With flying colours

Hi,
Many of Japanese take vacations during August 13 through 15.

My brain seemed to take the vacation too.

But I want to post an article to this blog.

Today's expression is "with flying colors".

This is often used with a verb "pass".

It means distinctively(good or well).

Like" He passed the test with flying colors".
"Mr.Iwakuma had done his job with flying colors."

Call it a day.
Have a nice vacation!
Bye.

The importance of keep studying

Hi,

I have nothing to write today, but I need to keep something in my mind.


So, Today's expression

It is usage of "for".

This word "for" is used broadly for showing reason and support, for comparison, for emphasis, for representing, and so on.

Not until today I realize the usage of"for" is not only as a preposition, but also conjunction.

Today I ran into the phrase using "for" as a conjuncture like following.

The game was called off for it is showering.

For a few minutes, my head went blank since I could not why there is "is" the sentence after "for".
Why not only showering?

I looked up "for" in the dictionary, and I finally found the answer.

There are 2 ways to use "for".
One is as a preposition,, and the other is as a conjunction.

As a conjunction, "for" is used to show reason such as"because", "as", and "since".

There are many ways to show reason. I currently study expressions, and I hope I will understand for future.

Bye

a misperception

Hi,

I sometimes read The economist, an English magazine, and I check articles about Japan.

There is 1 or 2 articles about Japan per week.

I hoped there were more articles...

By the way, this week's article is about misperception about youth criminals.

In Japan, medias rush to the case involving youth. Especially young person is the suspect.
The medias and people react so panic though the number of juvenile crimes decrease past 10 years.

...So, I must stop it. I cannot plagiarize from the article.


Sometimes I feel a kind of misperception about number.

Media pick up the opinion of minority as if the opinion is supported by majority, let alone the Internet.

It is normal that each person has each opinion, but sometimes people justify their opinion as it is supported by many people.
I think the justification should be based on the fact or reliable resource, but not on their prejudice.



Speaking of which, go ahead to Today expression.

is "what with"

This expresses reason, particularly not good reason.

"He have to stay one more another night what with his business going wrong."

Have a nice weekend!!
bye-

I'm not advancing a conspiracy theory, Scully.

Hi, dude.
Oops, I do not like using"dude" Cuz I do not know that it actually means.

By the way, I have watched X-flies in these days.

Don't say it is too old or it is out of date.


Speaking of which, I found an interesting expression.

In "Apocrypha", an episode from season 3, Skinner is hospitalized for that he was shot in the previous story.
The expression is from the scene then Scully and Skinner talk in hospital.
She is driven by anger because she realized the suspect had been nearby Molder.
Skinner said the following.
" Anger is a luxury that you cannot afford right now."
Anger makes opponents take advantage of you.

Skinner said it so that Scully got calm.

This phrase means a lot for me.
No one do not get angry, but people control anger somehow.
I want to remember it when I am about to be driven by anger.

I do not suppose there are someone who do not know who Scully or Molder is.
Should someone do not know about X-files, I urge them to watch it.

Bye-bye.

Space...the final frontier...

I just finished watching Star Trek6 "the Undiscovered Country".

It is my favorite movie and there a lot of intriguing conversations.

The story is about Mr.Spock try to make a peace treaty between Federation to which the earth belongs and Klingon empire.
For a long time, 2 countries have not got along with each other.
There is a conspiracy to break up their relationship completely and some people desire them to fight against one the other.

I like the following quote that Captain Kirk said in the movie.

"We are both extremists. Reality is probably somewhere in between."

Kirk said it when he was with Mr.Spock and the captain initially hated Klingon because his son had been killed by Klingon. On the contrary, Mr. Spock sought peace between 2 powers.
As the story passed, Captain Kirk changed his initial thought and he realized his hatred begot nothing.

He had had extreme opinion about Klingon and relationship with Klingon.
But he learned his thought must be changed.

It is easy for extremists to say their opinion.
However, the reality never get along with what they desired.
Reality always requires compromise.

