Something I Belong

I've taken the 27th lesson at One's Word. It was also the 9th lesson by Joy.
I learned these new words in the warm up.

• genitals - I want to have a boy next time and I started to talk about gender selection. The book I bought for gender selection says wearing trunks is better than wearing briefs to have a boy because getting warm genitals leads to have a girl.
• superstition - There is a rumor about gender selection which depends on the month of birth. It would be just superstition although there are statistical data which month we could have a boy or a girl. 
• gastric juice - My wife has been having morning sickness. She sometimes vomits only gastric juice because there is nothing in her stomach.

This is the material we used. We talked about Starbucks logo. There are several expressions I should speak with natural expression. For example, it is better to say 'I am familiar with the third logo.' than 'I know the third logo.' and 'I can recognize what company' instead of 'I can recognize which company's logo'.

• commemorate - celebrate, elegance
• poised - a person is more like balance. come from the word poise which means grace, elegance.
• refurbished - renovate, repair to make it look new.
• bonehead - a stupid person led to talk about boring. We enjoyed to talk about the difference of the talking style when having a date between Japan and Philippines. During my time boys and girls were apt to be silent, teacher Joy was surprised with this.
• compelling - I asked if compelling can be used either as positive or negative. It is used both situations.
• shackles - I asked if shackles can be used both in the situation and for the physical things. Both are O.K.
• reminiscent - reminding of something

I've never heard in the Philippines the U.S. sells products which are not good for selling in the U.S. because the Japanese media doesn't tell such news to avoid to be a disadvantage to U.S. On the other hand there are many news that could be a great disadvantage to China reported by the media. It seems to me that the difference of Japan or the U.S. and China is if they know how to behave well and show a good face toward the world.

I've known about crab mentality in the Philippines. It is a big problem If this kind of thoughts are immersed into the culture. I propose an idea that the education beginning from age of two or three at day care centers should be changed and teach children how constructive the cooperation is. I bet the Philippine education can do as they have got an advantage of English education compared to other Asian nations.

It has been a year since I started to take Online English lessons at Skytalk. By the way I am not trying to recommend Japanese students to register this school.

There are roughly two segments when classifying the Online English school market. One is cheap schools without maintaining teacher's quality. Another is expensive schools with high quality teachers. However the school I introduced at the beginning would be classified in the former segment. What I want to say is there is the teacher who is suited to me and that is why I am still there. Keeping up studying at one place depends on not a school but a teacher. I am sure that meeting such a teacher is a secret for all students who study the second language to improve and proceed.

What is written below is the conversation between an American English teacher and me, when Naoto Kan took office as the Japanese Prime Minister.
"Is Japan governed by China?"
"Sorry?"
"The name of new prime minister looks like Chinese name. Is Kan Chinese?"
"No! Not at all!"

Yes, he might become Chinese recently. The prosecutor's office seized records about the computer which was used to upload collision incident's videos on Youtube. I have never seen such a quick response at the Japanese government. The way of seizing videos form Google seems the way China usually dose. You know the policy toward Okinawa the Democratic Party in Japan has seems to let Okinawa be separated from Japan in the future as if it will become part of neighbor countries.

I am using Sennheiser Communications Bluetooth headset MM100 to listen to music only.
But at first I really wanted to use this headset with Skype for Mac to make a handsfree environment.

Unfortunately this headset can not be used with Skype because of bad sound quality.
According to a listener It seems that echo is generated badly.
I don't know which Skype or Bluetooth is responsible, but when I use this headset by HFP/HSP mono mode, sound quality is not as good as ordinary USB headsets.
Moreover it can be said that it is worse than a built-in microphone of Mac.

I want to know how quality would be changed when using with iPhone.

I am appreciative of the book which titled American Accent Training.
I've learned quite a lot about how to pronounce American intonation pattern from this book.
Although my pronunciation was really improved, my speaking pace is not improved yet.
Speaking English quickly is my current big goal.
I want to achieve this goal within one year.