Tongue Twister of the week!

Pour papa a cup of proper coffee in a proper copper coffee cup.

Drum roll please...

Last weeks POLL question was
"WHAT WAS AN OLD NAME FOR AUSTRALIA?"
Well 3 of the 6 answers were correct...
Before Australia was explored and mapped it was known only as
Terra Austalis Incognita

(which is Latin for "Unknown Southern Land").
It was later known to the Dutch as New Holland
& the English as New South Wales
(which is now the name of the state that Sydney is the capital of).
It is often referred to by the nick names
"Aus/Oz" (which I think sounds more like a place you go to
when a whirlwind picks your house up)
& "Down Under" (which I think sounds like
another name for your bottom).
The answers "Prison Island" &
"The Land of Hopping Animals" were of course wrong,
and the answer "Hell" was partially correct
as that is what I sometimes call it.
(just joking, I love Australia, most of the time...)

We noticed that
only 1 person voted on last weeks poll question.
Why? Did you not like the question?
Or is the poll not an interesting feature?
Please vote for this weeks question,
it's really easy, just one click of your mouse
(and we have no idea who you are
so don't worry about feeling shy.)
It's important for us to know
what parts of the blog you enjoy.
Thanks

Happy Belated Birthday YUJI!!!!

On the weekend we celebrated boss man Yuji's Birthday!!! The RLE family went out for a DELICIOUS Yakiniku supper with all the fixings! It was so tasty and the company wasn't bad either ;) Here are some photos!

Savvy...?

September 19th was TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY.

So lets take a look at some SLANG words you can use if you want to sound like a PIRATE!

Ahoy - A pirate greeting, Something like "Hello!" or "Yo!".
Arrr, Arrgh, Yarr, Gar - Common pirate terms, which are used in different situations.
Avast - An order to stop and pay attention.
Aye - "Yes"
Aye aye - Conformation, taking order from the captain.
Belay - Usually means to tie something down but can also mean to stop or cancel something.
Booty – The treasures and other values plundered from the victim ships.
Bucko - A friend.
Davy Jones's locker - A graveyard for people killed or drowned at the sea.
Lad - A younger man.

Land Lubber - Someone who is not a skilled sailor.

Lass - A younger lady.
Maroon - To leave prisoners on island or desert coast.
Matey - A companion, a close friend.
Savvy - "Do you understand?"

Scallywag - A liar or cheat.
Sea Rover - A pirate, a pirate ship.
Shiver me timbers - Idiom for surprise, shock. Usually used when a ship is hit in combat.
Smartly - To do something quickly.
Sweet trade - Another term for the trade of piracy.
Walk the plank - When someone is forced to walk on a plank, with hands tied behind. Plank is extended over the side of a ship, and victim is usually forced to jump to water and drown.

Weigh anchor - "let's go", "get ready to sail on".
Yo-ho-ho - Salutation, expression of delight, (But will make you sound more like Santa than a pirate)

Well, now you can talk like a PIRATE. Also remember that pirates didn't go to school, so they had terrible grammar and would use "me" when they should have use "my". e.g "It's me ship."

"Good luck ye land lubbers"

* ye - is pirate speak for "you"

A part of our heritage - The Canadian Flag

Canadian History

Where did the Canadian Flag come from?

In 1964, the red Maple Leaf Flag was officially adopted to replace
the Union Flag. Since the 1890's the Canadian Red Ensign was used unofficially. This flag however, was changed many times as each province joined the Confederation of Canada. Flag makers would make the badge larger each time, resulting in several widely used flags.




As you can imagine this became troublesome for the country as a whole and in 1964 the Prime Minster of Canada, Lester B. Pearson, made a committee to change the flag. There were three choices but the maple leaf flag designed by George F. G. Stanley (who went to my university!!!) and John Matheson was chosen.

This is a TV commercial from Canada that depicts how the Canadian Flag was decided.

PIRATES

Here be PIRATES ye land lubbin' scallywags!

Today was PIRATES DAY in PLAYSCHOOL.

We had a great time making our costumes

and hunting for treasure!

Help Us!!!

Halloween is only one month away and we need YOUR help!!!

The annual Halloween party will take place on the last Saturday of the month, but WHERE should we gather? Where would you like to celebrate and enjoy the RLE dress-up party??!!

Tell us what you think in the comment section below!

Should we go to a restaurant or stay and party in the school?

Decisions, decisions!

Last week in Playschool!!

Last Saturday morning in Playschool, Phil and I watched an amazing animal puppet show!! The kids put on a great show with singing and dancing and small conversations between the animals!

Great work everyone!! :)

The movie everyone is talking about..

Resident Evil [Bio hazard]
Are you interested in these movies?

I wasn't until I watched Resident Evil 2 last Sunday evening. I was curious about it as it seemed like everyone in Japan was talking about it (not to mention Phil, Yoshio and Masa). It was actually a little exciting and I wanted to see what was going to happen. This weekend I'm looking forward to watching Resident Evil 3!

Have you seen the new one yet?
What did you think about it?
Leave your comments below!

Guess that idiom!!

What do you think this idiom really means?

**Here is a hint: Paul graduated from high school at the top of his class. Then he was able to get a great job with a big company. Now he feels like he is 'on top of the world'.

Drum roll please...

The most popular answer

for last weeks poll question

"How often do you drink?"

was...

Once a week.

Well that's good that most of you don't drink too much.

Thanks for voting

and don't forget to check out this weeks poll question.

Macaroons!!

