Cafetalk 講師專欄

Cycling Solo

I would like to recommend two things. 1. Go on a cycling holiday. 2. Go solo. A few years back, I d...

如果你用錯了助詞，聽起來會怎麼樣？

由于助詞只是輔助性的，即使錯誤，意思仍然可以理解。 所以我們常常不敢糾正錯誤。 但是說話人如果錯誤地使用一個助詞，日本人就會在心裡說："我被騙了！"。   A「昨日会社に・・・」 B（......去...

Improve Your Pronunciation But Be Yourself

Learning a new language is a tremendous undertaking for many reasons. Vocabulary is essential. Gram...

I made it into the Top 5!

Here is a fun jab at my new stepping stone. And guess what, I also created a discount to mark the ...

日語為什麼使用助詞？

你不覺得日語上的“助詞”很麻煩嗎？ 那麼為什麼我們日本人使用那麼多的助詞，你知道嗎？ 這是因為，在過去，中國是亞洲的中心，而日本在這方面是一個落後的國家的原因。 古代的日本人想學習先進的中國文化，讓...

Collectables

Do you have a collection? I’ve had many in my life! When I was young I collected everything from ro...

Do you keep a journal of your daily experiences ?

Writing improves with frequent practice, the same way in which  fluency in speech improves with pra...

Pigeon dad

Photo by Mauro Tandoi on Unsplash I didn’t think I’d ever be a dad, but I kind of feel like one the...

〜しなくちゃ！Have to のかわりに

Many English students use "I have to...", but there is another natural expression. もし興味があったら、動画を見てみ...

100 lessons with Cafetalk !

I just completed my 100th lesson with Cafetalk. Teaching on this platform gave me the opportunity t...

Hiromi Ito: The Thorn Puller

I love Japanese literature, especially contemporary writers. Of course, needless to mention that Ha...

My eternal age versus my consumed age

Seize the Day

Back in the student heydays, my battle-cry was "Seize the day!" This was when nothing was impossibl...

Subject-verb agreement

Subject-verb agreement is usually pretty simple, but it can be confusing sometimes. Subject-verb a...

Good night's sleep

Hello, everyone. How's it going? This is Teacher Asuka.I recently read an interesting article about...

FORMAL & INFORMAL GREETINGS

Happy Friday from Indonesia GMT+7. Today I will discuss how to say greetings in Indonesian. What yo...

5 material nouns with crazy usage as verbs!

Creating the verb forms of a noun is a fairly simple task. Although, some verbs have meanings far f...

Currently Reading: The Precipice

I have been slowly and steadily reading this book for a while now. It's a very deep and detailed re...

Recent Reading

Hello everyone.  It’s been a while since I wrote a blog as I have been so busy with my new job and ...

Being Bilingual & Growing up in Vancouver

Happy May!A couple of weeks ago, I made a video of my interaction at the Tim Hortons drive thru.Def...

Take Command of your English Speaking Goals

Free talking can be useful but not everyone wants to learn English this way especially if you have ...

Help Me to Fill Out the Questionnaire

Today I'm not going to talk about Indonesian lessons. But I want to know what kind of Indonesian le...

Even more good tunes

I'm not really sure who my favourite music groups are these days, so I took a look at what I've lis...

Curtain Call for Book Depository

Many of you may have received this notification from Book Depository (see image). I wonder if like ...

DIPHTONGS AND COMBINED VOCALS

DIPHTONGS AND COMBINED VOCALS.   In Indonesian, there is a vocabulary formed from diphthongs and a ...

“She’s gone to London.” “She’s been to London.” どう違うんでしょう？

“She’s gone to London.”   “She’s been to London.”   これらの文章には注意が必要です。似ているようでいて、意味は全く違います。 Be careful...

Math in Music

It is interesting to know that the applications of Math are all around us! Have you ever looked at ...

Facing a struggle with communication at work meetings and discussions

Workplace communication can sometimes be a struggle for some of us especially when we feel we are n...

Meeting an Old Friend After 5 Years

Yesterday, I went to Tokyo to meet a friend whom I hadn't seen for a long time. We used to work tog...

Semana Santa 聖週間

スペインの今年の聖週間は4月の1週目でした。スペインでの聖週間は学校もお休みになり、多くの人々が旅行に出かけます。ただ、毎年聖週間は日日が変わるにもかかわらず、雨が降るのです。ですから、私は基本旅行...