2020/02/08(土)/SMC

Hello everyone!

Let me report on the meeting(#3) held on Feb.8 (at the Tea Room of the Seishin Community Center).

The participants were six members including SM K. Narisawa, SM Yo. Narisawa, SM Kaneko, SM Noro, SM Yu. Narisawa and SM Yamazaki.

The Coordinator was SM Yu. Narisawa and the Lecturer was K. Narisawa.

The meeting started with the Presidential Remarks. In the remarks, the President referred to the feedback from his students including the comments in questionairs. He hinted that some of the comments seem willful using the idiom of "as is often the case of an questionair..."

Lecturer

"Let's enjoy idioms"

Based on the story made by each speaker indicating the meaning of an idiom given, the other participants were asked to answer the idiom that matches the story.

"bark at the wrong tree"

"eat humble pie"

"keep up with the Joneses"

"let the cat out of the bag"

"upset the apple cart"

"a skeleton in the cupboard"

, etc.

Table Topic Speech

"How did you meet your best friend?"(SM

Yo. Narisawa)

The speaker said she has made a lot of friends since her family moved to Aikawa-machi about 30 years ago. From among her friends, she talked about a person who she became a close friend through her hobby of flower arrangement. She said the person is very kind and positive about things.

"If you could build a garden with only 3 plants, which ones would you grow?"(SM Kaneko) The speaker talked about his preferences for specific plants such as pie trees, grass and rose in designing his garden. In his speech, he implied his strong affection toward nature.

"You're on your way to an important meeting and you get caught in the rain without an umbrella, how do you do?(SM Noro) The speaker emphasized in his speech that he wouldn't mind rain and head for the meeting venue. From his speech, he displayed his character with a strong sense of strong responsibility as a business person. SM K. Narisawa added the phrase of "brave rain to head for～".

"How do you feel about putting mayonnaise on french fries?"(SM K. Narisawa) In the speech, the speaker referred to a Japanese English term "fried potato" for french fries. And he added his better preference for ketchup than mayonnaise for the combination of eating french fries.

"Which do you like better, summer or winter?" (SM Yamazaki) The speaker mentioned his better liking of winter with the reference to winter getting milder temperatures.

Prepared Speech

"Coronavirus"(SM Kaneko)

The speaker talked about a hot issue of the pneumonia-inducing infectious disease which is now feared to spiral into a pandemic. With the reports from the media saying most cases of the affected people are elderly, he added in his speech that he is currently refraining from visiting his mother who is in hospital.

"Pangram"(SM Noro)

The speaker talked about a kind of the pan of words of pangram with some of examples of pangram including one example of his original work of his own. He explained pangram, quoting the definition that a pangram is a sentence or expression that uses all the letters of the alphabet. He suggested that we work on pangram as a measure for stimulating our brains.

"Do you like quizzes? (SM Yo. Narisawa)

This topic is one of the speaker's pet issues. She talked about some examples of quizzes presented on her the most favorite TV quiz show. Here is an example of the question of "How many birthdays does the average person have?"

Her speech concluded with a message of "stimulating our brain every day can prevent our mind from growing old".

"Renewal of my pledges"(SM Yamazaki)

The speaker referred to his pledges to use NHK radio English programs' textbooks as study materials that had been ended as empty resolutions for consecutive years. However, he said he has made a renewal of his the pledges for this year quoting the words of the program's host of Sugita Satoshi-san.

Next meeting: Feb. 22(4th Saturday)

At Oyama (小山)Community Center

Coordinator: SM Yo. Narisawa

Lecturer: SM Noro

Reported by Yamazaki