New Monday

Good morning
How was your weekend ? (i believe it was awesome ;) )
For me, it was so fast  because Saturday was Wednesday class.
Yesterday, I went Totemachi to watch Yosakoi Tsugaru festival. This festival was very exciting and awesome. I really wanted dancing but i wore skirt lol ...so i couldn`t  - yeah it was my fault : ( (I should have worn trousers). By the way, last year I was member of Yosakoi circle (sakuru) Hirosaki university and i participated this festival.

Next, want to talk and discuss tomorrow English class
what shall we do ?
Is there anyone who wants to do someting tomorrow. We should decide it until today`s evening. But there is not any idea.
In my opining:
Let`s talk about what you want to know from others. Ex: what do you think about god? , Do you think we should speak in english like native speakers?, What do you think about refugees? 
It is not like debate, just know someones idea, but maybe depends on topic it will be like debate. Of course if you want to debate that time on that topic, Why not? :)  I think it is good for our speaking and listening.
So prepare your question and of course your idea.

how about it, what do you think? it is just my idea.
I`m looking forward your ideas.
I will check blog every hour.

Good Evening

Everyone wanna watch "Sympsons".
That's a good idea!!!

It is exciting!!!
So, I wanna change my opinion, too.
I'd like to watch "Sympsons"!!!!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class!!

Thank you.

Good evening

Hi!
It was hot, but now the wind is good. It's cool :D

By the way, I want to change my opinion, sorry.
Shimpsons!! I wanna watch it very much. I love Shimpsons family.

Why did they go to Japan...? It's so exciting to know what they did there from now!
Tsagaanaa, you'er right! Wonderful!!

Well... see you tomorrow's English class.

Aska

Good evening!

It's me, Shino.
I thought it's better if I write this here rather than writing Saya's.
I also know that movie which Saya's already mentioned.
I said I wanna have the another one, but I'd like to change my opinion.

"Simpsons in Japan", I wanna have this one.
As you know we didn't choose it, but why don't we try it this time?
I hope that'll be good for all you guys.

Thanx.
Shino:)

oops...

well,well...I know it's too late,but please let me introduce myself a little bit...


My name is Saya,and I am a native Tsugaru-ben speaker!!lol
However, usually,I try to hide my accecnt, so I believe nobody notices that I am from Hirosaki...lol

Um..I have nothing special to introduce about me...but I just love my cat, UK/US rock music, live, teddy bears,drinking,chatting, and English!

Let's go for drink before this term finishes if you guys like it...
but I'm not sure if I can ask you guys directly...///lol

Nice to meet you anyway, thanks.


Saya ;)

I finally got here...TT

Hi this is Saya, I finally got how to post my comments on here lol
I'm so sorry about it.

Anyway, I'd like to watch the Simpsoms that is a story when the Simpsons came to Japan.
It's chosen by nobody in our class, but I've been interested in it since professor Philips said about it!!
What do you guys think about it??



Saya ;)

I got it!

P.S.

Please click the title "What are we ganna watch?".
You'll go to the site which you can watch the related movies.
Thanx.

Shino

What are we ganna watch?

Hi, how was your weekend?
We'll decide the movie what we're going to watch next, right?

I'd like to have "Groundhog Day" on next Thursday.
I've attached the link which you can see the related videos.
(I've might been misunderstood, if so, I'm sorry for that. I'm not sure how I could attach the videos.)

I wanna tell you why I've chosen it but I'm so sleepy now;;
I'll do that sometime later before Thu.
Good night!

Shino

Trailer

Sorry i don't know how to add trailer.
But here is the trailer's URL
if you want to watch trailer, click here or copy and paste it.Sorry :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4iTjavIkbk

Tuesday lesson

Hi, everyone
On Tuesday, i want to watch "Constant gardener".
-----It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the truth and finds an international conspiracy of corrupt bureaucracy and pharmaceutical money.The plot was based on a real life case in Kano, Nigeria. ------

It seems very interesting.

How about you guys, what movie do you want to watch on Tuesday?

Self introduction

Hello everyone
Finally I joined this blog.
Thank you teacher for sending me URL again.

Before introduce myself, I want to sorry for my
late self-introduction.
My name is Lkhagvadorj Tsagaansanaa. it's
very difficult to say and remember.
So you can call me Tsagaanaa.
It is my nickname.
Some people who heard of my name say that your
name was Sakana, right? (in Japanese it means fish).
Oh my god, my name is not fish.
Actually, my name is very beautiful, it means pure
mind and heart.
My father gave this name, thank you dad I love my
name.

I am from Mongolia. 2 years ago i came here, it is my
first foreign country.
My major in the university is international
politics, and student of Carpenter's seminar.
I am very interested
in guitar. So i bought one. but it is very difficult to learn.
I
am looking for someone who can teach me how to play guitar(for free
:P).
If one of you knows someone, please introduce to me

Lastly
, i hope my English skill will be good, so i will do my best.
Thank
all of you, let's do our best

Dream Prognosticator

Good evening everyone!
I was looking for the sites which you can look for the dream prognosticator, but I havn't found out them yet!
I'm sorry:(
If you're interested in it, I'll tell you the books which you'd probably understand them more.

