翻訳練習 Translateion training （En → JP） ニュース記事より from news article

Hey, there appeared a new sinkhole again!

Giant sinkhole amazes small Kansas town

and they are appalling pictures of it.
Photos: Giant sink hole

Now I'm gonna translate this article into Japanese as practice.

I'm fond of musics♪

I often enjoy many genres of music while doing something with my PC.

This is my recent favorite music list in YouTube. I feel these songs don't interrupt my work and are comfortable to my ears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMbSKaOG5kg&feature=share&list=PL39F22A9DA120C4A7

本の感想：フィリピンのくらし（ポプラ社） Book review: Life in Philipine (for children)

図書館の、児童書コーナーで借りました。オンライン英会話の講師陣の多くはフィリピン人なので、話しているうちにどんな国なのか興味が湧いてきたからです。子供向けの本なので読みやすいし、写真も豊富なので楽しく読めました。
I borrow a book that is for children, "a life in Philipine", at a library. The majority of tutors in the online English school I belong to are Philipinoes, so I have been getting interested in the country. This book was very easy to read as it's made for children, and a lot of pictures pleased my eyes.

上の写真は、フィリピンの子供たちです。左の写真は、家業の手伝いで学校に行けないのか、店番をしながら勉強をしている女の子です。なんとなく、日本で楽な生活をしている事が恥ずかしくなります・・・。学んできた英語を生かして、社会貢献ができるようがんばります。
You can see Philipino children on the above picture.  The girl on the left picture is reading a textbook, studying while looking after her parent's stall. Can't she go to the school because of her duty? I feel embarrassed to lead an easy life in convenient Japan.
I'll do my best to make contribution to society, making use of English skill which I've studied so far.

この出版社のシリーズは、他にも色んな国のくらしを紹介したシリーズがあります。でも、読んでて明らかに自虐史観の影響が見られ、そこがとてもガッカリでした。これでは日本の子供たちが、自分たちの先祖を誇りに思えなくなってしまいます。
There are many other the same series from this publisher. But what made me feel disappointed was that there books were biased to masochistic view of history. I suppose if Japanese children read these books, they might not be proud to their ancestors.


（※自虐史観（じぎゃくしかん）とは、太平洋戦争後の日本の歴史学界において主流であった、戦後の歴史観を自国の歴史の負の部分をことさら強調し、正の部分を過小評価し、日本を貶める歴史観の事です。）
[ masochistic view of history is to emphasize the negative aspect of postwar history and to underestimate the positive side, smearing Japan. It was majority in historical studies of Japan after Pacific War. ]


「トルコのくらし」という同シリーズも読みましたが、こちらにはトルコが何故親日国になってくれたか？（明治天皇と日本人の村民が、トルコの船が難破した時に救出に尽力したこと）についての説明が一切載っていませんでした。
I also read "Life in Turkish" of the same series but I found no expectations about why Turkey had been kind to become a Pro-Japanese country in the book.

かくいう僕も、子供の頃は天皇陛下というのは、ただ働かずにいい暮らしをしている王様のようなものだとしか思っていませんでした。親も学校の先生もTVも、天皇陛下についてきちんと教えてくれる人が誰もいなかったのです。これは本当に悲しい事です。
To tell you the truth, even I had believed that His Majesty the Emperor was just like a king, who led a easy life, not having to work. It was a tragidy that there were none who taught me about Japanese Emperor in serious.

今回の参議院選挙では、自民党の圧勝に終わりました。日本のマスコミも、いい加減国民の意識がどれだけマスコミ不信になっているか、気づいてもいい頃だと思うんですがね～。
The Free Democratic Party won an overwhelming victory in the Upper house Election this July. I think it's the time Japanese mass-media were able to realize the people's distrust to them.

Today we talked about "domestic newts" and "shingeki no kyojin"

Today,　I took a new tutor's lesson. Tentatively, I name her "Ms. E".
At first, I introduced myself. And the topic went to my pets. She has many pets. But when I said I keep newts, her reaction wasn't good.
In Philipine, there are "domestic news". I have never heard of it.

<Picture: a domestic newt in Philipine>

they trespass from outside, and walk on the wall and the ceiling. they are very small, but she dislike them because they often fall on to her while having dinner or watching TV. It surely is so scary!
But she didn't fear of them in her childhood. Maybe, neither did I. Children have much curiosity to everything.
i tried to explain a newt but i missed the vocabulary what i wanted to say. the below is a reminder for me.

