extensive reading

[Easy English Blog] New Year’s Resolutions

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Happy New Year! We hope you have a wonderful, happy and healthy 2023.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? They are goals for the year. Every year, I make goals, but usually, I don’t achieve them. I’m going to try hard to achieve my goals this year! They are…

  1. Reach upper-intermediate level in Spanish
  2. Reach upper-intermediate level in Portuguese
  3. Lose weight! (I ate too much chocolate last year…)
  4. Exercise four times a week (I already do this, so I think I can achieve it)
  5. Upload a video to YouTube every day

How about you? Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? What are they?

By Heather @ I Talk You Talk Press

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Christmas books

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It’s nearly Christmas! Would you like to read Christmas graded reader? Here are our Christmas-themed books.

The Christmas Present – Level 1

Christmas Tales – Level 2

Stories for Christmas – Level 3

And here is our winter-themed book!

Wintertime – Level 3

[Easy English Blog] First snow of the season

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Here in Japan, we had our first snow of the season over the weekend. Some places in Japan had very heavy snowfall. Many vehicles got stuck on roads, and some trains stopped running.

It wasn’t so bad in the city where I live. We had about 10cm of snow. The snow stuck (= stayed on the ground) for about a day. Then, it was gone. According to the weather forecast, we are going to have some more snow in the next few days.

I don’t like the snow. Well, I like looking at it. I live in the countryside, and the winter scenery is very beautiful. However, I don’t like digging my car out of snow, or clearing snow from my car and car park. Also, I don’t like driving in the snow. Here in Japan, we have snow tyres, but our cars still slip sometimes. Also, we have to leave early if we are going somewhere, because the traffic on the roads moves slowly.

The weather forecast said that we can expect more snow than usual this year. I think it will snow heavily in January and February. I will keep my shovel and snow wiper in my car just in case I need them.

By Heather @ I Talk You Talk Press

[Easy English Blog] My year of reading

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Every year, I make a list of books I have read during that year. This year, I have read 21 books. Now I am reading my 22nd book. I think I will finish it before the end of the year. My target was 24 books. I didn’t hit my target, but I am happy with my reading this year.

I only read one English book. That was a business book. The other 20 books were all Japanese books. Most of them were fiction books by my favourite Japanese writer Seicho Matsumoto. Some books were non-fiction. They are about studying languages, or business. I also read a book of essays about life. My friend wrote it. It was very interesting. It made me think that we shouldn’t waste time.

I bought some of my Japanese books on Amazon, but I also bought many at a second-hand bookshop called “Book Off”. Some books were cheap, but some books were not so cheap. However, they were cheaper than the books in my local bookshop or Amazon. I can also sell the books back to the second-hand bookshop.

I also read a very short graded reader in easy Spanish. I could understand around 98% of the book. I only started studying Spanish a few months ago, so I was pleased that I could understand most of it.

Next year, I want to read more books in Spanish. I also think I should read more books in English. However, I have enjoyed reading Japanese books this year. I want to read more Japanese books by my favourite writer next year too.

By Heather @ I Talk You Talk Press