Here is French, and here is French

A French girl came, she is 17. Her name is "Lea".

The pronunciation is difficult for Japanese, not Le-a, not Li-a. But she gave to tell her correct sound. Her name in Japan is Li-a.

Until she came, we didn't know that--- that????

In my house there are some French, on the plate, on the pot.

She was surprised, happy, and laughed. The sentences on the plate seemed not to be good French, she doesn't tell us what does it mean yet.

I understand, I sometimes foreign people decollete or use something written in Japanese, and sometimes the Japanese is --- strange.

On the other hand, I know many English especially ones written on T-Shirts seems to be funny.

Since tomorrow she goes to high school by bus with OBENTOU. I start to make OBENTOU again. She likes rice, so it's OK to make just ONIGIRI (rice balls) when I'm busy, or she can make it.

Today's menu of breakfast is grilled Salmon (typical Japanese breakfast) and scrambled eggs.

She ate both, but she seemed to prefer scrambled eggs--- Can you see Jan, of course with hot ketchup.

My husband Yuki loves something hot.

This ketchup, is too hot for me, for Yuki so-so, and for Lea very hot.

Thanks Jan. We enjoy it.

And "we" love the sauce and the pasta.

Her parents don't speak English well like her. She learns English at school.

In Japan --- we learn English at school, but most high school students can't speak English like her.

On the other hand she doesn't know grammatical things about English very much. So she sometimes attend my junior high school English class at night.

Just two days passed since she came.

But my husband and my impression is -- she is just a high school girl like my daughters. Until now we have no problems, and I hope Lea has no problem.

September is just around the corner and --

Now, I finished tidying and cleaning up the rooms.

Which room? People who know my house might ask. Upstairs, my daughters' room and the computer room next to it (my husband calls my office). I put a guitar with a card in the daughters' room. The card says "Welcome".

Who comes? A girl from France. She is 16.

Suddenly I got a call from a friend, and I accepted to welcome her for at least one month or three months. She is going to go to a high school (It is the same school my elder daughter went) from here by bus every day.

So in this case, she is not a guest. I don't do anything special for her, I just support her usual life here in Utsunomiya.

It is the first time for us (my husband and me) to stay with others for such a long time.

What will happen? We are looking forward to coming her and living with her.

She is coming tomorrow.

September, and Autumn is just around the corner.

What was I doing this week?

My husband goes to work as usual.
And in my house someone came in turn. Who? Students, junior high school students and high school students. I opened my house to them.
For them this week was the last summer vacation, and they have to finish their homework (including the homework I gave).

Well, summer vacation was finished. And the busiest event season comes.

Summer vacation was almost finihsed.

Now I'm waiting for my husband coming back. He was going out to play golf to enjoy his last summer vacation day. As soon as he came home, we are going out to take a hot spring bath.

While I'm waiting for him, I'm reading this book. I'm almost through with this book. This book brings back some memories. (In Japanese NATSUKASHI NA--, but it is difficult to translate it in English directly, Japanese peculiar phrase or nuance like MOTTAINA (wasteful,but I always think there is a little difference between these words)

Have you ever read this book? I've read many times when I was a child, And this book was my daughter's favorite. And to be surprised, even my husband said , when this book arrived (Thanks Tim) "OH, Hotzenplotz".

I don't know whether my students know this book, but anyway in my generation probably this book was really popular.

What books brings back some memories for you?

The other day I attended to an English workshop.

The lecture said "On learning English(or foreign language), there are four important skills, speaking, listening, reading and writing. The way to learn is different. Reading and writing is necessary for conscious study using left (I forgot right?) part of the brain. On the other hand speaking and listening is necessary for unconscious training using right (left?) part of the brain, like sports.

I'm not good at sports, so I tend to escape from speaking and listening training of English, but I love reading.

Well, well, well---

At first, we (my husband and I) were really surprised of the perfection.

Did I tell you about the suitcase??

On the last business trip, his suitcase (to be correct, my daughter's suitcase) was crashed.

So he called to an airline company. They came and took it for free, and repair it for free, and send it for free. (Of course it is covered by travel insurance).

But we are looking forward to getting new suitcase because it might be difficult to repair it.

BUT the skill is great --- perfect, and unfortunately it is repaired.

My daughter said "I used only once, why is it so dirty???". I said "your father uses it, not me"

Everybody who are interested in Japan, must know that "we don't wear shoes in the room".

So "socks" are really important.

And I have have a poor circulation. So even in summer, I need socks.I usually wear "normal" five-toe-socks. "normal" means the length is ankle-length. But it's little bit hot in summer. And I know these days foot-cover type socks are sold. So I bought them. They are five-toe socks, and the important thing is they are made from "silk". This material is good for our health. And they are made in JAPAN.

And now I finished reading and solving the questions.

So I wrote it.

Probably you know, though my English skill is not so good, but I teach English to some kids and adults. And I often read English picture books. To read English picture books phonics rule is really effective. From this autumn, I have a workshop to introduce phonics. At junior high schools and high schools, students don't learn phonics rule. So phonics rules are not so popular in Japan. I studied by myself. And I'm studying more about phonics. So my friend sent me three books. I finished two of them. I could solve the questions. --- grin!!!

Well, the question is -- about the letter "y" in the last syllable of the words, for example, city, party, slowly.

According to the dictionary, the pronunciation of city is "siti" ( They are not letters, they are pronunciation symbols). But the book says, the vowel phoneme represented by the letter "y" in the last syllable is the same phoneme represented by the letter "e" in the word eve.

But According to the dictionary the pronunciation symbols of eve is "i:v". I think "i" and "i:" are different, not the length, the "sound" is different. What do you think about it?

Interesting things.

I wrote about "maru". And I'm very habbpy to get some comments.

Tim says, "we usually use a check mark.

And MssNIPONdaze comments the way of draw "maru".

They are really ingereseting.

And today I noticed.

These days many "young" pepole use face latters. (sorry, I don't use them much.)

(>_<) ^^; (^^)v (~Q~;)

Can you guess what do they mean???

And did you notice that the way to read was different?

English version is like that -- :-)

Japanese are interesting, we can write and read longways and width ways.

Well, the summer vacation of my husband has started. (I have lesson until Wednesday.)
So I'm busy in preparing meals or going out for meals.

Yesterday we went to a flea market.

I looked for some gadgets for Halloween or Christmas as presents to my students.

And my husband bought it as a pleasure during his summer vacation.

As some people know it, our house is not so big, So to put this big gadget, I put away a single sofa that we seldom use, and that is just a display.

It's OK.

But the master who sold this gadget said, "if you don't use it, it's a good display."

Yes, it is getting a new display instead of a single sofa.

Well, it costs 2000 yen(about 20 $).