http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/rss Takashi's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Mon May 20 06:24:07 UTC 2013 Mon May 20 06:24:07 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8
When we talk about `future', I think we use `in the future' in general. But recently I saw `in future' in such sentences, which is an example sentence from Japanese junior high school textbook.

quote:
He decided that he would have to be more careful in future, if he was travelling by himself.

What is the differences between `in future' and `in the future'?

Thank you.

Posted at Sat Sep 08 01:34:09 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1666133 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1666133 Takashi Sat Sep 08 01:34:09 UTC 2012
I tried one of such services just a few times a year ago. It was good, but I didn't keep using the service in part due to its time constraints. They had been offering the service from 8:00 pm to midnight. I preferred to learn in early morning instead.

Just a few days ago, I investigated their services again because my colleague was saying it's good for him. And I found a service provider which could be available in early morning.

Today I went through a trial lesson. The teacher was good. Tomorrow I'm going to take a trial, too. After that, maybe I'll buy their service. It must be good opportunity for me! This is fun.

Posted at Fri Aug 19 13:54:51 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1060621 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1060621 Takashi Fri Aug 19 13:54:51 UTC 2011
So, like many Japanese people who're studying English, I didn't study grammar for years.

But recently I realized I needed to improve my grammar in order to achieve higher level, and I've been studying grammar by a famous book `English Grammar in Use Intermediate'.

The book has 142 units and I already finished unit 15. It's a good progress. I decided to finish this book by the end of this year and I made a spreadsheet and a graph which shows current progress and target progress.

Current perfect continuous and past perfect continuous are a bit difficult. I've known its existence but I don't often use those. But now I think I can differentiate well if I can use those.

As well as grammar, I need to add to my vocabulary, which is often a boring task.



Posted at Sun Aug 14 07:40:55 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1052965 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1052965 Takashi Sun Aug 14 07:40:55 UTC 2011
TOEIC is well known as a kind of benchmark to measure our ability of English in Japan. It is said, though, only Japanese and Korean are keen to get high score of TOEIC and many Americans don't know even the existence of this test.

Some people criticize that TOEFL is better, many Americans and Europeans don't know TOEIC, TOEIC doesn't capture the ability of speaking and writing and so on.

I use this test as a measure of my ability of English, and I used to think that its score itself is not my objective. But recently I've changed my thought. I do understand TOEIC has some flaws, but I think I need to get almost full score because it's so much easier than what we actually need.

In Japan, we can choose another tests such as Eiken, TOEFL, IELST, and so on. But both TOEFL and IELFS cost so much!

As mentioned, I used to think the score itself is not my objective, but recently I got its official book of their exams so that I could learn in which part I lost my scores. (in TOEIC test, we cannot bring the exam to home and we cannot know in which section how many questions we can answer correctly.)


Last weekend, I tried it and now I understood my weakness. Fortunately it's not the lack of knowledge but lack of careful mind. Next time I'm goint to take much care in Part 3 and Part 5!

It seems next test would be October's one. Until that time, I'll study hard!



Posted at Sat Aug 06 15:21:24 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1043091 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/1043091 Takashi Sat Aug 06 15:21:24 UTC 2011
Because I have light asthma and I'd never been any training for around 20 years, it was very hard for me to run just a few kilo meters without rest. But I'm getting used to running and now I'm very careful of heart rate when I'm running, I'm able to run with pleasure.

My pace is around 7 to 8 minutes per one kilo meter, and current target is running at the pace of less than 6 minutes per one kilo meter. In order to reach such target, I guess I need to train for months.


Posted at Wed Apr 27 14:00:01 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/906188 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/906188 Takashi Wed Apr 27 14:00:01 UTC 2011
This week I ran three times, so I feel very tired.

Because I have light asthma, sometimes I feel very hard to run. Actually today I couldn't run well. But I think such activity is good for my health.

Now I can run just around 5km with a few times rest. My midterm objective is to run 10km in a race in next fall.

Posted at Sat Apr 16 08:29:24 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/890107 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/890107 Takashi Sat Apr 16 08:29:24 UTC 2011
Generally many people are calm. They don't evacuate to other area or foreign countries. Actually many of us cannot evacuate on our will until the employer allow us to do so. It seems many companies let their employees stay at their home. But some people like me need to come to the office.

Because there are significant lack of electric power, many people suffer power-cut around three hours per day. In central area of tokyo, there are not such power-cut. But we need to save electricity, so we don't turn many lights on we're doing whatever we can do to save electricity.

There were some lack of things such as paper nappy, paper for toilet and so on, or some instant foods. But it seems it is getting better.

Today is Sunday, but tomorrow is Japanese national holiday. So many of us can take a rest tomorrow, too.

Posted at Sun Mar 20 08:16:57 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/854427 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/854427 Takashi Sun Mar 20 08:16:57 UTC 2011
According to a news, it was magnitude 8.8 and this is biggest number since Japan started to record earthquakes.

I walked to my apartment. Many people did so. In tall apartment, many people were sitting in the lobby on the first floor because elevators hasn't been working now.

I happened to meet with the owner of the apartment and she said `I'm sorry that the elevator isn't working. It seems hospitals are prioritized.'

I'm impressed that probably there is a manual how they prioritize elevators when we see such terrible earthquake.

Anyway its impact is actually big.

Posted at Fri Mar 11 08:57:40 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/843051 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/843051 Takashi Fri Mar 11 08:57:40 UTC 2011
But today it became warmer and it seems it isn't going to become cold for a while.

In Japan, we enjoy Japanese apricot in March. When I went seeing it a few weeks ago, it was too early. But I guess it's time now.

After a few weeks, we can enjoy cherry which is, in my understanding, Japanese national flower. Good season!

