The topic for discussion/debate

Hi, this is Sayako.

The following URL is the article that I have found for discussion.
The title is "English language education in Japan" from About.com.
It says that there are some reasons that Japanese sudents are unable to speak or to comprehend English even they have learned it for at least 6 years.

So, I would like to discuss what kind of things are required for English language education especially in public school in Japan.
This would be the key to solving the problems which English language education is facing with.

http://japanese.about.com/od/japanesecultur1/a/070100.htm

By the way, sorry for late posting.
See you later.

Hi guys!

Hi :) This is Ayumi Sato. I know it's too late to introduce myself on this blog... but, let me do that.
I'm a junior in faculty of humanity, international society course, Oceania seminer student. I want to improve my English skills with having fun with you all. Nice to meet you =)

I also want to put my article which I introduced you in the last class.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/JLC/articles/HiraganaTimes-222-16to17.pdf

As professor Philips said in class, this article doesn't talk about japanese who get international married in the other countries with foreigner spouses. so we can discuss about that people with that article, I think.

That's it! I hope you will like my article:)

The topic for discussion

I'm sorry to be late.
I found this article from THE JAPAN TIMES.
It sais that women's earnings are still lower than men's one.
Especially in Japan, despite laws regulating fair pay and gender equality, social progress is still so slow.

I want to discuss what we or japan should do to make gender equality in Japan.

The topic I found for discussion

This is the article I found for discussion.
The title is "Indonesian group calls for flexibility in Japan nursing exam".
It says that the number of foreigners who could pass this year's nursing exam in Japan was only 3 among 254.
Through this, I want to discuss the need for foreign nurses, because nursing shortage is one of the serious problems in Japan.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/indonesian-group-calls-for-flexibility-in-japan-nursing-exam

possible discussion topic

This is the article that I found on the Internet!
Although it is kind of long, please take a look at it.


http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/what-will-globalization-do-to-languages-a-freakonomics-quorum/

Hi, this is Yuya!

I am sorry for my late self-introduction!
My name is Yuya! I am 21 years old. My major in the university is international politics.
I am from Hokkaido and living in Hirosaki now.
My favorite food is cheese and natto sushi roll. Especially, after drinking is the best time to eat these things! Unfortunately, my girlfriend from Germany does not like natto.....
My hobbies are watching movies and listening to music.
Talking of music, I love the artist called Monkey Majik! In March, I went to their concert which was their 10th anniversary! It was just awesome!
What I want to do during this year is to travel through Europe, practice the guitar and snowboarding!
I have been to Maine in the United States for studying English for one year. It was really important for me and I could improve my English skills. Moreover, the life in Maine has changed my personality in some ways. I finally realized that language can have an effect on our personality and mind.
What did I actually talk about?! Sorry, self-introduction!!
But I think that is enough for it. If you have any questions, please ask me!
I will keep working on my English as I have been so far.
Thank you!

Hello, this is daiki

Nice to see you here! My name is Daiki Takemura.
Late though it is, I want to introduce myself.

I was born in Hirosaki, and have lived here ever since. I am a senior in the faculty of humanity, and major in Enlish linguistics. I study it, because I want to be a high school teacher of English.

My hobbies are listening to music, driving and playing chess. Though I knew how to play chess half a year ago, I am hooked on it now and play it almost every day. Today I had a game of it with my freind, and lost! I want to be a good player someday...

As I don't have much opportunity to communicate with someone in English, I'm glad to join this class. Thanks for reading.

The topic I found for discussion.

Hi, everyone. I want to put an airticle which I found for discussion of our class.

The title is "Obama seeks court nominee who backs women's right."
This says The president of U.S.A, Barack Obama looks for nominee who backs women's rights.
Thorough this, I want to discuss about the equality between men and women which relates to women's position in our society, the differences in the employment and so on.

I put the article below this, so please click and read it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_supreme_court


Then, if you have a thinking after reading, please put some comments and we can discuss about this more deeply!!

It seems everyone likes music

At least so far, that is. And since this is after two weeks of class, if you haven't introduced yourself on the blog you have only yourself to blame. So I think I will try to teach about the Blues after all. I hope you enjoy it. When we get to it, that is. We have plenty of other things to do before that.

It was an interesting collection of topics people brought to class to discuss. Several of them are related to each other, but others are completely different. Please don't forget to post a message and links about your topic on the blog so we can discuss them over the weekend. Then on Tuesday we can know what we will talk about next.

I'm looking forward to it.

Hi, This is Natsumi

Hi,everyone!
My name is Natsumi Tamoto.I'm from Hokkaido. So I have lived in hirosaki for two years. I'm in junior and belong to the international society course.
I like music. I like listening to music.And I also like playing the musical instruments.I played the percussion when I was in a high school wind orchestra, and now I'm in the steel band.
Do you know a steel pan?
It is a percussion instrument made in Trinidad and Tobago.It is made of oil drums.It is so beautiful sound that you wouldn't expect to be produced from oil drums.

Actually, I've never gone overseas.And I want to study abroad. My English skills are low levels so I want to improve them at this class. I hope I will have a good time with you.
Thank you for reading :)

Hi, this is Sayako

Hi there, I am Sayako.
Nice to see you guys here.

Now, let me introduce myself.
I'm from Yamagata which is famous for many kinds of fruit especially cherry and pear called 'La france'.
I'm a senior and now I'm studying English linguistics. This is still a bit hard subject for me to learn (even I have learned it for at least 3 years), so I think I have to read much more books to write my graduation thesis.
I'm a person like 'musicholic'. I like any kind of things about music such as listening to, singing, and also playing it with musical instruments. I almost always listen to music when I'm alone even at home instead of watching TV, and often go to a karaoke with my friends. In addition, as I can play the saxophone and the violin, I belong to the orchestra club in the university. Music makes me very fun! I love it!!


Well, hope this introduction will help you know about me.
See you guys again next time!

Hi, Everyone!!

Nice to see you here! My name is Mifuru Fujita.
Now, I'll introduce myself.

I had already written here, my name is Mifuru.
Mifuru means Beautiful Rain in japanese Kanji. The reason why my parents named me like that is it was rainy day when I was born. So simple, but I thank my parents to give me special name. Then, I'm in junior in Hirosaki University and I'm belonging to The Faculty of Humanities. My major is Western culture such as American Literature, culture, and so on. I want to read lots of kind of literature.

My hobby is listening to music, singing songs, reading books, wandering, sleeping and so on. I love listening music. Japanese popular music, American popular music and Japanese Anime Songs. My favorite singer is Avril Lavigne. Her songs impressed me so much. I also like reading books. It takes really long time to read one book but I like it, because books give me a lot of information which I don't know. My favorite writer is Haruki Murakami. Anyway, I think I have to practice to read book faster. If you know how to read them faster, please teach me...

Maybe you can't understand me all by only this introduce, so let's talk together!!
Thanks for reading this!!

Welcome to class and self introduction

Hello, students!

Welcome to the class blog! This week you should write a self introduction in English. Don't forget, this can be read by anyone on the Internet, so be careful what you say! You never know who's watching.

You can read more about me at my website, but since I expect you to write about your selves here I guess it's only fair I do the same.

As I mentioned in class I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and moved around a lot all my life. I got a Ph.D. in history at UCLA, where I met a Japanese exchange student also studying Africa. We moved to Japan where we had two children and teach in neighboring universities. I like playing chess, reading, watching movies and listening to music, especially American music, but also African music, European and Indian classical music, and other genres.

In this university I teach American Studies and African Studies, especially history, but I can teach many other things as well.

This class is about writing English, so let's do our best to practice writing English as much as we can!

I look forward to reading everyone else's self introduction.

The undergraduate library at UCLA:

You can see more of my photos on my website, or on facebook.

about the blues

Hi, it's little bit late to write about the blues:;anyway, never mind.

