Hamish's blog

THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT:
Hi. As you are probably aware there is a big construction project going on behind our school. We hope that the noise of that construction project didn’t, or doesn’t bother you while you are taking classes here. Apparently, the noisiest part of the project (the parking garage) has been completed, so that is a relief! However, there will still be some noise created by the construction of the rooftop garden, and by the meeting room, and by the coffee shop that we think will also be constructed behind the school. Bare with us please!
IGNORING NOISE:
If the noise of the above project got too noisy and I was teaching in the room closest too it, I would move to the room furthest from the project - did your teacher do the same thing? Can you concentrate with noise? Can you tune noise out? I can’t concentrate when there is music or machinery shrieking in the background and most of my students are the same. Similarly, I can’t sleep with the light on, or music playing, or the TV going, but I know people who can! Melissa, told me that when she was at university, her room was near a busy street where ambulances often went past with their sirens wailing at all hours of the day, so she had to train herself to sleep through the noise. I wish I could ignore the motorcycle gangs and the police who chase them down the highway in front of my house! Why people want to ride noisy mopeds in the winter at 1:00am is beyond me!
NOISE POLLUTION:
There is a lot of noise pollution in Japan, for example politicians who use loud speakers to tell people to vote for them, recycle companies telling people to give them their trash, and right-wing, nationalists blasting their messages. Personally, I wish all of these people didn’t use loud speakers to spout their messages. Do these noisy people annoy you, or do they just annoy me and other people unused to them?
TALKING IN TEMPLES:
I also don’t like people who are noisy at temples or shrines. I was showing my brother a temple in Kyoto and we met some foreign tourist who decided to speak in a loud voice to my brother about various things, to my annoyance. I didn’t say anything, but I told my brother later that that man was an idiot and my brother was surprised. Do you agree with me?

APPROPRIATE VOLUME:
Regulating the volume of your voice is important, especially in learning situations. Teachers and students need to make themselves heard but not shout. I have taught people who are shy and I have had to ask them nicely to speak more loudly repeatedly, and I have also taught a student who read aloud too loudly and disturbed other students.
RESPONSES PLEASE:
Oh well, I hope all of the above is food for thought. Please let me know what you think of my ideas.
Ciao!

Duration Nation (Gregg)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★☆☆☆

Here's a little quiz to try and highlight the differences between using "while" and "during". Let's hope it doesn't take you too long...

1) I always like to take a short road trip _______ Golden week.

A. during

B. while

2) He came to the meeting _______ the middle of the presentation.

A. during

B. while

3) The doorbell rang _______ we were having dinner.

A. during

B. while

4) The allegations came to light _______ the presidential campaign.

A. during

B. while

5) I had always wanted to take up skiing _______ I was still young.

A. during

B. while

6) We ran into a grizzly bear _______ hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

A. during

B. while

Good luck!


Kim

Economic Terms in the News: Review! (Williäm)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★★★☆

Here's a review of my last two posts!

1. A company that cannot pay its workers and is losing more money than it is making is most likely facing ________ .

A. bankrupt

B. bankruptcy

C. bankrupture

2. When a company reduces the number of employees it has due to economic reasons, we can say they have ________ many employees.

A. fired

B. laid off

C. let go

3. The U.S. government is planning  to implement a ________ plan to boost spending and get the economy moving again.

A. stimulation

B. stimulated

C. stimulus

4. If a ________ can't pay back a loan from a ________, then we can consider him or her to be in default.

A. borrower, loaner

B. lender, borrower

C. borrower, lender

 

Bonus question: When (month and year) do you think the global economy will start to improve?

Tried it already, but still can't do it yet. (Noël)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★☆☆☆

You have, no doubt, come across, in the course of your studies, the adverbs yet, still and already. They are, somewhat, close in meaning, so I thought we could take a look at the differences in their usage.

YET is used for events that did not happen before now.
  “I haven’t finished reading the final Harry Potter book yet.
Note that it is positioned at the end of the sentence.


STILL is used to show that a situation or state continues to exist from the past until now.
    “My boss is still angry at me for coming to work late three times last week.”
It is positioned somewhere in the middle of the sentence.


