7月11日号 1面

English: I Did It MyWay!
カリスマ講師に聞く英語上達の極意

0711_250 Mastering spoken English involves a lot more than sitting in a classroom and passively following a teacher's instructions. Students should seek materials they find personally interesting and then absorb the content until it becomes second nature.

That was the message delivered June 21 by two celebrity English instructors, Takeoka Hironobu and Yasukochi Tetsuya, at an event sponsored by The Mainichi Newspapers.

"I once spent hundreds of thousands of yen on English textbooks, but I realized that books are only one type of material," Takeoka told the audience of about 160. "So I listened to the speeches of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over and over again until my tapes wore out."

Yasukochi's personal turning point came after a fruitless period of study. "While at university, a friend who had lived overseas recommended that I listen to FEN (Far East Network) and English subchannels on TV. But after six months, it just sounded like noise."

His solution: He bought a set of tapes, which he listened to repeatedly until their content became no longer noise but words that made perfect sense.

Throughout the event, the speakers, both of whom write regular columns in the "Mainichi Weekly," cracked jokes as they answered questions.

(Mainichi Weekly)

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【WORDS 単語をチェック】
master 習得する spoken English 英会話力 passively 受動的に follow one's instructions ~の指示に従う seek 探す material 教材 absorb 吸収する become second nature 身に付く spend hundreds of thousands of yen on ~ ~に数十万円をつぎ込む former ~ 元~ Margaret Thatcher マーガレット・サッチャー(英最初の女性首相、在任期間1979‐90) wear out 擦り切れる turning point 転機 fruitless 効果のない FEN (米軍)極東放送(現在は AFN) English subchannels (音声二カ国語放送の)英語放送 noise 雑音 make perfect sense 完全に意味を成す crack jokes ギャグを飛ばす

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Jul 10, 2009 1面

English Salad by Chikako Kobayashi

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Loose Change (Part 3)  小銭(パート3)

Julie and Nozomi discuss money as they wait in line at the supermarket.


(Continued from the previous issue) 

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Julie: There probably aren't coin‐counting machines at supermarkets here because there's no demand for it! People use their change here. I don't know why my American friends and I tend to see change as a nuisance, but we do.

Nozomi: It's still money!

J: Exactly. I guess it was just a mindset that I'd gotten used to. I'm starting to appreciate change more now that I've spent some time in Japan. But when I first got here, it was especially hard to see the one‐yen coin as money. It's so light, it felt like toy money to me. At one point, I had so many one‐yen coins in my wallet because it never occurred to me to use them. It didn't bother me much because they weren't heavy, but the zipper of my wallet was bursting at the seams.

N: So what did you do with them?

J: I took them out of my wallet.

N: And?

J: They're sitting in a jar on my desk ...

英語のカリスマ、達人が極意を伝授!

Jul 8, 2009 English Salad

グレン・S・フクシマのジャパン・ウォッチ

Redefining a relationship  日米関係を再活性化するには

日米関係をいかに再構築、再定義し、再活性化させるか。9時間にもおよぶシンポジウムで各界の有識者が検証した。

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fukushimaGlen S. Fukushima, a native of California, is President & CEO of Airbus Japan and former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. From 1985 to 1990, he was based in Washington, D.C. as Director for Japanese Affairs and, later, Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan and China at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.


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Jul 6, 2009 ジャパン・ウォッチ

7月4日号 1面

'King of Pop' Passes on
マイケル・ジャクソンさん、急死

070401_250 Michael Jackson, the gifted child star who rose to become the "King of Pop" and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a series of scandals, died June 25. He was 50.

Jackson died at a Los Angeles hospital after collapsing in his rented home. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for nearly three‐quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office performed an autopsy on the singer's body on June 26, but deferred a finding on the cause of death pending further tests that could take more than a month.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long and bizarre decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all‐around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. His 1982 album "Thriller" is the best‐selling album ever, with an estimated 100 million copies sold worldwide.

"He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller."

Yet the later part of Jackson's career saw a number of strange scandals. In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13‐year‐old boy he had been accused of giving alcohol to. In 2002, he playfully dangled his infant son over a hotel balcony, drawing widespread criticism.

On the day of his death, a low groan went up in a crowd in New York's Times Square, when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died," said Michael Harris, 36, of New York City.

(Compiled from Mainichi and AP reports)

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【WORDS 単語をチェック】
pass on 亡くなる gifted child 天才児 rise to become ~ ~に上り詰める only to fall from ~ 結局~を失う結果となる throne 王座 collapse 倒れる paramedic 救急救命士 resuscitate 蘇生させる coroner's office 検視局 perform an autopsy on ~ ~の司法解剖を行う defer ~ ~を見送る pending ~ ~を待つ間 bizarre 奇妙な decline 失墜 premier 最高の all‐around 多才な uniter of ~ ~を融合する者 shatter 破る charts ヒットチャート dazzle 圧倒する ~ of all time 空前の~ consummate 完ぺきな legacy 遺産 saw a number of ~ ~が多かった (be) cleared of charges 容疑が晴れる molest 性的虐待をする playfully ふざけて dangle ~ over a balcony バルコニー越しに~をぶら下げる infant 乳児 groan 嘆く声 flash 速報を流す relay 伝える

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英語のカリスマ、達人が極意を伝授!

Jul 3, 2009 1面

English Salad by Chikako Kobayashi

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Loose Change (Part 2)  小銭(パート2)

Julie and Nozomi discuss money as they wait in line at the supermarket.

(Continued from the previous issue) 

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Nozomi: What do you do with the change that you don't use, then?

Julie: Back in the States, we'd just accumulate loose change in containers at home. We'd leave the quarters separate, because we would use them for the washer and dryer at the laundromat, but the pennies, nickels, and dimes would often go unused. Unless maybe if I needed to use a parking meter.

N: So Americans have all this unused change in their homes by the time they die?

J: No, silly. My friends and I would sometimes take our jars full of change to a supermarket with a change‐counting machine. We'd exchange the change for gift cards or have them changed into bills.

N: Do all supermarkets have those machines?

J: No, not all of them, but a lot of them do. They take a small fee to count up your money.

N: I've never heard of anything like that at supermarkets here.

(To be continued.)

英語のカリスマ、達人が極意を伝授!

Jul 1, 2009 English Salad