お待たせしました！Poligoの姉妹校、オンライン英会話スクール「イングリッシュファーム」がオープンしました。経験を積んだプロの講師とのSkypeを使ったレッスンが、30分およそ2,100円で。講師は、私の古くからの仕事仲間のミッキー・エイクロン、アンソニー・パーク、ケリー・ボルトン、ショーン・ドノバン、ジェレミー・スタザースです。また、受講者の皆さんのサポートには、英語講師でもある村上喜代子、そしてITの専門家の村上恒雄が担当します。

イングリッシュファームは、他の英会話学校とここが違います。

How do you say 「元気そうですね」 in English? If your answer uses the word "fine", then you are making a common mistake.

When you started learning English, maybe you learned a basic conversation like this:

John: Hi. How are you?
Suzy: I'm fine. And you?

It might have been translated a little bit like this:

John:　おはようございます。お元気ですか？
Suzy:　元気です。ジョンさんはお元気ですか？

A lot of people think that 「元気」 is always "fine". This is only sometimes true. Remember that jumping to conclusions like that is a trap in learning languages.

Can you speak fluently and naturally about what your company does? To be prepared to explain and talk about what your company does, it's a good idea to write an introduction to your company and memorize it. You should also prepare questions to ask a person about their company. Because everyone's company is different, we recommend that you send Poligo a description of your company just to make sure you have it right.

Part Two of the TOEIC test is a listening exercise. You will hear a sentence. Then three responses are read. You have to choose the correct response. As with Part One, you cannot read the sentences, so you really have to listen carefully.

The instructions for Part Two say something like this:

Part Two: Questions and Responses
In this part of the test, you will hear a question spoken in English, followed by three responses also spoken in English. The question and responses will spoken just once. They will not be written in your test book, so you must listen carefully to what the speakers say. Choose the best response.

There have been a lot of sports come and go at the Olympics over the years. Here are some of the stranger ones.

Long jump for horses

This was an event in the 1900 Olympics. It was won by Belgium. The winning jump was 6.10m.

ポリゴパッズルを解決してみれば、英語ボキャブラリーのベースをもっと強くできます。ポリゴパズルは英語の一番役に立つ単語と熟語のみで作られているので、パズルを解くことで英語の重要な言葉と表現が覚えることができます。

過去の習慣を表現する方法は、”used to” と “would”ですが、この二つの間に微妙な差があるのをご存じですか。
ちょっと意地悪な問題として、TOEICのPart 5または6にたまに出題される事があります。
どちらも過去に「～したものだった」という意味ですが、大きな違いは：

• 現在またはある時点と対比して、過去の習慣を表現する場合には “used to”のみが使えます。

I was watching a new episode of one of my favourite TV shows, Weeds. There was a funny scene that satirizes the American health system. So you can understand the scene, let me explain what is going on. The main character is in hospital (she got shot), and the family is waiting to see if she will be OK. A hospital administrator comes in to discuss their payment. Take a look at the scene. Read along with the script and see if you can catch everything she says:

Part One of the TOEIC test is a listening exercise. You will see a picture and hear four sentences. You have to choose the sentence that matches the picture. You will only hear the sentences once, and you will not be able to read them.

The instructions in the test are something like this (we added bold to the key words):

Directions: For each question in this part, you will hear four statements about a picture in your test book. When you hear the statements, you must select the one statement that best describes what you see in the picture. Then find the number of the question on your answer sheet and mark your answer. The statements will not be printed in your test book and will be spoken only one time.

Listen to Yasukochi-sensei's video about TOEIC and the TOEIC Speaking Test and try the listening comprehension questions afterwards. The video script is included below. Try to answer the questions first without reading the script.

Test technique tip: Before you listen, make sure you read all the questions first. Look for key words and expressions.

We have highlighted the key words and expressions in the questions to help you. If you want to check your answers yourself, we have highlighted the place in the text where you will find the answer to each question.

Everyone knows that when you meet a new person, you should introduce yourself. It's polite. However, many people do a bad job of this. In junior high school, they learned 自己紹介 — this is usually a speech about hobbies and so on. Sometimes these little speeches go on and on for a long time. This is how you might introduce yourself to a class or a group of new co-workers. However, in a business situation, it is often too much.

