Hello October！

Are you ready for this winter to come?

I've come to like winter as I age.. how about you?

In class, I almost always get some English questions.

These questions are from fundamental ones to unexpecting ones！

I learn something new every day thanks to our exquisite and studious students！

One day, I got an interesting question from one of our students.

B : Well, you ______________ visit the museum on Mondays. It's closed then.

(Interchange1 fifth edition p.142 )

What do you think?

「ん？？ can't じゃないの？」と思われたかもしれません。

答えは "can't "なのです。

が、そこでMさん、「ではなぜ shouldn't ではいけないんですか？」とお尋ねになりました。

Mさん「日本語でも〇〇は定休日だから行かない方がいいよって言うじゃないですか」

Tさん、Cさん「うんうん」

「ほほぉ～！」と思った私は皆さんが納得のいく説明をしようとしましたが、簡単ではありませんでした。

can →能力や可能性を表す

should →提案するときによく使われる※日本語では「～するべきだ」という意味になりますが、実際は「～したほうがいいんじゃないかな」という軽い提案で使われます

私の説明が合っているか不安だったので、Nickに聞いてみました。

すると、visitは「その建物で経験などをするという意味も含む」ということを再度教えてくれました。

Nick : 「建物の外に行くだけであれば、「 go to 」などの言葉を使っても良いけれど、建物の中に入って(この場合は博物館)展示品を見たりするときは visit の方が良いんだよね。その場合は shouldn'tにしてしまうと文章の意味が変わってしまうんだ」

「なるほどね～。今までなんとなーくで使っていた表現も意味がちゃんとあるんだ(当然)」と再認識できたと同時にもっと英語を勉強しなければと思った1日でした。

＜おまけ＞

Nちゃんが私の絵を描いてくれました（嬉涙）

実物より何倍もかわいく描いてくれて見せてくれた時には「かわいい～！！うれしい！！」が止まりませんでした！

It is such an honor to teach such cute students!!

One of our cute students drew my picture!!

Believe it or not, I went to Takahashi two weekends in a row in September. On one of those visits, I saw a charming old temple called Raikyuji. It has a quiet, traditional Japanese garden, and it’s a very peaceful way to spend an hour or so. However, on the previous weekend, I spent the entire day in a village called Fukiya.

Fukiya was originally a settlement formed around a copper mine up in the mountains of Takahashi, but these days it’s a quaint little tourist town. It’s quite small – just one main road, really – so you can see everything within a day. There’s an old-fashioned school bus that’s been repurposed to carry tourists through the town, and an all-wooden former elementary school with both historical and artistic exhibits inside.

Besides its copper, Fukiya was well-known for red iron oxide (or “bengara”), which is an earthy red pigment used in ceramics and lacquer. That history is still reflected today in the red-tiled rooftops of the town. For some reason, the area is also well-known for red pepper, so you can find several types of spicy seasonings and condiments at the souvenir shops.

Despite its reputation as a tourist town, I found that many NEO students didn’t know about Fukiya. I think it’s a bit too far from Okayama for most people. Nevertheless, I recommend it as a fun little daytrip, especially for families and couples. Just be sure to get there early – the restaurants and cafes seem to sell out early in the afternoon.

And on the way home, make sure you stop by Bitchu Matsuyama Castle to visit Sanjuro the cat!

Some bonus pictures of Sanjuro and Raikyuji:

Dave-sensei was on "Let's Enjoy English!" on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM). Dave and D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu talk in English and Japanese about their wedding anniversaries. Click the button below to listen.

Dave-sensei will be on Radio MOMO (79.0FM) with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu on Thursday, September 28th (today!), at about 6:15 pm. They will talk in English and Japanese about wedding anniversaries.

9月28日（木）6時15分ごろにDave先生がRadio MOMO (79.0FM) に出演します（DJは上別府千晶さん）。英語と日本語の両方で結婚記念日について話します。

http://www.fm790.co.jp/

As some of you may know, I recently got sick. Until now, I had somehow entirely avoided catching the flu while living in Japan. It’s not that I have never gotten sick while living here, but I did somehow manage to avoid the flu every time it was spreading around me. This time I was not so lucky. Little did I know that this experience would be the worst I ever felt in my life.

I was unwell for six days. For the first two days I had a constant fever of 39+ degrees.  I was dizzy throughout the entirety of both days and at night I experienced severe aches in both my arms and legs. These were the toughest days. On the third day, my condition improved a little and I managed to eat a little (though I did not eat much for the first four days and lacked energy). Sadly, I started feeling worse again on the fourth day. It was not until the fifth and sixth days that I finally started seeing a bigger improvement in my condition.

During this time, I mostly shut myself in my bedroom to protect others. This ended up being one of the hardest parts. I was not very comfortable being stuck there non-stop. And it was mentally draining for me. I feel like I am still recovering even now. Hopefully by next week I will be feeling back to normal. For now, I am just going to take it easy.