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- 2008/07/24 07:00Miyazaki releases first film in four years
- The new Miyazaki film was released last Friday. In English the film is called “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.”I like Miyazaki films but I'll have to wait for the English version to come out. That won't be for another year at least.Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki on Saturday released his first full-length film in four years, dropping computer graphics for his pencil to tell the story of [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/23 07:00Chinese author selected as winner of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize
- Writer Yang Yi made history on Tuesday by becoming the first Chinese n
ational to win the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature.Yang's n
ovel "Toki ga Nijimu Asa" (A morning when time blurs), was
selected as the winner of the 139th Akutagawa Prize in Tokyo on Tuesd
ay. It's the first time since the prize was founded in 1935 for it to
be awarded to a work written by an author whose nati [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/22 07:00Australian Slang Dictionary
- Here are some interesting slang expressions that are used in Australi
a.This website has a dictionary of Australian slang with more words.Au
stralian SlangAggro - Aggressive Ankle biter - Small childBack blocks
- Outer Suburbs Back of Bourke - Used to describe anything far away B
ail - Leave or depart Banana Bender - A person from Queensland Barbie
- Barbecue Barney - An argument Barr ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/18 09:54It Was Too Beautiful
- Sometimes students use too for emphasising something positive. This
is wrong.Too means something is more than what you like. It has a neg
ative meaning.I went to Hokkaido last year. It was too beautiful..I w
ent to Hokkaido last year. It was really beautiful.Too is used in neg
ative examples.I didn't like the dessert. It was too sweet.It's too c
old to go for a swim.He was speaking to ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/17 07:25Where the Hell is Matt?
- An Australian games programmer went on a round-the-world trip and fil
med himself dancing in different countries around the world. The vide
o on YouTube was extremely popular.This year he released a new video w
ith him dancing in lots more countries.I love travelling so I've been
to many of the places in the video. But there are still lots of place
s I want to visit.Have fun,Eigo Ninja. ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/16 07:00Hoteliers vote Japanese world's best tourists
- A travel web site did a survey of hotel managers and asked them what
travellers they liked the best."It also rated the travellers on c
ategories that included manners, willingness to learn the local langua
ge and sample the cuisine, tidiness, generosity and stylishness.The Ja
panese won top prize for being overall best tourists. Germans and Brit
ons tied for second place, followed by the Canadia... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/15 07:00Australian Geisha
- An Australian woman has become a geisha in Tokyo."I have spent h
alf my life in Japan," said Graham, who ― in line with traditio
nal geisha coyness ― refused to give her age, but did say she first
came to Japan as an exchange student at age 15.Sayuki (Graham's geish
a name) joined a "geisha house" in the Tokyo district of As
akusa early last year and, after almost a year of lear... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/11 07:00Two Passports
- I have two passports.I was born in Australia so I have an Australian p
assport. My father is Irish so I was able to get an Irish passport.I
usually use my Australian passport, but some countries such as Brazil
and Chile, make Australians pay for visas, so then I use my Irish pass
port.I recently had to renew my Irish passport. I had to get a public
official to witness me signing the applicat [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/10 07:00The Difference Between England & the United Kingdom
- The difference between England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom
(UK) is confusing.The UK is a country and contains Great Britain (t
he island) and Northern Ireland.Great Britain is the name of the main
island and is made up of three separate regions - England, Scotland a
nd Wales.So England is a part of Great Britain, which is part of the U
K.Someone from England is English. They are al ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/09 07:00Kikuchi says she's more than a Japanese actress
- Kikuchi says she's more than a Japanese actressThis is a profile of R
inko Kikuchi, the Japanese actress who received an Oscar nomination fo
r her character in the movie Babel."Of course since I'm Japanese,
I would like to play Japanese roles. But I would also love to give it
a try and play 'half-Japanese' roles," she said.Few Japanese act
ors have made it big in Hollywood, an absence that... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/08 07:00Treasury chief on 'wombat leave'
- Australia's top treasury official is taking five weeks leave to look
after endangered wombats.Ken Henry, treasury secretary and animal cons
ervationist, has warned that hairy-nosed wombats are "on death ro
w".But opposition politicians - and even wombat lovers - question
if now is the time to be thinking about wombats.Inflation is at a 16-
year high, interest rates are up and fuel prices a... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/04 07:00Ice Cream in Venezuela
- I love ice cream. The best ice cream I've eaten was in Italy and Arg
entina.When I was in Venezuela, I went to an ice-cream shop that is in
the Guiness Book of Records for the most flavors.They have more than
800 flavors.The menu changes every day and only about 50 flavors are a
vailable each day.Some of the flavors are very strange. For example -
spaghetti with cheese, rice with chicken, ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/03 07:00You Can Eat Lots of Fresh Seafood
- Japanese speakers often use "We can" when they're talking a
