語学練習帖

IE8, philatelic museum

2009-02-14T12:18:00.004+09:00

Due to an announcement to install "IE8," which is the newest version of web-browser by Microsoft, I tried to do it. It took more time to be able to use it than I expected. Other browsers like Firefox and Chrome are faster.

Anyway, I'll go to "philatelic-museum" in Mejiro from now on. Bye for now.

To cook

2008-03-27T18:10:00.000+09:00

(This is a trial translacion from this article in Japanese.)

I almost completed moving now.

The current kitchen is bigger than previous one, and it has more windows.
Of course, I selected such a room :)

Because of getting more comfortable kitchen,
I look forward to thinking about menus every day.

Hearing the above, you may assume that I have friends to let them eat.
Yes, in some reason, but my first reason is different:
"Try & try to create more cuisine, anyway."

Hope to have a person, who eat my cuisine in near future,
because I feel like to cooking in these days.

J'ai commencé la corée.

2008-01-18T17:21:00.000+09:00

Cette année, j'ai décidé d'étudier la coréee. En effet, je l'ai commencé depuis ce janvier. Mais, je ne suis pas habitué à se servir de lire ou écrire les charactères coréens, qui sont 'Hanguru' en ce moment. Ces charactères sont facile d'étudier, parce qu'ils répresenent la forme de notre langue ou autres choses de pronoucer.

En outre, le nombre de leurs est moins de alphabet, qui a 52 charactères.

De toute façon, d'étudier langues étrangères est très intrêssant pour moi. Je vais faire mon plan avec ma éxperience du français il y a environ 10 ans. J'éspère d'écrire les article en corée dans ce blog.

Started to study Korean.

2008-01-18T17:09:00.000+09:00

This year, I'm going to study Korean. Indeed, I started to do it from the beginning of this January.
But, I've not accustomed to reading/hearing Korean characters, called "Hanguru" at present. These characters are easy to study, because they represent the shape of our tongue or other things to pronouce. Additionally, the number of them is less than alphabet, which has 52 characters.

Anyway, to study foreign languages is very interesting for me. I'll make my study plan with my experience of French about 10 years ago.

Confused financial ratios...

2007-10-30T14:26:00.000+09:00

When we check "dividend" of private companies, we face some ratios in order to calculate the profit. For example, EPS is the abbreviation of "Earning Per Share," which means "Net income divided the number of outstanding shares." (To be exact, we need some adjustments about Net income and outstanding shares...)

Here are my memorandum for memorizing the following 2 ratios regarding "dividend."

1) Dividend payout ratio
It's defined as the ratio: "Dividend per share divided by EPS."
In considering that "share"s appeared in both numerator and denominator, we may regard as the ratio of dividend divided by earning. We can understand that it's the tendency of dividend compared to earnings or the company can prepare cash for dividend for investors.

2) Dividend yield
We define as ratio of "Dividend per share divided by MV per share." It's easy to understand when we invest private companies and have to choose some of them. We usually focus on profitability from the dividend or its MV(=Market Value). Dividend yield provides us some useful information about which option we should choose.

If Dividend yield is high, we may expect relatively high dividend compared to its stock. So, many people would expect its dividend, theoretically. On contrast, if Dividend yield is low, the stock price is relatively high compared to its dividend, and we might expect capital gain.

At last, "yield" means the ratio of expectation, and in memorizing 2 ratios above, I notice the basic meanings: "payout" and "yield." Roughly speaking, "payout" is lots of money, and we need to think about liquidity. So, Dividend payout ratio is thought as "Dividend per Earning."
Meanwhile, "yield" means an expected ratio of profitability. So, Dividend yield is Dividend per MV.

To hear English pops with lyrics

2007-10-20T07:45:00.000+09:00

According to the recent implementation of Google document, I attempted to create lyrics with my English songs. Indeed, this implementation enables us to see documents from our cellularphone. Immediately after knowing it, I started to create scripts or lyrics about English singers.

Once I completed some songs, I found that many of sentences are meaningless with respect to grammatical sense... orz

FYI: If you try to create same things, I recommend the songs would be chosen from your favorites.

