My interest in foreign countries has not been really traveling but experiencing and feeling different perspectives and ways of thinking in life: understanding different cultural aspects, communicating in the local language, and meeting people in new environments. For me, these are the reasons for exploring or learning foreign languages.

I’ve always thought it would be nice if I could speak multiple languages. I was interested in what kind of person I would be if I could manage several languages. When I was younger, right after I started working in Japan, I made up my mind without hesitation to live abroad. I was expecting to live in a European country one day, so I started preparing and learning German (because I learned some German at university) in addition to English by myself.

I finally got a chance to do an internship at an international hotel in Belgium. Therefore, I started to learn French a few months before my departure so that I could work there in French. Of course, it was not easy without speaking proper or professional French, and it certainly was an unforgettable struggle at that time. However, after my internship for 6 months, I kept challenging and finally this experience inspired me to move on to the next stage. I worked for other company/organization using both English and French, and eventually I spent nearly 12 years of my life in Belgium.

Perhaps the lesson from this experience is that I would say that my curiosity about learning a foreign language brought me unexpected value. Certainly, the emphasis is not merely on perfect language acquisition. So, for myself, in terms of "speaking", "listening", "writing", and "reading", each foreign language has its different level. However, I can say that I am fascinated by learning new languages, and that this new experience enriched my way of thinking about my own life. I always look forward to opportunities to start learning other languages (they are on my checklist) because I feel that this multilingual learning challenge is a great opportunity to change myself and to discover new values and experiences in my life.

Photo Credit: Anna Tarazevich@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

Q1. What is the topic of this essay?

Q2. According to the author, what inspired her to start learning French?

Q3. According to the author, what does it mean to have an opportunity to learn a new language?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

Q1. The essay discusses the challenges of multilingual learning and the value the author received from her own experience.

Q2. The author started learning French in preparation for her internship in Belgium.

Q3. Learning and exploring a new language is a great chance to change yourself and discover new values and experiences in your life.

How do you feel about giving a presentation? It can be quite a scary experience, especially in a foreign language. Practicing and improving your skills in explaining research results, expressing your opinions, introducing your ideas, and answering questions from an audience are all valuable skills for your future. Not only will those skills be useful in the workplace, but they will also give you more confidence in your social life.

This checklist of questions and advice will help you prepare for your presentation, improve your delivery, and hopefully result in a better score for your grade! Let’s look at two presentation formats: (A) poster and (B) projected. They have some similarities, but their differences are important to think about.

Topic - Q1. Are you interested in your presentation topic? If you’re not interested, your research will probably be poor, and your audience will become bored easily. Ask your teacher if you can change the topic to something you want to talk about and have strong opinions about.

Content – Q2. Does your research information match your English ability? If your research information is difficult for you to understand, it will be difficult to explain and probably very difficult for your audience to understand too. Make your content easier by first describing examples of difficult vocabulary.

Materials – Q3A. Can you read and see all the important details on your poster from 2 meters away? For a poster presentation, you will talk to a small group, face-to-face. Before you give your presentation, print a first draft, look at your poster through your audience’s eyes, and then edit it for your final draft.  

Materials – Q3B. Is there too much or too little information on each slide? For a projected presentation you will stand at the front of the room and your audience will be far from you and the screen. Your speech should be more detailed than your slides, so don’t write full sentences! Also, titles can be large, but all other key words should not be smaller than 24-point font.  

Rehearsal = Better Delivery – Q4A. How can you create appeal for your audience? A poster presentation environment is similar to a conversation, so by rehearsing in advance, it will be much easier to make eye contact, relax, and enjoy your speech. This will make a bond between you and your audience, helping them to focus and relax too.

Rehearsal = Better Delivery – Q4B. Can your audience hear you? A projected presentation is often done in a large room, so if you are looking down at the computer screen, the sound of your speech will go down to the floor! Rehearse your presentation 10 times. Then on presentation day, speak to the people at the back of the room. Good luck!

Photo Credit: Christina Morillo@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

Q1. What should you do if you’re not interested in your presentation topic?

Q2. How can you make your presentation content easier to understand for

your audience?

Q3. For a Projected Presentation, what is the smallest size your key words

should be?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

Q1. You should ask your teacher if you can change it.

Q2. By first describing examples of difficult vocabulary.

Q3. 24-point font

If you like watching and listening to authentic spoken World Englishes or first language content with English subtitles, you’ll love the YouTube channel Great Big Story (GBS). It’s a great archive for discovering a diverse variety of people, places, and things all over the world. Each short video allows the viewer to experience new perspectives and widen their understanding and imagination, not only about what occurs on this planet daily, but also the new possibilities they may adopt in their own lives.

