A New Hand Made Tool

I have to wind up some reeled 14-silk-floss onto some small bobbins.
The flosses are some dyed fibers which had been reeled from cocoons and refined.

I made a handle using wire taken from a clothes hanger yesterday.
It helps me to rapidly/quickly spin a bobbin and saves time.

If I had not written this diary, I might have already finished the work. > <

That's a clever idea, the silk looks beautiful. :)

A Solution of the Puzzle

When I folded up some clothes I noticed that a pair of pants had been washed with a small piece of paper in one of its pockets.
On it were some important phone numbers, but, by then many of them had become unclear.
I wrote all combinations of numbers which seemed to be possible while guessing the remaining numbers on another piece of paper, and then I tried them to call them.

I have not made a mistake like this since I began to use smart phones.
I was in dismay. :-(

Oh no! I hope you are able to figure out the numbers.

Thank You.

The English words, "Thank you." are the most well known in the world. It doesn't kill you but it makes others happy. It's a small but strong bridge to connect people.
If you go to a foreign country, what words do you want to know? They should be "Hello" and "Thank you." in the local languages.
Thank you is "Arigato" in Japanese.

Here is a nice discussion, https://www.italki.com/discussion/171315

It's my way to spend today

I was going to go to my university and after that I'd have taken part in a party for new students.However, I caught a cold so I couldn't do that. I played video games, learned about Html, skyped, and watched a movie.Especially, I think my best choice today was to watch the movie.

The movie is about a man who can time travel．He time travelled many times and changed his days．If people could time travel, I think they would want a better or longer life．However,he decided not to use time travelling because he found that it's important to live everyday like the second time at time travelling．That means you should make the whole day more fun, for example to appreciate the beauty of buildings, try new things, find some good points of friends．It's not known when my life will end．So, doing my best is necessary for me．

Essay 02: Learning English as a second language

I read an interesting article about learning English as a second language.

What the author wanted to say is that native language skills are important and necessary for learning another language.

In Japan, English is an essential subject at school. And educational reform on English has been done repeatedly.

The old English education in Japan is so called typical “textbook English”.
We learned English for exams but not for communication.
I know many Japanese don’t have the confidence to speak English, and neither do I.
We don’t have the chance to use it in daily life.

Then people decided to change the current style of teaching English at school to more useful, practical and conversational English. But the earlier style of English education is thought to be better.

The author is afraid that Japanese people tend to prioritize learning English rather than our national language, Japanese.
And he thinks that learning English as a second language is based on native language skills.

He said that reading and writing skills in English should be connected to translating skills in Japanese.
Listening and speaking skills in English should be connected to interpretation skills.

He also said that our thoughts are based on our native language. And communication is based on how to express our thoughts.

Then I remembered my weird experience when I was studying English,

I was thinking over a certain English word, and I ambiguously could understand the meaning of it by reading English explanations.
But I couldn’t come up with the word that was equivalent to it in Japanese,

Sometimes there is no exact word in another language, just like culture, I think.
But, in this case, I just didn’t come up with the Japanese word, because I didn’t really understand this Japanese word.
That means I was struggling with Japanese, not with English.
When I realized it, I got a bit shocked.
And I felt that I need to learn Japanese too.

Learning English tells me how important my native language is.
And I appreciate that I can express my feelings in Japanese.

Introducing my prefecture*

I live in Tottori prefecture. My prefecture is famous for its sand dune. It is called Tottori sand dune. It is the largest in Japan. There is also a beautiful mountain which is called Mt. Daisen. You can eat the famous chicken at Mt. Daisen.
There are many types of seafood in my prefecture. You can eat them easily and cheaply. In winter^, the crab is in season. You can eat as much as you like.
You can go skiing in winter and go to the beach in summer.
My prefecture is in the countryside but still a good place to live.

* "My place" usually refers to your actual house, you could say "my area" instead.

^ You don't have to say "season" after the name of the season.