I had a day off today. This morning, I went to AEON as usual and started reading Shinsuke Shimojo's "Subliminal Mind [下條信輔『サブリミナル・マインド』]", but my smartphone noticed that on LINE someone started a voice chat, so I joined into it. The host woman and I enjoyed chatting in English for a while. One of the topics of this conversation time was how we learn English actually in our daily lives. I shared my methods such as attending English classes, and the host shared that she has been learning English with teachers from the Philippines.
Reflecting on this, I find that American English has influenced my English, and I also find that I have been learning American culture mainly through these classes through these teachers' diligent efforts (they must be so busy!). But by the host's sharing of her precious experiences, I could have learned that I would learn more from those Asian teachers' English (because she shared with me about Philippines history a little, and also Japan's history I had not concerned in mind).
This afternoon, I went to a library to borrow some books by Antonio Damasio (there, I found a provoking book by Richard Hawkins so borrowed it too). After that, I enjoyed Yoko Tawada's book "Exophony [多和田葉子『エクソフォニー』]" for a while thinking about various things as my mind wandered. I have been able to learn English and Japanese through a firm Japanese education system, however, what if I hadn't been able to? I remembered an impressive, really "tough" movie "BIUTIFUL" as one which tells us about that issue as one of the themes within it (of course, just in my opinion though).
This evening, after having dinner, I went to the English class. Today's topic was about Independence Day in America, and also various Japanese national holidays. A student and I talked a lot about that topic, and also American literature because I shared with him what I learned at a university. Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. After that, I told him about the fact I am autistic then he showed how he was surprised (and also impressed) by that fact (even though I haven't kept it secret). And also, shared with him some dramas I have enjoyed such as "Extraordinary Attorney Woo", "The Good Doctor"...
