Paris

I didn’t have any particular reasons however I decided to go to Paris this summer and I went there although it was already October. Before my going there I told some of my friends about my trip and they said that I would have a good time because it’s a world famous city with so many museums, restaurants and landmarks I should visit. This was the first time for me to visit Paris and I appreciated my friends’ advice and was excited.

I arrived in Paris around lunch time so I ordered croissants at a small bakery; I ordered three with using my fingers and tried to say three in French, but what I actually said from my lips was “tre”, it wasn’t French but Italian. I should have studied some French but I managed to buy three croissants by my strange Italian and Japanese.

My first destinations were The Arc de Triomphe（凱旋門）and The Eiffel Tower. I saw them in photos and TV programs many times before so when I finally saw the real one it didn’t feel like the first time however, unlike in the photo’s I could enjoy the atmosphere in Paris around these famous landmarks.
I went up The Eiffel Tower stairs even though there were elevators; going up on foot was the cheapest and the least popular way to enter so I could avoid paying extra and a long queue. The sign said “stairs to the second floor” however the second floor in Europe is the third floor in Japan and actually it was 115m high from ground level so waiting in a long queue for the elevators might have been faster. It was a fine day and the view from The Eiffel Tower was wonderful.

After that long climb I went to The Louvre Museum on foot; I enjoyed walking around Paris so I didn’t get on the Metro. When I arrived at the museum I was tired and it was impossible to look around everything. At first, I went to see the most famous masterpiece the “Mona Lisa”. Honestly speaking, I was more surprised by the high security than impressed by the painting. The painting seemed quite nice, however there were too many people around it and I couldn’t stay there. Other than “Mona Lisa”, paintings were displayed normally and I could see them closer, I had more art work to see than time.

On the next day I went to The Rodin Museum in Paris. His works of art are mainly effigies and they are displayed outside. It was a wonderful atmosphere being in a beautiful garden under the sunshine looking at his effigies. They showed suffering or the conflict of human beings amazingly at the same time they were powerful and impressive.


Just before my flight from Paris to Manchester, I visited The Orsay Museum and found many famous paintings which I saw at school in Japanese text books for art. I was happy to see them because in real life they were much better than on paper. I was thinking whether I should buy a copy of my favourite painting at the museum shop or not. I usually buy something as a souvenir because I may not come back again, but this time I decided I would be coming back to Paris again so I didn’t buy any souvenirs.

Italian

I started to study Italian in September although I was a complete beginner and knew no grammar rules or vocabulary except cappuccino, pasta and tiramisu. I’ve tried to learn other languages than Japanese and English, however I’ve never succeeded to master any of them.

When I was a college student, I studied Chinese as my second foreign language because it was mandatory to take. I thought it might be easy to learn although it was obvious that the pronunciation was quite different even though the characters looked quite similar to Japanese. When I saw a Chinese newspaper, I could guess what the story was about from the characters. I was also interested in Chinese culture and history so it was a good opportunity to start to learn these from the language. The lessons started and I recognized that the class wasn’t what I expected it to be. Before memorizing the Chinese characters, I needed to learn pinyin which is their pronunciation system written in the Latin alphabet with accent. My teacher was a well organized person and he knew how important the pronunciation is for studying Chinese; he only taught us pronunciation for the first six months! After that I needed to memorize as many Chinese characters as possible which were not as easy as I imagined. The characters looked similar but not the same which meant it was possible to guess the meaning, but I couldn’t fully understand them, also it is impossible to make a Chinese phrase without knowledge of the grammar. Their grammar rules are completely different from the Japanese language. I should have known that it was impossible to understand another language in just one year studying, however I just felt I couldn’t keep studying it and I gave it up.

Some people say once you learn another language, it will be easier to learn a second one. I thought it might be easier to study a language which is similar to English. I bought a text book of Spanish which I thought was the closest language to English without much of a basis. I also bought a text book to learn French from English, I thought it would help me to study both languages however it ended up helping neither of them. I found it difficult to keep my motivation up for studying so I needed some reason to keep going.