GBS had described itself as “a global media company devoted to cinematic storytelling”. Based in New York with an office in London, GBS was creating micro-documentaries (about 5 minutes long) and short films and releasing them on YouTube. This came to an end after five years in October, 2020, when the parent company CNN shut them down, citing dwindling advertising revenues due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Sadly, the weekly YouTube uploads stopped. Despite this, GBS still has an amazing 6.03 million subscribers, demonstrating that the available content continues to maintain popularity. The topics featured in the videos are mostly obscure, niche vignettes which are compelling and fascinating to watch.

I first heard about GBS from a former English teaching colleague way back in 2016, about a year after the channel had been launched. I realized immediately it was a gold mine of content for English lessons and wasted no time hitting the subscribe button. In no time, I’d binge-watched at least half a dozen videos and was well and truly hooked! Very quickly it became much more than a go-to-site for English language lesson content. I was watching every upload as soon as it was available. I still remember my first Great Big Story with its punchy title, “I live in a plane.” This particular two-minute documentary tells the story of a Portland-based aeronautics enthusiast, Bruce Campbell, who lives in a converted 1960s Boeing 727 jet deep in a forest. It was mind-blowing to see how spacious the plane’s interior was when all the seats and fixtures had been removed. Campbell had installed basic living necessities and improved on existing features to make a home out of something that had been destined for the scrap heap. In just two minutes, I had a concrete understanding of the idea of “repurposing” which as we move forward into our climate-challenged future is something we need to take heed of. Watch a Great Big Story video today, and have your eyes opened!

Photo Credit: Joyce Busola@unsplash.com

Blog Quiz

Select the meaning of the word or phrase as it is used in the text.

Q1. dwindling

a. increasing

b. decreasing

c. neither increasing or decreasing

Q2. a gold mine

a. a good source of something

b. a money maker

c. an underground place where gold is found

Q3. go-to-site

a. travel website

b. preferred and often used website

c. English learning website

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

Q1. B

Q2. A

Q3. B

Lately, a word game called ‘Wordle’ has taken the Internet by storm. The American newspaper, The New York Times, bought the game from a developer named Josh Wardle. Wardle made the game for his partner who loves word games. Now, over 300,000 people play it every day (Serrels, 2022). One game is posted every day, so once you guess the answer, you cannot play again until the next day. It’s exciting to try and guess the word quickly. You get six tries to guess the answer, and I’ve guessed the word in three tries, but some of my friends guess it in TWO! I wonder if anyone has ever gotten it in one try. My friends and I post our scores on social media and compete. In these pandemic times, it has been a fun way to generate a sense of community online.

The rules are easy. The game generates a five-letter word, and you must try and guess it within six tries. If you guess a letter in the correct position, the tile turns green, but if you guess a letter in the word but in the wrong position, the tile turns yellow. If you guess a letter that is NOT in the word, the tile stays white. It’s a challenge to beat the computer every day, but it’s a good chance to train your mind and keep it active. It’s also a bit addicting! I enjoy playing Wordle and its spinoff games, Quordle and Octordle

My favorite game of this type is the Japanese version: Kotoba de Asobo. For this game, you have to guess the 4-kana word within twelve tries. I play with my American friend who lives in Fukuoka. We compete and try and guess the word before the other person. He knows much more Japanese than I do, but it is fun to play and try to beat him. I also learn lots of new Japanese words from the game. So, I recommend any of these games for your vocabulary study, whether you study English...or Japanese, like me!

Serrels, M. (2022). Wordle: What You Need to Know. Retrieved 17 May 2022, from [https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/wordle-everything-to-know-about-2022s-biggest-word-game/] 

Photo Credit: CQF-Avocat@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

Q1. How many chances do you get to guess the word in Wordle?

Q2. How many times can you play every day?

Q3. What language is the author studying?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

Q1. Six

Q2. Once

The other day I was having dinner with my family when my two-year-old daughter did something interesting. When she knocked over her cup, she yelled in Japanese, “It fell, didn't it?!” This was surprising because she doesn't know too many words yet. At that moment, I was just excited that she had learned a new word, but later on that evening, I began to think about the way of learning languages.

Before moving to Japan, I took two years of Japanese language courses at my university. After moving to Japan, I continued learning Japanese through classes and tutors. During my classroom studies, we focused on the basics of Japanese, starting with grammar rules.

So, when I learned the word for “fall,” I also studied all the variations: “fall, fell, falling, will fall,” and “have fallen.” This is the same experience that Japanese students have when learning English in middle and high school. They learn the definition of individual words and then the various ways that these words can fit into sentences grammatically. In the end, I believe this way of studying a foreign language slowed my progression, and I believe it is the reason why Japanese students struggle with English despite taking years of coursework in it.