On the weekend I went to Okamoto Station, Kobe to taste the most delicious macaroons!! It was my first time to try macaroons and they were sooooo good and they look so cute. :p Have you ever tried these delicious deserts? I highly recommend them :D

A part of our heritage - Canada

Canadian History
Where did the name Canada come from?

In 1535, two young Indians referred to their 'village' or 'settlement' as 'kanata'. The French explorer Jacques Cartier then used this name 'Canada' to refer to not only their village (now present day Quebec City) but also a much larger area. As fur trading grew so did the region of 'Canada'. It was not until 1791 that the name was used officially by the Province of Quebec. At the time of Confederation on July 1st, 1867 when the country separated from Britain it assumed the name of Canada.

This is a TV commercial from Canada that depicts the naming of 'Canada'.

Did you know.....?

CATS LOVE TO ROCK!!!

Effect Vs Affect

Now here is something that confuses me sometimes

and I am a native speaker...

"When should you use AFFECT

and when should you use EFFECT???

"Well affect with an 'a' is a verb and effect with an 'e' is a noun

(most of the time).

When Should You Use Affect?

Affect with an 'a' means "to influence,"

as in, "The arrows affected the aardvark,"

or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo.

"When Should You Use Effect?

Effect with an 'e' has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun,

but most of the time the meaning "a result" seems to be best.

For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping,"

or "The sound effects were amazing,"

or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."

Still confused?

Yeah me too a little bit...

Good luck :P

Slang of the day!

FISHY
[strange and suspicious]

When I saw the man in the dark coat on the corner watching me, I thought there was something fishy about him.

Drum roll please...

Well the results from last weeks poll are in

and the question was

"Would you rather have really long arms and really short legs

or really short arms and really long legs."

Well it was a 50/50 split.

How disappointing.

I thought long arms and short legs would have won,

although you might look a bit strange

at least you can still do normal things...

like scratch, tie your shoelaces, etc.

Maybe this is why Tyrannosaurus Rex

was so angry all the time.....

The blog!!

You may have noticed that last week we barely posted anything on this blog. This was because we were not sure what to post!!

What would you like to see on the blog?
Do you have any English questions or requests for us?
How can we make this blog better for you?
What are your favorite post topics?

Please give us your ideas and let us know what you think about this blog in the comments section below. :)

How was your weekend?

What did you do on the weekend?

It was hot, but not too hot, so that was nice. :) I went to Nishigawara pool in Ibaraki. I had no idea this pool existed and SOO close to my house!! I was really sad to find out that Sunday was the last day to go swimming this summer.



After swimming I did a little exploring around Sojiji and discovered Sojiji Temple. It was much bigger than I was expecting!!









Later in the evening I finally got to go to my first beer garden in Japan!! I met Phil in Kyoto and enjoyed unlimited food and drink :) It was a great end of summer day to say the least! :D

This week in play school we are exploring the Zoo!!

Here is a great video song I found about going to the zoo.
It's a catchy song! Enjoy :D

Drum roll please...

Last weeks poll question was,

"Which word best completes the sentence :

Lay those text books _____ the others."

And the answers choices were

Buy

-which is chiefly used as a verb, meaning "acquire by payment" (as in buy a house),

and occasionally as a noun: These boots were a good buy.

Bi

- a prefix meaning "two" or "both" (as in biannual, bilateral),

By

-as a prefix means "secondary" or "past"

(as in byproduct, bygone),

and as an adverb or preposition means "beside," "past," "through," etc.

(as in stand by the window, as the years flew by).

Bye

-is used as a noun, denoting an automatic advance in a competition,

or as a short form of goodbye..

So the correct answer was.....

"BY" but you already knew that yeah?

Because it got a surprising 100% of the votes.

Well thanks to everyone who voted,

and don't forget to check out this weeks poll.

BYE!

Shine your shoes governor?

First check out the side burns on the fellow in the picture above.

They are some serious "mutton chops".

Now try this tongue twister

"Silly Simon's sitting in a shoe shine shop.

Where he sits he shines,

and where he shines he sits."

I don't recommend practicing this one on the bus,

it might sound a bit rude if you make a mistake.

:P

Pidgin English 101

Waaaassssuuupppp! Howzit? Mahalos fo checkin out anothah pidgin lesson cuz. Ho, the weathah stay hot uh? Make sure you drink watah bumbai you get dehydrated!

Hey what's up? How are you all? Thank you for checking out our next pidgin lesson. The weather is really hot huh? Make sure you all drink water, or else you will get dehydrated. Have any of you started using any of the words? Well here is another example of pidgin English and "normal" English.


Pidgin English: Ho Randall, you such one blind mullet! Stay right dea!

Normal English: How could you miss that, Randall? It's right in front of your eyes!


Today's words is blind mullet. It means blind or inability to see. Shoots den! Take it easy! See you at the next lesson!

Proverb Quiz

Can you fill in the blanks to these famous weather proverbs?

1: "Sea gull, sea gull, sit on the sand; It's a sign of _______ when you are at hand."

a. Fire
b. Rain
c. Summer

2: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; Red sky in morning, sailors..."

a. Take warning
b. Go fishing
c. Start snoring

3: "When the ditch offends the nose, look for..."

a. Nose plugs
b. Rain and stormy blows
c. Sun through the clouds to show

4: "A cow with its tail to the west, makes weather the best; A cow with its tail to the east, makes..."

a.Weather the least
b. Good economic sense
c. The Tastiest feast

Canadian Slang

As I just came back from Canada I thought it would be nice to introduce you to some common words used around my home. Remember Canada is very, very big (the second largest country in the world) so of course these words are not used or well known by everyone.

Can you match the slang word with the meaning?