Our Lerning with Web2English

In this essay, I will write about my learning with Web2English. First, I really enjoyed doing this course because I learned not only English but also new computer skills. Also, through learning English I met new people and learned about different cultures and ideas too. Next, this course is very good for busy people because we can study when we have spare time. I am a house wife so I need to do certain housework as well as looking after my children. We have to be flexible because we need to fix the time for my children and husband.

During this course, I feel my writing skill has improved the most because we wrote a different topic essay every week and we got corrections to do. I realized I was not using articles correctly and I have to be careful about the tense. I still need to learn more but writing has improved most for me.

The most difficult thing during the course was sometimes online software didn’t work properly. Because of online software problems, we couldn’t publish the blog or couldn’t open twitter. That was very frustrating for me.

In the future, I would like to get a job . So after I read this week’s article, I am interested in taking the First Certificate in English . I will research about this exam. Also, I will read more English newspapers and English novels to improve my English.

Finally, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to study this course and keeping me busy. It was very nice and useful for me and I found my next aim. I really enjoyed studying with you and my friends.

City vs Country in Japan

In this essay I will write about the good things and bad things about city and country living in my country. For myself, I was brought up in the countryside. My house was on a hill with about 40 houses. We could see the sea from the upstairs window, and it was located near the fishermen’s village. Our school was in the fishermen’s village and my classmates were only 12 boys and 8 girls at that time.

I can think of many good things about living in the country. First, there is lots of nature. I used to take a long way back from the school and played in the stream, picked flowers and sat on the green grass and chatted about future plans with friends. Also it was safe because parents never worried about locking the door and they didn’t say anything about where we were playing as long as we kept the time. In addition, we knew all our neighbors. They were very helpful and kind. However, there are also bad things living in the country. First, there is not enough public transportation. We had only a few bus services in the day. Second, there are no hospitals or doctors in the village. My grandmother used to take us to see a doctor when we were sick. It was very hard work because we had to go by bus and we had to wait a long time for the bus. Also, there was no shopping center in the village. My mother had to go a long way to go shopping or wait for the truck to come and sell things.

I think living in the city is the opposite. The best things about living in the city is convenience. First, there are more public facilities like big hospitals, post offices, banks and so on. Second, there are many amusement places like museums, cinemas and concert halls. Also there are more job opportunities related to all facilities in the city. On the other hand, there are many bad things. First, the housing price is so high. We can’t afford to rent or buy reasonably sized accommodation. Next, it is not so safe because too many people are there. Sometimes we don’t know our neighbors either. Furthermore city is very noisy. Some people are stressed about the noise.

I had very nice time in my hometown during childhood. Of course, there were some inconveniences for adults at that time. However, thanks to modern technology, we can drive and go far away easily now. I like to spend my daily-life in the countryside with my children. And whenever I want to go to the city, which does not happen so often, I want to drive and visit places.

My favorite childhood place-Hiraodai

When I was a child, my parents took me and my sisters to a lot of different places.
I loved going out and still I prefer going out rather than staying in the house.

When I was little, I preferred going to the mountains rather than the beach, because I hated to walk wet feet with sand. After I grew up I didn’t mind that at all. However, when I was a little, after we had played happily in the sea, I complained a lot about walking back to the car with sandy feet.

My grandmother’s sister used to take me hiking to the different mountains with her friends when I was around 8 years to 12 years old. I really enjoyed going out with them and walking in the mountains. Spring and Autumn were especially beautiful.

One of my favorite places when I was a child was called Hirao-dai, which was famous for lime-stone rocks and a cave. This place was about 30minutes away by car from my parents place. Until 5years ago, this place didn’t have many attractions except the cave, hiking courses and picnic areas. We used to come often for driving and hiking. But now there is a concert hall, lots of shops and restaurants and many events.

When we lived in Japan my husband Chris used to go there for his weekend hiking. Also he used to take our children there as well. So now I believe that now Hiraodai has become the place for my family’s favorite place in Japan.

Protecting the environment

In this essay I will write about a few examples of what kind of things we can do to protect the environment. I think each person can’t do big things but if we try small things every day, then environmental problems will gradually improve day by day. First of all, everyone must realize that we are the people living on the earth, and we are the ones who can protect or damage the environment.

Next, we can keep and plant more plants around us, because thousands of trees are cut down all over the world every day for people’s profit. We need to keep a certain amount of greenery for our planet.

Then, we must recycle things as much as we can, because this modern world is filled with goods. People are buying unnecessary things everyday and those things will increase the garbage. We need to decrease the amount of rubbish to be kind to the environment.

Also, we should be careful about consuming our electricity and energy. because we tend to leave our electricity on for just our convenience. To supply more electricity, governments need to make new nuclear plants or dig soil to produce more oil. That will lead to destroying the environment.

Most of the movement makes our life inconvenient and takes more time to do it. However, we are going to pass this earth to the next generation soon. We shouldn’t hand over very damaged and polluted earth to our children or grandchildren. Now we must start to act and think about what are
the most important things for the future.

Miho's life now and 10 years ago

10 years ago I was just married and started a new life at Durham in North England. I always think I was born under a lucky star. So I can say that I am always quite happy and lucky. However, from the end of 1999 to the beginning of 2000, I have had the happiest time. On 12th September 1999, we had a wedding ceremony at a small local church and a reception in the small hotel afterwards in Northumberland, the U.K. Chris organized everything and many people came to celebrate with us. That morning I felt I was the happiest person in the world at this moment!! After that my Swiss friend invited us to her mum’s second house for a ski trip and to spend the Millennium time together. Then I found I was pregnant at the beginning of February.

Since then, 10 years has past. I still feel I am pretty lucky and happy with life here in Sharjah. Though within 10 years we have moved to 6 houses and 3 counties, but we always met nice, helpful friends. And now, all my family is healthy and we have very kind and nice friends here as well. For our 10 years wedding anniversary, we decided to come to Switzerland to meet our friends and ski. We are very happy to see all our old friends in Switzerland and enjoying a proper winter season here in Grindelwald.

my future plans

In 2010, I have some plans. First, from February I will be a proper volunteer staff of the NPO Japan-UAE cultural center. I am going to attend the meetings, organize some events and teach Japanese for UAE students sometimes. Second, I will try hard to study English until I finish the web 2 English course. Third, I will start some exercise soon because I have put on weight since I came back from Japan last summer and I haven’t lost any at all.

Also I have some things that I am planning to do in 2010. First, I would like to invite my sister’s family here, because they haven’t visited us yet. Second, I am planning to go to the U.K. and Japan during summer holiday to visit our families. Finally, I am going to tidy and sort the house more so I can relax in this house.

In the long-term future, I would like to get part time job here. I am planning to find some possibilities. Also, I would like to live in different countries, for example, Switzerland, Spain, China, Malaysia, etc, when we don’t have to worry about our children’s education

My year in 2009

After finishing 2009, I feel I had a good year after all. I can’t think of many bad things.

Some of the good things were as follows. First, my parents and my younger sister came to visit us in Spring. Then, we had nice a summer holiday in the U.K. and Japan. We spent a happy time with both family and friends. And in October we moved to a big house in Sharqan. Now we are enjoying the big space, garden and easy access to our nice friends!

Some of the bad things were as follows. Just before moving in here, I found my yoga place that I used to go to in Sharqan has closed down. Also the Japanese food shop in Ajman just moved to Dubai at the end of 2009. I was very disappointed about that.

Chris’s parents managed to come before Christmas and are staying with us now. So for me, the year 2009 was a very warm year because we spent quite a long time with Chris and my parents and both relatives, which was very nice and I think the most important thing for us.