How is your autumn vocabulary?
Find out with our short quiz! The pass mark is 80%. Good luck!
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[Easy English Blog] Kaki Season
It is the kaki season!
“Kaki” is Japanese for “persimmon”.
Every autumn, the persimmon trees in gardens and along roadsides grow heavy with bright orange fruit.
It is a sign that autumn has come!
Here is a tree with lots of persimmons waiting to be picked and eaten!
The other day, my neighbour gave me a big bag of persimmons. He has a large persimmon tree and he picked some for me. I was very pleased to receive them.
When he gave me the persimmons, I said, “Oh thank you! I love persimmons!”
He said, “Good! I’ll bring some more next week. Our tree has lots of persimmons this year. We can’t eat them all!”
Here are some of the persimmons he gave me.
I started eating them straight away. (straight away = immediately) The persimmon has a nice shape inside. It’s a bit like a flower I think.
I sliced it up and ate it with yoghurt. Very healthy (lots of vitamin A and vitamin C!) and very tasty!
Dear Ellen Comprehension Quiz
This is a comprehension quiz for the I Talk You Talk Press graded reader Dear Ellen.
Click the button below to start the quiz.
Start QuizCool as a…
Can you complete this English expression? (Hint: It means “to be very calm”.)
Cool as a….
a) watermelon
b) cucumber
c) fridge
The answer is below! ↓
Answer:
b) Cool as a cucumber!
Example:
A: How was Dave’s speech?
B: It was really good.
A: Was he nervous?
B: He didn’t look nervous. He was as cool as a cucumber.
[Easy English Blog] Japanese Cooking in English
Some of my students say, “I don’t have time to study English every day. I have to cook in the morning, afternoon and evening. It takes a long time.”
Now, they can study and cook at the same time!
There is a recipe site in Japan. It is called Cookpad.
It is Japan’s most popular and famous recipe site. Users of the site post recipes on their own recipe page. There are over 1.5 million recipes on the site!
Recently, Cookpad started an English version of the website. They are translating thousands of recipes from Japanese to English.
The site is great for people all over the world to learn about Japanese cooking and about Japanese culture. We think it is also good for people who want to study English! The English recipes are very easy to understand.
How you can use the site to study English (Our ideas):
1. Print out the recipes and make some of the tasty dishes. (This kills 2 birds with 1 stone* – you can cook and study at the same time. No excuses!) 😉
2. Learn cooking vocabulary and phrases.
3. Teach your non-Japanese friends how to cook Japanese dishes.
4. Using the cooking vocabulary you learnt, write your own recipes in English and give them to your friends or teacher.
5. Ask your English teacher if you can have English class in the kitchen one day! Many community centres have kitchens you can rent for a few hours. You can make some of the recipes with your classmates!
Why not make* some tasty dishes in English this weekend? 🙂
The site is here: http://en.cookpad.com/
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*Kill two birds with one stone = solve 2 problems at the same time.
(So, you have to cook = problem 1. You have to study English = problem 2. Do them at the same time! Problem solved!)
(In Japanese: 一石二鳥 )
*Why not….? = How about…..? This is a suggestion.
(So, Why not make some tasty dishes? = How about making some tasty dishes?)
[Easy English Blog] Rice Harvest in Early Autumn
Autumn is my favourite season. After the long, hot and humid summer, the air starts to get cooler and the leaves on the trees start to change colour. The sky is clear and we have nice sunny days to enjoy before winter comes. It is a beautiful time of year.
Rural Japan in autumn is beautiful. The rice harvest starts, and all around the countryside you can see freshly harvested rice drying on bamboo racks.
After the harvest, the smell of burning straw lingers on (linger on = stay) around the villages and hills. For me, it is “the smell of autumn”.
It was nice the other day, so I drove out to the countryside. I took some photos of the rice, drying in the sun. For a short while, I watched a farmer working in his rice paddy (rice field). It looked like very hard work. He was an old man. I wondered how long his family had been growing rice on that land. Maybe for hundreds of years?
I think rice farming is a very tough job. Going to the countryside at harvest time reminds us that when we eat rice, we should be thankful.
This is where the rice often ends up! 🙂 (Itadakimasu!)
Curry and Rice picture by jetalone (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
English Quiz – Musical Instrument Vocabulary
How is your “musical instrument” vocabulary”? Take our short quiz to find out!
The pass mark is 80%. Good luck!
Click the button below to start the quiz.
Start Quiz[Easy English Blog] Simple and Convenient
Do you know the English name for the machine in the photo?
It is a “vending machine“.
Here in Japan, vending machines are ubiquitous ( = very common/existing everywhere).
It is said that Japan has more vending machines than any other country.
They are called jido hanbaiki. 自動(jido = automatic) 販売 (hanbai = vending) 機 (ki =machine).
Today, I went for a drive. I went up into the mountains. At the top of the mountain, there were no cars and no people.
But…that’s right….there was a vending machine! I was very glad to see the machine because I needed a drink! 🙂
(By Terence Ong (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
Many years ago, we could buy beer and cigarettes from vending machines very easily.
A few years ago, a new system was introduced to stop young children and teenagers buying beer and cigarettes.
Now, if you want to use these machines, you need an ID card to prove your age.
(By Mr Wabu (http://flickr.com/photos/oxborrow/81522125/) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
Some people don’t like vending machines.
They say that they don’t look nice in the countryside. Other people say they use too much electricity.
I like them. I think they are simple and convenient. If you are out and very far from any shops, no problem! There is probably a vending machine on the next corner! 🙂
Forgot your umbrella and it has started to rain? No problem! There’s a vending machine for you too!
(By Jason Ruck (Transferred by Cloudbound/Originally uploaded by Jason7825) (I took it. (Originally uploaded on en.wikipedia)) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
Like the cat that got the cream
Do you know the phrase like the cat that got the cream?
Here is an example:
“When Jane won the race yesterday, she looked like the cat that got the cream.”
Does it mean
a) Jane looked very tired because she won the race.
b) Jane looked very pleased with herself because she won the race.
c) Jane won the race because she was fast, like a cat searching for cream.
d) Jane looked very hungry after the race.
The answer is below! ↓
Answer: b) Jane looked very pleased with herself because she won the race.
“To look like the cat that got the cream = to look very pleased with oneself.
🙂
English Quiz – Things in the House
How well do you know the English words for things in the house? Take our short quiz to find out!
The pass mark is 80%. Good luck! 🙂
Click the button below to start the quiz.
Start Quiz
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