How should you introduce yourself? It's easy. It only takes three steps:

1. Greet the person;
2. Say who you are;
3. Say one relevant fact.

This is Mr Smith's photo on Blipfoto. The sign says, "There is no reality... Only perception." What does that mean?

What is reality? How do we know that things are real?

Be sure to read the real-life version before reading this one.

This is the "textbook" version. Like many English textbooks, it shows a student who has perfect English, instead of a real student, like you, who is still learning.

♦

JULIE and MOE walk into a beautiful office. A home-stay agent sits at a desk. The agent is talking on the phone.

Quite often, when I ask my students about why they are learning English, I get an answer something like this:

"I want to brush up my English skill."

It's a nice idiom, "brush up (on)", and it is a very common thing for Japanese people to say. However, I think that a lot of people are misusing it a little.

TOEIC攻略法に関する書籍、セミナー、ブログなどを最近多く目にします。英語教育業界では、まさにTOEIC特需だそうです。共通しているのは、タイムマネージメント。Part7に時間を残すために、Part5と6を20分から25分で終わらせる。選択肢から読み、問題文は全部よまないように心がける。また、わからない問題にいつまでも時間をかけない、ある程度の見極めが大切。１つの問題に３０秒以上はかけない。

Some things happen while you are travelling that cause you hassle. When I was staying in Tokyo at one time, I washed my passport in the pocket of my jeans. The very efficient Japanese washing machine reduced my passport to some soggy lumps of paper. So I had to go to the New Zealand Embassy and the Japanese Immigration Department to get an Emergency Travel Document so that I could come home.

This week, Japanese people travelling in New Zealand were told by the Japanese Society of Auckland to avoid the centre of Auckland. The warning stated that the main street in the centre of Auckland, Queen Street, was dangerous at night.

Everybody is talking about consumption tax in Japan at the moment. So, what is consumption tax?

This is a tax that is charged on things that people buy, so prices of things are increased by the amount of the tax. It means that consumers (the buying public) are paying extra on everything they buy so that the government makes more tax revenue. The question that is asked is — how fair is this?

This is a story about a 23-year-old Japanese girl named Moe, who is living and studying in Canada. It's a chance to feel what it's like living in a foreign country, where English is your only choice. There are two versions of each episode: a real life version (this one) and a textbook version.

♦

Julie and Moe walk into a small office. The home-stay agent sits at a desk. There is paper everywhere. The agent is talking on the phone.

シャドウィング(shadowing)は、元々通訳者の訓練に使われていたようですが、最近ちょっとブームになっている感じです。文字通り影のようにnativeのスピーチを真似てしゃべる手法です。これはlistening, speaking, さらにはreadingにも効果的だとか。

本当にそうなのかとふと疑問に思い私なりに文献やらサイトやらを調べてみたところ、確かに効果的なようです。英語をそのまま再生するので、自分の発音の癖を直すことができ、英語をチャンク（固まり）で処理するクセもつけられる。

This is Frontier's photo journal from Blipfoto.

This beast of a building consumes all bikes that come by. Some bikes never leave and stay forever to rot in the belly. Sometimes yellow mould grows on the bikes, humans call them parking tickets, but the beast calls it spice.

Sometimes we can be critical of others without thinking about our own faults. We judge others, when we ourselves are not perfect. In that situation, you can say this:

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

私の生徒さんが、なんと出会って３か月の彼女とスピード結婚、しかもバレンタインデーに入籍！ロマンチックですね～。

でも他動詞と自動詞がいまだ苦手な私はやってしまった。

生徒さんが、”I proposed to her”　と正しく言ったのに、私ったら「う～ん、"propose" は他動詞だからtoはいらなかったんじゃないかな、確認しておきますね」

Ernest Hemingway was a writer. He was famous for simple, but powerful, writing style. When he wrote a story, he knew how to get the most from the least. He once said:

"Never confuse movement with action."
—Ernest Hemingway

Poligo Puzzle 23: © Poligo.comDoing the Poligo Puzzle will help you build a strong base of English vocabulary. The Poligo Puzzle is made from the Oxford 3000 word list. The solutions are always one of the 3000 most useful, familiar and frequent words in English. By doing the Poligo Puzzle, you are learning and remembering the most important vocabulary in English.