Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking off and on about what I would like my New Year's resolution to be. New Year's resolutions are goals that many people make at the beginning of the year. I know, I know. It doesn't really seem like a "New Year's" resolution if it's already nearing the end of January and I still haven't decided on one yet. Maybe my goal should be to make decisions more quickly. Then, last night over dinner with a friend, the topic came up again. He asked me what I had resolved to do this year, and I didn't have a good answer for him. Now, the pressure is on!


Lots of people make the same kinds of resolutions every year, and never keep them. After doing a quick search on the internet, I learned that nearly half of all Americans make at least one resolution each year, but most of those people cannot keep their resolution beyond the first month. The majority of those resolutions have to do with health, money and employment; they include things like reducing stress (especially at work), keeping more money in their savings account, quitting smoking, having a healthier lifestyle and losing weight. All of those things are fine in and of themselves, but I want my resolution to be something original.


The first thing I thought of was to learn more Japanese. This would be no easy task for me, because I am embarrassed to admit that I've lived here for 2½ years already and still can't go past the basics. I like living in Japan and hope that I get to stay here for a while, so knowing the language should be a lot higher on my priority list. It would certainly make doctor's visits and grocery shopping a lot easier, and hopefully I'd get a few friends out of it, too! But I'm not ready to settle for that as my only resolution.


There were only two other things that came to mind. One was to write more letters (by hand!) and the other was to read more books. More exactly, I should say that the other was to finish more books. I am notorious for buying books, starting them, then getting bored or finding something else interesting to read, and never finishing them. I have even made an agreement this year with one of my students that we would both read an entire book by the end of March.


But genuinely, the hardest part about New Year's resolutions isn't coming up with an idea about what I want to change or improve (I think we ALL have plenty of ideas about that), but rather it is coming up with ways to keep those resolutions. This year, here are a few of the techniques I've decided to try:
• Don't make the goals too high or the projects too large. That doesn't mean I should have lower expectations for myself, but I have to remember that if something seems overwhelming, it's easier to get discouraged if I'm not making as much progress as I'd like.
• Try to find ways to motivate myself. In order to pique my interest in writing letters, for example, I made some cards by hand and found some really nice paper at a department store. Now, I'm eager to put those materials to good use.
• If possible, share your goal with a friend. (Or in my case, with a student!) Doing something with a friend is always more fun than doing something by yourself. It's also better to have someone holding you accountable for "finishing what you start."

So for now, that is where I'll begin. I'm still trying to think of my most creative resolution, but I can't put off starting those goals any longer. What about you? Have you resolved to do anything special this year? If you have, why don't you tell me about it? I'm always looking for great ideas, and of course, I'm looking forward to hearing from you when you reach your goal.

Good luck in 2009!




▼▽▼▼Melanieの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【Fun With Morphemes】2008.10.17 (Fri)
・【More About Morphemes】2008.11.21 (Fri)
・【Happy Holidays!!】2008.12.26 (Fri)

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Kaplan is known around the world for its test preparation programs, so we
have many students who are interested in studying abroad and need help improving their TOEFL scores as well as their scores on various university admissions tests such as the SAT, GRE and GMAT. These students come from many countries, not only from Japan, and include native English speakers as well as language learners. Increasingly, these tests are also required for admittance to schools in Japan, or by employers who want a realistic score to judge the English ability of prospective employees.


While nearly all students are able to improve their scores significantly, some are unable to achieve the scores they desire because their English ability is at a generally low level. In these cases, students will benefit by taking advantage of other programs we offer such as grammar review courses; skill development courses in listening, speaking, reading and writing; as well as fun and interesting workshop classes.


Whatever your goal, whether to enter a top university, to get a better job, or just to improve your English level, Kaplan can provide the training you need.




▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【How much will I improve?】2008.10.08 (Wed)
・【The Importance of Writing】2008.10.29 (Wed)
・【Bias in the News】2008.11.19 (Wed)
・【TOEFL iBT】2009.01.07 (Wed)

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When I was studying in the UK, I took some chances to have short trips by coach, a single decked long-distance bus. My reason to do was very simple - it was cheap. I had often taken coach in the evening, and I arrived at new place to visit in the next morning. I could sleep in the coach, and save my money and time.


In those trips, sometimes I was lucky enough to have a seat next to interesting people whom I loved to talk with. Conversations in coach could be started sometimes by just saying hi to them or by more complicated ways.


One day, one little girl with her mother got on the coach from London to Liverpool. I was reading a book at that time, but I could not get into the story of the book. The girl took a seat next to me, and her mother had a seat across the corridor. The little girl (could be 5-8 years old) looked up to me and just gave me a small smile, so I looked back to her and said hi. I tried to go back to read the book, but I noticed that the girl swinging her legs a little. I imagined she was bored, so I started to talk to her. I realized that she had a cute hairy backpack, thus I decided to use it as a talking point.


"You have a cute bag. It's Teletubbies, right?" It's children's TV series.

"Yes."

"Your green one is called.... Laa-Laa?"

"No! Laa-Laa is a yellow one! This is Dipsy."

"The shape of Laa-Laa is like..." I opened my sketch book and started drawing a poor thing.

"No, no, Laa-Laa is like... this!" She could not stand my poor drawing, so she took my pencil and started drawing.

"Tinky - Winky is like this, isn't it?" Her mother supported our conversation from time to time.


We talked and talked on many things, including her dreams and my dreams for almost 2 hours. She drew herself wearing China dress singing (her dream was to become a singer like Spice Girls and travel around the world) and gave it to me. I t was almost Christmas time, and I was missing my family at that time. But the conversation with her made my heart warm. I still keep her drawing in my drawer.


