「描写する」ことをもっと練習してみましょう。

*太字の単語やフレーズは、今週のボキャブラリーです。この記事の最後に詳しい説明を載せています。

For this week’s question, I want to focus on describing something familiar to you. In English, Japanese or any language, the ability to describe something is very important. Last week, I asked students to recommend a good place in Japan to visit and I got a lot of wonderful answers, for example, Sapporo snow festival, Tokyo Tower, Himeji Castle, Kyoto, Yakushima, etc., but when I asked the questions, “why should I go there?” or “what can I see there?”, it was very difficult for students to explain why I should go or to describe where it is, why it is famous, what I could do there, etc.

So this week, let’s try talking about something familiar to you and see how much you can describe it. Most people have a favorite place they like to eat or get a cup of coffee or piece of cake so this week, let’s describe your favorite restaurant, cafe, pub, etc. And when you describe that place, remember to include things like:

Where is it?
Why do you like it?
What does it look like?
What is the capacity?
How expensive is it?
What kind of food does it serve?
What is your favorite dish or what are your favorite dishes?
What are the ingredients?
Is it popular?
Is it famous?
Is it new?
What is their specialty?
What is the staff like?

My answer:
My favorite restaurant is a small authentic mexican restaurant in my hometown called, La Cucaracha. It is kind of small and the staff isn’t ALWAYS friendly, but that doesn’t matter because their food is REALLY good. I love Mexican food and I like simple meals and that is one of the reasons I like La Cucaracha. They have great home-made tortilla chips and salsas, margaritas, a large variety of beer and tequila and their main dishes are full of flavor and usually too big to finish. I think their prices are cheap, in fact, when Hiroe and I visit, we usually have an appetizer, a few beers or margaritas and dinner for about $50 (¥4,500).

My favorite meal at La Cucaracha is called, “Los Cabos Tacos” which are fish tacos served with black beans, rice, red cabbage and a chile yogurt sauce. Wow, I am hungry!

I will look forward to hearing about your favorite restaurant, cafe, pub, etc., when we speak this week.

Be well,

Keith//

This week's vocabularies:

describe
詳しく説明する／描写する

familiar
親しみのある

recommend
推薦する

pub
パブ

capacity
容量／大きさ

serve
提供する

ingredients
材料

popular
人気がある

famous
有名な

specialty
そこでしか提供されない特別なもの

authentic
本物／本場の

hometown
故郷

simple meals
飾り気のないシンプルな食事

home-made
手作り

tortilla
トルティーヤ

margarita
マルガリータ

tequila
テキーラ

full of flavor
豊富な風味

appetizer
前菜

cheap
安い