Thanks to quarantine?(2) (part2) "In Her Shoes" is a story about the relationship between sisters. The younger sister is still searching for a way of living her own life, which any woman has a similar experience. She, played by Cameron Diaz, is not good at reading but tries reading a book for an old man who is a retired professor. She was reading a poem named "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop, and the former professor let her understand the poem by asking her several questions about it. It seemed to be a poem about losing a friend, which I couldn't understand even by reading the Japanese subtitles. On the other hand, "Still Alice" is about a woman aged 50 who is diagnosed with Early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The main character Alice played by Julian Moore is around the same age as mine, which made me empathy for the character's feelings. She gives a speech in front of people who have the same disease. Still to be continued

Thanks to quarantine?(1) I wrote an essay. I'm glad if you make corrections on it. I separate it 3 parts because I wrote too long. (part1) I had been stopping learning English for 6 months while I was working outside. Because of coronavirus, I lost the job. It is surprising that I am not so upset. I think it is because I became able to have a lot of time watching English movies, which makes me happy. There are movie channels in Japan where we can watch movies that we can't watch in cinemas. I have recorded many movies which I want to watch when I get old. I randomly chose "In Her Shoes" and "Still Alice" yesterday. To be continued

Helping my daughter with her English homework(3) My daughter still makes me help with her English homework. She is too shy to ask her teacher about what she can’t understand in her class. It is too hard for me to help her with writing in correct English, because I have forgotten most of English grammar I had studied until I graduated from school. That’s why I started to learn English again. And I wish I can write in correct English near future. Now I am learning English not only for my daughter but also for myself. It is so happy to communicate with people whom I have never seen. Seeing me enjoying myself, I wish my daughter wanted to learn English like me.

Helping my daughter with her English homework (2) But I was disappointed with my daughter. She was too shy to talk with a student from a foreign country. I had forgotten ( I had realized but I wanted to believe she was not so) she was a person who was not good at making friends speaking even in Japanese. She could not talk to the homestay student even in Japanese during her homestay for 12 days! Instead, for me it became a chance to talk in English though I hadn’t used any English for 2 decades. The student told me using “Google Translation” about herself in English which she had studied for only 5 years, even though her native language was French. I felt my English was poorer than hers. By the way, she enjoyed staying in Japan, which made me relieved. And it was a wonderful thing that my daughter seemed to study English harder than ever, thought she said "I will never accept any homestay student!". to be continued...

Helping my daughter with her English homework (1) My daughter is a junior high school student. She started to study English when she entered a junior high school. I have helped her with her English homework which is too difficult for a student who has just started to study. Though she is studying English in English now, she needs more time to understand it. Even though I thought it was too early for her, my family accepted a New Caledonian junior high school student as a homestay last October. It was a big challenge not only for my daughter but also for us family members. I wanted to give my daughter a chance to talk in English and to feel how wonderful the cultural exchanges are. to be continued...

I would like to introduce myself. I am a housewife who live in the suburb of Tokyo. I have dedicated my life to my family after my daughter was born. Because my daughter is a teenager now, she doesn't talk with me these days. I have plenty of time to do anything. So I decided to study English again and to make many friends from all over the world, and I want to get my life back. That's why I am writing this in my poor English now. I am going to try to comment on questions about Japan and Japanese as a Japanese who have spoken Japanese for over forty years, though I am not a specialist of teaching Japanese.