It's the first time to listen to for me too.There're so many type of blues.

And changing the topic a little, I went to 'JAPAN BLUES FESTIVAL 2009' last weekend. Actually, it's annually event. I've never known that.

The live music was soooooo cool!Katherine Davis' singing was really nice.

→about the fes

If you guys' interested in it, you can come to listen:)

Have a nice vacation-.

This is interesting concerning last class's discussion

My daughter sent me this story, and I thought it would interest everyone after the last class discussion. Please comment.

About Blues

Hi!
I like listening to music, but I have never listen to blues by choise.

The mention of blues reminds me of a very sad song,
but there are some songs which are up-tempo .
So I enjoyed blues better than I have thought.

I thought that guitars play a key role in blues songs.
Because I felt that guitars bring out sadness.
Do you think so??

I have a question...
Are threre any woman blues singer??
I want to listen to a blues which is sang by woman.

That is all!! Bye!!

about the blues

Hello.
I do not listen Blues very often, lectuers were interesting. I have to listen three times at least, to understand foreign music. Hand-outs were very helpful for me.
I like Bob Dylan. His genre is folklock(perhaps), not Blues. I think he can sing another type of music. I am not familir with him. Only I like his harmonica.
His song, "Blowin' In The Wind" is used in my favorite author's book. It is very good song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ced8o50G9kg

About Blues

In this lecture, I listened a lot of Blues for the first time and I was very surprised that Blues has such many types than I expected.
So, I have a simple question, are there any paticular instruments to play Blues?
I thought that players often used guiters and pianos.

about Blues

When I listened to some of Blues in the class, I remembered Japanese Oldies called "Showa-Kayou". They have a little bit sadness, loneliness, and are full of wit, I think.
And I was surprised to know singers improvised Blues at that time. I can't believe that!
How did they make rhyme just after repeating first verse twice? Did they stock any expressions to make such Blues?? If so, it clearly shows how close to people's daily life blues were at that time. Music has been always with people for a long time. Of course, I love that.

Blues were improvised. It meant they were not perfect. They were so imperfect that everyone could perform them, I guess. Professor said that everyone can make Bules but not everyone can make good Blues. Tough I can't see which are good Blues or bad, I just understand how people really wanted to sing their lives. I think Bules are soulful.


You can check the information about Blues here!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-bar_blues

about the debate on 25th

we will debate on June 25th. The topic is " Do you approve school uniforms or not?"

approval: Natsuko, Yurina, Haruna
opposition:Rie, Shun, Chiyori, Ayaka
(Is this right?? If you find any mistake, please correct this information!)

Some of you were not in the class when we decided the topic. If you were, please decide which side you stand and please tell us on the blog or in the class.

that's it.

About the Simpsons

I love this movie so much!!
I laughed out aloud many time^^

But there were some violence scenes in this movie,
I do not like that scene very much...
However it is a animation, its cruelty is the same.

I think The Simpsons is not a mere animation.
They takes up the social problems, and they turn it into a parody.
For example, an environmental problem(Homer throw away trash illegally.)

So I think The Simpsons is a decent educational movie^^!
Though there are some scenes that I do not want children to see^^;

That is all. Bye(^_^)

The topic of debate.

What a coinsidence!!! i also thought I want to debate whether kids should have cell phone or not. But the age I want to debate is from Junior high school though. As I started to own a cell phone when i was university student, so I dont think there is significant meaning like for a security or making the relationship between parents and children smoothly which parents insist on. On the other side, it is also true that most of students in high school have a cell phone, therefore the students who dont own it have bad points like it's difficult for them to contact with friends because high school students use a cell phone as the way of contacting with friends in most case and that doesnt mean they live in same area anymore since they are in high school, you know. so I want to draw the line which kids can have a cell phone between junior high school and high school. but I have the precondition if they want to own a cell phone, they have to pay for it by theirselves though.

Good morning.

we will have debate! i was thinking about topics.
i got three ideas.
*should we inhibit death penalty or not?
*its better to have uniform at schools or its better to not have it.
*whether young children have a cellphone is good or not.

i hope we can enjoy our debate!
see you soon.

About the topic of debate.

We have to talk about the topic of debate for tomorrow.
It is better for us to choice easy one, I think... because we don't have enough time to prepare for it...

I found a web site. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is Japanese.
There are some topics for debates. It must be useful for us.


http://www.geocities.jp/bm_debate/history/theme_list.htm

The Simpsons

The Simpsons movie was really fun!
It was my first time saw Simpsons except TV commercials. I want to see another TV series.

When Homer & Bart broke the dome, they were flying a valley by motorcycle. I think they were in the dome. But...when the dome settled, it contained a valley? If it was, Spring Field people could get out from the valley! Maybe it is one of jokes...but very strange. I hope it is my misunderstanding they were flying in the (broken) dome. They were flying out of the dome...

I prefer japanese animations, but Simpsons is worth watching!!
Recentry, I often see USAVICH, Japanese animation. It is very fun. Two bunnies enjoy(?)their prison life in Russia.
there is website:
http://www.mtvjapan.com/usavich/
You can saw some short stories.

The Simpsons.

I've seen The Simpsons TV show once in France.
I don't remember the story but I remember it was funny.

Sometime there are some black jokes.
It's hard to understand but I like it.
If I knew English better, I could laugh more ;[
I'd love to buy DVD of the Simpsons!!

Here is amazon page↓
http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_1_7?__mk_ja_JP=%83J%83%5E%83J%83i&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+simpsons&sprefix=the+sim&sprefix=the+sim

And this is the Simpsons TV show's web site↓
http://www.thesimpsons.com/index.html

THE SHIMPSONS

There were a lot of jokes in this this movie and I was soooo excited.
But I thought that many excessive expressions included and part of them were bad for children.
For example, Homer strangled his son and some people were killed.
However, that movie as a whole is hert-warming and love of family's story, so as a result I felt very happy. If I have children in the future, I wanna let them to watch it! But.. after they grow up a bit. haha

about the Simpsons.

"The Simpsons" has been on TV since 1989.
I watched this animation for the first time when I was a student of elementary school. I couldn't understand jokes in this animation, even it was Japanese. But now, I can understand some of them much better. There are a lot of parodies and innuendoes in this show. The best scene I like in the movie is the end credit. On the end credit, people in Springfield sing the anthem of Springfield. But it is based on the anthem of France. I laughted at the words! Why not the anthem of America but France??
If I knew much more about America, I would have enjoyed this movie more! So, I want to watch it again some day .
In Japanese edition, many entertainers played on the characters. For example, Gorge Tokoro was on Homer and Akiko Wada was on Marge. It was also interesting, I think.

You can check the information of The simpsons Movie on Wilipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons_Movie

The Simpsons has a deep meaning than I thought.

That titles is relating to every anime or comedy even they seem to be just funny, I think. Before I watched this movie, I expected this movie could make us practice listening to English with being fun, which was simple meaning. But I realized that this movie had a lot of meaning by hearing reviews of movie and everyone's question. Exactly, if The Simpsons just had simple meaning or makes people laugh, it would not last being in TV shows for a long time. That The Simpsons has lasted for a long time shows it has historical , cultural, political , and so on meaning to make people think why they do say such a stupid thing or what they pretend to be, I think. From next time, I will think more seriously "why" or "what". That makes my movie life more entertaining.

