I was going to make corrections, but... 添削しようと思いましたが... I was going to make corrections on Japanese learners’ notebook entries. However, I found out that all of them had already been corrected. I was surprised because I have never had any problem finding entries to be corrected. We are on the second day to the last of “Golden Week” or a week that includes a series of national holidays in Japan, so many Japanese people here on italki may have had more time to spend in making corrections than usual. If you are a Japanese learner, I think now is the right time to post your notebook entry! 日本語のノートブックの添削をしようとしましたが、全てのノートブックがすでに添削されていました。今まで未添削の投稿を探すのに苦労したことがなかったので、驚きました。 いま日本ではゴールデンウィークで、明日が最終日です。そのため多くの日本人がitalkiで添削する時間が普段よりあったのかもしれません。日本語学習者の皆さん、ノートブック書くなら今ですよ！

アジ ダイジョーブ　Tastes Fine(!?) If you cook and you are told that it was "Azi Daizyobu(=it tastes fine)", you'll probably be upset, but in Palau it means "Tasty". According to the TV show I watched the other day, lots of Japanese people moved into Palau before the second World War, and many Japanese expressions were introduced to Palauans. Another expression is "Syototsu(=crash)" which means "cheers!" in English. It sounds kind of funny to me. Language is interesting! 手によりをかけて作った料理を「味、大丈夫」なんて言われたら悲しいですね。でもパラオ語では「アジダイジョーブ」というのは「おいしい」という意味らしいです。 最近テレビで見たのですが、なんでも第二次世界大戦の前、パラオにはたくさんの日本人が移り住み、そこで色々な日本語が現地に浸透したらしいです。他には「乾杯」ことを「ショートツ」と言うのだとか(！) 言葉って面白い！

My Friend Takes the Lead 友人に先を越される I have a friend who I've been learning English and translation with for more than ten years. Just the other day, he passed the Eiken Grade 1 on his second attempt!! (For those who don't know the Eiken Grade 1, it's one of the most advanced English proficiency tests in Japan.) I'm happy for him... I do am happy for him.. But I have mixed feelings. We took the test for the first time last October and we both failed then, but he's been studying really hard ever since, and has made it. Meanwhile I didn't even take it this time because I haven't been really good enough yet. I've been doing my best, but I was dreaming of passing it without studying exclusively for the test, thinking it was good enough if I kept chatting with American and British friends, reading lots of books and watching a ton of dramas.Plus, having been working as an English tutor, I supposed this profession would significantly help me strengthen my English ability. But the outcome has proved otherwise. I couldn't have been more wrong. I realized that if you want to pass an exam, you just have to study for it! (It's obvious! How could I not know it until now? lol ) 私にはこの10年来、英語と翻訳を一緒に勉強している友達がいます。その友達が先日の英検1級に、2回目の挑戦にして合格しました！！ 嬉しいです、嬉しいですよ。でもこう、、なんだかなぁ。 英検1級には彼も私も昨年の10月に初めて受けて、落ちました。しかし彼は猛勉強を続け、合格したのです。私はまだ実力が足りず、今回は受験しませんでした。 私も努力はしていますが、試験勉強をしなくても実力で英検1級に合格したい、と変なこだわりがあり、アメリカやイギリスの友人とお喋りしたり、本をたくさん読んだり、ドラマを見たりすれば十分と、あまり試験に向けた勉強はしてきませんでした。英語に関わる仕事をしているので勝手に実力は付くだろうとタカを括っていたようにも思います。 しかし今回、歴然とした結果を見せられてしまい、やはり試験勉強は必要だなと、痛感した次第です（気付くの遅っ！）

Birthday 誕生日 I became 30 years old on the 14th this month :) When I was a teenager, I was terrified by the idea of turning into my 30s because I thought of 30 years old as very old. However, having reached the "oldness", I'm actually excited to see what's stored for me in the next decade. It feels like my life will get better and better. Oh, and my friends in the US celebrated my birthday on the next day because of the time difference, and that made me feel lucky to be celebrated two days in a row, lol 今月14日に30歳になりました :) 10代の頃は30歳になるということを考えるだけでも恐怖でした。というのも30歳というのはとても年寄りな気がしてたからです。でも実際その「年寄り」になってみると、次の10年に何があるのか楽しみでなりません。もっともっと人生楽しいことが起こる気がします。 あと、アメリカにいる友達が誕生日を祝ってくれましたが、時差の関係で誕生日の次の日の15日も祝ってもらって、得した気分です(笑)

Left Home Without My Phone 携帯を家に忘れる I hung out with friends yesterday... after a little bit of an accident. I was on a train, heading to the station to meet my friends when I noticed that I'd left my phone at home. It'd be trouble because we had only arranged that we meet at 11am at the station building. I meant to text them when I get there. I realized that I didn't even know my friend's number without my phone. I thought of calling my home and ask my brother or mother to look up his number on the phonebook on my phone as soon as I get to the station. That was when I found out I didn't have a pen to write it down since I always take note on my phone. So I borrowed a pen from a station clerk. After all, I called my home from a public phone at the station and got in touch with my friend before we finally met. It turned out nothing, but it made me I realize how much I rely on my phone these days. 昨日友達と遊びました･･･がちょっとしたハプニングもありました。 友達との待ち合わせ場所である駅に向かって電車に乗っていると、携帯を家に忘れてきたことに気づきました。友達とは駅ビルで午前11時に待ち合わせ、としか決めていなかったので困りました。 携帯がないとその友達の電話番号すら分かりません。そこで駅に着いてから、公衆電話から家に電話して、母か兄に、私の携帯に登録されている友達の電話番号を調べてもらうことにしました。そこでまた気づきました、メモはいつも携帯にしていたので、番号をメモするペンもありません。そこで駅員さんにペンを借りました。 結局、駅の公衆電話から家に、そして友達に電話し、無事に会うことが出来ました。大したことではなかったですが、今の生活がいかに携帯電話に頼っているのかということを痛感した出来事でした。

