This blog is for learners of English.
I Talk You Talk Press staff blog about many different topics – life, study, language, work, travel, books, music, film, culture, cooking, and many more, all in easy English!
We established I Talk You Talk Press five years ago today. The five years have passed by very quickly!
We have enjoyed writing and publishing our graded readers, and we are always delighted to receive feedback from the people who buy and read our books.
We would like to thank everyone who has chosen our books and taken the time to read them. We plan to publish many more graded readers and hope that you enjoy reading those too!
A BIG thank you from all of us at I Talk You Talk Press!
Another year has almost passed! At I Talk You Talk Press we have spent the year planning our future graded readers. Although we haven’t published any new material this year, we have been working hard! We hope to make our new work available in 2018.
We would like to thank all of our readers who bought our books this year. We hope you enjoyed them. We look forward to providing you with much more next year.
Happy holidays from all of us at I Talk You Talk Press!
I love going to the beach in spring in Japan. Even on beautiful sunny days, it is empty! I feel like I have my own private beach. Why are there no other people here? Well, it is not yet “beach season” in Japan. Most people here wait until July, after the rainy season, to go to the beach. During that time, the beaches are packed (crowded) with people enjoying the sun and the sea. There are usually stalls (outdoor shops) selling ice cream, drinks and flavoured shaved ice.
The beach season does not last long. It usually ends around mid to late August. This is when jellyfish start to show up on the shore…
But until the season starts, I will make the most of (take advantage of) the peace and quiet, and enjoy running and walking on my own private beach!
St Patrick was born in England. He became a priest and went to Ireland sometime in the 5th century – that’s 1600 years ago. He is very important to Irish history. There are many stories about him. There are no snakes in Ireland and people often say that St Patrick forced all the snakes in Ireland to leave. Of course, the truth is that there were never snakes in Ireland but it is a good story!
Every year on March 17, the people of Ireland celebrate St Patrick’s Day. This is said to be the date of his death. Of course it was all so long ago that no one is very sure. St Patrick’s Day is a great festival in Ireland, and in many other countries too. Everyone enjoys listening to Irish music, and singing and dancing. In many cities there are parades on St Patrick’s Day.
Why do so many other countries celebrate St Patrick’s Day? The answer is very interesting but it is also sad.
The popular story is that sometime late in the 16th century, a famous explorer, called Sir Walter Raleigh, bought potato plants from South America. He planted them in the garden of his home in Ireland. Potatoes became very popular in Ireland and by the 19th century they were the main food for poor people. Then something terrible happened. The potatoes in Ireland caught a disease and would not grow well. By 1850, the poor people in Ireland had nothing to eat. Many people died and many others left Ireland and travelled to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Even more than 150 years later, the Irish traditions are strong in these countries. This is why St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in so many different countries.
Cooking something Irish
The days when many people only had potatoes to eat were long ago. There is wonderful food in Ireland. Some favourites are beef cooked with Guinness beer, bacon and cabbage, and Irish stew. But if you want to try something that is cheap, easy and tasty, why don’t you try colcannon? There are many recipes for colcannon but this is my favourite.
This is how I make colcannon.
I peel and chop some potatoes (maybe about 750g), and I put them in a pot with two teaspoons of salt, cover them and boil them until they are soft. Usually potatoes are cooked in about 20 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, I slice some cabbage thinly. I want about 200g of sliced cabbage.
I melt about 25g butter in a frypan and fry the cabbage until it is just soft. This takes about 3 minutes.
When the potatoes are soft, I drain the potatoes and put them back in the pot. I mash them. Do you know the word mash? It means to break the potatoes up with a potato masher. If you don’t have one – a fork will work.
Then I add about 75mls of cream, 75 g of butter and black pepper. If you have nutmeg in your kitchen it will make the colcannon taste very special – add just a little.
Then I stir the potatoes very well until they are like thick cream.
Mix in the cabbage and your colcannon is ready!
Happy New Year! We hope everyone has a wonderful 2017.
We were very busy at the end of last year, but we managed to have a few days off over the New Year period.
I went to Paris for a few days. It was very cold! I mainly visited the Montmartre area, but I also went to Notre Dame and the Picasso Museum. I couldn’t visit many places because I was only there for a few days. Next time, I want to stay at least a week! There is so much more I want to see!
Here are some of the photographs I took. We hope you like them!
I went to Tokyo last week. I went by train. It took six hours! I don’t go to Tokyo very often because it is quite far from where I live, and it is expensive to get there.
I wanted to go by aeroplane, but I was worried about typhoons. We are having a lot of typhoons this year, and I thought the flight may be cancelled if a typhoon came.
I only spent one night in Tokyo. I went to see a concert at night. In the afternoons, I went shopping in Shibuya and Shinjuku, and I visited the Museum of Western Art in Ueno.
I wish I could have spent longer there, but I had to work the next day. Living in the countryside is nice – it is quiet and peaceful, but sometimes I miss the noise and energy of a big city. I hope I can visit Tokyo again soon.
This year, many typhoons are hitting Japan. Now, typhoon number 16 has arrived. We are lucky because the weather is not so bad in our city. It is raining and a little windy. Some parts of Japan are having a lot of rain though.
Yesterday was a national holiday. It was “Respect for the Aged” day. So, I went for a drive to the sea. Now it is the rice harvest season, and rice is hanging on racks in many fields. I wanted to get more photographs, but it was too rainy and cold! Here are the few that I took!
It is getting hot here in Japan, so we are spending most of our time inside, where it is nice and cool.
The mornings are not too hot though, so the other day, we drove to the beach in the early morning to take some photographs. The sea is beautiful in summer, especially in the mornings, before the crowds arrive. The school children are on holiday, so the beaches get crowded throughout the day, especially on weekends.
Here are some photographs we took. It is the middle of summer, but there are no people around! Just us and the sea! A perfect way to start the day!
Today I went to an Asian culture museum. It has exhibitions of Japanese cloth, and old weaving machinery.
It also has an exhibition of Persian fabric. This was my favourite exhibition room. The colours and patterns are very beautiful. There is also an exhibition room about Mongolia and Mongolian costumes.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take photographs in most of the exhibition rooms. I could only take photographs in the room about weaving. It was very interesting to see how cloth used to be made. It looks like painstaking* work.
The museum is set in beautiful grounds. Now it is full of greenery.
It is also very noisy, because there are many insects around at this time of year. The cicadas have started singing, and the dragonflies and bees are buzzing around!
It is also getting very hot and humid. It is around 33 degrees every day. The weather forecast says that it is going to be a sweltering* summer. It is going to be hotter than usual in August and September. I hope I can spend some time cooling off at the beach or under a tree somewhere!
*painstaking = needs a lot of care, effort and hard work
*sweltering = very hot!
Spring is in the air! It is still a little early for cherry blossom viewing, but the other day, I went for a drive to see if there were any early bloomers. I was not disappointed! Here are some photographs of the blossoms I found, and some other pretty flowers.
It won’t be long before we see bursts of spring colour everywhere! I must make the time to enjoy them this year, and of course, take many photographs.
I Talk You Talk Press EXTRA 
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