TOEFLスコア遅延

先日、夏休み明けに受けたTOEFLの結果が、
２週間近くたつのになかなか返ってきません。
通常１週間ちょっとで返ってくるのですが。。

今回は、祈るような気持ちで受けたので、
結果を胃の縮む思いで毎日待っていたのですが、、
何と今日 ↓ のようなメールが届きました。

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TOEFL scores delayed for August 19 test date

There will be a slight delay in reporting the scores from the August 19 TOEFL iBT® test.
We expect to release the scores no later than September 7. You will receive another email letting you know when your scores are available.
Feel free to provide a copy of this email to your prospective institution(s) if there is a chance that you will miss an application deadline.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
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大丈夫か！？私の解答。。
クリックお願いします↓

鶯谷テストセンターとiSERVE目黒テストセンター

TOEFLの試験会場を選ぶ際、必ず検索してみて、
口コミサイトで高評価だったり、
写真で雰囲気がよさそうなところを選ぶようにしています。

最近はピアソン認定試験センターが増えてきて、
よい環境でテストを受けられる機会が増えてきました。

最近追加されたテストセンターは口コミが少なく、
受験に指定するかどうか判断に迷うことがあるので、
直近で受験した会場の様子をお伝えします。

8/25受験
鶯谷テストセンター
ピアソンVUE社の認定試験センター。
鶯谷駅からも近くて便利。
ふる～いマンションの一室のため、試験会場に入るまでは、
大丈夫か？！と心配になったが、試験会場自体はきれい。
一人ひとり仕切りがあり、ある程度の広さもあるので、快適。

8/26受験
iSERVE目黒テストセンター
こちらもおそらくピアソンVUE社の認定試験センター。
若干区分けの幅が狭い気がするが、気にならない程度。
こちらもなかなか快適だった。

この試験の日はなんと、
先月TOEFLを個人で教えていただいていた方に入口で出会い、
その方の隣で受験する羽目に。。
隣にいると色々と参考になる部分があったので、
次回から取り入れてみようと思います。
クリックお願いします↓

Japanese and arts

One year ago, I bought an art work that an art college student drew. I met with her at a party and she showed me some of her works. I was surprised by the gap between the image of her works and the image of herself. I felt her works very powerful but she was a quiet, gentle girl in person. I felt her and her works interesting, so I bought one of her works.

In Japan, many people would think that they aren't good at painting because they have little experience of enjoying drawing. For me, I liked drawing since my childhood. Once I focused on drawing, I forgot time. Now, I'm not an artist so I enjoy going to museums. Also, I belonged to an art gallery club where the members of the club went to art galleries once a month. The owner of the club said that only a few Japanese people buy art so the artists can't earn enough money as an artist. To support the artists, he bought their works ( He continued buying art works for thirty years!).

Thanks to him, I was interested in buying art works so I decided to buy the work. I feel that the art work in my room helps cheer me up. Some people think that buying art works means investment, others think it is only to decorate their room. But for me, I felt happy with the art work.

What I did in the rest day

Yesterday, I took one day of rest and did all that I wanted to do.

First, I visited a hot spring resort that was near my house. In the hot spring resort, there are six kinds of hot springs and a steam sauna. One of the hot springs was electrical and another was a Jacuzzi one which helps people improve their blood stream and discharge body waste. Saturday is the most crowded day of the week, but there were not so many people that day so I could enjoy all of the hot springs.

After taking the bath, I had a head massage for thirty minutes. I relaxed so much that I slept during the massage.

In the afternoon, I went to see a movie; TOTAL RECALL. TOTAL RECALL is an action movie and the story is about the near future on earth. The story is not new and it is a typical love and action story, but the images of the movie are great. The story would attract some people who feel that their job is not fit for them or that there are other jobs other than their current job. I enjoyed the image of the movie very much.

When I came back home, I cleaned my room. I have been busy and tired these days so my room was untidy.
I enjoyed my one day of rest and I will restart my studies from tomorrow.

