maiko-san

I was a salesman at a medical appliance company more than 10 years ago. I relocated to Niigata from Tokyo. I dealt with oxygeon concentrator machine, which is as big as a refrigerator. I took care of doctors, nurses and patients. I realized two things. First, I must stop thinking like a salesman and not do any kind of pushy selling.Second, despite doctors knowing more than I did, I needed to find out specific things about gadgets that they didn't know which might be useful to them. In that way I'd become useful. Incidentlly, while attemtping all that, I discovered something else. Doctors learn a lot about disease, but they're not well informed about the instruments. Then there was something else. I realized I must always tell doctors the exact truth, and never exaggerate, never conceal. And if I was asked about a competitor's product and it was better than ours, I'd say so. What differentiates us from  medical representatives is that we were allowed enter the hos...

I went to German Culture Centre earlier this month to see a movie. A decent woman at the front desk ushered us into the hall. which accomodates as many as 100 people. The movie portrays the story of an Italian family that emigrated into Germany  in 1971. The family consists of Romano (father) and Rosa (mother) and their two sons. It's also about the brotherly love and hatred between Giancarlo (elder brother) and Gigi (younger brother). Romano deserted the idea of becoming a coal-miner in the Ruhr district. Instead he decided to open a pizzeria. Many German customers came to the Italian restaurant. His businnes was thriving. In the meantime Giancarlo always flirted with German girls, held a wild party while Gigi was big into making documentary films with the help of his pretty girlfriend, Jo. One day Romano cheated on his wife. She caught him with his pants down! She was so shocked and eventually suffered from an incurable disease, leukemia. The doctor suggested that s...

One month ago I started reading a book entitled "Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone." in German. In Germany they call it "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen." I bought this book, because I wanted to read Harry Potter series in German once for all and test my German reading ability at the same time. My Skype friend from Germany told me he read every novel of Harry Potter series. So I understand that the book is very popular among the Germans. Last not but least the title is the first novel written by Joanne K. Rowling and published in 1997. The book describes how Harry Potter,  a young wizard, makes close friends and a few enemies at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and with the help of his friends and thwarts an attempted comeback by the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents when he was one year old. It's interesting to know that Harry was an orphan and adopted by the Dursley family. Due to his wizardry he was a...

The book entitled "Reader" is written by a German novelist, Bernhard Schlink. One of the most successful novels of the first German book which took the first prize in New York Times and became a bestseller in the United States. A 15-year-old student fell in love with a 36 year-old- handsome woman. Michael suffered from yellow fever. Hanna helped him out to recovery. She worked as a conductor for streetcar. When they see each other, Michael reads aloud classic literature from a school textbook for Hanna. She's on top of the world when she listened to him. Then he takes a shower with her and sleep with her. Reading, bathing and making love became a ritual. In the course of time he entered a law school. He got to know a lovely girl by the name of Sophie. One day he mulled over his extraordinary relationship with Hanna. He wanted to betray her. Then, he flirted with Sophie at the poolside. Out of nowhere Hanna appeared and towered above them. She was an eyewitness. No dou...

Last Staurday I went to see a movie at German Cultural Center in Kyoto. The movie was entitled "Lili Marleen." Lale Anderson sang this song for German soldiers in the 2nd World War. Hearing her sweet voice with melancholy melody associated with the French Chanson warmed the cockles of  German soldiers' hearts. Soon the record became German bestseller. It was boradcast by Radio Belgrade throughtout Europe to soothe the Germans at front, who yearned for his fatherland and loved ones. The broadcasting capacity was so strong that the song reached as far as  Casablanca in North Africa. In the course of time Anderson had an affair with a Jew in Switzerland. Then the notorious Advertizing Minister Joseph Goebbels forbade her to sing "Lili Marleen." As you know the Nazis, being proud of thier own race, abhorred the relationships with the Jews. What a jerk! He's a really pain in the ass. However his decision was renounced, as thousands of soldie...

As far as I can remember the first scene in my life is the green colored Keio-Line  trains chugging along the rice field in Hachioji. My mother gave me a piggyback. I was on her shoulder. Over the green trains I could see Mt. Takao in the westside. It was a very idyllic scenery. One day my mother took me to Kamakura, one of  the ancient  Japanese capitals, where my grandmother lived. We went by Enoden and dropped off at Inamuragasaki Station. Then we walked up the path. My grandmother's house was located at the top of the hill. She was the second wife for my grandfather. His ex-wife died ten years before. They lived usually in Kyoto, but from time to time come to thier villa in Kamakura to enjoy the pleasant warm weather on the seaside. I gather he married her, because she was a graduate of not only a prestigious women's college in Tokyo but also the ones in the United States. I recalled her teaching English to children in the neighborhood....

Today I'd like to talk about CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Language). The reason I chose this topic is that our NHK text is based on B1 level in CEFR. I wondered what exactly is CEFR? I wanted to learn CEFR from the bottom up. So, I searched it in Internet. Now, I'd like to tell you the results. CEFR is a guideline used to describe achievements of leaners of foreign languages across Europe. It was put togeher by the Council of Europe as the main part of the project "Language Learning for European citizenship." Its main aim is to provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing which apllies to all languages of Europe. The six reference levels are becoming widely accepted as the European standard for grading an individual language activity. As you all know in Japan we take it granted that the first grade in the STEP ("Eiken") and 990 scores in TOEIC test is a sign of the best English performer. Is that true? I compared CEFR to TOEIC...