To do by myself, even if I'm not professional..

2007-10-19T22:50:00.000+09:00

(This is my trial translation of this article in my blogs.)

Recently, I cook my dish, play the piano and create program coding by myself. They're inefficient manner, because we can choose other options in general. Indeed, I'm a beginner in those areas!(>o<)

But, these attempts are useful for me with the following reasons:

1) I have a good time to create those things, even if the results are not good.
2) I can imagine what is the key to improve my results.

Of course, I won't earn a living with them, and would do them for gettin' relaxed to me. Nevertheless, I have many chances to talk with my friends about my hobbies. I'd like to appreciate them for all my friends!

"contradiction"

2007-09-30T01:13:00.000+09:00

I was asked about the definition of "contradiction" in math or logic. Roughly speaking, it's defined that both a proposition A and denied proposition A' are true. In Japanese math class, we face it in junior highschool or highschool in the context that "prove that square root of 2 is irrational number."

In explaining it, I found that the word "contradiction" decomposes 3 parts: "contra"+"dict"+"ion." Let us review in French.

-"contra" comes from a preposition "contre" in French, and it means like "against" in English.
-"dict" comes from the verb "dire" in French, and it's "say" in English.
-"ion" is used in creating femenine noun in French. We can find many nouns finishing "-ion" in English, and they originate French words, in general. (ex. information, installation, and so on..)

In Japanese, we say "Mu-jun" for the word "contradiction." "Mu" is sword and "Jun" is shild, and it seems to originate in Chinese.

dictation/dictée

2007-09-07T01:50:00.000+09:00

(Here is a trial translation of this article into English.)

I practice dictation for my TOEIC test recently, and found that it was much efficient way to improve my listening skill. It's certain that I KNOW this way of studying and its efficiency, but I've not tried it until now...
Indeed, dictation in French is easier than in English for me, caz there're more exceptional rules about English pronouciation rather than French. Anyway, I'll continue this method for the time being.

金・銀

2007-09-02T14:16:00.000+09:00

I was asked about some translactions in French by my friends. They wanted to know French expressions about '金'. Indeed, there're 2 kinds: One is 'gold,' and the other is 'money.'

In French, 'gold' in English is or, and 'money' in English is argent. Before verifying with French dictionary, I returned my answers to them like above.

Because I didn't remember quickly a translation of 'silver' in English into French, I checked with my dictionary. The answer for this question is argent. i.e. French people use a word argent for '銀'(silver) and 'お金'(money).

日本語で説明します（I'm trying to explain the above in Japanese here./J'essaye du expliquer en japonais ici.)

「お金」は「金」という文字を使いますね？英語でいうgold。
一方、フランス語では「お金」を表す語に「銀」という文字を当てます。
英語ではmoneyですが、これは「金」(gold)でも「銀」(silver)でもありませんね。

ちょっとした語源チェックでした♪

Restart a Japanese blog

2007-08-28T23:46:00.001+09:00

I experienced creating blog tool by Movable-Type, and it's tough issue for me to continue... Indeed, I don't enough time to maintain for myself. That is why, I decided to separate blog usage. I'll write this blog except Japanese from now on. On the other hand, Japanese topics will be written in kyoro1 diary♪.

The Hatena service is convenient for web-developer. We can use some html-source code as we like, and if we desire a new function, we're able to require Hatena's develppers.

Indeed, it took only 2 days to re-start new blog, and I like those functions so far.

At last, please allow me to use same topics. I would like to practice writing in foreign languages in this blog, and it's usually very tough in finding new topics ;(

Amazing reply in English...

2007-08-28T18:12:00.001+09:00

I often use English to communicate with my colleagues, and am surprised at seeing/hearing their English expressions.

The other day, I exchanged some opinions with a Chinese person, who was my partner.
I asked a question to him "What ...?"

..His reply was only "Thank you very much."
He might have been busy at that moment, but I wished he had said more anyway, ...

Some conference calls..

2007-08-27T19:28:00.000+09:00

Recently, I experienced some conference calls with foreign people in my work. I have to prepare by myself for attending the call, and it's always tough issue, because it's very long...
Indeed, it took about 1.5 hours to complete today's task, and I got very tired so much.
Can you believe in conf call over 1 hour?

