I had a shock for my English communication this week.
Last weekend, I got a overheating alarm on the front pale of my car, so I brought my car to the maintenance shop of car dealer. At that time, I took car shuttle service from the shop to the office at morning and the return path in evening. The shock I had was that I could not communicate with a driver in English. To put it more precisely, I could not understand what he said, and he could not understand what I said. I am 100% sure that the reason must be pronunciation. Honestly speaking, I do not ever care about pronunciation but about how to construct sentence correctly as well as about remembering a lot of words as much as possible. This is partly because that my Japanese accent does not matter in the office and additionally people in bay area usually tolerate many accents depending on many countries. However this shock is good one for me, which makes me realize strongly that proper pronunciation is really necessary.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Mountain Lion
Have you ever heard of mountain lion ?
I had never heard of it before I came here.
My colleague warned me to be careful for mountain lions during trekking in mountains when I was searching good parks for walking around south bay area. He said to me about mountain lions that they are cowardice and scare of human but if I come across them suddenly then they attack me and try to kill me in order to get rid of own scare emotion, like bears. When I heard of that at first time, I thought that the story was exaggerated and lions were not so really dangerous. However I come to know that they are big and really dangerous ,and we should avoid to see them even by accident as I know them throughout information available in internet. It's because they really look a female lion and are called "Puma" in other word. A lot of people have heard of name of puma, because it is commonly used other than mountain lion which is frequently used in the united states. If you look at the linked page below, you can easily figure out the reason why they are called mountain lion. They are almost like a female lion.
pictures of mountain lions
Recently, a lot of mountain lions were frequently seen at residential area in bay area. It means that possibility of encounter with them really increases. In fact, several persons were attacked by them and as far as I know, one old man was deadly injured. Moreover a mountain lion was seen twice at Rancho san antonio park where I often go and walk. So I am preparing to protect my throat in the case when I encounter them by accident because they usually aim at throat to kill animals.
Today morning, I was talking to my other colleague who recently moved to new house close to the castle rock park in Saratoga. According to him, his house is located almost at top of mountain around 1500 feet above the pacific ocean. In fact I know how deep inside mountain his house is because I often go and enjoy trekking at the park near his house and I have seen a coyote there before actually. And I asked him if he has seen a mountain lion, but he said to me that he has not but his friend living near his house has seen a mountain lion in a back yard. Additionally he showed me some pictures which a motion sensor camera took at that time. It was surprising picture that a mountain lion was eating a deer which was caught and killed a short time ago. The mountain lion in the picture almost looks a female lion in the middle of Africa and It is very scare for me. Before I saw this picture, I wanted to see a mountain lion, but I really have to change my mind and try to make noise during trekking so that a mountain lion notice me at first and escape from me. He suggested me that if I come across mountain lions, then hands up to make me appear larger and make noise loudly by speaking and fight back if attacked and never escape from them.
According to information in internet, in the united states mountain lions live at western part of country, so be careful when you visit mountains.
I had never heard of it before I came here.
My colleague warned me to be careful for mountain lions during trekking in mountains when I was searching good parks for walking around south bay area. He said to me about mountain lions that they are cowardice and scare of human but if I come across them suddenly then they attack me and try to kill me in order to get rid of own scare emotion, like bears. When I heard of that at first time, I thought that the story was exaggerated and lions were not so really dangerous. However I come to know that they are big and really dangerous ,and we should avoid to see them even by accident as I know them throughout information available in internet. It's because they really look a female lion and are called "Puma" in other word. A lot of people have heard of name of puma, because it is commonly used other than mountain lion which is frequently used in the united states. If you look at the linked page below, you can easily figure out the reason why they are called mountain lion. They are almost like a female lion.
pictures of mountain lions
Recently, a lot of mountain lions were frequently seen at residential area in bay area. It means that possibility of encounter with them really increases. In fact, several persons were attacked by them and as far as I know, one old man was deadly injured. Moreover a mountain lion was seen twice at Rancho san antonio park where I often go and walk. So I am preparing to protect my throat in the case when I encounter them by accident because they usually aim at throat to kill animals.
Today morning, I was talking to my other colleague who recently moved to new house close to the castle rock park in Saratoga. According to him, his house is located almost at top of mountain around 1500 feet above the pacific ocean. In fact I know how deep inside mountain his house is because I often go and enjoy trekking at the park near his house and I have seen a coyote there before actually. And I asked him if he has seen a mountain lion, but he said to me that he has not but his friend living near his house has seen a mountain lion in a back yard. Additionally he showed me some pictures which a motion sensor camera took at that time. It was surprising picture that a mountain lion was eating a deer which was caught and killed a short time ago. The mountain lion in the picture almost looks a female lion in the middle of Africa and It is very scare for me. Before I saw this picture, I wanted to see a mountain lion, but I really have to change my mind and try to make noise during trekking so that a mountain lion notice me at first and escape from me. He suggested me that if I come across mountain lions, then hands up to make me appear larger and make noise loudly by speaking and fight back if attacked and never escape from them.