I love eating ^-^

LOL-------- i wrote!!! but it disapper suddenly!!!! WHY------lol

anyways, Hi:)
i wanna talk about do-inaka! u know? u should know:D
im working at there! i really recommend u to have dinner or alcohoe at there.
every menu is large serving! especially, katu-don, omurice, yakisoba, vegitable salad and deeo-fried chicken. we inform customer about volume of menu when they order alot.
the top 3 of popular menus are omurice, deep-fried chicken and deep-fried cartilage, i think.
my favorite menu is bread gratin.
i never eat it, but must be delisious!! looking is also nice!
sometimes, i see customer who take pics! hahaha
what's more, cocktails are soooo nice, good!!!
i think its the best in Hirosaki! ha:D
whenever i work at there, i feel i wanna eat and drink lol

Have fun at do-inaka!!
im looking forward to see u guys at there, i will be there!!!! maybe<3 haha

I am getting really into Kimchi hot pot. XD

Well, I think everyone will not believe that I have been eating Kimchi hot pot everyday for almost 2 months, but that is true, no lie. hahaha Kimchi nabe is the best balanced nourishing　and healthy dish because I always put many types of vegetables like sweet potato, potato, long onion, onion, carrot...... and meat like pork , chiken, and meat ball. yea I think you can find the key point of kimchi hot pot. That is we can put whatever we want in there. So, we can keep having a lot of vegetables and meat a little bit cuz of everytime we can change kimchi hot pot to our favorite style. And I think we always throw out soup in other hot pots after we finish eating them, but we can add rice or noodle in kimchi hot pot after we finish eating it, which means we will not waste anything that is healthy for the enviroment too. But there is one point we have to care. That is there is a lot of salt in kimchi nabe. Yes, to take salt too much is really bad for health like high blood pressure. >< however, we can control how much salt we will add, and if we put sweet potato, salt problem will be fine cuz sweet potato has potassium which take extra salt in our body away. so why dont you try kimchi hot pot for todays dinner, If you are reading my blog comment. hahahah

About topics and BABEL

We talked about 3 topics .I am going to write down my thoughts easily.


Denmark and France could recover their low birthrate, but Japan is low stil now.
I think this is connected with "a sense of security".
The government of the success countries enrich their social security system, so they can have their baby without worries.
What I think we need is a system where you can have a baby without any worries.


The First Jury system is only a few days away!
To tell the truth, I do not want to be elected a member of a Jury .
It is too heavy to sentence the judges.
If a case that is connected with the Jury has happened, will Japanese government take responsibilty??


It was a very shocking movie to me...but I think it all were "real"!!
Seeing BABEL made me think deeply...about globalization.
The 3 countries looked to have no connection each other, but the truth is relating to each other deeply!
If I were involed these case, I shudder at the mere thought of it!

About presentation

We all already done our presentation last time.

We talked about "Low birthrate", "Jury system", and " Nuclear weapon".
All of them were very interesting topics,and also very common problems in Japan.

I found some web sites.
If you are interested in, please check them out.

Low birthrate
＊http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20061109d1.html
＊http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/17380.php

Jury system
＊http://japaneselaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/jury-system-in-pre-war-japan.html

Nuclear weapon


＊http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
＊http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_nuclear_weapons

Mai SHISHIDO

About my GW and BABEL

i'm very sorry, i'm too late to write down about these topics.

my brother he works in Yokohama came back to Hirosaki during the GW, so we family went to the sea to picnic and we had a lunch that i and my mother made early morning there.
the othere day, we had a BBQ with our relative. i drunk too much because i had much beer and other alcohol. but i had a very good time and i was very happy to meet them.

BABEL was great film i thought. i had not watched like this movie ever, so all i have to do was thinking about many problem in this it. i did not understand why did Chieko wanna be naked and what did her want to tell the detective.. it was so difficult for me to find three country's connection first, but i realized that there were bad spiral of glorbalization, may be...

Looking back our presentation and other group's,too.

I got an advise from profesor phillips what i should fix about our presentation. They are we should have used other sources which are written in English or the language spoken in the country we talked about, and there were a lot of word mistakes in sentences. This presentation was a good opportunity to know these bad points for using to a next presentation. Topics we selected including other groups were all good topic and important we have to consider. "low birthrate", "Jury system", and " nuclear weapon". It was interesting that these topics were not relating to each other at all, therefore I think thier presentation were always fresh. They are significant like each topics can be one class. I am looking forward to having another presentation from now.

Well, as i forgot to talk about Babel, I will put some comment now. http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/movies/27babe.html

I looked at this site about Babel, I was impressed the most that the misunderstandings were hapened between husbands and wives or parents and children who are relatives than between strangers. I didnt realized that point, but it is sure that problems were happened in only strong relationship, even between housekeeper and employer they have gotten to know since the employer had children. That was really interesting point for me. Why the strong relationship which seems to be never ended causes of problem??? The diffrence of language also makes parents and children misunderstand and fight? I thought them at the time when i read this article. This movie is that we need to watch at least twice, I think.

I just taked about homework things, but i hope they are interesting post for other members. haha see you next class.

Think about working for the United Nations

This is from the Japan Times:

The U.N. Secretariat's recruitment mission, led by Assistant Secretary General for Human Resources Management Catherine Pollard, was in Japan recently to encourage more Japanese to work for the world body.

My GW

My golden week

I had cherry blossom seeing and a Thai food party.
I had hanami in Hirosaki Park with my friends of Japanese and Thai,
And the night, I joined the Thai food party held by Japanese students who had studied in Thailand. They cooked so nice, yes, it was excellent, though it was so hot! I really love Thai food. ’Coz it tastes fantastic because of many kinds of spices.
We watched a Thai movie with drinking and we talked a lot. We had a lot of fan until the sky turns right.
The next day, I want the park again, to attend other hanami with Korean students and their tutors and teacher. I was too tired, as you can guess, I had just little sleep.
I tried hard to drink although I don’t like alcohol. I did as much as I can, but my student said that I didn’t drink so much. It was my beeeest(＞O＜)!!
Except it, we enjoyed a lot. We ate delicious Korean foods, and a few Japanese foods, and we talked.

Many topic.

Hi:) this is Rie.
its too late to talk about my GW, but please let me talk about!
acutually, i did nothing special during GW:'( just i had part time job almost everyday!
one thing i had in GW is Hanami & drinking party!
my SENPAI of tennis club came to Hirosaki, so we saw cherry blossom and had alcohole.
i was soooo drunk and i was sick because of too much alcohole.
that was only thing i can say " it was fun" in GW.

The movie "BABAL" was interesting for me.
at the beginig, i couldnt understand what is connection among those three (four)counties.
i thought everything is coneccted in the world! In the movie, those countries were related with "Gun". the most impressive thing in the movie was the scene of killing chicken!!!!
what a shooking scene it was!! i never seen it! i can understand the feeling of the American kids deeply... anyways, i like it! "BABAL"!!!

the report of our discussion has done! acutually, i was nervous!

i think its not smart to use any bombs including neclear bombs.
human has language, high communicationa skills, so we should talk, talk ,talk!!!
i hope there will be nobody who will be killed and hurted from bombs (war) anymore!

i dont have any idea what i can do for new japanese jury system if i get notice.
i cant judge without low knowledge. but....maybe i will go (anyways, have to go) when i get notice. i think after it starts, there will be many problems which have to solve to continue the system.

to stop declining birth rate, there are one solution! "Born babys"!!! any other ideas??? haha
i will !!! (if i marry with rich guy!)

Have a nice weekend, see you in next class!!!

Overseas homestay opportunity

I got the following e-mail message from Professor Westerhoven, who asked me to bring it to the attention of my students. I hope at least one of you will be able to go.

As in previous years, we will organize a three-week intensive English homestay program from February 18 to March 14. Students can get 4 credits (国際理解教育 2, 言語教育演習 2). Except for the Medical School, all faculties recognize these credits as elective credits. This year, we should be able to keep the cost down to \380,000, everything included.

The first explanation meeting will be on Tuesday, May 26, at 17:40 in Room 101 of the Faculty of Education. Only 8 students from outside the Faculty of Education can take part, and 3 students have signed up already, so there is roo for only 5 more. First come, first served.