My daughter, on the other hand, just learned a single phrase that she heard from one of her Japanese teachers, “It fell, didn't it?!” At first, this may sound like she's learning incomplete versions of words, yet this is the way that all of us learn our first language. Can you imagine a parent sitting a one-year-old child down and trying to teach them what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are? I doubt the child could grasp such concepts. Instead, we learned by repeating what others said, and we weren’t even introduced to grammar until elementary school. Therefore, maybe we can consider learning a second language this way, too.

When learning a second language, it is crucial to keep an open mind regarding the best ways. Humans are not robots, so simply only feeding us rules will not progress our understanding of languages. However, it is also essential that we have some comprehension of the rules. Therefore, learners should create a good balance between both methods.

Photo Credit: Bruna Gabrielle Félix@pexels.com

Blog Quiz

Q1. What is the topic of the essay?

Q2. According to the author, what is the difference between how people learn a native language versus how they learn a foreign language?

Q3. What is the author’s suggestion regarding learning a foreign language?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

Quiz Answers

A1. The topic of the essay is about learning a native language versus learning a foreign language.

A2. When learning a native language, people learn examples with no understanding of grammar rules. When learning a foreign language, people often start with grammar rules first.

A3. Learners should have a good balance between learning grammar rules and learning practical examples.

In life, we need to interact with other people. Not long ago, most communication took place by speaking face-to-face, but these days we communicate a lot using technology which is incredibly fast and globally connected. Since technology and cheap travel have allowed us to make contact with people all over the world very easily, it is increasingly important to be aware of the effect that culture has on communication. 

Many people understand it is valuable to understand the culture of others. However, it is first important to examine yourself and your own culture. What are your social attitudes? Why do you think like that? What is polite or impolite for you? Why do you have those ideas? Are these basic ideas that everyone in the world has, or are they different from country to country, group to group? Understanding your own attitudes is the first step to knowing the culture of others, and you should be aware that some deep beliefs that we hold are not universal. 

The iceberg is a very helpful image to use when we consider culture. Like an iceberg, only a part of culture is easy to see and understand. Some things like clothing, food, different styles of greeting may be on the surface and easily seen as different. However, other important aspects of culture such as moral, social, or political beliefs may be much more difficult to notice, even about ourselves. 

To look at a simple example, let’s consider the issue of speaking out or being silent in class. Many Asian students wish to study abroad in Europe and English-speaking countries around the world. However, sometimes cultural misunderstandings happen in class. For many students from an East Asian culture, it is considered polite to listen carefully and quietly to what the teacher is saying. This is an educational attitude that has been taught carefully for generations and is easy to see in educational settings today. However, in other countries, this idea may not be well-understood. Western-educated teachers tend to reward students who speak out during classes. Their educational attitude is that older children and young adults should be able to discuss issues in class and learn through dialogue. Western teachers may have a negative attitude to students who are too quiet, believing them to be uninterested in the lesson, or that they do not have an opinion. 

In this example, it is easy to see that both teacher and the student would benefit from understanding each other’s deep cultural attitudes to education and learning. The teacher should understand that their East Asian students may communicate differently in class, and the student should understand their responsibility to show curiosity and contribute in an active way to get a good score for the class. Without understanding the hidden aspects of each cultural belief, we may create a misunderstanding that has real-world consequences. 

In the end, it is important to recognize that everyone has a background culture that affects how they communicate with others. Like the iceberg, some of these ideas and attitudes may be hidden to some extent. Trying to understand your own attitudes, and those of others, will definitely help you to connect more effectively in the global society and avoid misunderstandings. As we interact ever more freely in the modern world, I would encourage all language students to also consider the role of culture in the way we communicate. 

Q1. Why is it even more important these days that we are aware of cultural differences?

Q2. Why is the iceberg a good symbol of culture?

Q3. Do western teachers tend to reward quiet or outspoken students?

Scroll down for the answers to the quiz.

A1. Technology and cheap, easy travel have allowed us to connect with people all over the world very easily.

A2. Because much of it is hidden

A3. Outspoken

When I was young, I used to love watching American TV shows and dreamed of America. I wanted to go there someday but traveling abroad was not something anybody could do at that time. Flights were very expensive and there were hardly any opportunities for young people in Japan to learn practical and conversational English in the late 1970’s.

