A new year will soon be upon us. For many people that means it’s time to think about the future. Some of us will make resolutions to study harder, eat less, exercise more or take-up a new hobby. It was around this time in 2011 that Itsuko, an imagine* student for almost three years, started thinking about her future.

In April 2012 Itsuko would be entering the fourth year of her undergraduate program at Doshisha University, and it was time to think seriously about what she would do after graduating. Would she get a job? Would she enter a master’s degree program? Would she take time off to travel and enjoy life?

None, of the above. Itsuko decided that she wanted to go to graduate school overseas and began taking measures in order to achieve her goal. In April 2012 she took the TOEFL test for the first time and got a score of 72. She realized that if she wanted to be a full time student in another country she would have get a higher score than that as most universities require at least a score of 80.

On December 19th Itsuko got the results of her most recent TOEFL test and found that she had increased her score by an amazing 20 points in just eight months!

In a brief interview Itsuko talks about her hopes for the future and gives advice for other students taking the TOEFL test.

Why did you decide to study overseas?

The first reason is that I like English and I want to communicate with many people. But I also want to use English in my future job.

Do you want to work in a foreign country?

No. In the future I want to stay in Japan and work for a Japanese company. But I want to use English and I would really like to help the company I work for expand internationally.

When you first took the TOEFL test, what score were you hoping to get?

I wanted to get 80, but I got 72. So I knew I had to study hard to get a higher score.

Do you have advice for people studying TOEFL?

The speaking and writing sections on the TEOFL IBT (Internet based test) is special. So I focused a lot on these parts in my English lessons. As well, the TOEFL test has a lot of academic vocabulary, it’s important to learn a lot of new words. Finally, the listening section so you need to practice a lot. I recommend doing a lot of practice tests in ‘real time’ so that you can get used to the timing and speed of the test.

Thanks for the great advice Itsuko! And congratulations on your amazing achievement.

In April 2013 Itsuko will attend the University of California, San Diego and take three month business English course. After that she is planning to attend University of California, Berkeley.

スマートフォンが普及したこともあって、英会話レッスンに来られるメンバーから『いいアプリはないですか？』と聞かれることがあります。できれば英会話に役立つ無料アプリをお勧めしたいなと思いますが、アイフォーンのアプリだけでも総数65万本を超え、英会話に役立つフレーズや発音の練習、単語帳、TOEIC等の試験対策等、数えきれないアプリがあります。今回は、そういった「英語教材」スタイルではないものを敢えて、次のふたつのアプリをご紹介します。

● ラジオを聴く時間を持つ方へ、「TuneIn Radio」。

● 映画好きの方には「IMDb Movies & TV 」。（ TV は米国のみ）

「TuneIn Radio」は、音楽のジャンル、あるいはどこの国のラジオを聴きたいか、を選択してラジオを楽しむアプリです。英語圏の国のラジオ局を選べば DJ は英語で話すでしょうし、日本に居ながらにして外国に住んでいる気分を味わえます。

「IMDb」はインターネット・ムービー・データベースの略称で、監督や脚本、キャスト俳優の情報や映画のあらすじだけでなく、撮影場所といった豆知識、セリフ、その映画に似た他の映画の紹介等もチェックできます。また、自分のウォッチリストも作成できるので、映画ファンの方にお勧めします。

イマジン語学スタジオの英会話レッスンでは、講師から『週末は何をしていました？』と聞かれることもあるでしょう。生徒から会話を引き出そうという試みですが、『映画を観ました』ともし答えたなら、中級レベル以上であれば次の質問では『どんなストーリーだった？』『誰が出ている作品？』と会話の流れから続くでしょう。とてもナチュラルな会話の流れなのに、IT 長者って英語でなんていうんだっけ？ とか、遺産が手に入ってワイナリーを保有することになった他、普段日常であまり使わない言葉を用いなければならなくなり、どうしても戸惑ってしまいがちに。そんな時に、事前に「IMDb」アプリで確認しておけばスムーズに答えられるでしょう。初級レベルであれば、少なくとも映画のタイトル（英語タイトルのもの）だけでもチェックしておきましょう。

映画を通して会話ができるようになれば、コミュニケーションの強化にも繋がります。こうした積み重ねで、ビジネスにおいて外国人との接待等が急に入ったとしても、さらっと交わすことができます。ビジネス英語を勉強していても、皆が悩むこととして「食事の会話」という方も多いようです。その備えとして、映画についてスムーズに話せるようであれば、会話も弾むこと間違いありません。日常の中で「英語で考える機会」を増やすことは、英会話上達の近道となるでしょう。

