投稿者: kyoto-nhkess

詳細は後日リーダーより連絡があります。

Hi all

I am in charge of latter practice on Feb 28

“A native speaker would say it like this”
ネイティブならこう言います

You’ll learn various native expressions through a test-style format. The approach is classroom-style, so feel free to join in.
様々なネイティブの表現をテスト形式で学びます。進め方は授業のように進めますのでお気軽に来てください！

See you soon!
YOSHIKAWA

ESS. 2nd Practice for 2026.2.21 (Sat)
“What is Harassment?”
Genre: Discussion and Talk.
Grouping: 3~4 groups consisting of 3~4 people.
Procedure:1: Please pick one kind of harassment from the list and explain it.
2: Talk about your experience of harassing someone
3: Talk about your experience of being harassed by someone.
4: Please compare the situation of working in the past and in the present.
Through your discussion, how can we solve these problems in our society?

Tanahara

Dear Kyoto NHK ESS members, This is the announcement of the latter half practice on Feb.14. ☆Title: “Unconscious Bias”(赤いランドセルは女の子用？～無意識の思い込み～) Unconscious bias, also called implicit bias, is a form of stereotyping that is often unintentional, automatic, and outside our awareness. All of us, both men and women, are influenced by our experiences and make judgements without being explicitly aware of how our decisions are impacted by our unconscious. Unconscious bias links social group; with characteristics, such as gender, race, and religion, which generate relative disadvantages for especially underrepresented groups, such as women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). As unconscious bias resides outside of awareness, it is not possible to completely eliminate it, but It is possible to minimize its negative impact by recognizing that we all have it and by understanding how it works.
☆Procedures:1 Make 3～4 groups.
2 (17:45-18:00) Please work on“無意識の思い込み”check sheet.
3 Read the article “アンコンシャス・バイアス”（朝日2026. Jan. 24）and exchange your comments in your group on each question below. (18:00-18:40)
(1) How do you think about your results?
Please show your check sheet to other members.
(2) Do you expect men to be assertive, strong and driven?
And do you expect men as taking charge and should be a leader?
(3) In Japan, it’s common to categorize students into “Rikei”(STEM) and “Bunkei”(humanities) groups. There are few female students in “Rikei”.Why?
(4) Do expect women to be helpful, sensitive and supportive?And do you expect women as taking care and stay home?
(5) Do you think younger people are tech -savvy, whereas elder people are not?
And do you think the elders are stubborn, while younger people play it by ear?
(6) Are red school bags only for girls? How about black school bags?
(7) What image do you have of Asian people?How about black people and European people? (the appearance, culture, religion, life style and so on.) What image do you have of Kyusyudanji(九州男児)?
(8) What do you think are the tips to behave bias-free?
Hoping you’ll enjoy my practice! Tabata

Dear Kyoto NHK ESS members,
Here is the announcement of the latter practice planned on Feb.7th
Genre: Group Talk
Topic: Time-saving

Q1 What does it mean for you that ‘Time is money’?
Q2 What kind of things do you want not to spend so much time?
Do you sometimes pay extra money to save your time?
Do you like binge-watching or watching at more than 1.5 times speed ?
Q3 What kind of things do you want to spend time as long as possibe?

Procedures:
1.Make several groups
2.Talk about the questions above by turns and ask questions
3.Please choose a person who saves time the most in your group
4.Please a person who presents so that they will explain who saves time the most and how they do.

I hope you can enjoy free taiking.
Thank you.
By Iwai

Dear ESS members,

Let me share the contents and the relevant procedures for the practice on January 31st below.

【Topic: Onomatopoeia（オノマトペ）】
Have you heard of onomatopoeia（オノマトペ）?
Onomatopoeia is a sound-imitating word as shown below.
■Examples in English
buzz — the sound a bee makes
sizzle — the sound of something frying
■Examples in Japanese (for comparison)
ワンワン — dog barking
ドキドキ — heartbeat when nervous

Let’s have a group conversation using the onomatopoeia.
1．Which onomatopoeia in Japanese best describes how you feel today?
2．Please guess the meaning of the English onomatopoeia which will be given to each group..
3.　A stack of cards with Japanese onomatopoeia is given to each group.
Please take one card and describe the situation in which your onomatopoeia is
used. The other members should try to guess which onomatopoeia it is.

Have enjoy!
Kado

Kyoto NHK ESS 2nd Practice Jan 24, 2026

“A Walk” (=Strolling / Sanpo)
Genre: Casual Talk, Discussion
Grouping: Groups of 3-4 people

1. Your Daily Walks
– Where do you walk?
– How long do you walk?
– Who(what) do you walk with?
– When do you walk?
– How often do you walk?
– What do you do while walking?
– Why do you take a walk?

2. Future Walks
– Where would you like to walk?
– What kind of scenery would you like to see while walking?
– What would you like to think about while walking?

3. Most memorable walk
Walking experiences stay with me for a long time. For example, when I spend weeks in foreign countries (like the US), I don’t clearly remember what I did for work, I just remember simple walks around the hotel on the weekend. Every single thing I saw — even the most ordinary sights in the local city or stopping by a local library — remains vivid in my mind.

Likewise, what is your most memorable walk? Can you share that?

4. Recommended Walking Plan
What kind of walking route or plans would you suggest to others? For example, a riverside walk to catch a beautiful sunset (or sunrise)? Exploring the underground hidden paths? Or just a quick walk to the convenience store a few minutes away and return home? Any idea is welcome.

5. Life is like a walk…
Perhaps life itself is a kind of walk. It doesn’t always need a specific purpose or objective. It is about wandering here and there, dropping by interesting places, meeting people along the way — whether we are walking alone or with someone. Enjoy^^

Note:
Basically I prefer to use the word “walk” rather than “walking” since I have a different impression between them. To me, “walk (or a walk)” sounds like strolling, whereas “walking” sounds more like exercise or training. However, let’s not be too strict about it. For our discussion both can mean 散歩.

—
Kondo

his is HORI Shigeo, from Kashiba City, and I’d like to inform you all the
2nd half practice of January 10th.

Title: Recollections of 2025 and Prospects of 2026
Genre: Discussion
Presentation
I’d like you to discuss the recollections of 2025 and your hopes and prospects of upcoming 2026. And in so doing, I hope you first to pick up and write down main 3 topics of 2025, public and private respectively.
Next, 1 to 3 topics in 2026, public and private respectively. So first I hope you all to write down some topics on a paper.
Public means mainly social topics on mass media and so on. Facets of this
are presented below.
Private means your personal matters like family matters, matters with your friends, anyway things on your daily life. Of course if you don’t want to speak it, you can skip it.

Procedure
1) Write down 3 public topics in 2025 and 3 private 3 topics on a distributed paper (1 or 2 topics are okay)..
2) Also write down your prospects of 2026, public and private.
3) Make several groups and each group will have a group leader.
4) Discussion under the coordination of the group leader.
5) At the end of this corner, each group leader will present the discussed topics with the paper presented.

Examples of the Social Topics in 2025
Trump Administration (Jan.), Rice Prices Up (Feb.), Fuji TV Problem (Mar.),
Opening of Osaka EXPO, Reciprocal Tariffs (Apr.), Death of Nagashima (June),
Bear Problems,
Ishiba Resignation (Sept.), Takaichi Cabinet Started, Nobel Prize for 2
Japanese Scholars (Oct.),
MVP Ohtani, Tension between China and Japan, Saganoseki Fire, “Kokuho,”
No.1 Income Live-Action Movie, (Nov.), Hot Days (June to Oct.) …

I hope all of you to have good Year End days and Happy New Year.

Thank you.