Trying to learn Japanese when you’re an English teacher can be a challenge. When you teach English all day, the opportunity to speak Japanese is close to impossible. Luckily, with a little help from Netflix, I can hone my Japanese listening skills. I especially like the Netflix anime series Aggretsuko for it’s honest (if not exaggerated) portrayal of the Japanese workplace.

Aggretsuko, a combination of “aggressive” and “Retsuko”, follows the mishaps of a young red panda named Retsuko. By day, she silently suffers at her boring office job where she is overworked and under-appreciated. But by night, she releases her workday stress by singing death metal. Her musical ire humorously covers nearly every topic from her horrible boss to uncomfortable shoes to meddling shop clerks.

What I enjoy the most about Aggretsuko is the juxtaposition of the cute animals with the decidedly un-cute world of office work. The characters were created by Sanrio, which is world-renowned for Hello Kitty, Purin, and other adorable characters. But Kitty-chan and Purin-kun don’t work terrible office jobs; their biggest problems are what birthday present to get their friends or getting a stomachache from eating too many apples. Aggretsuko has the nostalgia factor and brand-power for young adults who love cute Sanrio characters, but are forced to grow up and start their own, possibly awful, careers. Plus, with an episode run time of 15 minutes, I can watch two or three episodes in Japanese before I go to bed. Who says learning a new language can’t be fun?!

Retsuko by day–calm, polite, and hard-working.

Retsuko ready to unleash her grievances.

And here’s a 15 minute compilation of all of Retsuko’s rage breakdowns. 

こんにちは、アミック石井校の辰馬です。

先日、英語のことわざについて書きましたが、その中にTime flies like an arrow.（光陰矢のごとし）というのがありました。

ジョークの世界ではこれに続けて、Fruit flies like a banana.という言い回しがあります。フルーツはバナナのように飛ぶ？ 一体どういうことでしょうか。

実は、flyには「飛ぶ」という意味のほかに「ハエ」という意味もあります。同様に、likeは「～のように」という前置詞に加えて、「～が好き」という動詞の使い方もあります。

なので、Fruit flies like a banana.は、「果物バエ（ショウジョウバエ）はバナナを好む」という事実を述べているんですね！

英語には同じ単語でもたくさんの意味があります。ふさわしい意味をピッタリとあてはめられるように、ぜひ色々な文章を読んでみてくださいね♪

今日もアミックブログを訪れてくれてありがとうございます^ ^

木々の葉が色づき始め、金木犀の香る季節となりました。
生まれも育ちも愛媛東予の私としては、10月は秋祭りで胸が騒ぎます。

でも今日は、愛する地元のお祭りの話ではなく、遠く離れたアメリカのシカゴについて。
大学時代から6年間慣れ親しんだ私の大好きな街です。

アメリカ中西部Illinois州最大の都市Chicagoは、五大湖から吹く風が高層建築の間を吹き抜けることでついた愛称Windy Cityを持ちます。

NYやLAに比べると日本人には馴染みの薄い街ですが、アメリカ第３の大都市なんですよ。
有名なものをあげると、スポーツ（MLBチームはWhite SoxとCubs, NBAはMichael Jordanで有名なChicago Bullsなど）、音楽（Jazz & Blues）、美術・博物館(アメリカ３大美術館のシカゴ美術館)、建築（ダウンタウンの高層建築はシカゴ派として知られ、近代建築史においても重要）etc.
オバマ大統領が上院議員を務めていた場所としてご存知の方もいらっしゃるかもしれませんね。

シカゴ郊外に位置するオヘア空港は、世界一の離着陸量を誇る世界でも最も忙しい空港の一つとも言われます。
また、シカゴ郊外のアーリントンハイツには日本企業が多く進出していることもありミニ日本人街が形成されています。

そんなアメリカ中西部の夏は５月〜８月と短く、9月には紅葉が始まり、10月にはぐっと気温が下がり始めます。
本格的な冬は12月〜２月の間で、平均気温はマイナス5℃。時にはマイナス20℃にもなりますが、ミシガン湖から吹く強い風の影響で、体感温度はもっと低く感じられます。

この季節、外を散歩していて冷たい空気が体に触れた瞬間、一瞬で遠く離れたシカゴへ記憶が連れて行ってくれます(*´ω｀)
感覚を通して、昔の様々な記憶がよみがえってタイムトラベルが出来るなんて贅沢です☆

今この瞬間も、未来への旅行切符かもしれませんね☆

アミック英会話

There’s about 15 punctuation marks commonly used in English: the period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation point (!), apostrophe/inverted comma (‘), dash (—), hyphen (-), colon (:), semi-colon (;), parentheses(( )), brackets ([ ]), bullet points (•), slash (/), and ellipses (…). If you extend this list to typography marks, you can also add the ampersand (&), at sign (@), number sign/pound/hashmark (#), asterisk/star (*), and underscore (_).

