Upper Intermediate DW Term 3 2018 & 2019

Saturday, November 17, 2018

When in Rome do as the Romans do

About 3 years ago, when I was a high school student, I went on a school trip to the UK. It was my first time to go abroad. Before then, I knew only about Japanese culture. I had been so worried about British culture, before I went there.

One of main things which I was surprised at was the habit of tips. One day, I went to a restaurant with my friends. We were talking for about 2 hours. We had been enjoying lunch. After we finished lunch, one of my friends put some money on the table. At first, I thought she had left her money. So, I told her ‘You left your money here’. However, my friend told me ‘ I didn’t leave my money. It was a tip.’ I didn’t know about tips. Therefore, I was surprised. I had never tipped before then because there is no habit of tips in Japan. However, after I knew about that, I tipped at a restaurant or a hotel. I also tipped when someone helped me.

My stay in the UK was just for 4 days. However, I made an effort to adapt to a British custom as in the saying ‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’. I think it’s important, because of showing respect to a country. Now, I’m in New Zealand. Of course, there are a lot of customs which are different from Japan’s. It is sometimes difficult for me to adapt to New Zealand’s customs. However, I make an effort to adapt.

Beauty is Only Skin-Deep

Once as a girl was sitting lonely under a tree, boys and girls played and laughed together in the playground. The girl was very disappointed. She really wanted to play with friends. However, nobody was attentive to her because she had an ugly face.

Afterwards, she went to the market to buy some vegetables for her mother in the evening. When she was walking on the path, she saw a little boy. He was crying and looking for someone and then, he was looking at the girl. Suddenly, he was very frustrated. The girl immediately asked him why he was there but he didn’t answer her because of her ugly face. She wanted to help him. Then, she ran to the mask shop near the market. She bought a cute mask and wore it. After that, she walked dramatically to the little boy and attempted to talk with him. When he looked at the girl with her mask, he talked with her. The little boy said he had been crying all the afternoon because he had lost his parents at the market. He didn’t know where they were or how to find his parents.

After that, the girl and the little boy went to the reception at the market. They found the security guard and told him about the little boy’s parent. The security guard helped the little boy to find his parents. While they were walking around the market. They fortunately found his parents. His parents had been waiting him all the afternoon. They were thankful to the girl and wanted to see her real face. Immediately, the girl removed her mask. The little boy and his parents smiled and said the girl was very beautiful.

Finally, the girl came back to her house and told her mother about the little boy. She didn’t understand why the little boy’s parent told her like that. Her mother said “You aren’t ugly. You are so beautiful. Beauty is not only in your face but also in your skin-deep.”

Blood is Thicker than Water

Blood is Thicker than Water

I never believed in the saying ‘blood is thicker than water’ one year ago, but now I trust in it.

I grew up alone, although I have an elder brother. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a close relationship among each other, when we were young. I remember that we usually spent time on our own spaces and on own friends. We never talked about each other in front of others. We used to only say ‘I have an elder brother or a younger sister’ rather than introducing more details. When I was 12 years old, my brother left home to go to university in a distant city, three days way. Since he left, I only met him once. Then, he went abroad to New Zealand after graduation. It is easy to imagine how difficult for us to be with each other as growing up with few chances. That is why I never believed that we would be close or real brother and sister one day.

In 2018, I came to New Zealand where for travel and further education, had become my brother’s second home. This journey gave us a chance to get up well with each other at every moment. We fitted insulation, built the walls and painted our house together. In addition, we were also had talked when we faced some challenges or decisions. When we are going out or going to a party, my brother introduces me to others with love and proudness. He is keen to talk about me to his friends, which he hadn’t done before. He liked to give me a hug and some gentle words when I cry because of depression. He liked to take the heaviest things first and give me the lightest one. He usually says ‘good night my little sister’ before he goes to bed. All these moments have changed our life and our relation. It is fortunate that our friends are admiring our close relationship, even though they are envies and jealous sometimes. I was crying when he moved to Auckland two weeks ago. Maybe I just don’t want to face the house without him anymore.

At the end of this story, in my mind I would like to write the saying ‘blood is thicker than water’, because I learned so much this year. I understand finally what a family love is and what a meaning of brother and sister is.

427 words

Old Habits Die Hard

This saying means it is difficult for people to stop doing things that they are very accustomed to. I fully agree with this sentence because of my own experience.

A few years ago, I tried to slow down my steps, and having more time for myself. I had made the stupid decision to spend a year writing some romantic novels online, after which I resigned at home, focusing on my novels. But things have always been the way that I didn’t expect, my books wasn’t approved from people and I got some bad habits in these time.

One year has gone fast, but the habit haven’t gone. I still have some bad habits until now. The most astounding thing is that I cannot sleep well. I planned to sleep at 9 pm or 10 pm which was a normal time to change these old habits, but later I woke up at 3 am, because my old habit was that I watched TV or dramas in the daytime before I wrote a chapter at 2 am or 3 am. Besides, in the day time, I cannot focus on other things .obviously I want to read or watching some videos in the daytime. What’s more, because every chapter was rushed to release and I had to hurry up in my writing and collecting data, Even now, I always forget to eat or drink when I didn’t finish my book, which is harmful for my health.

Well, in my opinion, although I think it’s (hard) to develop a habit but old habits die (harder).

Thursday, November 15, 2018

I really love the saying “nothing venture, nothing gained”

One day while I was in my room, my Dad suddenly walked in and told me, today at dinner I am going to tell you something really important. I was so confused because I did not know what he was talking about. Nervously I waited until dinner. Finally when we were eating he told me, “We are going to New Zealand next year to learn English and to learn a new culture for us”. Stupidly I said to him, “Are you crazy I don’t want to miss one of my last years in school with my friends and also I am really bad at speaking English”. So finally I said to him “You can go alone if you want to”. Suddenly when I had finished he stood up and walked to his room and after that we didn’t talk about it for a month.

After a month I talked to him and I told him that I had been thinking and I regretted about what I had said. Eventually I told him that I wanted to go. After almost four months we left Argentina and we came here. I was so nervous because I didn’t know how I was going to survive without speaking English in the school. After I had been one week in New Zealand I started school. In my first day when I went to the school I tried to do my best to not be nervous but I couldn’t. When I entered my first class I had to talk in front of all the class to do a presentation about myself, but when I started I hesitated and my mouth became so dry I couldn’t talk so the teacher had to explain to all the class that I was from Argentina and I didn’t know too much English. After that I started studying English the hardest as I could and after 6 months I began to understand more.

After the 7 and a half months that I had been living here I finally decided to leave the school and to try to improve my English more here in the Language Centre.

I think that this saying that I have chosen can illustrate all my history because I ventured a lot in this year but I think that I have already gained more than what I ventured. So I would like to change this saying to “something ventured, something gained”.