January 31, 2019　=========

☆  interact  作用し合う

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When people interact with each other, they communicate as they work or spend time together. When you interact with a computer, information is exchanged. As I mentioned yesterday, my teenage nephew interacts with his friends through online video games.

Has the use of smartphones and computers changed the way you interact with other people? We have great neighbors, and we often interact over the fence and chat about the kids or weekend plans. However, if I want to ask them something, I usually send a message rather than interacting in person!

How about you? How do you interact with people in your daily life? Is it more likelyRead more about January 31 – interact[…]

January 30, 2019　=========

☆  touch base  連絡する

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This month’s Q&A question is “How do you touch base with friends these days?” One of the sample answers is “We often interact through online gaming.” I must admit, I don’t really like video games, and rarely play them. So, it seems weird to me that video games are a way of touching base with friends.

However, my nephew, who is a teenager, recently sold his Xbox and a bought a PS4. When I asked why, it was because his friends all use PS4s, and so if he wants to touch base with them, he needs to be using the same machine. He cannot connect withRead more about January 30 – touch base[…]

January 29, 2019　=========

☆  access  アクセスする

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When you’re talking about the online environment, you can use the word access in two ways. You can access something, such as information. Or you can access something such as the actual Internet. For example:

I accessed the work database from my home as a test run for working from home.
Can you access the Internet from your hotel room?
I can’t access the Wi-Fi at the moment for some reason.
I’m worried someone might access my personal information online.

Can you use access in a sentence?

Bye,

Chris

January 28, 2019　=========

☆  disconnect  接続を切る

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Do you ever disconnect from your phone and other screens, such as the TV and computer? The book I read, How to Break Up with Your Cell Phone, recommended disconnecting for at least 24-hours once a week. To make it easier, the author suggested Friday night through to Saturday night, because most people are usually busy with other plans around then, so it’s easier.

Also, I recently watched Consumed on Netflix, about people who have too much clutter. The expert in the show, took away all the screens in the house – phones, computers, TVs and so on – for two weeks!! The family has disconnected withRead more about January 28 – disconnect[…]

January 27, 2019　=========

☆  NSFW  閲覧注意

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Have you ever seen this anacronym, NSFW? It is usually used in the subject line of an email, or the topic line of a video. It describes something that might have sexual or rude content, or just something that is generally Not Safe For Work – as in it’s not a good idea to watch this at work, because you might get in trouble.

I think I’ve only received an email with NSFW in the subject line once or twice from friends. I see it many times in spam mail, as that is supposed to make me want to open it! Umm, no thanks! However, the timesRead more about January 27 – NSFW[…]

January 26, 2019　=========

☆  entertaining  面白い

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Something that is entertaining is enjoyable, amusing, cheering, funny, humorous, interesting, pleasant and pleasurable. As I mentioned the other day, my kids find YouTube videos stimulating and entertaining. When I watch them together, I just wonder what on earth it is that is entertaining about the video – usually they are so inane and boring.

My oldest son and I love watching the Tidying Up series with KonMari on Netflix, but my younger son however does not find this show entertaining at all, so we have to watch it when he is busy doing something else.

What kind of videos and online articles do you find articles entertaining?Read more about January 26 – entertaining[…]

January 25, 2019　=========

☆  social  社会の

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Social means relating to leisure activities that involve meeting other people. So, when we are communicating online, that’s why it’s called social media, because the goal is that we are having fun and meeting others… obviously, a social activity online is quite different from a social catch up or gathering in person.

Here are some ways to use the word for online groups or friendships to do offline catch ups:

We ought to organize some social events for us to meet in person.
My online cooking group often has social catch ups in person.
I like doing social activities such as walking tours and barbeques. How about you?

Bye,

Chris

January 24, 2019　=========

☆  stimulating  刺激する

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Good afternoon! A little late today, as we are still enjoying summer vacation here, and it’s sooooooo hot! Because of the heat, it’s not really possible to go outside, and that means we are stuck inside, with nothing very stimulating to do. With kids stuck inside, the only thing they want to do, is play iPad games, or watch YouTube videos…. Not very stimulating for me!