bout what things to do at a place. But in English "you can"
is used. A) What can you do in Hokkaido?B) We can eat lots of fre
sh seafood.You can eat lots of fresh seafood."You" doesn't r
efer to A in particular, it means people in general.If you go to Austr
alia, you can see lots of cute animals."We"... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/02 07:00G'day Niseko! Australian skiers flock to Japan
- Niseko in Hokkaido has become a very popular place for Australians to
go skiing. In recent years Japan has become a lot cheaper for Austra
lians to visit (the Yen has lost a lot of value against the Australia
n dollar) and Australian companies have bought hotels in Niseko.Accor
ding to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of Australian
holidaymakers to Japan during the last ski season, ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/07/01 07:00Japan's cricketers not stumped by culture gap
- Cricket is the most popular sport in Australia. It's not very popula
r in Japan. But there are some Japanese who play cricket.TOKYO: Attem
pting to explain the finer points of a googly or silly mid-off to the
Japanese would appear, at first glance, one of the most thankless task
s in sport.Japan's national cricket coach Richard Laidler not only rel
ishes the task, he believes he can get his team ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/27 07:0010 More Reasons Why English is Hard to Learn
- Ten more examples from an email - it includes sentences that have wor
ds with the same spelling but with different pronunciation. It's very
difficult!11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.12) There w
as a row among the oarsmen about how to row.13) They were too close t
o the door to close it.14) The buck does funny things when the does a
re present.15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/26 10:11Nova President Arrested
- Nozomu Sahashi, the former president of Nova, has been arrested for m
isusing funds.I think a lot of people will be happy to hear that.Ex-No
va head arrested over misused funds / '320 million yen used to refund
tuition fees'Have fun,Eigo Ninja ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/26 07:00When I Was...
- I notice my students often make mistakes when using "When I was..
." sentences.When I was high school, I played baseball.When I was
at high school, I play baseball.You need to use at and the past tense
for the verb, e.g play, played.When I was at high school, I played ba
seball.A more natural way of saying it, if you have stopped playing ba
seball is - I used to play baseball when I was at [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/25 07:00Japanese Salarymen Fight Back
- An article on how some Japanese workers are suing their companies for
better treatment.TOKYO: Japan's salarymen, famous for their work ethic
and their corporate loyalty, fueled this nation's industrial rise. Bu
t more recently, they have borne the brunt of its economic decline, en
during lower wages, job insecurity and long hours of unpaid overtime.N
ow, a few are fighting back, like Hiroshi Taka [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/24 07:00Lasting legacy of Brazil's Japanese
- This year is the 100th anniversary of Japanese emigration to Brazil.O
ne hundred years after the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil
, the country as a whole has been reflecting on an anniversary that ha
s left a significant legacy.Elderly woman walks past a graffiti image
of a Japanese woman in Liberdade, Sao PauloSecond generation Brazilian
-Japanese are known as NiseiNumbering an est ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/20 07:0010 Reasons Why English is Difficult to Learn
- English pronunciation can be difficult because there are several diff
erent ways of pronouncing the same letters. Here's an example from an
email - it includes sentences that have words with the same spelling
but with different pronunciation.It's very difficult!1) The bandage w
as wound around the wound.2) The farm was used to produce produce.3)
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/19 09:17It was an accident
- I've noticed a lot of English students use accident in the wrong way.
For example - My friend had a bad accident yesterday. Someone stole h
is camera.Something bad happened to my friend yesterday. Someone stol
e his camera.An accident is something that happens accidentally (偶
然に). No-one means it to happen. Most crimes are different because
the criminal means them to happen.My friend ha ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/18 07:00The World's Biggest Restaurant
- The world's biggest restaurant is in Damascus in Syria. It can seat
6014 people!The open air area is complete with waterfalls, fountains a
nd replicas of archaeological ruins for the summer, and there are sepa
rate themed sections for Chinese and Indian cuisine....The kitchen is
a like a production line, he says, where one chef can prepare 25-30 he
lpings of popular dishes, such as hummus, in ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/17 07:00High goals for business English
- A research group believes Japanese business people who need to speak
English at work should aim for a TOIEC score of more than 900. They b
elieve this is the level that is needed to effectively communicate in
English.The survey asked respondents about what level they believed Ja
panese should have to enable them to perform business duties in Englis
h, judging from their own experience. When descri ... [続きを読む]
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- 2008/06/13 07:00Can You Read This?
- This is from a popular email that was sent around a couple of years a
go. Can you read it?-----------I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclt
y uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigd
e Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod ar
e, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in th
e rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and ... [続きを読む]
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