the British Movies and Dramas I love British movies and dramas. It started from Bridget Jones' Diary. I've read the novel and most times movies cannot overcome the original book, ruining my imagination. However, the actors fit perfectly into the characters and the movie was even better than the book. Renee was adorable in the movie and I fell in love with Collin Perth at first sight. I cannot deny the plus attractive points of British accent. As for the accent, I like the movie 'Bend It Like Beckem.' It is a story about a girl who wants to be a soccer player. I could see the Indian British people's lives and cultures through the movie. (I started to get a good impression about Indian people from the movie and some other Ballywood ones and I would like to be a friend of nearby Indian people around my house but I don't know how.) I like the famouse British drama 'Sherlock' as well. Sherlock Homes is one of my favorite book characters since my childhood. The starred person named Benedict Cumberbatch is attractive enough to be Mr. Homes. The last one I'll mention is 'Little Britain.' The drama is the one I saw on TV when I was in Europe. There are two characters who plays a lot of roles. Sometimes they mock foreigners and othertimes, themselves. Some of scenes are too gross to me. However, they are hilarious and I love the British black humour! ))

The Catcher In the Rye I read this book because I've heard this book is a classic teenage novel. At that time I read this book, I was a homeroom teacher of high school boys. I wanted to understand their puberty ups and downs. I have a strong motive to read the novel. It was difficult to read it, though. First, it was written in old modern English. Second, it was not that fun. Third, I was hectic teaching real boys. They made troubles every single day back then. ;) So it took a long time for me to finish reading it. The first thought I had after reading it was that teenagers are teenagers. Teens in those days experienced almost same things and have quite similar characteristics. Teenagers including the main character of this book are innocent, immature, and rebelious. Holden, the protagonist, got out of school and tried adult thing like going to a pub and calling a hooker. Even though he called one lady and was with her in the same room, he didn't do the real adult thing. He was a boy yet. He wanted to try adult world but he hesitated in the real situation. Besides, he impursively got out of school, wandered without destinations, and missed his family. He spitted out teenage words which represent that he wanted to look strong to others. One girl I met in a bookclub said that this book says nothing new and the story is plain. However, I think the story seems plain just because this book is the starter of novels about teenagers.

Korea is a delivery heaven. I ordered a dish in a very bad delivery condition. First, it was only one bowl of jajang noodle. In Europe, I couldn't make a delivery. Food delivery items were so rare and even when I was ill, I had to go out to eat back then. Here in Korea, we can choose a delivery food among various options such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Western food. Second, it was a rainy day. Even though I try best not to deliver a food on a slippery snowy day, if I call restaurants, they say "yes, where are you?" (It already presuppose that they deliver under any weather.) Third, my place was not my house but an undesignated place, a public library! We Koreans can have pizza or fried chicken delivered in a middle of a park. The delivery person rings us among a lot of crowded people as soon as s/he gets to the park. When I order a book, I can get it on that day or the next day without a shipping fee. It's a delivery heaven, isn't it? :)

My Favorite American Dramas One of my ways to learn English language is to watch American soap operas. This started from watching 'Friends' when I was a colleage student. It was a great hit at that time and it was so fun and I could memorize some of its lines. I bought the whole seasons. However, there was a problem. It became out of date and I want something new. It was not easy to find as fun and good a drama as 'Friends.' After a few years of searching, I met 'Desperate Housewives.' Its story is so capturing and that made me watch the drama even without Korean captions. The major characters are women and their pronunciation is very clear. It was very nice for language learning. The problem it has is that it has quite a few indecent, violent scenes and I cannot watch it in a public place or with other people. 'CSI' series also have the same problem. After that, I tried to find another good drama. 'Big Bang Theory' was fun but the lines are too sophisticated and fast. 'Prison Break','Everybody loves Raymond' and 'Ugly Betty' were okay but were not so attractive to watch them repetitively. 'Drop Dead Diva' is also all right but it has too many jargons of lawers. What I wanted is 1. everyday language rather than specific field terms (school related stories would be more than awesome because I want to be a teacher someday again) 2. fun enough to keep watching and not too boring to watch repetitvely. These days I am trying 'Modern Family' and 'Glee.' The latter(Glee) has a bit exaggerating story but the songs delete all the defects of the drama. Besides, it is a school story and I can peep American school cultures from it. 'Modern Family' is funny enough. Well, I might try reading its script soon for language learning. (Or is there any online community where people talk about dramas in English?)

Language Learning Yesterday I read an American guy's post here. He is learning Korean in Korea. He works very hard on langauge learning and he wants to speak Korean only. He even avoids people who uses English. I was quite inspired by his enthusiastic attitude and strong will. How hard am I working on my language learning? Am I active enough? What aggressive ways can I take? I sometimes read some English novels and watch American dramas for fun. However, those seem way little for mastering the language. This year I will try harder and writing a short journal here every weekdays would be one of the ways.I hope I can last this work till the end of this year.

Meat is everywhere. I ate steak and I was full. Then I realized that I eat too much meat everyday. It was easy to cook. I grilled it. That's all. However, it's not that healthy for me and for this society. 'Unhealthy for the society' means if I consume a lot of meat, farmers will feed their cattle in a massive amount. Then the livestock might be born just to be meat. Meat was rare food I could eat when I was young. My mom made meat soups so that family members can share the big bowl of soup of meat flavor with few chunks of meat in it. Nowadays meat is not the thing we cannot afford. Meat is everywhere. If I simply call a restaurant, they deliever several kinds of meat directly to my house such as beef, pork, chicken, or duck. Healthy vegetables are rare instead. Foods around us are becoming westernized. I'd like to find out nice recipes which include various vegetables.

140107] Mion's 2014 resolution 1. Cooking. I am not good at cooking. It takes me, the novice cook too much time to prepare the ingredients and to cook. My mom and many good cooks know what they make with vegetables when they see them in markets, which I can't. This year I will try my best to make at least three side dishes a week and to minimize eating out like three times a month. 2. English. I'd like to pass the teacher's exam this year but that is not my ultimate goal. My real goal is to speak English fluently. It is not easy to meet native English speakers in person so I will try my best to visit here, italk and write a journal everyday. Keeping writing in English and getting a feedback from natives would be very helpful for my English skills. I am so excited to find this site! :) If I read news articles and make a comment about it, it will also be reading practices. In addition, I will listen to one English song everyday and memorize it. That's all for the resolution version 1. There is a saying that it usually lasts only 3 days when we make a decision. Besides, too many plans might be so burdensome that I give up easily, so I will try those three things for a start. According to what I remember, it would take at least three months to set a habit for sure. I hope I can keep up those until the end of 2014. :)