Welcome to 2012 English class!

As you see this blog has seen no activity in several months. I took the opportunity to redesign it, and if you have some suggestions for further redesign please post them here so the rest of us can consider them. Please be sure to post a message here at least once a week. It's part of the class. For the first week let's just introduce ourselves. I'm John Philips, I'm a professor here. My wife is a professor at Akita University. We both research Africa. I'm a historian, she's a linguist. We met at UCLA where I was a graduate student and she was an exchange student from Tohoku University in Sendai. After we got married we spent a year in Nigeria together doing research. We raised two kids together and we only get to see each other on weekends. I play chess and watch movies and listen to music in my spare time. I mostly cook at home, especially Italian and Mexican food. My favorite music is American (all genres) but I also like European classical, Indian classical, African (traditional and modern) and even Tsugaru Shamisen. I don't get out to the bars as much as I'd like but I do own the Yoshida Brothers CD. I don't get out to local onsen much either, but I also like bathing in hot springs. Please introduce yourself here and tell us who you are, what you like, and how you'd like to practice English in this class. (^_^)