I would appreciate it if you could advertise this explanation meeting in your faculty classes, but also in 21世紀教育. For more deatils, contact Westerhoven (3449) or Noro (3485).

about BABEL

It was really heavy film.

First of all, I couldn't understand why everything went so worse,
just big impact was left.
The title 'BABEL', I've know the tower of Babel in bible but I could't conected with this movie.."why the title's BABEL?? What's part?" But after reading this coment, I got it at last.(sorry, this's Japanese;;)
→Babel's review

Even though, they were speaking same langages, they couldn't communicate.
Possibly, they'd known each other and had same feeling in the depths of their hearts, but they were thinking 'She/He doesn't understand me' at that time.
I think it's much harder than a language barrier, feel irritated and sad.


Well, changing the subject, I gonna write about my GW.
I met my high school friends after a long time and just working.
That's all---:)

Thanks.

About My Goldenweek

Hi, this is Chiori.

I went to YAYOI ranch in Iwaki during this Goldenweek.
Actually, it is a kind of zoo.
I went to there for the first time in ten years, I could have a good time!

There were so many kind of animals in the zoo.
Horses, rabbits, monkeys, beavers, goats, and so on.

When I fed carrots to these animals, they ate greedily!
(especially horses and goats!!)
At first, I got scared and ran away!!!!
But I became able to give them the carrots step by step! ^^

YAYOI ranch has a place that we can lift up and hug the rabbits,
so I tried to do fearfully.
To my surprise, I found the rabbits were well-behaved animal!
The touch was resemble to my cat, and I had a nice feel to them !!

I really enjoyed the zoo like that.
Would you like to go there?

Thank you for your reading.

Chiori.

My Golden Week

Hi there!!
This is Mai.

Today, I'd like to talk what I did during this Golden Week.

Actually, I did nothing special.lol
I just did work every day.
I need money. Because I will go to Vietnam this summer for 2 month to do my internship.
This intern system is salaried. But it is very low.I have to earn more now to live there during my internship.

And I'm planning to go to South Korea and Taiwan this automne.
I love traveling!!
I think this is the last time to go abroad. I have to do job hunting next semester......

So that's why I worked lot.


What do you do this summer vacation?


Mai SHISHIDO

My Goldenweek

I attended 2 weddings during Goldenweek. One of them was that of my friend and the other was that of my cousin. Both of them were so beautiful!
I could meet my friends at the former one. Actually, I hadn't seen some of them since I graduated from jounior high school. Some of them changed a lot (as I couldn't recognize them!), and some of them changed a little. Everyone said to me, " You've never changed!" ....I didn't know whether I should be happy or sad to hear that.(Remember, I DID NOT meet them since I was 15!) After the wedding, we went to drinking and talked about what we work on now. I spent special time with them.
Next day, I attended my cousin's wedding. It was the first time for me to attend the wedding of my relative. I know her since I was little. So, my heart was full when I saw that she came into the room with a beautiful white dress. I was about to cry for joy! I wish she lived happily ever after!

Like this, my Goldenweek was filled with weddings. Anyway,I could spend a good time!

Usual Goldenweek.

I didnt do many things during Goldenweek. I definitely lose the name of Golden in this year. haha But i dont mean i spent boring days. First thing i did was "Hanami". I just went to see cherry blossom with a friend and didnt drink any alcohol. Dont blame me like its not Hanami! Hanami will start at the time to get alcohol. haha And I went to "Matsumae" where is the most southest of Hokkaido because my parents was going to come there to see Sakura, and I was going to get see them in Matsumae. I thought it was good time to see sakura there because Sakura in Hirosaki was already scattered, but Sakura in Matsumae was too early. It was just like 40% bloomming. After that, I went back to home in Sapporo. As I just had 2 days in Sapporo, so i went to a mall , ate way better food than Hirosaki, and met my grand parents. Especially, its been a long time since i met grand parents, so it was good thing.:) After the 2 days, I needed to get back to hirosaki through the long way. haha yeah it took like 8 hours. Im always angry why there is no train goes to Aomori directly. Yeah I need to change trains twice in Hakodate and Aomori. I guess there is still the diffrence of the system between JR. haha So that is everything I did during Golden week.

About our topic

Hi!! This is Chiori.

Our group talked about "Obama pledged to abolish nuclear weapons".
President Barack Obama set out his vision for ridding the world of nuclear arms, and declared the United States ready to lead steps by all states with atomic weapons to reduce their arsenals.

I think this bold attempt is a good tendency, but it will be ineffective throughout the world.
There are many countries which have nuclear weapons in the world.
Do you think the nuclear power nations will abolish their atomic weapons?

I think we have to eliminate the nuclear weapons, but also there are some evil arsenals which should be abolished. Why Obama addressed only nuclear weapons?

Do you think this Obama's attempt will attain?
And what should we do for that as a national of the nuclear victims?

This topic is very diffcult, but also very important.
Let's think together!

Thank you.

About Our Discussion

Hi, It's Yurina.
I discussed "Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons in the U.S." in the last class.
President OBAMA pledged about it, but only America.
There are many other countries which has nuclear weapons in the world,
but in this time, only the U.S. said to abolish it.

Actually, the U.S. has a duty as the only country to use nuclear weapons in the past.
ButI think that other nuclear powers have to act to abolish their nuclear weapons together, not only America.
In addition, our group suggest "Why OBAMA said to abolish only nuclear weapons?
How about other evil arms and dangerous weapons?"
So, could you give us your some ideas about this?

About discussion topic.

Hi, this's Akiko.

I gonna write about our topic..

We discussed about 'Jury system in JPN'

This system will start on 21st of May, very soon.

How do you think about it??

There were several questions at that time.

The jury system come into force for what? Is it necessity?

Do you wanna be a jury??

One purpose's to bring judiciary closer to public, we supposed.

Moreover,　number of people in the legal professions are dicreasing now.That's the way to make this social issue better.

And before enforcing, there're many voices to expect and worry.

Thinking stuff are still stacking.

Please make up the luck, thanks:D

reference about the Jury system in JPN

This is religion group. we need to talk about our topic.

we were talking about religion as our topic since it was the last class, but we realized that topic was too wide, unclear and too difficult to collect one conclusion, so we changed the topic. Our new topic is decreasing or decreased birthrate. We look it at Japanese, France and Denmark birthrates and compare them each other for figuring out what the problem is in Japanese decreased birthrate and the way to make it growing again is. We are working on this topic already from Friday. Sorry for changing topic suddenly.

About our topic

Hi, it's Mai.
I try to write our topic today.

We discussed "Nuclear weapons" together.
All you guys know it well, I suppose.

President OBAMA said he would fight for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
It would be difficult but his action is worthy of praise!!

I think nuclear weapons are just menace.
They try to show how strong they are,but it is quite fool.
How do you think about it?

And I have a one more question.
Why just nuclear weapons are vice?
How about bombs? It also could kill lots of people.
As you know bio-weapons are illigal in the world low.
Do you think we can abolish nuclear weapons?


Here, this is a web site of →IAEA←.

I'd like to have your opinions.
Thank you.

hi! everyone.

This is Ayaka.

I’m very sorry to late introducing myself... at last I've understood how to write on this blog and use it!
Everyone are good at mechanical product,isn't it? ^^;

Please let me introduce myself!
My name is Ayaka Karube.
My Family name is rare, so I think it's easy to memorize.
I'm glad to be able to take this class with kind and friendly people as you!(Of course also Professer Philips!)

From this spring, I began to do a tutor of a student studying abroad.
My student is a Canadian, and she can hardly speak Japanese.
So I want to help her anything, but I'm not good at speaking English!!!!!!
That is why, our conversation is always halting and not smoothly....