"英語達人塾"

2007-08-12T23:15:00.000+09:00

久々の投稿ですが、今日読んでビビっと来た本の紹介です。

（本来、英語で書くべきなのかも知れませんが、
　この本を読んでから下手な英語は書けないなぁ、なんて。。）

「語学を極める」「英語の達人になる」
といった文脈の場合、他の芸事と同様、近道は存在しないんですね（涙）

とっても重い内容でした（汗）

勿論、私を含めて全員が達人になる必要はありません。

各人のステージや目標に合わせて部分的に取り入れる使い方も出来るかと思います。
イワユルhow to的なものは、とってもオーソドックス
「名文の暗唱／暗記」「辞書引きまくり」「リスニング」「ディクテーション」「
多読」「多聴」
などです。

パンチの効いていたのは、「辞書を端から端まで読む」というもの。

・・・しかも何度も（汗）

星印(*)とかがついてるのだけじゃないんですよ。全部です、全部。
オイオイ、そこまでやるのかよ、、って（涙）

私が見聞した範囲で、
こんなにストイックな勉強方法が書いてある本を読んだことがありません。

何せ目指すところが、岡倉天心とか新渡戸稲造などの
『歴史の教科書に出てくる方々』ですからねー。
そりゃー、気合の入り方も違うかなー、なんて。

・「英語の達人」になりたい方

は勿論、目を通した方が良いかと思われますが、

・そうでなくても「自分の勉強方法に不安をお持ち」の方

も、本書に書いてあることを自分の頭で考えれば、
勉強方法に関しては、「自分の軸」が出来るかと思います。
（正確に言うと、自分の頭で考えないと本書の意図が分からないかも知れません。。
　もっと切り込むと、「自分の軸」を作るのに、とってもよい話題を提供してくれるのが、この本かも知れません。
　万人向けのhow toが存在しないように、各人のhow toは自分で編み出すものなのかも知れませんね♪）

Cosplay au Japon...

2007-08-08T00:03:00.000+09:00

By chance, I found a movie, whose title is "Un duo de Français remporte le championnat de "cosplay" au Japon." In this video, you'll find that Japanese are spoken in almost all explanation. But, this theme is treated as a newspaper of "Le monde," which is, of course, written in French!!

Un duo de Français remporte le championnat de "cosplay" au Japon
LEMONDE.FR | 07.08.07

This kind of export of Japanese culture is, indeed, a little bit complicated for me...

Clean up my room

2007-07-01T02:10:00.000+09:00

The other day, my mother stayed my room. Indeed, I had to clean up my room for her. My room contained many things inuseful for me, I found then. I threw down what will not be useful in future. They say that the room condition reflects the way of thinking of inhabitant.
Certainly, after cleaning up my room, I felt fine in staying my room. I'll make an effort to continu the current condition.

Is it an actual rule for automobile?

2007-06-11T18:49:00.000+09:00

http://video.ask.jp/watch.do?v=57e6235b-5596-4778-854e-e7f619b632b9

Do you know the movie's rule is applied to drivers?

Anyway, I love the BGM ;)

"offline" readers

2007-06-07T08:37:00.000+09:00

According to Official Google Blog, we can see blog even under offline environment, thanks to "Google Gears," which is an application disclosed in Google Developer day.

Indeed, I wonder how many archives we can see under offline environemtn. We find the answer in "Feed on Plane":

Once you've installed Google Gears, you can download your latest 2,000 items so they're available even when you don't have an Internet connection.

That's enough for me the ability of storing 2,000 items to read blog archives :)

Magazines Matching services

2007-06-05T08:18:00.000+09:00

I watched a movie provided by a SNS, before going to my office.

Fujisan magazine service think about dividing magazines business. They provide us with accessing unfamiliar magazines in bookstores.

Generally speaking, consumers' preferences are different, and only limited magazines are appeared in bookstores, because of their capacity. Indeed, there're about 10,000 kinds of magazines, the company's manager sai. ONLY 300-500 magazines are arranged at most. Certainly, I've never heard of this kind of service. We can choose our preferable books or other goods by "amazon.com." If we'd like to purchase magazines, it might be helpful to choose our favorite magazines.

