ステップアップ-STEP UP・イギリス人講師 Kim キム

Hidaka adventures

2018年8月6日 (月)

Hello everyone. As my students already know, I have been to Hidaka recently. I was taken back by how beautiful the nature was there. It actually reminded me of Jurassic Park, with all the amazing mountains and beautiful trees. Have you ever been to Hidaka? It is quite bare other than nature. I don’t mean this negatively but if you want a Homac or a Uniqlo, you aren’t going to find them there! I went there to try my hand at white water rafting. I have done this before in Niseko but I have to say that I prefer Hidaka. The rafting isn’t for the faint-hearted, there are rocks everywhere and the water was much faster than Niseko (in my humble opinion). So if you are an adventure seeking, adrenaline junky, you should head out to Niseko. My only advice is to wear a helmet, hold on, and trust your guide!!

Britpop

2018年7月20日 (金)

Hello everyone! Today I want to talk about Britpop. Britpop is a special genre of music but unlike J-pop, it is from a specific era. Brit pop is from the nineties and focused to a brighter side of rock and indie music. A cheesy example would be The Spice Girls. They were very upbeat and sang about positive things, such as girl power. I was a little young to really understand the message as I naturally thought girls already had power (hahahaha).  More common examples of Britpop would be bands such as, Oasis, Blur, Pulp and so on. Actually in a clever marketing way these bands seemed to be battling each other constantly, like rivals. It is actually argued that The Spice Girls might have killed the movement but I think they were a fun girl group. How do you feel about Japanese idols?

The Footie, football, or soccer??!

2018年7月4日 (水)

Hey everyone! It is the season of football and as everyone knows I just adore sports. I always try not to get too carried away because I know England will get eliminated but I always carry a small candle of hope that we will win at some point in my life time. This year Japan has shown such grace and determination, I feel very proud to live here. Belgium is an extremely strong team and the 16`s heat was insane.

It is this time of year that I can`t help but think of the differences between the words “soccer” and “football” and why do British people use the latter? Well, according to the English dictionary the first recorded use of the word “football” was 1486. It was later when the game became more popular that British people began to call it soccer. However, since the 1980s the word soccer hasn’t been widely used in the UK. I have debated this with Robert and we both don`t really know why these two words are used for the same sport. Perhaps because Americans branched their own version of rugby and football and called it football. Well, whatever the reason, I am going to keep calling it Football (as the ball can only hit the foot) and hope that some day I will understand this mystery.