Learn English Like You Mean It

‘No regrets’ as Mao bids farewell Figure skating icon gives few clues to next step Mao Asada graciously answered every question she was asked during a news conference on Wednesday, her first public appearance since announcing her retirement from figure skating two days earlier in a post on her blog. Speaking in a large ballroom at a Tokyo hotel, in front an estimated 430 reporters, Mao emphasized that she feels at peace with her decision to leave the sport she has been engaged in since she was 5 years old . Mao wrote on her blog on Monday night that she realized her career was over as a competitive skater when she finished 12th at December’s national championships — her worst result in 14 appearances . She said on Wednesday that she had made up her mind to leave the sport in February. “I’ve always tried to perform without making mistakes and skate confidently,” Mao said of her performance at the national championships, where she had previously captured six titles. “...

‘No regrets’ as Mao bids farewell Figure skating icon gives few clues to next step Mao Asada answered every question during a news conference on Wednesday, her first public appearance since announcing her retirement from figure skating two days earlier on her blog. Speaking in a large ballroom at a Tokyo hotel, Mao emphasized that she feels at peace with her decision to leave the sport. Mao realized her career was over when she finished 12th at December’s national championships. She said on Wednesday that she had made up her mind to leave the sport in February. “I’ve always tried to perform without making mistakes and skate confidently,” Mao said. “I wasn’t able to give a perfect performance and that frustrated me. I saw my score in the kiss and cry, and thought, ‘Maybe I don’t have to do this anymore.’ “I’ve competed at the national championships since I was 12, and I ended with the most disappointing result that I ever had. It factored into making the decision as one o...

‘No regrets’ as Mao bids farewell Figure skating icon gives few clues to next step Mao Asada answered every question. Mao emphasized that she feels at peace with her decision. Mao realized her career was over when she finished 12th at December’s national championships. She said she had made up her mind to leave the sport in February. “I’ve always tried to perform without making mistakes and skate confidently,” Mao said. “I wasn’t able to give a perfect performance… and thought, ‘Maybe I don’t have to do this anymore.’ “I’ve competed since I was 12, and I ended with the most disappointing result that I ever had.” Nevertheless, the 26-year-old leaves the sport with a smile on her face. She said that she is satisfied that she “had done everything.” “I began figure skating when I was little and it gave me joy when I was able to do techniques.” “I don’t really have any bad memories.” Mao’s name was often associated with rival Yuna Kim. Mao said, “We competed with ea...

‘No regrets’ as Mao bids farewell Figure skating icon gives few clues to next step Mao Asada answered every question during a news conference on Wednesday, her first public appearance since announcing her retirement from figure skating two days earlier on her blog . Speaking in a large ballroom at a Tokyo hotel, Mao emphasized that she feels at peace with her decision to leave the sport . Mao realized her career was over when she finished 12th at December’s national championships. She said on Wednesday that she had made up her mind to leave the sport in February. “I’ve always tried to perform without making mistakes and skate confidently,” Mao said. “I wasn’t able to give a perfect performance and that frustrated me. I saw my score in the kiss and cry, and thought, ‘Maybe I don’t have to do this anymore.’ “I’ve competed at the national championships since I was 12, and I ended with the most disappointing result that I ever had . It factored into making the decision...

This English version is provided for reference purposes only. Target Audience: Intermediate & Advanced Embracing uncertainty is an integral part of any learning experience, but it holds true especially for learning a second language. To learn a second language, we need to embrace the fact that we will not understand everything. This does not mean that we should give up on learning or ignore the basic grammar and vocabulary. It meas that while we learn the basics, we should aim for a language at a higher level than ours for the most effective learning. In such processes we should learn to take educated guesses. For that purpose, we will read sentences that have been composed primarily for the purpose of communicating ideas, instead of ones intended for language learners. We are successful in the task if we feel that we can in fact understand better than we expected. We will use Ms.  Emma Watson 's Faceboo post as an examplel (Intermediate). "Thank you t...

