Show 646 Monday 18 February

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
Today’s guest is Kris from Brisbane, Australia. He’s been in Japan since the start of last winter. And he also spent nine months in Kobe when he was a teenager. He was studying Japanese at high school so he came over on exchange.
He is a journalist and he used to work for a newspaper on the Gold Coast.
Last winter he worked in Niseko for a kind of travel company and over summer he spent three months in Tokyo teaching English.
This season he is writing for this Niseko magazine called Powderlife. This is a free magazine for English-speaking tourists so you should check it out if you come to Niseko.

The first thing I asked Kris was how he enjoyed his time in Kobe.

Ah, it was great. Yeah, um, I was a little bit homesick towards the end, but the first six months was amazing. And I learnt a lot of Japanese, probably more than I have in any other time in my life. You know, if you’re studying in Australia ... it’s just so much easier to learn Japanese living in the country and living with Japanese people. So, yeah, it was good.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today it’s Family Day in Ontario, Canada.

For the first time this year, people in Ontario will celebrate a new public holiday called Family Day.
From now on Family Day will be held on the third Monday of every February.
The premiere of Ontario said: "There is nothing more valuable to families than time together. And yet it seems tougher than ever to find, with so many of us living such busy lives."
Two other provinces in Canada already celebrate Family Day on the third Monday of February. And according to Wikipedia, South Africa and a territory in Australia also have yearly Family Days.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 18th of February.
Kia Ora

conversations with sarah
#394 Why did you come to Niseko?

Step 1: Repeat Sarah’s lines.
Step 2: Read Sarah’s lines and talk to Kris.

Sarah Why did you come to Niseko?

Kris Because, ah, my dad actually lives in Hokkaido, ah, and he started a little bar in, ah, Hirafu, um, and I was going to come over and, and, ah, work here for just a season, um, in the bar, um, for, sort of as, as the start of my travels around the world. And, um, he didn’t end up doing the bar, um, the following year, so I got a job with another company here. And, ah, yeah, that’s how I ended up coming here.

Sarah What kind of stories do you most enjoy doing?

Kris I like writing the stories about, um, the interesting little people – ah, the interesting little businesses and people, um, in the area. Um, cause there is so many great little businesses and restaurants that not many people know about. And they can’t really advertise, um, because they are quite small. But they ... and, ah, a lot of the time they aren’t really interested in making as much money as they can. They just want to do, um, their specialty as best as they can. Um, and I really love sort of finding out what drives those people and, um, what they do and that kind of thing.

Sarah Is it very different working for a newspaper in Australia and working for this magazine?

Kris Yeah, extremely different. Um, fundamentally, you’re still writing stories. But, um, working for a newspaper you’re doing, um, you’re, you’re at the, sort of, the bottom of the chain and you’re told from the top what you have to write. And you’ve got absolutely no say in it basically. You can come up with ideas, but at the end of the day, they can get shut down, they quite often do get shut down.
And it’s a very rigid, ah, 9-5, um, or, sort of, 8 til 7 o’clock type of job. Um, and it’s really, really stressful work conditions. Um, lots of really tight deadlines, especially in a daily newspaper, you’ve sort of get your, um, get your stories, you know, two or three stories done every day by a certain time. And everyone in the whole place is stressed out. So it makes for a pretty, um, intense workplace.
But over here, um, my boss is really, um, relaxed and, ah, likes snowboarding probably more than I do. Which is, which says something. Um, and so, we, ah, yeah we work around snowboarding. Um, and, we sort of both help each other out I think.

Sarah Now that so many people use the internet, what do you think the future of magazines is?

Kris I think the future of magazines is probably stronger than, ah, the future of newspapers. I think newspapers might die, um, a little bit. Um, but I think magazines, um, may always be around. Cause it’s nice to sort of hold a nice, um, thick magazine with great pictures in it, flicking through it. Um, and getting the great photos and stuff. You don’t sort of get that quality with a newspaper, but with a magazine, um, maybe you do get that a bit more. I always love reading a good glossy magazine, although it may not be that good for the environment I spose. But, um, yeah, if it’s doing a good job, then I spose you’ve got to toss up some things, whether they’re worth doing or not.

Sarah Do you think you’ll be in Niseko for a while?

Kris Yeah, yeah, I’ll be here for a good few years now. Probably mostly in the winters, but sometimes in the summers too. I’ll definitely be back and forth during summers and springs and autumns.

Sarah Do you use Japanese a lot these days?

Kris Um, probably not a lot, probably like 90%, um, English and 10% Japanese. When, um, answering phone calls and making phone calls every now and then. Um, and yeah, just talking to people who come in. And, and, you know, with my Japanese friends who speak English and Japanese I spend probably um, half, half, you know, sometimes we speak Japanese, sometimes we speak English.

Sarah Have you studied any other languages apart from Japanese?

Kris I do a lot of travel to Indonesia to go surfing. So I learnt a bit of, um, basic Indonesian, sort of just travel Indonesian, along the way. And then I had an elective at university so I did, um, two, two subjects of Indonesian, so I learnt some very basic Indonesian, which, um, when I come over here I sort of forget cause I’m trying to think in Japanese and then when I go back to Indonesia, I, sort of, can’t remember, for the first week I’m sort of confusing it with Japanese, but then I get back into the Indonesian mode again.

Sarah Do you have any advice for people learning English?

Kris I would say, if you can try and, um – it’s difficult for a lot of people – um, but to live in the country, live in an English speaking country, um, is definitely, um, one if the best things you could do, even if it’s just for 6 months, I think. Um, I think that’s probably the best think you could do. Otherwise, um, try and speak to foreigners a lot, um, get out of the text book and, um, yeah actually just try and talk to people. And don’t be scared about making mistakes as well, cause even, you know, people who’ve been studying English for years and years, even their Japanese isn’t perfect, ah, sorry, even their English isn’t perfect. So, um, yeah, just get out there and try and talk to people.

notes

I spose you've got to toss up some things ...
He means something like: "You've got to weigh up the pros and cons" which means "consider the advantages and disadvantages of something"

every now and then = sometimes

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: BrunoXe
album: aprendiendo desde 2004
track: Mandrake
from: Jerez, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

the snow report start
artist: Olga Scotland
album: Scotland Yard
track: Absolute
from: Moscow, Russia
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: Groovetracks
tracks: groovetracks ending
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: NarNaoud
album: Green Vision
track: Dubbing Rules
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site

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