Search from various English teachers...
Profile
I am originally from Japan and currently a graduate student in the UK. Will update my profile soon!
Learning
English
Language Skills
JapaneseNative
Lesson Feedback
Lesson history
 Last monthLast 3 monthsAll time
Completed lessons000
Attendance rate100%100%100%
Teacher reviews
No record
Activities
  • Posted
    Time clauses It's been a while since I posted last, and it took me long to recall how to write a notebook on italki. I am an intermediate learner and can communicate what I want to express to an extent. Though many say "don't care too much about grammar", I sometimes feel that to reach a more advanced level, it is good to know grammar, which I learned at school a long time ago, and so is getting rusty. Therefore, I decided to learn it again and post what I learned today. I sometimes got confused about the tense of verbs in time clauses like "after I finish/finished my homework, I will go out". Today, I learned again that the basic rule is to use the present form. So for the above sentence, the right one is "After I finish/have finished my homework, I will go out". If I understand correctly, the past tense can be used if the main clause is also in the past tense (I forgot the name of this rule). For example, "The director stopped the actress before she had finished her line." or "The thief had escaped when the police arrived."
    May 15, 2020
    3
    0
  • Posted
    A rainy day The weather this weekend is not good, and the forecast says it will be a record-breaking rainy day tomorrow, in terms of rainfall. I like being at home when it rains obviously because I don't want to get soaked but also because the sound of rain is soothing, so I want to hear it at a comfortable place. I find it really interesting that people think of rainy weather in different ways. Some friends of mine are from countries with low rainfall. Last time we talk, they said a rainy day actually make them happy and even feel like going out, which is, in fact, what they used to do back in their countries. This is a fascinating view point as I am from a country with a plenty of water and never get that excited before.
    September 15, 2019
    3
    0
  • Posted
    Hard to keep posting It's been a week since I wrote last. I've got too much going on and have been too drained to write something. Therefore, I decided to do nothing but having a rest, ended up binge watching Netflix shows, which actually helped me learn a lot of new words. 1. Intestine （腸） The only word I knew was "gut". This came out of the show in which Jack Whitehall travels with his father. Jack was eating it at a street food restaurant in Thailand. 2. Ointment (軟膏） Ointment is a kind of skin cream or something containing medicine. I have never used an ointment outside of Japan and did not know the term. Medical terms are harder to come across than those in other categories because I try to be healthy and not get injured.
    September 8, 2019
    0
    0
  • Posted
    What is the point? You probably have seen drinks served in a glass with a slice of lemon on the rim. What is the point of having it? Unless put in the drink, the lemon won't do anything taste-wise. It feels like it is just dumped as no one eats.
    August 31, 2019
    0
    0
  • Corrected
    中国語の勉強を頑張りましょう！

    中国語<s>は、</s>に約５年前から興味を持っていますが、最近になるまで勉強していませんでした。その理由は、発音が複雑<s>し </s>で漢字が多<s>いし</s>く（comment: "多いし"は文章だと不自然) 難しすぎると言われてい<s>る</s>たので、怖いと思ってい<s>るのです</s>たためです。<s>変わったのは、色々なことだと思います。</s>以前と比べて色々変わりました。

    <s>第一のは</s>変わったことの一つは、私が台湾人の彼女と付き合ってい<s>ます</s>るということです。やはり中国語を母語として、話している時に「すごい」と<s>＝</s>感じます。聞けば聞くほど、中国語<s>が</s>は変で勉強<s>が</s>するのは無理だというイメージは少しずつ変わったと思います。その上に（色々な理由で今二人の将来について不安が少しあっても）付き合い続ければ、家族<s>と</s>に会うとか<s>の</s>という目的のために話せることが大事になるでしょう。

    それから、数ヶ月前に大学を卒業し<s>たら</s><s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">て</s>、僕の生活が変わ<s>って</s>り、<s>したいことについては、</s>やりたいことについてもっと深く考えるようになってきま<s>す</s>した。中国語に関する目的（ 理由？）について考えたら、「なぜ行かないか」と考えたのです。難しそうでも、日本語とかも大学のことも難しいと言えるでしょう。それで、できるはずです。
    > what do you mean by 「なぜ行かないか」?

    今、二週間ほど勉強しています。最近の問題はやはり発音ですが、思ったよりも難しくないと思います。例を挙げると、まだ声調がよく話せなくて分かりませんが、それでも４声しかないので、何回も練習すれば、少しずつ上達でき<s>る</s>るのではないでしょうか。こんな風に、勉強しようと思っています。
    > I am not familiar with the phonology of Chinese, so I didn't edit the third sentence （４声は４音？）

