Let’s learn Swedish!! 🇸🇪

My recent hobby is to learn Swedish by playing Duolingo. It has passed about 10 days since I started to learn Swedish. To learn Swedish in Duolingo is not so much study as game for me. There is no reason why I would like to learn Swedish. When we want to learn foreign languages in Duolingo, we can play English, Chinese,Korean and French in Japanese. But the other languages don’t have Japanese version. So when we want to play the other languages, we must play in English. I thought that I would be able to learn both of two languages. And I chose Swedish casually. I might be fascinated with the Northern Europes at that time, maybe.

I write down words and grammar which I learned to the loose reaf papers.

Hej, god morgon! (Hi, good morning!)

Jag är Erina. Hur mår du?( I'm Erina.)

Jag tycker om katt.(I like cats)

tack så mycket!( thank you so much.)

Since I’ve learned Swedish, I got interested in Sweden. So I went to the Swedish coffee shop in Tokyo.

FIKAFABRIKEN      📍Setagaya in Tokyo

Välkommen means welcome in Swedish. When I found this word, I was happy because I studied the word in Duolingo. The interior of the store was very beautiful, and it’s a room makes me happy. I felt as if I were in picture books.

And I ordered iced caffe latte and a piece of cake called Princess cake. I’d never seen the cake which has vivid color. It’s Swedish traditional cake. It reminded me of Princess Aurora who was the princess of Sleeping Beauty. I love Princess Aurora best of Disney Princesses. So I decided to order the cake as soon as I saw the cake display. And there were carrot cake, banana cake and more. Honestly, I wanted to eat all! When I carried the cake to my mouth, I was surprised at the taste. It was very delicious. Perhaps it may be the most delicious cake than I’d ever eaten. I’d expected that the cake was very sweet and heavy for me, but it was easy to eat. The cake included raspberry and whipped cream. I want to eat the cake again, but I will try to eat another cake because I’m interested in carrot cake.

And I bought these pretty cookies. The right side of the cookies is dalarana hoursse, which is carved wooden horses of Swedish traditional artifacts. It’s said that dalarana horses carries happiness to us. The left side of the cookies is hallongrotter. Hallongrotter is made up of two words which are hallong and rotter. Hallong means raspberry and routers means cave in Swedish. Especially raspberry is an important food for Swedish. In fact, I also love rapsberry, so I’m glad to know the fact. Both of two cookies were delicious. I spent a nice time in the coffee shop. I’ll visit there again.

※I really want to try speaking, but I have an ulcer in my tonsils. So I can’t speak well now. When my throat becomes to get well, I’ll try to upload speaking video on YouTube.

Vi ses! (Good bye!)

「南極の氷が溶けている」トピックスを使って英単語を学習♡Day30

Sea ice the size of Greenland is missing. This and collapsing ice shelves are just some of the problems Antarctica is facing due to climate change. Scientists have met this week to discuss how important the Southern Ocean is to the health of the planet. They say more funding is urgently needed.

1, Antarctic Extremes Are Now Virtually Assured, with Global Ramifications

At first, I introduce these new words in this headline. Extreme means very hot and very cold temperatures. Assured means guaranteed. Global ramifications means the whole world will be impacted. But I'm looking at a word 'virtually', which is very often used with technology. I went on a virtual tour of the Taj Mahal. I was at home in London, but I felt as if I were almost there. Like I was virtually there in India. In this headline, virtually means almost or nearly just like you’re almost nearly sort of the Taj Mahal. These extremes are virtually assured - that means almost guaranteed.

And we can also use virtually in a more casual everyday way. For example, I was late for work in this morning. I was virtually on the bus when it left without me. In another situation, I had a bad journey to work because I had left my headphone at home. I wanted to listen to music. So I was virtually in tears, almost crying.

2, I’ve spent 40 years in Antarctic research. Right now it’s facing a climate energy so we must not put vital science on ice

Put on ice means delay or postpone. This story describes about Antarctic ice. So we mustn’t put vital science on ice that means we shouldn’t wait until we need the science because we need it now.

