2010年4月23日
TITLE：Poets and Poetry (Feedback)
Hi team,
Wow - 75 comments on a single entry! It's a long time since we managed that. Welcome to the newcomers, and thanks to the regulars for keeping it lively.
Did you all see the news about Geos this week? I feel really sorry for people who have lost money because I know that Geos used to make students pay a lot up front. If any of you are thinking of going to an Eikaiwa school, my advice is to choose one that lets you pay by the month.
By the way, who are "G. Communications"? They must be a very powerful company to take over both Nova and Geos, and I read in the newspaper that they are based in Nagoya, but I have never heard of them before.
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2010年4月 2日
TITLE：Female Vocalists (Corrections)
Hi team,
I'm glad you enjoyed the videos, and thanks for sharing your own favourite female vocalists.
trmr - I'm not sure about the collocation "congratulate for." I suppose you could say "congratulate someone for doing something," but I think that "congratulate on" is much more common. Try Googling them both and see how many hits you get.
I have been quite busy again over the last couple of days because I had to write an academic paper. It's almost finished now, but I still have to ask some friends to check it for me. Tonight, (about an hour after I write this entry!), I'm driving to Tsuruga to take the ferry to Hokkaido. I'm going to be there for about 10 days. It's mostly just a holiday, but I'm going to visit a teacher in Hakkodate who is using my books to help him to plan his lessons.
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2010年3月26日
TITLE：New Dictionary of Errors
Hi team,
As you know, I have just finished the new edition of "An A-Z of Common English Errors." You cannot buy it in high street bookshops, but all of the books I have published through my own company are now available from englishbooks.jp, which is an online bookstore based in Kyushu. This company is run by two British guys, so it's very easy to do business with them. The link for my books is:
https://www.englishbooks.jp/catalog/default.php?manufacturers_id=65
(Click on the Japanese flag in the top right-hand corner to read the page in Japanese.)
By the way, when I do corrections of comments on this blog, if the mistake is one that is covered in the A-Z of Errors, I will give you the key word. If you are a regular reader, it will be useful for you to have the book.
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2010年2月 5日
TITLE："Well" and the Past Perfect Tense (corrections)
Hi team,
Thanks for all your comments. I have spent another whole day today trying to finish the new version of the A-Z of Common English Errors. I have been working on this so much over the last few weeks that I find it really difficult to think about anything else! Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, I find myself thinking about English grammar. I will be glad when the book is done and I can take a break. Mind you, I know that as soon as the book is done, I will be reading it and finding things that I want to change. Oh well, I guess that is the job I have chosen.
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2010年1月 9日
TITLE：Seem
Hi team,
I managed to get back to Seto safely yesterday, but it was a very cold ride on the expressway from Osaka to Nagoya. There was quite a lot of snow on the mountains, and I was worried that the road might be frozen, but it turned out to be okay.
I didn't take many pictures while I was in Kyushu because it was so cold that I didn't want to get off my bike and take my gloves off. I took a few on the first day while I was riding down the coast from Miyazaki, though, and you can have a look at them on my Flickr page.
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2009年12月11日
TITLE：My Next New Toy (Corrections)
Hi team,
I would like to say that this entry is late because I have been working hard again, but I'm afraid that would not be true. In fact, this entry is late because I have spent the last two nights playing with my new computer. Have you heard of Adobe CS? 'CS' stands for 'Creative Suite', and Adobe CS is a package of Adobe software. The one I have includes Adobe Indesign (for doing page layout in magazines, books, and brochures), Adobe Illustrator (for illustrations, graphics, logos, etc.), Dreamweaver (for creating websites), and Photoshop, which I'm sure you have all heard of.
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2009年12月 4日
TITLE：My New Computer - Corrections
Hi team,
Thanks for all your comments. I have been enjoying getting acquainted with my new computer. Actually, I think I am in love! It is a wonderful machine, and every day I keep finding new features. I don't think I will ever be able to use it to its full potential, but I'm certainly going to try.
Anyway, here are a few comments on your comments...
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2009年11月20日
TITLE：The Job Market in Japan (Corrections)
Hi Team (capitalized to please Tomo!)
Hi Nao - Thanks for your feedback. It was a very interesting experiment for me as well.
Hi Tatsuya and Tanizawa san. Nice to have you with us.
Thanks for reading the article and sharing your ideas. I don't think it is necessarily the case that students in the west always end up doing jobs related to their degrees, but it certainly happens more in the UK than in Japan. I think one of the reasons for this is the Japanese system of making everyone in the company a "generalist." There is not much point in graduates looking for a job related to their university major if they are just going to be moved to another department of the company in three years (and then changed again five years after that!) As I mentioned before, people in the West usually specialize in something, so although they might move to a different company, it is not common for someone to change their job within the same organization.
