Show 847 Monday 6 October
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Today’s guest is Jon. He’s from Wellington, New Zealand and he lives in Japan. This is his second stint in Japan. The first time he was here on the JET programme. He was teaching at a high school in Gifu. And after a year teaching, he went back to New Zealand, then he decided to come back to Japan, this time to do something different.
When he was living in Gifu, Jon came to Niseko on holiday to do some snowboarding and now he’s back in Niseko, this time he’s living here and working for one of the companies up at the ski village called Hokkaido Tracks.
I asked him what he does at Hokkaido Tracks.
At the moment I, um, do design, um, and website work. So I look after, ah, my company’s media, ah, requirements. So that can be, um, anything from just updating the website, text or, um, creating new web pages, um, through to pamphlets and, ah, sometimes photography as well.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora this is Stick News. A group of children from a swimming club in Japan thought they would have to swim for their lives after their bus became stranded on a flooded road.
Last month a group of 16 students were on their way to a swimming competition in Hiroshima when the minibus they were travelling in stalled on a road that was flooded with water. Mainichi News reported the students feared they would have to swim for their lives. So they quickly changed into their togs inside the bus and climbed out the windows. But the water wasn't as deep as they anticipated and they managed to wade to another bus and they made it to the competition.
And that was Stick News for Monday the 6th of October.
Kia Ora.
conversations with sarah
#523 What did you study?
Step 1: Repeat Sarah’s lines.
Step 2: Read Sarah’s lines and talk to Jon.
Sarah Did you study design at university?
Jon Actually, I didn’t study – that’s my naughty little secret. I, um, I didn’t study, ah, design or photography. Um, I, um, I’ve always been very interested in photography and design. So, I’ve, um … the, the kinds of, ah, programs, the kinds of software that I work with, um, I’m very familiar with, I’ve worked with a lot in the past. Just for my own … stuff. Ah, like if I’ve made my own website, or … um, and, ah, I’ve been … um, doing photography for probably about ten years now. Um, so, I’m certainly very interested in it, um, but it’s not what I studied at university.
Sarah What did you study?
Jon I studied, um - very different - I studied criminology and philosophy. Um, so, two very, very interesting subjects. But, um, yeah, I don’t know, I never felt that they were subjects which would offer me, a, um, you know, a, like maybe a well paying job, or … but I was very, very interested in them. And I’m very, you know, I’m very happy that I studied them. And I’d like to, yeah, I’d like to study them again one day.
Sarah Why didn’t you continue teaching?
Jon Well, um, I really enjoyed the teaching but I also felt like, um, teaching wasn’t going to be my career. Um, it wasn’t going to be the job that I always did. So, I, um, felt that I, um, should, ah, maybe look at doing a, a job which was more, you know, sort of career based. Um, so when I went back to New Zealand I was looking around for that kind of job and I never really found it. Um, and I thought about doing the police, going into the New Zealand police force. Which I thought would be very interesting and um, be very close to what I studied at university. Um, but then I um, found this job in Niseko, online, and I thought, ah, I’d like to go back to Niseko.
Sarah You don’t seem like the police officer type …
Jon I know, a lot of people say that, and probably I’m not so much, you know, sort of, of that kind of personality. But, ah, yeah, I, I think, um, the … um, the, the, the subject matter, like, really interests me, like, why people, um, commit crime or … what makes people commit crime, or … um, why we define certain things as crime. So, it’s kind of the overall, the overall picture, I think is … yeah, and … yeah I thought it would be quite an interesting opportunity, being in the police, to, you know, have more experience, direct experience with it.
Sarah Why did you choose Niseko? So that you could go snowboarding?
Jon Japan, coming back to Japan, was probably the biggest reason. Um, I knew that the snowboarding was very, very good. Um, but, I’m not that good at snowboarding. So … um, but certainly the other big one was the job, um, and I felt that the job really, um, it, you know, sounded like a great company to work for, really interesting, young company. And, um, it was a, um, an area that I’d personally been interested in for a long time - the photography and I thought that this would be a good opportunity, a step into the door, um … for, um, you know, maybe, you know, a career in this field.
Sarah When did you start studying Japanese?
Jon Um, really, I started studying, ah, when I first came, um, but when I first came to Japan, I was, I think I was more interested in having fun and I didn’t really take it seriously enough. And when I went back to New Zealand, I really felt that I’d missed an opportunity. Um, and, ah, so, ah, when I came back, I felt like it was a second chance, another opportunity for me to, um, you know, learn more about, um, Japan through Japanese, through the language and, um, I’ve certainly always been interested in the culture, but the language, I don’t know, I’ve … yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m studying, I go to classes at the moment.
Sarah Do you use Japanese at work?
Jon Predominantly English, but, um, certainly, ah, I mean, all of our company’s, um, employees, we all study Japanese, um, and vice-versa, the Japanese study English. Um, so … the goal is to have a bilingual, um, environment, where, you know, Japanese or English is, um, is, you know, able to be used in, you know, in the work space.
Sarah Do you have any advice for people who are studying English?
Jon Well, using it every day, using the language whenever you can. And um, watching The Daily English Show of course.
notes
a step into the door
I think he meant to say a foot in the door - an idiom which means: to manage to enter an organization, a field of business, etc. that could bring you success
links
today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures
Hokkaido Tracks
Hokkaido Tracks staff profile page
music
show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace
cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack3
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
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