HI

～こんにちは～(マイク・トーマス講師)

マイク講師は昨年の１２月よりSESの新しい講師となりました。日本に来る前はアメリカのミズリー州、セントルイスというところにいました。今回マイク講師がセントルイス市の紹介をしてくれています。音楽や映画、スポーツなど有名どころがたくさんあるようです。みなさんはどのぐらい知っているものがありましたか。


Hello, my name is Michael.

I arrived in Japan early December from St. Louis, Missouri in the USA.

St. Louis, MO is in the Midwest (the center of the USA) where the two biggest rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, meet.  

St. Louis is popular for its musical heritage.  Check out, Miles Davis, Scott Joplin, Allison Krauss, or Wilco.)  St. Louis is also known for some famous writers, for example, T.S. Elliot, William Burroughs, and Tennessee Williams.  Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) also came from and wrote about Missouri.  

The popular horror film, The Exorcist, is based on a true story that happened in a hospital in St. Louis.  There are many haunted mansions in St. Louis from old families who brewed beer there.  The Anheuser Busch brewery, which makes Budweiser, is in St. Louis, and so is the second most successful baseball club (second to the New York Yankees), the Cardinals.  

Yankee has a different meaning in the USA than it does outside the USA.  To Americans, a yankee is someone from a northern state, especially from the New England area.  In the American Civil War, a yankee fought for the Union (the North).  Its not always clear the difference between the North and the South in the USA.  Missouri was a divided state during the Civil War, and has characteristics and values of both the North and the South.

I hope you had a safe New Year. 

I am happy it is beginning to warm up a little here in Shunan.