So I want to acquire English-speaking skills!
And I want to be able to tell anyone in English what I think with smoothly!

I will practice. so let's talking more^^

Hello,Guys!!

Hi, I'm Yurina AKAMA.
I could've written down my profile at last.. I'm not good at using computer too.
I'm living Hirosaki for 20 years, and I like here.
I visited Cherry blossom festival already three times at last week, I love that festival and I'm
looking foward to go there every year, especially to eat some delicious food.

My hobbies are cooking,traveling,watching DVDs and sleeeeeping!
And I love the outdoors too. I often go camping every summer with my family.

I wanna advance my English skills to speak more fluently and to take high score of TOEIC and TOFLE.
In addition, I wanna travel to some European counties in this summer vacation!
I'll try to do my best in this class!!

Hallo!! This is Chiori

Hi,I am Chiori Aiuchi. I introduce myself now,although I feel a little ashamed of myself for writing this so late. I am not good at a machine, so this is the cause of the delay!!

I am glad to be in this class with you guys. Let's have a good time!!
And please call me Chiori.

I am a junior and belonging to professer SAWADA's seminar.
I am going to be a New Zealand maniac!

I love French the same as English. It was through my friend, mai's influence that I was attracted to French. I want to improve both , especially my English speaking.


My hobby is playing sports...basketball,tennis,snowboading and so on and watching movies.
The last winter I went snowboading only one time due to lack of snow.
Next winter I will go snowboading as many times as I can!!
Recently I am crazy about "THE OC" "GOSHIP GIRL"and "TWILIGHT"
In short, I love overseas movies(dramas).

I want to discuss international problems.
I hope we have a good discussion.
Thank you. Bye.

Hi, there

Hi, This is Mai SHISHIDO.

Call me Mai or May. I am very happy to meet you all!
I like English. Because, if I can speak English, I can comunicate with most of people in the world.
But my English skill is very poor... Please HELP MEEEEE!!!
I also like French. I lived in France for 1year and 6month.
France is very nice. I love French foods. Esp fois gras!! It is very yummy!!

I love travelling. I've been to about 10 countries.
This summer, I'm going to South Korea and Vietnam.
So I'm doing a part time job now to get enough money.
It is pritty hard, but I try to do my best for my hobby!!


Some of you want to discuss religion.
But it is pritty hard, isn't it?
Because religion is a kind of thought or thinking.

On the other hand, I agree with Akiko.
We can disscus the top of the front page in morning newspaper.
The front page topic is often interesting.

That's all!!!!

see you tomorrow.


Mai SHISHIDO

About discussion topics

Hi, this is Haruna. How are you?

Some of you guys selected "religion" as a discussion topic.
I am interested in it,too!
I want to know how you suppose to talk about it.


And I'll offer my idea here.
I am interested in English education of Japan. So,I'll offer this question:
"Japanese are said not to be good at English. How do you think?"

That's it.
I want to know your opinions!

Hi, this's Akiko.

Hi, nice to see you guys in this blog:)

Well..let me introduce of myself.

I live in Aomori and come to school by train every morning.

Actually, I missed my train last week so I didn't attend the class;; sorry, I'm not morning person. ..Anyway, I like taking pictures of sky, eating sweets, drinking coffee with much milk, listening music and taking a nap,hehe. Especially in summer, my food staple's ice cream seriously:---)

Recently, I like to find and visit new coffee shop with my friend! So if you know nice cafe, let me know^^

We have to choose some topics for discussion, right? 

I think after watching a film and talking about it, or discussing about morning news ..are sort of ways. 

I hope we can enjoy talking and improve English!

See you later-

 

Hiya! This is Eri NARA.

Hi, there!
I'm delighted to be classmate with you guys!
My handle name Erin [エレン] is my nickname come from my first name and the initial of my family name. When I gave my name as "Eri", many people asked me how to spell and pronounce it. But when I said "Erin", they understood it at the first time.
I’m a junior in international society course.
I’m from Kuroishi, but my high school is in Hirosaki.
I like traveling, watching movies, listening music, going to karaoke, taking photos, leading books, chatting with friends and so on.
So, I'll take many pictures of cerry blossoms in Hirosaki park.

I want to everyone of us to speak a lot. Otherwise, I’ll be a naughty noisy student… foregive me if i am noisy.
I love talking in English. so I’d like to discuss obout something we are interestid in. I think religion(s) is(are) good topic, too. I also wanna see movies, and talk about it.
I need to improve my reading skill to study abroad as an exchange student, I don’t like it, though…

See you tomorrow at the class!!

Erin

Hello, this is Rie Kumabayashi!

Hello, nice to meet you on this blog! im glad to join this class.
I introduce about myself. my hometown is Morioka, Iwate-prefecture.
im forth year student of education faculty. my hobby is watching movies, playing tennis and listening to music. recently, im crazy about a dorama "24". do you know??
yesterday, i watched this movies from 6p.m to 4a.m. i was involved in that! couldnt stop watching it! Also, i like pussycat dolls. I want to improve my listening and speaking skills in this class. im glad to have a chance to talk with people in English. we will have discussion in this claass, i like to discuss about something with someone. im interested in religion, especially Islam.
so i want to discuss about religion if there are someone who have interest about religion!!!!
i hope we have a nice and great discussion!!!! lets have fun!!
See you later at next class!
Thank you.

Hi! This is Natsuko.

Hello. I am Natsuko. Let me introduce myself.
i live in Aomori city. There are 4 people and a dog in my family.
i like snowboarding. i began it when i was 10 years old. it is most exciting sport in this world!! You should try it!! I often hope that Spring never come.
10 days ago, i went to the cinema with my friend, Akiko. We saw the Red cliff part 2. it was so cool! there are a lot of thrilling scenes in this film. i like 趙雲(cho-un)very much. The Red cliff is the biggest and the most excitig battle in the ancient chinese history i think.
i like mystery novels. But, i read only Kotaro Isaka's novels. i like his mystery novel.
well...i like video games, comicbooks, watching baceball, playing softball.
That's all! I think it's enough? (´‥｀)
i hope we can talk a lot!! If we can see a movie in our class, let us talk about it. i want to know how do you feel.
And...we should decide what we debate? I think...religion is good idea.

Hello! This is HARUNA

Hi! this is Haruna.
Shun did great job on this blog first, so i will follow him and introduce myself.
i am from Mutsu city. you guys must know an actor Kenichi Matsuyama. he is also from Mutsu.
i am a senior and now i prepare for my graduation thesis. i'll write it on Merchant of Venice, Shakespere. i know it must be tough...
i like reading, painting, going to karaoke, and so on. you know, i am not the outdoor person! i want to have a private library someday in the future. i love books as i have such a dream seriously!
what i want to do in this advanced english class is to speak english and train to think in english. i think it will be tough but i should try it!
i hope this introduction will help you know about me. anyway, i am glad to meet you!

by the way, we have to pick up some topics and make some groupes for debates, right?
how shoud we make it??

Hi! Everyone! This is Shun Hayasaka:)

Today, I thought that Professor Philips said we need to introduce myself in blog, so i will write about me from now. haha so i am from sapporo city in hokkaido and i've lived in hirosaki for 2 years.( this year is 3rd year for me) I am not the person who can talk about myself much, but I just can say I am shy person. haha yeah i bet i am. And I am not so active person. I most likely stay inside my apartment after i finish classes if i dont need to go outside for some reason. yeah i think i should be enough of introducing about myself since we already introduced each other in the class. What can i do for this blog? Hmmmmm actually, this is the first time to write blog things for me. so I am soooo beginner about a blog. so I dont know what i can do, but i will just keep writing. That is my contribution. haha What would i like to do in the class? well i would like to watch a movie and debate such a practicing English for listening and speaking in the class. and their skills are my important and i put focus on. so i will work hard on that skills from now on too. Thanks for everyone to see my comment:) see you in class. Bye

Believe it or not, Mugabe still has supporters

Here's the latest op-ed I had in The Japan Times:

The world can't understand how Robert Mugabe has support left in Zimbabwe. After violence and intimidation against his opponents he was able to steal a victory, but at great cost. Why do his people put up with it and why did he gain over 40 percent of the vote in the first round of the elections, when voting was relatively fair?

