少人数制で楽しく身につく英会話教室・英会話スクールなら「アミックインターナショナル」

I’ve often heard the term “Yes Man” used negatively. A “Yes Man” could literally be someone who is unable to say no to simple or grand requests, making them a total pushover. A “Yes Man” could also be someone who sucks up to their boss or coworkers by taking on all extra work. I’ve recently read a book that has positively changed the meaning of a “Yes Man” for me. Incidentally, this book is also called Yes Man. It was written by Danny Wallace and chronicles his adventures of saying “yes” to everything in an attempt to bring more openness and satisfaction into his life. Seriously, he says yes to every credit card offer, every invitation, every weekend outing, every. thing. Even an eventual marriage proposal! This newfound willingness to accept all offers leads him on a journey of self-discovery and overall life improvement. 

As someone who loves challenging herself personally, this book presented an experiment that seems right up my alley. Although I live in Japan, I speak and understand very little Japanese. I sometimes find myself saying “はい” to the cashiers at Fuji or 7-11 simply because it makes life easier than pantomiming what I really need. I can relate to this book because saying yes can have amazing results when you’re not 100% sure what the outcome of your “はい” will lead to. This book inspired me to say yes more often. So far, saying yes has gotten me: a free vanilla ice cream from 7-11, a point card to Fuji, and a spot on a relay marathon team. I hope to keep challenging myself to say yes to requests and events. What about you? Will you try to say “yes” more?

I just bought the new album “Safe in the Hands of Love” by Yves Tumor yesterday, and already it’s a masterpiece in my mind. He’s known for ambience, dissonance and unease, but here he unveils unprecedented energy via warped, up-beat pop tunes. This track “Noid” actually gives me goosebumps (or chills?) once the peppy strings and bass line transition into something more ominous and unsettling that better match the lyrical content: “I’m scared for my life/ They don’t trust us/ I’m not part of the killing spree/ A symptom, born loser, statistic”. The ambience, dissonance and unease never left after all. They’re just masked as more accessible. 

Joe

Three ways to use ‘pick up’

‘Pick up’ is a phrasal verb. This means it is a verb (pick) followed by a particle (up). Phrasal verbs are tricky because they can have many different meanings depending on the context.

Learning something
We can use pick up to describe learning something

• Children pick up languages very quickly. 
• I picked up the guitar from spending time with musicians.

Buying something
We can use pick up informally to describe buying something.

• I often pick up some milk on my way home.
• She picks up lots of items in the Christmas sales.

Getting an illness
We can use pick up to describe getting an illness.

• I think I picked up a cold.
• He picked up the flu from his classmates.

Back in July, I praised my Kindle for all the new words it teaches me thanks to its convenient dictionary feature. Although I usually forget the meanings shortly after looking them up, here are six more words I’ve highlighted and ‘learned’ through reading over the past few months:

• Akimbo: standing with your hand on your hip and elbow bent outward.
• Cogent/Cogency: being appealing to reason or the mind.
• Flotsam: the part of a ship’s wreckage and cargo found floating on the water.
• Patina: a green film or crust that appears on the surface of old bronze or copper.
• Regolith: the layer of loose dust, dirt, soil, etc. covering a planet. 
• Welkin: the heavens or upper atmosphere.