英語deつぶやきTwitter!

One of the good things that I did in the last few months is starting the online English club and getting it into gear. So far, we've held 3 trial sessions for guests who were interested in our club and I am very happy to announce that all of the guests have joined the club! Now we've got 10 members altogether, which is very exciting! I hope all the members in the club have a great time speaking English and also improve their English skills!  It was a tad hard to arrange and operate everything from scratch but thanks to our hard work and effort,  we were able to pull it off! Now that the club is settled and heading for the good direction so I can be more relaxed and do some other stuff I want to do.

Hello, there. Today I had my first language-exchange session with the Brisbane girl who stood me up last Monday(^m^). She apologized me for not turning up last time. She said she had forgotten to write about our appointment in her diary. Anyway it's water under the bridge. We should move on.

We started our first session in English first. I was totally taken aback because she spoke extremely fast!! I don't know anyone who speaks as fast as she does!!! She speaks very quickly and she doesn't stop!! I was very busy trying my best to keep up with her but I think I understood about 70% of what she said. After the session I said to her how fast she had spoken and she apologized for it. She said even her Aussie friends complain about her speaking speed and tell her to slow down. Well, I was glad to know that I was not the only one who had trouble understanding her. She asked me to tell her to slow down a bit if she is speaking too fast,which made me felt better.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed at today's session because I couldn't get to talk as much as I wanted but I should try to look on the bright side, shouldn't I. This will be a great training in terms of improving my listening skill and improving my cutting-in-on- a-conversation skill, you know what I mean?(^m^) And if I can make a conversation as much and fast as she does, that means I will achieve my goal!!

Hi, there. Today I attended another Skype English session with my friends. We discussed Japan's increasing divorce rate and same-sex marriages. I think I handled pretty well with the former topic but I was kind of struggling with the latter one. The reason why I struggled was simple; I hadn't prepared it well enough to express my opinions about this touchy and controversial issue. I have been studying English using this text book called Opinion 1400 by Z kai and it carries articles about this topic. I have studied these articles for quite a long time so I thought I'd done enough but it turned out that I was wrong. I have been slack in terms of digging into discussion topics and studying them. So I've decided to turn a new leaf and plug away at this area, too. Now I've got lots to do regarding English study, so I will tackle them one by one and little by little so that I don't get overwhelmed by them.

I've spent a lot of time on the Virtual English Club forum again! Today I devoted myself to creating my own signature that I put at the bottom of my posts in the forum.

I had heard someone talking about this 'signature' thing before but I didn't have a clue what that meant. Well, I had been wondering how other members in the club had been managing to put up a notice of their blogs' URLs at the bottom of their each and every post. I had thought that they had been putting up those information every time they had made a post, which was extremely time-consuming and irritating task to do. But now I know that what was behind it! They had been using a signature function and had created their own signature, well.. it's not technically a signature, it's more like a notice of their blogs and twitter IDs and every time they've made a post, the signature shows up on the post automatically! How handy is that !! I can't believe it took me such a looooooong time to make this fantastic discovery!! (^^;) But now that I've got my own signature, which took me hours to complete, I can enjoy activities in the club in more relaxed way.　

By the way, our club has been getting several new members recently, which is great! I hope they enjoy their activities in the club and improve their English skills as much as possible!

＊大過去（had ＋past perfect(V)）がいまいち曖昧。後でゴリちゃんに見てもらいます。

I have been wrapped up in writing articles on the Virtual English Club forum. Today I have incorporated a new roll-calling system into our Skype English session team. The system is actually a website called 出欠党幹事長 and It's really convenient and easy to use. All you have to do is just to fill in details of your meeting and make a URL of attendance chart by a click. And then you just post it on your website or send it to people. The good thing about it is that everyone can check attendance charts any time. I hope it works well for us. I am a bit tired. I need a break!! 出欠党幹事長 website? Click here

Oh well...My language-exchange partner didn't show up, I mean she didn't get online(^^;) Today is a pubic holiday( Queens Birthday) in Queensland and I guess she has forgotten about our session because of it(^^;) I was kind of toying with the idea that I should double-check with her beforehand but I didn't. Anyway I was a bit disappointed but this kind of thing happens sometimes. I will snap out of it and do things I want to do(^^)