Certainly Mugabe still has much support and respect left from when he was leader of the Chimurenga, the guerrilla struggle against the white minority regime that had taken half the land in the country and reserved it for the whites. Many former leaders of revolutionary struggles either fell from power or saw their time was up and resigned. Why does Mugabe still have enough support to hold on?

Feel free to write a letter to the editor about it.

Huye P.Long

Hi all!

I visited to Huey Long`s website. It seems pretty good for me. So i wanted to recommend this site for you. After today`s movie in the class, i thought that the politicians are all dirty. But it is not their own intention, i think. To be a governer, to be the president, to be a senator , all those dirty things need to politicians. I mean, the "POWER". Whom need the power , who want to make people happy, but, the power also need whom to be dictator.

When i was in the high school, i had a conversation about politics with my friend. He said to me that, even you do not want to concern about politics, it concerns about you.

So, all i am trying to say is, it seems impossible to understand about politicians and politics. We might have to enter to the world of politics, to understand about it.

And i am very found of this words.

"God, don't let me die. I have so much left to do."

It was the last word of Long, when he died after two days from the shot.

Huey Long and Willie Stark

Willie Stark wasn't exactly Huey Long. Robert Penn Warren, the author of the classic political novel All the King's Men always denied that Stark was based on Long, but it's hard not to notice the resemblance. Probably the most fictional part of the film was the lack of black faces in the movie, but that was typical of the time.

Huey Long was governor of Louisiana during the depression, and was later elected US Senator. He came out of and represented the poor farmers of rural northern Louisiana. He repealed the poll tax so that poor people could vote. He taxed the wealthy to build schools, roads, hospitals and other public works so that those poor people could live better lives. He made public school textbooks free. He built the Louisiana State University into a great institution, so great that many people actually think he founded it. He was wildly popular. And he did not like opposition.

Huey Long organized gangs of political thugs. He used the state militia as a force of personal bodyguards. He tried to shut down newspapers and radio stations that didn't toe the line and support his regime. He all but abolished local governments in many parts of the state, and took the power to appoint the local officials, and all state employees, himself. He created a force of plainclothes, secret police answerable only to himself. He was accused by many of being a fascist dictator little different from Mussolini.

Long continued his consolidation of power. Two months before he died he publicly declared that there was a conspiracy to assassinate him. He publicly named names of Congressional representatives and former governors of Louisiana who he said were in the conspiracy. Long was gunned down by medical doctor Carl Austin Weiss in the Capitol building at Baton Rouge. It was the end of Long's career but not the end of his legacy. He had great influence and is a controversial figure in the politics of Louisiana down to today. There are those who nearly worship him, and those who continue to revile him. It's hard to get an objective perspective on Huey Long.

Here are some views of the real Huey Long. Judge for yourself how closely he resembles Willie Stark:

The American presidential race

OK, you want to talk about the American presidential race. I should probably point out something I forgot to in class. There is apparently no standard way to say "executive president" in Japanese to distinguish it from a ceremonial president, and each political science textbook translates it in its own way. But Japanese doesn't need any standard term for "executive president" or "ceremonial president" either, since there is no president at all in Japan. The African language I studied in graduate school, Hausa, does have standard ways to say them, because Nigeria has had both systems.

We went over some of the background information you need to know, like the Electoral College, today in class. You also need to know the policy positions of the candidates and other information about the race. Barack Obama's official website's location is easy to find, John McCain's is likewise. They both use their full names as the website URL. There is also a non-partisan site with information about all contenders and generally more information than you would want to know. It even has a student center to help students around the world understand the election.

We get thousands of requests from students across the world requesting information on Presidential Elections and Non Partisan Political Information every year.

This particular election seems to be the first YouTube election. I also recommend that you visit Barack Obama's YouTube channel, as well as John McCain's. The Democrats handled YouTube better in 2006, and it was definitely a factor in their winning the Congressional elections. Senator George Allen made a racial slur at a campaign worker for his rival, Jim Webb. The Webb campaign put it on YouTube and Jim Webb is now the Senator from Virginia. Look for more "Macaca moments" on YouTube this year. Speaking of which, I can't resist showing you McCain's plans, together with a response. Americans like political humor, and expect their politicians to have good senses of humor. Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were both popular for their senses of humor. Lincoln's humor was legendary, and many of his jokes are famous.

Article 9 and UN peacekeeping

Regarding our discussion about Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, Wikipedia has an article about it, with text in English and Japanese, including historical background and information about the different ways it can be interpreted.

Advanced English class blog

Hi!! everyone!! I'm yuki.
I'm sorry that I'm late for writing about ODA to China.

I support to ODA　to China.
There are three reasons why I support to ODA to China.
First, I mention that environmental problem.
China is rapid developing. More and more industrialization advance, while environmental destruction is getting serious. Japan has high technique more than China. China has big territory and people, so environmental problem is too difficult to solve China itself. In addition, Japan locates near China. Japan can't help seeing silently such condition. This problem is worldwide problem not only China. Nation include Japan consider about own national interest. Help to China is connecting with profit. Therefore, Japan should help China though ODA.

Second, I mention that gap problem. On one hand Coast is rich, on the other hand inland is poverty.

Finally, I mention that bad image about Japan. During war Japan invades China. Many people were killed by Japanese. ODA to China is one of resource image up about Japan. At first, the purpose of ODA to China is reward that China was abandoned compensation right. But now the more globalization is spread, the more relationship between China and Japan will notice. So image up about Japan is very important.

Now I write my opinion about ODA to China.

I disagree with continuing ODA to China.
First of all, the freeway of China has miritary fuction.
It is used to transport arms and armies.
And not only transportation, one freeway can use as the runway of bomber and its parking area can use as entrance of helicopter of miritary.
Constraction of these freeway is spent Japanese ODA.
ODA is not to reinforcement miritary power.
Second, China helps Ghana, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and so on.
The country of being able to help others doesn't need Japanese ODA.
Third, China makes rapid economic growth, about 10% per a year.
In 2006, GDP was round 2000dollars a person.
And China is second position of keeping foreign currency in the world.
Fourth, ODA budget is deacreasing every year in Japan and
non-supporters of ODA are increasing.
One of the cause is not to clear how to use ODA.
So I think China doesn't need Japanese ODA,
and Japan should help Africa more and more.

Japan`s ODA for China

Shoud it continue or not?
My situation on this argui, is con . That is, I do not agree with continuation of Japan's ODA for China. Because i have four reasons.
At first, there are different outlooks on ODA to China.
Eventhough Japanese are not thinking about ODA as war responsibility, Chinese are different. They think that Japanese have to assist them as a matter of course for the war indemnity. The reason is simple. Chinese could not forgive Japanese. So, Chinese believe that they have a right for it. Here, I have a personal opinion. What is the assistance for? I think it exist for good relation and mutual understanding. These are boards of economical or other cooperations. Accordingly, ODA for China could not be like " real assistance".
In the second, China do assist for other countries. For example:
China assisted Vienam, North Korea, African countries in 2000. I think that there is no need for a donor country like China.
In the third, the money of ODA is not spent correctly. Chinese are assemble the nuclear weapon and long range missile. But ODA has own GENERAL RULES. In the rules, Japan do not assist the country which expand own military or army.
In the forth, environmental problem and poverty are current topics. Influence of China is strong among Asia. But i think that China`s government must effort AT FIRST for these problems, not Japan`s problem.
For conclusion, I want to repeat again. Today`s ODA for China have not enough correct reason to continue. The assistance` existence is losing it`s own meaning. And i think that Japanese have to apologize to China on the formal act or other official paper. On the ODA, it is enough for war reparation. Japan`s war responsibility must be end now.
Japanese have not to give their tax money to China.

