Lesson 2
Dear Prof. Sue Garreis
Thank you for replying so quickly. Thank you for commenting and correcting my sentence one by one. My replies are written below. Replies are written in pink.
⇒Dear Mei,
Thank you for your comments. My replies are
written below in blue.
Grammar corrections are in italics.
I am still working on my new website. There are three links to try this week. A
Memorial Day page is at http://msgarreis.com/MemorialDay.mht The next lesson is at http://msgarreis.com/sources10.htm. The next lesson refers to an Excel
spreadsheet. It is at: http://msgarreis.com/NTTIncStmt2009.xlsx If those links don't work, I have attached
(1) the Excel document and (2) the ord21007version of the new lesson. So sorry
it is taking so long to get the website working.
I apologize that I sent a very early reply. I
sent it right away because I jumped to a wrong conclusion. Normally, our class should send our reply
every Friday. I forgot about it. I will send it on every Friday after
this.
⇒Mei, do not worry about sending an early
reply. I am on email more frequently
now, and will reply whenever I see a message. Perhaps as a graduate student
you are expected to send more messages. If yes, that will be no problem.
Or perhaps you are expected to reply sooner. If yes, that is also no problem.
Will you write in English or Japanese? Will your resources be English,
Japanese or some other language? Or will your resources be from any language?
I will write in Japanese. My resources will be
English and Japanese. I suppose fewer Japanese are
interested in accounting compared to American sbecause taxation in America. As
a result, there are relatively fewer Japanese resources related to tax.
So I think that Japanese resources related to
accounting are few than America.
⇒Will you write about
Japanese accounting and Japanese education or will you take an international view?
I will take an international view.Education differs according to each country.
I will compare Japan with other countries and I may be able to find the point
of Japanese accounting and education or other countries accounting and
education.
Many years ago Prof. Shiina wrote about accounting education in Japan.
Of course, I have read it.
⇒Just making sure!
In the US, though, sudents who want to be CPAs must still take our US exam,
even if they want to practice exclusively with IFRSs. I think in the future the
US CPA exam will have questions involving the IFRSs. We shall see.
I see. I suppose the Japan CPA exam will have question involving the IFRSs far
into the future.
What an awesome hobby! One granddaughter, Em, does pen and ink drawings. When
you make your web page for this course, I hope you put one of your drawings on
the web site. Then send me the URL, please.
Sure.What shall I draw?
Draw your favorite
subject. Or draw something from one of the computer games you play. Can you
draw a picture of your dog?
Even I have heard of Final Fantasy. I don't usually play RPGs (Role Playing
Games). I prefer the short, simplistic kind that I can play by myself. I play
Facebook games such as FarmVille and Island Paradise. They don't take any brain
power.
I hear you.
That's why I like
them! My sons, however, love RPGs.
I love RPGs, too. But RPGs are time comsuming! I have no time to spare, so I
control myself.
⇒What do you want to improve?
I want to improve active expression, as I want to go to America in the near future. I also want to improve vocabulary.
OK. So I will not make my vocabulary simple for you. If you don't understand a word I use, and it is not in your dictionary, please ask me about it.
When you visit the US, please stop in and see me. I would love to have you as a house guest. I live on the East Coast, about an hour away from Washington DC. It would be great to see you!
Chinese is incredibly hard for an English speaker. I suspect it is hard even
for a Japanese speaker.
You're right.
Pronunciation of Chainese is so difficult in particular for Japanese,
because Japanese don't speak with an accent. There are four tones in Chinese.
If I give incorrect pronunciation, they won't understand and it will
cause difference to characters.
The fact that Chinese is a tonal language is what makes it extremely
difficult in my mind. I can just imagine that I think I say, "Where is the
grocery store?" but in reality I said, "Is your grandmother a
chocolate chip cookie?" Oh, dear!! The use of characters is also a huge
roadblock for English speakers. However, I did manage to learn a few hiragana
and katakana, so I guess learning characters is not an impossible task.
⇒"Wanna" is written slang for
"want to." When we speak rapidly, the words "want to" sound like
"wanna." However, we don't write it that way in formal
correspondence. I could write that in a message to my daughter, if I were
teasing her, but I couldn't write it to you, unless we were practicing slang.
I understand. I'll be more careful.
⇒Facebook comes in a wide variety of languages, including Japanese. So you can sign up and use any language you want. However, I should warn you that Facebook takes up a tremendous amount of time for most people. You are probably better off staying away from it! If I am not careful, I can literally waste an entire day on the silly games.
There are some site like Facebook in Japan. Indeed, I think so too.
Looks can be deceiving! Kate's father and I have been divorced for eleven years. We are not in contact much. I am in close contact with Kate, however.
I'm sorry if I
offended you I didn't mention it. In fact my parents also have been divorced
since I was an elementary student. Now, I'm
living with my mother and my brother.We are not in contact much, too. I am grateful to my mother for bringing me up. Your sons and daughter
will be grateful to you, won't they?
⇒Actually, I am not sure. My daughter has said
often that she is grateful to me.
My sons are more circumspect. But that may just be the difference in men's and women's communication styles.
Please do not think I
was offended by your "happy family" remark. I wasn't. I just didn't
want you to think that I was still married to Kate's dad. I am a widow. My
second husband and I married in 2005 and he died in 2008. It was a shock to us
when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Neither of us really expected such a
short time together. I hope this discussion is not too depressing. I don't mean
it to be.
