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」

Beatrice Helen Worsley was destined for greatness. An academic star from a young age, Beatrice won many awards in math and science. Her scholastic prowess eventually won her multiple scholarships to Trinity College, a part of the University of Toronto. She majored in mathematics and physics, eventually graduating in 1944. Beatrice held the distinction of having the highest marks in every class in every year she attended Trinity College.

After graduation, she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRENS), where she studied harbor defenses and torpedo guidance. Worsley was eventually promoted to lieutenant before ultimately leaving the military in 1946. She is known for spending 150 days at sea working as a minesweeper, a record which stands to this day. 

After her time in the military, she completed a one-year Master’s program at MIT. Her thesis detailed nearly every computing machine in existence at the time and is considered one of the most detailed works in early computing. 

Her time at MIT made her realize that computers were the way of the future. Eventually, Canada developed a computing industry beginning with the University of Toronto. Worsley applied to provide computational support for Atomic Energy of Canada. While working at Cambridge, Worsley built a differential analyzing machine and helped write a program to calculate squares. She later applied for a doctorate at the University of Toronto, writing her dissertation in part on her differential analyzing machine as well as Turing machines. Her dissertation is considered to be the first written about modern computers and earned her a PhD in computing. Beatrice then began teaching at the University of Toronto. 

Unfortunately, Worsley’s genius was not celebrated during her lifetime. She was repeated passed over for promotions while working at the University of Toronto. She received far less recognition than her peers in the field of computational sciences. In 1972, Beatrice Worsley suffered a fatal heart attack at the young age of 50. She was finally recognized posthumously for her service in computation with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Association of Computer Science. 

Although the exact genesis story of soft serve ice cream is contested, my favorite story begins with a flat tire. 

One weekend in 1934, Tom Carvel got a flat tire in his ice cream truck in New York. He pulled into a parking lot and began selling his melting ice cream to people driving by. Within two days he had sold his entire supply of ice cream! In 1936, Tom opened his first store on the original broken down truck site and developed a secret soft serve ice cream formula.

The secret to making soft serve is to introduce air to the ice cream while it’s freezing.  The amount of air introduced in the freezing can change the taste of the finished product. Product with low quantities of air has a heavy, icy taste and appears more yellow. Product with higher air content tastes creamier, smoother and lighter. While Tom Carvel patented a number of machines to facilitate the creation of soft serve, today the process is much easier with air pumps included for extra aeration within the soft serve machine.

So, whether you’re enjoying a Mr Whippy in the U.K, a Merry Cream in Lebanon, or a Soft Cream in Japan, Mr. Carvel’s soft serve has been delighting people around the world; all thanks to a happy accident!

Every year since 1875, the first Saturday in May has hosted America’s most famous horse race.

Also called “The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports”, the Kentucky Derby is the first leg in America’s Triple Crown of horse racing. The race is contested by three-year old thoroughbred horses at the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, which more than 150,000 fans pack on race day. Most of these fans don traditional ‘derby wear’, such as suit jackets with bowties for men and sundresses with extravagant hats for women. People around the country also hold their own derby parties where they wear similar fashions, try and predict the winner of the race, and drink the event’s signature beverage, the mint julep.

The race is host to many other traditions, such as the singing of ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ as the horses make their way from the stables to the starting gate and the gifting of a bed of roses to the winning horse. All of this, plus the sheer amount of money on the line–$2 million–makes Derby Day exciting to watch, even if you don’t know anything about horse racing. 

Source: www.5-a-side.com

Lately I have started to go to karaoke more frequently. Karaoke in Japan is very different than what I was used to in America—for starters, the selection of English songs you’ll find at places like JOYSOUND is just as good (if not better) than back home.

Unlike the private rooms you rent with your friends in Japan, karaoke in America (and probably other Western nations) usually takes place at a public bar. This means you are singing mostly in front of people you don’t know, which makes many people nervous. Instead of using a tablet, signing up to sing a song is usually done with a karaoke DJ, who has a book listing the available songs and a paper to write your name and selection on. Having to wait for your turn to sing means that on a busy night you might only sing once or twice over the span of several hours!

While it can be fun to have strangers cheering for and singing along with you (when you sing well, that is), I think I prefer Japanese karaoke where you can sing many, many times throughout the night (and wear fun costumes, to boot).  