So, instead, we got up early and packed up the car and went for a drive down the coast to my sister’s holiday house by the sea. It’s usually cooler down here compared to the city, but in fact, it’s stillRead more about January 24 – stimulating[…]

January 23, 2019　=========

☆  ever-changing  どんどん変わる

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I think one of the most amazing things about the Internet and online environment is how it is ever-changing. Actually, maybe the Internet itself isn’t ever-changing, but our lives are ever-changing as a result of the constant changes in what AI and computers can do.

For example, I know hardly ever type a question into Google. I use my voice on my laptop, and Siri on my phone. I no longer listen to CDs, instead, I use the (free) music apps. I rarely buy something at full price these days, instead, I research online and either buy online, or go to the shop and ask them toRead more about January 23 – ever-changing[…]

January 22, 2019　=========

☆  challenging  難しい

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What do you think is the most challenging part of communicating online? Either via smartphone or social media, or even email? What is the most challenging thing for you?

For me, trying to guess the nuance of the communication is the most challenging. Sometimes, when someone posts on social media, it can seem like they are very angry or being sarcastic and so on, but often the person who wrote the post doesn’t feel that way. They thought the post was “fine.”

So that’s the most challenging thing for me – the emotional side and body language information is not there when you are communicating online, so itRead more about January 22 – challenging[…]

January 21, 2019　=========

☆  approachable  親しみやすい
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If you describe someone as approachable, it means that you think they are friendly and easy to talk to. So, thinking about online communication, do you think people are more or less approachable online?

What makes someone approachable in an offline situation? Is it the way they look? Their smile? The sound of their voice? Their friendliness? How does this change in an online environment? How do you know if someone is approachable or not in an online situation? Is it their photo? The words in their profile? The hashtags they use to describe their interests? 

If you use social media, do you think your profile makes youRead more about January 21 – approachable[…]

January 20, 2019　=========

☆  database  データベース

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A database is a collection of data that is stored in a computer and that can be easily used and added to. My brother uses Facebook, but his profile is all a lie. His name is wrong, so is his birthday and age. And there is no other information on his profile, just a photo of a weird toy dog! Ha ha.

I asked him why, and he said that from his experience working in Silicon Valley when he was younger, he no longer trusts big internet companies and their databases. Firstly, he wonders if they are even secure? And secondly, he wonders why on earth theyRead more about January 20 – database[…]

January 19, 2019　=========

☆  connection 繋がり

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Like I mentioned yesterday, it can be easy to feel a connection with someone that you are chatting with online, only to find out later that they are not exactly who they say they are.

A couple of years ago, I started using Instagram, but I noticed that I was getting followed by a lot of people who I had no connection with. Most of them were business sites, rather than actual people wanting to connect. I took a break from Instagram, but strangely, I actually missed having the connection with people I did know. So, now I use Instagram sometimes, but just ignore the comments fromRead more about January 19 – connection[…]

January 18, 2019　=========

☆  chat site チャットサイト

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My Japanese friend living in Adelaide told me a funny story about a part-time job she had when she was younger and living in Tokyo. She worked for a chat site company! Her job was to pretend to be the girl in the profile and reply to the people messaging her!! Sometimes she was chatting with up to ten different customers at once!

I feel sorry for the people who were connecting with her via the chat site; maybe they would have thought they were chatting with a real person, not a paid employee. But at the same time, I can’t help but be impressed withRead more about January 18 – chat site[…]

January 17, 2019　=========

☆  interest  興味

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If you have an interest in something, you want to learn or know more about it. I recently heard about a Japanese singer who was quite famous in the 1990’s. She was young and when she told her parents about her interest in music, her father was against it.

After releasing a few CDs, she stopped singing for various reasons. She has kids, and now that they are older, she has revived her interest in singing and creating music. She was worried that no one would want to hear her new music, however, on Twitter, there were many fans connecting with her, and telling them about theirRead more about January 17 – interest[…]

January 16, 2019　=========

☆  environment  環境

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I read an interesting thesis recently about the differences in communication in an offline environment and an online environment. In the online environment, the participants were more likely to misunderstand each other, and were also less likely to support each other, compared to the same situation in an offline or face to face environment.

