ポールの英会話教室『Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　Ｌｉｆｅ』

本日、夕方のＵＨＢ「スーパーニュース」にポールが登場。



特集「発電ピープル列伝」の中のひとりとして紹介されました。



英会話教室の電力を太陽光発電でまかなっていること、



他にも風力発電や、温室、鉢植えで作ったハロゲンランプなど、ＤＩＹで取り組んでいることをたくさん紹介していただきました。



これまでずっとひとりで取り組んできた自家発電活動。



ようやく理解される時代がきたんだな〜とつくづく。

電気がいくらでも手に入る時代は終わり。



節電の夏！

ポールの夏！

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Earlier this week my wife, my mother-in-law and myself went to see the movie The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep.

Margaret Thatcher, is of particular interest to me, as she was the longest serving prime minister during the time I lived, in my native, England.

I think Meryl Streep was perfect in the role as Margaret Thatcher. Not only did she look similar to Margaret Thatcher (Maggie) but she managed to imitate Maggie's accent perfectly.

The film begins by showing the aged Maggie (86),suffering from dementia, slipping between reality and illusions of when she was Prime Minister. Also she was having conversations with her dead husband, Denis, who died in 2003.

The film shows her early life, as a grocer's daughter, to her entrance into, the almost exclusively male dominated, world of politics.

Maggie was the first Western woman leader and early in her political life faced a lot of discrimination, because she was a woman.

She overcame these problems with great strength of character and went on to became Britain's most noted leader since Winston Churchill.



The film accurately shows what Britain was like in the 1970's and 1980's often using actual news footage of that period. I

t shows the strikes, the public protests against Maggie's policies, the terrorism Britain suffered at that time and the Falklands war.

The film ends showing how Maggie stops listening to her fellow politicians and finally loses her job as Prime Minister.

Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979.

This was a memorable year for me. The winter of 1978-1979 was the coldest in my lifetime (1966-), there were mass strikes caused by the unions demanding higher wages and it was the year when my father died.

This period is commonly known as “The Winter of Discontent”.



Britain was broken, inflation was high ( 1975 over 26%) most of the big British industries were nationalised and losing money every year and the unions had too much power,demanding higher wages, causing British industry to be very inefficient.

Maggie's first job was to destroy the power of the unions.

She simply stood up to all the unions and when they went on strike she brought in the military to do their jobs.

Next she sold most of the nationalised industries.

This caused high unemployment but the country couldn't afford to keep wasting taxpayer money on industries that weren't profitable.

Britain no longer has a major car maker.

All the brands that you think are British actually belong to the Americans, Germans, Indians and the Chinese !!!



I think Maggie was very brave to do these things but if she hadn't got rid of all the loss making industries Britain would be totally bankrupt now.

As Maggie said in the movie “people nowadays think only about emotion, they don't think about what they have to do”.

I remember she said on the news that “Britain is going to go through some painful changes so tighten your belt”.

The changes were painful for almost everyone but by the 1980's the British economy was growing.

Many British people forget that in 1976 Britain became the first developed nation to ask the IMF for a loan.



Many of Maggie's policies were controversial and some were just wrong but ultimately she changed Britain from a loss making industrial nation to a service based profitable nation.

Could she have done things better ?

Absolutely, yes but it's very easy to look back and see a better way.

Many British people forget that when Britain joined the EU, in 1973, we were the poorest country in the union.

She removed many regulations,that were killing industry, and now Britain is one of the most “open” countries in the World.

Sadly some of these regulations controlled the financial market which should have never been changed.

I believe, if Maggie had never been Prime Minister, Britain would look like present day Greece.

Her policies caused a lot of pain for lot of people, including me, but she did what was necessary to save Britain's future.

She wasn't a politician that did things just to be popular, she did things that were necessary.

She was like bad tasting medicine that we need to take to become healthy again.

A good politician does what is good for the country and the people, not what is popular. Doing what is popular, in the long run, causes financial ruin.

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Learn Or Study ?

(学ぶ　それとも　勉強する？)

Now, you may ask what is the difference ? In English this means to learn means you can use English and to study means you understand how English works.

(ここで、みなさんは、その違いは何と？と聞くでしょう。英語では、「to learn＝学ぶ」は英語を使うことを意味し、「to study＝勉強する」は英語がどのように機能しているかを理解するということを意味します)

If you study how an engine works will you be a good driver ? The answer is no, knowing how an engine works doesn't teach you to drive. If you don't know how an engine works can you learn to drive ? The answer is yes, you don't need to know how an engine works. Of course, if you learn how to drive and study how an engine works you could be a better driver,maybe !

(車のエンジンがどのように機能しているかを知っていたら、いいドライバーだといえるでしょうか？答えは「ノー」です。エンジンがどのように機能しているかを知ることが、運転の仕方を教えることにはなりません。エンジンがどのよに機能しているかを知らなくても、運転することができるでしょうか？答えは「イエス」です。エンジンがどのように機能しているかを知る必要はないのです。もちろん、運転の仕方を身につけ、エンジンがどのように機能しているかを勉強すれば、きっと、さらに良いドライバーになるでしょう。)


The same thing applies to English you don't need to know how English works you just need to know how to use it. Many of my students past and present have worried too much how English works, too much study !

