Archive for October, 2015

Practice for talking about positions

Thursday, October 22nd, 2015

In my Explanations class we have been talking about how to express clearly where stuff is as a way of beginning to explain things.

There are some phrases we came up with to get things started.

Here are just a few:

on the top

left

right

in the center

middle

 

You can also use phrases like ‘to the left’ or ‘to the right’ along with ‘beside’ or ‘above’ or ‘behind’ or ‘below’ other objects or people or stationary markers.

Here’s a photo you can use for practice. You should be able to make lots of practice sentences by using this. It’s great to use by yourself if you have to, but it’s even better to work with a partner.

explanation-class-photo-placements-01

You can try some things like asking each other ‘where is the airplane?’ or ‘what is below the mat?’

You can also place some items at random on a desk or table in partners then talk about them. Another way to practice this is to give commands to your partner to put certain items in specific places.

Be sure you have fun!

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Fall is here in Nagoya

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

It’s getting cooler which is one sure sign that fall is coming, but it really is obvious when you get out and walk and look at the trees.

We usually walk along the river behind our house because it is a great place to go in the evening and after dark, but when we have time to walk in the mornings, we often go to Heiwa Koen.

Last week we had the chance so we went walking in Heiwa Koen fairly early in the morning. It was cool, but not cold, and the air was crisp and clean. We enjoy walking in the wooded and grassy area there, but we can’t often go due to our schedules.

We also saw the rice in the paddies there that are cultivated by the park club. It’s a sort of ‘city people can have the chance to be farmers’ thing, I think. They have done a lot of work there on the small stream and the levies around the area, but they also have to worry about the crows coming to eat the crop they are trying so hard to grow.

Here is a picture of their solution and also some foxtails growing nearby.

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Soul Cry and KiHyun

Wednesday, October 7th, 2015

I started off my semester on a good note by attending a small concert on Sunday evening. The whole family went to the Korean Cultural Center to see a couple of up and coming Korean pop singers, Soul Cry and KiHyun.

They worked hard and did a pretty good show though I would have liked to have heard more songs where they either played the piano or guitar. I think there were only 2 songs with KiHyun playing the piano, and both were better than the songs with the canned backing tracks. I’m sorry to say though that they also butchered the lyrics to “Desperado” which was one of the piano songs.  I know how difficult it is to sing in another language, but if you’re a professional performer, you have to get it better than this.

The Korean ballads they sang together were good, and their interaction with the crowd was also fun even with a small crowd of about 150.

It was a fun evening, and I’m glad we went. I bought the CD of the TV drama that has one of their songs on the soundtrack, but I’m still waiting to see if they make it big 😉

I did get autographs and photos though as you can see below…

 

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