A new decade: an opportunity to start fresh (with a new calendar)!

Hey there everyone!

Can you believe it’s that time of year again! That’s right, it’s a new year. Although we’ve had several billion of them, it’s no surprise that the New Year is still a special time of year for everyone around the world, and ringing in the New Year never really gets old.

Hey, that reminds me!

“ring in (something)” このフレーズ知っていますか？

Have you ever heard the phrase ring in (something)?

In my above phrasing you probably noticed the most common usage of this phrase, which is in the phrase to ring in the New year. Well, it’s a fun little phrase and incredibly common, so let’s have a look at it.

It’s easy. We simply use to ring in in the same way as to celebrate.

For example,

            We rang in his birthday with a cake and flowers.

Here, rang in is used in the past tense with his birthday, to show how we celebrated this person’s birthday in the past; we ate a cake and gave the person flowers!

As for the origin of this phrase, as with many phrases in English, it has its origins in Christianity, although no one really pays attention to those Christian origins now! By tradition, Christian churches are outfitted with a tall bell tower, which holds, as you may be able to guess, a big bell! Churches are almost always located in the centre of the town or city. In the past, they traditionally rang the bell to announce times and other notable events, since households didn’t have their own method of timekeeping back then.

So, a town never truly considered that the New Year had come until it was rung in or announced by the church, with the ringing of its bell in the bell tower.

But just because this tradition has lost its importance of the years, thanks to that ever ubiquitous ‘technology’ that everyone keeps talking about, that doesn’t mean the phrase itself has gone out of fashion.

In fact, I encourage you to watch at least a little bit of a foreign broadcast for New Years. While I don’t want to make any promises, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll hear ring in at least once in the broadcast! TV hosts seem to love this phrase even more than the Christian leaders that invented it to it!

Anyway, back to the New Year.

新しい年、あなたはどんな風に迎える？何かを変えるチャンスかも！？

Depending on how on the ball you are, you could be reading this as early as the middle of January! So, the New Year is still fresh in your mind. So, let’s be honest, even though not much has changed, the New Year is still an exciting time to start something new, or change your perspective.

If you have ever been looking to start something new, or go in a new direction, the New Year is as good a time as any!

Just try to make goals! Try both short term and long term!

For example, try and complete something by the end of this week. Why not at least try starting something by the end of this week; it can be something like a new English course, or as simple as exercising every day. Then, once you complete this simple tasks, start extending your goals into longer terms. Pretty soon, you’ll have a goal for 2020, and the New Year. You can even take inspiration from your Olympic Athletes.

So, even though, the most noticeable difference in 2020 might simply be the different numbers on your calendar or phone’s home screen, that doesn’t mean you can’t make 2020 significant in your own way.

I already know my goal, and I’ll share it with you next month.

But, how about your goal? How are you starting small, and then expanding it to fill the entire year?

I want to know!

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.”