年別アーカイブ: 2015年

ケンジントン薬院 – ウィンザー英会話のご紹介

kensingtonyakuinwindsor_20151103_125244

Tim’s Blog – Kensington Yakuin – Windsor Eikaiwa

ケンジントン薬院 – ウィンザー英会話のご紹介

Hello everyone, today I would like to talk to you a little bit about the new classroom that you can use in Yakuin.
皆さんこんにちは。今日は、新しくご利用いただけることになった、薬院の教室について少しご紹介差し上げたいと思います。

The new classroom is my school Windsor Eikaiwa which I opened about 4.5 years ago. The school offers both private lessons and group lessons and the teachers are mostly me but also Henry who comes three days per week. The group lessons are the same as in Akasaka (with the addition of two extra business classes on Wednesdays) and the atmosphere is just as good, although it is a little bit smaller.
新しい教室は、4年半ほど前にオープンした私のスクール・ウィンザー英会話でもあります。プライベートレッスンとグループレッスンを行っており、先生はだいたい私ですが、ヘンリーも週に3回教えています。グループレッスンは赤坂のものと同じで(ビジネス英語のクラスも水曜日に2つ加わっていますが)、雰囲気も同じようにいい感じです。ちょっとばかり狭いですが。

The school is located between the Yakuin and Hirao stations (about 7 minutes on foot from both stations). You can see the map here:
スクールは、薬院駅と平尾駅の間にあります(どちらの駅からも、歩いて約7分です)。地図はこちら:

http://www.windsorbusinessclub.com/access/

 The schedule is as follows:

Wednesday:

  • 18:30: Business English Level 2,3 (Textbook Class)
  • 19:30: Not opened yet
  • 20:30: Business English Level 1,2 (Flashcard Class)

Thursday:

  • 18:30: Level 1
  • 19:30: Level 2
  • 20:30: Level 3 (From December)

Friday:

  • 11:00: Level 2 (From December)

レッスンスケジュールは、以下の通りです。

水曜日:

  • 18:30   ビジネス英語・レベル2,3 (テキスト使用)
  • 19:30   準備中
  • 20:30   ビジネス英語・レベル1,2 (フラッシュカード使用)

木曜日:

  • 18:30   レベル1
  • 19:30   レベル2
  • 20:30   レベル3 (12月〜)

金曜日:

  • 11:00   レベル2 (12月〜)

You can see the classes you can take and the flashcard links here:
クラスとフラッシュカードは、こちらのリンクからご覧いただけます。

http://www.windsorbusinessclub.com/schedule/

There are very few group lesson students right now and as a result the number of classes is also low, but we hope that as the student number grows we will be able to offer you more classes.The website is here: (please be patient though, it is not entirely ready just yet)
今のところ、グループレッスンを受講の生徒さんはそれほど多くなく、クラスの数も少ないですが、受講の生徒さんが増えてきたら、クラスの数も増やせるかなと考えています。

ホームページはこちら (一部準備中です。ご了承下さい。):

http://www.windsorbusinessclub.com/

 Please remember that you can take any of your lessons during the month at any of our schools.
月4回のレッスンは、赤坂・西新・薬院いずれのスクールでも受講できます。

If you are around the area please feel free to drop by anytime and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
近くにお越しの際は、いつでもお気軽にお立ち寄り下さいね。何かご質問があれば、どうぞお気軽にお尋ね下さい。

I’m looking forward to seeing you there.
スクールでお会いできるのを楽しみにしています。

Tim
ティム

Riri in the mirror

 Riri in the mirror

 I went to the living room. No one was awake yet. I looked at the clock and realized that I’d missed more than ten minutes of the show. Thanks to the girl in the mirror.

A toy commercial filled the screen three or four minutes later. They always run it during that show_ Lego blocks, toy houses and other toys.

 I ran back to the bathroom mirror to see if “I” was there and may be check out what the girl who’s not me was up to. I approached the mirror really slowly. And… this time I saw myself in the mirror as it should be. I smiled and waved to the image in the mirror and the image did likewise. Nothing unusual. Suddenly…the other girl materialized right behind “me”. I mean behind my image in the mirror! I turned and looked around the bathroom. No one was behind me. When I looked back into the mirror, my reflection was gone! In its place was the other girl in the mirror smiling and combing her hair. (My hair was still in the right- after- bed shape).

