Last Thursday, Dave was on Radio Momo with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu. They talked about summer vacation and travel.
学生さんたちは夏休みが始まり、大人の方もご家族で遠出される人の話を聞くようになりました。
NEOでは講師のHal先生は先月にアメリカのコロラドまで結婚式に出席すべく旅行へ行っていたので夏は大きな予定がないようですですが、Nick先生とDaveはアメリカ本国へ里帰り。私AyumiとManami先生はちょっとシンガポールへ行ってきます。
その夏休みですが、NEOへ来てくれているキッズたちも親御さんたちが計画して、ハワイやグアムといった英語圏＆子供も楽しめる場所へ海外旅行へ行かれる人たちがいらっしゃいます。
英語が話せるかどうかは別にしておいても、早い時期から日本以外のどんな国があるのかを実際に訪ねて経験するのは本当に貴重です。恥ずかしがって何も言えなくてもいいです。自分と肌の色の違う人たちがいて、英語以外の言語も耳にすることで、また頑張って英語を勉強しようと思ってもらいたいです。
海外でもチップ（tipping）制度があるところは面倒ですが、北米では以前よりもずっとチップの率が上がっているようですね。15％なんてもってのほかで、15%では「サービスに不満です」と意思表示しているもの。今は18%～25%のようです。
これに消費税や地方税が入るので、実際の物品や飲食に加えて30%くらい追加で支払うつもりでいたほうがいいです。
そう思うと、チップなしのアジア圏はありがたいですね。
Tomorrow, July 27th, Dave will be on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM). He will be on with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu in 「Let's Enjoy English!」. The program is about 15 minutes long. Chiaki and Dave will talk about their summer vacations.
Date: July 27th (Thursday)
Time: ～5:40 pm
Station: Radio MOMO - 79.0 FM
Last Saturday Neo hosted a taco party at the Community House near the school. About 20 people came and we all had a great time!
We started the night by making guacamole, which is a common appetizer from Mexico. It's mostly avocado, lime juice, and chopped vegetables.
After that, we started to play a Neo quiz. Congratulations to the winning team, Team Rabbit!
Next was the main event - tacos! We made our own tacos, so everyone was able to choose their own ingredients.
Finally, we finished up with some karaoke.
Thank you everyone for coming and making the event a success! We hope to see you again next year!
Last week I went on vacation to Colorado and Wyoming, in the U.S. I went with my wife and sister-in-law to my cousin’s wedding in Denver, Colorado. It was a beautiful wedding with almost 200 people. Unlike Japanese weddings, American weddings often last for five or more hours. This one started at 5 and finished around 11. First there was an outdoor ceremony, which lasted about 30 minutes, and after there was dinner and dancing. We had a great time.
The ceremony was held here.The next day we woke up very early and drove to Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming. Yellowstone was the world's first national park, established in 1872! The park is a very big caldera (カルデラ) and is still very active, so there are a lot of cool things to look at. We saw bubbling and steaming pools, mud (泥)holes, and geysers (間欠泉). The whole park is very beautiful. If you have a chance, it’s a great place to go!
A canyon.
A geyser!