We can never do as we want to. Have to find a point we are able to compromise.
That is why discussion, namely democratic process, is needed.

I feel it strongly in these days.

Study, study, and play

To whom it may concern,



Hi, last day I had a TOEFL ibt test.
It felt like I was not going well and I need to study more about using and listening English.


Today's expression I want to keep in my mind.


1, For all

despite, in spite of

For all the money I spent, I crashed my car into a utility pole and broke it.

This "for all" is used before nouns or something like that.



2. might as well do (may used instead of might)

make a weak suggestion

If you feel uneasy, you might as well see a counselor.


indicate a speaker thinks as if a situation is the same as what he/she say

Given that he had slept all the time at the meeting, he might as well have not attended there.
He might as well have not attended as have slept all the meeting.




I feel difficulty to use the second expression.

I might as well study abroad for all the facts I am a shy guy.



Keep it up, of course.
bye...

Manners know distance.

Even between good friends, each has to show their respect.

Though sometimes people feel offended by their friends, it does not immediately break up their friendships.
Of course people need to know appropriate distance between people.

As people get old, building good relationship becomes more difficult, what with losing flexibility.

And, maintaining those relationships are much harder than building them let alone keeping in touch.



If someone feels offended by others, I hope not to let it destroy friendships.



Speaking of which, I do not quite sure what I mentioned above.

The Law of Simplicity

Hi,

In yesterday afternoon, I listened to an internet radio program.
That might be BBC discussing the issue of Greek financial problems.

Whereas the MC asked a guest about opinion, the guest talked on and on...
Honestly, I did not catch what he wanted to say.
Though the MC tried to point out that he spoke so irrelevantly, he still tried to keep speaking.

Then I realized the importance of speaking simply and clearly.

Of course I usually speak in Japanese, but I sometimes feel what I said is redundant.

Keep this in my mind and I will try speak simply.


...Because I have a job interview today.

Efforts to bring brighter future

Hi, long time no see.
It took me over 1 week to post a new article.

A while ago, I checked YAHOO News and found an article about AI.

http://news.yahoo.co.jp/pickup/6168668
>ホーキング氏ら AI兵器に警告

This article reported that a famous physicist Stephen Hawking and a group of famous scientists and AI(artificial intelligence) researcher signed a letter which suggests preventing AI from use as weapons.

And the article links a website that the letter is put.

I read the letter and agree with those scientists.

Speaking of which, I found　２ interesting expressions in it.

1, if not～　～まではいかなくても

"practically if not legally" 合法であるとはいかなくても事実上

２、　way in which

"There are many ways in which AI can make better...."
....でAIがよりよく貢献できる たくさんの方法がある　

I am sometimes troubled how to use relative pronouns with prepositions such as"in which"but, the example above got it through to me a bit.
The sentence contains 2 meanings.
One is "There are many ways", and the other is " AI can make better...in many ways".
When I want to change those 2 sentences into 1 sentence, I can use "in which" between them like above.


There are so many things to think for us today, but many of the issues do not seem to get argued well or even those are rarely mentioned.

We can do a lot for the better future and we have many issues to solve for the future generations.

Currently, I plan on studying in foreign college. It is tough for me specially because of financial situation and my age. But I will keep trying.

Creative, Decorate, and Challenge

Hi,

Today, I was stunned by that a Japanese mega-manufacturer, Toshiba, did creative accounting and hid the huge loss of its nuclear power plant and electric business.

Its presidents tried to cover losses by means of "challenge" which means setting thoughtless sales goals and actually those were unfulfilled.

Speaking of which, Creative Accounting means 粉飾決算(funshoku-kessan)in Japanese.
And some people call falsifying profit and loss asデコる( may be derived from the word "decorate").

Whereas the words,"Creative", "Decorate", and "Challenge" remind people of good images, those words are actually used to indicate cheating.

I suppose feasibility is the most important to anything.


bye


Correction

Suddenly I remembered the idiom "BE IMPORTANT TO".
So, I corrected above.