Last month, I took the TOEIC test to know to what extent my Engish level is now. Its the result of test score came back last week. To be honest, my score was lower than I expected. The TOECI test basically consists of reading and listening section. The highest score of the test is totally 990, although I do not know the reason why it is 990 but 1000. And my score was close to 900. Especially, my reading score was low. I had been in the U.S for two years before, and I have experienced many things in English which I needed to do to live. So I'm feeling embarrassed now with my score because I expected to get higher score than 900 easily and I thought it was a boarder line above which I do not have to care the TOEIC test personally.
What I felt after taking the test, I realized that I was not used to the test itself. As far as I could see, many peoples used test time efficiently. For example, people seem to solve grammar test while listening test time during which there is a little time between one question and following questions although it's not allowed as far as I remember because a test organizer told us before the test. If you can solve one question in listening settion quickly, then you can have time to go to the reading settion and look at questions in grammar section and solve as many questions as possible.
Additionally I realized that my grammar knowledge is not enought to get higher score. I think this is because I have not taken care of grammar so much strictly as much as I have when I write a e-mail and a document. Even when I write something in English, my vocabulary is limited at the morment.
Honestly, I believe that my English skill is good enought at my job. I"m a engineer and easy English is prefereble between engineers who are non native. So I hesitate to study English only to get higher score. I would rather study other things instead. If a situation is in business of sales, finance, real estate, import , export and so on, my English is not good enough.
Even between non native and native, I think that a little mistake in grammar does not matter, it's easy to guess what peopel say in conversation, although English native people often make mistakes. That"s what I have experienced so far. So I want native speakers take the test once to see how much score they can score.
I do not have higher score, so what I wrote sounds excuces. I know that, but I want to write something about it.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Rakugo : Japanese storytelling
Do you know what Rakugo is ?
It's basically Japanese storytelling, and a storyteller of Rakugo is called Rakugo-ka. Rakugo is one of important cultures which has entertained people for long time. Rakugo-ka basically sits on Japanese cushion and tells one story at one time by oneself, and a story generally is a story of a few characters generally, and Rakugo-ka plays them by oneself by changing accent, intonation and facial expression in order to tell listeners so that listeners can imagine situation as accurate as possible. Better Rakugo-ka is usually good at this. This is what I know about Rakugo, and I haven't gone to Rakugo places even though this is Japanese culture. I'm embarrassed about this actually. But I think that there are many young people who feel same with me about Rakugo. It's definitely because there is no TV programs about Rakugo but few if any, and Rakugo is considered to be something old for young people. When we grew up in school time, there had been many things to do like game, anime and TV, other than listening Rakugo.
A few months ago, I happened to see an article about one person who is a British lady. Her name is Diane Orrett. When she was young, she quit her job and traveled around the world. Japan was one of her visits. When she stayed in Japan, she came across one Rakugo-ka, and it seemed so attractive that she decided to follow him as a his trainee to learn Rakugo in order to do it by herself in English finally.
Here is her one of videos on Youtube. She is telling what Rakugo is from her point of view to you.
Every time when I see foreigners have interest in Japanese cultures, I feel happy actually, and also wonder if foreigners feel same when Japanese become interested in their cultures.
It's basically Japanese storytelling, and a storyteller of Rakugo is called Rakugo-ka. Rakugo is one of important cultures which has entertained people for long time. Rakugo-ka basically sits on Japanese cushion and tells one story at one time by oneself, and a story generally is a story of a few characters generally, and Rakugo-ka plays them by oneself by changing accent, intonation and facial expression in order to tell listeners so that listeners can imagine situation as accurate as possible. Better Rakugo-ka is usually good at this. This is what I know about Rakugo, and I haven't gone to Rakugo places even though this is Japanese culture. I'm embarrassed about this actually. But I think that there are many young people who feel same with me about Rakugo. It's definitely because there is no TV programs about Rakugo but few if any, and Rakugo is considered to be something old for young people. When we grew up in school time, there had been many things to do like game, anime and TV, other than listening Rakugo.
A few months ago, I happened to see an article about one person who is a British lady. Her name is Diane Orrett. When she was young, she quit her job and traveled around the world. Japan was one of her visits. When she stayed in Japan, she came across one Rakugo-ka, and it seemed so attractive that she decided to follow him as a his trainee to learn Rakugo in order to do it by herself in English finally.
Here is her one of videos on Youtube. She is telling what Rakugo is from her point of view to you.
Every time when I see foreigners have interest in Japanese cultures, I feel happy actually, and also wonder if foreigners feel same when Japanese become interested in their cultures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)