And we can express in many situations. For example, there’s a project at work. You think it’s going to go ahead, but you don’t have enough money. So the project is put on ice. And I was thinking of moving house, but the timing s not good. So we have put that plan on use. It means we’ll save it for later and think about it again in the future.

3, World scientists call for more research on the Southern Ocean and climate change

Call for is phrasal verb. With phrasal verbs,they have particles like for in this case and it can change the meaning. Call for means to public ally ask for something, so in this headline scientists are writing, speaking and asking governments and the world of scientists and the public for a change. And call for is quite formal and often used in headlines and reports. So we don’t really use in common conversations.

「長生きする８つの方法」トピックスを使って英単語を学習Day29

Eight healthy habits in middle age may increase your life by more than twenty years. The eight healthy habits are doing regular exercise, having a healthy diet, positive social relationships and a regular sleep routine, and avoiding stress, smoking, opioid drugs and too much alcohol. According to research, you can lengthen your life by these habits. The study was carried out over eight years and more than 700,000 Americans took part in it.

1,’Kicking these eight habits could leap you live 20 years longer, scientists say

Kicking these habits can help you live longer. A habit is something that you do regularly. While exercise or having a healthy diet are god things, smoking or drinking too much alcohol are bad things. What is “kick”? You can kick something away like football, but what is “kick a habit?” You had better think of the literal action of kick. If you kick a football, then you move it out of your way, possibly quite quickly and violently. So if you kick a bad habit, which is like smoking or drinking too much alcohol, then your metaphorically forcing it away from you. That’s that you’re stopping a habit. When you want to talk about something that you really want to stop doing, we use ‘kick’ and ‘habit’ together very regularly. For example, I’m trying to stop eating as much chocolate, but I haven’t quite kicked the habit yet. I really want to kick the habit of checking my phone all the time. And it’s a really bad thing. I want to kick that habit.

2,These Habits May Help to Extend Your Longevity By Decades

‘Longevity’ is a noun and it means living for a long time. So this headline is saying that having these habits will make you live longer. But there is another meaning to longevity. If something is popular or useful for a longtime, we an say that it has longevity. For example, flexible working could be important for longevity in a job. It means that people will want to stay in their job loner if it’s flexible.

3,Adopting eight simple healthy habits could help increase your lifespan by decades, a survey finds

This headline is saying you can achieve ‘longevity’, by adopting these habits. ‘Adopt’ can be when you take responsibility for something, like kitten. For example, there was a kitten living in our street and it didn’t have a home, so we brought it into our home to live. We adopted it. If it’s child, that is a legal process- you adopted aa child. And that idea is the same as in the headline with ‘adopt’. It means taken and now belongs to you. So this headline is saying that you can take these healthy habits and apply them to yourself. And also you can adopt a new approach. For example, I watched a documentary about being vegetarian. Could I say that I have adopted a new diet? It means you’d just say I’ve changed my diet.

「アルツハイマー患者にとって希望のお薬」トピックスを使って英単語を学習♡Day28

confusion: a situation in which people do not understand what is happening, what they should do or who someone or something is

asthma: a medical condition that makes breathing difficult by causing the air passages to become narrow or blocked

spell(verb): to cause something bad to happen in the future

symptom: any feeling or illness or physical or mental change that is caused by a particular disease

New drugs could completely change the way Alzheimer’s is treated. The medication slows down memory loss and confusion according to recent scientific trials. That means that people with disease could still do everyday tasks like shopping, cooking, and cleaning. And scientists hope that Alzheimer’s will be managed as easily as asthma and diabetes.

1,Experts urge health regulators to approve ‘turning point’ dementia drugs

This headline describes these drugs as a turning point. Turning point is a big change, and it’s going from one idea to another or something positive to something negative, or something negative to something positive. So it could mean a really big change for people with Alzheimer’s. And it’s often used when we’re talking about a change for the positive. For example, when you have children, it’s a turning point in your life. And if you get a new job, we could call that a turning point.

2,New Alzheimer’s drugs could spell ‘beginning of the end’ for disease

These drugs could be the ‘beginning of the end’. That means the start of events that lead to something finishing. It’s used the reason why these drugs are now being tested and they might become available soon. So we’re at the start of disease becoming easier to manage which could then, kind of, be the end for Alzheimer’s as we know it today. This expression is usually used for quite big things like a cure for disease. For example, when the Covid vaccines became available, it was the beginning of the end of the pandemic. And it’s much more common nowadays to type on a phone or a computer, so it could be the beginning of the end for the pen and pencil.

