Otto's blog

While out walking with* my son, I found a four-leaf clover. Lucky me! I took this photo with** my smartphone. Can you see the four-leaf clover? If not, check in comments - I marked it with** a pink line.

Vocabulary:
* with = と
** with = で, をもって

I`ve seen a couple of these small butterflies in the last couple of days. In English, it`s called a Common Copper*. It`s on a yellow rapeseed flower (菜の花).

* copper (Cu) = 銅

Vocabulary:
- 'A couple of ___s' = 2 or 3 ___s

I started this blog 10 years ago, on the suggestion of Teragoya founder, Akemi. People told me, "A blog? You`re crazy!" & "It`s a lot of work!!" & "Nobody wants to hear about your geeky hobbies!!!" & "You`re gonna run out of ideas, get stress, catch swine flu & DIE!!!"

Okay, nobody said that. In fact, everyone was very supportive, and I`ve enjoyed not only blogging, but also picking up some useful computing, teaching, & language skills by doing it.

Please keep reading my blog ...for 10 more years? Maybe!

Grammar:
- People told me... OK
- People said... OK
- People said me... WRONG (People said to me... OK, but uncommon)

Last summer I found a chrysalis & kept it ...& kept it ...& kept it, all winter. I wondered if it was okay... Finally, this week a common swallowtail butterfly came out. After a while drying in the sun, it flew off. Bye bye, butterfly!

Vocabulary:
- birds, butterflies etc: fly off/away
- people, legged animals, etc.: run off/away
- fish, mermaids, etc.: swim off/away

Have you ever watched 'Life Hack' videos on YouTube? Depending on which video you watch, the ideas may be mostly stupid or mostly good. Anyway, I finally got the chance to try this 'life hack' idea when my thong broke. Nice idea!

Vocabulary:
- Be careful: In Australia, 'thong/s' = ビーチサンダル, but in other countries, 'thong' = Ｔバック!

Are you stuck at home? Bored? Well, here`s a song for you – Monotonia, by a band called The Growlers. Most of it is in English, but the chorus (& title) is in Spanish. In most of the video, they seem to be taking medicine. Hmm. Maybe they have coronavirus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSzluF9itcw

The lyrics are here: https://www.musixmatch.com/search/monotonia

I also like their song Big Toe (拇趾): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JDcerd5vvo

Grammar:
'Most of...' (55 – 95%) OK!
'Almost all of...' (96-99%) OK!
'Almost of...' WRONG!

Today we got a postcard from one of our students, who went to Malaysia to study English. I`ve got some (some? a lot of!) free time now, so I thought I`d blog about it. It sounds like she`s making nice friends & having a good time, but I hope she doesn`t have trouble because of the coronavirus outbreak. I hope she`s got enough money...

Vocabulary:
“I`ve got + 名詞” (= I have got + 名詞) = 名詞を持っています(持っている状態)
“I got + 名詞” = 名詞をもらいました

I saw these two cars go past our school recently. The one on the left is an Isuzu 117. The other one is a Toyota Crown Super Saloon. They`re both from1978 or thereabouts.

Which one do you prefer? I prefer the Isuzu. It`s pretty stylish.

(Yes, I`ve been looking out the window more than usual recently!)

Vocabulary:
like = 好き
prefer = の方が好き
Which... prefer? = Which... like more? = Which... like better? ALL OK.

This old margarine bucket looked handy, so I decided to recycle it instead of throwing it away. My kids helped me make the chicken design on the front.

Pronunciation:
- Be careful: a 'soft' G sound in some English words is translated as a 'hard' G sound in Japanese:
margarine 英語で: マージャリーン (not マーガリン )
allergy 英語で: アラジー (not アレルギー )
Belgium 英語で: ベルジム (not ベルギー )
collagen 英語で: コラジン　(not コラーゲン)

I made a fish-viewing box from a sheet of clear perspex (クリアアクリル), which I bought at a hardware store (about ¥200 for A3 size). To bend it, I used a blow torch. Next I used a glue gun to attach the side pieces. Finally I tested it using my pet loach (どじょう ).

I`m looking forward to using it with tropical fish when I visit Miyakojima. Please check my blog next week to see what I caught!

Grammar:
- To 動詞... I 動詞... = I 動詞... to 動詞...
- To 動詞...please 動詞... = Please 動詞... to 動詞...