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Skype Talk in English
Report 2017
The report of the meeting on 23/12/2017
There were 6 attendees at the session tonight.Today’s session was special.
This circle, Free English Talk by Skype (FETS) will be closed on end of this year.
The FETS was continued more than five years as volunteer English circle. By attending this circle a lot of member got an English friends and the skill. The founder of the FETS has been starting to next volunteer activity. And the other member will build new circle which was succeed his will.
We wish his succeed of his challenge and let's expect our new English circle we built.
Thank you so much, everything.
( Ue )
The report of the meeting on 16/12/2017
There were seven attendees.First of all, a chair person apologized and corrected her error of the textbook. Then, they started to talk about "What’s new?"
The first person told about changing the name of an Imperial era. He told that he was born in Showa era, and spends two era times.
The next one told that he will work the rest of his life to support foreign residents in Sagamihara city. So, he would like to do his work as volunteer in Sagamihara, because there are lots of foreigners in Sagamihara. They have lots of problem. He told that he would like to continue to support them.
The third one told about some crows which scatter kitchen garbage. Also, he figures out the way to repulse crows with neighbors.
The fourth one told that her daughter's piano sold at a good price.
The fifth one told about her absence of FETS work.
The sixth one told about her favorite American TV drams “ A married lady is a witch”.
The seventh one told about her American friend and Christmas card. Also, she told about having got a book’s gift and twenty five thousand yen gift in December.
Then, we divided us into two groups, and discussed about the topic.
There were three members, and we started to discuss the topic of Starbucks.
1). Japan protect for the refugees to come to Japan. Japan supported them economic aid of money and food.
2).Japanese policy stopped, and many refugees did not have working visa. The problem of refugees is not only Mr. Donald Trump’s problem. It is impossible. Mr. Donald Trump’s policy disagreed. The policy of U.S.A and Japan are different. America received many immigrant people so far. So they were now against. American economy was made by refugees, but If the U.S.A received refugees or immigrant without any restriction, it might stop it some days. Asian people have been working actively in America, but many refugees from Syria and Afghanistan were not helped.
3). One of members has good feeling to Starbucks. The other member imaged Starbucks as coffee shop, or openly shop, and sells tea, coffee, sandwiches. Starbucks has weak point that many people is difficult to see menu and to order, because a letter of menu is showed small, so it is hard for people to read it. The menu sheet was showed us. So, it is so hard to read it.
4). Starbucks’ action is good policy for them. The other one told Starbucks’ action is against because easy to employ and easy to fire. They do not have impossibility, and not eternal and long-time employ. Here time is up.
The other group came back. Their discussion heat up. That’s all.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 09/12/2017
There were six attendees at the session on December 9.First, we start from what's new topic, or how the week was. I will summarize and put it on under the below.
The First member talked about she attended English salon. There other members were came from Afghanistan and American. She said that Afghanistan guy is an English teacher, American girl is a foreign student, and they have spent singing Christmas songs.
The Second member talked about Changing Era name "Gengou", it is a name that represents the age to each time Emperor changes. He said, a while ago, he had create materials in the PC at work, and he relived so the work was completed at the end of the year. But, suddenly the era changed from "Showa" to "Heisei" at the beginning of the year, and he had to rewrite the contents, he was very sweated.
The third member talked about he climbed Kasagi Mountain with his family last Sunday. He said that he climbed mountain for about an hour and saw maple and others and showed other members the pictures he took at that time.
The fourth member talked about adware. Adware is one of software that can be used free of charge instead of forcibly displaying advertisements on the user's screen. An advertisement is called by directly calling an advertisement on the operation screen of the software, and one which "parasitizes" the web browser and displays the advertisement window at regular intervals. Recently, such malicious software is increasing, so please be careful.
The fifth member talked about recruiting email companion on the Internet and exchange mail. She sent email to five women, after that, three women gave a reply to her.
The sixth member talked that when he went to the shopping mall three Takaragenne were playing live concerts.
Next, We moved on to today's theme "What do you think about Casino".
We separated two grope and talked about Casino and Gambling. One of questions was "Are you for or against the introduction of a casino?"
All the women were opposed, and the men were many who agreed for economic reasons. There was also opinion that men do gambling more favorably than women. That's all.
(Maru)
The report of the meeting on 02/12/2017
There were 7 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
①He talked about copy right of music. When he belonged to music band, a resultant owner said that you shouldn’t play music except your original you composed. or you may against a copy right.
I don’t know what the owner said is correct or not.
②She cleaned up the area around her house. She got rid of sludge from the ditch.
After that she enjoyed tea ceremony and sweets.
③He is an alumnus of S high school in Kanagawa. He has managed in taking care the home page of the high school. He also said he has to pay attention about security management.
④She is in Hiroshima now. Her father has lived alone there but he is doing well.
But he has a breakfast and lunch with light meal, and he is supposed to omit his dinner every day.
I have thought that her father is so lucky because of he has nice daughter who come from far for taking care him many times.
⑤She has her own home page about world history. In near future she will show the address of the her HP for us.
⑥ Recently, some dolphin frequent at Wakasa bay in Japan sea.
Thank you.
(Ue)
The report of the meeting on 25/11/2017
We had seven attendees at the session.Firstly we did the practice of “What’s new ”. Each person talked about either the events which happened on or around himself/herself or any topics which they want to talk.
1 The first person went to IKEA in Aichi prefecture, where she checked the price of a dining chair. She had the chairs in her house fixed or cleaned, but it cost a lot. According to her, the new dining costs just two thousand yen in IKEA while ten thousand yen will be necessary if the chair is repaired.
2 The second one introduced the skyscrapers in Japan and the world. The other day, he went to Abenoharukasu which is the highest building in Japan with being 300m high and 30 stories. However, if we turn our eyes to the world, there are the higher skyscrapers like the building in Dubai with 828m and 162 stories or another one in Saudi Arabia amazingly with 1007m and 167stories.
3 The third person started one-hour walking and muscle training around her abdomen. She needs to reduce the weight to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome. She was able to reduce weight a bit and will take a health check-up.
4 The fourth mentioned the seminar on LGBT which she attended recently. The sexual minority still meet many troubles and difficulties in Japan. She does not want to injure these people. That is the reason she attended the seminar. Another attendee said one out of thirteen people belongs to the sexual minority.
5 The topic of the fifth one is about a novel written by the winner of the Nobel literature award this year, Kazuo Ishiguro. The story unfolds on the stage of an elementary school in England. The novel was filmed under supervising by the author himself.
6 The sixth person talked about the recent movie, Murder on the Orient Express. He watched it. He is a fan of the author, Agatha Christie.
7 The last one talked about the dog he is feeding now. The male dog is quite old and has been weaker and weaker recently. One of his neighbors kept the big dog which also got weak as he got old and suffered much pain, so the owner was unwilling to give a mercy killing.
Around 8:10 p.m. we finished the first session, and then the chairperson gave the instruction about the division of attendees into two groups. Each group did the today’s topic, “Apology after Japanese train leaves 20 seconds early”
I will describe what was done and discussed in one group I played the role of the facilitator.
At the beginning, the chairperson read the instruction on how the second session would go on. The group members shared the sound from the chairperson’s computer and turned reading two questions in the style of the True or False. Afterwards, they all listened to the same sound again and gave the answer to each question.
In task two, we were supposed to discuss the 6 themes related to punctuality, but we finished only 4 themes.
One member said the trains in Japan are quite punctual. They are seldom behind the schedule and station staff gives the info to the passengers as soon as practicable when some accident happens and the train will be delayed.
Another talked about an experience of the train delay, which happened when she traveled in Spain. She waited for the train over 30 minutes on the platform but the train did not come. So finally she gave up getting on it and asked to refund the fare. The importance of punctuality was also argued. Almost all of them thought to keep the time or schedule is very important not only in a business scene but also in private life.
One member said that he usually goes to the meeting place 30 minutes before an appointment time.
Japanese people are very punctual in general, but it is not all the same in other countries. People around the world have different cultures and also a different way of thinking about the punctuality.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 18/11/2017
There were seven attendees at the session on November 18. First, each member described what's new, or how the week was, which is briefly summarized as follows:They respectively,
-stayed at home that week and did house work and wrote two manuscripts,
-started a volunteer work to make a website of his senior high school alumni association,
-had nice visitors, his son and family, to celebrate "The Seven-Five-Three Festival" for his five-year-old grandson,
-went to the Yodobashi-Camera Shop and buy connection cables,
-described about one of archaic terms "kagahayui" or "kagahayushi", which means "too bright" used mainly in and around Central and Western regions of Japan, and
-introduced a useful function of "Google Document" in "Google Drive", which converts (and also translates between languages) PDF documents (or sentences in pictures) to text files.
The chairperson skipped her what's new because of time shortage.
Then after separating seven members into two groups, we started Today's topic “The first cloned sheep”and "Is it possible to clone dictators like Hitler?".
First, we read the passages in turns. And then, while answering the questions, we shared our opinions and discussed about cloning.
"Cloning" is to make an exact copy of a plant or an animal by taking a cell from the original and developing it artificially, which is different from "genetic alteration" to modify or change some genes in order to create much better breeds (plants or animals).
Cloned animals tend to die earlier, because harvested cells may already be some years old, a member said. We think cloned humans are genetically the same as their originals, but might not be always the same especially about personality or mind.
Cloned humans should not be created to prevent from confusion of the society. In a criminal investigation, blood-types and genes would not be conclusive evidence.
It is said cloning technology is essential in medical aspects, such as blood products, ES-cell related organs, and so on. However, it is still under development.
If cloned humans were to be created..... I'm wondering if they could have their human rights.
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 11/11/2017
We began to talk about What’s News or How’s going.The first person did not have any topic. He added that he will go to Kyoto.
The second one was prepared two funny stories of two riddles style. One of the members could answer. The other member could the next riddle too.
The third one told about AI. Also, he added that the big company like Suntory, Softbank used AI. Thanks to AI, Time read a resume(=summary). AI does not mistake, and feel tired too. It is convenient. NEC develops AI. AI gets great big essential data and big care advantages.
The fourth one told about DVD. USA shows region 1. Japan shows region 2. She bought a DVD, but the code was wrong. So she had to buy a region-free player for 3000 yen. After all, she paid 4800 yen to watch a DVD movie.
The fifth one began to tell, but the sound became funny. It was hard to hear what she said.
The sixth one told about Polish National Independence day. She told about the historical process which Poland got independent. They celebrated the Independence Day as a National holiday. She also told that Poland was really similar to Japan.
The seventh one told about what she could harvest lots of persimmons, and made lots of dried persimmons.