However, the full list of punctuation only begins there–in their lifetime, a regular English reader will occasionally encounter a number of other marks. However, they probably won’t be able to tell you their names, or maybe even their purpose. Case in point, these five fun punctuation marks with equally as fun names:

¶ (pilcrow)

The pilcrow is most often seen in word processors and design programs to show where the ‘Enter’ key was hit to jump to the next line of text. However, it also has several other uses:

• Proofreaders and copyeditors write it to indicate where a new paragraph should begin
• Legal writers write it where a citation to an article, statute, law, or similar needs to be made
• Church programs use it to indicate when the congregation should stand, sit, or kneel 

It also sounds like an awesome name for a comic book villain. 

÷ or †(obelus)

Commonly known by most as the ‘division sign’, the obelus of the same name but a more dagger-type shape is also used by editors and proofreaders as a way to indicate a character is dead. It is also sometimes used to indicate a footnote.

‽ (interrobang)

The interrobang is for people who are too lazy/efficiency-minded to write out ?! or !? when wanting to expressed confused surprise. The mark was invented in the 1960s by an American ad man that wanted a symbol to indicate a rhetorical question in his company’s advertisements. After becoming somewhat fashionable in the 60s and 70s (even making its way onto some typewriter keys), the mark has all-but disappeared from use. However, it can still be found in some common computer fonts and there’s even an inverted version (or gnaborretni–interrobang backwards) for Spanish speakers: ⸘

☞ (index, manicule, or fist)

What looks like an overly-detailed emoji is actually a printing mark that dates back to the 12th century. Originally used in the margins of manuscripts to indicate corrections or notes, today it is mostly used in non-fiction to direct the reader to an especially important passage. 

◊ (lozenge)

What most might call a diamond is actually the lozenge, which has many purposes other than just soothing a sore throat or writing about poker:

• To indicate the subtotal key on a calculator (~1960s)
• On public roads in the U.S. and Canada to mark a specific lane’s use (carpool, bicycles only, etc.)
• Math things that I don’t understand

And unrelated to writing/typography but still mildly interesting, the eponymous medicine earned its name because the first cough drops originally only came in the distinct shape.

With Halloween just around the corner and all the Amic schools decorated with pumpkins and ghosts, I’ve definitely had horror on the brain. There’s just something about this time of year that makes you want to grab a pumpkin spice latte, eat an apple cider doughnut, and watch something so scary you can’t sleep at night. I will admit that I’m a huge scaredy-cat; I usually end up watching horror movies with my ears plugged and my head buried in my lap! Lucky for those of us that can’t stand the suspense of a standard 175 minute slasher movie, there’s music videos! Yes, there have been music videos created that are so disturbing that MTV refused to air them (I’m looking at you, Mr. Bungle). The beauty of scary music videos is that they are small works of art in themselves; high quality production without the cheesy dialogue. 

So without further ado, here are my top 5 scary music videos, in no particular order. Watch at your discretion.

Basement Jaxx- Where’s Your Head At

An aggressive chorus! Monkeys with human faces! Human science experiments!  An attempted escape! Despite being nearly 18 years old, this music video fills me with dread to this day. 

UNKLE- Rabbit in Your Headlight

After watching this video, I’m always left with so many questions and theories. My top theory is the man is actually an angel that’s gone mad witnessing brutality on Earth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Radiohead- Burn the Witch

What starts off innocently enough in “Thomas the Tank Engine” land ends on a much darker note. 

Aphex Twin- Come to Daddy

I think Aphex Twin may be the music video king of horror. The children wearing masks of Richard D. James’ face live in the uncanny valley. I just hope that dog is okay. 

Tool- Stinkfist

Maynard James Keenan makes some of the creepiest videos around. His mind is a dark place. 

Thoroughly creeped out yet? What are some of your favorite scary movies or music videos?