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」

There’s a new trend occurring in big businesses across the world. Employee well-being is an extremely important factor to be considered. Many managers have come to realise that by allowing pets at work, employees stress levels are significantly reduced. Considering the health risks related to stress, this certainly seems to be a major advantage. In addition, results in several studies have shown that productivity, teamwork and creativity have improved in working environments where pets are allowed.

On the other hand, there are arguments that show pets at work can cause distraction and discomfort for some employees. Some people are allergic to some animals, some people are afraid of some animals. Is simply having a “pet free zone” sufficient for these employees? What do you think? Would you like to take your pet to work? Would you like your colleagues to bring their pets to work?

1. walk, work 

   walk /wɔ:k/ – this uses the long vowel in ‘for’ and the ‘l’ is silent
   work /wɜ:k/ – looks like it should rhyme with ‘for’, but the ‘w’ changes the vowel sound to /ɜ:/

2. bought, boat

bought /bɔ:t/ – this uses the long vowel in ‘for’
boat /bəʊt/ – this uses the diphthong in ‘no’

3. match, much

match /mætʃ/ – this uses the short vowel in ‘cat’ – make sure you spread the lips and keep the tongue at the front of the mouth.
much /mʌtʃ/ – this uses the short vowel in ‘cut’ – make sure you relax the lips and tongue for this sound.

Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament in the world has started and I can’t wait to watch some exciting matches. Hot favourites for this year’s men’s singles according to seed rankings are Murray, Djokovic, and Federer. But, anything can happen. There’s nothing more exciting than watching an underdog take the trophy. I watched a bit of Nishikori’s first round match and it looks like he’s in good form. Could it be his year?

As for me, I’ll be rooting for Federer. He is an all rounder player who makes his shots look effortless. I love his great sportsmanship and how calm and collected he is on court. He is at the top of my list of all-time favourite tennis players followed by Edberg, Sampras, Rafter, and Becker. So, who are you cheering for this year?

3 July 2017

How do you say “GIF”? 

One of the areas of concern when learning a foreign language is if we are pronouncing the words correctly, indeed incorrect pronunciation can lead to an embarrassing situation and we all want to avoid those. Of course, we are aware that there may be subtle differences in pronunciation can depend on accent and location. There has been some debate on the pronunciation of the term “GIF”, the term itself is an acronym and more common than it’s full name: Graphics Interchange Format. These images are very popular on the internet and many companies use them for logos, marketing, games and small animations. But how is the term actually pronounced?

Many dictionaries indicate that there are two pronunciations that are acceptable:

1. The soft “g” (think of gym or giraffe)
2. The hard “g” (think of gift or game)

Although the creators of the technology use the soft “g”, recent surveys have indicated that the majority of people pronounce the term with the hard “g” sound. So don’t worry if you meet someone that pronounces it differently, you are both correct!

We tend to view silence (especially in the Western world) as mere absence of speech—but in reality, silence can be a powerful tool of communication.

Indeed, it can convey much information that language fails to do. It is a kind of nonverbal communication and it can express a wide range of emotions and feelings that go from happiness, joy, and embarrassment to anger, grief, denial, fear, and withdrawal of acceptance.

Additionally, silence is also a tool to enforce etiquette and social standards and a way to communicate agreement or disagreement.

The importance of silence is recognized by all cultures in the world; traces of its significant role in the communicative context can be found in sayings such as “speech is silver, but silence is golden” or the Chinese maxim, “silence is better than eloquence.” However, silence becomes a real philosophy when we move to the Far East, especially in Japanese culture.