Gossip and Rumors

Do your friends often gossip about you?

I have no idea about this because even if someone gossips about me behind my back, I have no way of noticing it. However, I guess someone did so at least two or three times in my life.

What are the most common themes for gossip?

There could exist many kinds of gossips in this world. For one thing, generally speaking, women, in particular mothers, who have children basically like to gossip about a teacher of children or about one of their fellow moms. From my perspective, They are always talking about what happened in neighborhood and so forth.

stress

I don’t feel stress so much because I’m a kind of optimist and I’m also good at declining stress level. However, even I sometimes felt stressful when I was working in my previous company. My working place at the time was a place where many arguments occurred almost every day and every hour. Personally, I didn’t argue with someone so often because I didn’t like a fight with someone else, in particular with my colleagues, and I usually fled to a safer place whenever I was aware of something bad likely to happen. However, my boss and his co-worker were always discussing and sometimes the discussions turned out to escalate then ended up quarrels eventually. Looking at them arguing with each other was one of the most horrible and stressful moments in my life.

Generation Gap

What is a generation gap?

I describe the generation gap as what occurs between people whose ages are much different from each other. For instance, elderly people usually have difficulty in understanding what teenagers or their grandchildren are talking about. The opposite is true, of course, that is young generation has no idea about how wars looked like or what their grandparents were eating when they were children. Thus, a generation gap happens in most cases.

Have you ever felt a generation gap with your friends?

I'm not surrounded by people who are much younger or much older so it is difficult to come up with any experiences right away. I'm generally doing well with my friends.

When do you feel a generation gap the most?

Whenever I talked to my grandparents who already passed away, I always felt a generation gap. There were clear differences about recognitions of new things between us and them so when I and my sister used to talk about new toys or computer games they looked confused and seemed to have no idea about what we were talking about at all. On the other hands, I also began to feel a generation gap between young kids because I became older enough to understand how they feel with younger people.

Unemployment

Is unemployment a great problem where you live now?

I suppose unemployment is not a big issue as far as people don’t care the type of jobs. First of all, unemployment rate in Japan has not been much higher than any countries, namely around just below 5%, and companies which are looking for people are also sufficient in comparison with people who want to get jobs. Governments and local authorities are also giving both a plenty of job opportunities and money to those who lost their jobs because of being fired or something. Thus, if there are people who complain that Japan is in short of jobs now, I want to insist that it is quite the opposite and you should make an effort more.

Describe an employee whom the employer will never fire.

When it comes to Japan, employees who are working hard without complaining in any case basically wouldn’t be fired. Companies like a person who comes to the office in time and work until 8 or 9 P.M and do whatever employers expect all the employees to do. Unfortunately, people who work efficiently and leave office just after 5 p.m are not evaluated as a person who deserves a manager or higher class. We have to obey this stupid system in order to get high salary and high positions.

Trade Fairs, Country Fairs and Industrial Exhibitions

Have you ever been to a trade show?

I haven’t been to trade shows so often because I’m not into them so much. However, when I was a kid, namely I was 5 or 6 years old, I was brought by my father to some trade shows featuring video games several times. I liked playing video games at the time therefore I was really excited about it and even after becoming older I sometimes check some events which are dealing with these kinds of products. Besides that, I never attended any other shows except for job fairs.

Are arms trade exhibitions immoral?

I don’t think arms trade exhibitions are immoral. First of all, I suppose the industryies of armies or weapons are becoming more crucial because of the present world situation. Furthermore, some countries are relying on this industry as a main industry. Japan is not a exception too and it has begun to export weapons to other countries since last year because the goverment enacted a legislation for selling weapons. I guess trade exhibitions are important not only for companies but also people in those countries in order to know how exactly army-related-products has developed in several decades and influences which could arise by adopting them.

Sleep

How many of hours sleep do you generally need per night?

It depends on the day but I usually sleep for five or six hours a day. As I don’t do anything special except for studying recently I don’t need a lot of hours to refresh myself. Although I used to sleep much shorter than now, namely 3 or 4 hours when I was working, it is impossible to live with such a short sleep now .

Have you ever suffered from insomnia?

I sometimes used to have difficulty in sleeping particularly when I had an important examination or a presentation in an academic conference the following day. As I tend to feel nervous in such a situation, I frequently couldn’t help wondering if my preparations for them were enough and I always ended up worring too much. That was one of my bad point.

Do you talk in your sleep?

I don’t think I talk while sleeping. Even when I used to sleep with my parents when I was a small child, I was never told from my parents that I talked something while sleeping. Perhaps, It might be because they didn’t realize as they was sleeping soundly too. It has become hard to say if I was talking or not at that moment since I already grew up.

Expression

refresh myself / the following day / worry too much / sleep soundly

Dreams

Do you usually remember your dreams? Why or why not? Describe some of them.

I remember my dream for a very short time after I wake up every morning. However, I usually forget all of them suddenly because these dreams are trivial and unimportant for me at all. I sometimes remember very fearful dreams or nightmares, though.

What was your nicest dream that you can remember?

I don’t remember my dream very much, but the nicest dream I remember even now was the one in which I happened to meet a teacher who was my class room teacher in elementary school. I hadn’t met him for a long time after going to junior high school but I was taught many things from him. Thus, when I met him in the dream I was really pleased and impressed by this event,  which reminded me of old memories when I was a kid.

Expression

fearful / be pleased / recall of