  I looked at the girl and the girl in the mirror looked at me. “Hi,“ I said. She smiled and said hi but I didn’t hear it. I read it on her lips. We didn’t say anything to each other for some while. We just stood there staring at each other. The girl in the mirror smiled again and was being nice. I wasn’t smiling. I didn’t think it was funny at all! The girl in the mirror had “kidnapped” my reflection. She was now occupying the mirror. Did she expect me to stand there and SMILE?! It didn’t feel like smiling. I was upset and really confused.

I noticed that she wasn’t wearing the baby blue jammies. She’d now changed into a yellow flowery dress. I’m sure I have a similar dress somewhere in the drawers upstairs. She looked kind of cute in it with her nicely combed hair.

 

run it    それ(コマーシャル)を放送する、流す

approach    …に近寄る

likewise    同様に、同じように

materialize    実体化する、姿を表す

kidnap    …を誘拐する、さらう

occupy    …を占有する、陣取る

expect me to   私が…するのを期待する

DVDの貸し出しが始まります!

20151102_141555

Dvd Borrowing (by Tim)

DVDの貸し出しが始まります!

 

We, at Kensington, are very excited to announce that from now on, you will be able to borrow DVDs from our library! We decided to start a DVD collection for our students so you can improve your listening skills and possibly your cultural (pop culture) knowledge.

ケンジントン英会話のライブラリーで、これからDVDも借りられるようになります!リスニング力と、さらには英語圏の(大衆)文化に関する知識も高められればと、皆様にご利用いただけるDVDを揃えることに致しました。

 

The first DVDs we bought for you are the first season of a very very famous American sitcom called “Friends”. “Friends” aired for ten years from 1994 and became a huge success because of its very likeable leads, its pretty good writing and the good chemistry between the young stars. I think it is almost impossible to find a Western person over 20 that has never heard of “Friends”.

最初にご用意したのは、とても有名なアメリカの連続コメディドラマ「フレンズ」の1stシーズンです。1994年から10年にわたって放送され、好感度の高い主役達、よくできた脚本、若手スター俳優達の絶妙な掛け合いで大ヒットしました。20歳より上の欧米人で、「フレンズ」の名前を聞いたことがないという人を見つけるのは、まずないといっていいと思います。

 

The reason we chose it as our first DVD set is that as a sitcom, though the situations can sometimes be quite unrealistic, the English used is mostly everyday English that may be not so hard to understand. Additionally. “Friends”, as one of the most successful shows in TV history, did have a significant cultural impact.

「フレンズ」を最初に選んだ理由ですが、コメディドラマならではの実際にはありえなさそうな状況設定も時々はあるのですが、出てくる英語のほとんどが、理解しやすい日常使いの英語だからです。加えて、テレビ番組史上最大級のヒット作として「フレンズ」は文化に多大な影響を与えたから、ということもあります。

 

When watching TV dramas or films trying to understand the whole thing at one go is almost impossible for all but the most advanced of students, so it is best to concentrate on each scene separately, and while your studying method may vary, we’d recommend a combination of the following:

テレビドラマや映画を見て、話全体を1度で理解するのは、よほどの上級者の方でない限りなかなか難しいでしょう。シーンごとに区切って1つ1つを集中して見るのが一番よい方法です。学習方法はいろいろありますが、次のやり方をおすすめします。

 

  • First, watch the whole episode with Japanese subtitles, so you can understand the premise.

          まず、エピソード全体を日本語字幕付きで見て、状況設定を理解しましょう。

 

  • Second, watch the scenes that interest you without any subtitles so you test how much of the English you can catch / understand. (Try to concentrate as much as you can on listening)

          次に、面白いなと思ったシーンを字幕なしで見て、どのくらい英語を聴き取れるか・理解できるか試してみましょう。(リスニングにできるだけ集中しましょう)

 

  • Thirdly, watch it with English subtitles and try to repeat the language (it may be a good idea to concentrate on language that you think is useful)

          さらに、英語字幕付きで見て、セリフを口にしてみましょう。(役に立ちそうだと思う表現だけ選ぶのがいいかもしれません)

 

  • Finally, write down any expressions/vocabulary that you don’t understand and check them on the internet or on a dictionary or ask us at Kensington!

