I worked early today. This lunchtime, I had a sushi dish and a piece of sweets at my company to celebrate workers' birthdays. With the president and many co-workers who have their birthdays in July, I had a certain pleasant time there, even though I couldn't talk about myself so much.
Everyone must have their history... We Japanese used to remember this truth (it has even become a proverb [人に歴史あり]). Me, since I started working at this company in 1998, I have worked until now with making a quite "zigzag" career. Therefore, I could be one of the "veteran" workers there. Even though I couldn't have become a great manager or a chief, at least I could have become a trustworthy person (I guess so... Can I describe myself as that with pride?).
There, one of the workers saw my memo pad and asked me. "Are you writing this in English?". I said yes, and also told her that I have been writing this since 2020 (during that pandemic period). She said, "Then, you must be able to speak English so fluently!". I have felt a little bit blushed by that comment of her (even though I decided to show that memo in public intentionally).
Can I speak English fluently? TBH, even now I can't see my English can make any sense. Since 40, the age when I started quitting alcohol, an accidental event made me start learning English again, and kept learning English every day with a "loose" attitude (for example, besides writing my journals in English like this, I attend various meetings on Zoom in English and also enjoy chatting on Discord and MeWe). Yes, I chose "loose" to describe my attitude. No duties... but just for certain pleasure.
After working time, I went back to my group home and had dinner, and I started reading a book (Atef Abu Saif's "Don't Look Left") for a while. However, probably I had been very tired, I slept a lot. Oh no... this has taught me that I am not young anymore. At my group home, the staff invited me to celebrate Tanabata (a Japanese traditional event, when we wish various dreams to stars) so I wrote two wishes on each piece of paper. "Peace for the world" and "I want to improve my English skills". I wish these wishes could come true!