Then, we separated seven members off two groups. Four members belong to the first group, and three members belong to the second group. I played a chairperson of the second group. The topic was “The United Arab Emirates is staring a new programme.”
1). The first one in the second group told that computer skill was important. He added that he hate math when he was 14 years old. Therefore he was not good at computer’s managing. The other one argued back him. She told that computer skill was not related of the math. The other one told that the programmer has special knowledge and a skill.
2). He told that the first image was software and that he was not good at PC. The other one told that software was a opposite word of hard ware. She thinks that it was important to learn hardware and software. The memory card was a package. Time was up. We stopped our secession.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 04/11/2017
Continuing from last week, a newcomer came to FETS meeting. So, eight members attended the cession for all.At first, We usually start from What's new topic, but today we left out it, and started from self-introduction for newcomer, so every member talked about themselves one by one. Looking back my case, first time to join the meeting requires courage, however, so many people have joined us, I greatly appreciate it.
Next, we moved on to today's topic after divided into two groups.
Group 1 and Group 2, both groups had four members.
Today's topic theme was "Social Psychology / Collective Psychology", it is said 「Syuudanshinri」 in Japanese, so I ( Maru ) had mentioned at last my cession that next my cession theme would be about Social Psychology.
Nowadays I am interested in that, because, occasionally I have heard the news of a brutal incident that I think might have occurred due to collective psychology.
Individually, I think that everyone should know more about this phenomenon.
In addition, I gave notice of the experiment of Stanford prison experiment.
This experiment is an event that when students got to do the role of guards and prisoners, they became serious and abusive and the schedule for two weeks has been canceled in just six days.
In the Group 1 ( including me ) discussion, we spent a lot of time talking about school rules, ex, prohibit hair coloring, earrings. Especially Japanese schools are educating the standardizing of students, I think that it is creating a person who is prone to group collective psychology.
That's all.
(Maru)
The report of the meeting on 21/10/2017
There were seven attendees at the session on October 21.First, each person described what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
(1) The first one said he'd visited a temple named "Koshoji" in Uji City, which belongs to Soto-shu (one of Zen sects). The temple is very famous for a Buddha statue named "Sanmen-Daikoku-Sonten" (a god of treasure). The Buddha gives us triple good luck because of his three faces. A white face on the right side is "Benzaiten", a goddess of music and study. And a blue face on the right side is "Bishamonten", a god of battle. He showed two pictures sharing his screen.
(2) The second one said that she had visited Tokyo to meet her two friends and son. One of them was a Chinese female system engineer who once studied Japanese and now works for a Japanese company. Seven years ago, through Skype, she helped the friend learn Japanese. Next day she met an old friend of hers, and went to an aquarium together. They promised a reunion. On that evening, she met her son, and had dinner.
(3) The third one talked about news on car drivers' trouble in Japan, which were broadcasted last week. There happened rather serious accidents. He felt angry at bad mannered drivers.
(4) The fourth one talked about recent medical related news. This is 28 years since organ transplantation started. In Japan only 30 to 60 people donate their organs a year. In America, 9,000 a year. The country with the largest number of donors is Spain -- more than 50 times as many as the number in Japan. Many Japanese people don't know about donor cards. Viewpoint of Japanese people is different form that of people in other countries because of ethical and cultural differences.
(5) The fifth one talked about FETS' olientation for a new member, and arranged the date and time with a member in charge and a new member. It will be held at 6 p.m. next Wednesday.
(6) The sixth one told she was interested in politics these days, and learned a lot by watching YouTube videos related to recent situations of her country, EU and the world. Learning histories is also important, because it is said, "History repeats itself." She gave us the link of "Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny - Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ZR4R0V3RE
(7) The last one skipped her what's new because of shortage of time.
Next we moved to Today's topic, an essay “Doors”.
First, we read the essay in turns. Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about good manners and bad ones when we open and close the door; for example, manners to hold the door open for someone behind you, to slam the door purposely or accidentally, to forget to close the door after you enter (or exit), and so on.
There is a phrase "when one door shuts, another one opens". What do you think of it?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 14/10/2017
We had 7 participants in the session of 15/10/2017. Here is the brief report on it.Firstly, we did “What’s new” as usual.
(1)The first person talked about and introduced YouTube videos, all of which were the lecture or interview of a historian and professor in America, Timothy Snyder. He wrote several books such as “Bloodlands”. The speaker is interested in the current political situation of her county and EU, and she wanted to get the modern history of EU, so she watched these videos.
She posted the links to the video of Timothy Snyder in IM box. Please watch and listen to them. They are a bit difficult, but very good English listening materials.
»The Road to Tyranny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2oYvQ5PpLQ&t=4s&list=PLDw1G10RFG6JQ77KBWptItlHQg1p_5ZJW&index=10
»Russia's War, Ukraine's History, and the West's Options
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpOpnFzTfVQ&index=30&list=PLDw1G10RFG6JQ77KBWptItlHQg1p_5ZJW
»Bloodlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT8FQaneLf8&t=1s
(2)The second speaker has the plan to change the internet connection from ADSL to an optical fiber a month later.
The optical fiber technology enables the users the very fast data- transmission. According to him, its data transmission speed will be one gigabyte per second. The date speed of ADSL is estimated around 10-12 megabyte, so his internet will be around 100 times faster than now. This is because he will start the job of the home teacher online. The steady and fast internet connection is must for his new job. Until recently, the home teacher has visited the student’s house for teaching several subjects, but now thanks to the state of the art computer technology, teacher and student can stay at each house.
(3)The third person visited her relative in order to encourage the relative. And she also attended the English conversation circle which is held on Saturday in her local area. Another FETS member is also the member of that circle. She took lunch and presented Japanese pears to another FETS member.
(4)The next one’s topic was a supermarket and convenience stores. She said, “sience I live in a rural area, there is only one supermarket, and so I cannot select one best supermarket from many.” However, there are three convenience stores in her residence.
(5)The fifth one said that his wife and he climbed up some mountain whose height is only 130 meters above sea level. The slope was gentle, so it was easy to walk up. There were many birds there, sparrows and great tit.
Some of the birds were tamed. When he put some food on his palm, birds ate it there.
(6)The sixth attendee mentioned the takoyaki, or a fried ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter with a piece of octopus inside it. He went to Osaka to eat it recently. This city is very famous for takoyaki. According to him, his living area, Nagoya has also takoyaki too, but its cooking way and the taste is a bit different from that in Osaka. One of the big differences is that Nagoya’s takoyakis are not put and spread over with Worcester sauce.
(7)The last one introduced some facts about the banana. For example, bananas can help cure and prevent hangovers, women who eat more bananas during conception are most likely to have a boy, and bananas were originally red and green, the current type of banana results from the mutation.
Then the attendees were divided into the two groups and moved to practicing today’s topic, “Botanic gardens 'best hope' for saving plants”.
I will only introduce the discussion in one group.
(1)The first discussion theme was “Do you have any favorite plant(s)? What is (are) it(those)? Why?”
One person loves many plants and those vary from season to season. For instance, in the early spring, the plum tree is his favorite because it smells good. He also mentioned the emblem flower of his city, hydrangea.
Another one talked about pests which make the pine trees dying out in his residence. There are many pine trees along the river, but sadly many of them have died down.
(2)The second theme was “Why are the world's plants dying out? Show your own opinion.”
The main cause of plants dying out is a little consideration of human beings, one attendee said. If human beings take care of the environment, many plants can be protected, added she.
Another man’s opinion was that economic activities of human beings cause plants to become extinct.
(3)The third theme was “What would happen if plants became extinct?”
One man said “If plants became extinct, we human beings would also be extinct because there would be no oxygen produced by plants. ”
We run out of time. Another group of attendees came back to FETS1 and finished today’s session after exchanging some info with each other.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 07/10/2017
There were 6 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
①He made sure again about this session style. He said that when the number of them in total exceeds 6, we should divide them into two or three groups. He added that this way would be applied from now on whenever attendees reach 6 or more.
②A sparrow flew down to the kitchen through the ventilation fan. It was difficult to catch it. Finally her husband caught it using a net.
③She visited a book shop and just reading. The season of the symphony NO9 by Beethoven is coming soon. She is looking forward to hear the live performance of the symphony NO9.
④He got a AKEBI from his brother. The word AKEBI is original Japanese word. And he explained the different points between temple and shrine for us.
⑤She introduced two kinds video movies.
1) Spain in crisis after Catalan vote.
Japanese broadcasting introduce this problem many times.
I hope they will get the best solutions.
2)How do we study the Pronounce in English?
10 Most Difficult Words to Pronounce in English. (Walk/Work・・・)
10 English Words You're (probably) Mispronouncing! (Comfortable・・・)
General speaking Japanese don’t like English pronounce in English.
These movies are good for us. I thank you.
⑥He explained about new iPhone X. The new one has no home button on the monitor and has a face ID. Anyway the new one is so expensive, he said he is not afford to buy it.
Thank you.
(Ue)
The report of the meeting on 30/09/2017
Seven members attended today’s session.First of all, we talked about “How’s going”, or “ What’s news” respectively as usual.
The first person talked about three funny stories which were written in Internet. Two ladies replied the correct answers to his question.
The second one talked about a pomegranate in his garden. He was amazed to see it because the tree bore 15 fruits in this autumn.
Third one told that she visited her father and attended this session there. According to her, she saw many foreign travelers (maybe, from China, Korea, India, and other Western countries) in Shinkansen, and 90% seats were occupied. The number of empty houses is increasing near her father’s house for the aging of Japanese society. Therefore, the neighbors worried about those empty houses.
The fourth one told that the temperature was below zero, so the price of the fruit and vegetables go up. So, Polish people want to eat fruits and vegetables any more.
The fifth one told that a tuna decreased, so we will not be able to eat the tuna in future.
The six one told that he did nothing special. He tried to talk in Internet. Many foreigners came to Japan. He thought why they had the knowledge about resort and Japanese tradition. Also, they do not speak Japanese, but they knew about Japan. He thinks to teach them about Japan. The view is quite no. When he was young, he watched American movies. They criticized Japanese movie. For example, Ozu(小津) works of film director were boring for them.
The last one tried to show the picture, but she failed it. She stopped showing it.
Then, one member met the first time to see a newcomer today. So, he introduced himself to a newcomer. They exchanged greeting each other.
Next we began to talk today’s topic. We divided seven members into two groups.
Three members belonged to FETS 2. Four members belonged to FETS1.
At first, we talked about question of the topic. One of them told that this topic news was written with three different headlines. One of them was written by the Washington News Post. He thought that king’s secret life was scandalous but that it was good and envy life for him. The other one told that the title was an item of gossip and shocking title. Another one told that his life style was different from Japanese Royal family.