Ref: Fujisan.co.jp

Contest of "Kamehame-ha" in NZ

2007-06-04T22:25:00.001+09:00

In the following movie, you'll see a lot of "Kamehame-ha" figures, which are originally appeared in Japanese manga "Dragon ball." This contest was held in New Zealand, according to an explanation of the movie. All of the participants are very, very excited, and we don't hear the whole word. I've not heard of the contest like this in Japan.

My favorite "Kamehame-ha" is the 1st child's one, because his face is very serious for its contest. I'm interested in the gap between his face and concept of the contest.
Which do you like the best? ;)

Ref: "Kamehame-ha" in actual "Dragon ball" is as follows (in English):

We, Japanese, often watched this animation by TV, and all of the characters spoke in Japanese. So, the animation in English looked out of place for me.

Just in case, here is perhaps original "Kamehame-ha," by "Kame-sennin."

Windows Live Writer

2007-06-03T21:30:00.001+09:00

Indeed, this post is written with "Windows Live Writer" created by Microsoft blog editor. Before installing, I wonder if this CMS application is applicable for all blog service. But, I can write it with it for posting for "blogspot," which is Google blog service.

This CMS application is generous...

FYI, this site is related URL for download/installing this application.

Souvenir from Prague

2007-06-03T19:32:00.000+09:00

One of my SNS friend Nightwish provided me a souvenir. In his business trip, he bought it in Prague, he said. I was pretty glad to hear that he rememberd 31May was my birthday. He lives in Barcelona, where he reside some years. Fortunately, due to his busines trip, I have some occasions where I communicate with him, and his topics are always intellectual and exotic for me!!

Anyway, this souvenir is a golden small piano created in some pieces of glass. I took some pictures, and uploaded one was chosen. Indeed, "gold" color might not go well with me, because my piano technique is very poor (>_<)
I'll have to practice more in order to put the souvenir in my room :)

Legal activity and the global economy

2007-05-24T15:53:00.000+09:00

(This is a homework in my English lesson on 19May2007.)

Today, we face many complicated legal treatments in many situations, as the economy grows all over the world. Assume that the country "A" prohibits to store cinema files on a web-server, but country "B" does not. Even if we live in contry "A", we can access country "B"'s webpage freely on the internet, because we can surf the internet world freely, and the concept "country" becomes meaningless. That is, as the global economy becomes wider, stipulations of law or rule of a country becomes meaningless. If we really restrict an action in the IT environment even in one country, we have to think about it globally.
This way of thinking is applied to other things in general in the business environment, because goods or services can be moved worldwide. At least, when we stipulate rules in business, we'll have to think about business environment in other countries as well.

(Next lesson theme is "the theory of evolution by Darwin.")

"Putting health into the patient's hands" by Google official blog

2007-05-24T13:05:00.000+09:00

Recently, I read Google Official Blog by RSS reader.
In today's article, I found an article which treated "health care."
Certainly, it would be very appreciated for us to be advised by kind doctors. According to the post, Google would like to implement matching functions, by which we can search good methods to cure ourselves.

Discovery - Consumers should be able to discover the most relevant health information possible

Action - Consumers should have direct access to personalized services to help them get the best and most convenient possible health support

Community - Consumers should be able to learn from and educate those in similar health circumstances and from their health practitioners

Will Google be a kind of doctor in near future?!

Original URL:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/putting-health-into-patients-hands.html

Keeping own mental conditon

2007-05-23T21:53:00.000+09:00

I'm planning to play the piano on next Saturday in a party. The participants will be 9, including me, and there will be 2 piano players at that date. So, I prepare some pieces for the party, and I usually practice them, once I return to my home. The primary reason why I continue to practice it is to measure my mental condition. In playing the piano with fun, I should be fine according to my experience.
To be worst, I don't feel to play. In such a day, I decide to sleep early, and prepare next day, because everything I do might be meaningless, I feel...

Oooops, time is up. I have to return to my practice today.