Posts (page 2)
It has been a long time, again, since I posted my diary last time.
I feel so sorry that I simply do not have time to write interesting stories that I experience in my daily life.
As for my study with the Linguist in the last two weeks, I had a great discussion with Julie and Tamaki as well as my THY with our super Shacho, Tony and our new friend, Mai. Julie is another great tutor of The Linguist! Steve has such a fortune to attract good people working for him. I wish I could be such a generous (you have to be strong to be generous, you know.) person to be able to useful for society. If not, at least, for someone. I hope to talk with Julie to find out more about her!
I also enjoy chatting with Kazuyo and Marianne once in a while by Skype. I found out from Marianne that their official working hours per week is only “35 hours” in . An employer has to pay a special tax for their extra hours. I heard this on T.V. a few years ago that this is to provide working opportunity to younger people in . Idealistically, it is the same here in . “Nine to five including one hour lunch break” makes 35 hours during weekdays. However, I end up staying at work until 8pm, or 9pm these days. I hope I can be paid for my overtime, though. There are an evil custom of “service-overtime” which means you work overtime without being paid for it. This is, of course, illegal. Such company will be punished by the Japanese law. J
Now, I want to share my new episode with my boss:
She was told to manage a group of 7 people who are older both in their age and in their experiences at our company. In Japan, seniority is still big, although it is changing gradually. They are at the junior management level without any associates to take care of. They are bossy to each other and arrogant. They are also very rude to their boss and to me, not to mention to other colleagues. They do not appreciate their new boss , who is female and very young. The New Yorker I had written about before is one of them. (By the way, he is trying his best and seems to be happier working with us.)
She arranged to meet each of the people one by one to let them know that she is their boss in a nice way. She told them the teamwork was something that they miss. After the one-on-ones, she arranged another meeting with them over dinner. She told them their bad feedbacks from other sections. She also did not forget to praise them for their past successes.
It was a tough and good meeting. There was one younger staff member, called Mr. K, among them. Obviously he had to work harder to cover other reluctant staff members. He had lots of things to complain about. My boss knew about such minor yet major confused emotions among them.
She told every one of us, “When you point at somebody to complain, where are your other fingers pointing? That’s right, to yourself. When you complain about someone who does not smile at you, you smile at the person first and then greet him. Then, most people greet you back!” Everyone at the table nodded. Some people just kept on watching their empty plates quietly, others blushed with embarrassment. Mr. K was all quiet during the dinner. He was glaring at her at the beginning. When we went out of the restaurant after the meeting, we saw Mr. K was smoking on the street in the dark. My boss went close and talked to him. “Hi, Mr. K! Are you O.K.? You can still talk to me about anything, you know.” she said with her beautiful smile. Then, Mr. K said, “I am very happy now. I will change myself instead of blaming on others.” When I listened to their short conversation, I was nearly in tears to see even older person trying to change himself.
My heart was clamoring for the review section at the Linguist after I went through Sumiko’s word list and Steve’s podcast with Jill.
I did the a review test for the first time! It was fun! Actually, “clamor for” was in the list. Unfortunately though, the server was went down when as I was assiduously checking my words. Therefore, I decided to update my diary after I chatted with Yukiko to make sure if it was my PC or their server. (Thanks, Yukiko!)
SoNow, here I am! Let me share with you one of my interesting discussion from the other night.
I came home from work at around 9 p.m. from my work on Thursday. I was about to eat dinner when I noticed that my Skype was ringing. So I put down the small plate with a piece of mouth-watering meatloaf that my friend had cooked. I knew I had booked the a discussion but cancelled it immediately a few weeks ago. I actually checked my speaking schedule on the previous night. I was sure that the call was a mistake. However, when I saw that Satomi was on, I immediately answered to join the discussion! There were three speaking credits left, so I thought I would report this discussion to The Linguist later. Then, a strange thing happened. The tutor, whose icon was still there on the Skype, seemed to be disconnected. First, we were kind of at a loss. However, we decided to introduce ourselves at least, before we logged off. Satomi was so friendly that we started our conversation very smoothly. Then I noticed another friend, Marianne, was also the a member! See, I did not remember her Skype name, so I almost jumped with joy when I found out that she was on. The other member, Toshi, who speaks English with a beautiful American accent, started wondering why the three girls (?) sounded so familiar with each other! So we told him about the VOX where we communicate with a lot of The Linguist members.
It was another convivial moment and worth giving up the meatloaf!
I have experienced something for the first time in my life...Yes, podcasting!
You know, Shashi has been posting his audio files (podcast) on his blog. He asked me if I wanted to join his podcasting on Saturday by Skype and he called me back on Monday night!
Gosh! WE ARE living in a modern world, he has already podcasted our conversation as:
Episode#14 - Hitomi: An enthusiatic Linguist member from Japan
He commented about me so nice (actually too nice)! I am flattered! I am simple person, so his words made me feel I have to study harder.
I have no time to peek through my blog or any other Vox blogs, not to mention The Linguist web during the day... these days. Time management is my big task. I finally feel that I am a decent person in a real society, though.
I will keep on enjoying my friends' Vox blogs even for a short time because they give me lots of courage to carry on my days, and I will visit The Linguist web for at least 30 min to review my file and update my record. I listen to the downloaded content on train daily for about 30 min. That makes one hour of my English study as total... As for a convivial person like me, it is important to continue to learn English no matter how long.
