ETJ Blog

Well, everyone, I have to confess something to you. I REALLY DON’T LIKE television!! Even when I lived in the States, I didn’t like to watch TV very much. And later, during the many years that I lived in India, I didn’t even have a TV … and I didn’t miss it! Now in Japan, my wife and I have a very small TV, with no cable connection, and we usually use it only to watch DVD movies. (Maybe it’s true that it’s not so good to watch too many movies!)

I have to say that there are some good things about television. When I watched TV in the past, I always enjoyed watching documentaries about history, animals and nature, people, and things like aviation or the ocean. There really are some good things on TV, but I think that the OVERALL quality of TV programs is low. Maybe I mean that the EDUCATIONAL quality of TV is very poor. I just think that if you’re going to sit in front of a ‘box’ for many hours a day and stare at it, you should at least walk away with some new knowledge. Don’t you think so?

I think that ‘reality TV’ shows, ‘sitcoms’ (situational comedies) and ‘soap operas’ (daytime dramas) are really popular these days. But, are these the kinds of shows that can teach us something? I’m not sure, but I’m not optimistic that these kinds of shows are beneficial in any important way.

It seems to me that people watch WAY TOO MUCH TV! There’s a whole world of things to do around your house (play an instrument, read a book) and outside (check out the natural world, visit friends), and these are things that have a better chance to improve you. I recently asked some university students how much TV they watched. Wow, was I surprised when I got answers of 3 and 4 hours a day … or more!

To me, it looks like all of those television advertisements are just trying to convince you to buy things that you don’t really need. That’s another reason that I really don’t like TV.

What’s the situation with television where you are? Are the programs of good quality? Are there a lot of programs that are good for learning? Do people in your area watch too much TV?

[Thanks to our wonderful English learner, PRITI from India, I have finally gotten the motivation to start a ‘Weekly Topic’ on this blog. Thanks Priti for your suggestion, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to do it!]

Image source: www.turnoffyourtv.com (top), www.clipartheaven.com (bottom)

Hey, guess what?? I was in the middle of a snowstorm last Sunday! Really!

My friend Charlie and I were riding our bikes on a road near Shiga village, just outside of Matsumoto. The road goes up into the mountains and it’s really a beautiful road. There were some clouds and snow flurries when we started our journey. We rode up and over one small mountain, then we were on another road that goes up and up and and up and up and up …

Well, we sat down by the side of the road to eat some lunch. We had wasabi oinari, negi-miso onigiri, some oranges and some chocolate. Does it sound like a delicious lunch?? Hey, it was really good and tasty, and the oinari were definitely a little spicy!

As we were eating our lunch and enjoying the beautiful scenery, we noticed that the snow was getting a little heavier. Can you believe that the light snow and flurries became medium snow, and then it was snowing heavily! What should we do??

We got on our bikes and started riding down the hill. The roads were a little slippery so we couldn’t go too fast. Our hands and toes were really C-O-L-D and they were getting wet too!

Once we got into the village, we saw a friendly vending machine. We smiled at Mr. Vending Machine and he smiled back! And, he also took our 240 yen for two hot drinks!! Charlie and I rubbed our hands all over those hot cans and it was like paradise!

We went through the Shiga tunnel, down down down down the hill, then up up up the hill and finally we made it home. We were so happy to go inside a warm house!

Does anyone have a recent story about the OUTDOORS, something interesting or exciting that you can write about?

Image source: www.massbike.org

Hey everyone, I just finished our Podcast Audio Lesson Number 23. You can download it from the podcast page or with your RSS feed reader.

Please send me any comments you have about Lesson 23. Here’s a summary of it:

Your letters, new listeners and the first snowflakes of the season. Our language lesson is about ‘IF Conditionals,’ like ‘If she had more money, she would buy …’ We’ll also talk about our upcoming English chat pals project, called ‘Net Pals English’ and finish with the classic winter song, ‘Frosty the Snowman.’

Did you like this lesson? Do you have any comments about it??

Here’s a summary of Lesson 22:
Reading, laziness and daydreaming about the undersea world. An interview with Charlie, an English teacher in Japan. We also have two idioms today — a ‘piece of my mind’ and ‘I don’t have the foggiest idea!’ Learn about our upcoming English chat pals project.

Any comments on Lesson 21??? We also have the TRANSCRIPT available online.

Here’s a summary of the podcast lesson:

What do you do when you’re feeling blue blue blue? Also, let’s talk about our hopes and wishes, and then a short segment on compound adjectives: do you know someone who’s hard-nosed, absent-minded or kind-hearted?

I’d like your comments about the English Teacher John Show. So …
What did you think about Lesson No. 20???

Here’s a summary of the lesson:
Greetings in different languages. A pronunciation lesson about sounding more natural, by understanding ‘blending’ and ‘reduced forms.’ Also, we have an idiom: think big!

Hi John,
Where are you? Are you busy? I am missing your comments.

Hey everyone, do you know about the website called ‘frappr’!!!! With ‘frappr’ you can put your location (town/city and country) on a big world map and we can all see where everyone is from!! Does it sound like fun??!!

Here’s the link:
Add your location to our FRAPPR map

Just click the link, go to the ‘englishteacherjohngroup’ page and put your location on the map. Once in frappr, go to the ‘Add Yourself‘ box, fill in the information (name and city) and click ‘Add me!.’

Hey, this could be fun!
John

hai every body
i really love this site.i got to know about this site through some of my friends,its really a good idea.i thought of writing some thing about life…how we can lead a happy life..

Certainly we all know that happiness does not lie in money , comforts nor fame..happiness is a feeling which you can get at the end of the day if have sucessfully completed your work ,happiness is a feeling which you get if you see gratitude in the eyes of person whom you have helped,on the whole happiness is what you feel if you love every one and every thing with out any reason…and when that love comes back to you.To be happy and keep others happy is an ART and this art iam sure will show you a purpose for your life.

please write your comments on how i wrote..i would like to know your suggesions .

Hello friends,
I thought I should write something regularly so I am writing this.
Today was a good day for me because after all I started my preparations for my computer exams. I was planning my studies for many days, (just planning & nothing else!) but finally I started. After study of 3 to 4 hours (I can’t study more than this on the very first day!), I watched a movie in our local language & now I am writing this.
I am going to do some advance course in software field. For that course you have to pass an exam conducted by that institution. Exam is conducted in three parts, first one online exam; second one is practical exam & finally interview. I have passed first stage & after a month second stage will be conducted. Let’s see what happens!
I hope I am not boring you too much!