Question 1

I think the new decade started in a reasonable way, although COVID-19 has dominated our lives.

Question 2

Yes, it started well. We had our second child who is healthy and happy.

Question 3

I would like to improve my computer skills and make sure my children learn and are happy.

Question 4

I think COVID-19 will be less prevalent and I do not think Japan will be more nor less dangerous.

Question 5

I think Japan's economy will be stay about the same but it will be overtaken by other countries.

Question 6

I think drone delivery will be interesting, but I guess it depends on the size of the package and what the package is.

Tough Vocabulary

- English -	- Japanese -
dominated	跋扈
prevalent	蔓延

Question 1

I don't think the new decade, be it 2020 or 2021, started well for Japan and the rest of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic spread to Japan not long after its origination back in December 2019. Not long after, Japan's economy declined and the unemployment rate increased rapidly. People who I know personally lost their jobs and struggled to find a new one. A lot of them had no choice but to return to their home country. Other than that, Japan (and the rest of the world) was hit by a series of unfortunate events such as the death of Kobe Bryant, the stock market crash, Beirut explosions, West Coast Wildfires, and many more.

Question 2

The new decade didn't start well for me because I barely managed to get back to Japan. There was a problem with my working visa and I was on the edge of giving up. Thankfully, everything worked out well and I managed to return to Japan in March, just a few weeks before the borders closed.

Question 3

I would like to be more proficient in the things that I have learned so far such as Japanese, teaching, and my online businesses. In other words, I want to be much closer to the target that I have set at the beginning of last year!

Question 4

In terms of exposure to the pandemic, I believe that Japan will be much safer by the late 2020s. We would have developed a reliable vaccine by then and I'm quite confident that air travel will somewhat return to normal.

Question 5

I believe that it depends on how you measure the wealth of a country. For me, I think that Japan will be way poorer than today in the late 2020s as its debt-to-GDP ratio proves to be one of, if not, the worst compared to other countries. If I remember correctly, Japan's debt exceeds 200% of its GDP. I'm not an economist but this situation is quite unrealistic and will probably need multiple decades to solve.

Question 6

I'm particularly excited about drone deliveries! I own a DJI drones and love playing with them. I can totally imagine myself doing deliveries in my spare time to customers who live in remote areas! I guess if being a helicopter or airplane pilot is too risky, drone piloting would be the closest I can get to it. Before drones were a reality, I used to play airplane and helicopter simulations on my computer. It turns out that real life drones are pretty easy to control. I can't wait for the future to come!

Tough Vocabulary

Question 1

1

Question 2

2

Question 3

3

Question 4

4

Question 5

5

Question 6

6

Tough Vocabulary