In an online environment, the participants were more opiniated, didn’t use humor, and disagreed more with each other than they did offline.

Based on this, it seems like we should really just use our smart phones for calling friends to meet up face to face, and leave the online environment for funny cat videos!!

WhatRead more about January 16 – environment[…]

January 15, 2019　=========

☆  profile プロフィール

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Every time I log into Facebook it tells me that my profile is incomplete, or that I need to update my profile in order to let people know more about me. I always ignore these messages. I think that if people want to know what high school or university I went to, or what my favorite quote is, then they can always ask me by mail or in person.

How about you? What kind of detail do you have in your profile on social media pages? Do you have a lot of detail or just a basic profile with only a little bit of information? Do youRead more about January 15 – profile[…]

January 14, 2019　=========

☆  behavior 振る舞い

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Your behavior is the way you behave. A typical and repeated way of acting or behaving is known as a behavior. Do you think our behavior is different online and offline?

What about in general, with the Internet, has it changed our behavior? I find that the behavior of my kids is different from when I was their age. When I was young, I was always playing in the backyard, climbing trees, and finding bugs. However, my kids are more likely to say, “Can I play on the iPad?” rather than “Can I play outside?”

What about smart phones? Do you have one? Has your behavior changed sinceRead more about January 14 – behavior[…]

January 13, 2019　=========

☆  screen　検査する

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If you screen something, it means that you examine it or investigate it, so that you can choose how to respond to it. For example, before the Internet, this word was most commonly used for phones, “I always screen my phone calls.” This means that you always check who is calling you before you decide whether to answer it or not. If you didn’t know who the caller was, then you could screen the call by letting it go to voice mail, and then check who it was that was calling.

Nowadays, you can also do this on the Internet, and on apps. For example, with email, readingRead more about January 13 – screen[…]

January 12, 2019　=========

☆  date デートする

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Are you brave enough to date someone you met through the Internet? I don’t think I would be, but I have two friends who have. One of my friends met her husband through an online cooking group! It wasn’t though an app for meeting people to date, but it’s actually a better way to meet someone you might like to date, don’t you think? At least you definitely know that you have one hobby in common.

However, I also have a friend who was a single mum, with teenage daughters. Her daughters created a profile for her on Tinder, a dating app. She was horrified! She didn’tRead more about January 12 – date[…]

January 11, 2019　=========

☆  crave 切望する

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This week’s useful phrase is, “I’m craving face to face interaction.” Do you ever feel like this when you’ve been online for too long? The funny thing is though, that often when we do catch up with other people in person, we still spend time on our phones! Do you ever do that?

In that situation, when we are with other people, but still using our phones, what do you think we are really craving? Is it face to face interaction that we are craving? I have a friend who is constantly on her phone, liking posts, posting photos with hashtags of what she is doing orRead more about January 11 – crave[…]

January 10, 2019   　=========

☆  measure up 達する

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If you do not “measure up” to someone’s expectations, you are not good enough to fulfil that person’s expectations or standards. So, for example, when you use a dating app, and connect with someone online, you have an image in your head of that person and what they will be like.

Then, when you finally meet in person, the question is whether or not they will measure up to your expectations of them. It’s easy to make a person seem perfect in our minds, and then the reality can be a bit different! Ha ha!

Have you ever met up with someone you connected with online?Read more about January 10 – measure up[…]

January 9, 2019   =========

☆  boost 強める

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These days, most of the time I am on Facebook it is for work, not on my personal page. So, Facebook is always asking me if I want to pay money and boost my post. Apparently, if I just pay 1,000yen or so, I can reach thousands more people! Wow!

Except that it only works once! Facebook wants me to boost EVERY post… since I post these mini mails on Facebook every day, that is going to cost me a lot of money! And, to be honest, I’m not even sure if anyone really looks at the Facebook page or not… so I think I’ll hangRead more about January 9 – boost[…]

January 8, 2019      =========

☆  compare 比べる

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There’s a great comment about the biggest problem with the Internet and social media: “Don’t compare your insides with other people’s outsides.” Have you heard this before? Basically, it is saying that one of the main reasons we are unhappy is because we compare what we see on social media to our own lives, and feel disappointed with ourselves.