(同じことが英語にも当てはまるのです。英語がどのように機能しているかを知る必要はないのです。ただ、英語をどう使うかを知ることが必要なのです。今も昔も、多くの生徒さんが英語がどう機能しているかをあまりに気にしすぎています。あまりにも勉強しすぎています。)

When we learn our native languages, as children, we don't hear our parents saying “Today we will teach you the past continuous“.In fact, I'm sure many native English speakers don't know how many verb tenses English has ( 12 basic tenses).Do you know how many basic verb tenses Japanese has ? (4, past continuous, simple past, present continuous and the plain or infinitive form).

(私たちが子供のころに母国語を学ぶ時、両親が、「今日はあなたに、過去進行形を教えますよ」というのを聞いたことはありません。実際、多くのネイティブ・イングリッシュ・スピーカーが、英語の持っているたくさんの動詞の時制(12の基本時制)を知らないと思います。日本語に何種類の動詞の時制があるか知っていますか？　(4つです。過去進行形、単純過去形、現在進行形、そして、プレーンまたは不定詞形))


So studying can be helpful but learning is the most useful and, I think, the most enjoyable.

(だから、「勉強すること」は役立つけれども、「学ぶこと」こそが最も有益で、最も楽しいことだと思います)

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I Don't Need English In My Daily Life
(日常生活で英語は必要ありません。)

I have heard this comment many times. If you never travel abroad, never do international business, never want to read scientific papers (about 80% written in English), don't want the greatest amount of information from the internet (more than 80% of home pages on the Web are in English) , don't want to study at the best universities in the World, aren't interested in international politics and don't want to speak to 53 countries in the World (that the official language is English) then you don't need English.

(このコメントをこれまで何度も聞いてきました。もし海外旅行することも、国際的な仕事をすることも、科学雑誌(約80％は英語で書かれている)を読む必要もなく、インターネット(ネット上の80％以上のホームページは英語)の莫大な情報を必要とせず、世界の一流大学で学びたいとも思わず、国際政治に興味がなく、世界53カ国(公用語が英語の国)の人たちと話したいとも思わないなら、英語は必要ありません)

English is the only “international language” of travel,business, science, politics, internet and education. There are around 430 million native English speakers and all together more than 1 billion people who speak English as their first or second language. It is estimated that English, is used for business,by 2 billion people daily. These numbers are only growing.

(英語は、旅行、ビジネス、科学、政治、インターネット、教育の唯一の「国際言語」なのです。約4.3億人のネイティブスピーカーがいて、合わせて10億人以上の人が、第１または、第２外国語で英語を話しています。日々20億人がビジネスで英語を使っていると考えることができ、これらの数字は増大しています。）

Uniqlo, Nissan, Lawson and Rakuten have all adopted English. Why ? Being able to speak English gives them a better chance in our now very globalized World. Sadly, as Japan gets older and the economy continues to decline, Japanese companies are finding the Japanese market less and less valuable. So, to help them survive on the international business scene these companies need an international language - English.

(ユニクロ、日産、ローソン、楽天がそろって英語を取り入れました。なぜでしょう？英語を話すことが、私たちが今まさにいるグローバル化の世界でより良い機会が与えられるからです。悲しいことに、日本は高齢化が進み、経済は低迷し続け、日本企業は日本の市場がどんどんその価値を失っていることに気づいています。だから、国際ビジネスで生き残るために、これらの企業は、国際言語−英語を必要としているのです。)

One worry I've heard over the years is that English could or would replace Japanese,as the national language. I really don't think this is true my own country, England, is a good example. From the 11th century (1066) until the 14th century (around 1362) the official language was French ! Swedish people under the age, of around, 50 can speak excellent English but the Swedish language still survives. Young Koreans are also, more and more, being able to speak good English. This pattern is happening all over the World in Europe,Asia, South America and ,of course, Africa.
Does Japan really want to be left behind ?

（何年もの間、聞かされてきた心配というのは、英語が、国の言語として、日本語に取って変わるかもしれない、その可能性があるかもしれないということです。私はその心配はないと思います。私の国、イギリスが良い例です。イギリスでは、11世紀(1066年)から14世紀(1362年)まで、なんと公用語がフランス語だったのです！概ね50歳以下のスウェーデン人は流暢な英語を話しますが、スウェーデン語はいまだに残っています。若い韓国の人たちも、上手に英語を話す人が増えてきています。このパターンは、ヨーロッパ、アジア、南アメリカ、そしてもちろんアフリカで、世界中で起きています。
日本は本当に取り残されたいのでしょうか？)

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ポールの英会話教室が地元のテレビ番組ＨＢＣ「グッチーの今日ドキッ！」で紹介されました！

テーマは節約術。

空き缶で作ったソーラーシステムや、



鉢植えランプを約２分間でご紹介。



主に廃材を利用して、お金をかけずに手作りのエコなものたちで電気代を節約中。



ＤＩＹが趣味の素朴なイギリス人ポールのエコな英会話教室。



現在、春の新規生徒さん受付中です。

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