Japanese royal family does not have freedom. Then, the other one asked about Japanese Imperial family. A person explained that Japanese Imperial family was restrained by Japanese constitution, though they had powerful right in prewar days. But nowadays, they were acting as a ceremonial family and a volunteer.
2). King does not live in her country. One person asked her that Imperial king of the old days exists in Poland now. She told us that she did not know, because they had existed 18 century. There were some opinions which King resigned in European countries now, or King had wide news, like prominent kings, kings in tennis world and kings in business field etc. So, king has successful image, but Japanese king had a ruler’s impression, and people called him an Emperor in English, or a tenno in Japanese. Moreover, there were opinions like, Japanese Emperor was just Emperor in Japan and their position is the same. Thailand which has the kingdom of Thailand was quite different from Japanese one.
3). Members answered “NO” to the question no. 3. They told that they did not have secret life.
4). One person told that a king liked flying. She thought that a king should do what he wanted to do. Flying is difficult because it is very expensive to get the license. The other one told that he was a prince and that he was the second son of the family. He was free to do. There were opinions which most Japanese media was covered to show their personal life, but Japanese worshiped an Emperor as Got in prewar days.
Then, three members in FETS 2 joined us.
5). One person told that he affirmed for a king to get a salary. The other one told that she hoped it because he had an experience of flying. There was opinion which was told that a king had long carrier for flight, solving problems, skill, cool and intelligent. Nowadays, all pilots use computer.
7). One person told that Yes, it was interesting for private pilot, though he had never flown in the past. The other one told that Americans got an airplane license, and that they paid about 5 million ( dollar ?) to get it, and that it was a sort of dream, but that it was interesting. There were talks which operating Cessna airplane was not so difficult, but they do not have a practical skill, or do not have an academic time to get. Another one told he wanted to be a pilot. Now, studying a pilot’s skill does not be freely.
That is all.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 23/09/2017
Six member attended the meeting on September 23First, each member described what’s new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
( 1 ) The first member talked about anaphlactic shock, in some case it was caused by bee’s biting and some people have killed by that symptom. I have heard that the number of people who have some kind of allergy is increasing, and often people die due to it.
( 2 ) The secound member said his dog ( shiba dog ) died. A pet is important family member for many familys . Losting pet is very sad experience, I know it, because I also have a pet dog .
( 3 ) The third member talked that she grows four persimmon trees in her house garden. Although I did not Know, Japanese as ‘ Kaki ’ is now being used in many countries, and one member told us one proverb " When persimmon turns red, the doctor turns pale" it is a translation of the Western proverb " A tomato a day keeps the doctor away."
( 4 ) The forth member talked about " Tomodachi operation ". It is an activity carried out by the US military when the Hokuriku earthquake occurred . It is said that it costed over 6.8 bilion yen. And, for the US army stationd in Japan, enormoous tax continue to be drawn.
( 5 ) The fifth member asked us about that what is difference of Japanese defence force and a military force. It is controversial for many years. And I think that it is a problem that will not be solved a bit in the future.
( 6 ) The sixth member tried to introduction of " Gudetama cafe". That store is located in Osaka.
Next, We moved onto todays theme .
We talked about " trend ". Japanese people often say " boom ", but, one member taught me that " trend " is the correct expression in English . And we talked about Hula hoop , Roller skating etc・・・. about such a popular trend in the past. Also, the length of women’s in Japan is increasingly longer and shorter depending on the time, I feel that is strange. PokemonGo boom has ended soon, I think trend is too early to get out of fashion.
( Maru )
The report of the meeting on 16/09/2017
As it become a tradition fets session started with each members saying what happened during last week in their life or whatever they wish to share with others. This session was a day after September the 15th, a Japanese national day to respect older people. On that day older people in Japan get presents from family and grandchildren for example: hand drawn picture or cakes. In reference to this holiday first person prepared information about ageing society in Japan. There are currently 67000 people who are older then 100 years. Eighty eight percent of them are women. One of the causes for that can be a fact that many men from that generation died in world war 2. Another interesting fact is that in Japan diaper for elderly people are sold more often then for babies. It's said that average age in Japanese population is 44 years old. In comparison average age in Philippines is 23 years old. Birth rate in Japan is low contributing to ageing society. Nowadays a lot of Filipinos comes to work in Japan. The youngest society is in Uganda, where average age is as low as 15 years old. The reason for that is hight birth rate and short life.The next member told us that her week wasn't uneventful. She stay home doing house chores. Free time she spend reading a book about islamic imperial history. She also told us about a present her husband got for elderly national day from a day care center he attends to. He got beautiful towels.
Another member said that currently he wants to learn more about pc computers. He is looking for a book but so far he was unable to find a book that would suit him. There is a lot of books for beginners, but they aren't right for him since he is past beginner level. On the other hand books for professionals aren't good either. He can't find a book that would be somewhere in between, on a intermediate level.
Next person ever since he retired he is reading books that he hadn't got a chance to read before. Lately he read about Albert Schweitzer a man gifted with many talents. He was a theologian, humanitarian, philosopher and writer. He published few books concerning theological subjects. He was also a musician fascinated by pipe organs. At the age of 30 he started to study medicine and after becoming a doctor went to Africa (Gabon) to a mission post.
Last person told us that she went to Mie Prefectural Art Museum to see exhibition of Dutch artist Theo Jansen. His art is very unusual and unique ? a fusion between art and engineering. Collection of his works is named “Strandbeest” (Dutch: strand=beach; beest=beast). His “beasts” are kinetic sculptures made of pvc pipes. With the help of wind they appear to be walking.
Main part of session was revolving around English idioms, sayings and common phrases.To make it all more fun I split members into two groups (A and B), and groups competed with each other. We were able to do just a crossword puzzle, which had to be filled with correct idioms. We didn't have time for other things I prepared but it was fun. I hope other members had fun too.
(Dorothy)
The report of the meeting on 09/09/2017
Six members attended the meeting on September 9.First, each member described what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
(1) The first member said he'd watched a drama-movie "Fireworks - Should we see them from the bottom or from the side?". It is a boy-meets-girl story during a summer.
(2) The second one talked about the Solar flares emitted the previous day. The power of big solar flares influences the magnetic field environment on the earth, which seriously damages the communication line. By applying this kind of power, electric magnet wave weapons could be developed. They would not kill people directly, but in the longer term, people would die because their life line would be damaged.
(3) The third one introduced a BBC news article about impolite emails. There are some ways to avoid writing emails which irritate receivers. 1) Take time to review before sending emails. 2) Use a simple English. 3) Use conventional polite way of writing, in which it starts "Dear ～, " and ends "Sencery yours", and so on. Nowadays, young people use SNS or other new communication applications. Then, emails have become a formal way used in a business scene.
(4) The fourth one told her ankle, which had been twisted last week, is getting better little by little. However, she tried to stay home these two weeks not to aggravate its condition.
(5) The fifth one talked about the Aurora Borealis seen in her country the previous day. The whole night sky was covered with the auroras, and illuminated brightly. She showed a YouTube video by sharing her screen.
(6) The last one told that a condition of her mother-in-law's dimentia was getting worse. Sometimes the mother forgets her daughter-in-law, which makes the member depressed.
Next we moved to Today's topic, an essay “Snail mail power”.
First, we read the essay in turns. Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about good points and bad points of "snail mails (handwritten letters) and emails". Once we use emails, it seems to be difficult to get back to using snail mails, because emails are easy to write and are sent quickly. However, there is a world wide movement of "mail art", which includes Japan's "etegami". Such cards and letters sent by post appear to have something special which make receiver's heart warmer.
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 02/09/2017
We had 6 attendees at the session today.① First of all we did the task, “What’s new. Talk about anything”.
The first person mentioned the ceremony of “753”, which is a Japanese traditional ceremony. Boys of age 3 /5, and girls of age 3/7 are usually celebrated by their parents/ grandparents at a Shinto shrine. His son asked him where the son’s ceremony was taken place. He carried research about the shrine and total fees of ceremony. So he will continue to search the shrine where fees are more reasonable.
② The second one talked about weather, her husband and her mother in law. It was cool this day, but she felt tired from high temperature of summer. Her husband finished harvesting rice crop this day and has the plan to go climbing mountain with his friend. Her concern is the mother in law. While the absence of her husband, she alone has to take care of the mother.
③ The topic of the next person was the accident which happened just in front of her. When her car passed through the intersection, a motorcycle fell down. She was involved in the accident at all. A driver of the motorcycle seemed injured, so pedestrians called policemen and an ambulance for him. Policemen came there soon and asked several questions to her because she watches the accident very near.
④ The forth one told others a blue ray recorder and a cable TV. He bought the former recently but he could not use it because he does not connect the former to the later.
⑤ The fifth person introduced two apps which is useful for studying English. One of them is named Voice Aloud Reader, which speaks loudly the text on the computer or smartphone. The application can be run on the platform of Android. Another one is the application for improving speaking skill. The user speaks to the computer or smartphone, and then application changes it to the text. It also checks pronunciations. At the next session she will explain how to use it in detail.
⑥ The last one mentioned a new comer in brief. The new comer is from Vietnam. She wants to be the member of our circle. She will be with us at the session soon.
Afterward we move on to the today’s topic, “We need to prepare for the Internet of Things” We did two tasks;
Task1 Take turns reading a sentence above.
Task2 Discuss pros and cons of IOT (Internet Of Things)
Here are some ideas and opinions of attendees.
| pros | cons |
| Cars 1 The owners can get data of the car by his/her smartphone which connects to the car. When someone tries to steal it, the smartphone tell owner the situation. 2 The autonomous drive will be possible in the future. |
1 The criminal has already run away, the system is not useful any more. 2 When a huge blackout happens and the Internet is not available, many car accidents will occur. |
| Wrist bands or smart watches These devices capture data of owner’s conditions and walking distance and synchronized with the smartphone or computer. Based on the data, the user can check his/her health by using some application. |
Machines have a possibility of malfunction - sometimes do not work well like humans. Users depend on these devices too much. |
| Intelligent house including smart electrical appliances. Security camera?the residents can check the inside and outside of their house whether or not the problems happen. |
If criminals successfully steal data of the security camera, they can break in the house during absence of residents. |
| In general IOT is quite convenient. Our life will be more comfortable than now. |
One of the biggest cons is the security problem such as massive leakage of data and the steal of personal information. IOT will possibly make human beings lazy and they will be a kind of puppets or lose freedom. IOT use a huge amount of energy. It is a waste of energy. |
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 26/08/2017
There were 5 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
① The first member gave us supplementary explanation about management of the FETS. How should we meet a applicants and where should chair-person send the report.
② Recently he started to feel that the autumn season of this year is coming soon.