Good morning. I am feeling good this morning although I was kind of expecting some muscle pain in my legs and back since I had walked up the steep slope and exercised on the treadmill yesterday. There is a little pain in my bottom but this is nothing. OK I will finish up the housework and get down to English study and other stuff I want to do. By the way, I am going to have a Skype language-exchange session with an Aussie girl who lives in Brisbane at 10 a.m.. I have never done this before so I am a bit nervous but also excited.

Gori's gone to Brisbane to take his final course to become a gas fitter. He got up at 4:30 this morning and drove down. He will come back this evening. I had a good chat with my Skype session friends in Japanese this morning. I feel a bit tired physically but I feel like doing something, something productive. I am toying with the idea of making my new English study strategies. What can I do? Planning is fun, isn't it?

Yesterday I had another Skype English session. We discussed pets( Are you a dog person or cat person?) and animal abuse & cruelty( battery hens and animal testing). The last two topics were very controversial and tricky topics to discuss, but I enjoyed it. I went to bed early last night because I felt a bit sick. I think I've had more than enough sleep last night but I am still tired(^^;) My head is fuzzy. By the way, this tweet entry is the 100th one!! Good on me!!

Morning. I attended another Skype English session yesterday and I had a very good time! My head was much clearer and more active so I was very happy about it. We had a bit of a discussion, the (×whose) topic was ' Is it essential to learn grammar when you learn and master a language?' This is a profound question for language learners. I was the one who brought this up and I did that without any previous notice. So honestly I was a bit worried if I might have dragged the other members into trouble (^^;) But I could really use other language learners' opinions so I took the plunge. Anyway we had a lively discussion and I feel I have come to my conclusion about this topic.

*This entry has been corrected by Gori.

whose の関係代名詞の非制限用法（そしてその人の～）は人のみに使える。

I am doing well today. I made a timetable for today and so far I am keeping up with it. Next session is English. I am going to do some research on the next discussion topic.

Morning. I joined another Skype English session yesterday. It was a bit of a disaster for me. Due to the hey fever, my head was cloudy so I couldn't think. I just uttered words which popped up in my head so honestly there were many times when I wasn't even sure what I was saying (^^;) I feel better today so I will try my best!

* This entry has been corrected by Gori.

Morning. It's sunny and hot already! Yesterday I studied English for about two and half hours. That's less (×It's shorter) than the day before, (×that's) because I walked for 80 minutes (6 km) on treadmill and spent more time on analysing trading charts. And as you may know, I stuffed up the cake so I needed to spend extra time on it, too(^^;) Anyway, I will do my best today, too!

*This entry has been corrected by one of my lang-8 friends.

Morning.Well, I'm a bit tired this morning. I guess that's because I did treadmill last night. As for the rash, it looks OK, so I am happy. I am going to make a timetable again today, too. I studied English for 5 hours yesterday, including share study ( reading a share-trading book written in English). I wonder if I should incorporate walking into (×in) the time table today as well.

*This entry has been corrected by one of my lang-8 friends.

Thanks to my new time table study system, today I've already studied English for 150 minutes! Wow!

Morning. Today I am a bit more organised. I've made a time table, which includes English study and trading study, etc. One session is 50 minutes and there is also 10 minutes recess in between. So far, so good(^^)

Morning. It's overcasting again this morning. The rash is almost dead. I am itching to do something. I studied English for about an hour yesterday. I read my tweets aloud many times and listened to Aussie podcasts. Today, I want to do some articles about pets, which is the theme of the next Discussion.

Gori's gone to his parents' house to help his dad. Now I am alone. I should make the most of this free time until he comes back, shouldn't I? What can I do first? I feel like studying English. OK, that's it!

My English is getting rusty and crappy. That's because I've been letting my English study slide for a while. I've been writing English here but that's not enough. I need to listen to English intensively and practise Ondoku( reading English aloud.)