I asked a German colleague to teach me German, but she said “we can communicate in English. You don’t need to study German.” it turned out she wasn’t interested in studying Japanese and learned no Japanese words even after a whole year there. After her, the other German colleague kindly offered to teach me German. During his stay in Japan, we kept studying however after he went home, I stopped.

Next I thought Korean might be the closest language to Japanese, I started to study it because I liked watching Korean TV dramas and movies. I could catch some words because some of them are the same as Japanese. However at first I needed to remember Hangeul characters which are man-made characters and very well organized. I couldn’t remember them all and I gave them up!
I also tried to study Russian, but I didn’t manage that either!

Yes, I gave up a lot, still I’m interested in studying other languages. Now I have an Italian friend whose husband is Japanese so she has reason to study Japanese. I offered her an Italian-Japanese language exchange and she happily accepted it. We started to find Italian text books as the first step, it wasn’t easy like we imagined. I bought two text books which are aimed at beginners, but they aren’t for beginners. They are more focused on daily conversation and the grammar rules aren’t described well. Of course I need to remember some phrases without rules especially greetings and introductions, but it would be helpful if I learnt them following the grammar rules. My friend writes grammar rules for me and we keep studying alongside the text books. This time I already know I’m a slow learner and I need time to learn languages. I hope that studying Italian will last as long as our friendship!

Choir

I’ve been a member of a choir from age ten to seventeen; I joined a boys and girls choir for the first five years and after that I joined a high school choir. Since I graduated from high school, I’ve not practiced singing except for Karaoke. I didn’t evaluate myself as a good singer so I’d never dreamed of going to a music school however on the other hand, still now, I always say I like singing songs. I think that the choir has influenced me a lot, forming my personality for example I don’t hesitate to speak to people when I first meet them because I had many chances to meet new people during choir practice. The boys and girls choir has held a concert with international choirs from Bulgaria, Hungary or Austria annually to promote international exchange. Actually it was obvious to anybody that the quality of their music was much better than ours because they could come to Japan based on their music skills; still we enjoyed singing together. Of course I didn’t speak any English or other languages at that time however I felt that music didn’t need translation it is an international common thing, I enjoyed singing with them and learning how to communicate with people without a particular knowledge of the language.

When I was a high school student, we had a concert with our twin city’s high school choir from America. An American girl asked me my address and we started to exchange mails, she was my first foreign friend and this was the first step for me to study English for communication with a friend, not for getting good marks in the exam at school.
Choir has brought me many good opportunities, friends and pleasure and I’ve been looking for an opportunity to join it again. Quite recently I heard that my Japanese friend who was a music teacher in Japan joined a choir in Manchester so I asked her about it. She told me that anyone can join it although it might be impossible for a beginner or someone who can’t read scores because some university students whose major’s are music also join it and the level of the choir is sometimes too high for them. I haven’t practiced singing the songs for a long time however I’m not a beginner and I can read scores, I also checked the web site and it says “anyone is welcome” so I decided “why not give it a try?”

The registration started at 6:00pm and the first practice was scheduled from 7:00pm on the same day. I thought many people would come for the registration at around 6:50pm so they could join the practice straight away. In case many people came to register, I went there around 6:10pm which I thought was early enough however when I arrived, there was a long queue and my membership number was 235! I was amazed to find out that so many people came to join the choir after it had been full one week.
At 7:00pm the practice started, and soon I understood what my friend mentioned about the choir. It wasn’t suitable for a beginner, in fact many of them have already known the score and they sang at sight. I was half panicked, I was careful not to miss what the conductor told us, to read English lyrics which are not familiar words to me and to sing from the scores. On the first lesson, I was nervous and didn’t enjoy singing which was not what I expected from the choir. After the lesson I bought a music CD of the song and practiced it at home ready for the second practice day. It helped me a lot at least I could relax and follow the practice and gradually enjoy singing. During the rehearsals I’m concentrating on singing and don’t have spare time to make friends, but I hope to have friends there soon.