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2009年10月 9日
TITLE：TED - Corrections
Hi team,
I'm glad you liked the video (and thanks Tomo for finding the version with Japanese subtitles). This lecture struck a chord with me (←check the expression 'strike a chord with sb' in a dictionary if you don't know it) because when I was in high school, my teacher told my mother that he didn't think I had the necessary academic ability to go to university, so it would probably be better for me to leave high school and get a job.
Looking back now, it is obvious that because I did not fit the usual pattern, I was not thought of as being 'clever'. I wonder how many people never reach their potential because they never understand that most education systems are only measuring one tiny aspect (and not a very important one at that!) of children's intelligence and talent.
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
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2009年10月 2日
TITLE：Nao's Challenge - Corrections
Hi everyone,
There are such a lot of comments on the last entry that I don't have time to do full corrections, but here are just a few points that might interest you...
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2009年9月25日
TITLE：The Secret of Illusions (corrections)
Hi team,
I'm glad to see that Tomo got so many birthday messages, but let's make sure we remember next year!
I'm also glad that you enjoyed the video. It's amazing how much you can miss when you attention is focused on just one thing.
Anyway here are my corrections for this week...
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2009年8月14日
TITLE：Noripi - Corrections
Hi team,
Thanks for all your comments about Noripi. I agree that it must be terrible for her child, and I think there is no doubt at all that she would have been better off marrying me. Oh well, it's too late now.
Hi Pink NY - it's great to have you back with us, and nice to know that you still check the blog from time to time. Nice to hear from Lily as well.
I want to tell you about something really strange that happened to me last night. It has happened once before, but last night it was much, much worse than before.
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2009年8月 7日
TITLE：Pets - Corrections
Hi team,
Thanks for sharing your pet stories. I see that most of you have either cats or dogs, but some of you have some very exotic pets as well! I would love to have a dog, but I don't think I would be able to look after it properly, so I will have to wait until I am rich enough to pay someone to take care of it when I go away.
Anyway, here is my feedback on this week's comments.
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2009年7月24日
TITLE：Stationery - Corrections
Hi team,
I wasn't sure whether you would like this topic or not, so I was glad to see so many comments. I was also glad to see that I am not the only one who loves stationery! By the way, a lot of native speakers get confused between 'stationery' (pens, pencils, etc.) and 'stationary' (not moving). I would guess that if you asked a group of native speakers of English which is the correct spelling for each meaning, around half of them would get it wrong.
I have had a very busy week this week because it's exam week at Nanzan. I had to supervise 4 exams yesterday, one this morning, and another two this afternoon. After today, I have two more next Tuesday afternoon, and then it will be the summer holidays, so I can just focus 100% on my other work.
Anyway, here are some corrections from this week.
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2009年7月11日
TITLE：The Power of the Internet - Corrections
Hi team,
Sorry for the late posting - it's been a strange week. On Monday evening, Nanzan decided to close the university for a week because a student was diagnosed with the new influenza, so I didn't have any classes. That gave me a chance to focus on my thesis, so I have been working really hard on that for the past few days.
On Thursday, a friend's father died. He had been ill for quite a long time, so it was not a surprise, but of course his family were very upset. I went to the 'otsuya' last night, and to the funeral this afternoon. There were a lot of people there last night, so it was nice for the family.
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2009年7月 3日
TITLE：Michael Jackson - Corrections
Hi team,
Well, we have had a very lively debate this week, and not only about Michael Jackson! Over the course of the week, there have been lots more strange stories coming out about him, so it is difficult to know what to believe. Anyway, I will always be a fan of his music.
This week, I had to write a long document in Japanese at my university. I haven't done that type of writing for a long time, so it was very interesting. When I had finished, a Japanese friend sat down with me and pointed out all my errors. It really is the most effective way to study, in my opinion.)
Anyway, here is my feedback on your comments this week.
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2009年6月 5日
TITLE：Konkatsu - corrections
Hi team,
Glad you enjoyed the topic of 'konkatsu'. I am very fond of the single lifestyle, so I don't think I will be doing konkatsu any time soon, but I love the way that Japanese people create new words by combining Chinese characters. We can't really do this in English, so I find it fascinating.
Anyway, here are my corrections for this week's discussion. (Remember that I don't have time to correct everything, and there are a few sentences that I can't understand, so just because I don't correct something doesn't necessarily mean that it is good English.)
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