ジョンズ 英会話

Without a doubt, my absolute least favorite Japanese-English expression is "guts pose."

My main complaint is that "guts," in informal English, means "personal courage and determination;" in other words, "bravery."

Example: "It took a lot of guts for him to argue with his boss."

It also doesn't help that the announcers often use a shrill voice.

In a similar situation in America, you'll hear the expression "fist pump," which conveys something like "I did it!"

"Price subject to change."

Perhaps you can imagine what this means...

When you see this sign in a store, it means that the listed or advertised price for something may change (almost always to a higher cost) because of some unforeseen event, such as a shortage, increase in cost of materials/ingredients, etc.

Just to finish up on my earlier post about "kangaroo wrods..."

I tried to think of some of these words on my own, but I couldn't :-(

Here are a few more I found on the Internet:

action -- act
deceased -- dead
gigantic -- giant
cholate -- cocoa
observe -- see

I just learned something new!

(The following is from a post I saw).

A "kangaroo word" is a word that contains a synonym of that word, in the correct order.

Examples: masculine has the word "male" (MAscuLinE)
chicken has the word "hen" (cHickEN)
honorable has the word "noble" (hoNOraBLE)
blossom has the word "bloom" (BLOssOM)

My homework: to think of other "kangaroo words" on my own!

It's always interesting to me when the same word has several different meanings, often varying widely.

When I was a kid, we used the word "dope" (noun) to mean a stupid or foolish person ("John is such a dope -- he couldn't solve an easy math problem.")

"Dope" (noun) also was used to mean "illegal drugs" as early as the 1880's ("The dope she sells is excellent.")

Then, about 100 years later, "dope" (adjective) became to mean "excellent," "cool," and "great" in hip-hop culture ("Have you heard their new music? It's dope.")

I love English!!

A: "My grandmother died of cancer last week."
B: "I empathize with you."

B="My grandmother died of cancer, too, so I understand how
you feel."

A: "My grandmother died of cancer last week."
B: "I sympathize with you."

B = "I don't have the same experience, but I'm sad for you."

Today in Nishio I saw a poster for a classical music event titled "Irregular Concert."

While I completely understand what they wanted to say, "irregular" has a someone negative meaning.

I would have gone with "Special Concert."

A student asked me about writing numbers in English, so here are a few very general rules:

* Spell numbers zero to ten (or eleven), and use numerals after that.

* ALWAYS spell the number if it starts a sentence.

* Use numerals for decimals, percentages, dates, ages, and money.

"The 'B-type flu' is very popular right now."

While I understand what my students are saying, the word "popular" has a positive meaning -- many people like something -- and as far as I know, NOBODY likes the flu!

Better to use a word like "widespread" or "going around" (becoming common among many people).

Please take care!!

From about 50 years ago, there was a push in America to make titles and professions "gender free."

One of the first changes was the introduction of "Ms." for women. Women thought it was unfair that "Mr." was used for single AND married men, but one would always know if a woman was single ("Miss") or married ("Mrs."). They wanted the same "privacy" as men, and so "Ms." (with the "s" sounding like "z") came about.

Of course, there have always been professions that have been gender neutral (doctor, teacher, lawyer, etc.), but others have changed with the times: "fireman" changed to "fire fighter," "mailman" became "letter carrier," and "stewardess" is now something like "flight/cabin attendant."

"Actor" is now commonly used for both men and women, except for awards like the Oscars.

Some unique examples are "chairman" and "spokesman;" at first they were changed to "chairperson" and "spokesperson," but when people heard "person," they imagined "woman," so they became "chairwoman" and "spokeswoman."

How about in Japanese?

Fortunately, in our area of Japan, we don't usually have to worry about "wind chill."

Wind chill is the combination of air temperature and wind speed that will make it feel (much) colder than actually is.

Last night (February 8th) at 9:00 pm the temperature here in Anjo was -2 C, but with the wind chill it felt like -11 C -- a HUGE difference than can be dangerous if you're outside and not properly dressed.

On the other side of the coin, we DO need to be concerned about the "heat index," which combines the air temperature and humidity percentage to produce potentially fatal results.

For example, if the the temerature is 34 C with 60% himidity (fairly mild conditions) it can feel like 42 C.

In my running days I paid very close attention to the conditions from around June through October, running early in the day, carrying water, trying to take shaded courses, etc.

Please stay warm!!

"Leaders make final pitch to voters before poll (election)"

This headline in my morning paper today might be a bit confusing; most Japanese understand "pitch" as "to throw (a baseball)". You may also know that in British English "pitch" means "a (soccer) field."

Here the word would be similar to the way Japanese use "appeal' or "message" to make people vote for them.

A common expression you'll hear in the U.S. is "sales pitch," which means the presentation a company or seller makes to try to get you to buy their product.

I hope everyone plans to vote!!