Simple English Conversation Practice Using Your iPhone (Pretty Cool!)

For Japanese and other students who want to practice simple English questions,  iPhone can be very helpful!

iPhone has a personal assistant called “Siri”. If your phone’s language is set to Japanese be sure to turn on Siri in the General settings and then set Siri’s language to “English”. You should try American English, British English and Australian English to see which one works best for your pronunciation. Then Siri will listen to your questions spoken in English and give you answers. But be aware that your pronunciation must be pretty good or she/he will not catch your questions correctly. Please do not get frustrated.  This is a way to practice and improve your pronunciation too. But the real fun is to get Siri to answer your questions. Try the following:

1. What time is it?
2. What is today’s date?
3. What is the temperature?
4. Where am I?
5. What is the population of France?
6. What is the population of Osaka?
7. How many people are there in Japan?
8. What is the largest city in Japan?
9. What is the nearest post office?
10. What is 10 + 10?
11. What’s 18 times 45?
12. What will the weather be like in Paris today?
13. What’s 100 divided by 5?
14. How many minutes are there in a day?
15. What is one kilometer in miles?
16. What’s the square root of 2? (1.41421)
17. Who is the prime minister of Japan? (Siri’s pronunciation of “Shinzo Abe” is very funny!
18. What’s the capital of Brazil?
19. What’s the world cup schedule?
20. What is Angelina Jolie’s birthday?

Smith’s School of English – Kobe Okamoto