Greetings from Guam

Well, hello everyone!

You probably all know that I hate snow, so I thought I’d take a little break from winter this year in Guam.

I don’t know if you’ve ever visited the island, but this was my 4th visit, and it was a lot of fun. What I like about Guam is that it is has some great hotels and restaurants, but is very laid back^★and not very crowded.

Of course, the beaches aren’t quite as nice as those on some other resort islands (or in Australia!), but it’s still a lot of fun and it’s great to get some sunshine in January. One of the other things I like is that the food is good . . . especially the local favourite -- steak & lobster!

Despite^★ there being quite a few^★ Japanese and Korean tourists, it was also a lot of fun to speak English everywhere I went. I know of lot of students in Japan study because they want to communicate better when travelling, and I realized (again) just how much fun it is to talk with people from other countries. I hope that we at Wordwise can help you all communicate better on your next trips overseas!!

Anyway, here are a couple of pics . . . hope these might encourage you to visit Guam sometime too.

Garry

～～～これ知ってた？～～～

★Laid back: 「くつろいだ、のんびりした、リラックスした」という意味です。ここでは多くの素敵なホテルやレストランがありながらも、人ごみが少なくのんびりしているところがグアムのいいところだと言っていますね！ 日常英会話の中では、人の性格や態度を表す時にも使われます！

★despite:このように前置詞で使われるときは「～にもかかわらず」という意味で、よく新聞などで見られるような文語的な表現です。同意で、すこし柔らかい印象のin spite ofも一緒に覚えておきましょう！

★quite a few:　（数が）少ないという意味のa few ですが、前にquite を付けると、なんと！反対に「かなり多数」という意味になります！despiteと一緒に考えてみると、ここでは　「かなりたくさんの日本人、韓国人観光客がいたにもかかわらず、行った全てのところで英語を話すこともとても楽しかった」という意味になりますね！