          最後に、意味が分からない表現や語句を書き留めて、インターネットや辞書で調べたり、スクールで先生に聞いたりしましょう!

 

The steps above are just an idea, you can flip or add steps; basically you can use the DVDs anyway you wish, but please remember to concentrate on listening; if you just sit back watching a film or a TV drama with Japanese subtitles without concentrating on the audio then it has probably zero effect on your English ability.

以上はあくまでも1つの方法なので、順番を替えたり、手順を加えたりするのもいいでしょう。DVDを好きなように使って学習いただければと思いますが、とにかく聴き取りには集中しましょう。聴き取りに集中せず、ただくつろいで日本語字幕付きの映画やテレビドラマを見ても、多分英語力アップには結びつかないでしょうから。

 

You can find the transcripts of all the “Friends” episodes here:

「フレンズ」の全エピソードの放送原稿が、こちらのサイトからご覧いただけます。

http://www.friendstranscripts.tk/

 

We are planning to get many more DVDs for you to enjoy and study. Remember that you need to become a member of the library to use its services and there are two ways to do so:

楽しく学習いただけるよう、さらにたくさんのDVDを揃えていく予定です。DVDを借りるには、まずライブラリーに加入いただく必要があります。加入方法は以下の2通りです。

 

  1. Pay for lifetime at a  cost of 2000yen.

          初期費用の2000円のみをお支払いいただく方法

 

  1. Buy extra tickets which not only are at an excellent price but also include library membership.

          ライブラリー加入権も付いた、追加レッスンチケット(6回・12回)をご購入いただく方法

皆様のご利用を心よりお待ちしております。

福岡マラソン

Jaimie’s Blog – Marathon

福岡マラソン

 

Did it.

やったぜ。

 

After 5 or 6 months of inadequate preparation I finally finished the Fukuoka Marathon.

5か月か6か月の、十分とはいえない準備ののち、ついに福岡マラソンを完走しました。

 

Thank you to the people who came to support me that was very kind and much appreciated. One of our kind students came to see me off at the start and another provided me with a much needed cola and some words of encouragement at the 30 km point. It’s a big shame that Tim couldn’t run this time due to an injury, hopefully we can do it again some time in the future.

応援に駆けつけて下さった皆さんに、お礼を申し上げます。とても優しいお心遣いに深く感謝です。私達の親切な生徒さん達の中には、スタート地点で見送って下さった方や、30km地点で喉から手が出るほど欲しかったコーラと激励の言葉を下さった方も。今回ティムがけがで走れなかったのは非常に残念です。いつかまた一緒に出場できればいいなと思っています。

 

I have never been so underprepared for anything in my life. I assumed that all the 20-25 km runs would accumulate to make it not so difficult to finish. This and my idiotic belief that I am superman made me run the first 30 km too quickly for my level and it took me almost 2 hours to run the last 12. A big thank you to the meteorological agency too who managed to predict the weather completely wrong, forecasting heavy rain all day when instead it was blazing sunshine all day leading me to dress completely wrong and leaving me with some serious sunburn.

人生で、これほど準備不足で何かをしたことは一度もありません。20〜25kmを何回か走った積み重ねがあるから、完走もそれほど難しくはないだろうと思っていました。この考えと、自分は超すげえ奴だというばかげた強い思い込みとで、自分のレベルにしてはあまりなハイペースで30kmを走ってしまいました。おかげで、残りの12kmを走るのに約2時間かかったという始末です。全く大はずれの天気予報をやらかしてくれた気象庁さんにも大感謝ですよ。終日大雨の予報だったんですが、ふたを開けてみればひたすら焼けつくような日差し。そのため、服装が全然天気にそぐわないものになってしまった上に、ひどい日焼けを負ってしまいました。

 

