English Recordings

He can't be an athlete.
He might be a musician.
He could be a musician.
He may be a musician.
He must be a violinist.

Dr. Cullen's class is the best class ever.

2002  I was born on February 24th, 2002 in New York, USA.
2003  I took my first steps and I said my first words. My first word was "cat".
2004  I got my first pet, a dog.
2005  My brother Tom was born on May 7th.
2006  I went to nursery school. I had an operation in hospital.
2007  I got my first bike for my birthday. I learnt how to ride my bike !
2008  I started primary school and I met my friends Ellie and Joe. I learnt how to swim.
2009  I began guitar lessons and I played basketball on a team for the first time.
2010  We went on holiday to Florida and I swam in the sea for the first time.
2011  I went on my first skiing holiday with my class. I won a music competition.
2012  My family moved to London, England. I made a new friend, Sam. My grandmother visited us in the summer and we went to a theme park.
2013  I started secondary school, I wore a school uniform for the first time.
At Christmas we went back to New York for two weeks and I was very excited and happy because I saw my friends Ellie and Joe again !

The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook's uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper* assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel* was served out; and a long grace* was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered* to each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours nudged him.
Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger* (…). He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: "Please, sir, I want some more."
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds (…). The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear*. "What!" said the master at length, in a faint voice. "Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more." The master aimed a blow* at Oliver's head with the ladle (…).
The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr. Bumble rushed* into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, "Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!" There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. "For more!" said Mr. Limbkins. "Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper* allotted by the dietary?" "He did, sir," replied Bumble. "That boy will be hung," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. "I know that boy will be hung."
Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion. An animated discussion took place. Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of the parish. In other words, five pounds and Oliver Twist were offered to any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to any trade, business, or calling.
From Oliver Twist, (chapter two), by Charles Dickens,1838

Charles Dickens [ʧɑːz ˈdɪkɪnz] is one of the world's greatest writers. He was born in Portsmouth, England on February 7th, 1812. He was the second of eight children. He was the son of an office clerk. He had a happy childhood and he liked reading very much. When Dickens was only twelve years old, his father went to prison because of financial problems and debts. Young Dickens left school and went to work in a factory. He worked long hours in very bad conditions and he never forgot this terrible experience.
In 1831 Dickens became a newspaper reporter. Soon he started writing short stories for magazines. In Dickens's times novels were usually published in parts in magazines: every week or month a part of the story appeared in the magazine. This went on for many months until the story was finished. A lot of people bought the magazines to read the story. In April 1836 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. They had ten children. The Pickwick Papers was Dickens's first novel. He finished it in 1837 when Victoria became Queen. The novel was a great success. During his life Dickens met many people, they were young, old, rich, poor, happy, sad, miserable, kind, unkind. He wrote about them in his novels. His books are about poverty and social problems in the Victorian Age. Dickens wrote fourteen major novels. Some of them are Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849), A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861). Dickens travelled to Italy, Switzerland, France and the United States, where he read extracts from some of his novels to the public in New York and Boston. This was an enormous success.
He died on June 9th, 1870 at the age of 58 and was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey in London.

In my last entry, I wrote, "when you love someone, you love everything about them, even their sweat", adding that, "you inhale them like they are a glass of wine you never want to finish". One of my correctors, pointed out that from a Japanese point of view, "a glass of wine you don't want to finish", can sound like a wine you don't like the taste of. "Of course", I thought, smiling wryly, remembering the Japanese toast "kanpai" meaning to drain one's glass dry.

Recently, I've been watching a lot of Scandinavian movies on SBS, the foreign language Australian public broadcaster. Whenever Scandinavians propose a toast, they seem to raise their glasses and say something which sounds like "skol".This "skol" sounds a lot like the word "scull", which means "to drink a drink (usually an alcoholic one) in one go". My curiosity piqued, I tried looking up the derivation of the English word on the internet. The first dictionaries I checked had the word "scull", but not the meaning I was looking for. This surprised me a little, but since they were American dictionaries, I thought "OK, so it's a British word". However, the British dictionaries I searched didn't list that meaning either. Whenever this happens, I suddenly realise that the word I'm looking up must be an Australian word. As soon as I know that, I head straight for the online dictionary, "Urban Dictionary". (There is, of course, an official Australian Dictionary - the Macquarie dictionary - but you have to pay to use it, and I am too stingy to do so. Or rather, I feel that if the Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries can now be freely accessed online, our national dictionary should be freely available too.)

Urban Dictionary is basically a dictionary of slang, and like Wikipedia, its definitions can be written by anyone, so there is no quality control. In fact, many of its definitions are jokes. (My husband says it should be renamed "Urban Fictionary".) Anyway, what I want to say is, if you are a non-native speaker, you should exercise extreme caution before taking its definitions as gospel. But having said that, it is also a good source of Australian expressions.

Let’s Take the example of Lalit Ahuja, President of Target India. He was recruited by Target, an americain retailing company to establish a second corporate headquarters in India.
Instead of immediately organizing the Indian operation, Ahuja took a different approach and spent his first six months living in the U.S. and working at Target’s headquarters in Minneapolis.
Ahuja knew that his success would depend on understanding not only the local Indian context but also the Midwest American culture in which Target was founded.
His personal development is typical of the effort needed to become a global leader. A global mindset needs to be constantly developed through intentional study, first-hand experience, and assembling networks of friends and contacts in different parts of the world.
He established an “exchange” program that allows employees to flex their global muscles and develop the mindset needed to engage effectively in Target’s increasingly global enterprise.

2002  I was born on February 24th, 2002 in New York, USA.
2003  I took my first steps and I said my first words. My first word was "cat".
2004  I got my first pet, a dog.
2005  My brother Tom was born on May 7th.
2006  I went to nursery school. I had an operation in hospital.
2007  I got my first bike for my birthday. I learnt how to ride my bike !
2008  I started primary school and I met my friends Ellie and Joe. I learnt how to swim.
2009  I began guitar lessons and I played basketball on a team for the first time.
2010  We went on holiday to Florida and I swam in the sea for the first time.
2011  I went on my first skiing holiday with my class. I won a music competition.
2012  My family moved to London, England. I made a new friend, Sam. My grandmother visited us in the summer and we went to a theme park.
2013  I started secondary school, I wore a school uniform for the first time.
At Christmas we went back to New York for two weeks and I was very excited and happy because I saw my friends Ellie and Joe again !

(1) [ɔ] vs. [o] caught vs. coat

(2) [u] vs. [ʊ] wood vs. would

(3) [dʒ] vs. [z] rage vs. raise

(4) [θ] vs. [f] thin vs. fin

It wasn’t a trick. But for space geeks, it sure was a treat. An image, taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on October 8, captured the sun getting into the Halloween spirit. “Active regions on the sun combined to look something like a solar jack-o’-lantern’s face,” said Joe Witte of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. There’s no cause for alarm — it’s just the center of our solar system’s spooky Halloween costume. “The active regions in this image appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy,” explained Witte. “This image blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.” And that’s what gives the sun that freaky feel.