—Andrew

こんにちは、今日もアミックブログを訪れていただきありがとうございます！

桜の季節が終わり、次に来る行事ごとと言えば何でしょうか

「夏も近づく八十八夜～」を口ずさめば思い出すでしょうか・・・・・

そうです、お茶摘み（tea picking）

立春から88日目、時期としてはゴールデンウィークの「子供の日」の前後

のはずが、今年は暖かいのか例年より2週間も早く新芽が出てきました

ということで、早速先週末に実家の山でお茶摘みしてきました

新芽とは、↓の黄緑色した若葉のこと

新芽からとれるお茶をその年の一番茶として「新茶（shincha ；the first tea of the season）」と呼びますね。

上に伸びる新芽だけを、丁寧に一つ一つ手摘みしていきます。

こんな感じ↓

これを半日、大仕事です

さらに、摘んだその日のうちに持ち帰り、

新芽の部分のみを他の葉とより分け、次の大仕事「茶葉の焙煎」

お茶用の厚手の鉄鍋で焦げないよう炒ります。

茶葉がしんなりしたら鍋から出して、ゴザの上に茶葉を広げて冷まし、体重をかけて揉む。

この作業が結構大変なんです

これを最低でも2回繰り返して、天日に数日さらせば完成です

（今回は、この籠を約10杯分収穫）

今はここまでする家は減りましたが（とうかほぼいない・・）、

昔は畑を持っていた家では空いたスペースに茶を植えて皆自給していたそうです

私の家では、今でも1年分のお茶はこれでまかないます。

時間もかかるし大変だけど、一番茶の味は格別です

お茶は各食事毎に食卓に上がるので、とっても大事な行事なのです

英会話スクール

I first found the music of Aya Gloomy on the Soundcloud page of the legendary record store Big Love Records located in Harajuku, Tokyo (which also has a record label that releases Aya’s music). I instantly fell in love with her yearning but not overly emotional, almost spectral voice at the eye of the storm of swirling, intoxicating electronic composition. Last month I had the opportunity to stop by Big Love Records while visiting Tokyo and I bought Aya’s first short release on vinyl, but just yesterday her debut album 「陸の孤島」 was released. I ordered the album online today, so while I excitedly wait for it to be shipped to me I’ll have her single 「静かに消える」on repeat.

-Joe

Do you have a certain movie that you can watch over and over without getting tired of it? I really enjoy the movie “The Prestige”. The movie stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival magicians. The two men compete to be the best and most creative magicians in the world. The magicians will stop at nothing to be number one. They even risk their lives and hurt each others families to prove they are the best in their field. Even though I have seen the movie many times, the ending still surprises me each time I watch it. What about you? What movies do you like?

All of us here at AMIC have things that we are very passionate about. Of course, we are enthusiastic about the English language, but we also have a range of different hobbies or interests in our free time. Reading books, watching movies, playing games, and listening to music are all great ways to relax. They can also be a fantastic way to improve your language skills. Exposing and immersing yourself in foreign media is a great way to supplement your lessons and increase your overall fluency. Today I’d like to talk a little about something I love, board games.

I learned to love board gaming while I was in graduate school in the UK many years ago. There are many different types of games, but some of my favorites are co-operative games, where everyone works together to solve a problem or puzzle. Its a great communicative activity to enjoy the company of friends while working together towards a goal. In many places, you can even find Board Game Cafes. These are places where you can meet friends and enjoy coffee or food while playing games. There are many such places in Europe, and there are even quite a few in Asia. When I lived in Hong Kong I would often meet friends at a board game cafe downtown, where they also would use those games to teach English. Some larger cities in Japan such as Tokyo or Osaka also have places like this, but I haven’t had a chance to visit any. 

I’ve used some popular board games to teach English in my recreation class before. Pandemic is a co-operative game where players must work together to cure diseases, and discuss planning and puzzle solving. I have also used Catan, an economic game where players need to negotiate and trade resources with each other. Some Japanese games have also become popular in English, such as the deduction game Love Letter from カナイ製作所. Playing these sorts of games lets you use English as a tool for accomplishing different tasks, and this goal-oriented approach can be helpful for improving fluency.  

-Alex

The difference between green and black tea results from the manufacturing process. Black tea undergoes fermentation which transforms its colour and flavour, whereas green tea remains unprocessed and retains its colour. Green tea is grown in higher altitudes, more specifically the mountainous regions of East Asia. Some green tea is still picked by hand, and it is thought that handpicked teas are less bitter and yield a sweeter, more robust taste. Other factors such as the climate and soil can also affect the flavour.