No Pain, No Gain

Sometimes people ask me what I recommend as the most efficient way of studying English. I have to say, there certainly are some techniques that are effective and some that are not - but there are no quick or simple study methods that actually work. Usually, when someone asks me how he or she can study using as little time as possible, I just say, "if your goal is to avoid spending time studying, you will not improve. Spend time studying, regardless of method, and you will see improvement." There are probably thousands of books telling people that one specific method is the best of all, but to me, they miss a major point - HOW you study is far less important than THAT you study.

The same is true of exercise - don't waste all your time looking for the single best and most efficient method, just work at it and you'll see results.

I Ain't Heard That!

People often use the word "ain't" in conversation. This is not Standard English, but you might want to know it anyway - just in case. It's like saying "そうじゃねえ” instead of "そうじゃない" in Japanese. If you watch American TV or movies, you probably hear it a lot. Here are some examples:

I'm not 25! = I ain't 25!

He isn't a friend of mine! = He ain't no friend of mine!

She hasn't been there before. = She ain't never been there before.

Did you notice something strange? "Ain't" can be used with "no" or "never" as a double negative. So the sentences "he got nothing" and "he ain't got nothing" mean the same thing. So if you want to say something like "俺は悪くねえ" in English, you might want to try "I ain't done nothing!"

Shizuoka Airport!

Hmm... should I fly to Seoul or Shanghai? It's so hard to decide, and I've never been to either of them.

Many of our students have been to Seoul, but most of them just talk about the food. I'm not very interested in Korean food, though I like kimchee. I might go to China, then. Shanghai looks interesting. I wish this airport had flights to Europe!