29/Sep/08

As the record of my self-study, I write down what I did today below. I read One article from 'The Observer'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/28/bradfordbingley.marketturmoil

• to be tied up with;to connect something to something
• a last-minute rescue deal;done at the possible time
• to sort sth out;to successfully deal with sth, such as a problem
• to be loath to do;to not want to do sth because it will cause problems
• to curve sth up;to divide sth into smaller parts, in a way that people do not approve of
• to get their money out straight away;immediately
• to center around;to have someone or sth as the main part of a discussion or activity
• to seize up;if part of your body or a machine seizes up, it stops mopving or working in the normal way.
• to be teetering on the edge of sth;to be in a situation where something bad might happen very soon
• to put sth up;to increase the price or value of sth
• to swamp the market;to give market more of sth than it can deal with
• to usher in sth;to be at the start of a period when important changes happen, or to cause important changes to start happening

29/Sep/08

Today in my class we focused on the grammer of adjective order. I will write it down below to remember for myself.



Adjective order;

opinion/size/age/shape/colour/origin/material/purpose



opinion;handsome,beautiful

age;new, young,old





for example;
a small thin Canadian lady
a new steel carving knife
a beautiful blue sailing boat
an old square wooden table
an exciting new French band
a big red plastic hat
a small Japanese serving bowl
a dirty old cotton tie
a small round reading lamp
an old yellow German car
a huge wooden sailing ship
an old Physics boring teacher
a handsome slim Canadian snowborder
a round blue suger bowl


And then I found some usefle collocations out for our travel page.

1. Luckily, historic, luxury hotel
2. stressful time
3. copiously filled wallet
4. impressive architectural character
5. a vibrant shopping
6. a somewhat reserved nightlife scene
7. spread out over three elaborate sections
8. the gray-and-honey colored stone mayor house
9. many famous visitors
10. very pricey room
11. luxurious beds
12. the most interesting off-beat spot(Pitt Rivers Museum)
13. lovely dried fruits(Covered Market)
14. an historic medieval coaching inn
15. an elegant country house hotel
16. a delightful city
17. a popular legend
18. rocky history
19. the most infamous outbreaks
20. an academic centre

27/Sep/08

And also I need to show what I've done during this week. The followings are those.

Grammer Excercise from Academic vocabulary in use-unit 34 and 35

• deliberate=intentional


• achieve your goal


• with the intention of -ing


• intense to do


• motivate for -ing


• objective=what you plan to do or achieve


• top priority/ take priority over; fire engines have priority over other vehicles.


• on purpose= deliberately


• Their strategy(=detailed plan for success) was to proceed slowly


• reach/attain/achieve target


• Mission Statement=short written statement of the aims of an organization.


• to further= move forward/advance


• to investigate=to initiate


• glossary=list of words with explanation of their meanings


• terminology=special words or expressions used in relation to a specific subject


• subtle distinctions=small differences


• defining=explaining the meaning of; in your essay, it is often appropriate to begin by defining the key words relating to the topic.


• ambiguous=having more than one meanings.


• coherent=carefully organized and making sense


• convey a messege


• evoke=make someone feel something
  
• discourse=written or spoken text


• connotation=association


• to infer=to guess that something is true because of the information you have


• form an opinion on the basis of indirect evidence


• nuances of meaning=small differences in meaning


• perspective=point of view

the article from gurdian which you can see here http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/19/cosmeticsurgery.advertising

• surgeon= a doctor who does medical operations
• irresponsible=not thinking about the possible bad results of what you are doing
• anatomically-anatomy=the scientific study of the body and how its parts are arranged
• aesthetic=the study of beauty
• torso=the main part of a human body without arms, legs, or head
• to superimpose=to put an image, text over something so that the thing under it can still be seen
• to expose=to make public something bad or something that is not honest
• facelift=medical treatment which makes the skin of your face tighter so that you look yonger
• corrective=intended to improve or correct something
• to undergo=to experience something, especially a change or medical treatment
• to boast=to talk with too much pride about what you have done or what you own
• client=someone who pays someone else for services or advice
• scalpel=a small, sharp knife that doctors use to cut through skin during an operation
• to seduce=to persuade to do something they would not normally do
• vulnerable=easy to hurt or attack
• prospective;prospective buyers=be expected to be in the future
• to fund=to provide money for an event, activity, or organization
• anecdotal=consisting of things that people have said, and not facts
• turnover=how much money a business earns in a period of time
• to flout=to intentionally not obey or accept something

the article from Evening Standard:Stop neo-socialist whingeing about city

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23558942-details/Boris%3A+Stop+neo-socialist+whingeing+about+City+bankers+and+house+prices/article.do