③ One midnight, she slipped and fell down suddenly and she got damage at her left ankle. She was carried by taxi to hospital. The doctor said you got a damage of a ligament. Now she has four legs called a crutch. We wish she will get a well soon.
④ She went out to a home electronics shop in shopping mall. She sat down on the massage machine. Finally she felt pain at her lower back. After that she attend the book club, but the club is not so interesting club to her so far.
★ Today’s topic < Short discussion >
1. How do you would like to enrich your life?
2. Which sport do you like best?
3. If you had a wish, what would you wish?
4. What is your future plan?
5. What was your unforgettable day?
6. What was your the strangest dream you have had?
7. Do you have any your own treasure which is un-known by your family?
8. Why is the importance of recycling?
Thank you.
※ From now on, the new report made by chair person is sent to Yuki san directly.
(Ue)
The report of the meeting on 19/08/2017
Six members took part in today's session. What's news was abbreviated because we had to talk an urgent problem. First of all, FETS representative explained about the reason of his severe situation. For example, being busy, it's time to change to members, a possibility to have an unexpected misfortune, and participating to a management. Next one told to have trouble to hardware and short knowledge of html of computer language. Then, the first one explained that there were four works. We discussed about sharing the work of the management.Uploading learning activities.
Report page
Homepage builder
A renewal
FETS representative told us that he would assist us about each works.
Then, we started to read today's topic. After that, we talked about Question No. 1. But soon, time was over. We finished today's topic.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 05/08/2017
There were five attendees at the meeting on August 5.First, we talked about " What’s new? " or " Do you have any new topic? " Rough contents of topics are as follows.
1) The First member talked about the trouble of her PC’s. It seems that the record has disappeared. Another member was advising her . May be buy a external hard disk is good way to preserve memory and do mentainance .
2 The second member talked about news topic " One of USA company offers to implant tiny microchips in its employees arm ". Employees seem to be able to receive various services ( PC ・ copy machine ・ vending machine ・ door opening ) conveniently by that chip. But, It may have some problems of seculity , privacy , impact on the human body.
3) The third member talked about the ritual of spirit to dead in WWⅡ. She said all citizen who live in her sity stop working in this ritual time. Other members talked about similar selemony of Japan in August.
4) The fourth member talked about that she wore a kimono and took part in the tea ceremony . Today was such a hot and humid day, she said that put on kimono and do something was hard in today’s condition .
5) The fifth member ( me ) talked about Yodo river fire work fistival . I watched it on TV, the fireworks were beautiful and many people were gathering. I hope I will be able to participate in that festival next year .
Next we moved on to Today’s topic, an eaay " Teaching Creativity " . Theme is Teaching creativity , but we talked about scool things in general , education way of communication skill , difference between Japanese school and other country school , and so on . About education way of communication skii . One member said enjoy talking is good way to acquire communication skill , I think it might most important point and appropriate way to get communication skill and Japanese people need more effort to improve thiking way aboit it . About Japanese school life , one member said that student should carry bags which containing heavy baggage such as textbooks and gym clothes . And Japanese schools have many kind of school uniform , so became colerful and fashonable , in this point , Japanese school would be different from other country school .
( Maru )
The report of the meeting on 22/07/2017
There were five attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on July 22.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first member talked about a question that had come across at the English Reading Circle which she attends once a month. At the meeting, a member talked about "mother complex". When a son relies on his mother too much, he is recognized as "mother complex". She thought what its antonym is. According to another member of FETS, it's "Oedipus complex (complex against father)".
2) The second one talked about Tenjin festival, which is one of the three biggest summer festivals in Japan along with Gion festival and Kanda festival. Tenjin festival will be held next month. He wants to go to see fireworks there. Maybe, a lot of people will gather in and around Dohtonbori area, which will make him difficult to reach the center of its site. However, fireworks will be seen from a distance.
3) The third one told that he had experienced natural phenomena. He and his wife went shopping four days ago. When they got out of the supermarket after shopping, they saw the sky over there turning from grey to dark. They thought a thunderstorm would arrive soon. So they rushed to their car. On the way home, the thunderstorm was chasing after them. As soon as they reached their home, the rain became very heavy, and it lasted one and a half hours. He also experienced a hail storm. The biggest hail was 1.5 centimeters in diameter. They did not have any serious damages fortunately.
4) The fourth one said he loves to watch sumo matches. It was the 14th day of the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament that day. One of sumo wrestlers, Hakuho, recorded 1048 wins. He got out of the slump after strict training, which is really great.
5) The fifth one said she had been busy in clearance of clothes, bags, books, and so on, which were left by her daughter. She received a phone call from a secondhand shop and was asked whether she had things that she doesn't need any more. She thought she should sell those things to the shop. She looked for unnecessary things in her house and gathered in one room, then she called the shop and asked to come to evaluate and buy them if possible.
Next we moved to Today's topic, an essay “Bad tourists”.
First, we read the essay in turns. Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about behaviors of tourists overseas. The writer describes "Perhaps what tourists and travelers need to remember is that they are representing their country and their people ..." What do you think of that?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 15/07/2017
Five people attended today’s session.First of all we did “What’s new”.
1 First person talked about the basket which she is making now at the community center in her resident area. According to her it will be completed till the end of this month. Then she will take its picture and show us it.
2 The topic of the second one was the regional baseball tournament among senior high schools in Japan. There are many schools attending the tournament in his prefecture and several schools there have the high skills of baseball, so it is very hard to for each school to win the tournament. After the regional tournament the tournament on the national basis is scheduled to take place at the Koshien ball park.
3 The next person explained the lecture he attended. There are several courses in the events, such as history course and social welfare course. He joined the lecture about the social welfare. The lecturer said that the number of the aged people is increasing, while that of the young generation is decreasing. In the future the city would not take care of citizens socially and financially, so the city wants them to help by themselves.
4 The fourth person talked about the ten-pin bowling. Her cousin is excellent at the bowling. He was playing the bowling while our session was held. At that time, the games were being live-streamed on line. Her cousin an amateur bowler, but his skill is quite good. His score exceeds 200 points. Other members discussed how to call the consecutive strikes, for example the strikes continue three times consecutively, it is called “turkey” and so on.
5 The last one mentioned the fire ants. Recently the news have been reported by mass media in Japan. They are native to South America, but now they migrated to other countries like the USA, Australia and China. They have strong venom, so if people are stung by them, people have sever pain and itch, and in the worst case reach to death from anaphylaxis.
Then we moved to the today’s topic; the word game, “Who am I?” The members were divided to two groups. The members were allocated the spaces on the tables of Google Document. They were required to type their answers. They had been also required to make questions and hints in advance. Here are some examples of the hints and answers.
| hints | Answer |
| I was born long time ago in Egypt. My shape is a square, when seen from directly above, and a triangle from the direct side. The biggest one of us is over 140 meters high. I was a symbol of the king's’ power. I am made of stones. | Pyramid |
| I consist of water, egg or flour. I am made in factories by machine or at home by hand.I come with vegetables at breakfast, lunch,and dinner. I have many different shapes but we are all the same. Some of us is long, another is thin. | pasta |
| I am male. I was born in Britain. I was the writer whose famous book is titled by “The Merchant of Venice”. I wrote a romantic novel too. Another famous tragic drama is King Lear. | Shakespeare |
| I can be seen in many countries, especially in european countries. The central character on me was killed and soon after he was revived. Only letters are on me. People read me on Sunday morning. | Bible |
| I am very useful. In the developed countries people use me. I am set in convenient stores and banks even though the spaces I am in are different from place to place. People can withdraw money from me. | ATM |
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 08/07/2017
There were 4 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
①The first member said about Ms. Sheila Michaels who spread the word “Ms.”. She has been thinking that Why a woman have to be divided into “Miss.” and ”Mrs.”. Moreover it’s separated between a married person or not. Compare case of a male, it’s just “Mr.” only. It is unfair. She has died last month.
②The second member said about the offline English class she has been attending. One of the member did presentation about her trip (Greece) After that she was invited another meeting but as she hasn’t enough time, she didn’t.
③The third member was worried about disaster in northern Kyusyu area. About one years ago this area was just hit by big earthquake. There were many missing and death persons include young mother who was expecting and her small boy.
④The fourth member said that he tried to experience a zazen drill. There is a famous zen temple called Kosyoji in his living area. Zazen is one of the practice for the Buddhism in a seated position（正座） The goal of the Zen meditation is to achieve peace of mind and to see your true yourself. But it was so difficult to me.
We discussed about vehicles.
1, What is your original vehicle of a dream.
2, Do you believe the technology of an auto driving?
3, How do you think about Japanese driver license system. There is no upper limited age in current law. After the session I checked the upper limited of a car driving license in the world through the web site. China had a upper limited system which is just 70 years old.
In the middle of the session one member left for his working, instead the other member attended late.
（Ue）
The report of the meeting on 01/07/2017
Six members attended today’s session.First of all, we started to talk about “This week news”
The first person told that he didn’t do anything special, but he changed to coordinate his room. He showed us his ideal room with sharing the picture(= an image by cable).
The second one didn’t also have special things to do. But he told us about a blueberry. It is effective for our eye. According to his doctor, you should eat fresh blueberry without taking a drop anymore. Blueberry is better and more effective than a eye drop.
The third one told about posting clear (latest information) in IM box. He wrote two articles in his blog. The newest one is a firefly. Loanwords imported from other countries. Many people misunderstand wrong word in Germany, France, Portuguese language, etc. He showed the example of "Pan". "Pan" came from Portuguese language which means bread in English. His wife told that in Australia, but the word was not understood in Australia.A marron glace is not English word. Other example is "enerugish" which is German. English word of this is energetic.
The fourth one told about her mother-in-law. She is 87 years old. She did not have any nursing cares and investigation. So, coordinator and care manager visited her house, and showed her the document. Some persons charged her, and after 2-3 weeks she will receive the result.
The fifth one told that thunder storm attacked in Warsaw. She showed us the picture by cable. The big and old tree which is 100 years old was broken by the thunder storm. They can’t predict the thunder storm’s occurrence.
The six one told having visited an ophthalmologist on Monday, and she enjoyed tea ceremony on Saturday.
Next, we talked about today’s topic.
The first one had feeling that this article was interesting.
The next one had feeling that the bird which the egg’s shape was oval was flight-less one. He told that Kiwi quitted flying and that the shape of the bird is not related to the way to fly well. So, this story is not correct.
The third one told that we can wake up the sound which the birds are singing. Also, he can hear the song of a bush warbler early spring A man told about his bitter memory. He had kept Java sparrow, but his Java sparrow were killed by a cat in a narrow space.
