Stories and Questions to help you practice listening and writing skills. 

English Stories & Questions

Grammar and English tips for kids, beginners and intermediate students. 

Learn English with William

My story began in London 3 decades ago, but my travels into the teaching world would not take long to begin...

Stories from UK to China

In this episode, Boris visits his apartment (chapter 3), his office and meets his co-workers (chapter 4)

Easy stories and texts for beginners

Las aventuras de Boris 2: Boris visita su apartamento y conoces su lugar de trabajjo

不免 (bù miǎn) and 未免 (wèi miǎn) are both adverbs that are used to indicate that something is inevitable or cannot be avoided. However, there is a subtle difference in their meanings.
不免 (bù miǎn) means "inevitably" or "unavoidably," and it is used to indicate that something is certain to happen or cannot be avoided. Here is the structure when using 不免：objective reason,+不免+result
未免 (wèi miǎn) means "unavoidably" or "unnecessarily," and it is used to indicate that something is unnecessary or excessive. You use it when you can’t agree to something. Here is the structure when using 未免：（scenario, can be omitted in the sentence)，+未免+judgement
Here are some examples to illustrate the difference between the two, with pinyin provided for the example sentences:
不免 (bù miǎn)
* 这种天气下出门，不免有些冷。 (zhè zhǒng tiānqì xià chūmén, bù miǎn yǒuxiē lěng) (It is inevitably a little cold when going out in this kind of weather.)
* 他的职业生涯结束了，不免有些伤感。 (tā de zhíyè shēngyá jiéshù le, bù miǎn yǒuxiē shāngǎn) (His career has ended, and it is inevitably a little sad.)
未免 (wèi miǎn)
* 这道题的难度未免有点大。 (zhè dào tí de nándù wèi miǎn yǒudiǎn dà) (The difficulty of this problem is unnecessarily large.)
* 他的表演未免有些夸张。 (tā de biǎoyǎn wèi miǎn yǒuxiē kuāzhāng) (His performance is unnecessarily exaggerated.)
* 你这么做，未免太过分。 (nǐ zhème zuò, wèi miǎn tài guòfèn) (What you are doing is unnecessarily extreme.)


Difference between A and B in Chinese with Shanmei

Difference between 不免 (bù miǎn) and 未免 (wèi miǎn) 

New Dialogue Composed of YCT1-1 Vocabulary

Yo-You 与你同行（YCT）

YCT1-1

『日本語能力試験」対策＿日本語総まとめN3（語彙）』アスク出版 テキストを読んでいきます。 １回に1日ずつ読んでいきます。 今日は、第４週5日です。


N3合格

N3　語彙　第４週5日

Full transcripts: https://japanesemayuna.com/

はい、こんにちは。今回は ポッドキャストの15回目です。もう2月ですが、大阪はまだ少し寒いです。晴れているのに雪が降っている日もあって、不思議な天気です。洗濯物はまだ乾きにくいですね。

Hello. This is the podcast episode 15. It's already February, but it's still a bit cold in Osaka. It's a strange weather, with sunny but snowing days. It's still hard to dry the laundry.

私は先日、確定申告を終わらせました。確定申告というのは、自営業者が毎年、自分の１年間の収入を政府に報告することです。自営業者というのは、会社に勤めずに、自分で仕事をしている人です。そして、所得税を払います。所得税というのは、収入にかかる税金です。会社員の所得税は、給料から引かれるので、確定申告をする必要はありません。

I have just finished my tax return. Kakutei Shinkoku (a tax return) is an annual report by a self-employed person to the government on their income for the year. Jieigyousha (a self-employed person) is a person who does not work for a company, but works on his own. And they pay income tax. Shotokuzei (income tax) is a tax on income. Income tax for company employees is deducted from their wages, so there is no need to file a tax return.

日本では、確定申告はオンラインですることができます。実は、日本の政府のオンラインサービスは、数年前まで、あまり便利じゃありませんでした。政府の ウェブデザインはとても時代遅れで、見づらかったです。そこで、2021年に菅総理大臣が「デジタル庁」というオンラインサービスを担当する部署を作りました。政府の ウェブサイトやアプリは2021年からリニューアルされて、見やすくなりました 。確定申告をするためのソフトウェアは、まだエラーが多くて少し不便ですが、少しずつ良くなっていくといいです。

In Japan, tax returns can be filed online. Actually, the Japanese government's online services were not very convenient until a few years ago. The government's web design was very outdated and difficult to read. So, in 2021, Prime Minister Suga created a department called the "Digital Agency" to be in charge of online services. The government's website and apps were redesigned in 2021 to make them easier to navigate. The software for filing tax returns is still a little inconvenient with many errors, but hopefully it will gradually get better.

そして所得税はコンビニで払うことができます。確定申告をした後に表示される QR コードを使って、コンビニのレジで払います 。コンビニで払う場合は現金しか使えませんが、オンラインで払う場合は、クレジットカードや銀行振込で納税することもできます。納税するというのは国に税金を払うことです 。私はレシートが欲しかったので、コンビニで払うことにしました。インターネットで調べたら、アメリカなどの他の国でも、コンビニで納税することができるらしいですね。これはとても便利だと思います。

Japanese Lessons with Mayuna

15. デジタル庁

In this episode, we explore the subtle but important difference between the Italian verbs "parlare" and "dire". While both verbs can be translated as "to speak" or "to say", they have distinct meanings and usage.