• to risk=you caue it to be in a dangerous situation where you might lose it
• to excel=to be very good at something
• to whinge=to complain in annoying way
• indignation;indignant=angry because you have been treated badly or unfairly
• schadenfreude=hapiness by laughing something bad of others
• to cope=to deal quite successfully with a difficult situation
• to concede=to admit something is true, even though you do not want to
• hideously=very ugly
• greedy=wanting a lot more food, money, etc than you need
• to shackle by somthing=to be prevented from doing what you want to do by
• spiv=bad man
• to curb=to limit or control something
• to get carried away=to be so excited about something that you do not control what you say or do
• clapdrop
• assembly=a group of people, such as a goverment, who meet to make decisions, laws

the article from Evening Standard:Mortgages for August at lowest recorded level

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23559204-details/Mortgages+for+August+at+lowest+recorded+level/article.do

• to dominate=to be the largest, most important, or most noticeable part of something
• FTSE100Index=Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index
• testimony= a formal statement about what someone knows or believes is true, especially in a law court
• to avert=to prevent something bad from happening
• unprecedented=never having happened before
• turmoil=a situation in which there is a lot of trouble, confusion, or noise
• to spill over=it begins to have an unpleasant effect on another situation or group of people
• comprehensively=easily to understand
• ground=condition
• bid=an offer to do work for someone for a particular amount of money
• scheme=an official plan or system
• to object to O=to feel or say that you do not like or do not approve of something

the article from Evening Standard:well the center of London at least as he and Chris Hoy take 50000 on a bike ride(sorry I could not find the article on the Internet)

• overwhelming=very strong in effect or large in amount
• to congregate=to come together in a group
• to set off= to depart
• hub=the place that is the center of a particular activity
• the Mall=the street from Trafalger sq to St. Jame's park
• to be awash with=to have a lot of something, often too much
• to brave=to deal with a dangerous or unpleasant situation in a brave way
• to wobble=If something wobbles or you make something wobble it moves from side to side, often because it is not on a flat
• atrocious=extremely bad/violent and shocking/wicked or cruel

the article from Evening Standard:Era ends as Wall Street big two lose their status

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23558561-details/Era+ends+as+Wall+Street+big+two+lose+their+status/article.do

• to cherish=to lobe someone or something very much and take care of them
• to shelve=to decide not to continue with a plan
• acquisition= the process of learning or getting something
• a pillar of something=someone or something who is very important to a place or organization
• takeover=when a company gets control of another company
• watershed=an important event after which a situation completely changes
• entrepreneur=someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks
• retail=when products are sold to customers from shops
• crunch=when a situation becomes serious or you have to make an important decision
• brace=something that supports or holds something in the correct position
• resort=something that you do because everything else has falled; a last resort
• demise=when something ends, usually because it has stopped being popular or successful
• bailout=when a company is given money to solve its financial problems
• to prompt=to cause something
• toxic=posisonous

the article from guardian:Britain is the first choice in Europe for foreign direct investment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/25/globaleconomy.creditcrunch

• Unctad=UN Conference on Trade and Development
• inward=towards the center or inside of something
• threshold=the level at which something starts to happen(閾値)
• the forecast for the next time two years
• to scale back=to reduce scale
• to surpass= to excel
• deterioration;deteriorate=to become worse

I am tired to write them down...

26/Sep/08

I add my essay about travel today.

I would like to talk about my traveling. I have not been to many places but the most impressive trip I have done is to go to the United State. I went to New York this February to see one university which I was interested in. I saw the university as one of my options to study abroad.
The university was in Philadelphia. In order to get there I first had to go to New York because there was no direct flight to Philadelphia from Tokyo. This long journey made me tired but traveling New York was quite exciting for me.
From this trip I have learned that there are a lot of cultures around the world. The further I travel from my country, the more I realise that extremely different world is expanding.
I need to decide which type of traveler I am. In fact it is necessary need to have a lot of money for traveling which needs to stay. Given this condition, I choose the day-tripper.

26/Sep/08

It is necessary to write two things for my class.

First I would like to talk about me. I am from Tokyo, Japan. I have two sisters, one is younger
and one is older. My older sister has her son althogh she is just 3 years alder than I am. Sometime soon I would like to add my family picture on my blog.
By the way I came here only a month ago so I did not have a lot of friends. I need more friends in Endland life.
When I came here, I was not suprisedt at the way of life in England because their cars running on the road were mostly same and music drifting in the shops are same as Japanese ones. This was the first time to feel the globalization with my own skin.


