English Synonyms

I bought an English words book "Practical Guide to English Synonyms" written by Fumi Saisho. The author was a Japanese woman. She wrote movie reviews to an English newspaper for 26 years. She said in the introduction that this reference book was based on the experience. 

The book, or dictionary, is useful for writing. I'll refer the book while writing my English blog. 

Click to vote →
                        にほんブログ村

Studying Rubin's Translation

I went to a book store and bought a book about an English translation work. The original text was "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" written by Murakami Haruki and translated into English by Jay Rubin. Original Japanese, English version and some explanations of transportation in it. 

Jay Rubin is famous for studying Japanese and Murakami himself chosen him as a translator, so Rubin's work might be a good one. More over, he used simple English for the translation. 

Comparing with original and English, I've found lots of interesting and worthy things. For example, Rubin translated rather in detail. While original said simply took off his shoes, Rubin translated into English as unlaced his shoes. 

I don't represent NHK Publishing, but I recommend this book for English learners. It's useful for translation and writing English. 

Click to vote →
                        にほんブログ村

Writing

I bought an English writing reference book. The book describes proper English sentences and structured writing. It may help my English writing. 

The book shows bad examples that English learners often make. These also indicate my mistakes. The author recommended to search correct sentences on the web. I should do it in order to make a proper English sentence.

Click to vote →
                        にほんブログ村

The 800th Blog Post

This post is my 800th one in English. I started to write a blog because I wanted to improve my English skills. I'm not sure if this works well for the purpose, but I don't care much about that. This is just a self-satisfaction and I enjoy doing it. 

Click to vote →
                        にほんブログ村

Running for Writing, Haruki Murakami

Running everyday over 30 years. Haruki Murakami has been running or swimming everyday over 30 years. He started the habit while he was writing "A Wild Sheep Chase". He said that running makes up his writing skill, but few people can understand that. 

He said that a writer makes a story, and making a story needs physical strength. That was his belief. 

Click to vote →
                        にほんブログ村

600 Days Straight

I've been writing a short journal everyday for 600 days straight since November 2013. You probably think I'm getting good at writing, and I hope so too. But I'm still not very good. You can see the reality here. Grammatical errors and misspelling are everywhere in my blog. 

Despite my slow progress, writing in English is fun for me. I'm like a real writer while writing. I don't think I can write a blog everyday in Japanese. It feels like I'm exposing myself too much. Too embarrassing. 

I'm really excited when someone is interested in my blog and sends a message. It sometimes happens. That makes me motivated. 

Anyway, I'll enjoy writing for myself. 

にほんブログ村

300 Days Anniversary

I'm writing this blog everyday since last November. Today's blog is the 300th day in a row. 

I don't think my writing skill has been significantly improved. I should use more and more new expressions or new sentences I have learned. 

Now I'm used to write in English compare to before. That's a prize I've got from everyday writing. 

Eiken Grade Pre 1, Practice 2

Read this letter below.

Imagine that you are Charles, and write an appropriate response to Olivia in the space provided on your answer sheet.

Your response should be around 100 words in length.


 Dear Charles.
Hello.

The other day, I was reading the article on the Internet and it said that NASA scientists had discovered a new planet that was similar to Earth and there might be water on it. I thought it was really exciting! Do you think life exist in outer space?

I also read many other articles. The Internet is so convenient! Do you think the Internet will replace newspapers?

By the way, I've heard that many people are suffering from depression these days. What do you think are the cause and solution of this?

Write back soon.
Olivia

My answer

Dear Olivia

Hello.

The news about discovering a new planet is really exciting. Some water has found in space. Our life comes from woter, so I think there are some life exist in outer space. 

The Internet is really useful and I think the Internet replace newspapers. We can get much information from the Internet than newspapers. In addition, we can get many of the Internet news for free.

I think depression comes from loneliness. We need to communicate people as much as we can. 

Take care.

Charles 

Cursive Letters

 I used to write in block letters in English but I'm writing in cursive style now. My handwriting isn't good enough but even so cursive letters look beautiful. 

I'll try to write in more beautiful cursive letters. 

Writing an English Blog

I'm trying to write my English blog every day. I believe it would help me to improve both writing and speaking skills.

I sometimes post this blog to a language exchange site, Lang-8, and many native speakers kindly correct it. It's also a big advantage for me to be writeing a blog in English. I can learn lots of natural ways to use English words and phrases.

The first blog in five years

This is the first blog  post in five years. Since the last post, I didn't write anything in English but just read books in English. To be honest I simply lost interest in writing because no one read my blog at all. But from now on I'll keep writing for the sake of simply improving my English ability.
Since I did not study English grammar I had my blog corrected by online teachers at that time but I'll do it all by myself as much as I can. I'd really appreciate receiving corrections from anyone, though.
Anyway, it's snowing over here but only a little bit. Please take care everyone,