By the way, Shashi sounded very intelligent, just as I imagined. He is from the country of Mahatma Gandhi whom I respect very much!
Let me thank Shashi for giving me such great opportunity and I do hope to get chances talk to many other Linguist members!
Today's THY
We had a new member, Mai, joined our group! She is Japanese. Her English was IS very good. I am always surprised to meet Japanese members who speak beautiful English. I hope she enjoyed the discussion also and comes back again! I enjoy talking to my group so much and I get too convivial.....even without alcohol....! I hope I didn't scare her!
A little bit about my new boss: (I need some time to be Carrie Bradshaw yet)
She must be a tough and smart lady to work at her current position. Certainly, working in a Japanese society is not easy for her. However, she never stops smiling at our colleagues. When she sees somebody sitting there who looks unhappy, or someone who people never care to look wat when they pass by , she calls their names and says, "Hi, Mr. Suzuki, how are you?" while wearing her beautiful smile! Those people look puzzled at first. However, by the time they see her again, they look up and call her name and greet her nicely.
There is a New Yorker at work who is kind of isolated because of his character (he does no work but talks too much). He came up to her and said, "I am glad that I have you here. We have non-Japanese committees." She smiled even at him, but said, "You know, you can't survive by yourself living in Japan. You need Japanese people to help you! Actually, it is not the nationality that matters, but your appreciation of other people, which eventually helps yourself!" He turned very red with embarrasement and looked miserable. When I saw him later on, he was talking to his Japanese colleagues and he was doing what he was supposed to do at work, and doing it happily.
My new boss knows how to treat people! She says, "if you want other people to change for you, you change yourself first. Then, naturaly, you can influence other people to change."
I am lucky to be her personal assistant. .....to be continued.....
腰元Cappuccino in matsuken samba kimono
I have tried to let my girls join the Bowlinguist of Wanko...They still have a long way to go to become advanced learners like CHIRO... Please view the full size version to find out what they said...
I enjoy podcast video since I have bought my new iPod. This morning, I watched on ABC WORLD NEWS. They talked about "Rejection Show" which was getting hot in New York. The show looks like a stand-up comedy show. The person on the stage talks about how s/he has been rejected and treated badly by others in humorous and witty way.
They share such bitter experiences with audience and laugh them out together! It is kind of a healing process, as they say.
mmh?
So my previous diary is like a "rejection show"! No wonder I feel better and healed every time I write something!!!
Steve has wrote his comments about my recording (see my previous post) and he recorded another file for me to practice.
Steve said "At the risk of being mean, I offer my comments. Hitomi, You have to work harder to bite your sounds. I hvae rerecorded this. I welcome others who may want a special pronunciation recording to work on. I am impressed by Hitomi's dedication. Steve"
Thanks, Steve! You can be mean to me anytime in this case! 良薬口に苦し。 Bitters do good to the stomach. (This was not bitter at all to me. It was a sweet candy, or shoud I say "carrots, not sticks" ) I can improve my English following such frank advice. I do hope everyone feels free to communicate with Steve and other tutors to get personalized advice, which help other learners simultaneiously.
Some people may wonder why I am practicing English and enjoying so much talking with you guys via blogs, on discussions, etc.etc. Well, I do not have my boss around in my office and I have time and PC to use freely. However, this is not the only reason. I AM totally overwhelmed with JOY, and APPRECIATIVE to such feedback from Steve as well as from the Linguist teachers and classmates. You want to know why...???(to be continued. Don't miss hitomi's interesting cliff-hanger story! ほんとかよ！)
We will be back soon!
Living in the Moment: A conversation Part 1 - Part 3
Saved words & phrases: (tba)
Wang Lee Hom/Talkasia by Lorraine Hahn
Saved words & phrases: (tba)
Words read so far since I joined The Linguist in June: 8,050
Cinnamon sleeping under the bed: Chestnut when she was once a mini gorilla.
Cappuccino when she weighed ony 900g
I received my bi-weekly prosgress report, which was not really a good news. I log on The Linguist almost everyday to study, however I sometimes forget to update my listening hours. Just as Mr. Noonan said in his interview with Steve, I listen to English all the time. I watch on news in English, and most of T.V. dramas in English. Still, this kind of "passive" listening is not good enough for me. I think I am going to post my daily study, stating what words I save as well as the titles of the content I study, just as Wanko does in her Japanese blog. Here is my report with my excuses..
Date prepared: Aug 19, 2006 Period: 2 weeks
CHOOSE-selected items: 5
READ-studied items: 6
saved words: 2 ("too lazy..I admit")
saved phrases: 0
LISTEN-listening time: 3.33 hours ("plus about four hours")
REVIEW-learned words: 1
learned phrases: 0
WRITE-writings submitted: 2 ("not too bad, I think")
written words: 714
mistake types:
article (16)
choice-of-words (13)
punctuation (7)
singular-plural (3)
other (3)
verb (2)
preposition (1)
mistakes per 100 words: 6.3
SPEAK-number of discussions: 5 "not bad at all"
speaking time: 2.5 hours
Saving and reviewing words/phrass is my weakness or a sore spot!
I had a THY discussion this morning with Tony and Jill. There were only two of us; however, there was no single moment we were quiet, as we talked about MANGA, comic books, a notorious? Japanese culture.
After that, I practiced my Ode. I know I haven't read as many as I should try. It may be far from being perfect.
Please listen and encourage me to work on harder!
