Tomorrow, I'm supposed to have time to learn English with English club's members. We've not met for about one month, so I'm looking forward to meeting and having a good time with them. Yes, I have a numbers of things that I want to talk and share with the members. :D
hehehe..

Anyway, we usually learn English through an article we had picked up. Tomorrow's article is " Robots: Demons or heroes?" This time I suggested the article to the members.
According to the article, Japanese tend to think that robots are friendly, kind and helpful, but Westerners don't do that. Of course, they regard robots as helpful things and enjoy benefits that such technology can bring, at the same time, they equate the robots rather with remoteness and coldness. For example, HAL in " 2001: A Space Odyssey" and Doraemon or Tetsuwan Atom( Astro Boy), they show the characteristics.

Uh....I don't know whether Westerners tend to think like that, but I can say that Japanese have a close affinity with Doraemon and Tetsuwan Atom(Astro Boy).

As we didn't have any plan today, I suggested that we have lunch with my husband's parents. When my husband called them, my father-in-law had gone out to meet with his old friends. So, my mother-in-law and us went out to have lunch.

We went to an Italian restaurant where a son of my mother-in-law's friend manages. Even though it's a little far from her house, it's worth visiting. :D because not only the dishes are very tasty, but the atmosphere is also good!

After having lunch, we went to a big supermarket, where there are a large variety of foods direct from farms, fishing ports and orchards.

Well, it was a little windy and cloudy today, but we had a good time. ;D

Thanks to one of my fellows English-lover, I knew an English site which I have my diaries corrected. To improve my English skills, the site is very helpful and necessary for me.

The other day, I wrote about our Obon holidays. ( I also posted the diary on this blog.) I wrote the following.....
"My older sister-in-law's family and us visited my husband's maternal relative."
I have 2 sisters-in-law, so as to make them clear and not to confuse readers, I wrote like that.
However, a certain native speaker corrected and explained like " [Saying "older" here sounds a little strange. Remember, relative age of siblings/relatives is less important in English than Japanese.]"

I've known what he said, of course!! But, I wrote " older sister-in-law" due to the above reason.
(I thought he might have misinterpreted that I have only 1 sister who is older and then I explained that I have sister"s"-in-law....)

If you were, what would you write?

Yesterday, my older sister-in-law's family and us visited my husband's maternal relative. We set out in the morning, but we got stuck in a traffic jam due to the Obon holidays. However, I wasn't bored at all because I enjoyed talking with the family.

After arriving the relative's house, we talked and talked. We exclusively talked about the Olympics. My older sister-in-law's husband had left for his new post in China and worked for several years. So, he's familiar with Chinese life and the circumstances. His talking was very interesting.
He came back to Japan earlier this year. Although he's supposed to work in Japan for a while, he's likely to go to Europe soon, maybe, England.
He said, " I can understand and speak Chinese to a certain extent. But I can't do at all with regard to English...."
According to him, in his company's case, if they reside abroad, they need English skills equivalent to 800 or more on the TOEIC. But, when they just go abroad on business, the level and skills aren't necessarily needed.

I wish I could accompany him....

Yesterday morning, we went out to stay overnight at my husband's parents' house because we were going to celebrate my father-in-law's seventieth year; It's called " Coki--古希--" in Japanese. We were planning a surprise birthday party for him. Although his birthday is still on the 16th, all families could stay yesterday, so we planned the party on the day.
An older sister-in-law's family and a younger sister-in-law's family had already been there when we arrived at the house.
Of course, we kept his birthday party secret from him. While he, my mother-in-law, my husband and all our kinds were out, sisters-in-law and I set about preparing for the party. About 3 hours later, we had everything in readiness for the party.

" Dad!, Grandpa!( The kids said), Happy Birthday!!!"

We presented travel gift certificates to him. He was very surprised and seemed happy. We spent a lovely time!!

The following day, my husband went to his work and my son and I went back home. My son was hanging his lip on our way home because he wanted to play with sisters-in-law's kids, according to him. However, when we arrived at our home, he just took a nap. :D