ALREADY shows that something happened before now.
  “My friend says that she has already eaten pizza twice this week, so let’s eat Japanese food tomorrow.
As you can see, it is also positioned mid-sentence.

OK. Have a go at these.

1) I have ______ paid the telephone bill, so I don’t understand why NTT keeps asking me for money.

A. yet

B. already

C. still

2) I have watched this movie three times now, but I ______ can’t quite understand the story.

A. still

B. yet

C. already

3) I ordered a new laptop computer online over two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived ______.

A. yet

B. still

C. already

4) I ordered a new laptop computer online over two weeks ago, but it ______ hasn’t arrived.

A. already

B. yet

C. still

5) The play started at eight; we’ve ______ missed the first act!

A. still

B. already

C. yet

6) I’m definitely going on holiday overseas at the end of the year, but I haven’t decided on the destination ______.

A. already

B. still

C. yet

Have you got it yet? Do you still not understand? Or did you already know all this?

Let me know.

See you!

Noël

The Dreaded Future (Kim)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★☆☆☆

Please try these, if you dare.

1) Next Summer I ______ to the Greek Islands.

A. am going

B. will go

2) This Sunday afternoon at 3:00 Scarlet and Ret _______ married.

A. are going to get

B. are getting

3) Next year Saki _______ be 21.

A. will

B. is getting to

4) “Are you ready to order?”
    “Yes, I ______ have the lobster bisque.”

A. am going to

B. will

5) “Did you check the timetable?”
    “Yes, the limited express _______ at noon.”

A. will leave

B. leaves

6) As soon as I finish writing this I ________ a nice cold beer.

A. am going to have

B. will have

Economic Terms in the News: Part II (Williäm)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★★★☆

To follow up on the last blog entry, here is a quiz with a few more economic terms in the news these days -- these deal with the banking crisis. Please give it a go!

1. We all know that the subprime mortgage crisis is a big part of the banking crisis these days. The loan (in this case, the mortgage) that cannot be repaid by the  ________ is called, simply, a "________" loan.

A. borrower, sorry

B. borrower, bad

C. lender, bad

2. A borrower who ________ on a loan faces the loss of his or her house through the process of ________ .

A. gives up, foreclosure

B. defaults, bankruptcy

C. defaults, foreclosure

3. To help ________ banks, the U.S. government is not only lending them money, but actually taking a ________ in them.

A. losing, stock

B. troubled, stock

C. troubled, stake

4. In addition to ________ funds into these troubled financial institutions, some people are calling for the government to take control of the troubled banks completely by ________ them. (This seems very unlikely to happen.)

A. injecting, seizing

B. putting, bankrupting

C. injecting, nationalizing

 

Bonus question: Where do you think the safest place to keep your money is these days? (Mine is all stuffed inside my futon!)

Economic Terms in the News (Williäm)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★★★☆

Not such a happy topic in this first month of 2009, but these are words every student of English should be familiar with. Please give this quiz a try!

1. After two quarters or more of no growth or -- worse yet -- contraction, a country is said to be in ________ .

A. a depression

B. a recession

C. a bad economic situation

2. The U.S. government has already approved a ________ plan to help failing banks, and it is also considering such a plan for the auto industry.

A. bailout

B. bailing

C. stimulus

3. A company that can no longer meet its financial obligations will eventually ________ .

A. go bankruptcy

B. go bankrupt

C. be broken

4. As a quick way to reduce expenses, some companies will resort to ________ in times of financial difficulties.

A. layoffs

B. firing

C. cutting necks

5. To get an economy moving again, some countries try using ________ .

A. a consumer spending plan

B. a stimulation plan

C. a stimulus plan

Bonus question: Is Japan considering an economic stimulus plan? If so, what kind?

I don't know whether I'm coming or going... (Noël)

The usage of Come and go is actually quite simple, but it often confuses students, particularly when English usage is the opposite of their own language.

We usually think of come as movement towards us. ▽ ←COME
Away is thought of as movement away from us. ▽→ GO

However, it is better to think of come as being used for movements towards the place where the speaker or the listener is, and go as being used for movements to other places.

Notice that, I said the listener too. The usage of come and go becomes difficult because the point of reference can shift depending on the situation.

Take a look at this example.

Jack: Jill, would you come over here for a moment, please?
Jill: I'm coming!