The fourth one told that the fact of birds had a big egg in Australia. Chicken egg is sunny side in Australia. She have eaten a new egg. It has a mineral. So, Australian egg is good for the health.
The fifth one told that the shape of a egg which they laid was different shape like round, oval and pointy. It is no reason. Japanese chicken has no opportunity. Male chicken had damage of violence harassment. A male is strong sharp. So, she had shocked to see males. A fertile egg is also told. She eats an egg five times in a week.
The other one told that she did not eat so often. She usually cooked egg for cakes, pancake and cutlet pork. She is incredible that chicken’s egg has different color like white color and brown one, but they have no different taste. A crow’s egg is peppermint green color. The egg’s color depends on the wing of hen. If the shape of the bird were big, the shape of an egg would be also slightly big. A male often eats eggs.
The other one eats scrambled eggs with soy sauce and boiled egg. He was surprised the difference of an egg of boiled in hot spring water and the common boiled egg.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 10/06/2017
There were five attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on June 10.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first member talked about an international exchange meeting between Uji City and Kamloops (Canada), which was a welcome party for University students from Kamloops held in Uji the other day. In total 50 foreign people got together, and enjoyed learning calligraphy, how to use furoshiki, how to fold origami. Girls tried on Japanese kimono.
2) The second one said she attended the meeting of an English off-line circle. The presentation that day was about "Aging and Dementia, which was full of interesting and useful information for the elderly. There were three newcomers; a Japanese business man, a female doctor and a university student from Germany.
3) The third one told that he had written a summer greeting to his old friend. Nowadays, he usually uses e-mails, and seldom writes letters. He thinks it is very good for him to write a letter in hand writing. He'd like to keep in touch with the friend. By the way the price of a post card rose 10 yen.
4) The fourth one shared her screen. We saw YouTube about storks (parent and her chickens) on the nest. Those chickens seem to be a little bigger than before. Around three months later, they will fly back to Africa areas to spend a winter. The chickens will have to be trained well for flying. The nest is on a high tree without any roof. What if they have heavy rain? Of course they would survive. She is worried about some trouble such as crash against high voltage cables.
5) The fifth one said she had almost finished packing for her trip to Poland. The most difficult thing for her in preparing was to choose clothes, because whichever she tried on, nothing suits her well in a mirror. However her friend's advice helped her. Casual clothes she usually wears are better.
Next we moved to Today's topic, "Finding role models". First, we read the essay in turns. Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about role models for our life. Do you have any role models? What kind of adult do you want to become?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 03/06/2017
There were six attendees at the today’s session.We started it with “What’s new” as usual.
1 The first person talked about his family reunion. It takes place once a year. This time family members got together to some hotel near The lake Biwa. They enjoyed very delicious dinner such as Ohmi beef.
2 The next day members climb up the mountain by cable car. The second one said that he would sit the English test, EIKEN. He said he did not have any self-confidence, but he did his best. And other members gave yell.
3 The third one has nothing special, so she talked about her ordinal daily life such as attending a tea ceremony or taking a physical check-up.
4 The next attendee’s topic was social Medicare in Poland. Any Polish can take medical service free of charge, but it takes a long time to take operation. When patients take surgery at a public hospital, they have to wait a year or two years. If someone buy medical insurance and take operation at a private hospital, the waiting time might be shorter.
5 The fifth one mentioned meeting Cambodian woman at her friend’s house. Her friend now hosts Cambodian lady and the friend invited her. They enjoyed eating okonomiyaki together and chatting in English. According to her, there are 14 vowels in Cambodian language. She showed us Cambodian letters which were quite difficult to write.
6 The last person talked about the expecting new comer to FETS. He will be on the chat coming Wednesday. He also said that he started Facebook recently.
Then we moved on to the today’s topic. The topic was that the attendees pretend the reporter and report an event or accident. The events or accidents reported by members are as follows;
1 Rugby world cup match between Japan and South Africa. Japanese team won South Africa.
2 The marriage of world famous celebrity. He is quite old and he got married five times.
3 Travel in London. Introduction of some tourist points in London.
4 The story of mother and cub bear. The mother bear looked for her baby which was missing.
5 The application for mobile device. It is very useful for climbers, especially for senior ones because it has many functions.
6 The bushfire in Sydney, Australia. The report was about the bushfire which brought serious disaster and damage to the outskirt of Sydney.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 27/05/2017
There were four attendees today’s session.First of all, I apologize that my question of the Text had some points of deficiency. I started the title of “How was your week ? “ but my PC became strange. Therefore, FETS delegate took the place of me and listened to the first person. So, he wrote a summary for only the first person of the following.
The first person talked about the rose festival in hukuyama city. When she got out of Fukuyama station, she saw many beautiful roses in front of the station. We shared her screen where picture of roses were on. One of them showed the shape of word “ rose “ made of different roses.
The writer changed here, and today’s presenter wrote as follow.
The second one talked about Himeji castle which he had visited with his family. We shared his picture. According to his talk, Himeji castle was made Heisei major repairs in March 2007, and it became white castle.
The third one told that he was absent a lesson held last Sunday and Wednesday. Recently, he started his web log of FETS. Then, he talked English name, and talked about beginning the English lesson. English name was real one, therefore, the pronunciation was difficult to European people. Japanese people’s pronunciation was easy to understand.
The last one talked about that she went to Kobe and stayed one night with her husband at hotel, because her granddaughter got married. The next day, she attended her granddaughter’s wedding ceremony. It was hard schedule week for her.
We began today’s topic.
1). The first one told that there were many IT countries and cities in the world, for example, Silicon Valley in San Francisco, Pune in India( it is called East Silicon Valley). India is country which discovered “Zero”, and is clever at math and arithmetic.
2). He told that he was a type of using money by rough estimate in daily life, and also used net money without paying cash money. So, he feels pressure. The other person does not feel pressure. She bought lots of things when she was young, but now she does not want anything. He replaced with a new sport car three times so far, but he sold it. The last one told that she has used a common car for 11 years. The car is easy to use for them because her husband is easy to get on and off the car. She does not feel pressure to the cashless society.
3). She told that young people would prefer to us net money in future, and a hacker was scary. A bit coin has also lots of trouble in Tokyo. It will be popular a credit card, a virtual currency, bit coins, an Electric money like Suica, Toica, prepaid Waon, and Manaca. A debit card is scary.
4). Speedy is good, but it is easy to mistake. Japanese people have an emotional moment to get cash in salary paper bag, but their motivation is low in case of cashless. The other one told that the cash in salary paper bag is on parity with a figure of money transferred by bank account. So, cashless is no problem for her. She would rather welcome cashless society, because we do not need to touch a bill and a coin. It is safe and clean. It is important and indispensable for us to check an automatic deduction from each bank account.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 20/05/2017
There were 6 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
①The first member said that he bought a new electric shaver at the Jyoshin electric store. There are many kinds shavers made in China, but he has trusted Japanese one.
②The second member showed us some movies. One of them was a relative of a crane. The crane made his/her nest at high place in the sky and has been taking care his/her new babies and eggs. The other of them was wild doe. I remembered wild deer in NARA park.
③The third member said that she visited Kathuragawa area in Kyoto, and she enjoyed to eat a fresh bamboo shoot dish. The fresh bamboo shoot was so soft and tasty. After that she watched a movie titled “Tatara zamurai”. It was one of the newest movie.
④The fourth member showed us a wonder pictures called 3D-art. It is like a trick picture, when someone was standing, the picture looks like a solid picture. What a most mysterious pictures.
⑤The last member didn’t have special topic past this week. When we just finished the first session, one more member attended from now. As he had his job tonight, he was late. He announced us in advance for us, thank you.
After we studied about “Abbreviation”
| UFO = Unidentified Flying Object | LCC = Low-cost carrier |
| TPP = Trans-Pacific Partnership | GDP = Gross Domestic Product |
| b&b = bed and breakfast | PTA = Parent Teacher Association |
| DIY = do-it-yourself | VIP = very important person |
| ATM = Automated Teller Machine | POD = pay on delivery |
| ASAP = As Soon As Possible | CUL = See You Later |
| IC = I see | NRN = No Reply Necessary |
| TTTT = To Tell The Truth | PS = Postscript |
| 2BCTND = To be continued |
The report of the meeting on 13/05/2017
There were 4 attendees at the meeting tonight.At first, We start from "What’s new ? " topic.
First menber talked about his family garden. He said that he is cultivating oranges now. However, he does not know what kind of mandarin oranges will bear.
Second member talking about the tree that took in the garden. There was a honeycomb in that tree, and it was scary to become big, so she had to cut down branches.
The third member said she was unable to participate in a circle of English conversation today because her hasband was busy with work and needed to do housework. and she talked about book, it about how to get over the stalemate situation in life.
The fours member talked about new Japanese luxury sleeping train "Shikishima" began the operation in May,first .
Next we moved to Today's topic, " The Dangers of Love"
First, we red about essay which report how young people easy impressed by dreamy unlialistic story in a movies, and each member answerd about below questions .
1. Do you have any favorit Love story cinema ? Is it dramatic story or real story ?
2. Which type story do you like romantic “ dreamy ” story or realistic story .
3. Have you effected by unrealistic Love story ?
4. If you meet the young people who say “ I want to experience the cinematic Love ” , what you will say to them .
5. Not only Love story but also other kind of cinema especially effect on young people . What do you think about it .
6. What do you think the good method for that we prevent from effected by harmful fiction story ourself .
When asked about fevorit love story movie, one member answerd "Casablanca" in 1942. It’s a dramtic love story in Wrld WorⅡ, and was award the Academy Award. Another member answerd "Avatar" 、faomus 3D SF movie in 2009, it’s a SF but inculd a love story. and, one member said she like a Cinderella story but it is a fiction to the last.
About Question 2, The dreamy and happy fiction story is impressive, but all member prefer realisic story. and we think that violence movies and horror movies may cause bad effect to young people.
At last, We concled that if we want to prevent from infection by hurmful movie, we shoud watch many kind of story, and mull of it. Peple also need bad sumples to mature. "Prohbition" is not always the ideal way for educate the children.
(Maru)
The report of the meeting on 29/04/2017
There were five attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on April 29.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first member talked about one of Japanese most famous and magnificent shrines, "Nikko Toshogu" in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture. It had been under construction for repairing since 2013. The construction has finished in March. He has not seen it with his own eyes yet. So he wants to visit it some day near future. It is famous for a colorful gate "Yomei-mon" and the wood carvings of "Three wise monkeys" (See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) and "a sleeping cat".
2) The second one said he had started his new blog written in English, because of three reasons; an impressive blog of another FETS member; recommendation of his colleagues; a good user-friendly blog site. He wants to introduce Japanese culture and differences from cultures overseas through his blog. The blog site has a lot of well designed templates which can be customized, and dynamic functions, HTML and CSS are available.
