English Recordings

active
advance
advice
aloe vera 
avocado
cover
flavor
level
over
provocation
server
television
valley ball
van
vault
vehicle
venezuela
very
vincez
vocabulary
vocal
vodka
voice
vowel
wave

–(Jan ist 2011)————————————————-
It`s the first day of 2011 year!
Every one, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-——————————————————————-
• Yesterday, on the last day of 2010, my husband and my son and I had dinner at home.
=(Yesterday was the last day of 2010, I had dinner at home with my husband and son.)
•After dinner, my husband felt a little bored so he wanted to go out somewhere.
•So we went to a shopping center called Time Square.
• There were a lot of people.
•Most of them were young people.
• Three of us had wandered around that shopping center, and then rested with a cup of coffee and some pieces of cakes in a coffee shop.
• When we came back home(on the way home ) these two men suddenly decided turn to /(head to) ‘Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market/노량진 수산 시장’.
• Then we bought a live fish named BangE(방어).
• What happened then?
• That proprietor of fish shop prepared sashimi for us from it.
• We came back home and ate it with Soju(Korean distilled spirits) and beer.
• We toasted to “Good bye 2010, Welcome 2011!”
• We had a toast saying goodbye to 2010 and welcoming 2011.
*picture 1: shopping center Time Square (타임 스퀘어 모습 )-They were preparing the count down till the first day of 2011
*picture 2: Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market(노량진 수산 시장)

unusual offices - examples of non-traditional workplaces

where is your dream office? a recent survey found that 10 percent of British workers would prefer working from a park or in their garden. however, other people have their own ideas of the ideal office.

Paul Koslada uses a unique workspace as an office. he is the boss of the design firm Priority Dessigns. he has installed lots of luxuries in the office for his employees to use. in addition to a pool and a rock-climbing wall, the facility has conference rooms and a library filled with texts, reference books, and other sources. he also has a room dedicated only to brainstorming. his office is an old racquetball court facility.

Kosladaa's company began small, but then got bigger. the company started with ony 15 employees. however, their business eventually became too large. as profits increased and the company bacame more and more popular, they needed a better office. that was when Koslada found the old racquetball facility and did some remodeling. the office has more space and newer facilities. Koslada now has 50 employees.

another person with an unusual office is Robert Dolby. Dolby works on a boat. he also lives on the boat. dolby says that working from home is more fun, and is the best option for him. according to dolby, it has lots of advantages. for a start, the dress code is always casual, and he doesnt have to shave every morning.

however, dolby says there are some disadvantages to living and working on a boat. he is a computer programmer and has a lot of international clients. therefore, he has to travel a lot. he doesnt mind the travelling, but he says his suits smell like the boat. he describes the smell as a combination of mould and diesel petrol. he has become accustomed to the smell, so he forgets how strong it is. in fact, once when he was in a meeting, someone said that there was a strange smell. he felt embarrassed and knew that was not the way to make a good first impression.

perhaps the most unusual office is the one used by David Smith. in 2007 Smith decided to move closer to nature by creating an office in a tree. as a technical architect, Smith has the flexibility of working from home. so he wanted to be more comfortable.
'within a month of deciding to make an office in a tree, we put our plan in motion and hired building contractors' said smith. he later continued to say ' now i work outside every day, i couldnt be happier'.

everyone has their own ideas of a dream office. however, some jobs offer more flexibility than others. the key to a dream office is having a place to be productive while having fun at the same time.

Six men have been trapped in a mine for seventeen hours. If they are not brought to the surface soon they may lose their lives. However, rescue operations are proving difficult. If explosives are used, vibrations will cause the roof of the mine to collapse. Rescue workers are therefore drilling a hole on the north side of the mine. They intend to bring the men up in a special capsule. If there had not been a hard layer of rock beneath the soil, they would have completed the job in a few hours. As it is, they have been drilling for sixteen hours and they still have a long way to go. Meanwhile, a microphone, which was lowered into the mine two hours ago, has enabled the men to keep in touch with their closest relatives. Though they are running out of food and drink, the men are cheerful and confident that they will get out soon. They have been told that rescue operations are progressing smoothly. If they knew how difficult it was to drill through the hard rock, they would lose heart.

I was having dinner at a restaurant when Tony Steele came in. Tony worked in a lawyer's office years ago, but he is now working at a bank. He gets a good salary, but he always borrows money from his friends and never pays it back. Tony saw me and came and sat at the same table. He has never borrowed money from me. While he was eating, I asked him to lend me twenty pounds. To my surprise, he gave me the money immediately. 'I have never borrowed any money from you,' Tony said, 'so now you can pay for my dinner!'

