TORN

　I talk about the song “Torn”. It’s released by Ednaswap. This group is alternative rock band. Their debut album, named Ednaswap, in 1995. “Torn” is their second single from that album. This song was written by Scott Culter, Anne Preven, and Phil Thornalley before Ednaswap was formed. This song was covered several times. The most famous version of the song was recorded by Natalie Imbruglia in 1997. Her version peaked at the top on single chart in Belgium, Denmark, Canada, Spain and Sweden. It reached second on her home country’s ARIA Single Chart in Italy, Switzerland and United Kingdom. She is Australian singer and she debut in 1997. She recorded this song in Kilburn, London. It was mixed by Nigel Godrich. This version became worldwide hit. She received a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance, but lost to Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on”.

　Then, I talk about music video. It is interesting for me because Natalie and an actor are acting in a love scene but different things stop filming. And they adjust things like their hair, and position. Because of that, filming limps along. I can’t understand this song’s message from this video. It seems like a comedy. Finally, Natalie is singing while they clean up the set and properties.

　In contrast, the song’s lyric is sad. The woman’s love is gone, but the man doesn’t know that. Woman is disgusted by that. At the beginning of the lyrics, the woman is happy because of her lover, but in the hook part of this song she expresses a dead love and her sad feeling. However, this song has a jaunty rhythm, so we don’t feel down because of the song. If anything, we can be clear about our own feelings.

Take a Bow

I will talk about Rihanna’s song. The title is “Take a Bow.” This song released in March 14, 2008. The song was written by Tor Erik Hermansen, Mikkel Eriksen, and Shaffer Smith. It is an R&B song that contains elements of dance-pop. In the US, the song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song reached number one in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom, and attained top five positions in Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

Rihanna is looking out the window at her boyfriend. He is standing at the front door and he asks to come in. He apologizes to her so we can realize that he has perhaps done something wrong and been unfaithful. Rihanna leaves the house by car. Her boyfriend walks alongside the car and begs her to forgive him. But she doesn’t care him. Finally, she receives a text message from her boyfriend. She sets fire to his clothes and leaves there.

I was shocked when I watched this music video’s ending. And these lyrics is interesting for me. Some metaphors are used skillfully. A boyfriend’s act is shown; the end of love as curtains finally closing; an excuse or an apology as speech, like this. When we use metaphor and can tell with effect what we want to say.

college life

I’m in second grade and the first semester is almost over. If it were a football game, the first half would almost be over. My college life until now has been that the players put their heart and soul into defense. It means that I was doing only what I was given. It was all I could do to do them.

But a team of football can’t win the game if it plays only defense. So, they have to offense
and make a goal. My college life is the same. If I were to continue in this life, maybe I can graduate from the university but I don’t have anything. I have to do offense. On that account, I should finding my purpose or goal. When I entered this college, I wanted to be an English teacher. And now, I want to be. However, I was studying English in the college and I interested in other work. I want to do many things, I want to go everywhere, and I want to study a lot of things. In the case of football, a manager decides the player’s position and expects some cases, then players practicing. And I think, it is the time that I can expect various cases. In other words, I think about my ways after graduation. Having done that, I can see what I have to do.

In the rest of the time, in the second half of a football game, I will act on my expectations. And I’m thinking how to proceed to my goal. I think the process is the studying. And I want to go to abroad to study English, so I work part time then I save my money. The player’s position is decided and after that they are only running with ball. In the same way, I should running for my goal. I am studying English.

Beautifl Soul

“Beautiful soul,” which American singer Jesse McCartney sings is famous in the United States, Italy and Taiwan. The people who wrote this lyric are Adam Watts and Andy Dodd. The song was released on September 28, 2004. Radio Disney aired it before the single was officially released. The peak position was fifth on the Australian Albums chart, and third on the Italian Albums chart. Then, I talk about the lyrics. This song is to young peoples, and someone who you love. The singer is fascinated with her beautiful soul. So, the song tries to tell about the limited time when we are young, and love from a single-minded point of view.

I think this music video shows the expression of freedom in adolescents. Jesse invites a girl out for driving. Jesse loves her and Jesse’s friends know that maybe. They trick their elders. When their car is having problems, Jesse and the girl go swimming in a pool. He tries to kiss her but their friend coming just before. Finally, they go together. When I listened to this song at first, without the movie, I felt these lyrics were heavy. But music video is fresh and as like a teenage vacation.

When I watch only the lyrics, I feel that this song features the theme of love. When I watch the music video, I feel that video has not only the theme of love but some other themes such as friendship,
youth, time limits, and so on. This song tells us about young people’s precious time.

Crossed Animals

I will introduce the monpig which is a cross between a monkey and a pig. It looks like a monkey but the skin is pink. Their nose is like a pig’s snout. This nose is superior for smelling anything so they have a special skill for finding foods. But they don’t like strong smell like a gas of the skunk and this is because the skunk is their natural enemy. In addition,  people say that they can forecast the weather because they feel a change in the climate by their snout.

Also, they are omnivorous and they especially love bananas so they are good at climbing trees. They live in tropical forests and make their nests in trees, climbing down to find foods in the daytime. In brief, if you want to see them, you should go to forest and bring a banana in daytime.

They have about 5 babies at a time. They don’t have fur when they are 3 months and live in a nest on the ground when they are babies along with their mother. They give birth to children during March and April. The children are so cute! They are small, only about 25 centimeters even they are fully grown, so they will be popular as pets, I think.

Its worst point would be its shyness and they are rarely seen. They are small and they have strong wariness. We have to take a long time so that we could know their particular behaviors. If some enemy approaches them, they threaten them with a bark and the enemy runs away because their bark is so loudly. This loud barking is a bad point too because we can find them easily because of big sound bark like a pig’s.

A letter for hostfamily

May 1 2014

Dear host family,

 Hi. My name is Elena. Please call me eru. I’m from Mexico City in Mexico.There are four members in my family. Father, mother, brother, and me. Mexico is famous for tequila, so I bring some for you. Can you drink tequila? What alcohol is famous in Japan?

 My hobby is model building. I especially like to make ships. Now, I making “The going merry.” It’s a one piece’s ship, do you know it?

I like Japanese anime, too. One Piece is exciting! I like the detailed work and hand-builds something.

My brother is married with Japanese woman. She told me about japan. Because of this, I like Japan and am interested in Japan. Japan has a special attraction for me.

Then, I don’t like bright lights because it gives me a headache. And Mexico is not so bright even at night. I’m not accustomed to city lights. What kind of town do you live in? If your town is city and there are many lights, I will get used to it.
By the way, I’m a florist. I make bouquets and flower arrangement. So, I want study ‘Ikebana.’ Have you done Ikebana? And where can I experience it? I also want to see Japanese flowers such as cherry blossoms, Hasu, and others. I heard that Kumamoto castle is famous for cherry blossoms, isn’t it? If you know a good place to see flowers, let me know.

Finally, I want to cook Mexican cuisine and want you to eat try it. Mexican cuisine is almost always spicy. Do you like spicy foods? If you don’t like spicy foods, I will cook you something else. So, please tell me how many people are in your family and if can you eat spicy foods.
I’ll look forward to go to Japan and seeing you. See you soon.

From Elena