A Light Bulb

I’ve been in Manchester for sixteen months, still it’s difficult to find some particular items at the store. Especially electric items are difficult to find. In Japan, there are many electric shops and I can always find what I need to buy; I just check the prices at different shops and try to find the cheapest one. I wanted to buy an electric heating pad, 電気あんか because I used it in Japan. However I couldn’t find it here. I didn’t find any shops like Joshin, Midori or Yamada Denki here.
I could buy an electric heating blanket through online shopping, but I needed something that could make my feet warm. I went to many shops to buy it and all I could find was a hot-water bottle. A hot-water bottle, 湯たんぽ! I had no choice and I bought it. Nowadays I boil water every night before sleep and prepare a hot-water bottle. I’ve never been satisfied with this.

I have another item that I’ve been looking for. One of the light bulbs at my place is burned out. I looked for shops and online stores. However I couldn’t find the place to buy it. I could buy a standard light bulb at the supermarket, but the one which was used for my place was a bit different from the standard. I moved the light bulb from another room and kept waiting for a new one. Every time I go to different shops, I try to find it.

One day, my British friend said “I have a question for you.” I said, “Yes?” And he said, “Where can I buy a light bulb?” I said, “I usually buy light bulbs at TESCO.” He said, “Yes, but what I’m looking for is not a standard one. The shape of the joint is a bit different. I don’t think I can find it at the supermarket.” I wanted to say, “That’s a question which I wanted to ask you.” Instead of saying this, I said “Why do you ask me?” He said, “Well you’ve been in Manchester more than a year so you may know more than I do.”

Football Match

I find football supporters in England quite surprising. In my opinion, British people are calm and gentle in general. Of course it depends on personality, but I’ve never been honked by cars or interrupted in queues. They have good manners. However when the football season comes, people change. They start drink beer during the daytime, sing songs and yell at each other. I wonder why people are so excited about football. I’m looking forward to going to the stadium and watching the game.

There are two football teams in Manchester. One is the worldwide famous team, Manchester United. I checked ticket information on their website. However I couldn’t find any available tickets on it. It always says “to be announced” or “sold out”. I felt that I couldn’t buy tickets from this web site.

The other foot ball team is Manchester City. Their web site is much easier for me to get ticket information. They mention the date when tickets will be available, the first priorities are for season tickets holders, next are for paid membership holders and after these, general sales start. If all tickets sell out before general sales, I have no chance of going. I may be better to join a paid membership, but I don’t and wait till the general sales start because the annual membership fee is expensive. I waited for the sales for the match Manchester City vs Liverpool FC. Surprisingly, the price is different depending on the team. Liverpool FC is a popular team so the price is more expensive than other teams. However I really want to watch Torres who is a Spanish player in Liverpool FC.

On-line tickets are available 24 hours. I access at midnight on the general sales day. In Japan, it’s possible to buy the tickets as soon as the sales day starts. However it doesn’t happen in England. The website doesn’t change at midnight. I wait till 1:00am and give up. I wake up around 7:30am and check the web site at 8:00am. Still nothing is changed. The ticket office opens from 9:00am. I may have to go to the ticket office at the stadium. I’ve passed the stadium before by train or bus. However I don’t know how to get there on foot. I check google maps, but it’s not a familiar place for me so I gave up going there on foot. After 9:00am, the web site has changed and I can buy the tickets.

On the match day, I’m really excited to watch the game. I go to the stadium two hours before the kick off time. It’s too early and I need to wait 30minutes before getting into the stadium.

The problem is I bought tickets through Manchester City web site. So I was surrounded by their supporters. I couldn’t cheer on Torres. However I’m not a huge fan of him, so I cheer with the Manchester City supporters. The weather is fine and the football match is interesting. Being at the stadium is more exciting than watching it on TV. I really have a good time there. Still I don’t understand why British people are so excited about it. If they weren’t booing or yelling, I would enjoy the game more.