⇒Yes, indeed, it is hard to find a job in all
sectors. Kate is lucky that social work is needed. She will
take a temporary position starting June 1, as a social worker where she used to
work. It is certainly not the job she wanted, but she has to pay the bills. She
wants to be a licensed clinical social worker. That means she can counsel
people who need help with bad home situations. But she must get a certain kind
of job experience first. She cannot find a full-time job that will give her
that experience. So she took the temporary job and will make separate
arrangements to get some part-time experience of the type she needs. She will
keep looking for a full-time job that will give her the necessary clinical
experience.
My oldest son, Matt, is a computer programmer but he is in a job that
underutilizes his skills and doesn't pay very well. He would get another job,
but there are literally none available in a fifty-mile radius of his house. He
was unemployed for months before he got this job. My third son, James, works
for the railroad in Indiana, but he would like to get a higher level job back
on the East coast. He has been interviewing for nearly a year with no luck. So
he and his family are stuck in Indiana and he must be gone four nights at a
time. But it pays the bills, so he sticks with the job. My second son, Alex, is
doing what he likes--financial advising. However, because many people are afraid
to invest in the stock market now, it is very difficult for him to get clients.
the housing market must be loosening up a little bit. Kate and I drove around a
tourist area not too far from my home. We saw a lot of "For Sale"
signs. Last year, people did not put their houses on the market, because there
were no buyers. Personally, I think it will take ten years for a complete
recovery. Even the national government says that the economy will take
"several" years to recover.
I heard that social work
is advancing in America. Japanese takes only very mild measures against social
work.
⇒Social work is very important in all states in the US. It is a state concern, not a federal one. As I write this, I am in my daughter's living room in Delaware. (I need to be at my granddaughter's school tomorrow'). I asked her thoughts on why social work was so prevalent in the US. She postulated that it is because we were a country of immigrants originally, and the newly arrived needed to take care of each other. There was no government to help them. So the people developed an attitude of helping, either individually or through a private charity or company. Kate also suggested that people in societies need their distance. If there is plenty of geographical space, as in the US, there can be a relatively high degree of emotional involvement. Whereas if there is a relatively small space for the number of people present, sanity is preserved by maintaining more emotional distance. Kate cited herself as an example. When she lived in a house, she knew all her neighbors. She lives in an apartment now, and doesn't know any of her neighbors. Perhaps she is right. She thanks you for your insightful observation, and so do I.
Oh! You're children have so high educational background. I wonder what it is difficult to find our favorite jobs. If it takes ten years for a complete recovery, I will be 36 years old.
⇒Wow! That is a long commute. Do you do that every day? I hope not!
I think you will be so busy every day. So, I hope not too.
⇒Are there any courses completely online? That would be nice for you!
Maybe my home address
is completely online.
⇒This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, during
which we remember all soldiers in all wars. It is a major holiday. I saw in a
textbook about Memorial Day. I had never heard until you say. There is the
anniversary of the end of the war in Japan.
⇒I am going to a baseball game with my sister
this afternoon. I will see a player who was famous many years ago. My daughter,
Kate, will be there, too. She loved Brady Anderson when he played.
You are active! How was the game?
⇒The game was fine. "My" team won. Unfortunately, I did not see Brady Anderson. I was mistaken in thinking that he was supposed to appear. He was not. Oh, well.
⇒We will eat a hot dog at the stadium (our family
tradition) and watch some good baseball. I like minor
league baseball better than major league baseball. The youngest players are not
full of ego. They want to play ball, not make a million dollars.
You have hard feelings
against baseball. I want to eat a hot dog, too.
⇒Since you are a graduate student, I assume you
have to do more work for this
course. So I wrote you longer passages, and used more complex sentence structure, bigger words and full paragraphs. If the English is too hard, I will scale back or write less. Let me know.
Wow! How long! I'm
very glad. I enjoy communicating in English. So I hope you will write longer
passages when you have some time. When I was an elementary student, I had an English
friend. I used to go out with her. Then, she taught English to me. But, she
came back her country after a few years. Since then, I was looking for native
speakers of English. But, I couldn't find anyone. So I am glad for your guidance.
⇒I will be delighted to write you long
passages. Feel free to write more than just one message a week. Assuming, of course, that your professors in Japan
agree with that. I assume that you and Saya exchange information. I do not always write the same thing
to each student. Feel free to compare notes!
Yes sir!
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely yours,
Mei
⇒1. Oh, dear! I hope you did not get a cold.
When you do catch a cold, what do you do for it? My favorite home remedy is to
eat lots of hot chicken noodle soup. This is my favorite brand Campbell's
Chicken Noodle Soup: http://www.campbellsoup.com/condensed_soups_story.aspx.
2. Please send all your emails to me from your home. There is no need to travel 3 hours just to send me a message. I will continue to send my replies to you to both of your addresses. That way you can read them in the most convenient location for you.
Answer against my homework
1. I usually check on Tuesday about 10 p.m.
2. Microsoft is very large, multinational corporation. Microsoft is very famous company.
3. Maryland needs a total of 150 credit hours in order to take the CPA exam. I agree with them Even if someone who graduated from college, it will be difficult to get a lot of information about accounting. Not to change the subject, but Dining of Maryland is full, isn't it?
⇒Yes! Maryland is full of restaurants! I was shocked at how many there were close to my house.
4. I used Ask. there were 2,920,000(two million nine hundred twenty thousand) hits.
5. The accounting was about right. The English was about right.