I guess physical closeness in coach and a bit of excitement in trips could make people closer mentally. Needless say, we are not always luck to have good conversations with strangers, but when it happens, it will left you up and you could feel that English opens a new windows of the world.




▼▽▼▼椎名さんの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【High motivation is a key of success?!】2008.10.20 (Mon)
・【Iraqi refugees in Jordan- part one】2008.11.17 (Mon)
・【Iraqi refugees in Jordan- part two】2008.12.08 (Mon)
・【India as my school】2008.12.15 (Mon)

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Hello everyone, did you enjoy your winter holiday?
Today I would like to talk about French, and how it came into the English language. We have many, many words in English that we borrowed from French. This is because it one time, about 1000 years ago, people in England all spoke different languages, and one of them was French.


In the year 1066, a man named William Duke of Normandy invaded England. William was from a group of people called The Normans, who spoke French. Norman means North Man, or a person from the north of Europe. Normans originally came from Scandinavia and settled in a place in the north of France, now known as Normandy. They settled down in France, and changed their language from the Germanic language of Scandinavia to a form of French. So they were originally Vikings from Scandinavia, but they spoke French.


At that time, Kings and other Aristocrats were often related to the Kings and Aristocrats in other countries. When one King in England died in 1065, many people claimed they were the next in line to become King of England. There was fighting all over England between people who wanted to become the next King, and a lot of people were killed in battles.


One of these people was William Duke of Normandy, another was a man from Denmark called Harald Hadrata. Harald came from a group of people called Saxons, who had conquered large parts of Britain in the past. He had a lot of success and was very strong, but then in 1066 William Duke of Normandy invaded England from France and defeated Harald's army of Saxons in the Battle of Hastings. Harald was shot in the eye with an arrow and was killed.
The events in the Battle of Hastings have been recorded in the Bayeaux Tapestry, a big picture of the battle. If you want to see some pictures, please click this link


William took over England and made a lot of French-speaking Normans lords in England. William actually went back and lived in France, but his lords helped him to rule the country.
So, in the year 1066 there were three languages spoken in England - French by the rulers, German by the common people, and Latin by the Priests in the Church. Since that time, all these languages have joined together to form English. When you study English you are actually studying three languages - which is one reason why English spelling is so complicated.


Let's have a look at some French words that we often use in English.
Government
Hospital
Attitude
Employee
Mathematics


Of course, French comes from Latin so it can be difficult to tell the difference between words that come from French and words that come from Latin, and actually people still argue about the origin of these words. According to some people, native English speakers know about 15,000 French words even if they have never studied French. So, the good news for English students is that if you learn to speak English, you have a big advantage if you want to learn French!
Let's all say thank you to William Duke of Normandy!
Merci mon liege!




▼▽▼▼Eddieの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【A Short History of English】2008.10.10 (Fri)
・【The Anglo Saxons invade!】2008.11.14 (Fri)
・【The REAL meaning of Christmas】2008.12.19 (Fri)

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One of the toughest things to convince my students to do is to take actual prep-tests under test conditions, and report the results to me. I understand why this is, of course; it's embarrassing to study like crazy, spend hours and hours participating in classroom discussion, and then do poorly when you try to take a "real" test. That having been said, it's vital to your success that you have--throughout your preperaton process--an objective and accurate gauge of your progress. By taking full tests and working full sections under timed conditions, you gain the endurance that you will need when faced with the pressure of test day. Also, you learn to budget your time and to be comfortable working with the clock.

I think that most students find the practice tests stressful and discouraging because they don't use the results the way they should. Use your practice tests to gauge your progress over time, to help you understand exactly how many extra questions you have to get right to get your target score, and to build strategies for time- and stress-
management on test day. Here are a few specific tips:

1) Most students do not do as well on timed practice as they do in the classroom, so don't be surprised when you miss questions on the practice session that you would have gotten right in class. When we study in class, I'm helping to guide you through the questions, pointing out issues that help you eliminate wrong answer choices and zero in on the right ones. Also, in class, there's no "time limit" per se, except that which I give you. So while, on the SAT or LSAT, you may only have a minute or so per question, in class I may give you two or three minutes to allow you to fully evaluate all of the answer choices.

2) As you work through your practice section, note answer choices that you were choosing between, and then review the explanations for the ones you got right, and the ones you got wrong. Remember that you will see not only similar questions on test day, but similar answer choices. That way, when you see a similar question on the test, you might well be able to anticipate the correct answer, and dismiss tempting trap answers.

3) Don't lie to yourself, and don't lie to your instructor! Keep accurate, merciless records of how you did, and chart your progress objectively. Use that information to set realistic goals, and then work toward those goals as test day approaches. Remember that, as you do better and better on the test, the difference between an average score and an outstanding score will only be a few questions! Talk to your instructor about your scores, your goals, and your preperation methods, because we are all here to help you do your best!

4) Finally, don't get discouraged. These tests are tough and tricky because they're designed to be tough and tricky. But other students before you have succeeded, and you will too!




▼▽▼▼Douglasの過去の記事を読む━━━━━━━━━━━
・【Smoke and Makuuchi】2008.10.01(Wed)
･【It's Always Something】2008.10.22 (Wed)
・【Working the Corners】2008.11.12 (Wed)
・【Logic Games】2008.12.03 (Wed)
・【A Truth about Application Essays】2008.12.24 (Wed)

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