because I have already said ‘but’!
Hi David,
> If I sign a contract before September 30th this year, I will pay 5% consumption tax, but if the house is actually completed after April 2014, I will be eligible for the new tax rebate up to 50,000,000 yen. That way, I would get the best of both worlds. Is that right?
I also had a thought once again.
If you pay this year(in 2013), the current tax rebate is still valid until the end of this year, so I don’t think you will be eligible for the new tax rebate up to 5,000,000 yen, but only up to 2,000,000 in 10 years, as I explained before.
I’m not really sure, though…
Anyway, you’d better ask someone else who knows better about it!!
Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback! It’s so useful.
>Yes, but with a dream price tag too!
– Indeed. Since it’s such a big purchase you should check sufficiently and do a better choice.
Hi Kattie,
>I think it’s mainly because people don’t like the idea of intensive factory farming.
-I thought the main reason was animal protection: people don’t like the idea of killing and eating animals.
>I had heard that Japanese people often don’t eat dairy products~
-I don’t think so. Maybe old days. People eat dairy products. They even serve milk at lunch all the time at elementary schools. I drink soymilk instead of milk because I heard milk is suitable for calves not human.
Hi Biwa,
>I admire you more than ever and feel very inferior.
Oh, don’t be. I’m sure I will be a fastidious and obnoxious mother-in-law for my son’s future wife.(笑） I want to be more flexible!
>Have you ever heard of it? Yes, I saw the flyer of it(Raddish Boya).
>Of course, I can’t afford all because I have two big-eaters now, but I’m always choosey about what I buy.
– Same here. In my case, there are 4 big eaters(three of my sons and my husband). Choosing nutricious, good and safe food for our family as much as possible is one of the important thing for us to do.
Have a lovely 3-day weekend, everyone!
Fumie
Hi Mika,
Thanks for the information about your books. I’ve just decided to read your second book first, and ordered it from amazon. I like your idea that you “write” to learn English.
Hi Kattie,
>we don’t have a problem working out whether they are organic or free-range though because they are clearly labelled and everyone trusts that they are labelled correctly.
-I think the problem here is that, as far as I know, those labels are not standardized by a certain association. I really hope they do that soon!
Having said that, I try not to be crazily nervous about those things because that would cause great stress. It’s like putting the cart before the horse. (I hope I’m using this phrase correctly!)
Hi Fumie,
>I’m sure I will be a fastidious and obnoxious mother-in-law for my son’s future wife
-lol! I think mothers-in-law can’t help being more or less like that! Perhaps the best way to get along with your son’s wife is not to live close to each other.
I’m going to meet my friends from bread-baking class today. I’m sure we’re going to have what we call a “machine-gun-talk”. Have a nice weekend everyone!
Hi Kattie,
Regarding the idiom I’ve used in my previous comment, perhaps I should have said like this: to mistake/forget the most essential thing (I want to buy better food to get healthy, not to get stressed.)
I know David said before that I shouldn’t use these idiomatic phrases if I wasn’t 100% sure, but I did it again! I should have known that you can’t put Japanese into English directly. I must be careful!
Hi David,
Thanks for your feedback.
>From reading your comments, I would say you failed in that resolution last year quite spectacularly!
If I compared to the previous year(2011), I reduced 65 percent of the overtime last year. So I don’t think I failed 😉 I am hoping that I will work less this year too.
Hi everyone,
How’s your weekend? hope you all are having a wonderful one. I was on duty today so it is not a long weekend for me. Usually, I can take a day off during the weekdays instead, though I can’t take one until 21st. Because one of my staff is on leave until then 🙁
Bye foe now,
amo
Hi everyone,
I’ll do the new entry tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday.
Hi Fumie,
>I think it’s mainly because people don’t like the idea of intensive factory farming.
>I thought the main reason was animal protection: people don’t like the idea of killing
Yes of course vegetarians generally don’t like the idea of killing animals but I know quite a few people who have become vegetarian because they don’t like modern farming techniques. I think this is one of the reasons why the numbers of vegetarians have increased so much in the last 15 years or so.
>My alarm goes of at 4.30am
I don’t know anyone who gets up that early, it’s still night-time!! What time does it get light in Japan?
Hi Biwa
>Having said that, I try not to be crazily nervous about those things because that would cause great stress. It’s like putting the cart before the horse. (I hope I’m using this phrase correctly
‘Putting the cart before the horse’ is not really the expression I would use here but I think you mean to say that if you become too bothered by where the food comes from and how it’s grown, that will cause stress so you’ll be worrying too much about these minor issues rather than the main issue; eating healthily. I think I would say ‘I try not get too bogged down in the details and focus on the main issue’. This is not an idiomatic phrase and, at the moment, I can’t actually think of one that would suit – maybe David can?!
Hi Kattie,
>~ but I know quite a few people who have become vegetarian because they don’t like modern farming techniques.
– Maybe not many Japanese people aware/worry about those matters(factory farming animal meat). They may not safe, good quality and tasty. I think most Japanese people more aware of where they produced and their prices. Of course, free range meat are better choice and I want to get those but I can’t find them at local supermarkets and must be expensive. So I buy cheap factory farming meat on daily basis. We can eat those meat at some restaurants once in a while as a treat.
Fumie
Hi everyone,
We had lots of snow yesterday, and it’s said to be the first time in 12 years to lay 10 centimeters deep! I love to see the white world, but I hate to walk on the icy and slippery streets on the next day.
Hi Kattie,
Thank you so much for your explanation and that is exactly what I wanted to say. I looked up the dictionary carefully afterwards, and found out that “putting the cart before the horse” is usually used when you mistake the orders like “Don’t buy the furnitures before you buy the house.” Also, “get too bogged down” was new to me. It’s true that I learn a lot from making mistakes. Once again, thanks always for your help!
Hi Biwa,
I’m very happy to hear you kindly ordered my book. Thank you very much!
I hope you like my book.
Keiko
Hi Mika,
Is Keiko your real name?
Anyway, I just finished reading your book and I really like it! The stories about the re-quizzes you gave to the students during lunch recess or after school were especially impressive. I like what one of your students said: “I changed my mind after the midterm test because I noticed that you never leave behind any low-level or dishonest students.” (“Mutual Understanding”)
I really agree that every student wants to understand what they learn, but some need more time to understand than others or just don’t know how to study. I can imagine how happy it must have been for you to see those students’ happy faces when they finally understood.
As the title says, the call you’ve got must have changed your life, but I think you’ve changed your students lives as well. I wish I were your student!
Hi Biwa,
Thank you for reading my second book so quickly.
I’m so grateful to you that I can’t tell you in words how I feel.
In my teaching career I tried to enjoy my experiences even though some of them were not good ones. Because, I believed I could learn something good from even unpleasant experiences. I loved all of my ex-students and teaching, too.
By the way, you have a good guess, so Mika is my pen name.
I’d like to say again, “Thank you very much!”
Mika