Greetings everyone in cyber land!

I’m so glad to get another opportunity to chat and share things with you all, because I’ve been thinking of a pertinent topic lately.

フルーツフルイングリッシュの新サービス”フルフル”で起こったこととは

Through our new FruFru service on Fruitful English, in which students can get a chance to chat with me and other native speakers over Skype, and then get a transcript of the chat later to review at their leisure, I’ve been starting to hear the same recurring themes. I’m far from complaining about that repetition though, since there are some recent topics that beg for exploration in detail!

For example, I’m pretty much completely in the dark when it comes to Japan’s domestic politics. I know that Abe has been the Prime Minister for what seems like forever, and that he recently announced that his stepping down because of health complications. It’s never easy to hear about someone having health issues like that, especially when it means they must put aside something they’re passionate about, which certainly seems to be the case for Abe and politics.

However, I’m not here to talk about all the information I’ve picked up about Japanese politics! Instead, I wanted to bring up another recurring theme! It’s being busy, and perhaps not being 100% content with one’s job!

With all the uncertainty surrounding the world these days thanks to the elephant in the room, COVID-19, I think having a job or at least a purpose is absolutely crucial for one’s mental wellbeing. With the world being so confused and changing on what seems like a daily basis, having the stability afforded by a career is definitely an asset. However, I’ve also met a surprising number of people who seem, overall, more unhappy with their job than happy with it, and whenever I broach the subject of perhaps finding another line of work, students are justifiably hesitant!

あなたの生活、マンネリ化してませんか？

However, there are numerous English phrases for this type of situation for a reason: this situation of being stuck in something not wholly ideal is a universal situation. My favourite one is:

to be stuck in a rut

I know what it means to be stuck in a rut, and continuing to do something because it’s comfortable.

I used to work at an international school in Taiwan, and initially, I loved it! However, not long after I started working there, I began to notice there were some definite cracks in the company’s otherwise clean exterior. Staffing was a constant problem, and there was high turnover among teachers. I don’t want to point any fingers, so I won’t go into more detail, but I can tell you that, despite my reticence to work there, I still continued to do so for nearly a year. Can you believe that? It took me almost a year to stop doing something I didn’t like!

People are just like that, but I want my students to be a little different. Just like I encourage my Misconception students to avoid common mistakes by Japanese English learners, and to be more confident in their skills, I want everyone out there to reassess their own life. Are you stuck in a rut with anything, such as English? Perhaps you have reached a certain level in English that you feel is ‘good enough’? I know the feeling, as once I got beyond the basic conversational level in Japanese, and was able to live day by day without many problems, my motivation to learn dropped off. I knew enough to survive, so there just wasn’t the same amount of drive as there was before when I was a complete novice, and had to learn Japanese to survive in the country!

Don’t stay stuck in the rut! Don’t be shy to quit something that you’re unhappy with, and don’t settle for something you’re not satisfied with!

Challenge yourself, because you can do better. In fact, if you’ve made it this far in my blog, your English is in the top percentile, and you deserve it to yourself to keep improving to be the best you can be!

フルーツフルイングリッシュで英語表現の楽しさ感じてください 。初めての方には英作文添削チケット2回分をプレゼント。
「無料英語テスト800問（解説付）」メルマガも大人気。今すぐチェック！

Nic

日本の小中学校で英語を教えるALT講師Nic先生は非常にユーモラスな先生です。台湾でも英語を教えていました。どこでも適応できるのがNic先生が自慢ができること。「肉先生」と読んで欲しいとたまに呼びかけられるかもしれません。こんなコミカルで愉快なNic先生から楽しく英語指導を受けませんか？
座右の名”The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”