All in all though that was a pretty cool experience, I liked the encouragement from all the people watching from the side of the road, all the high fives and gaijin gambare certainly helped and I would probably do it again just to get the feeling I got at the end when I could see the finish line and people are screaming for you to make it. (I ran the last 750 metres or so as fast as I could to try and look cool)

とはいえ、大体のところはなかなかクールでイカした経験でしたよ。沿道で見守る人達からの激励がよかったですね。ハイタッチや外人頑張れの声援に助けられたのは確かです。遂にゴールが見えたときに感じた、あの感覚をまた味わうためだけに、おそらくまた走るでしょうね。頑張れ!と自分のために叫んでくれている人達がいますからね。(かっこよく見えるよう、最後の750mかそこらはなるべく速く走りました)

 

For sure the 35-40 kilometre section was maybe the toughest thing I’ve done so far, I had to stop a couple of times to because my legs were starting to shake, my feet were starting to blister badly and honestly I thought seriously about giving up more than once or twice.Then I noticed that almost all the people who were in the same starting block as me were running at about the same pace and seemed to be suffering the same as me, had a chat with a couple of guys from a running team and we made a decision to finish slowly but surely together.

35〜40km区間が、今までの経験で一番きつかったものと言ってもいいでしょう。2, 3回は立ち止まらなければなりませんでした。というのも、脚が震え出し、ひどいまめができてきたので、実際のところ、リタイアしようと何度も真剣に思いました。ですがそこで、スタート時に自分と同じブロックだった人達のほとんどが、自分とほぼ同じペースで走っており、自分と同じような状態で苦しんでいる様子であるのに気づきました。ランニングチームの人達の2, 3人と言葉を交わし、ゆっくり、でも必ずゴールしよう、と一緒に決めたのでした。

 

Had an interview for some local T.V station at the end too but I doubt it was used because I was feeling a little pleased with myself and I tried to be funny but quite possibly just came across as a little weird, the pretty announcer girl that interviewed me didn’t look pleased with my answers!

最後には、どこかの地元テレビ局のインタビューを受けました。ですが、採用されるかは分かりません。自分にちょっとばかり満足していたところで、愉快にふるまおうとしましたが、けっこうひょっとして、ちょっとばかり変に見えただけかもしれません。かわいいアナウンサーの女の子がインタビューしたんですが、私の答えを快く思っているようには見えませんでしたからね!

 

I’m not in as bad a condition today as I thought I would be and this will not be my last marathon I think, I can’t forget the feeling at the end. So I will look for another one to run in the near future and plan to take part in next year’s Fukuoka Marathon too so if anyone wants to join me let me know and let’s start training now, going by my performance this year I think the earlier the better.

今日は思ったほど悪い状態ではないし、今回が最後のマラソンになることはないと思っています。最後のあの感覚が忘れられませんからね。何か大会を探して近いうちに走ると思いますし、来年の福岡マラソンへの参加も計画しています。なので、もし私と一緒に参加したい方がいらっしゃいましたら、お知らせ下さいね。早速練習を始めましょう。今年の自分の走りから考えると、早いに越したことはないと思いますので。

 

Jaimie

ジェイミー

Riri in the mirror

Riri in the mirror

Then something even weirder happened…I saw myself or a girl who sort of looked like me sitting at one of those plastic bathroom stools a few meters away in the mirror! “Hey, I said to the girl, Are you… you me?” She didn’t say anything. She just stared at me and I stared back. We stared at each other for some while. Then the girl in the mirror’s mouth slowly cracked into a smile! I smiled back at her. She then stood up and took a few steps towards the mirror and stopped! I think the girl stopped because she saw me backing away from the mirror getting ready to let out a mother of all screams. Suddenly I realized that the girl really looked just like me, wearing the same bluish pajamas and hair all wild like mine. She’d not combed it yet. “Oh, thank goodness she’s me.” I said to myself. But then…listen to this, the girl in the mirror made a face and stuck her tongue out at me! Bewildered, I walked backwards and slammed the back of my head into the wall behind me! I kept my eyes on the girl in the mirror who’s me and may be not me. She didn’t slam her head into the wall behind her, you know the way girls in the mirror do what you do. She just stood there by the mirror looking straight at me! “God whoever you’re, let this be a dream,” I said and sat down and leaned against the wall to keep my eyes off the mirror. You won’t believe what the girl in the mirror did. She leaned forward looking for me! She found me and stared right at me! “Mama…!” I screamed. The girl in the mirror put her finger on her lips in a shh sh! gesture and disappeared. I rushed out of the bathroom to go wake up mom and tell her what’d just happened in the bathroom mirror, but I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. I realized painfully that mom wouldn’t believe or understand my story. She’d either think I’ve completely gone cuckoo or I was making everything up clamoring for undue attention.

