"Everything is Illuminated"

Today I watched a movie called “Everything is Illuminated”. I watched it for the Phonetic class. I’m going to have a presentation next week. I’m going to present about a different kind of English accent.

I picked this movie because there was a character who speaks English with a distinct accent. His name is Alexander. He’s a Ukrainian man and his English sounds a little funny. I focused on his pronunciation intensely so I don’t remember the story very much but it was a funny movie.

I’m going to get prepared for the presentation now. I’m going to use Power Point. I think I will do ok because the movie was really good. [113 words]

I want to go to Europe

I really want to visit Europe someday. Maybe I go there next year. I have a friend in Paris. He's a French guy but speaks Japanese fluently. I think I'm very luckey to be his friend because he says I'm always welcomed to stay at his place and he's gonna me around the city. I don't wanna visit only Paris but also visit other countries in Europe such as Italy, German, and Spain. The only problem is that I don't have money to get the airplane tickets. Why are planes so expensive? They should lower down the price immediately.

Creaning Day

I cleaned my room today. It my little dusty and messy before and now it's clean and I feel good. There is a custom to clean throuout the house or work or school before the new year starts in Japan. I cleaned throughout my room. The weather was perfect for cleaning.

First, I had my huton and blankets hang outside so that there was much more rooms in the room. I put away the things on the floor and used the vacuum cleaner. It didn't take so long because my room is pretty small. I like my room clean but it will be a mess soon again. ［107 words］

"The Squid and the Whale"

Today I was at school but I didn't have nothing to do . I was bored and didn't know what to do so I went to the library and watched a DVD. There are many DVDs you can watch at the library so I sometimes go there when I'm free.I watched the DVD of "The Squid and the Whale". This movie is about a divorce. In the beginning of the movie, parents of this family get divorce and the movie shows how the family deals with the divorce. The couple has 2 sons and they have to go back and forth their parents' houses because they decided to go joint custody. It might sounds like a depressing movie but it was somewhat casual. It takes up a serious issue but the movie itself wasn't so serious. So I thought it was good.I learned the word philistine from this movie.
[145 words]

The importance of lerning English

I have learned English this university. And, I have thinking about learning English.
I think that learning another language enables us to comunicate with people in a different contry and to learn more about their culuture. It also makes us realize the relativity of our own values. And I think we can realize that there are other ways of looking at reality and that there are other value systems in the world. This makes our experience of life more interesting. As we learn a new language, I think that we also discover more about our own language.

I think that speaking only one language is like living in a room with no windows or doors. It is safe, but it is dark and closed. So I think a foreign language brings new light into the room. With an elementaly knowledge, we can look out the window and see the world differently. With a deeper knowledge of the language, we can walk out of the door and explore the world in a new way. When we explore the world with a new language, we discover more of the magnificence that is in hte world. The discoveries we make add interest and wisdom to our life. So we can see that language studies can be the beginning of some wonderful adventures. So I will study English more and more from this. [229 words]

"BABE: Pig in the City"

I was free today. So I went to the library in this university. I read "BABE: Pig in the City". Did you read this book? Babe is a clever pig which works as a shepherd. He is very famous in the country. The farm in which Babe and Mr and Mrs Hoggett lives was in danger because they had to pay money for the men from a bank and if they couldn't, they would have to sell the farm. One day, Mr. Hoggett got an offer from someone to show Babe's work at the party. They will pay a lot of money for that. To save the farm, Babe went to the city with Mrs. Hoggett.

Mrs. Hoggett was misunderstood that she was carrying the drung at the airport so she had to stay in the little room with a detective and missed the next plane. She and Babe couldn't get to the city they wanted to go.

They looked for a hotel and found the Flealands Hotel. In that hotel, many animals lived. They were abondoned animals. There were chimpanzees, dogs, cats, and monkeys. Nobody knew that they were there.

I thought it was a funny story. So many different animals and happenings. Baby is very cute. ［165 words］

My community life

I have been working part time since I was 18 years old. And I can get connected with communities through working. I haven't been working at the same place all the time. I have changed my part-time job for a couple of times. I'm going to introduce what I have done.

First one, I was in highschool and about to graduate. I had been already finished with the entrance examination of the university and had a plenty of free time after school. So I decided to start, very first time in my life, woking. I chose to work at a restaurant in my neighborhood. It was a Korean restaurant. I was a waiter there. I had to talk and communicate with so many people in one day. I always have to be polite and carefle not to offend customers' feelings no matter how busy I was. It was sometimes very difficult because there were so many different kinds of people with different thoughts. Some people may be upset about things I will never be upset about. Some people could be very sensitive and picky while some people could be very friendly and generous. You have to make every customers satisfied by your service. That's what they said. At first I didn't understand this idea. But I eventually I learned that's about being professional. I worked at the restaurant for 3 years.

The next one, I started it when I was 20. I was still working at the first restaurant but I needed more money so I decided to have two part-time jobs. This one was a horse restaurant. It was located on Shimo-tori. Horse meat dish is onen of Kumamoto's specialities so many people from outside Kumamoto came to the restaurant. There were once costomers from Italy. They saw the home page of the restaurant and came Kumamoto to eat horse meat. They came there 2 nights straight. Horse meat is expensive. People came to the restaurant were rich. I had oppotunities to talk with such rich people and foreigners through this job. It was very interesting.

Now I work part time at a drugstore near my house. It is not restaurant so it is different from what I have done before. I have less opportunites to talk to the customers than the two jobs I had before. I sometimes feel it's boring. But I just started it so maybe I should stay and see for a while. [408 words]