Now that autumn has come, I am waiting excitedly for the leaves to change colors. I love going to see the autumn leaves, but I don’t love waiting in long queues or being bumped around in a sea of people. You may be surprised then, that some of my best leaf viewing experiences were in Kyoto. Many places in Kyoto are very beautiful, but they are also very famous and therefore very crowded. I can still enjoy leaf viewing in Kyoto though, because I have discovered some amazing secrets. I will share some with you, if you promise not to tell too many people…

First, I recommend Kitanotenmangu（北野天満宮）, or rather, the woods around it. Until recently, no visitors were allowed inside this small forest, and it is still closed to the public for most of the year. However, for a couple of weeks in November, we can now walk along the previously hidden paths and enjoy the fall foliage. The grounds are wide, the trees are tall and old and they are even lit up at night. Many people still don’t know about this spot, so it is much less crowded than some of Kyoto’s other destinations.

Speaking of evening light displays, Koudaiji（高台寺）must be one of the most famous. When my wife and I tried to visit, we found a long line of people waiting to buy tickets. The staff said that it would take about three hours to get inside. Shocked and disappointed, we gave up and wondered where to go. That is when we noticed that Entokuin（圓徳院）, directly across form Koudaiji, was open and also had a light display. It was very small, but the illumination of the leaves over its rock garden was lovely, and because there were almost no people there, it was quiet and peaceful.

There is one other reason to go to Entokuin though, and it is the greatest of my secrets. Are you ready? OK, here it is: when you buy your ticket at Entokuin, they will also give you a ticket to Koudaiji. That’s right! So after leaving, my wife and I walked past the hundreds of people waiting to buy tickets outside Koudaiji and we entered without any wait!

So if you are thinking about where to see leaves this year, let me recommend Kyoto, and these three places I have mentioned, in the order I have mentioned them. You are sure to have a wonderful and stress free time!

イマジン語学スタジオではヨガ講師モザート（Mozart）を迎えてワークショップを開催します。レクチャーや映像フィルムを交えた3時間のヨガワークショップで、質疑応答の時間も設けるなど、本格的なアシュタンガヨガを学ぶ内容となります。詳細は下記にて、モザートのプロフィールも併せてご紹介しております。

［ ワークショップ詳細 ］
日時：2012年11月25日（日）13:30 – 16:30
場所：芦屋大原集会所 3階B室
講師：Mozart
内容：レクチャー（45分）
　　　ヨガ（75分）
　　　フィルム（30分）
　　　質疑応答（30分）
料金：4,200円（税込）
なお、ワークショップは英語で行います。内容は予告なく変更する場合があります。

［ Mozart のプロフィール ］
Mozart は、母がヨガを習っていたのをみて初めてヨガと出会う。母のヨガを指導する講師の元で彼もヨガを習いはじめ、それからヨガの発祥の地とされる南インド・ケララ州・ニヤルダムにあるシヴァナンダヨガセンターへと渡り、本格的にヨガを学ぶ。
シヴァナンダヨガセンターにて講師養成コース修了後、2001年に再び母に影響されて今度はアシュタンガヨガを知る。Bela Lipat 氏と AYRI 認定の Alexander Medin 氏に師事後、インド・マイソールへ渡り、グル（ヨガ講師）Sri K. Pattabhi Jois 氏と Sharath Jois 氏に師事する。
今もアシュタンガヨガの理解を深めるため、インド・マイソールへ定期的に恩師を訪れている。2011年1月、恩師よりアシュタンガ・ヴィンヤサ式のプライマリーシリーズの講師として正式に承認される。本格的なアシュタンガヨガを教えることができる、日本では数少ない講師の一人である。

イマジンのヨガスペシャルワークショップは参加人数に限りがございますので、お早めにご予約をお願い申し上げます。

電話　0797-57-0012
email: info@justimagine.jp

11:00〜18:00（土曜日／日曜日／祝日は 9:00〜17:00）
なお、火曜日は定休日とさせていただきます

tel: +81-797-57-0012
email: info@justimagine.jp

Weekdays: 11.00 – 18.00
Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: 9.00 – 17.00
Closed on Tuesdays

Living as a higher you through the power of forgiveness

Sometimes while I am walking down the street, I see a person throw garbage on the ground and I wonder, “What are they thinking?” This careless action makes me feel angry. It is the same when I see people smoking cigarettes in public, especially around babies and children. I cannot understand why they do this.

