3dimension? 2dimension??

On today's Valentine's Day, my hubby and I went see the movie which we had been looking forward. The movie was "Valentine's Day?"
NO! "AVATAR!!!"

We had heard a lot about "Three dimensional mind-blowing experience."
However, we, actually,...weren't impressed so much.
The movie was spectacular. But, in my hubby's case, the 3D glasses made him tired & uncomfortable.
In my case, I couldn't feel for the blue "avatars" very much. I understnd the director did a hard work to look them like human beings, but...maybe I just wanted to see real human beings' expressions.

Actually, what we had in our mind was, not the 3D world even while we were watching the movie, but the 2D vision that Aiko Uemura couldn't get a medal at the Olympics!! She did a great job. She did her best, but medal takers had more aggressiveness than her... It was a shame.

After the movie, another 2D got us. New cellular phone!!
We are docomo users. It was time to change our cell phones... I chose F-02B version, which was called "aroma phone."
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/foma/style/f02b/
The cell phone can scent my favorite perfume! It can be a pedometer! The camera of this phone has "beautiful skin"mode!!!
I was so into the 2D gadget, and almost forget about the 3D movie...

Am I an anachronism???

Hellelujah

Since last week, my favorite reality TV show, "American Idol" has started here in Japan!!
I've watched it every year from season...4?probably. When I was in America, I voted for my favorite contestants. Carrie Underwood, Katharine Mcphee, Jordin Sparks...
I loved male singers too, like Chris Daughtry or Adam Lambert, but I tend to sympathize with female singers.

This year, I've already found my favorite girl! She passed the audition in Boston.
Her name is Maddy Curtis. She is only 16, but she seems...mature. Sturdy.
She said she is 8th of 9 siblings. Her little brother has down syndrome, and she's always taking care of the brother. She said, "He doesn't see people with "color."(She meant, prejudice) I think we should do like him." Amazingly, her parents feel grateful that the down-syndrome boy has given great influence to the family, so they adopted two more down-syndrome kids!! That's...a kind of "America spirit" which I sometimes felt during my stay in America.

Anyway, Maddy sang "Hallelujah" popularized by Leonard Cohen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io2B1cAxLk4
The judges said, "You are just 16 years old, but you already know the SOUL on the song!" I totally agree with them!!!

Then, today, when I watched the opening ceremony of Vancouver Olympics, I met THE SOUL" of Hallelujah, again. Even maturer one!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE&feature=related
I couldn't find a good VCR of the exact stage of the opening ceremony...
But the song was same, and the singer was the same. Her name is K.D.Lang. The announcer said she was one of the most popular singers in Canada.

Is there any Japanese singer who can move people in the world so much like her??
I don't remember who was singing at the Nagano Olympics...
One of the culprits is language, I thought. Most people in the world can understand English, and "Hallelujah" is the word which makes people imagine "peace."
But, how many people can understand the meaning if we sing in Japanese?
The minority of Japanese makes hard to convey the song's message.
Should we learn English, or should we try to prevail Japanese into the world?
While I was watching the Olympics, I was wondering that...

The lyrics of Hallelujah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEvJzvAsO20

Racist?

Some people just misunderstand us. "Us" means...English teachers.
Some people say, "You are an English teacher? So, you don't have to study English!"
...That's totally not true!! English is not our native language (for Japanese English teachers,) so we NEED TO brush up it every day.

I don't trust Japanese English teachers who say, "I don't have to learn English."
They are not hard workers. On the other hand, I respect native English teachers who say, "we don't get ELT(English Language Teaching) degree at university, so we need to learn how to study English!"

Anyway, I'm always looking for a good school or a teacher to improve in my English.
...But as many Japanese English teachers, I don't want to pay much money "to learn English" anymore because I've already paid that in America.

Recently, I've heard a lot about cheap English online schools. At the cheapest schools, the teachers are Filipinos. I thought, "Filipinos! If I get the Philippine accent, I feel sorry for MY students!!"
However, my Toastmaster friend, Yumi said, she had a Skype lesson every night with the Filipinos and it was really good to keep her English.

So, I had a trial lesson tonight.
Actually, the class...didn't work for me. I just...didn't get it. The teacher, a Filipino student, was a really nice girl. But...she was like "me." I mean, an imperfect English teacher who is embarrassed to talk with very-fluent English speakers. I asked her to correct my mistakes in my speech script. Some of her corrections made sense, but I was not sure about the other corrections.
It's very hard to make a rapport by Skpye lesson! Maybe we just didn't connect with, but I still feel, "I PREFER an American, English (I mean, from England), Canadian, or Australian teacher!
I know English is one of the public languages in Philippine...but...
AM I A RACIST???? I hope I ain't!!!