    I've marked more natural phrases with orange and made corrections in red.
    もっと自然に直せる部分はオレンジで訂正は赤字で行いました．
    0 voted
    August 28, 2019
    3
  • Posted
    Latitude and Longitude These are two words I often forget. Today, I had a change to use them. I will write a post so I won't forget. Latitude and longitude are coordinates giving a location on the earth. Latitude gives a north-south position, whereas a longitude gives a west-south position. If we draw grids with latitude and longitude on the earth and say that the south to north direction is the vertical direction, latitude lines are given by vertical ones, and longitude lines run horizontally.
    August 27, 2019
    2
    0
  • Posted
    Green beans I ate beef merlot for dinner. Beef merlot is sliced (or cubed) beef steak cooked with vegetables like carrot, potato, and green beans in gravy sauce (Maybe wine sauce because it is merlot? I am trying to describe what I ate without looking at the correct definition). I have never known "green beans" until I decided to write this post. This is because, in Japanese, green beans and kidney beans are essentially the same (they are called Ingen); but there is a slight difference between them; while kidney beans are called Ingen, green beans are called "Saya-Ingen = kidney beans in a (sword) case". Words relating to food are still confusing to me, I need to study harder!
    August 26, 2019
    4
    0
  • Corrected
    僕の日記: ロシア

    今日はロシアの政府を勉強しています。ロシアの大統領(<s>プチン</s>プーチンさん)は頭が良いけど政治的な力<s>が</s>を持っている。しかし西洋の首相は<s>プチン</s>プーチンさんにちょっと怒って<s>しまた</s>しまった。西洋の市民はロシアが分かりにくいと言いましたね。Dostoyevsky とLeninの本を読みたい<s>から</s>ので<s>未来に</s>いつかロシア語を勉強したいです.

    I've marked corrections with red and added more natural phrases in orange.
    To me, "いつか" (meaning some time) sounds more natural than "未来に".
    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    0 voted
    August 25, 2019
    0
  • Corrected
    もっと運動する

    よろしくおねがいします。私の文章を添削してください。私の目標は文法的な文章を書いて正確な意味合いを使いたいです。私は<s>たくさん言葉がまだ習わなかったから</s>習っていない言葉がたくさんあるので、時々辞書で引いています。手伝って頂けると有難いです。

    I'm still learning the kanji to apply to my existing vocabulary, so my writing is a mix of basic kanji and hiragana. If I don't know a word that I need, I try to find it in a dictionary, but that means I might not use it correctly or there might be a more accurate word for my meaning. My goals are to be grammatically accurate and to use words with the right nuance of meaning for the context.


    今日の文章:
    <s>かつては</s>昔（むかし）は毎日二回家の犬と一緒に<s>二回の</s>散歩をしました。今はあまり運動をしません。もっと運動するべきです。しかし夏<s>に</s>は昼間がとても暑い。明け方<s>に</s>は涼しいですが私<s>が</s>は遅く起きます。いつもより早めに私が起きて<s>足早に</s>散歩するべきです。

    Today's text:
    In the past, I walked my dog twice every day. Now, I don't exercise much. I should exercise more. However, it's very hot during the day in the summer. It is cool at dawn, but I get up late. I should get up earlier than usual and go for a walk.


    Notes:

    "かつては", "今は" ― Should I have used "に" instead of "は"? Or is "は" all right since I am changing the topic from the past to the present in order to compare them?

    > You are right. But I changed it to ”昔は" (meaning the same) as かつては sounds more formal (and sounds like in ancient times).

    "もっとうんどうするべきです" ― I found "べき" in the dictionary when trying to find the right way to convey "should, ought to." The phrase I learned would use "もっとうんどうしたほうがいいです", but that seems like it's for recommending something to someone else, or for "I would like to" rather than "I ought to." I also saw "なければなりません" in the dictionary, but I didn't know how to use that phrase.

    > Grammatically, "もっとうんどうするべきです" is okay. I would say ”もっと運動しなければいけないなと思います" or "もっと運動しなきゃ”. The latter is more colloquial.

    "早めに" ― I know "早く" for "early," but I wasn't sure how to convey the concept "earlier than usual." I found "早くから" and "早めに" in the dictionary, and after studying the example sentences I went with "早めに." Did I make the right choice? Is there a better word?

    > I added ”いつもより". "いつも" means usual and "より" means something like than, so
    "いつもより” = than usual. Combined with the adverb "早めに", it means earlier than usual (not sure what is the best grammatical terminology for this).


    時間をとっていただいてありがとうございます。Thank you for taking the time to help me.
    0 voted
    August 25, 2019
    3
  • Posted
    My first entry This is my first post on italki. I was looking for a service like lang-8, which I used to use as I can post something short to practice (and remember) what I learned. Italki seems to be a nice alternative, so I decided to use it. What did I learn today? It is the word "dashboard'. I wanted to describe an Uber driver I met the other day. He is from Australia. Not only did he speak Australian English, but he had a kangaroo figure on the car dashboard, which helped guess where he was from. But I did not know the name of the space on top of the AC or the car navigation of a car, which is where you can put figures and presumably called a dashboard. Anyway, I want to practice making sentences like this quickly. Hopefully I can continue and make this a habit.
    August 25, 2019
    3
    2