Show 970 Monday 16 February
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Today’s guest is Annie. She’s from Germany and she’s been in Japan for about a month and is planning to stay here for a year. At the moment, she’s staying here in Niseko and she’s working in the ski village and snowboarding. She’s also been travelling in other countries. She spent a year and a half in Australia and a year in New Zealand. The first thing I asked her was: Why did you come to Japan?
When I travelled in Australia, I met many Japanese people and I got really good friends with them. And, yeah, I just … I was really fascinated listening to their stories and I decided to check it out by myself, visiting them. And I really love snowboarding so I thought Niseko … best powder, so I tried out.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora in Stick News today according to marine experts cleaner beaches in Australia are attracting sharks closer to shore.
Recently there were two shark attacks in two days in water near Sydney. Reuters has reported that environmental protection of Sydney's beaches and harbor has created a cleaner marine environment, but is attracting sharks closer to shore. A parks and wildlife official is quoted as saying: I guess it's the downside of the environmental controls.
And that was Stick News for Monday the 16th of February.
Kia ora.
conversations with sarah
#608 How did you learn English?
Step 1: Repeat Sarah’s lines.
Step 2: Read Sarah’s lines and talk to Annie.
Sarah Did you enjoy your time in Australia and New Zealand?
Annie Yeah, it was awesome. Best experience of my life. I made amazing … I met amazing people, beautiful scenery and yeah, amazing experience. It was really good.
Sarah How did you learn English?
Annie Um, I learnt English in school but it was my second language. So I learnt it from seventh grade. And then I went to the States. Where I think it improved quite a lot. And then I went to Australia and New Zealand and I had a New Zealand boyfriend so I think that was the key, made it click, you know … to feel the language.
Sarah How long were you in America for?
Annie Just, um, six weeks. It was like a culture exchange camp.
Sarah Whereabouts in the States?
Annie In Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and … yeah, I think that’s it, yeah.
Sarah What was the first language you learnt?
Annie Latin. I was in a school for languages, so my first language was Latin. So a death language – not very useful now.
Sarah Are you glad that you studied that though?
Annie Yes, because it’s a good foundation for other European languages and it just gives you a good feeling. And it makes your German understand … well, better … like grammar-wise. So yeah it was good. I think it’s a good base because it’s the base of our history of our language system in Europe.
Sarah Have you been studying Japanese since you’ve been here?
Annie Um, I studied before, so I can … like, you know, a few vocabularies and hiragana and katakana. But I gave it up to study here in Niseko because there are so many Australians. But I’m going … after the snow’s gone I’m going up to north Hokkaido, doing wwoofing there as well, so I can study some Japanese with a Japanese family.
Sarah Have you done wwoofing in any other countries?
Annie Yeah, in Australia. It was amazing. It was really good. In Tasmania and Northern Territory. Where I stayed with Aborigines in their community, that was really amazing.
Sarah Were they speaking their local language?
Annie The family I stayed with, they were two artists, so they spoke English. But they took me to their house and the grannies, they spoke their, their tongue. So I didn’t understand that.
Sarah What did it sound like?
Annie Oh, beautiful, it sounds like music. It’s really soft and … like, yeah, it’s like singing. Their voices are really high. It’s really nice.
Sarah What are your plans for the future?
Annie Yeah, I got to go to university. Unfortunately. I’m not, yeah, I think I’m not quite ready yet. I was going to start university actually in July. But I changed my mind and I’m going to stay here for one year. And then hopefully I’m ready.
Sarah What do you want to study?
Annie Japanology. In Germany it’s called “Japanologie”… I think, English: Japanology. It’s Japanese culture, language and literature. So that’s why it’s good to start studying here.
Sarah Why are you interested in Japanese culture?
Annie I don’t know … just, like, those people I met during my travels, I was just so amazed by them. And I think I found quite a strong connection between them, like, me, myself and their culture. Just very honest and once they open their heart for you, they really give everything to you. And, yeah, just the nature and everything. I was really amazed by it.
Sarah Do you have any advice for people who are studying English?
Annie Stay away from your, um, countryman, if you’re Spanish or German … don’t stuck with your group, always go by yourself. Meet the people, be open and just try and talk to them. Cause if you’re stuck in a group, there’s no point … you can learn the language … you’ve got to be by youself and you’ve got to dive into the culture. And do it by yourself.
Sarah What do German students usually have trouble with when they learn English?
Annie The th is quite difficult, like, the and stuff. Cause in Germany if you say th it’s more like thickness, like we call it lisben (?), we don’t have this sound. Cause in German it’s exactly the opposite. You know BMW is BMV. So the b and the w I’ve got quite difficulties with that.
links
today's news
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: Innvivo
album: This Noise
track: L'homme robot
from: France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
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