#1033 Keita From Japan, 1 Million Twitter Followers

Show 1033 Monday 27 April
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show. Today’s guest is Keita. He’s a ski instructor who has worked in Niseko for the last two seasons. And he happened to walk into Powderlife Café when we were setting up for Nick’s interview. I’d never met him before but I asked him if he’d be keen to do an interview and he said when I said today if you don’t mind … and he said yes … which was great and it turned out to be really interesting interview.

I started by asking Keita how long he has been a ski instructor.

I did two years before. One years … was in Rusutsu. And last year here.

STICK NEWS



Kia ora in Stick News today for the first time ever a Twitter user has 1 million followers.

Twitter is a website where users send tweets and have followers. The first person to ever have 1 million followers was an American actor called Ashton. He said he originally used Twitter as a tool to feed his ego but then he realized he could use the service to make a difference and “effectively change the world”.

And that was Stick News for Monday 20th of April.
Kia ora.

conversations with sarah
#652 How did you learn English?

with Keita Nakamura

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

Sarah What do you enjoy about your job?

Keita I don’t know. People can get happy and I started by my own so I can learn, um, about the business, like, yeah, from the beginning to teach … that’s good experience for everything, to start my own business.

Sarah How do you find customers?

Keita I have some friends who works in a lodge so I can put my stuff there or I can give my card to my friend if my friend recommend me, ah, introduce me to some people who wants to learn ski and snowboarding. Um, I pay some commission to my friends or lodge, and … yeah many … Or I put my card to some place and somebody just pick, pick it up and call me.

Sarah Do you teach in English as well as Japanese?

Keita Yeah.

Sarah Is that difficult?

Keita That was difficult but I did last year so I have some experience.

Sarah How did you learn English?

Keita Ah, I was in Australia for a year. I studied three months in, in a school. But, ah, I’m not good at sitting on chair long time, so I didn’t learn a lot of English there. But after three months I started working on a farm and, um, in a farm I don’t, I didn’t understand what they were talking about because they speak so fast … and Australian accent. So … but after I finished farming, um, I went back to city and my ears got used to listen the language, English in the city. So picking up little by little.

Sarah What kind of farm was it?

Keita Ah, so many things, olives, and, ah, planting trees and banana farms and yeah …

Sarah Where did you go in Australia?

Keita Started from Perth and went up to Broome, and Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, and Sydney.

Sarah Have you spent time in any other countries?

Keita Yeah, ah, last year I went to India. Ah, no, two years before. India and Thailand for three months. And last year I went to United States, Tennessee – where Jack Daniel's from.

Sarah Why Tennessee?

Keita Because my ex-girlfriend was there. I stayed their family, with their family.

Sarah Did you notice a big difference between the English in Australia and America?

Keita Yeah, I had some confidence to speak some English but the people in Tennessee I couldn’t understand at all. But I got used to.

Sarah How long did you stay there?

Keita Three months.

Sarah Do you have any advice for people who are learning English?

Keita Just, ah, try to communicate whatever, eye to eye. If you don’t … give up, you get it.

Sarah What helped your English the most?

Keita What I did at first is listening to the tapes from movie. When I was in Australia my friend gave me advice to listen the tapes from movie. I used to listen Notting Hill, like, when I sleep every night. Then, um, yeah, I started picking up one word and next time another word, next time another word. And I was excited to watch the movie because all the time, I was imagine what the scene is and yeah …

Sarah Why did you choose Notting Hill?

Keita Because the guy who recommend me to listen the tape used to listen, listen the Notting Hill and I like Julia Roberts and I like the movie, so …

filming notes

Today's interview was filmed on Sunday 29th March 2009 at Powderlife Cafe, in Hirafu, Japan.

links

today's STICK NEWS pictures

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: Josta
album: Altrove (part 1)
track: Ti spiezzo il beat
from: Torino, Italy
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site

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