Target Audience: Intermediate & Advanced Writing and speaking share a commonality in that they are both output of language. Practicing your output through writing will serve also as a practice for constructing sentences in your head when you speak. We will improve our writing fluency through this task of freewriting, and by extension, our speaking fluency. Freewriting is to write about whatever topic we choose, whichever way we want. You should never stop your hand from writing during the task. It can be about anything. Just write freely! Steps: Prepare a writing utensil and a piece of paper, or a word processing software on a computer (We use Microsoft Word in the example below). Set a task duration on a timer. On the first time you can set it for 30 seconds to 1 minute. After that we recommend you do this for 3 minutes each time. Start the timer and start writing! Please see an example of freewriting in the video below (You can enlarge the video). Note: F...

Target Audience:  All Levels Extensive reading is an effective learning method in learning not only vocabulary and expressions but also grammar and discourse patterns. This is because words, expressions and sentence patterns are repeated many times, and can be learned in a context. However, reading novels for example, may also be intimidating if they are not intended as a learning material. In such cases, it may be helpful to use materials called graded readers. Graded readers are books which have been controlled in the complexities of vocabulary and grammar. This article introduces the positive aspects of using graded readers, based on an interview with a learner who makes use of this learning material. Points: The interviewee: Chose an understandable, interesting material; Focused on understanding English and avoided consulting the Japanese resources; Enjoyed learning and gained confidence. How I Started Reading The aim was to improve my reading score on the TOEIC t...

This English version is provided for reference purposes only. Target Audience:  All Levels Watching videos on youtube allows you to immerse yourself in English. You do need to adjust the level of English to keep enjoying videos, however. This article will introduce ways in which you can change video settings on youtube. We will take the youtube channel " Sweaty Suzuki " as an example to introduce how to use the following functions: Subtitles (Some videos only provide automatically generated subtitles) Video speed control Note 1: The methods above have only been tested to work with Windows PCs. Note 2: To follow the instructions below for changing the subtitle and video speed control settings, switch to the full screen view mode. If you already know how to use these functions, please scroll down to the section "Points to Consider." How to Use the Functions Subtitles: Select a video to watch. Click the Settings icon in the lo...

This English version is provided for reference purposes only. Target Audience: All Levels When the language is spoken too fast or its content is too difficult to understand, it is not easy to join and stay in the conversation. Other times we may want to take the time to speak. If we can do these, it will accelerate our learning. Use the following expressions and participate in the conversation! When it's too fast (pause the conversation): I'm sorry, I didn't catch that./What's that? Could you say that again? I'm sorry, could you speak more slowly? When you don't understand the content (ask): What does that mean? I'm sorry, I don't understand that word. Does that mean ~? When you want to earn the time (use filler words): Um.../Well... I mean (that).../I wanted to say... Just a minute.../Just a second... These are all simple expressions. However, when used appropriately, they can be useful in participatin...

This English version is provided for reference purposes only. Target Audience:  All Levels How can we use English naturally? In the long term, we need to listen, read, speak and write extensively to learn to the language in an ideal manner. However, there are times when we want to search for an specific phrase. This article will explore how to conduct an exact search for a phrase using online search engines. We will use the expression below and search if it is grammatically appropriate.  * “Who gave it for you?” Here, let's suppose we are not sure if we should use  ”gave... for  you” or  ”gave... to  you.” We will look this up with the 'exact match' function on Google. This function only shows pages with the exact phrase. This is useful when you want to look up a phrase exactly as it is. Enclose the sentence, who gave it for you , with quotation marks in Figure 1. Figure 1 : A Screen for the Exact Match Results of the ...

Please like our Facebook page! This English version is for reference purposes only. Target Audience: Advanced & Beyond! *This post will introduce a method with the advanced learners and above in mind, but it can be applied to a wide variety of learners! Here, we introduce a method used by translators and interpreters in order to enhance their vocabulary -use of parallel texts. Definition: Parallel texts refer to a pair of texts written in two languages on a common topic, each of which texts was written separately. They are respectively written as the original text and are not a translation of the other. Examples: For example, CNET (English) and ITMedia (Japanese) writes that Google will no longer scan contents of Gmail to use them for personalized advertisements, in English and Japanese respectively (introduced later). Advantages: Parallel texts lets you enhance your vocabulary while acquiring information by reading actual texts. You can learn the languages u...