There are times when I think of all of the thoughtless things that I have done in my life, not only to the people around me, but to the environment as well. During my reflections I hope that God, our Mother Creator, can forgive me for my carelessness.

It is very easy to judge others but it can be more difficult to judge ourselves. I believe that through each reincarnation we develop a higher understanding of who we really are. I am sure that I have behaved just as carelessly as the people that anger me as I am walking down the street. I need to remember that another people may not have learned the same lessons that you or I have learned from the family that raised us in this, and previous, lifetimes.

During the month of November we will focus on changing our perspective through the power of forgiveness. We will focus on the 4th and 7th Chakras. The 4th Chakra represents our love of self and ability to forgive both others and our ourselves. The seventh chakra is our ability to feel a higher power and see that we all exist as one soul, rather than separate entities. Through our practice we will try and strengthen our ability to see a higher truth, use our neutral mind and have compassion in our hearts for everyone. When we are able to relate to others and become one, we can feel the grand experience of freeness and love.

By examining the choices that other people make in the ways that they treat themselves, others and the world around us, we create an enlightened awareness. This awareness is a gift that we can use to guide, teach and act as an example to others. This month, lets take one step closer to the ‘higher you’ through the act of forgiveness, not only of others but also of ourselves. Let’s use this forgiveness to shine a path of light that everyone can follow.

The Power of Projection

Projecting is a way of becoming something. Projecting is a way to experience and live. Projecting, or emanating, is the way you create things. The experience we have in life is created by ourselves, and is not a random act. The way people see you and relate to you mirrors the way you feel about yourself.

This October, we will focus on getting to the core of what you want in this life. What is in the core of your soul? What is your deepest love?

For example, you may have an image of the kind of job you want. It might be a job where you can enjoy the people you work with, or enjoy what you do at work. It might be a job that helps people, or helps the world. Or maybe you want a job where you can make a good salary and still have the flexibility to travel. These job characteristics create an image of your perfect job.

When you believe, feel, visualize, and are PROJECTING the image you have into your meditation, then in time, it will become real – it will become your experience. You can do this to help yourself get a job, a love partner, a home, friends, and to become the person you want to be in this life.

This month we will work through various yoga sets that will help us to release some of the blockages we have deep in our subconscious. In childhood, many of us pick up something that is called “learned helplessness.” Maybe you dreamed of becoming an Olympic swimmer when you were a child but your parents said, “No, you won’t be good enough and we don’t have the money.” After hearing this type of thing many times as a young child, we feel that our dreams and passions being broken. We lose the faith that we can do the things that lay in the core of our hearts.

At anytime in our life we can shift and cleanse old thought patterns and remember our full potential. We can wake up our inner passion and use it to create the life we choose to live now. Join us this month as we remember who we are and take one step closer to our dreams.

イマジンでの展示替えにともなう Launch party では、毎回フードに天然酵母のパンの試食をご用意させていただいており、これらのパンはイマジンのスタッフである私、上野が焼いております。お店は持たずに ‘イツキベーカリー’ として、主にイベントやお店へのケータリング、また、最近では自宅にてパン教室もはじめております。

イツキベーカリーのパンには、全て天然酵母と国産小麦を使用しており、使う材料はできるだけ身体に優しいものを使うよう心がけております。また、ピールやジャムは全て国産の果物から作ったものを使っております。

パンは色々な天然酵母を使って膨らましています。天然酵母って？ と思われる方もまだまだ多いかもしれませんね。

パンを膨らますために、材料に酵母（イースト）というものを入れてあげます。大手のパン屋さんでは、工業的に作られた ‘インスタントドライイースト’ を使って膨らますことが主流となっています。天然酵母とは、インスタントドライイーストを使わず、自然界にある果物や植物から酵母を育て、その力を借りてパンを膨らますという、自然と一緒にパンを作る方法なのです。

酵母を育てるにあたって、その時々に採れる季節の果物や野菜などを使うようにしています。使う果物や野菜によってほんのりパンの香りも変わってくるからです。春ならイチゴ、夏ならトマト、秋なら梨、冬なら… といったように、季節の移り変わりをパンからも感じていただけたらと思っております。

Launch party の機会にぜひご賞味いただけたらと思います。ぜひお越しください。

Feeling the Happiness in You

What makes you smile? What makes you feel happiness and love in your heart? Is it the people you are surrounded by? Or is it the things you do?