3,The Times view on Alzheimer’s drug treatment: Breakthrough to Remember

This headline calls these drugs a ‘breakthrough to remember’. ‘Breakthrough’ is an important discovery or development. And we use ‘to remember’ after a noun and we mean that something is so important that it will be remembered by a lot of people, maybe even fair into future. So in this headline, this breakthrough, which is these drugs, are very important to the world of science. It’s a memorable event and they use ‘to remember’ to mean that. And we can also use this with personal situations. For example, you have a birthday party with all your family and friends, and you say “Wow, it was a night to remember!” You’re not going to forget it because it was so great. And your wedding day was a day to remember.

今週のリスニングはお休みです💤

こんなに続くと思わなかった？

このブログは主にBBC learning English News Reviewの内容と英語の日記を書いていますが、

ブログに入力する前に、1度ルーズリーフに下書きをしています。そして、その下書きのルーズリーフを捨ずに、リングファイルへ保管していました。

最近リングファイルがパンパンになって、ルーズリーフを収納しにくいな〜と思い、枚数を数えてみたらなんと43枚、86ページ！

キャンパスノート（1冊40枚）程あるなんて、とても驚きました😳

どうせすぐ飽きるだろうと思って、リングファイルは100円ショップで適当に購入した物だったので、当時の自分に伝えたらびっくりすると思います（笑）

（といいつつステッカーシールは1枚300円（高い😥）なので、実質このリングファイルは1000円🫢）

実際にキャンパスノートを置いてみると、本当にたくさん勉強したんだなってしみじみ思います🥲

TOEICを受けて、出来応えがあまりにも悪くて絶望した1年前。今考えると中学英語の文法しか完璧ではなかったし、TOEICの問題集に載っている単語全部と金フレ（しかも多義語は捨てた）暗記して、公式問題集と出る1000を何周も解いたからって高得点が出るはずないですね🤷🏻‍♀️TOEICを舐めすぎだ！と過去の自分に言いたいです（笑）

正直最近はTOEICの勉強をしていないので、もしかしたらTOEICのスコアは去年より下がっているかもしれません。ですが英文法の参考書forestを何周も読んで、金フレも全単語覚えて、毎日BBC learning Englishを通してリスニング&スピーキングしている今の方が英語力自体は高いと思います、多分！（笑）去年の今頃だったら、英語で日記なんて絶対書けません😂

もちろん今の英語力も全然低いですが、

英語力を鶏🐓に例えるなら、去年の今頃辺りは親鶏に温められている卵で、今はやっと殻を破った産まれたてのヒヨコ🐣なのかなって思います🥹

鶏になるのは、まだまだ時間がかかるし、もしかしたらなれないかもしれない。けど少しずつ鶏🐓になれるように毎日コツコツ楽しく勉強していこうと思います🐥📝

そして最近新たな勉強方法を試してみました！

Kevin's English Room

アメリカ人のケビン、9ヶ国語堪能なやまちゃん、そしてIQ140のかけの3人でやってる英語系YouTuber。

すごい、英語学習界のアベンジャーズ🦸🏻

ユーモアあって、すごく面白い方々です。

アメリカ現地から仕入れた本場のお菓子を食べてみた、アメリカ人（イギリス）の小学生の放課後事情、やまちゃんが9ヶ国語話せる秘密、ハリーポッター・ホグワーツ寮の組分け診断をしてみたの動画がお気に入りです。

私は結構彼らから影響を受けていて、

ハリーポッターにはまったり

カンボジアコーヒーを作ってみたり☕🐄🥛（笑）（←1週間毎日3食カンボジア料理で過ごすという企画の動画があるんです😂笑）

そして上の「ネイティブの英単語勉強法」という動画を観て、実際に真似してみました。

英単語を覚える時って、単純に英訳⇄和訳を書いて覚えていました。

でも、ケビンが新たに英単語を覚える時、

①“英語で”意味を調べる　例) apple meaning

②意味と同時にその単語が使われている例文を絶対見る（どんな場面で使われるか、文章内でどの位置に置かれることが多いか）

③PlayPhrase.me 【https://www.playphrase.me/#/search】を使って、実際にその英単語を喋ってるクリップ動画を見る

前回、BBC learning English News Review のHottest week everを学習した時にcyclone という単語が分からなかったので、ケビン流の覚え方を実践してみました。

