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https://worldlife.jp/archives/16838
Have you ever had trouble parking your car? Let me tell you about something nice that happened to me.
One day, I went to a big home goods store. Many cars were waiting to park. I was lucky! I saw a small space on the street near the store. I asked the parking staff, “Can I park here? I’ll be quick.” He smiled and said “OK.”
How kind of him! This made me think about the word “kind.” Did you know this word has two meanings in English? One meaning is “nice” or “gentle.” The other meaning is “type” or “group.” Isn’t that interesting?
After shopping, I went home and studied this word. Here’s what I learned:
The word “kind” comes from a very old word that meant “birth” or “being born.” This old word gave us many other English words too! Let me show you some examples:
・King: Originally meant someone related by birth
・Genius: Someone who can create new things
・Gentleman: First meant a person from a good family
・Generation: People born around the same time
Isn’t language history amazing? Just like that kind parking staff made my parking experience less stressful and actually fun, learning about word history “kindly” makes language study fun too!
See you next time, Jiro
私立学校に英語教師として勤務中、40代半ばに差し掛かったころ、荒れたクラスを立て直す策として、生徒に公言して英検1級に挑戦することを思い立つ。同様の挑戦を繰り返し、退職までに英検一級（検定連合会長賞）、TOEIC満点、国連英検SA級、フランス語一級、スペイン語一級（文科大臣賞）、ドイツ語一級、放送大学大学院修士号などの成果を得る。
アメリカで生徒への対応法を学ぶ為に研修（地銀の助成金）。最新の心理学に触れた。4都県での全発表、勤務校での教員への研修を英語で行う。現在も特別選抜クラスの授業を全て英語で行っている。「どうやって単語を覚えればいいですか？」という良くある質問に答える為、印欧祖語からの派生に基づく「生徒には見せたくない語源英単語集」を執筆中。完成間近。常日頃洋書の読破で様々な思考にふれているが、そうして得た発想の一つを生かして書いた論文がコロナ対策論文として最近入賞。賞品の牛肉に舌鼓をうっている。元英検面接委員