I know the best teacher for me, is Sally. My former tutor in America! She has EVERY certificate of teaching English, and she has an excellent personality. I know I can ask her to teach me by Skype.
But the problem is...I want to pay her by Japanese yen!

...Maybe I will "wander" to seek a way to learn English for while...
How long have I been doing that???

Acupancture and Moxibustion

I had got rash since October 2009, but recently, they seem to disappear. I've been run out of allergy medicine for a few days, but the rush doesn't seem to rebound on.

Why? I'm not sure, but...maybe, it's because of acupuncture and and moxibustion.
I've been "acupuncture and moxibustion clinic(what a long name!!)" just twice so far. But my acupuncturist said, acupuncture and moxibustion(what a long name, again!!) were VERY good way to excrete accumulated toxin in a body. Yes, like allergies!!

Today, I called my mom and told the story. She said, "acupuncture and moxibustion(what a long...I gave up!) have been a traditional oriental medicine. Your grand mother had an acupuncturist come home, and had treatment often. She had serious diabetes, so sometimes she even couldn't move...but after the treatment, she felt very good all the time!!"

Uhmmm...sounds very good!
My acupuncturist put skin-colored stickers on my foot and said, "They are your therapeutic spots. Have moxibustion on them every day!"
Therefore, I set fire moxibustion by a lighter, and put them on those spots almost every night.
Having seen me, surrounded by lots of smoke, my hubby said...
"You already look like a GRANDMA!!"
...I'm doing that, to become YOUNGER!!!

Coaching Skills

I've heard "I'll go to COUNSELLING" or "I need to have COUNSELLING" from words of mouth or TV dramas in America, but I don't remember I heard a lot about "coaching."
However, it seems to be getting common right now.

My friend, Mayumi, has had training as a "coaching professional" and I heard about the job today.
As she said,counselling is for people who tries to become "normal" or rather "active" from depressing situations. On the other hand, coaching is for people who are already "active," and help them to achieve their goals.
For examples, many managers, executives, or professional athletes have their own "coach" to strengthen their mentality.

That sounds like very positive job!
Since I moved back to Tokyo, I've been getting familiar with some "new" job (to me,) and which is very pleasant.
I don't know if I move again somewhere, but I'd like to enjoy living in Tokyo for awhile!!

Fallin' for you?

When I saw her at the first sight, I noticed my RADAR was on.
RADAR means..."Attractive Woman Radar!"

At today's Toastmasters' meeting, she was in the back row.
She had long beautiful brown hair, long eyelashes, and wore a professional business suit. She looked like one of my favorite actress, Keiko Kitagawa.

Sometimes my "attractive woman radar" comes on, but it's VERY rare.
I don't know how many times it has happened in my life...but not more than ten times, I guess. ( You want to say, "WHO CARES!??" Sorry!)
Most of those attractive women became my friends now!

My "definition" of an attractive woman is she has to be elegant, intelligent, beautiful, well-groomed, but friendly and humble. I LOVE to meet girls who make me encouraged, "I want to be like her!!!"

Actually, another my radar also went on when she started to speak in English.
Her English pronunciation was just "perfect!!!" I was sure she had lived abroad when she was a kid, so I asked her. But she said, "Oh, I've never lived abroad! My major was not English, I just studied it a little by myself."
My "talented language learner radar" told me, "Here she comes!!"
Some people have a gift for learning languages, especially, listening.
Therefore, they can "speak" as they "listen to!!"

However, surprisingly, she (her name turned out "Erica") said, "Once I met you, I was attracted by your appearance, your English, and the content of your comments! I hope we can talk more some other time!!"

Hooray!! My "fallin' love" is not "one-way," is it "two-way" already??
I'm looking forward how our friendship is going!!





....Caution:I'm not LESBIAN!!!

Types of obstacles to improve in...

Among my adult students, there are two types of students who don't improve in English very much.

1. Stubborn type.
Even I recommend good ways to improve in English, they say, "Oh, I don't have time to do that!" or "I just don't do that way." While obedient students get good results, the stubborn students still are at the same level...

2. Forgettable type.
I don't know why, but they (actually, only one in my students) don't remember what they learned two weeks ago. They might remember a week before class. But two weeks later, what they did became "nothing!"

I think the common point of two types are "they are VERY passive." They have their resolutions, but they don't try to think where they are,and what they should do to make their dreams come true.

Sorry for the pessimistic article! I've been teaching a year and a half for the same school, but a few of them still have "little" improved... ESPECIALLY, those who have to get a good result, at EIKEN or TOEIC.

However, they come to me because they don't know how they should!
I should customise some strategies for each student more and more. That must be very hard....but whenever I had difficult clients, I think I got great chances to "improve" myself as a professional.

Do my best for them! Then, there will be something worth appearing to me and themselves...