そしたら不思議なことに特別暗記作業をしていないにも関わらず、意味とスペル覚えることができました。

正確に言うと、はっきりとした意味というよりcycloneのイメージ図がぼんやり浮かんでくる。

多分普通に日本語で覚えようとしたら、難しい意味を持つ単語だから、すぐに忘れてしまっていたと思います😂

なのでこれからはケビン流の覚え方をやっていこうかなと思います🙌🏻

「今までで1番暑い1週間」トピックスを使って英単語を学習♡Day27

cyclone：a storm or system of winds that rotates about a center of low atmospheric pressure

Hotter weather has never been recorded. The UN says the first week of July had the highest average global temperature ever measured. This could occur significant effects on the planet hurricanes, tropical cyclones, drought, heavy rain all that become more likely as a result.

1, We’re experiencing Earth’s hottest weather in 120,000 years, and it’s just getting started

It’s the warmest on the earth in 120,000 years since the last Ice age. ‘Just getting started’ means that there is a lot come. In the case of this story, it’s all negative. While the current high temperatures are bad news, they’re only going to get much worse. In fact, they’re just getting started. And we can use this as well for positive things as well. For example, we’ve got a lot of things we can tell you about English and we’re just getting started.

2, ‘Uncharted territory’: UN declares first week of July world’s hottest ever recorded

‘Uncharted territory’ means that it’s not on any maps. It’s a place that no one’s been to before, or at least they haven’t made a map of it yet. So in terms of the weather, we are seeing things that we’ve never seen before- we’re in uncharted territory. That means there’s no maps or anything to tell us what to do next, and we can use it to talk about anything that we haven’t worked out how to deal with yet. For example, when we think about people using AI to cheat in exams, we’re in ‘uncharted territory’.

3, Record-breaking heat scorches communities around the world

This is from an article that focus on the impact of these high temperatures. If you scorch something, you burn the surface of something with extreme heat. It doesn’t literally mean hat the people are being burnt, but it’s definite having a negative impact on them. Another metaphorical use of scorch is to criticize strongly. For example, I hope we don’t get scorched in the comments in this episode of News Review.

Why is HARBS so popular?

HARBS is a cafe which has a lot of locations in Japan and New York. It’s very popular. Because there are so many people when I always see the cafe. The store’s Cake is popular and quite big. If you buy a piece of cake, it costs about one thousand yen. And if you buy a whole cake, it costs about ten thousand yen. It's very expensive. But the cafe offers lunch menu which has salad, main dish, soft drink and a piece of cake. Surprisingly it costs only two thousand yen! I heard the information, and I wanted to go eating. So I decided to go there at exactly opening hours on Thursday. The cafe doesn't accept reservations. I went to a location in Kichijouji, because I thought that I need to wait in line if I would go to a metropolitan city like Shinjuku or Ikebukuro. I arrived at the cafe about ten minutes before opening hours. Despite opening hours, five couples had already waited in line.

Inside of the cafe was calm and I heard classical music, so I was comfortable.

The pear's picture was beautiful. And I ordered lunch course, and I chose that main dish was tomato pasta, cake was peach's rare cheese cake which is a seasonal limited editon, soft drink was hot coffee. I was very excited.

These are all dishes. The pasta was very heavy, so I turned to be full of quickly. It was very delicious. I like P★ONT's tomato pasta, but HARBS's one is more delicious than it. At that time, it had passed about fifteen minutes, but the table was full and there are a lot of people who waited to enter the cafe in line out side of the store. I thought that my selection which was to go there before opening hours was correct. And I ate a piece of cake. It was most delicious than I had ever eaten, and it was creamy and not too sweet. I understand the reason why the cafe is popular. If I have a chance, I want to go eating there again.