Next, what I need to say is the story about ZEN which I heard from my classmate. The following is the story.
The subject of a student was martial art. One day she wanted to visit her teacher because she was worried about her study. She wanted to ask her that how many years it would take to finish her study. Her teacher told her that you would need 10 years to finish it. By hearing that, she was worried about it more. So she asked her teacher again that if she studied it for 10 hours per day how long it would take. The teacher answered to her quetion and the answer was '20years'

I think this kind of stories are difficult to understand for people from other countries. This story means it is important to study or work hard for a long time. I think it is a representative of the Japanese way of life. In Japan still now there is the culture which quantity is seen as more important thing than quality is.

25/Sep/08

Steve told us to set up our blogs in today's class. I have had already my blog because I used it during previous course here. But I l watched the video which showed how to set blog up again as Steve said. I gave some new information, for example how to add my favorite blogs on my blog, from the video. Steve also asked us to choose our simple templete, which meant that our blogs consists of colors which we can read easily. Some colors are cool but make our eyes tired. Actually my blog had black background and white letters. This was exactly what Steve said. So I chaneged my blog templete followed Steve's advice.

In my opinion posting blog is quite nice way to improve my English. I think it connects to speaking English. I try to continue it so that my English become better as soon as I can.

After the class, some of us joined the social programme. We went to a pub where is one of the nearest ones from my university.

24/Sep/08

Today Steve asked us to see some travel websites to get information for our web pages. I searched them and found some useful sites out.
If you are interested in...
Oxford http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/britain/england/oxford/overview.html
Lake district
http://www.lakesnet.co.uk/


Probably you need to plan your trip before you go somewhere. In a such case, this is a good site to decide your depature time or returning time.
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/112.aspx

22/Sep/08

We had the first class today. I am happy because we have quite good members in our class !!
In the class Steve told us to set up our own blog for self-study and to think what we focus on in self-study. I have already set up my blog. Because when I took one of English course last month, I used it. So this is the blog which I have used and I will continue to write on this blog about my self-study. By the way I have not decided what I do in my self-study. But there are some options to do. I need to read a lot because I am slow to read the writing in English. So it is a good way to read newspapers. By reading newspapers, in addition to improve my reading skills, I can understand what is happening on in the world.

21/Sep/08

My one-week holiday has finished today.

At first, I tried to go to BBQ with my teammates but I awoke too late to go there. So I changed my plan and decided to go to an exhibition which was held in Liverpool street. One of my friend, who is my father's friend's daughter, put her arts on display at the exhibititon. The arts were made by interviews she did. I could not understand them well because I was not artists but I can say one thing; they are very beautiful !! Sorry for my lack of vocabulary...

The exhibition was held in one building where was on one famous street called Brick Lane. Brick Lane has Market which is similar to Camden Market every Sunday. The feature of Brick Lane is that the street is surrounded buildings which are made in Bricks. So I felt it was old town. But in front of tube station Liverpool street which takes about 5-minute-walk from Brick Lane, there is a financial town. It was quite different from Brick Lane !!

20/Sep/08

Why do the London transportation services stop so often? I have already experienced it many times althogh I have lived in London for only a month. I will tell you two stories about it.

First, when I tried to go to gym on this Wednesday by the bus, I was waiting for it about 30 minutes. From the outset buses which take me to the gym is a few. They say that they come about every 12 minutes but they have never come at the time. At last the bus has come and departed for the gym. Suddenly there was an announcenment which meant the change of termination. I could not believe that the driver did not apologize about it. Finally I could not understand why the change happened but lukily for me it took me to the stop where I wanted to go.

Next, today I needed to go to London Waterloo, for I had a practice for my team at Earlsfield where is more south of London than Waterloo. From Waterloo the many trains, not tube, are running to suburban areas. Retuning back to the story I want to tell you, in order to go to Waterloo I just get the Northern line on from Camden town. It is not long journey but today was different because the waterloo station was closed. I think Japanese people can not understand that a station is closed in the daytime. But here is in England. Our common sense is not in use. Returning back to the story again, the tube which I was getting on to go to waterloo passed the station and stopped at the next station. From the next station did not have direct line to the waterloo. So I had no choice for it, I got on other line which was called baker line to make a detour. Oh my god!! Finally I could get there in time because I went out a little early by chance today but if not...

Thank you for your reading and visiting my blog!!

15/Sep/08

It was a troublesome day today. I went to the bank twice to ask the clerk about my new cards. I would like to buy my mobile phone with a contract, not with pay as I go, which is called prepaid. To get contract, it is necessary to have a reliable credit card which is linked with UK bank account. I have had my credit card already but my card has not been accepted. The cards which are mainly made for students are called SOLO card although I do not know what the acronyms stand for. Anyway I can’t buy it.

After that I practiced lacrosse by myself. When I threw the ball against the wall, some kids passing by asked me what the sport is and to play it. This kind of thing is rare in Japan, I think. But I was scared that the kid lost the ball over the wall.