Even though she was moving away from his present position, Jill said that she was coming because he was moving towards the listener, Jack. In Japanese you would have said that you were going.(今行く♪)

The easiest way to look at it is like this:
When talking about movement between the speaker and the listener, the point of reference is usually the final destination. This means that, most of the time, we would say come rather than go, even though we are moving away from our current position.

(Yes, I'm coming!) ▽→ △ (Are you coming?)
(Are you coming?) ▽ ←△ (Yes, I'm coming!)

On the other hand, if we are talking about movement away from both the speaker's and the listener's present position, or the movement of someone, or something, else moving towards the speaker and/or the listener, then the usual rules apply.

▽△→ (I'm going!)
▽△(It's coming!)   ←☆≡＝－

Told you it was easy. A quiz is coming soon!

By the way, the idiom to "not know if/whether you are coming or going" means that you are unable to think clearly and decide what to do because you have so many things to deal with.

OK, I'm going now.

Noël

Sorry, was that this week or next? Part 2 (Noël)

Difficulty level（難易度）★★☆☆☆

As promised last Monday (the 8^th), I'm back with part 2. Here is a little quiz to see if you really do know your last from your next.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Again, looking at the, really rather splendid, calendar, we can see that our reference point for the quiz is Wednesday the 17^th.

1) I'm  leaving for the US next Friday.

A. Friday 19^th
B. Friday 26^th
C. Friday 11^th
D. Friday 4^th

2) On Monday I bumped into an old friend in Umeda.

A. Monday 1^st
B. Monday  8^th
C. Monday 15^th
D. Monday 22^nd

3) Our Christmas party last Saturday was a lot of fun.

A. Saturday 6^th
B. Saturday 13^th
C. Saturday 20^th
D. Saturday 27^th

4) I saw a great movie last Tuesday, but I can't remember the title.

A. Tuesday 2^nd
B. Tuesday 9^th
C. Tuesday 16^th
D. Tuesday 23^rd

5) I drank too much at the end-of-year party on Sunday. I had a terrible hangover the next day.

A. Sunday 7^th
B. Sunday 14^th
C. Sunday 21^st
D. Sunday 28^th

6) On Wednesday I will finally get my winter bonus. I do hope I receive a little more this year.

A. Wednesday 10^th
B. Wednesday 17^th
C. Wednesday 24^th
D. Wednesday 31^st

That was easy, wasn't it?

Did you notice, though, that when you use "last", "this" or "next" you do not use the preposition "on".

For example, the following are all wrong:

I will start a new job on next week.
On last Sunday I went shopping.
I have an English lesson on this Thursday

Remember though, if in doubt, just use the full date.

That's all for now.
Happy scheduling!

Noël

Sorry, was that this week or next? Part 1 (Noël)

People often get confused over when to use "last", "this" and "next" before a day of the week. For example, if today is Monday the 1^st, is "next Thursday" the 4^th or the 11^th?

Here are two rules to begin with:

• "This-" refers to days in the present week, and "last-" and "next-" refer to days in the weeks before and after this week, respectively.
• If no word is used before the day, the day closest to today is assumed, with the tense of the sentence indicating whether it is past or future.

OK, let's practice. Take a look at this, rather nice, calendar.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Today is the Wednesday the 17^th.

Imagine I say "I bumped into William on Monday. He told me that he was practicing for the Christmas party on Saturday."

Both the bumping into William and the Christmas party occured, or will occur, in the same week. The tense is enough to tell you that I bumped into William on Monday the 15^th, and he told that he was practicing for the Christmas party which will be on Saturday the 20^th. If I had wanted to be extra clear about Saturday, I could have said "the Christmas party this Saturday", but it is not really neccessary as there is no reason to assume that I do not mean the closest Saturday to today.

On the other hand, if I had mistakenly said "I bumped into William last Monday. He told me that he was practicing for the Christmas party next Saturday. ", then it would most likely be taken to mean that I bumped into William on Monday the 8^th, and he told me that he was practicing for the Christmas party on Saturday the 27^th - you would miss the party!

Make sense? It is actually quite easy, when you think about it.

In part two, next week (i.e. sometime between the 14^th and 20^th of this month), there will be a test to see if you have got the hang of it.

Bye for now,

Noël