It was a day off. This morning, I joined the daily English meeting on Zoom, where we enjoyed having a casual discussion. Every Sunday is basically a "free topic" day, and today a participant started sharing her story about pronunciation (even though Japanese people try to pronounce "they" correctly, it tends to become something like "zey", etc.). Probably, as you already know (like the movie "Lost In Translation" says), Japanese people also have difficulty distinguishing between "L" and "R". So, even though it might be understandable in its context, proper pronunciation is important.
After that meeting, I had breakfast. At 10 a.m., I attended the English Studying Club's morning meeting. There, we enjoyed reading a popular novel, "Harry Potter," with its original English text. TBH, I have never read this brilliant novel before (even in Japanese), and even though I see/accept the fact this has several very charming essences/elements, its English text was difficult for me to enjoy.
Although I have read only the first two chapters (oh, how many times I have used my dictionary and also Google to find out the text's profound content), I can tell that this powerful/attractive novel must have its "spectacles" or "visualized elements". For example, a cat reading a map, people with their weird cloaks, or a school of owls in this world's (or, in other words, so-called Muggles' world's) street... This author's splendid imagination and brilliant, vivid style have impressed me so much.
How would you read such impressive novels written in foreign languages? This time, I have used my dictionary so often to see/find out several words' primal meanings such as "Thank you very much" etc. Yes, it has been a really "tough" time enough. However, this precious opportunity has given me plenty of chances for learning/noticing several English language's brilliant essences (for example, even though basic words such as "point" can have "alternative" or "possible" meaning).
After that, I went back to my room and enjoyed posting silly questions to ChatGPT. For example, "Hello. I guess I'm also an AI-based chat system. How would you think?", etc (an "autistic" joke, I guess).