After searching for joy outside of myself countless times, I have found that true happiness can only come from within. This September, it is my goal for us to learn tools we can use to reach our natural state of contentment, no matter what challenges we may face, or what environment life puts us into.

By connecting with our breath, we will be able to ignite our life force energy. In moving through different yogic postures we have the ability to cleanse stagnant energy and to unite with the purity of our true selves. In meditation, we will clear our mind so that we can know what choices we need to make in order to fulfill our life dreams and experience our highest life purpose.

Yogi Bhajan once said, “If you want to be happy, you have to be happy when there’s no happiness around you. How can you be happy that way? Because you feel the infinity in you.”

I love coffee. Not only do I love the way it smells and tastes, but I love coffee shop culture. Spending an afternoon curled up in a cosy cafe with a good book, and a perfectly made cappuccino is my idea of heaven. And I am not alone.

In 2011 people consumed 7,358,897 metric tons of coffee. To help put this into perspective, 1 metric ton equals 1000 kilograms (a small car weighs about 1000 kilograms). That’s A LOT of coffee! Canadians are one of the top consumers of coffee in the world. Perhaps that explains why I love it so much.

In April of this year, a student (Maki) joined imagine* who was getting ready to move to New York for three years. In one of our first lessons she told me that she was a coffee lover (a woman after my own heart!), and that her dream was to order a soy latte from Starbucks in English. I’ve had the experience of ordering a coffee in another language and not getting what I wanted, so I could understand why it was important for her to get the order right.

A perfect example of how confusing ordering a coffee can be is ‘black coffee’. In some places when you order a black coffee, it means coffee with no sugar or milk. On the other hand, in some places a black coffee has sugar in it! To be safe you should always ask for “a black coffee with no sugar”. As you can see ordering a coffee in a foreign country can be a daunting task, and when you start getting into specialty coffees that’s when things can get really confusing!

After just a month of taking two English lessons almost every day Maki was on her way to New York. She had practiced everything from asking for directions to talking about her hometown, and most importantly ordering a soy latte! One of the things that differ from ordering at Starbucks in Japan is having to give your name when you order. The staff write your name on your cup so that they don’t give your order to another customer by accident. So we made sure to practice that while ordering.

In the first few days of her new life in New York Maki had successfully answered all of the questions at immigration, visited the famous Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Yankee Stadium, and was even asked for directions by a New Yorker! During all of her adventures she made her first visit to Starbucks and in her words “I ordered the soy latte at STARBUCKS.”

So from one coffee fanatic to another, well done Maki! I knew that you could do it.

Synchronizing the Body, Mind, and Soul with Kundalini Yoga

During the month of July we will use Kundalini Yoga to synchronize our body, mind, and soul. Many people believe that these elements are separate entities, when in fact they are a team. When the body, mind, and soul unite and work as one powerful force of energy you will KNOW your purpose in life. You will TRUST your own intuition, and you will FEEL vitality, energy, and breath in your body.

Yoga is a tool to bring us back to our core. Life is a constant movement of changing energy. Sometimes we feel challened, emotional, unsure, and uncomfortable. In many cases this is because our body, mind, and soul are out of balance. These periods of life can be frustrating, but it is not always a bad thing. It is part of the cycle of life and very natural.

The most challenging times in our life are often a sign of “New Beginnings.” Think about a child who has mastered crawling, and they look around to see that there is another experience called ‘walking’ that they would like to try. The child could remain complacent and comfortable, but as a natural progression in life, they take on the new challenge. In this process a toddler will fall over and over again as their body is out of balance. Soon, however, they will find their center and become comfortable again.

When we think or want a new experience in life, things will begin to change. The old starts to fall away, and the new experience will begin to take form. This can take place in relationships, jobs, or creative endeavors. The challenges we face will build strength, confidence, and prepare us for the future and the next challenge.

Yoga is tool that helps to remind us of who we are, because sometimes we may forget or become lost. Yoga helps us to learn how to take control of our mind, strengthen our intuition, and build energy for our creations. Yoga is a tool where we bring breath, flexibility, and flow to our body in order to stay youthful, vibrant, and healthy.

During this month our goal is to bring clarity and direction towards the things in our life that serve a higher purpose. When the body, mind, and soul are working together in harmony we can begin to feel a new sense of fulfillment and contentment. We can experience peace in our heart and remember that we are our own creators.