It’s hard not to compare our boring lives of going to work each day, when we see someone posting beautiful photos of their travels or parties, or new cars and so on. The trick of course, is to remember that people rarely post about the bad thingsRead more about January 8 – compare[…]

January 7, 2019 =========

☆  post 投稿する

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In my old dictionary, this word doesn’t come up! Well, actually of course, the word is in the dictionary, but the meaning is about “posting a letter” or “to post a notice or information somewhere.” However, in my more recent dictionary, there is a new definition of “post”: “If you post information on the Internet, you make the information available to other people on the Internet.”

Last week, I mentioned that I had deleted social media from my phone. Now, whenever I want to post something, I have to open a browser and open the mobile phone version of Facebook etc. and post through that page.Read more about January 7 – post[…]

January 6, 2019　=========

☆  communication コミュニケーション

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As you know, the topic for January is about connecting with people online. Do you think that communication online is the same as communication in person?

I think sometimes people can be very unkind when they are engaged in communication online. Sometimes it’s easy to say something online without really thinking about how the other person may be affected.

I think a good rule for online communication would be that if you wouldn’t say it in person, then don’t say it online! What do you think?

Bye,

Chris

January 5, 2019　=========

☆  tie 絆

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This week’s useful phrase, “It is possible to build close ties with people online.” What do you think about this? I tend to agree – so long as you are sure that the person you are communicating with is really who they say they are, then you can definitely build close ties.

I have one friend, who I see once or twice a year at running events, however, we communicate often via Messenger, and we have built a very strong tie. I also have friends that live in other countries, and social media and the internet has allowed me to continue to strengthen those ties even thoughRead more about January 5 – tie[…]

January 4, 2019　=========

☆  comment コメント

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How often do you just “like” something on social media, rather than actually writing a comment? I noticed recently that I spent a lot of time liking friend’s posts, but I wasn’t really interacting with them. So, I decided to try only liking something if I was going to leave a comment too.

It was an interesting experiment – If I left a comment, then posts from that person turned up more often. And the posts from other friends stopped turning up in my news feed, because I hadn’t liked or left a comment on their posts recently.

Do you tend to leave comments or just likes? HowRead more about January 4 – comment[…]

January 3, 2019　    =========

☆  depression うつ

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This week’s useful phrase is, “Spending too much time online is linked to depression.” What do you think about this? I agree, especially if the time you spend offline is much less because you are always online. 

In fact, I felt like I was heading into depression late last year, and being online all the time was part of the reason. Then, I found a fantastic book – How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price.  Oh wow! What a great book! It was funny, and well-researched – including research about the link to depression.

At the end, there was a 30-day plan to “break upRead more about January 3 – depression[…]

January 2, 2019　    =========

☆  acquaintance  知り合い

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How was your New Year’s Day? I hope you had a lovely start to 2019.

Today’s word, acquaintance, describes someone you have met and know slightly, but not well. Personally, I think the words “friend” and “acquaintance” are now very similar. In the past, before Facebook and other social media, it would be more usual to describe someone as an acquaintance and only use the word friend to describe someone you know well and see regularly.

However, these days, “We are friends on Facebook” is a very common way to describe someone. Really, this is more like an acquaintance than a friend, I think. What do youRead more about January 2 – acquaintance[…]

January 1, 2019　=========

☆  stranger 　見知らぬ人

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Happy New Year! 

Welcome to the 2019 English Organizer mini mails. Even though it’s likely that we have never met in person, I hope we are not strangers! 

This month, we are talking about the topic of “Connecting with people online” … I hope that through this daily mini mail we can connect and become friends. Don’t be a stranger! If you have a comment for me, you can reach me on the English Now! Facebook page. Although, it is the New Year holiday at the moment, so I might not respond immediately.

I hope you are enjoying a relaxing New Year break. “Talk to you” again tomorrow morning.

Bye,

Chris