Using Words: "Like"
Introduction
Many English words have more than one meaning. When Japanese students learn English words they often only learn one meaning.
This means that：
1 They may not know how to use the word properly
2 They may not understand what they hear when someone
uses the word in a way they don’t know
Like has 
main meanings
Like 1
(100% English students know):
1 Like – すき
Example:
A: I like Thailand.
Everybody knows this meaning
This like is often used to describe personal feelings about things and the strength of feeling can be changed by changing the word slightly
strength 
100%
really, really love
really love
love
really, really like
really like
like
don’t like
really don’t like
really, really don’t like
hate *
0%
* Important Note
Hate has a very, very strong bad feeling and should be used very carefully
It is often better to use don’t like, really don’t like or really, really don’t like.
Like 2
(about 50% English students know)
2 like にっている、のような
In this version of like, like means similar to.
Example:
A: Thailand is like Bali Island
In this like there are a number of ways of improving it, using human senses – for example:
Looks like
Sounds like
Feels like
Smells like
Tastes like
In addition, to make the phrase so that it’s not so strong, use:
Looks a little like (and so on).
Like 3
(about 10-20% English students know)
This like means:
give me more information
Example:
A: What’s Thailand like?
In this case, if A says, “What’s Thailand Like?” the correct response is something like:
B: Thailand is a very beautiful place. The people are very friendly….
(Giving lots of information about Thailand)
NOTE
This is one of the most useful uses of like, and one that is not widely known. As most
Japanese students don’t know this like very well, it is always in the TOEIC test!!!!! 
Ok, have a go at completing these sentences:
1 I don’t like natto, but I ______,______,______ sushi!!!
2 A: I never drank Japanese beer, what’s it ______?
B: Japanese beer _______ ___ ________ ______ German beer
3 A: What’s Japanese sushi ______ ______?
B: It tastes beautiful!
4 A: What’s Hokkaido _______?
B: Hokkaido is ……….
5 I _______ my job, but I _______ ________ weekends!!!!