Japan`s ODA for China

ODA for China

I'm agree to ODA for China.
Becase ODA for China is amending more better not
only for China but Japan. nowdays almost 70 percent of
money from ODA japan are using for
Enviromental Project or poverty problem.China have
already developed aspect for that of economic.
Neigbor country's eniroment are also problem of
Japan. Moreover money are lending
with low interest . ODA for China are making
good relationship between two countries.When
Japan have serious problem with disaster or enviroment
our country can't stand up to thease problems by ourselves.
So as otherountry. We have to stand up to wourld problem together.

ODA to China

Should Japan continue to provide ODA to China, or should it stop?

That's the topic that people attending the class are committed to debating.

You all have some good resources about this topic, although too many of them are going to be in Japanese to be good for an English class. However, this is an important topic which not only has implications for the relationship between China and Japan, but which also has implications for other instances of foreign aid.

At which point in its development should a country stop getting foreign aid?

Taiwan long ago developed to the point that it no longer needed aid from the United States, and has not been a recipient of foreign aid for decades. On the other hand, the US itself got foreign aid after Hurricane Katrina and broken levees wiped out the city of New Orleans. However, that may be a special case, and the recent earthquake in China may be irrelevant to the discussion here.

I'd like each of you to say whether you oppose or support Japanese ODA to China and how strongly you feel about it. After a little back and forth on the blog, comments and blogposts, you should have developed your ability to express your opinion about the issue a little more. After that we can begin to prepare for another debate in class.

If you drop the class

please make a comment on the blog to that effect or send me a private e-mail.

We need to know exactly who is in the class so we can divide up for the coming debate on ODA to China. If you have dropped out without telling the rest of us you are holding up the class for the other people in it.

Of course, if you have dropped without telling anyone you probably won't read this.

Oh, well. I thought I'd at least give it a shot. (@_@)

About a new topic of debate

Hi everyone.
This is Bolor.

It is my first time to write " the blog".
Yes, it is too late.

First of all, i was really sorry to miss the last class.
But i could see the NEW TOPIC of debate.
I like this idea about ODA.
And i heard that this topic also had been settled as the next one.

I think, i wiil be con for Japan`s ODA in China.
China is developing like "a storm" now. We could see it every day and night.
Japan could stop ODA now. They need not any "help" of others.
In the contrary, it is the time to change the sight of ODA. Japan have to
assist other developing countries. There are many developing countries which need more
support. For example: Mongolia. I understand, it is "a little" subjective opinion.
But why not?!
Let`s debate.

Here, i found some links. And i hope that these could help our debate.

About China and Japan`s relations:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/china/

And here is about ODA:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/

Overview of ODA in China:
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/region/e_asia/china/index.html

There are also some articles on "JAPANTIMES ".
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20041025kh.html

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20050106a5.html

I know, all of you have tons of work.
But we have to be lively .
Because we are all youths.

It is late. So, see you next in the class.
Have a good day!

ODA for Chinese

Hi! Ｉ found ODA for Chinese HP. Please look the web site.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/data/gaiyou/odaproject/asia/china/index_01.html

Takahiro

devate topic2

Globalization problem is too widely.

So Ｉ changed my mind! Ｉ recommend other international problem. Shall we discussed "ODA for China is good or bad?"

China is developing lapidly! China is becoming developed country. So China need ODA? Japan have to send ODA to China?

Ｉ am interested in ODA because Ｉ belong to international society course and to international corporate seminar (Professor. Kojimoto seminar).

How do you do?

devate topic

Hi, Ｉ think about devate topic!

And Ｉ want to devate about "globalisation is good or bad"!

Ｉ think the theme is good for all students of international society course. And we must be interested in this topic! Probably(^^;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1790941.stm

That is interesting URL of document. Please look!

Takahiro

Debate topic

There are much major topics to debate.

I think we can choose from...

About abortion, the self-defence force ,

youth fasion ( young people's various fasion

that's is sometime so dangerous. for instance

thick bottom boots or body pierce and so on.

that's is people 's charactaristic or dangerous one.)

my hobby

This is miku.

My hobby is listening American music.

Especialy I like American Hip hop.

These days I like Ashlee shimpson's song.

When we listen American music, We can learn

American slung and pronunciation while enjoy music!!

It's better way to learn English.

If you interested in American Hip hop.

you can try! http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/wa/w

My hobby and debate sources

Hi! This is Rina.

My hobby is listening to Japanese POP music and watching movies.

My favorite artist is Masaharu Fukuyama, Ayaka, Dreams come true, ELT and so on.

I like Masaharu Fukuyama very much!!!

I've been to his concert twice.

That was so wonderful!!

I want to go it again.

And I also like movies.

Recently I watched "Sunadokei", Japanese movie.

Please tell me your favorite movies.



And then these are debate resources.

That is Pro Death Penalty.

http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/

http://www.bnp.org.uk/

http://www.dpinfo.com/dpnews.htm

my hobby

Hi, this is Takahiro.

My hobby is running with my friends.

Long distance running is the most exiting sports for me. Ｉ have two reason that Ｉ like running.

First, when Ｉ run fast for long time, Ｉ'm tired. But if Ｉ won, Ｉ'd be very very very very happy and Ｉ would realise Ｉ became again!

Ｉ always run for my strongness.

Second, runnning make me more good friends and Ｉ enjoy running with them.

If Ｉ have not ran and Ｉ have not belong to Track and Field clab, Ｉ would have few good friends in the university.

We always run, lough, speak and quarrel. So the memory make our relationship deeper and deeper.

My clab URL is http://sports.geocities.jp/hirosaki_u_mid_long/ . If you are free, please look.

Takahiro・K

Tell us about your hobby

Tell us what you like to do in your spare time. Give us lots of information about it, and if you can find websites that explain it better, link to them. Try to put a picture up about it if you can, and let us know why you like that hobby.

Death penalty debate sources

OK, here you go. These are some sites I could find quickly about the death penalty.

The Death Penalty Debate is a site which welcomes adherents of both sides to argue about the pros and cons of the death penalty. It includes a number of different sub-discussions and links to other sources of information.

The US government has official information about executions and the death penalty debate in the United States. This source is especially useful for clearing up misconceptions about the death penalty in the United States. it can be used profitably by either side of this debate.

The University of Alaska also has a neutral site which has links to other sites with positions on both sides of the debate. It is most useful for helping us to understand the issues involved as well as the positions of persons on both sides of the issue.


Cornell University has a brief overview with links to more information.

Recent news about the death penalty can be found by searching Google News for information.

The most prominent opponent of the death penalty in the US is probably the American Civil Liberties Union.

Those who support the death penalty in the US also have sites that advance their points of view, focusing especially on the victims of crimes.

There is a Death Penalty Information Center.

Wikipedia has a long article with many links.

Amnesty International campaigns against the death penalty internationally.

Here's another pro page just for balance.

Please, everyone. Your first assignment is to find more sources and link to them for us here.

Welcome to English class!

Thank you for your introductions today. Please post a blog entry this week, explaining what you want to learn in this class, and how you see English being useful to you in the future. If you have links to interesting sites, please include those. If you have suggestions about how this class should proceed, let us know about that. Please make friends here and use this blog to communicate with the rest of the class.

