Twitter has finally caught on among the general Japanese public. At least that's how I see it. There are many books on Twitter published in Japan, and after all, I myself started using Twitter this month!
Actually I wouldn't have started it unless I saw a great potential in Twitter as a means of helping us Japanese to speak out in English.
I don't want to be too lengthy here, but Twitter reminded me of how I started to learn English seriously some 30 years ago. That was when I started to force myself to think aloud in English, in other words, twitter in English, after I had silently learned English for six years in high school.
Naturally it was very difficult for me to use English as a tool to express my ideas at the beginning. However, before I knew it, I started to think in English even when I think silently. Thanks to this practice, I became fluent in English and overcame the language barrier.
Twitter is easy to use. The limit of 140 words is a great plus for English learners too because they don't have to think too seriously before typing. Above all, we can share what we tweet. We can start communicating with each other. We can make new friends, including people from abroad when we twitter in English.
So I suggested three easy steps for my countrymen to start twittering in English 4 days ago:
1. Make it a rule to send at least one English tweet a day.
2. When coming up with something we cannot express ideas in English, we use the hashtag that I created, #eigodewa, which means in Japanese "What's that in English?"
3. We help each other by providing answers to the questions raised in #eigodewa.
So those are the three simple steps, and I would like to invite anyone interested to join us regardless of their nationality.
For your information, there is another hashtag #twinglish (tweet+English) where we try to make an English speaking/tweeting community based in Japan.
1. There are piled up snow. 2. It is piled up snow. 3. Snow is piling up. 4. The ground is covered with snow! 5. It is covered by thick snow. の中では、3番のSnow is piling up.がいいと思うと3名の方からリスポンス頂きました。
それに加えて、6. It is really snowing a lot, isn't it? 7. So much snow around here. 8.The snow is piling up. とのリスポンスも。有難うございます。
私 "You know, Mr. Stroman(恩師の名前), there's a lot of snow out there. I wonder what particular expressions you use when you see snow, you know, being accumulated like today?"
"Oh, we say, it's piling up,"
ということで、"pile up" という動詞が雪に使われると聞いて、とても面白いと思いました。当時は"Books are piled up."とか "My work is piled up."という使い方は知っていたのですが、中々雪と遭遇するチャンスがなかったものですから。
ちなみに、"I am snowed under."といえば、仕事に埋もれているという意味になります。
ですので、"pile up"を使われた方も素晴らしいです。その場で降っている雪を見ながら言うなら、8番のThe snow is piling up. 降り止んでいたらThe snow is piled up.で、もし聞き手と同じ雪を見ていないのでしたら、冠詞抜きの3番 Snow is piling up.となるかと思います。