My interest in America and its language grew as I became a junior high school student. I was motivated to study English and was determined to enroll in the YMCA High School Conversation Course after graduation. YMCA was probably one of the very few institutions that offered practical English learning to high school students at that time in Osaka. In my senior year, I participated in the English speech contest hosted by the Osaka-San Francisco Sister-City Association as the representative of the YMCA. Winning the contest gave me a free ticket to California to do homestay for 6 weeks in the coming summer of 1981. There are no words to express the joy and excitement that I felt then.

The experience I had in the U.S. that summer instilled in me a strong desire to study at an American university. As I look back on my life, the funny thing is that I learned more about Japan and myself as a Japanese when I was living in the U.S. I grew to love my country and appreciate being a citizen. The experience made me want to teach English and help young Japanese people have positive experiences in their lives just like I did.

Being able to speak English has blessed me and brought much happiness into my life over the years, and I would like to share one experience I had this summer. The year 2021 was a special year for Japan to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after 57 years even though it was in the middle of the Covid pandemic. I decided to volunteer for the Olympics, and they put me in the Athlete Village where all the athletes from 220 countries stayed. My responsibility was to help the athletes install the smartphone game that IOC created for them. The booth I worked at was inside the cafeteria building, so I must have seen and met most of the athletes and coaches. I had never seen so many different nationalities of people before. Being able to meet and talk with them is one experience that I will always cherish and remember. I learned that it surely is possible that all the people from different nations can be one regardless of politics and religion. How wonderful it would be if all the people in the world could love and respect each other! It is my hope that you strive to improve your English skills and let your light shine in the world by sharing your talents and kindness. I believe that this is something we can do for world peace.

Q1. How did the writer make his dream to go to America come true?

Q2. What was the writer’s responsibility as a volunteer at the Tokyo Olympics?

Q3. What does the writer think we can do to contribute to world peace? 

Scroll down for answers

A1. He won a speech competition that had a homestay in the US as a prize

A2. To help athletes install a smartphone game

A3. You can learn English and share your talents with the world

“May I help you?”

Many Japanese students have learnt “may I help you?” as “irasshaimase” in Japanese, but the two phrases are not exactly the same. Imagine you work at a corner shop. When you find customers who are obviously looking for something, you should offer help with the phrase, “may I help you?” While Japanese clerks say “irasshaimase” as a greeting to each customer coming into the shop, “may I help you?” is used for offering help. If the customer does not need any help, you can say, “please feel free to look around” with a smile. Learning the correct English expressions for the service industry is essential if you are to deal politely with foreign customers.

Speaking English while providing service can be tricky. Let me introduce an awkward experience as an example. Once, I was working at a high-end brand boutique at a department store. This was a decade ago in Nagoya, and wealthy people often came to such posh department stores. One day, a foreign lady, who was nicely dressed and looked sophisticated, came into our section and seemed to be interested in our well-designed dresses. I approached her and asked, "May I help you?" in English. She replied, “Yes.” I expected this answer, but I didn’t know how to respond. Do you see? I got a little nervous because I had to continue talking with her with my poor English. I thought, “would it be possible for me to explain, recommend or amuse this customer with my English?” That was my first time to take care of a foreign customer. In contrast to my tension, she was relaxed and just enjoyed looking at the dresses. “You can try it on if you like,” I said, and she smiled and took down two dresses that were hanging on the rack. I can't remember what I suggested or whether I adjusted the dress size for her. I was too nervous. Fortunately, she was satisfied with one of the dresses (and seemingly my attitude, too) and bought it. I was relieved and decided to review some English phrases for customers that I could use next time.

If you are working part-time, you might have opportunities to take care of foreign customers. One of my students asked me an English phrase for a cashier the other day. She wanted to know the phrase, “Would you like to pay by cash or credit card?” By learning like this, if you are well-prepared, you can be a great clerk! Please check out these websites for more useful English for the service industry:

https://www.thoughtco.com/beginner-dialogues-in-a-shop-1210040

https://www.phrasemix.com/collections/english-expressions-that-waiters-waitresses-and-restaurant-s

Photo credit Liza Summer@Pexels.com

Q1: According to the article, what does a Japanese clerk’s “irasshaimase” mean?

Q2: What did the foreign customer purchase in the Nagoya department store?

Q3: How did the author feel when providing service to the foreign customer?

Scroll down for answers 

A1: A greeting for each customer coming into the shop

A2: One dress

A3: She felt nervous.

In university, many students are offered a chance to learn overseas and experience study abroad programs. During my time as an undergraduate student, I attended a smaller university in my city that did not have many study abroad programs. However, it did offer an interesting summer program. Basically, the university offers some of their own classes, taught by their own teachers in different countries. Students go there and take their regular university classes in English while living in a different country and culture.

