2017-03-17 01:03 Elegant creatures named giraffes
Y (Kuma's owner)
You have seen giraffes, haven't you? They are amazing creatures with unique features. They have a beautiful long neck and long legs. The pattern on their body is like geometric patterns.
I have been to the Tama Zoo in Japan and saw giraffes. They were in the wide area with zebras which was surrounded by a fence. The day I went to the zoo, it was a weekday and there were not many visitors. I was alone looking at giraffes, and giraffes were also looking at me.
I enjoyed looking at giraffes and decided to go to see other animals. That area was big and I had to walk along the fence where the giraffes were. Then, giraffes followed me over the fence. It was very strange feeling like walking with giraffes. If I stopped, they stopped too. Can you imagine, that tall and beautiful creatures walked with me, I thought that was a rare experience.
Their way of walking is elegant and a little pretentious, like a fashion model. They remind me of Miko who performs Japanese traditional dances and sings songs in Kyoto. Miko decorate their hair with Kanzashi (traditional hair ornaments) and giraffe's ossicones look like Kanzashi. Their eyelashes are long as an eyelash extension.
According to the survey of IUCN (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature), the population of giraffes is dramatically decreasing. On the other hand, there was news that a zoo in Denmark killed a giraffe in front of visitors and fed the dead body to lions. What are human beings doing? This news shocked me with another meaning as well. Killing animal in the zoo in front of visitors including kids was unbelievable.
In the future, I don't want to say to young kids in the past tense that there were big and long-necked animals that were called giraffes in Africa.
Their fate depends on human beings.
2017-03-09 22:43 Australian Movies
Y (Kuma's owner)
On Tuesday this week, I went to see the movie "Jasper Jones", which I had been waiting to be released. I have read several books that were written in English since I came to Australia, and "Jasper Jones" is definitely the best book I have read since then. The story is set in a remote town in Western Australia in 1965. The main character named Charlie loves reading books, and the second main character is Jasper Jones, yes, his name became the title of this story.
I have some experience of reading original books and then seeing the movies. Honestly, most of the time, I thought that original books were better than the movies. I know movies have a time limit and it's difficult to reproduce a story in that time, but I was a bit disappointed, you know?
However, this movie didn't let me down. It was pretty good. The actors and actresses were close to the people that I had imagined while I was reading the book.
I didn't know any of the actors and actresses in the movie, so after watching the movie I searched the Internet to find out who played who. Levi Miller, who played Charlie Bucktin, seems to be a famous actor. He is also in the movie "Red Dog." I remember this title because some of my friends recommended it to me.
Since I came to Australia, I have known that there are lots of good Australian movies. The most famous Australian movie must be "Crocodile Dundee." This movie is really fun. I'm sure so many people in the world have seen this movie. There are lots of Aussie actors and actresses in the world as well. I recently found out that the actor who played Joker in the movie " The Dark Knight" was Australian, Heath Andrew Ledger. His acting was amazing! I'm so sorry that he has passed away.
I hope that more Australian actors and actresses are able to get a chance to step into the world.
2017-02-28 08:42 Slow and steady wins the race
Y (Kuma's owner)
I've been here in Australia for more than five years. Some Japanese people say that if I've been living in an English language country I must be good at English. However, I'm not as good at English as other people think. It's not easy to acquire foreign language ability, especially for adults.
Generally speaking, I heard that Japanese are good at writing, and are not good at hearing and speaking. I'm also not good at hearing and speaking. Unfortunately, I'm not talkative and even in Japanese, I don't talk much. I don't have much will to talk, so the most difficult part of improving English for me is speaking. I cannot change my character, if I could have friends who have the same interests or hobbies, I think I can talk a lot more than usual.
Concerning listening to English, I use movies. I bought DVDs and I see movies almost every night and see the same movies again and again. It depends on movies, some movies are easy to catch the words and some of them are difficult. Generally, old movies are easy to listen to.
Seeing the same movie many times sometimes works for improving listening ability. At first, I couldn't catch the lines at all, and gradually I was able to get some words one by one with repetition. The other merit of seeing movies is I can use the subtitles, it's really helpful.
I always encourage myself and say " Slow and steady wins the race."