14/Sep/08

I've finished my course but I will continue writing my blog.
Because some friends in Japan see this blog and it is useful to improve my writing.

I had a lacrosse match agaist WACS which is from Manchester yesterday. This team got the chanpionship last year in the north league of England. So some of them are quite good players, which has some England national squad members. Defense man who is marking me up is also a member of it. The DF man was really powerful and speedy.

After the game, the BBQ was held in front of my pitch. Some people were playing Cricket there. I was surprised to hear that usually it takes several days to come to an end. It was awesome!! I remembered the word awesome today from my friend.

On my way home from the pitch, the northen line was stopped. I did not know the factors leading to the stop but it often stops weekend. It is really rare that trains stop in Japan so it is unbelievable!! I am wondering how people living in London can stand it.

6th/Sep/08

I had two main events today

First,The lacrosse tournament was held at Bath where is west of England. It is really beatiful place and has some natural spas. I heard that the Roman found out the spas and founded the shrines of spas there in the 3 or 4 century.

One of my lacrosse friends piked my up at the Lancaster gate station and we drove to there.　It took about an hour and half to get Bath from London.

In the tournament, I have played for Hampstead Lacrosse team all day. Members of the team were almost American and most of them had played for NCAA division 1 colleges. Now they live in London to work for the banks in the City of London.

The team was really strong and has good players but I do not like it so much. Because I felt they were really snobbish and looked down on others. I think this is because the United States has the best national squad team in the world. That is why I decide not to choose this team for this my season and I want to beat them in the other team!!!!

Anyway I enjoyed this Bath-tournament.

Second,when I came back to my home, one of my house mates Phillip invited me to drink. So we went out to the Bar!! In the bar the leaving party was held for the couple of Phillip's friends. They will leave within one week to Greece. At the party there were a lot of nationalities, for example Columbian, English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Greece... This was the first time for me to drink with such a lot of nationalities. And they all were speaking English well. Therefore it really motivated me to study English!!!

5th/Sep/08

I had to go to the bank because I needed to activate my new cash card. It was so busy that it took long time to come my turn. It was easy to acvate it. At the same time, I asked the clerk that I wanted to another card, because I am thinking to get new phone. My card activated just now can not use for paying the bills oh phone. I have to another type of card. Anyway, he was really so kind that everything proceeded quickly!!!! To be honest, I do not know well about the words which are relative to bank so I said 'pardon?' again and again.

After that, when I came back to my house, my host mother's friend was coming. So we had dinner together!! It was so fun!!

We have to prepare our presentation,
but,


Let's have a good weekend!!

4th/Sep/08

I finally finished my essay. It was long way to complete it. After the class, I usually went to library and was fighting with my PC for a long time!!

Today I began to joining the GYM to do workout. Because in my sport Lacrosse, the big body is the most advantage to play well, especially in my position atackman!!

If you are interested in my sport, please see my link below.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=VUrELIkZtE0&eurl=http://mixi.jp/view_diary.pl?id=922504405&owner_id=2432762
That's COOL!!

Tomorrow, but today In Japan, my university will send me my transcription of tha last semester. In Japan, academic year usually starts from April. So I am worried about my grades!! My mother will open it before than me.

2&3/Sep/08

2th
I started my face book because one of international officer asked me to set up so that I could communicate with the students off the class. It is cool, fasionable. We have other social networking service in my country. It is named 'MIXI.' I do not know why the name is but it is really popular. Japanese mobile phone is differnet from Britain's. It enables us to look Internet. Thanks to this, we can see MIXI everywhere if you have mobile phone. So some people spend a lot of time using mobile phone. It is slightly different culture.
My facebook name is Hajime Shimakawa. So if you do facebook, please get in touch with me on it. I do not have still enough friend on it!!

3th
Ann and her groundchild left my home today. I miss them. Because they are so good girls.

And this is good site for bibliography
;http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/ehelp/ref_guides/harvard.htm
this shows me how to cite from print and non-print sources.

31/Aug/08 & 1/Sep/08

31th
My host mother's sister came my house to stay from Liverpool with her grounddaughter.
They will stay here until this Wednesday. Their English is slightly different from my host mother's one. Especially pronounciation is different, so when we ate dinner together, I could not understand what they said. But it was good practice for me like this blog.

1st
Recently I have spent my time studying English than ever to search Information for my essay, or to study by myself. This tires me but I do not hate that.
I wlii attach links which I searched because I forgot. These are good ways to get information for business.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/271308.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/678496.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6478685.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/457000/457022/html/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7067503.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3481855.stm

By the way,
at the exit of BurgerKing there is such phrase;
We hate goodbye.
I think it is better than just writing goodbye or thanks.