Taking a one day rest

From today, I have a summer vacation. It is only for five days, but it is a precious time for me because it is a good time to study English.

Anyway, I have felt a pain in my left instep for three days. It is difficult for me to walk naturally with the pain so I went to the hospital. But the doctor said that he couldn't find the cause of my pain and this hospital(dermatology) wasn't right place but he couldn't say what hospital was good for me.

I have had the same experience three times so far and every time the doctor said that he could not find the cause of pain. My first experience was when I was a high school student, one month before the test for my university. The second experience was when I was a University student and I had a trip to Myanmar. I went to a local hospital and the doctor diagnosed me a finger on my hand as well as my foot. It was a very interesting experience for me and thanks to his prescription, I recovered soon.

I think my pain was the sign that my body needed to rest so I will take a rest today.

Getting an allowance from my company

Today, I got an allowance from my company's system of studying abroad. As I wrote before, I failed last year, so it was a great pleasure for me. If I hadn't applied last year, I would have failed this year because my company's human resource development team said that they appreciated my strong will to apply in two consecutive years. They also appreciated my effort to achieve my goals such as researching the school teachers, interviews with the people who went to the school and contact with the professor.

Of course, the most important thing is the contrition of our company's business and to what extent my studies in the university were effective in contributing to my company's business. However, I felt they appreciated more my strong will than the contribution. I will have an interview and hear the needs of my company's member, and need to rethink the contribution.

Now, I realized that the number of people who I want to thank has increased since last year. Based on this experience, I believe that I can't achieve the highest goal by myself. Cooperating with the other people helps people to easily achieve their goal. Therefore, I decided that I would help people who want to achieve their goals.

Meeting with an attractive woman

I met a woman last friday who is going to the graduate university to which I plan to go. She was an open-minded, very kind and attractive woman. We had some common features such as university subject, working at a private education related company and living place. Though her program at the university was technology and education, she didn't prioritize using technology in education. She said that technology is a means of education and a face to face relationship is more important. I felt sympathy with her way of thinking.

She advised my anxiety about the university's application process and added that working experience in the private sector was a unique feature in the program, which I did not realize up to then. I also realized that the unique feature of the university was that the university allows not only taking credit for different subjects in the university but also taking credit for different universities that are cooperated with the university.

I want to learn not only about education but also business because I work at a private company and our goal is making profits as well as social benefits. Moreover, I think we need to apply business knowledge to education to improve the quality of education so it is an ideal condition if I take a business related course in the university.

She said that the number of Japanese who go to the university was very few so she hoped more Japanese would go to the university. In Japan, many people work at a company from graduation from school to retirement age. They change their job field sometimes and get promoted so they need to improve their knowledge and skills. If they stop learning, their learning curve would soon be stable. People need to continue studying and be in stimulating circumstances for a fixed period because the world is changing and the way of working is also changing.

It was a very exciting experience for me to talk with her and I felt thankful so much to her

My presentation done

I finished the presentation for my company's president last Monday that was the final process of applying to a system for going abroad to study. I prepared the presentation for about two weeks and reflected on last year's reflection. I also had a chance to do a presentation last year but I failed. One of the causes of the failure was a lack of information which was related in my presentation and the other was I couldn't get the president's consent to the contribution of my company. At this time, I showed my presentation to my colleague who belongs to a different division from me. She gave me very important advise and asked another person who's job was related to my presentation. Thanks to her, I changed the contents of my presentation that was related to the contribution of my company. I think the contribution was the most important part of my presentation so her information was very helpful for me.

I did my best during the presentation so I didn't have any regrets about it. Whether I would get an allowance from my company or not, I decided to go to graduate school because I want to change my life. I can imagine my future easily if I continue working in my company. I believe that going to graduate school abroad is one way that I can change my life. If I don't do anything, my life will continue the same as now. I will get the result of my presentation next Tuesday. My decision won't change whatever the result is and I continue preparing my study to go to graduate school.