A real life "Born in East L.A." story

Pedro Guzman is a US citizen wrongfully deported to Mexico. Luckily his story had a happy ending. But it should never have happened in the first place.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Guzman is an American citizen, but when he was arrested in May, a mental impairment may have prevented him from convincing immigration authorities of his legal status. So, rather than accord him his rights, the authorities assumed he was in the country illegally, took him to Tijuana and left him there. Desperate to bring him home, his family pleaded with the American government for help. The government refused.

Guzman's journey remains hard to reconstruct, but he eventually stumbled upon a border crossing in Calexico, where he was detained. Rather than admit their error, the authorities locked him up for missing probation hearings -- hearings he missed because the government had deported him.

Guzman was released, at last, on Tuesday, miraculously ending his three-month odyssey. For those who turned him out of his country because they couldn't understand him and assumed that he was foreign, Guzman's story should stand as a reminder of what happens when the hardhearted command America's borders.

This is Mai

Hello!
It's too late, but I managed to write here.
Mimu told me how to link here, so I write this now.

I have the same question with Misato.
I couldnt get the meaning of "Born in the east L.A."(if it's the west L.A., I'm sorry;)
Some of you got it the meaning?
If you did, please tell us!

I couldnt attend the making up class, because of part-time job.
I wanted to go...I'm sorry.
I'm looking forward to speaking with my team mate next class.

Some Questions about the movie

I watched this movie but I can't understand what they were doing. I tried to hear what they are speaking, but I undeartand the story by only image.

１．What's the meaning of "Born in the east L.A."? Is it stange that born un the east L.A.? They were singing "Born in the east L.A.～♪", but I can't understand the meanings. I think L.A. is the most fantastic city in the U.S.A, like Hollywood. Hollywood is in the north-west in L.A., but is it any difference between east and west in L.A.?

2. They were running down from the hill and through the two policeman. Where they wanted to go? First, I thought they wanted to astonish the policeman, but they didn't so.

Please tell me what they were going to do.

Born in East L.A.

I mentioned the video "Born in East L.A." in class as a humorous take on the immigration debate in the US. It's more than 20 years old now, but I think it's still funny. There's a lot of local humor in it, but I think you can still appreciate some of the humor. Let me know if you have any questions. Ah, heck! You WILL have questions. Just let me know what they are, ok?

More on immigration

Tom Tancredo is generally considered the most anti-immigrant member of Congress. Here is his proposal for immigration reform.

Other anti-immigration (or at least anti-illegal immigration) groups include:

California Coalition for Immigration Reform

Numbers USA

Federation for American Immigration Reform

_____________________________

The most pro-immigrant member of Congress is perhaps Keith Ellison, the only Muslim in Congress. Here is his proposal about immigration.

Here are some immigrant rights activists:

Immigrant Solidarity Network

American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers)

American Civil Liberties Union

_________________________

Finally, I can't resist pointing out again that my governor is an immigrant. I didn't vote for him, (living out of state I only vote for federal offices anyway) but we could have done a lot worse. If you go to his website you'll notice that he doesn't say anything about immigration, probably because immigration is a federal responsibility and state governments have nothing to do with it. And as an immigrant he can't run for president anyway.

About The U.S. immigration

Hello, everyone.
I found a news video about immigration.
If you are interested in it, please watch link.

Immigration

Well, it's been a long time since I dealt with the US immigration. AAMOF, I don't think I've ever dealt with them. They are no longer the INS, but the USCIS, and they're in the new Department of Homeland Security. Wikipedia also has information about US immigration history. There are many links at the bottom of the article you should explore. They also have another article about the US immigration debate, complete with links to more information at the bottom.

Good luck finding information for your debate!

Hi!! This is Ai

I got an e-mail to enter this blog from Kaori.
I'm very happy that I can write this comment on this blog.
It was my first time to debeto in English. It was very hard time for me.
But I enjoyed that.
Next debeto topics is the U.S. immigration.
It sounds very defficult. I'm anxiety about it.

Hi! Im Kaori!!

I forgot my password so I couldnt enter this blog.
But I found the paper that I've written my correctly password, and I was tought how to enter it by my friend.
Finally I could enter this blog. Now Im very glad to put this massage on that like this.

At last class we debated about the nuclear powar. It was too difficult for me and I was very tense, because foreign students came to see our debate. But it was very useful and I was very excited.

Kaori Mimura.

About Movies

First, I have to apologize about my delaying contribution. That's why because I had forgot my passaord. So I couldn't access this blog. I'm so sorry.

We wached some movies for a long time ago. I'm going to write about "Lion King". That was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I forgot the name of charactors but the main charactor is very strongful, so I encouraged by him. I thought I have to live more strong.

I think Disney movies are all like misicals. It's because all charactors movable and they sing a song suddenly (in spite of it's on the way of the story!). That charactor fit to musicals.

If I could have understood more English, I could enjoy movies much more.

No relation to this story, I want to watch "Pirates of curibbean" very much!! It's very intersting. Jonny Depp is very cool, neat, flash, great, and stunning(^-^*)!! If you have watched it arleady, DON'T TELL ME about the story!! I haven't watched yet.

Thanks for your reading☆

misato

Impression of watching movies in English

Hello! Today, I managed to understand the way of using this blog, so this is my first coment.
We watched three Disney moveis until last week. I have watched Alladin and Lion King, so I can understand parts of conversation.
But I have never watched Snow Dogs, I had to depend on my ears. It was difficult for me and I couldn't understand the story. Why did the hero go to Alaska? Please tell me!!(> <)
It was interesting experience to watch movie in English, so I'll try other movie.

Aladdin,The Lion King and The Snow Dogs

We watched the movies in English Class. All the movies were Disney and I like it very much.
I've seen Aladdin and The Lion King before. I like The Lion King especially. The characters are so funny, and this story give me the bravery.
I didn't understand the story of The Snow Dogs well, so I want to try again!

Lion King & Snow Dogs

I'm sorry I was late to write the blog about "Lion King" and "Snow Dogs".
I thought both of the videos was difficult to understand the conversation in detail without subtitles also. "Lion King" was easy to understand the evolution of the story, but "Snow Dogs" was difficult, so I want to watch the video again in person.
By the way, I watched the situation of the tornado in America on the TV. The tornado appeared seven at one time. I was very surprized!!

Aladdin~♪

Yesterday, I watched the Aladdin. I know the story because I have ever watched this video many times, but it was very difficult to understand the story only English sound.
I could a little understand the content of the lyrics in the video, but I couldn't understand the conversation because the characters talks so fast!
I think it is hard to understand the English sound story without English subtitles, especially part of comedy.
Although it was hard to hear conversation, I enjoyed the video.

blogging about videos

You'll be watching videos for the next few classes. You should blog something about them. What did you understand? What did you not understand? What interested you about them? What were you not interested in about them? What links to Internet sites can you find about them? The Internet Movie Database is a good source of information about movies of all kinds.

For the first video I thought I would give you some links to news stories about the recent tornados in the United States, which took place not far from where today's video was set.

Survivor found in tornado-ravaged Kansas town
Rescuers dig through debris in town wrecked by tornado
Governor: War slows recovery efforts in Kansas
Tornado kills 27 cats bound for new homes

And some general background information on storm chasers.

Good Holiday♪

Hello!!I'm Natsumi☆
During Golden Week holidays, I spent the days lazily. Also I went out to see the cherry blossoms at Hirosaki Park. The cherry trees were in full bloom, so I felt the beauty of these blossoms!
Sorry, I can't think effective ways of this blog, so I want to think by next class.

My Golden Week

Hello everyone. How was your golden week? For me, These holidays were not holiday, because
I worked everyday!! I work at a convenience store, So the shop is not close even if it is holiday.
But I went to see the cherry blossoms with my friends of club at May 3rd. they were very beautiful, and I had fun very much.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what is the best way to use this blog. But I'm happy if I can get information about next class on this blog.