The First Eiken Grade 1 Try 英検1級初挑戦 Hey guys! I took the first exam of the Eiken Grade 1 (an English proficiency test) last Sunday. The exam consists of the reading section (100 minutes) and the listening section (approx 35 minutes). I knew it'd be really challenging because I hadn't been studying much, but it was much harder than my expectations. In the reading, you have to write a 200-word essay regarding a social issue: global warming, aging society, global food shortage and the like. In order to spare 40 minutes for the writing, I had to skip 4 questions, but still I didn't have enough time to finish up the essay. I didn't get to write the conclusion. (T_T) Thankfully, I've been practicing speaking English with my friends regularly over the past six months, and I thought the listening section would be easy, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I found my friends spoke much faster than the narrators did, but since you can't ask for repeating in the test and it goes on whether you keep up or not (of course), it didn't go in a way I expected. And it's easy to focus on listening for what my friends talking about because I want to know what comes next, but listening to narrators droning on about something I'm not at all interested in is nothing but agony... (I know! It's a test!) This is how it went in my first attempt for the Eiken Grade 1. I will study harder and definitely do better enough to pass next time.

Incredible People 凄い人たち Hey, guys! I have a real, beautiful story that's worth sharing today :) The other day, I was walking through the square to the library where I found what used to be a cream puff and pudding scattered all over the ground by a bench. I glanced at the mess, but I didn't do anything because I thought all pigeons and crows (there always are a bunch of pigeons there) or otherwise street cleaners would eventually clean it. A half hour later, I checked out some books and came out of the library when I saw a man in his sixties with his dog cleaning the mess by picking up the goo with his bear hand! And a more surprise followed; two high school girls were handing him a pocket tissue. I bet no one told him to clean it up and no one told the girls help him. They did it spontaneously. It really was a beautiful scene. I'm so happy to be able to find incredible people that make me proud of being Japanese even in my neighborhood. I thought I wanted to be like that guy, and I'll definitely try :) どうも！今日は是非お話ししたい出来事があります :) 先日、図書館に向かって広場を歩いている時、ベンチの近くにかつてはシュークリームとプリンだったであろう物体が散乱しているのを見かけました。私はその光景をちらっと見はしましたが、いずれは鳩かカラス（その広場にはいつもたくさんの鳩がいます）、究極は清掃員が綺麗にするだろうと思い、何もしませんでした。 30分後、本を借り終え図書館から出てくると、犬を連れた60代の男性がそのぐちゃぐちゃになったシュークリームを素手で拾い上げ、掃除をしているではありませんか！更に女子高生２人がそのおじさんにティッシュを手渡していたのです。 そのおじさんは誰かに言われて掃除をしたとは思えません。その女子高生たちも誰かに言われておじさんにティッシュを渡していたとも思えません。自発的な行動だったと思います。本当に素晴らしい光景でした。 日本人であることを誇りに思わせてくれる、そんな人たちがうちの近所にもいるということが分かってとても嬉しくなりました。そのおじさんみたいな人間になりたい、いや、なれるように頑張ってみなければ :)

Started A Blog ブログ始めました I started a blog which I mentioned in a notebook entry I posted before. I named my blog 路地裏翻訳. The name came after that I love Backstreet(=路地裏) Boys and study translation(=翻訳). Can't be more simple! I mainly write about lyrics translation, photography and English learning. I love translating lyrics and wanted somewhere that I can share it with people who love music. My blog is all written in Japanese, but if you're ever interested, please take a look :) 路地裏翻訳 http://rojitranslator.blog.jp/ 前の投稿で話したブログ、始めました。ブログタイトルは「路地裏翻訳」です。名前の由来はバックストリート・ボーイズ(backstreet＝路地裏) が好きで翻訳を勉強しているからです。なんて単純！ ブログでは主に訳詞、写真や英語の勉強について書いています。洋楽が好きで歌詞をよく訳しているので音楽好きの人に見てもらう場所が欲しかったので始めました。全て日本語で書いているのですが、興味があれば是非見てみて下さい :)

Applied For the Eiken 1 Grade 英検1級に申し込む I've applied for the Eiken 1st Grade (an English proficiency test), which takes place on October 12. I have two months left until the test. I'm going to read a lot of English books, write a lot of essays, translate a lot of songs and work a lot harder in the coming two months. Since this is going to be the last attempt in my 20s, I really want to succeed in this exam! I'll give it my best :) 10月12日実施の英検1級に申し込みました。 試験まであと約２か月。洋書読んで、作文書いて、曲訳しまくって、バリバリ働いて、そんな２か月を過ごしたいと思います。今回が20代での最後の挑戦になるので本当に受かりたいです！ 頑張ります :)