Posted at Tue Mar 08 09:48:25 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/838784 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/838784 Takashi Tue Mar 08 09:48:25 UTC 2011
But I heard second lots have come to some shops, and I saw Amazon selling 3DS without any premium. Then I checked some titles. I like Winning Eleven but it seems users' opinion isn't so good. Then I checked Samurai Warrior and it's pretty good. I've never played this Warrior series for years, but I got it.

Last night I played it for around three hours. Apparently my eye got tired more than normal 2D. But it's 3D effective is pretty new.

Today I've kept 3DS sleep for a while. Once I open it, I cannot do anything else.

Posted at Sat Mar 05 03:51:51 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/834341 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/834341 Takashi Sat Mar 05 03:51:51 UTC 2011
Yesterday our family went to skiing with other two families. The group consisted of 13 or 14 members.

All of those families have young kinds, from baby to 5 years old boy, and actually many of us didn't ski. We went to a corner for kids, where adults are not permitted to ski and kids can play safely. And we helped our kids play to sled.

There was no traffic jam and it took just two and half hour respectively. In addition to that, the sky was so clean that we can see Mt. Fuji very well. An attached is a picture of Mt. Fuji.

To be honest, I was a bit tired, but it was good going there.

Posted at Sun Feb 27 04:43:15 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/826497 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/826497 Takashi Sun Feb 27 04:43:15 UTC 2011
In Japan, this is not a rare case at all. Comparing with American companies, Japanese companies take long time to merge companies into one, and even after the merger finishes, they often keep old name of the both.

For instance, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, number one bank by market value, has gone through several times M&A. Mitsubishi bank and Tokyo bank was merged into Tokyo Mitubishi, then they purchased UFJ, and they decided to use the name `Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ'. Also its Japanese name is Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ, whose order is different from English one.

Japanese second bank's case is similar. Sumitomo bank and Mitsui bank was merged into Mitsui Sumitomo Bank. But its English name is Sumitomo Mitsui.

This Japanese culture has both good points and bad points. It seems it's better for people in purchased side, but it is really taking time to become one. Recently many people think Japan is taking long time and I feel we need to change a little.

Posted at Sun Feb 20 04:50:35 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/817686 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/817686 Takashi Sun Feb 20 04:50:35 UTC 2011
It's useful to check email, twitter, weather forecast, capital market and so on. Because it takes time to boot PC, I often use iPod instead, especially in the morning.

But today it has something wrong. For instance, it requires me to input password twice to unlock. I rebooted it but it's still wrong.

So now I'm recovering via iTunes. Maybe I need to set it up again and it would take time, sigh.

Posted at Thu Feb 17 13:41:20 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/814055 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/814055 Takashi Thu Feb 17 13:41:20 UTC 2011
Recently I studied learning English by famous comedy drama, Friends. It seems there are many Japanese people who use this drama to learn English. Some people wrote in their blogs that they repeat DVD many times without showing any scripts by finding out which part is impossible to understand.

I've been doing it same way. But it's tough for me. I'm still in the middle of first episode. It's just around eleven minutes. I cannot imagine when I'll finish 1st DVD which has twelve episodes.

In contrast, do you, who're learning Japanese, use Japanese drama to learn? If you're in Asia, I guess there are many dramas and mangas available. But if you're in Europe or America, I'm not sure if those are available. I heard many Japanese dramas and mangas are translated to Asian languages, so maybe Asian people could use such DVDs by both Japanese and mother language. But in Europe or America, can you?

Posted at Sun Feb 13 09:13:52 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/807640 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/807640 Takashi Sun Feb 13 09:13:52 UTC 2011
Today I could get up at 10:30 am. It's still later than my target, but so much better than my recent records.

Now I'm training English. But soon I'll have a lunch.

Posted at Sat Feb 12 03:01:34 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/805807 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/805807 Takashi Sat Feb 12 03:01:34 UTC 2011
Because today is Japanese national holiday, I can keep staying in my apartment. Now so many things to do, watching 24, reading Time, studying English and so on.

Posted at Fri Feb 11 06:15:39 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/804474 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/804474 Takashi Fri Feb 11 06:15:39 UTC 2011
In Japan, such national holiday used to be put in Wednesday or Thursday, too. But more than a year ago, the law regarding national holiday was changed and basically national holidays was decided to put in Monday or Friday so that we could enjoy three days off.

Many people including foreign media have said Japanese politics haven't been changed for long time and I cannot help agreeing with it. But the change of the law regarding national holidays are few exceptional cases.

Posted at Thu Feb 10 10:15:02 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/803234 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/803234 Takashi Thu Feb 10 10:15:02 UTC 2011
I'm looking forward to spring soon.

Posted at Wed Feb 09 11:25:34 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/801835 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/801835 Takashi Wed Feb 09 11:25:34 UTC 2011
Last night I watched first story without any scripts. Honestly it is a little bit difficult to understand whole story though I could understand partially. I'll keep trying for a while.

Posted at Mon Feb 07 10:28:46 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/798828 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/798828 Takashi Mon Feb 07 10:28:46 UTC 2011
Today I watched famous Japanese movie `Odoru Daisousasen 3'. Because my kid is too young, I've never been to movie theater for years. But, thanks to Apple TV, we can see such movies in our apartment.

The story was good and it was interesting for long-year fan. But I felt it lacked something. When I watched its drama and the movies before, I always felt my heart was occupied by great enthusiasm. Although it's story might be a little bit simple, I always felt like helping the hero and I'd been wondering how he could solve the situation. But at this time, in the ending part, I cannot necessarily feel same feeling.

Anyway it's good weekend.

Posted at Sun Feb 06 09:33:21 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/797266 http://www.lang-8.com/235616/journals/797266 Takashi Sun Feb 06 09:33:21 UTC 2011