diary: finding a new goal

I spent this summer in the UK where I've learned a lot. But I always felt my language wasn't enough in many occasions. Reflecting these experiences, I swore to me to study more when I came back to home. Since then, I've done some online homework from language school for weeks, and have finished a book I was reading while the journey.

On the other hand, I should prepare for my new projects(work) to pay the bills, so gradually time for study shifted on working time. In other words, I am losing my motivation.

So I have consulted to the teacher to keep up my motivation. He advised me to have new goals. Yes, I needed new goals and I set them. Even though I haven't started to tackle them. Probably I should break down the process into small parts so that I will be able to do it little by little. What is more the teacher told me that I am in the middle land between a learner and a native level person. What he recommend is to build vocabularies in depth by reading.

• write a letter 1) for practice, search example site 2) ask for an example book (text book) 3) write! decide the day I write ...> by the end of this months.///28th? or 29th?

• read books 1) I stopped reading because the book I started was rather difficult. 2) To change or no to change.. photocopying and read several pages seem good to me because I can break down my reading 3) Also I would read a grade book... Reading a lot is more important for practice than reading the best book.

• make my personal correction cards I am doing it. I'll continue...

#NotinMyname

NotinMyname is a campaign going viral on social media which aim to against IS by young Muslims in the UK.

They say "IS is not in my name" and they give the reasons.

Idiomatic phrase "in someone's name " means "on behalf of someone" or "reserved for someone." So, in this context, they say that IS is not the representative of Islam.

Not in my Name - Muslims against ISIS - YouTube

ISIS do not represent Islam or Muslims

Because...

Because they totally un-Islamic.

Because they are killing innocent people.

Because you're unjust.

Because your leader ease a lier.

Because your action do not represent the action of lead of the rightly guided companions.

Because your Caliphate doesn't represent the ummah

Because what you're doing is inhumane.

Because you abuse hearts of minds.

Because you have no compassion.

Because my religion promised tolerance for me, and you have no respect for me.

We must all unite together and try to stop this group from damaging Islam and Muslims.

Muslim... A follower of the religion of Islam. Caliphate... the rule or reign of a caliph (successor of Muhammad) of chief Muslim ruler ummah... an Arabic word meaning "nation". It is commonly used for the collective community of Islamic people. In Quran the ummah typically refers to a single group that share s common religious beliefs, specifically those that are the objects of a divine plan of salvation.

memo: sympathetic expression

Sympathetic phrase

Are you O.K.?

Oh, no! I am sorry to hear that.

Of course, losing a loved one is always difficult.

I know your feeling.

I know (you're being together for a long time.)

Would you like me to (do/ help...) while... ?

Let me know if there're anything I can do.

He had a really tough time after he was made redundant.

Less Sympathetic phrase

My sister is such a drama queen.

There's nothing upset about it.

There's no point getting upset about it.

It's not like you ~.

Well good riddance

www.oxforddictionaries.com

then!

Next goal

Yesterday I had a counselling at my English school. The counselor was the teacher I had not seen before, who sounded nice. Counselling went with an assessment test, which was similar to speaking task in IELTS. Talking about a topic, I heard an assessment and advice from the counselor. There are criteria of speaking test simplified from the band description of IELTS. There are 4 levels from need to improve(1) to excellent(4), I fairly had good(3) in 4 criteria. Surprisingly the teacher said that my fluency and pronunciation are more than good, even though I had the worst mark last week.

Anyway, we set the next goal by the time of the up-coming counselling. I put 3 goals that...

• Read 3 books
• Make common mistake lists (by iPhone app)
• Write a letter to my host family by the time of Christmas.

Must do!

So depressed

I am so so depressed that I have recently got a bad assessment for my English pronunciation. Did I do so badly? Or is it related to that I spoke out "Did the teacher say /da:ta/ for data? ". Oh, that was a bad joke...even though she actually did.

I should say that I really am unmotivated when I was said something bad about my English but they don't give any correction or advises. In this case, I wouldn't know how improve it forever!

IELTS Exam 19th Apr. 2015 (Tokyo)(Academic)

Speaking

Task 1

• Full Name
• show your ID
• What’s like your house?
• Do you live in a flat or a house?
• Describe your favorite room
• Do you like doing household work?
• Do you have any idea to make people happy to household work?
• Did you help household work as a child?

Task 2: A Long Travel

Talk about a long travel you did.

• Where was it?
• How long was it?
• What did you see?

and explain how did you feel about this travel.

• Why did you chose to travel there?

Task 3

Discussion about traveling

• There are things to manage before a long travel. Explain some of these things.
• Long travel is often tiring. What do you recommend people to do in order to make the travel more comfortable?
• From the educational point of view, what’s the positive sides of traveling?
• How would you get educated when you travel?
• Do you think people can be educated by their own when they travel?

IELTS Exam 18th Apr. 2015 (Tokyo)(Academic)

IELTS Exam Day 1. I share topics which I remember from the exam.

listening

section 1: Telephone Talk about a Holiday booking for Canada (Vancouver)

1. ? (forget..)
2. the hotel is close to the (train station)
3. lowest price of hotel room ($1**)
4. What is included in the price (your breakfast)
5. Hotel's name (Chily *** ???)
6. Stay in a (tent?)
7. extra sport (fishing)
8. will meet a (bear) in the forest
9. bring your (boots)
10. (forget)

section 2: instruction of facility of a new fitness club

select the facilities's places from a map.

1. shop
2. children playroom
3. swimming
4. spa
5. gym
6. restaurant?(forget)

select 2 from options (special offers) 7. limited time? 8. family pack

select 2 from options (gifts for customers) 9. health meter 10. bottle of water??? (spa???)

section 3: discussion within 2 students about the art pendant (Hei-tiki)

1. What does it mean curves of the pendant?
2. Why are few tikis found?
3. ??
4. What is 2 types of tiki?
5. What types of tiki is old?

select from the options in a box what is the use of these materials

1. sand
2. cord and stick
3. bark
4. wax
5. bone

Hei-tiki description British Museum - Nephrite pendant (hei tiki)

section 4: food supply (lecture)

• fill the gap of the paragraph with a word from script

reading

passage 1: Russian Ballet and Dance

• yes / no
• select from options
• a word from the passage (Who did what)

passage 2: About Episodic Memory

• match the heading
• select the true statement from options
• a word from the passage?

passage 3: Green Product

• select the true statement from options
• a word from passage(Toyota Prius)
• true/ false

writing

task 1: Table indicating the number of males in 100 females in 6 different areas in the world in 1950 and 2005

below is the table image( Please note; it isn’t a real test data. just a sample.)

task 2:

Some people say that only students achieved academic result should be rewarded. Some people say that to reward students show improvement is more important.

Discuss both sides and give your opinion.