weird 奇妙な
stare at …をじっと見る
a mother of all ものすごい、とてつもない(皮肉がこもっている)
realize …に気づく
bewildered うろたえて
lean forward 体を乗り出す
disappear 消える
go cuckoo (俗)頭がおかしくなる
clamor for …を声高に求める(clamor for attention で「注目されたがる、(子供が)構ってもらいたがる」)

西新スクール

Nishijin School.JPG

Jaimie’s Blog – Nishijin School
西新スクール
 

Hello everyone. Hope you are all enjoying this fantastic autumn weather, long may it last!
皆様こんにちは。この素晴らしい秋のお天気を楽しんでいらっしゃれば何よりです。長く続けばいいですね!

I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to our school in Nishijin since not all of you may have heard about it yet. We are always thinking of ways to improve our services to you and one of the things that we haven’t had up till now was the chance to offer you our lessons every day.
ご存知でない方もいらっしゃるかもしれませんので、この場を借りて、西新スクールの紹介をさせていただきたいと思います。皆様のためにサービス向上に常に努めておりますが、1つ懸案になっていたのは、どの曜日にもレッスンを受けていただける態勢づくりです。
 
I had been running my own school for 5 years prior to opening Kensington from a spare room in my house and it was getting to the point where I couldn’t take any more students, so between us Tim and I decided to rebrand my place as the second Kensington.
ケンジントン英会話がオープンする5年前から、自宅の空き部屋を使って自分のスクールを続けてきましたが、生徒様が増え、受け入れに限界が出てきました。そこでティムと話し合って、ケンジントンの2校目としてリニューアルすることに決めました。

It is located on Meiji Dori in Imagawa right next to Imagawa Bashi bus stop and 5 minutes’ walk from Nishijin subway station. You can’t miss it now because there is a huge flashing neon sign outside courtesy of the very generous owner of the building.
スクールは今川にあります。明治通り沿い、今川橋バス停のすぐ前で、地下鉄西新駅から歩いて5分です。ビルのオーナーさんの格別なご厚意で、今特大のネオンサインを置かせてもらっているので、すぐに分かります。

We are open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, please check out the site for the details.
スクールのレッスン日は月・火・木・金です。詳しくはホームページをご覧下さい。

http://www.kensington-nishijin.com/

The lessons are the same as you will get in Akasaka and the atmosphere is just as good although the space is slightly more cramped.
Make sure you check the schedules carefully please, they aren’t the same!
レッスンは赤坂スクールで受けられるものと同じです。雰囲気も同じようにいい感じですが、赤坂よりはちょっと手狭ですね。
スケジュールは赤坂のものとは別になりますので、ご注意下さい。

Please remember that you can take any of your lessons during the month at any of our schools, we just opened up another branch in Yakuin last month.
月4回のレッスンは、どのスクールでも受けることができます。先月薬院スクールもオープンしました。

So if you happen to be in the area or you live or work nearby please feel free to drop in anytime and if you have anymore questions don’t hesitate to ask us.
もしお近くにお越しの際は、またはお近くにお住まい・お勤めでしたら、いつでもお立ち寄り下さいね。何か質問がありましたら、お気軽にお尋ね下さい。

Look forward to seeing you there soon.
スクールで近々お目にかかれるのを楽しみにしています。

Jaimie
ジェイミー

Riri in the mirror

 Sunday morning

 Riri in the mirror

 

It happened a couple of days ago. When I got up, the clock beside my bed said 7:53. That’s seven lousy minutes before my favorite Sunday morning TV show begins. I rushed downstairs in my pajamas. Everyone was still log asleep and the house was awfully quiet.

