14th, July, 2013 Sunday

I ate ramen for dinner with my friends. I loved it!!:D After dinner we played set off fireworks. It was first time of the year for me[1]. We play set off fireworks every summer. I've so funny time[2]!!

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You did really well, just a few small problems. So, we say you "set off" fireworks because they're really just explosives. So, you wouldn't say, "I played bombs." That wouldn't make sense. Saying you "set off" the fireworks just basically means you made them explode.

1. I understood what you meant there, but a more natural way of saying that would be, "It was my first time this year."

2. So you have some problems with this sentence. Without the contraction, you're saying, "I have so funny time!!" Because you're talking about something that happened in the past, you use the past tense of "have" which is "had". On the second half, i'm not sure if you meant to say "fun" or "funny" there (they have slightly different meanings). If you meant "fun" the sentence should probably go like this, "I had such a good time!!" or "I had so much fun!!"
If you meant "funny", then the closest thing would be this, "It was really funny!!"

Overseas Trip

I'm making planning an overseas trip plan. I want to visit to New Zealand or Sedona, so I should be saving the money for it. I don't haven't decided when I will I go to there yet, but I'm thinking that at this year's end. I'm not sure how much do I have the paid vacation I have off at my job though right now :/
The fuel surcharge is very expensive. Maybe It may takes around 150,000 JPY to fly between Japan and the middle of the US to for a round trip flight?? I have a lot of time, so I'm going to research well about that :)
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It seems like sometimes you were adding more words than you needed to. I'll try to write the same thing you were saying how i would say it. Maybe that'll help you learn phrases and stuff natives use a lot.

"I'm planning to travel overseas eventually. I want to visit New Zealand or Sedona, so i'd better start saving money for it soon. I'm not sure when i want to go yet, but i'm thinking sometime around the end of the year. I'm not sure how much paid vacation time i have off of work though :/ Flying is really expensive too. It can cost up to ¥150,000 to fly from japan to the central US. I still have plenty of time to decide though, so i'm going to be sure to research it well."

Hopefull that helps. I looked it up, and you're right. A one way ticket to japan is $1,500 (around ¥150,000). A round trip is $3,000 (around ¥300,000). This is the main thing that has kept me from coming to Japan X_X

today

Today was the sports festival in at our high school.
It was very hot and I'm tired.However, we were excited., and enjoyed it very much.
We were divided into three groups: "紅蓮," "黄神," and "青龍".
I belonged to was in "黄神," and our group won!!
I felt the friendship.
I am a senior., so next year, I can't participate in the sport festival.
In the evening we went to dinner together.
The restaurant was full of our high school students.
After that, only six people including me went to karaoke.
Today I was happy!!

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Your english is very good! the only problem you had was with punctuation.

I know when you say you're in a group in japanese, your basically saying, "I belonge to [group name]." But that sounds weird in english. It would be better to say, "I'm in [group name]."

Another common mistake with japanese people learning english is mixing up "at" and "in". Just remember "in" basically means "中", and "at" is more like "で".

Your english is way better than my japanese! :P
頑張れよー！

We Are Young

Yesterday, I went to FUN.’s in-store acoustic live show/concert. My number of ticket wasn’t good, so I was in the 3rd or 4th row. I could see their the faces of all three members, but I couldn’t see Andrew’s hands playing the piano. Too bad:(

The live concert was started by with ‘Carry On’. I had not been into didn't like this song very much. [1] But when Nate started singing, I got goose bumps because of impression. I came to like it. [2] 
They played 5 songs. ‘We Are Young’ was amazing! And, ‘Some Nights’ was also good, but it was would be better to make it a more hard-hitting arrange arrangement…? That’s my personal opinion.
Anyway, every song was cool.