3) The third one told about her week. She went to a shopping mall for lunch with a friend of hers, and for purchase of her husband's clothes. Next three days, she stayed home and cleaned the rooms, and the garden. On Friday, she visited Ise City for the exhibition of sweets. The scenery of Ise City was beautiful with green, but there were so many visitors at rest rooms and shops. She gave up buying a souvenir for her husband.
4) The fourth one gave us a link of YouTube, and introduced one of Polish movies, "OGNIEM i MIECZEM" - With Fire and Sword. It is a Polish historical story during turbulent age in the 17th Century. It includes an under-plot of a romance; a Polish knight Skrzetuski and a Cossack otaman Bohun fall in love with the same woman, Helena. The movie is in the Polish language. However, you can switch the language of subtitles. You can also change the speaking speed. Although it is a long movie -3 hours, we can know Polish history.
5) The fifth one said it had been a sunny day until around noon that day. She went to a supermarket by bicycle. During her shopping, the weather suddenly changed, and strong winds blew down some bicycles. The wind mixed with a little rain. After considering if she stayed or left there home, she decided to go home. It was tough exercise for her to pedal a bike, because of a strong headwind. Fortunately she reached home without harm.
Next we moved to Today's topic, "Whitewashing a ghost".
First, we read the essay in turns.
Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about the movie "Ghost in the Shell" "whitewashing", and "anime-to-live-action adaptation".
"Ghost in the Shell" was originally Japanese manga (comics) and animation. It is a SF story about a Mobile Armored Riot Police who belongs to the Public Security Section 9. They fight against a cyber hacker terrorist group.
About the starring actress, Scarlett Johansson, we had pro and con arguments.
Concerning whitewashing (casting white actors in nonwhite roles), one thinks it's a kind of racism. And another thinks it depends on a movie director to choose a starring actor (or actress), based on his sensibility or what movie he wants to make. The movie is not always faithful to the original.
As to adapting from animation to live-action film, one thinks animation should not be remade to live-action film, because live-action version is inferior in quality with human's limitation. Another thinks nowadays 3DCG can adjust human's action to look like action in animation. The other thinks we should consider that animation and a live-action film are different things.
Well...I wonder if the movie "Ghost in the Shell" is successful...?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 22/04/2017
6 members got together to the today’s session.The following is the summary of the tasks and their remarks.
Firstly we shared ideas or the things which happened around the attendees.
1 The first person talked that he has paid more attention to his health. In order to maintain he has tried to do exercise like walking and to eat healthy foods such as yogurt. Other members gave advice to him, for instance interval walking might be effective to keep fit. This walking is walking 10 minutes fast and then 10 minutes slowly, and walking fast again 10 minutes. It was also mentioned that walking might be better than jogging, probably because the former don’t give much strain on knees.
2 The second one’s topic was concerning to possibility of attacking by the North Korea on Japan. He cited the news from the Japanese public broadcast or NHK, and mentioned the missiles would reach Japan within 10 minutes if the North Korea launched them. There are no nuclear shelters for residents in Japan, so it is very hard for them to survive if the nuclear bombs burst on the Japanese land. We wish there would be no war between the North Korea and the USA.
3 The main topic of third attendee was some free software and internet service, LINE. This is the online communication service which is very popular among smartphone users in Japan. She went to some mobile phone shop to install this software and asked a shop clerk to set up it. Now she can communicate with one of her friends who is using LINE.
4 The fourth person enjoys free TV shows or dramas, movies on the Internet. She introduced some site where viewers can watch free Japanese movies and animations. She also gave other attendees some hints how to search the websites by sharing her computer screen with others. In order to reach suitable websites it is important to put suitable keywords in the window of the search engines.
5 The fifth one talked about hens which are been fed in her house. Her husband began feeding hens before 10 days according to her. The first egg was laid by one of them and her husband ate it with Japanese traditional eating way, “Tamagokake-gohan”.
6 We did not have enough time, so the facilitator skipped his topic.
Then we moved on to the today’s topic; ” What would happen if ～? What would you do if～？” This task is related to the subjunctive mood. Each attendee chose one topic from the 10 topics given and made presentation at least 3 minutes. They needed to take it into account that they needed to use the past tense of auxiliary verbs such as would, could or might.
I will introduce just a few examples of the subjunctive past which they used during their presentation.
1 Topic: What would happen, if visitors from outer space landed on the Earth?
I would ask aliens how to travel the space.
We should make sure if they would be our enemy or friend.
2 Topic: What would happen, if cars were banned?
People would use bicycles more and would be healthier than now because of more bike riding.
Air pollution would be reduced more than now and car accidents could decrease.
3 Topic: What would you do, if you had a chance to start your own business?
I would set up a travel company in New Zealand and immigrate there.
My business would be successful and I would ask FETS members to help my company.
4 Topic: What would you do, if you could make a career change?
I would be a fashion designer and start online clothing shop which would focus on elderly people.
I would keep my shop small because I would avoid going bankrupt.
5 Topic: What would you do, if you won a lottery and got a million dollars?
I would use this money to plant many trees on the barren zones such as Africa or the Middle East.
I would make the life of residents there more comfortable.
In daily life we seldom use the subjunctive past. In particular for non-native English speaker the subjunctive mood is not easy to understand. I think we need more practice of the subjunctive past.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 15/04/2017
There were 6 attendees at the meeting tonight.★ Today’s topic was < The power of a words >
1, After watched this movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhcrP1T9Um0 If you were the passerby, how did you rewrite? All attender inputted below sentences.
Please give a little help with me seeing the future.
If you give me a little piece of your love, I would be so happy.
Please take care of your health.
I want to work - can you emploi me? If not please give me some support.
I can't see you, but I can hear your voice and heart.
Before I was be blind, I had worked hard like you.
An expression of the word has big power. A word makes enjoyable, be encouraged, sometimes makes sad.
2, What is your favorite English saying, maxim or proverb?
Where there's a will、there's a way. （断じて行えば鬼神も之を避く( danzite okonaeba kishinnmo korewo saku.)） Life is short, enjoy it.
Those that dwell on the past, lose the future. （過去にこだわるものは、未来を失う） Health is better than wealth.
Practice makes perfect.
Life is beautiful.
Many a little makes mickle. （ちりも積もれば山となる）
When we look for some advice of our life, a wise remark will bring us a hope and courage. Therefor we should have the famous saying in our heart. I’m sure it will be help us anytime. Thank you so much for helping.
(Ue)
The report of the meeting on 08/04/2017
There were five participants.We talked about cherry blossoms in Kyoto. A member suggested that the famous places for watching beautiful cherry blossoms in Kyoto are in Kyoto botanical garden and Yamate area. But he did not recommend watching cherry blossoms at Arashiyama area because of being crowded with people. He also told that a unmarried rate in Japan. According to his explanation, twenty-three percent of Japanese males do not get married and fourteen percent of the female don’t. Senior persons who live in solitude are increasing. Eighty-six percent of the males want to marriage, but they cannot do.
The other one told and showed us some photos of cherry blossoms festival. But it has stopped holding because of rainy.
The fourth one told that cherry blossoms started blooms at her living area, but it’s enjoyment of cherry blossoms will start next week, because it was gentle raining in her area.
The last one told that she enjoyed watching blossoms of a small and shin cherry tree in her garden.
Then, we started to talk about the World Wide Web in accordance with the questions.
1). There were some persons who worried about Internet hacking because being hacked the data was serious problem. Also, there was a person who warried world wide web when he uploaded because of being fake news in the Information. But on the other hand, WWW is very useful and convenient for people living in far away from the shop. WWW has both of advantage and disadvantage. Internet is now improving rapidly, and makes rapid progress, for example, in speed, collect decision as a useful tool.
2). Having said that, it has dangerous part. So, Mass Media and Newspaper have responsibility to use it.
3). There were some opinions which had trouble of PC. The troubles are junk mail, but there was an opinion that a ward of World Wide Web was too long to say. But there are some persons who abbreviate long word into Web, Internet, and Net.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 25/03/2017
On today's session are present 6 members. As usual we started with “what's new”, where everyone can share new events in his life or anything he finds interesting.①First member told us about an anime movie he saw recently - “koe no katachi”. It's a love story between a deaf girl and a shy boy. At the beginning the only way for them to communicate is by writing. As story progresses they learn to communicate and find friends to overcome shyness and isolation.
②Next member told us that day before he went for a walk in a park and showed pictures of blooming flowers that he took there. Those flowers were daffodils, pansy, cherry blossom and white magnolia tree. He said that this year Kanto area is a first to have cherry blooming in Japan. Usually it's Kansai and Kyushu areas. He also told about Japanese proverb “haru ranman”, which means “many flowers bloom at once”. For me it was nice to see blooming flowers at this time of year, since in my country it's still too early to have them.
③The third person told us about a trip he took to botanical garden in Uji City. It's a four seasons' park with a wide variety of flowers and trees. One of its biggest feature is big size, solid flower bed and greenhouse that has many kinds of tropical and subtropical plants and flowers. I was surprised to learn that plum trees start to bloom there from February. That month is very cold in my country ・usually way below zero.
④Next member told that she went to hospital to have her bones' density checked. Results were good so doctor appointed next visit after 6 month. On Friday she planted turkish balloon flowers in her garden.
⑤Another member said that during this FETS meeting she is in Hiroshima. She come there on Thursday to take care of her father, because his condition wasn't good. He suddenly gained 7 kg and felt pain in his chest and back. They went to a doctor, who said that water was accumulating in her father's body near heart and lung and prescribed medicine to disperse excess amount of water. She said that medicine was effective and her father already felt better. She also told us that in order to join FETS that day she used smartphone and tethered internet to her laptop.
⑥As for me, I told everyone that at first I wanted to dedicate this session to dangerous game called “Blue whale” or just “Suicide game”. To prepare for session I started to gather information concerning this game. The more things I gathered the more it started to look like a story from a horror movie. In the end I gave up this story and choose that this session topic will be “London terrorist attack”, mainly because it was just one from many attacks in Europe within last year.
That session's topic was “London terrorist attack”. I skipped reading text during session because we didn't have much time left and all members said they read it before. Instead we went straight to questions.
1. Did you heard about this attack before reading the story? To my surprise it was a big news in Japan too and everyone one's already heard about it.
2. What were your first thoughts when you found out or read about it? First thought for almost everyone was “It happened again”. From there discussion progressed and touched many things concerning terrorist attacks for example:
・that attacks are random, can hurt totally random people
/ ・that now terrorists use cars as a tool of attack ・which is somethinghi every citizen uses everyday
・that terrorists use religion as an excuse to what they do and that every religion has extreme currents
/ ・that recent attack in Europe weren't done by immigrants but by peoplel who where born in Europe.
