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スピーク英会話サロン【福岡】

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ZOOM

February 2, 2021

ZOOM、教室での対面式レッスン、ご都合がいい方でご参加いただけます。

大雨の日、仕事が忙しい日、少し体調が良くない日、緊急事態宣言下などなど、ご都合に合わせて、ご自宅からお気軽にZOOMでご参加ください。

In 勉強法, Writing in English, Travel English, Reading, Pronunciation, Listening Comprehension, Business English Tags zoom, English zoom lesson, speak!英会話サロン, 英語福岡市, 英会話教室
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1*u-nGoidec8H0RvT9sHVpqw.png

Duolingo

February 25, 2020

英語を勉強する一押しアプリ。子どもたちと毎日欠かさずやっているのが


Duolingo (デュオリンゴ)


子どもたちの英語学習のために使いはじめたのですが、

キャラクターは可愛いし、パソコンだとマウスをクリックするだけで

簡単に操作できるので、子どもでもとても使いやすいです。

ヒアリングはもともと強かったのですが、なかなか文字が読めず

苦戦していました。

Duolingoのおかげで、子どもたちの英語を読む力がだいぶついてきて

ダディはとても嬉しいです。

この調子なら、今年の秋ぐらいには、

4年生の長男が英検5級を受けれそうです!

Como-aprender-idiomas-pela-internet-com-Duolingo.png

アメリカのカーネギーメロン大学教授とその大学院生による研究プロジェクトとして開始。

2014年に日本語話者向け英語コースができ、現在にいたります。


現在のスタッフは元グーグル社員が多いそうです。

さすが元グーグルですね。

duolingo-symbol-icon-logo-png-transparent.png

ちなみにぼくは、スペイン語とドイツ語をDuolingoで勉強中です。

Duolingo → duolingo.com

In Pronunciation, Reading, Study Abroad, Travel English, こども英会話, Writing in English Tags duolingo, デュオリンゴ, 英語アプリ, 英会話, speak!英会話サロン
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blank-typewriter.jpg

How to Write

October 10, 2018

I was invited by a friend to give a lecture. It went sumfin like this:

I've been asked to speak about the "Joy of Writing" but, to be honest, it ain't fun. It's work. It can be satisfying at times, but for the most part it's not. It’s a hassle for most people, especially students of English.

So, instead of that, I'm going to teach you How to Write. Or at least I'm going to try.

There's a saying in English: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. Sadly, it's often the truth. There are professors of English who couldn't string a proper sentence together in English if their lives depended on it. There are teachers of business who have never even tried to start a business. (If they could, they probably wouldn't be teaching, would they?)

Most of your “process writing” teachers will show you how to put a paragraph together. They'll make you draw these silly diagrams like Amway marketing schemes. I don't know who taught them to teach like that. Well, you can forget about all that.

First off, on the piece of paper you've been given I want you to write about something we all have: family. Tell me about your family.

(I give them a few minutes to write and then tell them to stop writing.)

How many of you began with the sentence "My family is . . ."?

(Out of the twenty or so girls in the class 16 of them raise their hand. The remaining four or five, have written a variation of "There are . . . people in my family.")

I understand why you do this. It's the first thing that pops in your head. You're thinking "Watashi-no kazoku-wa . . ."

Well, stop that. It's boring. Nobody wants to read what you've just written.

So, Rule One: Don't just give facts or makes lists. Be creative. Be different!

Rule Two: Tell me a story and through that story, include the information you want to convey. 

For example, I just wrote this before coming here:

(Reading.)

"One day when I came home from kindergarten, there was a newborn baby in my mother’s arms. 

“'Say hello to your new sister,'" my mother said.

I was only five at the time and wouldn't know where babies came from for at least another ten years. By coincidence, our new living room furniture arrived from Ethan Allen on the same day as my mother’s return from the hospital. She was sitting on the new sofa holding the baby. I looked at the baby. I looked at the furniture--the sofa, the recliner, the ottomans, the coffee tables, the side tables, the . . . For all I knew, my eighth sister had come with the furniture."


Now, that's not the best writing in the world, but, one, it begins a story that you (hopefully) want to hear more of, and, two, it includes information: I have eight sisters, the eighth sister is five years younger than me, and so on. (For the record, I have nine sisters, and three brothers.)

Now start writing again.


(Ten minutes later, I tell them to stop writing. On the white board, I have written 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person; past, present, and future tenses.)

How many of you wrote in the 1st person, present tense?

(Most of them.)

How many of you wrote in the 1st person, past tense?

(The rest.)

Just because you are writing about yourself, doesn't mean you have to write in the first person. 

Rule Three: Break the rules. 

Rule Four: Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Read what you have written, find the mistakes, correct them, change the sentences, make them better, make them funnier or more interesting. Even famous writers such as Murakami Haruki spend more time rewriting their novels than they do writing them. You should, too.

(I give them a few minutes to read what they have written to their partner.)

One last point I'd like to make is that if you really want to write well, you'll have to do it a lot. And I mean A LOT. Practice really does make perfect. It's the same with sports, or a musical instrument. No one sits down at the piano for the first time and plays Chopin.

Also, read A LOT. Learn from the masters.

I’m out of time. Gotta run! Thanks! 

In Writing in English Tags Writing
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Instagram

Back at Sri Lanka Nishijin today. Never gets old.
Curry Tiner’s South Indian Chicken & Mutton Curry

I have been following the guy for years on Instagram and have been meaning to go, but the planets never quite seemed to line up. Today they did and thank God for that.

Wow!

Expect a long
Ippodo Tea Shop, Kyōto
Higashi Hongan-ji, Kyōto
All ready for Thanksgiving.

#shochu #imojochu #焼酎 #いも焼酎
Display Cases of Kyoto
Inukaeshi in Kyōto 

京都の犬返し

#Kyoto #Inukaeshi #犬返し #京都 #Machiya #町屋
Walls in Gokusho Machi, Hakata
The 15th of August is the last day of the Bon Festival of the Dead, Japan’s version of Dia de muertos. On this day, Japanese say goodbye to the spirits of their ancestors. Today I say goodbye to my last drop of Yamato Zakura Beni Imo 35%. Forgi
Azaleas at Fukuoka’s Kushida Shrine 

#櫛田神社 #Kushida #springinjapan #Fukuoka
Mugon (Tacit, lit. Without Words) rice shōchū genshu from Sengetsu Distillery of Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto. Aged in cypress casks, I believe, it retains that telltale hinoki scent. I normally don’t drink Kuma-jōchū, but this is lovely. I’ll buy
Another one of my somewhat hard-to-find favorites. Sang Som from Thailand. So smooth. I used to keep a bottle of it at Gamaradi before the pandemic. May have to do so again. Missed it. Missed Mr. Chang.
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