According to information in internet, in the united states mountain lions live at western part of country, so be careful when you visit mountains.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Fleet week in San Francisco 2011
Last weekend, I went to San Francisco to enjoy Fleet week, Navy Airshow, together with my senior who is very familiar with military related things..
I thought we needed to buy tickets for dedicated seats at first when I was planning , but I concerned bad weather seriously because weather was not so fine since early October. Therefore, I did not buy them actually in case for rainy weather.
Fortunately, it was very good weather from early morning. This was really rare because weather at San Francisco was usually fog at morning even in summer season. Although it is less than one year since I came here, but I'm sure of it because I always watch weather forecast which is from Golden Gate Bridge in TV everyday.
Although air show would start at 12:30, we left south bay at noon at that day because our main purpose was to enjoy blue angels performance at first. As we approached to San Francisco, we could noticed that airshow started because we could see some aircraft fly above the city from highway 280. At the same time, I noticed that we were approaching the tail of long lines of cars ahead to exit, so I though that parking lots near main locations would be already occupied and it would be difficult to find a space to park my car, so I immediately decided to park my car near Union-Square which is a little bit far from main locations close to Golden Gate Bridge. It's mainly because I had not ever seen such a heavy traffic condition on highway 280 at weekend noon.
After parking the car, we walked to main locations between Golden Gate Bridge and Pier 39, which took around 40 minutes by walk in one way. Those who have visited the city of San Francisco before may know how hard it is to walk there for long distance because there are a lots of steep hills in the city. I can say walking was almost like a light trail in the city. After the exercise, I finally got to the locations, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Additionally we got to know that our previous decision was correct because every parking lots were already full. When we reached the park, there were still space left and we laid our seat on the grass to sit down there. As soon as we started to enjoy to watch air show, FA-18 started to fly and a lot of people enjoyed very much because it was very fast and really close to us. The most surprising thing is that the city of San Francisco permitted that such a huge and fast aircraft can fly over the big city to show its grate performance and enjoy people. This kind of air show in cities would be not acceptable in Japan because Japanese government concern possible accidents. Off course, it is permitted in local areas like outside urban area. Well, finally we enjoyed blue angels performance. They are trained well and showed us how skilled they are to fly over closely each other. However, the missing show was that of B2 stealth boomer. I knew that regrettably when I got home and watched TV.
Here is the link to main page for Fleet Week 2011
http://www.fleetweek.us/page_airshow.html
If you miss this year airshow, do not worry. This takes place every year so enjoy next time though you needs to be patient for one year.
I thought we needed to buy tickets for dedicated seats at first when I was planning , but I concerned bad weather seriously because weather was not so fine since early October. Therefore, I did not buy them actually in case for rainy weather.
Fortunately, it was very good weather from early morning. This was really rare because weather at San Francisco was usually fog at morning even in summer season. Although it is less than one year since I came here, but I'm sure of it because I always watch weather forecast which is from Golden Gate Bridge in TV everyday.
Although air show would start at 12:30, we left south bay at noon at that day because our main purpose was to enjoy blue angels performance at first. As we approached to San Francisco, we could noticed that airshow started because we could see some aircraft fly above the city from highway 280. At the same time, I noticed that we were approaching the tail of long lines of cars ahead to exit, so I though that parking lots near main locations would be already occupied and it would be difficult to find a space to park my car, so I immediately decided to park my car near Union-Square which is a little bit far from main locations close to Golden Gate Bridge. It's mainly because I had not ever seen such a heavy traffic condition on highway 280 at weekend noon.
After parking the car, we walked to main locations between Golden Gate Bridge and Pier 39, which took around 40 minutes by walk in one way. Those who have visited the city of San Francisco before may know how hard it is to walk there for long distance because there are a lots of steep hills in the city. I can say walking was almost like a light trail in the city. After the exercise, I finally got to the locations, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Additionally we got to know that our previous decision was correct because every parking lots were already full. When we reached the park, there were still space left and we laid our seat on the grass to sit down there. As soon as we started to enjoy to watch air show, FA-18 started to fly and a lot of people enjoyed very much because it was very fast and really close to us. The most surprising thing is that the city of San Francisco permitted that such a huge and fast aircraft can fly over the big city to show its grate performance and enjoy people. This kind of air show in cities would be not acceptable in Japan because Japanese government concern possible accidents. Off course, it is permitted in local areas like outside urban area. Well, finally we enjoyed blue angels performance. They are trained well and showed us how skilled they are to fly over closely each other. However, the missing show was that of B2 stealth boomer. I knew that regrettably when I got home and watched TV.
Here is the link to main page for Fleet Week 2011
http://www.fleetweek.us/page_airshow.html
If you miss this year airshow, do not worry. This takes place every year so enjoy next time though you needs to be patient for one year.
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