Before this, I had never left my country, the United States, and had no experience with international travel, so I felt I had to go before I graduated! My first experience abroad was nowhere other than Kyoto, Japan. I spent six weeks in Kyoto taking university classes in the morning and wandering around the city in the afternoons and evenings with my classmates and Japanese university students we met during that short time.

Though this time was short compared to many study abroad experiences, I came back to my country with three simple lessons that I still try to follow to this day:

1. Go for it! – Don't be afraid to take a chance. It can sometimes be overwhelming due to being in a new space, but the reward is greater than the struggle.

2. Don't be shy! – Generally, I am a shy person, so I understand how hard this advice can be. However, you must try your best to be outgoing and friendly. In the case of studying abroad, this will give you more chances to communicate with local students and better learn the language of the country you are in.

3. Go outside! – Whether you are in a city or a rural area, the best thing you can do is go outside. Whether it is for a walk, a bike ride, a train ride, or something else, try to experience a place that isn't just your comfort zone. Just because you must study doesn't mean you have to study in your room. Go to the university library, a café, a park and turn that study time into a study away time.

If you are interested, study abroad in the future if you can. If not, take a lovely trip somewhere that you are interested in. You never know how it might change your life. Maybe you will end up like me. Ten years after studying abroad, I am now happily living in the same city where I had some of my most memorable experiences, Kyoto, Japan.

You can find out more about studying abroad here. {Ritsumeikan Study Abroad [https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/studyabroad/]}

Photo credit Artem Beliaikin@Pexels.com

Q1: How long did the author study in Japan?

a. 2 Weeks

b. 6 Weeks

c. 6 Months

Q2: What is a word with the opposite meaning of "shy"?

a. Funny

b. Loud

c. Outgoing

Q3 Ten years after studying abroad, where does the author live?

a. Kyoto, Japan

b. Nara, Japan

c. Osaka, Japan

Scroll down for answers 

A1: b. (6 Weeks)

A2: c. (Outgoing)

A3: a. (Kyoto, Japan)

A frequent question asked by students is how to keep up their English outside the classroom. This is an excellent question because language learning does not begin and end in the classroom. If you want to become a confident speaker of another language, you must create multiple opportunities to encounter the language and use it in your daily life. This blog introduces a few ways that students can use online platforms to habituate their language learning, personalise it, and match it to their wider goals in life.

Making a habit of learning something is a vital part of becoming “good at it”. Think of playing an instrument or practising a sport; the more you do it, the better you get. It is even better if it’s fun and easy to fit into your routine. How many times do you check social media on the train or at the breakfast table? Do you have a Twitter or Instagram account that you regularly post to and share content? Create a new account in English, connect to well-known English language sites and English-speaking celebrities. Post your daily musings and reflections in English. Even if it’s ten minutes of scrolling English content or posting one or two short comments in English, it’s a quality addition to your language learning outside of class and fits smoothly into your daily life.

This can be a motivating thing to do because you can personalise the content you interact with and create. It’s your hobbies, your interests, your world. Do you like European soccer? Follow the players and clubs on English-language social media and comment in English in real-time during a game. Love cinema? Connect to the accounts that do movie reviews, websites that rank movies, and the movie stars themselves. Write regular short movie reviews and share them. Pursue the same interests you have in your native language and find the equivalent platforms for those interests in English.

Perhaps your current interests are inspiring your wider goals in life: the job you want to do in the future or the lifestyle changes you want to make. Podcasts are a great way to practice listening skills AND learn something valuable at the same time. There are English language podcasts on thousands of topics, so find one that matches your life goals (fitness, exercise, cooking, job hunting, saving money). For writing practice, start a blog in English on a topic or cause that you feel passionately about (politics, international relations, climate change, volunteering). If it’s a blog that, over time, you can add rich and interesting content to, and connect with many followers interested in the same topic, you could list this on your resume as a significant achievement during your student days.

The digital world gives us many engaging, free, and easy to use platforms for creating and sharing content on topics that interest us. Use these platforms in the target language in which you want to become better at speaking, listening, reading and writing. Habituate your use of these platforms (a little time every day), personalise it (topics, causes, and people that inspire you), and match it to your broader life goals (job hunting, money, wellness). Tweeting, podcasting, and blogging are great ways to keep up your English outside the classroom.

Photo credit Ivan Samkov @Pexels.com

Q1 Is the following statement true or false? “Habituating something means doing it occasionally.”

Q2 When you personalize something, you do it ___.

a. with one person.

b. only with people who share the same interest.

c. because it's meaningful to you and you like it.

Q3 Is the following statement true or false? “The author recommends tweeting, podcasting and blogging in a language in order to learn it.”

Scroll down for answers

A1 True

A2 C

A3 True