What's St. Patrick's Day?

Every March 17 is a death anniversary of St. Patrick (original name: Maewyn) who spread Christianity in Ireland and now many countries celebrate that date to take credit for his activity.

When he was sixteen years old, he was abducted as a slave and during he was slave in Ireland, he strongly believed Christianity and thought his task was to spread Christianity to people.

People usually celebrate this date with green items and shamrock because Ireland where St. Patrick spread Christianity, is sometimes called “The Emerald Isle” because a lot of the country is a beautiful green, like the color of emeralds and St. Patrick used a shamrock like clover to explain the Christian message of Trinity (Tri+Unity) simply and shamrock becomes a symbol of Christianity.

Also, people usually drink Guinness, which was originally made in Ireland.

You can see the Chicago River colored in green in Chicago and the tower lighted up in green in New Zealand. Also, you can see many big parades in the U.K, the U.S., Canada, Australia etc where many immigrants from Ireland live.

Postcard from...Sydney, Australia

Dear everyone,

we've had a fabulous time in Australia, finishing our sightseeing yesterday by the Opera House/Bridge. The weather  has been superb, so we've been especially careful not to get sunburnt. We've done beaches - Woolgoolga, Bulli & Hyams. We've seen sharks, platypus, roos and Cockatoos. W'eve had huge steaks on the BBQ & bottles of fabulous reds and shilled whites - as well as plenty of fizzy stuff. Only bad news was having to walk past my favourite pub (twice) without testing the Guinness.

Eleanor & Ceilidh both love the sea nad the pool, and two weeks of English has been a treat. NOT looking forward to freezing weather on Friday.

Missed us? See you soon?

Jim & Yukari

Reading club - Old Rock meeting

I met "my lads" last night in the pub for a pint; they have earned a drink because of their very hard work in my class the last six months - well, two years now...

I have to say I am really impressed with this bunch because they are forever challenging each other to 'speak English' - and they really do try hard. Last night was no different, and we had a really good chat (some topics we really can't do when I am 'on the clock') about all sorts of stuff. For example, are Osaka girls hotter than Yamagata beauties? Shikoku - backwater or home of mental matsuri? Should Satoru come back and study with us - or concentrate on his 19 year old playmate? Serious things to ponder as we monitored the quality of the Guinness.

Naomi joined us and the tone civilised; she also works in IT so the boys had a lot to chat about, especially as her daughter and Ya-chan's son study at Luna. Just to cap things off, one of my ex-students from NHK told everyone (quite rightly) what an amazing guy I am! (Actually, I was a bit embarrassed)

In April 'my lads' will recommence their studies; I am sure they will continue to make great progress and read everything that is put in front of them. Classes like this (which started from scratch, I need to add) make my day. Every now and again they make my evening too! Thanks lads!

Ireland

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Activities: After reading
Q3. Etsuko visited Dublin for the weekend and send you this postcard. Circle the correct words.

Hello form Dublin

I arrived here on Friday and walked along the river through the center of town. I stopped at a pub and drank some of Ireland’s famous beer called Guinness. It was black and very strong! I looked at the Post Office, which is famous for Easter Monday, 1916.
Then I visited Trinity College to see Ireland’s oldest book, which is a thousand years old. It was very beautiful. And just near there I took a photo of the statue of Molly Malone selling fish from her wheelbarrow.
Tomorrow I am going to visit the house of Ireland’s President and walk in one of the biggest parks in Europe.
Dublin is a wonderful city!

See you soon.
Etsuko