Most of my colleagues love new gadgets and get excited when a new iPhone lineup is announced. Personally, I'm not really into new things — I prefer to use what I have for as long as possible.

My iPhone SE (2nd generation) doesn't support the latest iOS upgrade, so I can't type [no preposition] Japanese on it. My solutions was to remove all Japanese settings and and set everything to English. It's actually more comfortable than I expected. When I want to text to my friends and family, I just use my MacBook. I can receive messages on my phone in Japanese and respond using romaji (Japanese written with the Roman alphabet) when I'm out and about — easy peasy Japanesey!

Sure, it's a little stressful to use only English on my iPhone, but it helps me keep a healthy distance from it and improve my English since I have to use English even when I make a grocery list or ask questions on ChatGPT. As a result, I've realized I still lack even some very basic everyday vocabulary. For instance, I wanted to add 春巻きの皮 to my grocery list, so I asked ChatGPT: "What do you call the thin sheet made from flour, water and salt that's used to wrap spring rolls?" The answer was "spring roll wrappers." I felt a strong urge to say そのまんまじゃん, so I asked how to express "sonomanma jan" in English in this context, and it gave me a list of options:

• Nothing fancy.
• It's just what it says.
• It's pretty straightforward.
• It's exactly what it sounds like.

Which one do you prefer? Or do you have any other suggestions?

Anyway, it's unexpectedly fun to use my phone only in English. I think it especially helps me improve my ability to explain what I want to say when I don't know the exact words.