The Oldest University in Germany － A Record of My Travels to Europe

Heidelberg has flourished as a city of students ever since its university - the oldest in Germany - was founded.
ハイデルベルクは、ドイツ最古の大学創設以来、学生街として賑わう街である。

The place I visited first was the site of the former student jail which was used as such once the old buildings of the university had been completed in 1712.
この街で最初に訪れたのは、旧大学舎が出来た1712年から使われてきた学生牢。

After going through the entrance, which is like that of a warehouse, and then proceeding upstairs, you can see hundreds of student’s names, family crests, self-portraits etc which have been graffitied all over the walls and ceilings using the soot of candles.
倉庫のような入り口を抜けて階段を上ると、そこには壁や天井一面にろうそくの煤などで丹念にかかれた氏名、家紋、自画像などがひしめき合っていた。

(2011.12.26) •The entry below is from my Chinese diary from a year ago.
•= Below is my entry from my Chinese diary from last year
•= The following entry is from my Chinese diary from last year.
•And this time, I’m trying to write it in English.
•If you find any mistakes, please correct them. Thank you!
(2010.12.26) 《excellent skill; mastery; a good[great／capital] hand/ a superior in parking car》
■I don`t know if these videos will open or not.
■Please let me know by leaving comments if they don’t open.
■I`d like you to see/watch these videos.
■ I think they are so funny.
■Korean netizens used to call people who drive absurdly, like in these videos, “”Mrs.Kim”.
■But why don`t they ever call them “Mr. Lee” or “Mrs. Park”?, always just “Mrs. Kim”?
■=But why don`t they (ever) call them “Mr. Kim”, always just “Mrs. Kim”?
=Why don`t they call them “Mrs.Lee” or “Mrs. Park”?, always just “Mrs. Kim”?
■I guess/assume (that) it`s probably not just because “Kim” is the most common surname in all of Korea, but also because most people assume woman are worse drivers than men.
■Therefore they used to call those who are bad at driving and parking “Mrs. Kim”.
■Oh, now that I’ve looked carefully, these videos weren’t taken in Korea.
■Anyway, It`s really funny!
■Oh, some might say it`s misogynistic. They don`t need to take it so seriously.
■Just watching it once and you’ll laugh out loud /burst out laughing. It`s ok!

♣ The below is my entry from nine days ago, on Dec. 21st .2011.
• I feel I made a lot of mistakes, I just don`t know which are correct and which are incorrect. If you find my mistkaes, please corrct them. Thank you!~♪~
(Dec. 21st 2011)《two bottles of wine and a bouquet of purple flowers 》
• Four days ago, December 21st, was my birthday.
= (My birthday was Decmber 21st, four days ago. /? )
• I`ll try to briefly talk about the dinner I had that day
• That day my son bought two bottles of wine and a bouquet of purple flowers on his way home from the office, and my husband made seaweed soup for me.
• In Korea, after a mother has a baby she eats seaweed soup for a while, about 3~4 weeks, since we believe it helps the mother`s health and also it helps her breast feed.
• And besides we Koreans usually eat seaweed soup on birthdays.
• I really don`t know why we eat seaweed soup on birthdays, but it`s good food for health anyway.
• Is it because I remember my mom eating it after she gave birth to me?
• Anyway, the three of us ate seaweed soup and drank wine.
• Thanks to my son and my husband!
• Today`s pictures are the wine and flowers on our dinner table.
• Oh I forgot to take pictures of the seaweed soup.( Thanks for reading, please correct my mistakes)

Long Time No See

Long time no see.
おひさしぶりです。

I have been too busy to study English.
あまりに忙しく、英語を勉強する時間がありませんでした。

However, I've almost finished the assignment I had to finish before the end of the year.
しかし、年内に終わらせなくてはならない仕事は大方片付きました。

So, I am writing this entry and, next year, I am going/planning to once again write about Japan like I used to (do).
そのため、このentryを書いています。
また、来年は以前のように日本に関する事柄について書こうと思っています。

The mystery of Japanese Consumers and electronics

In India, I bought a bottle of water. At first, I was quoted an extraordinary price. So, I asked for a discount and got one. But, my guide said that the price I paid was still much more expensive than it ought to be.

In short, Japanese are not very good at bargaining because it's not one of our customs.　Nevertheless, many Japanese feel free to bargain with the salespeople in major home electronics stores.

It is deeply mysterious.

インドで、わたしはボトルの水を買いました。はじめは、とても高い値段（ねだん）を請求（せいきゅう）されました。だから、私は値切（ねぎ）って水を安く買いました。しかし、わたしのガイドはその値段（ねだん）は適正（てきせい）な価格（かかく）より高いと言いました。

つまり、日本人は値切（ねぎ）ることが苦手だということです。それは、日本に値切（ねぎ）る習慣がないためです。しかし、多くの日本人は家電量販店（かでんりょうはんてん）ではセールスマンを相手に値切（ねぎ）ります。

おおいなる謎（なぞ）です。