マスターの生徒さんへ、

今書いているジャーナルの参考にしてください。太文字のところは大切な文法ポイントです。もし分からないことがありましたら、いつでも聞いてください。

Monday, June 26th 

Yesterday, during a lesson, a student wanted to say, 「楽しいと時間が早く過ぎる」.  In English we say, “time flies when having  fun” or “time passes quickly when having fun”.  I also feel that when we are busy, time flies!  One week feels really short, doesn’t it?  Yesterday an old friend from high school contacted me and he said “it’s been 22 years since we graduated”.  I was a little shocked. How time flies!!  

「時間が早く過ぎる」

両方とも「時間が早く過ぎる」という意味です。

Time flies – How time fliesというと「何て時間が経つのが早いのだ！」と驚きを表現します。

Time passes quickly

Tuesday, June 27th

Yesterday, one group of my students came back from a Kyoto trip.   They gave me Macha cookies from Uji.  I was glad to get them.  There are 6 people in this group and all of them have gotten better at speaking English.  I’m very proud of them. They are really close friends so they always travel together in Japan.    

Speaking of Uji grean tea, did  you know that Nishio City is the biggest producer of green tea?  So how come Uji is more famous?  I learned from a student that Uji was the first place where they produced green tea.  I guess people who do things first always get remembered.  

「〜が上手になる」を表現

「〜が上手になる」は言い方が複数あります。

●get better at ~ing

I’m getting better at speaking English.　(私は英語を話すのが徐々に上手になっている。)

●improve 動詞

My English is improving.  (英語が上達している。)

I was able to improve my English. (私は英語を上達することができた。)

Wednesday, June 28th

Today, it was raining a little in the morning.  It was hard to decide if I should ride my bike or not.  Sometimes, when I decide to ride my bike in the rain, it starts raining really hard while I’m on my way there.  I think I have bad luck with weather.  In Japanese, that’s called “Ameotoko”.  I guess you can say, I’m rain man.  

Actually, My flight was cancelled 2 times because of bad weather.  Also, when I went to L.A. 2 years ago, I made it rain.  It did not rain hard in L.A. for ten years but when I went, it rained really hard.  I think I helped L.A.’s weather situation.  I should be thanked by the people of L.A. 

「悩む」を表現

「何かを選ぶのに悩む」と言いたい時は、”It’s hard to decide” と言います。

It’s hard to decide what to buy.   (何を買うか悩む。) 

It’s hard to decide if I should go or not.  (行くか悩む。)

Thursday, June 29th

Thursday is a strange day for me.  Some people say they don’t like Monday because it’s the start of the week.  I actually like Monday.  I also like Friday.  But I think everyone likes Friday because most people have days off on Saturday and Sunday.  As I was saying, Monday and Friday are my favorite days (during the weekdays).  Tuesdays and Wednesdays are ok.  I don’t know why but Thursday is tough for me.  It’s really strange but it feels like it always rains on Thursday.  Don’t you think so????  I’m sure if you count what day it rains, Thursday will be number one.  I guarantee it!  

As I was saying,

話が打線したので戻すときに「先ほどいったように」と言って戻すことができます。

It feels like…..

It feels like のあとに文章を持ってくることによって「〜のよに感じる」という文ができます。

It feels like it always rains on Thursday. 「木曜日にいつも雨が降るように感じる」

Friday, June 30th

Today, when I woke up it was raining cats and dogs (raining really hard)!!  I realized that I forgot my umbrella and my raincoat at school.  I thought that maybe the rain would stop if I’m lucky so I waited and waited.  Nope! it wouldn’t stop!!  Damn it!

 I remembered I had a foldable umbrella somewhere.  I looked for it in my closet.  I finally found it but it was so small I laughed when I found it.  I would still get all wet.  It only takes about 10 min to walk to the station but it was raining so hard that I knew I would get wet.  I decided to take a taxi.  It couldn’t be helped.  I walked 2 min to the big street with my little little umbrella and luckily I caught a taxi right away.  It took me only 10 min to get to school but when I got out of the taxi it was almost about to stop raining.  Whaaaat!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  Also, I realized now that I’m wearing different colored socks on my left foot and right foot.  One is dark blue and the other is light blue.  It’s going to be a long day.   🙁

raining cats and dogs

有名なイディオムです。「土砂降り」という意味です。

It can’t be helped.

「しょうがない」という意味です。

get in / get out

車に乗る降りるをget in / get out で表現します。　電車、バス、飛行機はget on / get off です。

about to

「〜なる寸前」「今にも〜なりそう」という意味です。

The button of my shirt was about to come off.  「シャツのボタンが今にも取れそう。」

realized

「気づく」という意味です。