Hello!

I have been living and working in Sapporo for over 4 years. I moved here from Ireland after I graduated from graduate school in Dublin. Before Wordwise, I worked in a Japanese sales company that imported products. I spent my time communicating, in Japanese, with Japanese colleagues, customers and employees of supplier companies. This was a challenging(!), but very rewarding^★, experience.

I really enjoy living in Sapporo. I spend my time during the summer months meeting friends at BBQs or playing sports together, and go snowboarding in winter. Since I was a child I have played soccer, rugby and tennis. Basically, I like to have fun and meet new people.

I'm studying Japanese in my spare time^★, too. I love to learn new words and phrases, and to motivate me to study more, I’m planning to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). Learning Japanese is very rewarding, but reading Kanji and adjusting my language to the correct level of politeness are still difficult. I have much more to learn, so I will continue to try my best!

I am sure that you have similar feelings to your English study – some parts are easier than others. I look forward to helping you overcome^★ those challenges and reach your English study goals!

Steve

～～～これ知ってた？～～～
★rewarding
～の価値がある、やりがいがある。
スティーブにとって日本語の環境で働くということは大変でしたが、やりがいもあったようですね！

★spare time
「時間があるとき」という意味。「free time」 と同じように使えますが、その他にも「spear」には「（時間を）さく」、「余計な、余分な」等の意味もあります。日本語でもスペアキー（合鍵）なんて言いますよね！？

★overcome
克服する、打ち勝つ、乗り越える。
スティーブも日本語の勉強を頑張っているようです！みなさんもワードワイズで一緒に英語学習に打ち勝ちましょう＼(^o^)／