English Essay by Brian Southwick

15 Summer Reading   ALTによるREADING

  Hello again, everyone. I hope you enjoyed your summer vacation. When I was a junior high school student, summer was a relaxing time of year for me. But in Japan, summer is a very busy season. There are festivals to enjoy, relatives to visit during O-bon, and family trips to take. Junior high school first and second graders are busy with club activities, and third graders are getting ready for the high school entrance exam. And, there is much homework for everyone. I hope you had time to relax with a good book, though. In this essay I will tell you about some of my summer reading.
  Have you ever heard of Lafcadio Hearn? He was a writer who came to Japan during the Meiji era, in 1890. He quickly fell in love with Japan and decided to stay. For two years Hearn taught English at a junior high school in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. Later, he married a Japanese woman, became a citizen of Japan, and took the name Koizumi Yakumo. His books about traditional Japan are still interesting today, more than one hundred years after he died.
  This summer I read one of his books,
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. Hearn began writing it on the day he arrived in Japan. Everything about Japan was strange and new to him. The sights, the smells, and the sounds were all very interesting. In his book, Hearn tells about many of his early experiences in Japan. But my favorite chapter is “From the Diary of an English Teacher”. In my next essay I will tell you about Hearn’s life at a junior high school in Shimane in 1890.

Lafcadio Hearn's photo by Wikimedia    ・About Lafcadio Hearn by Wikipedia

(注)
relaxing<relax(くつろぐ),relative(親類),O-bon(お盆),first and second grader(1・2年生),
club activity(部活動),get ready for〜(〜の準備をする),entrance exam(入学試験),though(けれども),
Lafcadio Hearn(ラフカディオ・ハーン),Meiji era(明治時代),fall in love with〜(〜にほれこむ),
decide(決める,決心する),Matsue, Shimane Prefecture(島根県松江市),marry(結婚する),
citizen(市民,住民,国民),Koizumi Yakumo(小泉八雲),Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan(「日本の面影」),
strange(奇妙な),sight(光景),smell(匂い),experience(経験),chapter(章),diary(日記)


Questions and Answers: Please answer in English in a complete sentence, with a subject and a verb.

Q1. Who was Lafcadio Hearn?

A1.

Q2. Why did Hearn decide to stay in Japan?

A2.

Q3. What is Hearn’s Japanese name?

A3.

Q4. When did Hearn begin writing his book?

A4.

Q5. Tell about some of the things you did this summer.
   Please use three or more sentences.



解答例

A1. He was a writer who came to Japan during the Meiji era (, in 1890).

A2. Because he (quickly) fell in love with Japan.

A3. It’s Koizumi Yakumo.

A4. He began writing it on the day he arrived in Japan.

A5. I went to Sado Island with my family. We enjoyed swimming in the sea.
  We stayed at a guesthouse. We ate a lot of sea food there. It was very delicious.
  We had a very good time.

  I went to school almost every day, and played basketball in the gym.
  We practiced for about three hours in the morning. When I got home,
  I was very tired, thirsty, and hungry. So I drank a lot of water. After
  I had lunch, I took a nap all afternoon.
                            
 など英文として意味が通っていれば可。


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