3. Do you feel safe in your country? I was very curious about answers for this question, bcause all other members live in Japan and Japan isn't involved in any military activities against ISIS and doesn't have many ethnic groups. Some members gave a straight answer 'No'. Others pointed out that nowadays more and more foreigners come to Japan. One member reminded us that Japan has already faced terrorists attack ・on a Tokyo subway in 1995.
/
Sadly we didn't have more time for discussion.
(Dorothy)
The report of the meeting on 18/03/2017
There were six attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on March 18.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first member said that she'd had nothing special for the last few days. She practiced calligraphy at home, visited three shrines near her house, and so on. Visiting four shrines including Ise Shrine is her annual event. However, she was too busy to visit those three shrines except Ise Shrine during New Year's days.
2) The second one talked about a mountain named "Mt. Daikichiyama (an excellently lucky mountain)", which is a nickname for Mt. Buttokusan in his city, Uji. Mt. Daikichiyama has a good walking course, and an observatory is located in the midst of the mountain, where visitors can enjoy the panoramic view. Mountain sparrows, which are very friendly to humans, can be seen there. Uji recently became famous for an animated film "Sound! Euphonium".
3) The third one explained about the euphonium. It is a kind of tuba (one of wind instruments). When he was a junior high school student, he played the euphonium. It has a really good sound. Its mellowly good sound played by a professional player attracts the audience.
4) The fourth one told he'd heard Japanese bush warblers twittering in his garden the previous week. In ancient times, Japanese people mistook a white-eye with beautiful moss-green body for a bush warblers with brownish body. Nightingales in Europe belong to a different family from Japanese bush warblers, but their twittering sounds are very similar.
5) The fifth one showed a video on the Internet. In a zoo in Warsaw, a young female tiger lived in harmony with a young female dog in the same cage. After several years, the tiger was moved to another zoo. There may be instinct to get along with each other even among different kinds of animals.
6) The last one said she'd been to the City Library, and read a monthly magazine for women. There were feature articles about matters to take care of old parents, to choose care homes, to find social workers, and so on. There were also some experiences written by personalities. Those articles are helpful to her.
Next we moved to Today's topic, "The tattoo taboo".
First, we read the article in turns. Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about tattoos. Tattoos still remain taboo in Japan. There are some spa facilities, swimming pools, and others, where people with tattoos are not allowed to enter. Not only in Japan but also in Western countries, tattoos were associated with criminal punishment in the old days. However, nowadays Western people seem to enjoy tattoos as art, fashion, status and others. And tattoos also have been tribal sacred traditions for some people. Recently among young women in Japan, drawing eyebrows with tattoos seems to be slightly popular. They don't have to draw their eyebrows every morning. What do you think about tattoos?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 11/03/2017
We had six attendees at the today’s session. Here is the summary of it.Firstly, we introduced the recent event which happened around each attendee or things which they want to talk about.
1) The first person talked about the international baseball game which is under way in Japan. This is called WBC, the World Baseball Classics. The baseball teams from various countries try to win the first place in the tournament. In Japan the baseball is one of the popular sports. Many fans are pleased that Japanese team successfully went up to the second round.
2)The next one talked two topics; the first was for her to have fixed the steel fence with wire. The second was about the Japanese song which she loves. She wanted to buy the CD of title of “In this town”, but she failed to find it. However, she will continue to find it.
3)The topic of the third person was a short trip to the near city where he traveled by train. He used some discount train ticket for youth. According to him anyone can buy the ticket even if they are old. He also introduced the some feature of the city where the base of Maritime Self-Defense Force is, and the several tourist points such as a red brick museum are as well.
4)The fourth attendees talked about the car accident which her mother’s car was involved in. Her mother's car was parked in a parking lot near an intersection. Other two cars entered into an intersection where the main and broad road and the small lane cross. The female driver on the small lane didn’t pay enough attention to other cars. So two cars crashed in the intersection. Her mother’s car was damaged by this accident even though she wasn't behind the wheel.
5)The fifth one got a message from some company. The company exists really but the e-mail was phishing. The e-mailed asked her deposit some money and move to another website. She didn’t have any reasons to transfer money to the company, so she ignored the massage. Other members also suggested that ignorance to such e-mail is the best way to avoid being involved in phishing scam.
6)The last man talked about the unforgettable day, March 11 2011 when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred , and over 20,000 people were killed and over 2,500 people are still missing. 6 years have already passed, but many people are still forced to be evacuated from their hometown because of the nuclear power plant disaster.
Then we moved on to the today’s topic‥ebate, which is the healthiest,s taking sleep, going hiking, or eating vegetables? The attendees were divided into three groups in advance. Each group claimed their opinions and then others refuted and discussed them.
The first debate;
Affirmative opinion; Sleep is very important mentally and physically. If people cannot take enough and high quality sleep, they are likely to have many problems such as heart attack, obesity, and depression.
Refute and discussion: Too much sleep may cause problems to our body.During discussion other members mentioned importance or the quality of sleep, and proper length of sleep varies from person and animals. Some animals need less sleep than human beings.
The second debate;
Affirmative opinion: Going hiking gives our cardiovascular organs good effects. Our heart, lungs and blood vessels can be activated through the going hiking. Hiking can be done anywhere and anytime and it is free of charge.
Refute and discussion: hiking is sometimes very risky because some people met accident during hiking.
The third debate;
Affirmative opinion: Vegetables contains a lot of vitamins which are necessary for our health. For example if people cannot take in the vitamins through fresh vegetables, they might suffer from scurvy. Eating only meat might cause the bad body odor.
Refute and discussion: protein, fat and carbohydrate are also necessary for our body. Without these nutrition people, especially young guys cannot build up their body and cannot act energetically. Vegetarians are not always healthy.
Conclusion: balanced sleep, balanced excise and balanced diet are healthiest way for our body.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 04/03/2017
There were 6 attendees at the session tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week? Second, we played about “Play at riddles”, and talked“Superstitions” as tonight topic.
①The first member answered that his father bought new PC. The maker was “acer” in Taiwan. It was very reasonable and cheaper. His father asked to translate into Japanese but it was difficult.
②The second member said that she has attended tea ceremony class for 5 years. The five members were all women who wore Japanese kimono. The style of the tea ceremony is OMOTE-SENKE.
③The third member, she showed us some pictures through the sharing monitor. There were some pictures of a castles which is Gothic architecture, and an army called black cross.
④The fourth member said that she was in trouble last week. When she was using her Face Book site, she clicked the other icon, after that she got the reply mail from two unknown persons. One of two was Japanese musician. He understood her mistake. The another one is American business man. He didn’t understand・・・・・？ What should I do・・・・・!
⑤The fifth member who is head of this club said that he explained that When this session consist of more than seven members, we have to divide into two group. The opportunity to speak will be increase. I think this is a relevant remark. Reference http://6225.teacup.com/fets/bbs
⑥ omission.
★ Play at riddles
https://1drv.ms/w/s!AvjfAhnTLM7Gg5pK414vKJUj1c9XMA
★ Today’s topic. “Superstitions” is omitted.
( Ue )
The report of the meeting on 25/02/2017
There were six participants today’s session.There was a newcomer. We introduced ourselves and “What’s News” each other at same time. Before anything, a newcomer began to tell that he was eighteen years old and a University student. The next person introduced himself and told about his mobile phone of an old type. The other ones introduced themselves and talked about the main news respectively.
After that, we read the today’s topic by turns. Then, we talked about their idea to each question as follow.
For example, it looked SF movie. This article has four factors. Zealand should be called a continent. According to Geologists, Japan Sea was a big lake ancient times and Japan was the edge of big continent. The continent should be in ocean. The biggest continent will be landmass. And also, Indian continent attacked The Eurasian Continent, and the Himalaya Mountains appeared, and it made the Africa continent and deserts.
Islands of Hawaii come close to Japan, and the Pacific Plato moved to Japan, so it will be easy to visit Hawaii. The peninsular Honshu land does not disappear, and make subduction under water. Japanese was archipelago in Asian Continent old times, and a Mammoth came from Siberia.
Japan Sea is No. 66. Sea volume is No.1 in the world. Japan sea trench is big, and has metric development ability.
No.5. Each continent have good points and bad points. Africa has metal, and Saudi Arabia has large desert, so we import the special metal. No.5 question is ridiculous one.
The Eurasia continent is one continent. Europe and Asian continents are Eurasia ones. If Eurasia continent divides two continents, Is Eurasia continent big ? It is funny. The geologist divides Asian continent and Eurasian one. It is different by the way to use a map. Which continent is the biggest? It is a Eurasian continent. Sciences are developing time to time, so they have studied that Hawaii is coming near the Pacific Rim of volcano line.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 11/02/2017
There were five attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on February 11.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first member said that he'd had heavy snow in his area for short periods in the morning of the previous day. The temperature was very low and he felt really cold. However it stopped snowing soon. The weather condition got better.
2) The second one talked about her elder brother whom she'd visited recently. His physical condition was very bad because of cancer, although he looked well when she saw him last summer. Considering his age (86) and concerning about his family, he decided not to take any medical treatments including instillment. He can have only ice cream, a slice of melon, and tea, which makes him get thin.
3) The third one explained the weather condition of his residentioal area, sharing some pictures on his PC monitor. He had some snow which accumulated on the road. The snow including water made the road icy and slippy. He sprinkled snow-melting agent on the road in front of his house, because his wife had to drive to a supermarket.
4) The fourth one told about his new smartphone. He purchased it at the Docomo shop. He thought that billing plans of the smartphon are very compricated and hard to understand. His former one is 5 years old, compared to which the new one is really improved. His favorite applications are "Dropbox" and "Line", which are very convenient and useful.
5) The fifth one said she had attended an off-line English circle. One of members gave a piece of whiskey-bonbon (liquer chocholate candies) to each member. She opened its wrapping and bit it. Unfortunately, sticky liquer inside dripped down on her clothes, which made her upset. She used a tissue to wipe it, but she could not clean them, and gave up. After coming back home, she washed her blouse, scarf and slacks.
Next we moved to Today's topic, "Test for face scanning payment".
First, we read the article in turns.
Secondly, we shared our opinions and discussed about face scanning and other payment methods - cash, cards, mobile wallets, and so on. One said that the change of payment methods is inevitable and necessity. In ancient times, people traded by the barter system. Because of its inconvenience for commercial use, they invented the money system (using shells at first, then coins of silver, gold, etc.). For more convenience, they invented the card system, and for security the scanning system of fingerprints or palm veins. Furthermore, face scanning would be necessary. In the future, an IC chip might be implanted in the body of each person.