After using the rest room, I washed my face to wash away the sleep and did what everyone does; I looked into the mirror. And…oh no! I can’t believe I’m about to write this. Anyway, after a quick wash of my face, wiped it with a towel and took a quick look into the mirror. I wasn’t there! That’s right. I didn’t see myself in the mirror! I must be dreaming…  I said to myself. I wasn’t dreaming. I was wide awake standing in front of the bathroom mirror. I wiped the foggy stuff off the mirror, touched the sink, the faucet…everything was real. I waved my hands, made a face, shook my head… There was no girl waving back to me or imitating my moves in the mirror. Confused, I looked around the room. I wanted to scream but I didn’t want to alarm the family.

 

lousy ひどい、質の悪い

log asleep 死んだように眠って

wide awake すっかり目が覚めて

foggy 霧がかかった、くもった

imitate …をまねる

confused 混乱して、うろたえて

alarm …を警戒させる、はっとさせる

レベルチェック&カウンセリング

レベルチェック&カウンセリング

ご自分の今のレベルを知りたい方・英語力アップに役立つ学習アドバイスをご希望の生徒様を対象に、レベルチェックとカウンセリングを実施致します。(無料)

所要時間:約20分
レベルチェック(テスト・評価):約10分
カウンセリング(学習プランニングを含む):約10分

・今の長所・弱点をより的確に把握していただけます。
・長所を伸ばし、弱点を補強する、おすすめの学習方法をアドバイス致します。
・ご要望に応じて、お1人お1人に合った学習プランをご提案致します。

11/14 (土) Tim
14:00 – 14:20
14:20 – 14:40
15:00 – 15:20
15:20 – 15:40

11/21 (土) Jaimie
11:00 – 11:20
11:20 – 11:40
12:00 – 12:20
12:20 – 12:40

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TOEIC単語リスト・場所関連の重要単語カード No.2

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TOEIC単語リスト・場所関連の重要単語カード No.2

This is the second part of words necessary for beginner and lower intermediate students associated with places.

今回は、初級者、および初級者に近い中級者の方が覚えておくべき、場所関連の重要単語の第2部をお届けします。

leave                    去る、離れる

local                     地元の、各駅停車の

location                位置、場所

lot                        (土地の)一区画、地区

move                    引っ越す

outside                 外側の、外部の

park                     (動)駐車する/公園

place                    場所/(動)置く

playground           遊び場、運動場

port                      港

stadium                競技場、スタジアム

stair                     (階段の)一段、階段

step                     歩み、一歩

theatre                 劇場

visitor                   客、訪問者

Flashcards are available for Kensington  Eikaiwa students.

ケンジントン英会話の生徒様は、フラッシュカードもご利用になれます。

At the Movies

At the Movies

Mom and dad didn’t watch the cartoon movie with us, this time. They watched some movie called Hero or something. Don’t know whether they liked it or not, because they didn’t say anything about it. They never say much to each other, anyway.

On the way home, I asked whether anyone had ever seen a cartoon character stepping off the screen to interact with the audience in the theater. “NO!” said Riku, mom and dad almost in unison. “I think I’ve just seen one today,” I said. They didn’t say anything. Everyone in the car didn’t have anything decent to say and we all rode in silence for some while. The silence gave me a chance to think back about what had happened in that theater. If cartoon characters can climb down the screen and punish rowdy kids in the theater, then they can be made to do other useful stuff like cleaning schools and streets or baby sit small kids you know, playing with them and giving them snacks and milk… and Riku and I definitely need help with tidying up our bedroom every day. And like dad said, cartoons do not make unreasonable demands like people. They won’t leave the kids unattended to go out for a 15-minute smoking break. And they won’t ever help themselves on the treats in the refrigerator.

Well, life has unlimited possibilities I guess, if you know where to look and how to dream about them.

interact 交流する、接触する

decent 適切な、妥当な

tidy up …を整頓する、きれいにする

unreasonable remands 理不尽な要求