2019年3月30日土曜日

2019年3月30日土曜日 -

Conner: Athens, Georgia


I went to college at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, about one and a half hours northeast of Atlanta. It’s a huge school with about forty thousand undergraduates. The campus is so big, we have our own bus system! I loved going to a big university; it made me feel like I was part of something bigger than myself.

There’s so much to do in Athens; it’s a small town, but we boast that we have over eighty bars and restaurants. Compared to Osaka, it’s tiny, but it’s the perfect size for a college town. 

If you’re into live music, you’re in luck; some of the best artists in the country play in Athens. Even though it’s a small town, it’s famous for its live music. Throughout the year, Athens hosts several music, arts, and food festivals.

Athens is also well-known for its beer! There are many delicious local beers to choose from. Beer in Athens is very different from Japanese beer. If you’ve only ever had Asahi Super Dry, I highly recommend trying “Creature Comforts” or “Terrapin.” 

Athens is unique because it has the perfect balance between a traditional southern town, and a twenty-first century college town. Every traditional southern town has good football, and UGA has a great football culture! Every game day, tens of thousands of people flock to Athens to watch the Bulldogs play. It’s like a huge party! If you’re ever in the southeastern part of America, I highly recommend going to a college football game; it’s a unique experience you’ll never forget.



undergraduates: 在学生
boast： 自慢する
compared to:　比べると
be in luck: 運が良い
even though: ～であるのに
host:～を主催する
well-known: よく知られた
local: 地元
recommend:～を勧める
unique: ユニーク

2019年3月30日土曜日 -

Adam: Learning a foreign language

My name is Adam and I'm an instructor at NOVA and also a Japanese language student at J-Kokusai Gakuin located in Hommachi in Osaka. Being both a language teacher and language student, I've learned some insights into studying a foreign language that have helped me to improve my Japanese language skills.

One thing I've noticed about where I teach and where I study is that you only use the language you are trying to learn. I find that this can be difficult but very effective. When I first started, I really struggled to say what I was thinking in Japanese and still have this problem from time to time. However, after only three months I've noticed a big improvement in my Japanese. I'm the only English speaker in my class, so I'm forced to use Japanese and this has undeniably increased my Japanese language skills.

There is something else I've noticed that has become clear to me but I think a lot of people don't think about, and that is that different languages and cultures think differently. For example, one thing my students tend to struggle with is showing emotions when they are talking. Japan has a polite culture and this is reflected in the language.

My favorite lesson to teach is giving an emotional reaction. It offers my students a challenge. When we do exercises and you have to give an angry response, I think I can sometimes scare my students because it seems so real. But because it is so opposite to how Japanese people conduct themselves, I believe it helps them to think more like a native English speaker and improve their emotional responses.

Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope this helps you with your studies!

insights : 洞察力
effective : 効果的な
struggled : もがく
from time to time : 時々
improvement :上達
undeniably :　まぎれもなく
tend to : ～する傾向がある
reflected : 映し出された
response :応答
opposite :正反対
conduct : 導く

2019年3月9日土曜日

2019年3月9日土曜日 -

How I lost 17 kilos without exercise!


Coming from America, Japan is often seen as a country with an extremely healthy population, which is attributed to good lifestyle and diet. Japanese eating practices such as hara hachi bu are often touted as weight loss advice in American articles. The first time I came to Japan I stayed with a host family, and my host mother, a full-time homemaker, made me healthy Japanese meals almost every night. I had always had a pretty unhealthy lifestyle, so naturally in a year of eating Japanese food I lost some weight.

That was in 2015. In 2016 I came back to Japan, this time to Osaka. There was no mother to cook for me, and now I had a tiny kitchen and a small set of things I knew how to cook. Based on my previous experience, however, I had determined that Japanese food was healthy, so I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted. After two years of living this way, I realized that my favorite skirt no longer fit me, and I decided to check the scale. In August 2018 I was 88 kilos, and being a short girl of only 157 centimeters, that was quite heavy. I was shocked, and I knew I had to change my lifestyle.

I started doing some research online and I quickly found that Japan has a lot of diet drinks, diet pills, and strange leggings that make your legs slimmer, but I decided to go for a more natural approach. I decided to cut out all starches, such as rice, bread, and noodles. I also cut diary products like milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Sweets and fried food were out as well.

At first it was quite difficult and I always felt sad seeing pictures of food that I wasn't allowed to eat, and walking by restaurants where I could smell the karaage or bread from outside was torture. However, by changing my diet I started seeing results almost immediately, and that kept me going. It's March 2019 now, and I weigh about 71 kilos. Of course I still have some weight to lose, and these days I don't keep my diet so strict. My rule is that when I eat alone, I try to keep my meal as healthy as possible. When I go out with friends, maybe I can have a little rice or something fried, or a small dessert. The key is remembering that I'm not on a "diet" that's going to end one day. Rather, I try to be as healthy as possible, but I don't feel too guilty when I eat something that's not.

 extremely: 極めて
attribute to:　～によるものとみなす
base on: ～に基づく
determine:～と決定する
no longer: もはや～でない
slimmer:　スリム
starches:　でんぷん質の食べ物
diary products:　乳製品
quite:　非常に
torture:　拷問
immediately:　すぐに
guilty:　罪の自覚がある


2019年3月1日金曜日

2019年3月1日金曜日 -

Linnea : Fairbanks


Hello everyone!

I was born in Arizona in the US, but I lived in Alaska for about six years before coming to work at Nova. When I say that I'm from Alaska, a lot of people only know that Alaska is cold in the winter, so I'm going to tell you how beautiful the summer is. I lived in a city called Fairbanks, in the middle of the state.

First of all, the temperature during the summer in

Fairbanks is about 25 degrees C, with the hottest days being about 30 degrees. Surprised? It's true, really. Except for the rainy season in August, it's usually very sunny.

Since Fairbanks is so far north, we get very short days in the winter and very long days in the summer. On the longest day of the year, we get eighteen hours of daylight! That's only when the sun is above the horizon, not counting twilight times. The sky doesn't even get dark for several months in the summer. And the solstice in Fairbanks is a big deal. We have the Midnight Sun festival and the Midnight Sun Run every year, and many business have midnight sun parties or events that last all night. There's even a baseball game that doesn't start until midnight. No artificial light is used on the field during the game.
Because of the extra sunlight, plants in Alaska grow huge. Everywhere you look there are　green trees and plants. Alaskans in general are very outdoorsy, and in the summer many people go out hiking, canoeing, swimming, blueberry picking, and more. There are lots of mountains and lakes and rivers, so it's quite scenic.

So next time you think of Alaska, remember that during the summer every day is warm, sunny, and full of nature. The only downside is that you can't see the aurora when the sun is out all day.

C：（Celsius）摂氏
horizon：地平線
twilight times：日の出前、日没後の黄昏時
solstice：【天文】至（太陽が赤道から北または南に最も離れた時）
artificial light：人工のライト
outdoorsy：アウトドア生活を好む
scenic：風光明媚な
downside：否定的な面

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