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This journal is written by Kuma (Felis catus) and Kuma's owner Y (homo sapiens). We have moved from Japan to Australia in 2011.

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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!

| | Category Misc.

2016-01-04 03:00   The Backyard Singers

Y (Kuma's owner)

I have been searching for the name of this black bird.

Willie Wagtail

He sometimes visits my backyard. His song was nice and I wanted to know the name but I couldn't find it. I have uploaded this picture to my Twitter account expecting that someone will know the name. My expectation was right, two of my Twitter friends let me know the name of this bird. It was a Willie Wagtail.

Thanks to my Twitter friends!

After that, I had another singer who can sing beautifully. It was a Gray Butcherbird.

Grey Butcherbird

He had a beautiful voice. Every time I hear his voice, I try to take a video to record his melody but he always comes near the window or on the pinch hanger. I want to record him somewhere on the tree, you know. Somewhere in nature. It doesn't look nice to see a singing bird on the pinch hanger with washed socks underneath. I wonder why Grey Butcherbirds come close to humans? I have searched for a Grey Butcherbird's video on YouTube. There were several videos and I noticed that some Grey Butcherbids sing on the balcony or handrail of the veranda. It almost looks like saying "Look, I can sing more beautifully than any other birds!"

I'm looking forward to seeing him on the backyard tree next time, not on the pinch hanger.

| | Category Birds

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.

| | Category Misc.