2016-01-08 02:20 My bad habit
Y (Kuma's owner)
I know I have a bad habit to use the same word frequently.
It's a "so".
This word is very convenient and addictive. I quite often say "It's so nice!". Maybe I should change the word to "It's very nice!". I can also use this word in the beginning of sentences.
I wondered why I use "so" again and again?
One of the reasons is there is exactly the same word in my mother tongue, Japanese. What a coincidence! I think that's why I tend to use "so" many times.
I am not a native speaker of English, but how about native English speakers? I have searched the word "so" and "sentences" through the internet and found an interesting article.
The CEO of Facebook notoriously uses "so" to start sentences.
Oh, I found a company!
But why? He has grown up in the English world, hasn't he? I don't have enough vocabulary, I don't know other words that can be used instead of "so" but I'm sure he does.
The word "so" must be a magic word, which makes people become absorbed.
I have decided not to use this word often. Even if it is an attractive word, I have to resist it. And I've got a good idea! I looked up the word in a synonym dictionary. I found several words which have nearly the same meaning of "so". If I could remember these words, my writing will be better than before, I guess.
That would be so nice! Oops!
2016-01-02 02:10 Aussie English
Y (Kuma's owner)
It was a long time ago when I first arrived in Australia.
I had studied a little about Aussie English before I came and I thought I was well-prepared.
However, after I arrived in Sydney I keenly realised the difficulty of accent. I had enrolled in an English school. On the first day, a teacher said to us "G'day!", but to me it sounded like "Get die" . I was surprised from the start.
Fortunately, the family I was staying with spoke very clear English like English teaching materials. As I had been getting used to the teacher's accent, it made it much easier to understand other people's pronunciation.
But there were other hurdles ahead I had to jump.
Japanese learn American English at school. As you know, American English and British English are different. One day when I was walking on the street, a car came and stopped beside me. There were two ladies in the car and one of them spoke to me.
"Do you wanna lift?"
Suddenly, my head was filled with question marks. Yes, I had studied the word "lift". I knew lift means elevator but I was on the street! I thought that lady might be a strange person. She didn't look like it but maybe she was. I said "No, thank you." politely and they went. After that, I talked about what I experienced to the family where I was staying. They said a lift means a car ride.
Aussie English was not built in a day.