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」

2020年も、もうすぐ2か月が過ぎようとしていますが、良いスタートが切れたでしょうか？

今年は東京オリンピック、うるう年でもあります。

うるう年は英語で何というかご存じですか？

「Leap year」と言います！

LeapにはJumpよりも大きな跳躍、大きく飛んで移動の意味があります。

例えば、

Fish were leaping out of the water.

She leaped for joy.

のような使い方をします。

では、なぜLeap yearと呼ばれているかというと、曜日をLeapするからだそうです！！

うるう年ではない年では、毎年曜日が1日ずつずれるようになっています。

例えば、2018年のクリスマスイブは月曜日で、2019年は火曜日でした。

しかしうるう年の今年には、木曜日となり2日ずれてしまうのです！

普段、何気なく使っている言葉の由来を、英語でも日本語でも辿ってみるのも楽しいですね。

皆さんは、何か面白い言葉の由来をご存じですか？

2020 is a special year for many reasons. For one thing, it’s the start of a new decade. For another, it’s an Olympics year (Go Tokyo Olympics!). It’s also unusual because the numbers repeat. The last time that happened was 101 years ago in 1919, and it won’t happen again until 2121 in another 101 years! But 2020 is also a special year because it is a leap year.

A leap year is something that happens every four years. Usually, a calendar year is 365 days long. However, an astronomical year, which is how long it takes for planet Earth to make a full circle around the sun, is actually 365.2425 days long. So every four years, we take those four 0.2425 of a day and combine them into one extra calendar day: February 29th, also known as leap day. Any year that has this extra day is called a leap year.

Why do we call it a leap year? To ‘leap’ usually means to ‘jump forwards’. Usually, a specific date during the year (for example, February 19, 2020) will be one day of the week later than the year before (so while February 19, 2020 is a Wednesday, February 19, 2019 was a Tuesday). However, during a leap year, the extra day in February means that for the rest of the year, every date will actually be 2 days of the week later than the year before (so March 1, 2020 will be a Sunday, but March 1, 2019 was actually a Friday!). So, during a leap year, the day of the week ‘leaps’ forward by two days!

You probably are already used to having an extra day every four years. But did you know that there are not only leap years and leap days, but also leap seconds?

When we say that a year is actually 365.2425 days long, even this number is not completely accurate. It’s actually an average of the lengths of many, many different years. The Earth doesn’t always spin at exactly the same speed, or travel around the sun in exactly the same amount of time. So, to make sure our clocks and calendars are still accurate, sometimes the world’s clocks have to be adjusted by just one second. Unlike leap years, leap seconds are not applied on a regular schedule, but only when they are needed.

Who knew!

—Veronica

My sister who lives in Sapporo sent me this photo the other day.

“My car is covered with snow!  It’s troublesome to remove it before driving!”

I sent back a photo I took while walking around my neighborhood in Saijo.

“Are you all right? LOL”

I like the contrast between the North area and the South area of Japan.

I found blooming apricot trees!  A happy spring is coming!

My sister enjoyed the Snow Festival in Sapporo.

She said the lights and the projection mapping on the snow were beautiful!

Which February do you like better?

Hitomi

重信校に通って頂いている画家のSakamotoさんをご紹介します！

Sakamotoさんが描かれた絵画についての解説を英語でブログにされていて、そのお手伝いをアミックの外国人講師がさせて頂いています。講師も非常に興味深く読ませていただいているそうです。皆さまも是非ご覧ください。

https://www.nihonbijutsu-club.com/az/#info

Here in Japan, we recently celebrated a very fun and unusual holiday on February 3rd– Setsubun. But did you know that the USA also had a very strange and interesting holiday this week?

One of my favorite and one of the most unusual American holidays is celebrated on February 2nd every year. The name of the holiday is “Groundhog Day”, and it celebrates the approach of spring and the end of winter.

A groundhog is a small furry animal that is only a little larger than a rabbit. They live in holes in the ground, and are native to North America.

If you were to see a groundhog, you might not think it’s anything special. But once a year, on Groundhog Day, the groundhog gets its chance to shine. 

According to tradition, when the groundhog comes out of its hole on February 2nd, if it can see its shadow on the ground, that means there will be six more weeks of winter. However, if it doesn’t see its shadow, it means that spring will come early.

Every year, news trucks and reporters flock to a small town in Pennsylvania where the “official” groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, lives to see if he spies his shadow. This year, it seems that Phil did not see his shadow, so people in the US can look forward to a short winter and early spring!

It might seem like a very strange and silly tradition, but it’s still a lot of fun.

“Groundhog Day” is also the name of a very funny movie starring Bill Murray that was made in the 1990s. It tells the story of a news reporter who is sent to report on Groundhogs Day, but somehow gets stuck living the day again and again and again and again… I highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes slightly dark humor. 

What are some strange or unusual holidays that you celebrate?

–Veronica