After that, handshake session was held.
Andrew was a lil curt since he came on. But when I said to him, ‘You’re so awesome!’, he smiled. So happy:) Nate was cheerful from first to last,. Jack was so calm. [3]

Only 5 songs they played drawn us into their world. [4] I wanna listen to their songs again and again. (after I finish my term papers…)



I got tumblr account. Check it out.
http://missmykcb.tumblr.com/

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1.  I understand you're using "live" to refer to a live concert/show since japan borrowed the english "live" for that meaning. Just know that most of the time when english words are imported to japanese, they change the meaning sometimes. like "サービス" borrowed a much less used meaning of the word "service". It's not really used to refer to someone giving something to you for free, or doing something for free in english.

2. I'm not sure what you meant by "impression" there, so i didn't correct it. I would say something like, "But when Nate started singing, It gave me goose bumps!"

3. "cheerful" is correct, but it's more formal than the rest of what you wrote. I think "happy" would be a more commonly used less formal word. Also i would say "Nate was happy the whole time" or "Nate was happy from the beginning to the end". "First to last" doesn't usually refer to a period of time when used by itself. "Beginning and end" always means a period of time though, so that would make your meaning more clear.

4. Here i would say something more along the lines of, "They drew us into their world after playing only 5 songs."

英語の勉強頑張れよ！

How I Know Found Italki

I really hope that I improve my English—especially my speaking skill. I don't have no good many opportunities to speak English in my life (1). I always talk with my friends, and family in Japanese. Sometimes I talk with my friends in English. When I speak English, I cannnot say what I want to say well. So I asked my teacher how I can could improve my speaking skill (2). He said I could Skype, but I had had only had Japanese friends in on Skype. So he recommended Italki! :) I was very excited!!! 

It is about for 1 week that I have had Italki I've used italki for about 1 week. Now I have some friends who speak English, French, Chinese, and so on in Italki (3). I am super happy!! And I will improve my English through Italki!

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1. A better way to phrase that sentence would be, "I don't have many opportunities to speak English day to day."

2. the verb "asked" is past tense, but you used "can" which is present tense. So i changed it to "could.

3. The only incorrect thing is this sentence is the "in italki". It should be "on italki". But that makes the end of the sentence kind of unnatural and confusing "and so on on italki". So instead you may want to rephrase the sentence this way, "Now I have friends who speak English, French, Chinese, etc. on italki."y

Good work! Just a few grammar issues. 

How tall are you?

I'm 5.56 feet, or 166.6 cm tall. Maybe I'm one of tall I'm considered tall for a woman in Japan. In Japan, we use unit of the centimeters (1). 1 foot (2) is about 30.48cm.
And We also use the kilometers. 1 mile is about 1.6 kilometers. Sometimes it confuses me when I buy shoes overseas. I never know which size to choose.(3)

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1. I shortened that sentence a little. What you probably meant to say was, "In Japan, we use the unit of centimeters." But I shortened it a little to make it simpler.

2. When it's just 1 foot, you use the singular form "foot". You only use the plural form, "feet" if it's anything over 1.

3. That last sentence was getting confusing when I was trying to correct it. So instead, I just rewrote the sentence how I think you meant it.
 

First notebook entry: Introducing myself

Hi, I'm Saori from Japan.
I want to study English because I like many kind of movies in from America,England etc..and I also like music in from all over the world.
But I don't understand English very well though.
So I want to make friends who talk eachother speak the language I'm learning.
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Your usually not supposed to begin a sentence with a conjuction (and, but, for, etc.). It's not a big deal though. Pretty much everyone does it anyways :P

A lot of the other corrections are over-correcting i think (and some of them using incorrect grammar unfortunately). This is why it's important to actually have an english teacher.

With the corrections I added, this is technically correct. It still seems kind of unnatural though. Here's how I would re-word what you were saying:

"Hello, I'm Saori from Japan. I'm studying english because of all the movies I like from America, England, etc.. I also like music from all over the world. I still don't understand English very well though. Because of that, I want to make friends to help me practice English."

I would suggest getting a real english teacher. You can technically learn english on the internet, but a lot of people either speak very improper english, or just use totally incorrect grammar.

Your english is actually really good though :) keep up the good work!