両生類　an amphibian (animal). ←for example: a newt, a flog
爬虫類　reptiles ←for example: lizard, a crocodile
哺乳類　the mammals.
鳥類は　birds, fowls, avian(Adjective)
魚類は  fish
And I learned the meaning of "Just chillin'." It's a colloquial expression and mainly used in U.S.
<see the meaning in a dictionary>

And we also talked about Fish Spa. I said I'd seen it before in a "public bath".
But it's just a foot spa. She was kind to send me the pic of a whole-body-fish-spa with a lady.

<fish spa 01>
<fish spa 02>

I learned the new word "ticklish".  It also have another meaning.
<see the meaning in a dictionary>


・ＬＡのコスプレイベントでは、進撃の巨人のコスをしてる人ばかりで驚いたそう。
She likes Japanese animes and mangas a lot. She watched a cosplayers' event in LA and shocked since most of the cosplayers weared the costumes of "Shingeki no Kyojin". I didn't know that this manga was so popular all over the world, She likes it very much too.
<Picture: "shingeki no kyojin">

And I found she was very good in japanese. At first, she looked surprised. Maybe that's because my English speaking was better than she had thought.
She said "Will let you know how I learned the language, i only know basic japanese." and I got her promise that she would show me her cosplay pictures! I'm  really looking forward to seeing them.

a Beautiful Muay Thai lady?

Today I talked with Ms. K***a. She had been working in Singapore for a year and now she commutes to current office spending two and a half hours. [I found that Philipino say "travel" instead of "commute".]   I felt embarrassed because I said to her that I don't want to commute to Tokyo, spending one and a half hours every day and getting on the train packed with lots of business men. She said you can do it, and what I could only say was "year". It should have not quite interesting talk. I hope to have more wit. 

I read her profile before the lesson, and it read that she is practicing Muay Thai; Thai boxing. I was so shocked because her face looks beautiful and calm. But in the lesson it figured out that she just does that like an aerobics, not actually fight with others. It's a little disappointing but makes sense.

I could hear and speak very smoothly this time, one of the reasons is her accent was very clear and she was so talkative and cheerful. But in my heart, I was a little nervous and uneasy somehow. I think I'm prone to someone who is not so talkative but has a calm personality.

And also it's not so happy to have to say I have no job since last February. Sooner or later, must I say I've been jobless for 5 months, 6 months and more? I'd better find any kind of job soon, so as not to lose self-confidence. I almost have paranoia during the lesson, that she might doubt my personality or something...

Why I write this blog; about my objective

The other day I started taking lessons at "***Eikaiwa (English conversation school) " . The fee is just under a thousand yen a month cause it's holding a campaign. But it's valid for the first month only. Well, I can't complain.

The reason why I created this blog is to improve my writing skill. I wanna be more close to a perfect bilingual and be a professional interpreter or a translator in the future. For a while, I'll be writing about the impression and summary of the lessons which I took, and some about attractive and unique Tutors belonged to *** Eikaiwa.

Today, I talked with a Serbian tutor, Ms.Vesna. Unfortunately, there was a line trouble during the lesson. We couldn't connect each other for about 10 minutes, but I asked her to continue a lesson and she was kind to spare me a few extra minutes over the schedule.

I wanted to ask her about Serbian history, but she said it's too complicated to tell me at a time. We introduced ourselves each other as this was our first time to have a lesson. I always tell tutors that I had no jobs since the end of last February. I feel somehow being forced to say I'm jobless for more than four months. Because when introducing myself, one can't avoid talking about one's job, can he? It's not so comfortable, so I'll do my best to get a job as soon as possible.

She said she likes animals, nature and have a long walk. We talked about having a walk and pets. I keep a dog, two cats and three newts! She had kept a Serbian dog and a boyfriend! But she seems to have broken up with him, and now the dog lives with him since then. I wondered if she's lonely.

A lot of female tutors are in there, so taking a lesson has become one of my joy.


In the conversation, I couldn't explain "ブランコの周囲にある鉄の柵の上をバランスとって歩くのが好きです" in English. I referred to a dictionary and figured out what to say.

here: "I like walking on an iron fence that surrounds a swing (an athletic apparatus for children which moves like a pendulum). Taking balance on it is amazing!"