Another said that the technology of the face scanning system is still premature and risky. Further improvement would be needed to prevent errors or trouble. Which do you like better to pay, by cash, cards, mobile wallets, face-scanning, or .....?
(Yuki)
The report of the meeting on 04/02/2017
We had six attendees at the session. The below is the summary of it.1 The first person talked about a reunion, which will be held first time since he and his school mates graduated from the junior high school around 30 years ago. He saw the pictures in the period of the high school, which reminded him of sweet memories.
2 The main topic of the second one was miso (fermented soybean paste). Recently she made miso by herself at the Japan Agricultural Cooperative. It takes around a year at least for soybean paste to be fermented, so she will be able to eat miso she made recently the next year.
3 The third person mentioned “setsubun” or a seasonal watershed from the winter to the spring. In Japan the third or fourth of February is the day of the traditional event, when people throw the roast soy beans to get out devils of home. And it is said that people will be heathier and live longer if they eat the same number of beans as their ages.
4 The next one explained geography of her country. She showed others pictures where the deep snow has accumulated over 3 meters in depth. We shared her computer screen and the map of Poland. She introduced the mountain ranges, the plains and the lakes. To reply to the question on which is the best season, she said each season has its good features.
5 The fifth attendee mentioned the Indian summer, which means “a period of dry warm weather in the autumn”( Oxford English- English dictionary). It was really lovely day on 4th February this year. She also talked about some bookshop where a coffee shop is inside it and customers can read the books there over coffee.
6The income tax return online is now under way in Japan. The last person applies it online. According to him, its procedure online is quite convenient because he doen’t need go to the local tax office. The office is usually much crowed. However if tax payers use online procedure, they can do all things at their home.
Today’s topic was a debate. Theme was which the best pet is, cat, dog or goldfish. Attendees were divided to three groups; Group Cat, Group Dog and Group Goldfish. We had three rounds of debate;
At the first round, the Group Cat showed the advantages of cats to other two pets. Cats are elegant in the shape, they are funny, they have many breeds, they don’t need care a lot because they are very independent, and so on. After four minutes claim, other group refuted it. For example, cats hang around and pee in the neighbors’ gardens. Or they scratch furniture with nails. Then the member of Group Cat defended their claims.
At the second round, the Group Dog also claimed that dogs are best pet for many reasons. Dogs are very useful to humankinds and our society; some of them help people of difficulty with their eyes as a guide dog, they are very loyal to their owners, dogs can heal aged people, there are many breeds and so on. After Group Dog’s arguments, others refuted as follows; dogs sometimes bark and cause the noise trouble among neighbors.
At the third round, the Group Goldfish supported the idea that the goldfishes make the best pet for the following reasons. It is easy to take care of them, for instance owner change water in aquarium once a week. They don’t eat too much, so feeding them is very economical to compare to other pets, and so on. However, according to other members, the goldfishes have some weak points such as they are boring because they don’t show their feeling clearly.
I think I need improve some rule of debate the next time.Anyway the debate is a good way to express own opinion and dispute the specific topic.
(Taka)
The report of the meeting on 28/01/2017
There were 6 attendees at the meeting tonight.First, we talked about what’s new? How was your week?
① The first member said that his older brother has gotten food poisoning. His brother is in hospital now. He has to stay one week whole dripping infusion. But he said his brother has been getting well.
② The second person said that a headline sentence is not always need the grammar, but it has several rules. He introduced 3 rules for us. 1) be-verb is usually omitted. 2) The present tense of the verb usually should be understood as the past tense. 3) When the verbs are shown in past tense, it means the passive voice. Refer to http://6225.teacup.com/fets/bbs I think it may be easy to understand the headline while thinking those rules. Thank you. Anyway a headline sentence is made by how to attract us to the article.
③ The third attender said that she renovated her kitchen and bathroom ten years ago. But the remote control of the bath didn’t work today. She called a service man of INAX, and finally the remote control was repaired.
④ The fourth member talked that she is in her father’s home in Hiroshima. She walk out to library with her father, and her father borrowed some books. She will visit her daughter’s home in Okayama and further visit Himeji castle tomorrow.
⑤ The fifth member showed us the some U tube movies of the big car accident. The big car crash happened in Poland at the early morning of Tuesday in this week. The causes were a deep fog and frozen road. About 70 driver were drawn the accident, but fortunately nobody die. The movie taught us fearful and misery of car accident. Let's pay attention our driving.
(Ue)
The report of the meeting on 21/01/2017
There were six attendees.We talked about the topic of the week at first.
The first person talked about his PC which he had broken, when he was cleaning it with a detergent. The other one told us that the best detergent for cleaning a pc was water.
The next one told that he had written his diary in English for about ten years. Writing the diary in English is exceedingly useful for studying English. He told that his composition skill went up, and he also used a Excel for it. The next one asked him the way to use Excel for writing a diary.
The next one explained two pictures which he took on the previous day and two days ago. He showed us the pictures of the fernery. The terrible view made us expect the occurrence of a pollen allergy.
The next one talked to attend the English lesson held at travel agency.
The next one told about the current weather in Poland. It was low temperature and heavy smog. The people use some heating like a gas heating, electric ones, a concentrated one, and coal stove etc. So, the smog becomes a big problem. She actually showed it with a picture. Last one told the result of stomach cancer check. She decided to stop taking a medicine of Helicobacter Pylori.
Next we held a talk about the today’s topic, “ Euro politicians told to stop speaking English”. We talked about the first question. Each member expressed their impression of this topic. One of the members told it a curiosity project. The delegate in the European Parliament is different, and they communicated in English. The delegates are elected. So, it is no problem. One reason is to project interpreter position. English is main influence language. English is easy to use and has political powers. At that time, UK people speak English, but in the future, English will be power banning. But right now, even UN admitted English in 28 countries in Parliament, because English is useful. Parliament communicates in English and the first choice was English. Secret things were talked by French and German. Lot of parliament did face to face, and they don’t use interpreter. If we think it with short span, English is right to speak in Parliament. But if we think it long span, Chinese was standard language.
(Tae)
The report of the meeting on 15/01/2017
During this session 5 members were present. One member was absent due to new years celebrations.First part of a session, as usual on Saturdays, was dedicated to "What's new?". Each member had a chance to share new or interesting events that happened in his life.
One person said that she went shopping to another town. She doesn't like clothes made of synthetic fiber and that it's hard to buy clothes made of pure cotton without synthetic additions.
The next member told us about his upcoming Eiken English test. He explained that there are 5 degrees of this test.
Third person told us that recently she was watching X-Files episodes. She like to watch sci-fi movies, but after watching many episodes it got somewhat boring. She was watching it in English with her native language subtitles. Some members expressed that it's a good idea to watch movies and shows in English as a means to improve English skills.
The next person showed us photos of apricot buds taken in his garden. I was surprised to see photos of flower buds at this time of year. In Poland it's a middle of a winter and snow everywhere, but as he explained it's not unusual in Japan in area where he lives.
Lastly it was my turn. I gave up my time to talk about new events to have few more minutes to tell everyone about customs and tradition of celebrating Christmas in Poland. That was a topic of session. By sharing a screen on Skype I showed presentation I prepared. I showed a Christmas wafer and described a tradition of sharing it among everyone present at Christmas eve supper and conveying best wishes. I told about a custom of setting one extra plating at a table that we have in Poland. Then I showed pictures of many traditional dishes that we eat during Christmas eve supper. I also told that some 10-15 years ago it was common to keep a living carp in a bathtub and reasons for it. At one point there was a problem during presentation when I went to a next slide but 'share screen' on Skype didn't refresh it so other members didn't see what I was talking about. I was able to fix that and went on with presentation. I'm glad that I got to show other members how we spend Christmas in my country.
(Dorothy)
The report of the meeting on 07/01/2017
Happy New Year! The year of 2017 has already started. There were six attendees including me (a chairperson) at the meeting on January 7, 2017.First, we talked about what's new, or how the week was, which is summarized as follows:
1) The first attendee said that he had visited Tokyo area such as Enoshima Island and Yokohama with his family for sightseeings and shopping. On the beach of Enoshima Island, there were a lot of people sitting and eating. From the beach he saw Mt. Fuji, which was very beautiful. However, there were also some black kites (birds) flying overhead in the sky to look for food. He saw a black kite swooping away a piece of bread which a little girl was eating.
2) The second one said he went to the shrine of his local shinto god. He explained the way of worship in his area. First, you pass through the "torii" (a sacred arch), then wash your hands. Next, in front of the main building, you throw small money into the offertory-box, then ring the bell attached to the building by pulling the rope connected to the bell. Bow twice, clap twice, hold hands together, pray, and bow once.
3) The third one said that on the New Year's Day her son's family had visited her and her husband. She gave her grandchildren "Otoshidama" (New Year's gifts, which is usually money), and they dined out for lunch. As her husband's health condition was not so good, they went back home earlier. On January 7, she cooked and ate "Nanakusa-gayu" (rice porridge with seven herbs) which is one of Japanese traditional food.
4) The fourth one said he had spent holidays almost with relaxing. He watched TV and read some books; for example, "Women were the sun in the primitive age", an autobiography of Raicho Hiratsuka, and "Women's libelation movement". He found them while he was clearing up his belongings. Once women's right was controled by men. Around middle of the 18th century, Ms Hiratsuka founded a feminist group "Seitoh-sha" (the Blue Stockings Society).
5) The fifth one said it was very cold, around -15C with 5 centimeters of snow in her area in Poland. In mountainous area, it was -20C with 2 meters of snow. People already started their work on the second day of January.
6) The last one said she had been busy in cleaning and preparing for New Year. She made mochi rice cakes, cooked New Year's food, and served her family. One of problems was about her mother-in-low wearing diaper who had a big appetite, and now she seems to have frequent loose stool.
Next we moved to Today's topic, "Presentation about Christmas in Poland" and "Questions and Answers". We shared her PC display and saw a lot of Christmas illuminations which, she said, are usually displayed for about one month. And she explained "Advent" which is a season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. There are many carols sung in Poland and each region has own carols like "Silent Night". She said that children write letters with their present requests to Santa Claus, and put them under their pillow. Little children expect small toys or chocolates. They believe they get presents from Santa Claus. Adults also exchange presents, saying, "I met Santa and he asked me to give this to you"...like that. The presentation would be continued...on next coming Wednesday. By the way, she also showed some pictures of broom ornaments on the website. I wonder why brooms are decorated... I'd like ask her about it at the next meeting. (Yuki)
The link to the report of 2016
The link to the report of 2015
