受かったぁ～～（泣）

英検1級二次も通りました！！　やったぁ～～　

三度目にしてやっと…！　嬉しい！

オーストラリアから帰ってきたその日が二次試験だったというのがラッキーだった…。

応援してくれた人、英語を教えてくれた人に感謝です！！

Rudeness or not

When I was shopping around in the Hong Kong airport I noticed something; shop staff don't say "Thank you". When they receive the money and give the costomer the change, they simply say "Bye bye" even without smiling and move to the next costomer. It may be too much to say that this type of attitude is rude, but it seemed to me that "Bye bye" means "We've already received the money, so go away", or something. I know they didn't mean that, but it SOUNDS like that.

This will surprise people who have sales experience in Japan, where they are taught that "You can never be polite enough to treat costomers". If you behave like shopstaff in Hong Kong, your boss will sure be angry in Japan.

There are some differences in culture. Efficiency is much more appreciated, and both customers and sales staff do not pay much attention to politeness as long as they could exchange the money and the product. It made me feel that service is so overly considered in some stores in Japan. The idea that "The costomer is the God" can lead unnecessarily bossy costomers and sometimes frustrate shop staff.

There are some pros and cons to everything, but overall, I prefer polite attitude of both customers and clerks to efficiency-oriented treatment..

Close look at Aussie

One of the workers in grain company keeps a kangaroo as a pet. She was so cute. I was able to feed her with nuts! He also has parrots, cockatoos and dogs. His house was like a small zoo. Birds were also pretty and beautiful, some of which can say "hello". I wanted them to step on my shoulder but they didn't, unfortunately... They liked only guys.

I didn't expect that barley farms in Australia were so vast... You can see barley, horizon and the sky, nothing else. The large scale production was astonishing for me and it was very different from Japanese one, which are usually based on small pieces of land. They said that farms were small and divided in the past, but the economic pressure made farmers either sell their land or buy others' and expand their property in order to gain competitive productivity. Ex-farmers left the countryside and moved to the city to find a job. That is why city is crowded and Australian farmers can make profit. Time may come when Japanese farmers will be forced to do the same thing as globalization is affecting the food production more and more. So problematic.

Beaches were also nice. It was rather cold and not good weather to swim but some people were already enjoying swimming and surfing. The summer has just begun here.

Summery of the trip

We visited four grain companies in NSW, South Australia and Western Australia and discussed crop information of this year. The southern and eastern part of the continent had abundant rain and barley grew well in the production area. On the other hand, western part had little rain, less than half of average rainfall throughout the year. Barley was short in length and grain was also small because of the drought. What makes it worse is that it rains often now, when they are about to harvest. Rain at this time will damage the grain because it makes karnels softer. All in all, total production is estimated to be normal due to good yield in Southern and Eastern part offsetting the poor condition in the West.

The trip was basically all about business, but we sometimes had a bit of sightseeing. I woke up early in the morning and walked around the hotel, taking photos of Opera house in Sidney and beautiful European buildings in Adelaide. We also went to a park and a beach where the view was excellent.

It was more than good that I met a lot of people involved in this industry and made friends with them. They are very friendly, kind and smart. I had a great time both in meetings and at dinner especially with my friends in Adelaide. So I have the best memory of Adelaide of all cities we visited.

I found myself speaking English more naturally and easily. It felt so nice when my colleagues asked me to interpret their presentation and to translate questions in English. Employees from trading company, who spoke both English and Japanese very very fluently motivated me a lot.

Suitcase

Edamane-colored. The shopstuff knew my mother and gave me 10％ discount:)

Substitute car

My car had a miner problem in the engine and I had it fixed. The substitute car was move custom! I liked the black interior.