・西郷信綱『古代人の夢』(平凡社選書、1972年)
・江口孝夫『夢で見る日本人』(文春新書、2001年)
・酒井紀美『夢語り・夢解きの中世』(朝日選書、2001年)
・酒井紀美『夢から探る中世』(角川選書、2005年)
・西郷弘『吉夢の献』(『国学院雑誌』67,7、1966年7月)

I'll let you know if I could find something on the Internet!

Hi everyone in English AⅢ class!

Hi, how's going there?
Are you guys making the report for tmr?
What are they?
I mean, can you tell me what kind of things you guys writing?
Thanx, see y soon!

Shino

Ready for the end of "Chicago"?

Here's the trailer:

How do you think it will end?

While you're thinking about that, consider the influence of Bob Fosse, native of Chicago, in writing the book the play is based on, not to mention inspiring the choreography. Choreography is listed as "miscellaneous crew" in the Internet Movie Database. That's probably unfair not only to Fosse, but to the whole genre of dance films. Before working in movies he was one of the most important choreographers on Broadway. His influence on American popular dance on both stage and screen is incalculable.

Notice the opening number in "Chicago"? "All that Jazz"? That's also the title of an earlier film written, directed, and (of course) choreographed by Bob Fosse. Many critics insisted it was autobiographical, but Fosse totally denied it. Was he just in denial? Woody Allen always said the same thing about his films to critics who made the same judgements. Judge for yourselves if you want to see another dance movie with even more Bob Fosse influence.

How did you like the Simpsons?

I get asked to show that movie in class a lot. It's one of my favorites, too. You can learn a lot of useful English from it, too, including current slang and even sometimes more technical vocabulary. It has even contributed some words to English, such as "Doh!" and "Meh." Well, maybe that's not so important for your vocabulary, but I know you learned some words watching it. Here's the Wikipedia article about the Simpsons.

Here's a clip from the TV show:

Hello!

Hi,My name is Asuka Watanabe. I'm from Kuroishi city in Aomori prefecture.It's near Hirakawa city. Kuroishi is famous for Kuroishi Yosare,Kokeshi and Hot spring resort. When you are free,please come to Kuroishi. I'll show you around the city by car.I love driving!

I'm a member of professor Carpenter Seminar,too.I'm interested in Spanish culture and Caribbean world. I want to increase knowlege about Spain and find the most interesting topic for me. And I want to improve my Spanish. I have studied it for three years. However Europian language is more difficult than English. I'm not good at studying English, but I like English when I study Spanish. Well...studying Spanish is fun and fresh for me. Spanish pronunciation is same as Japanese. If you have an interest in Spanish, vamos a estudiar Espannol conmigo!

In Hirosaki University, I'm a member of Sakura volunrteer club. I like to come in contact with people and to play with children.This weekend, I'm going to join in children's sport festival to help management.

Nice to meet you:D

Self Introduction!!

Hello, everyone!!
My name is Shunsuke Saito. I'm from Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.
I belong to Professor Carpenter's seminar,and study International Politics. Now, I'm interested in FTA(Free Trade Agreement) of Asia. So, I'm studying it and looking for books about FTA. If you know good books about it, please tell me!!
My favorite thing is Bowling. I'm a bowler. I have played bowling for five years. Bowling is very interesting and exciting for me!! I love bowling!! If you want to take a good score,I'll teach you!!
Nice to meet you!!!!!!

Welcome to class!

Welcome to another English class. Feel free to communicate together on this blog. It also has useful links for learning English. There will be occasional assignments here, too, for you to give reports and provide links, graphics and even videos that will be useful for understanding what you've been doing in class.

English teaching in Japan

I know there was a recent issue of The Japan Times with an interesting article about English teaching in Japan and the planned changes, with input from people who had a variety of opinions. I can't find it searching their website, though, but they always have a lot of articles about teaching English in Japan, so I thought I'd post snippets and links so you could check some of them out and maybe we could discuss one or more of them next week.

"Why do English teachers have to be native speakers?" covers foreign English teachers who themselves learned the language.

While Indian teachers have gradually gained acceptance, instructors from the Philippines are now working toward the same goal. Like many Indians, the majority of Filipinos begin learning English at the age of 3, and most school subjects are taught in English.

At RareJob.com, a new online English tutoring service offering lessons via Skype, the Internet-phone and video-communication service, all of the teachers are Filipino students or graduates of the University of the Philippines in Manilla. Although RareJob's instructors are first screened and then required to complete a training program, CEO Tomohisa Kato admits that many students are skeptical at first.

"Japanese have a kind of prejudice against Filipinos, but once they started our service, they found that they are very good at English, welcoming and professional," Kato explains.

I did see one questionable remark in the article, though.

language testing is dominated by American exams such the TOEIC test

I don't believe the listening test for TOEIC uses only native speaking accents, and I'm almost sure the TOEFL test doesn't. I couldn't find listening practice on the Internet, but in looking for it I found a good set of tips for TOEIC. I hope they are useful for you.

"Shame over poor English level lies with education ministry" is part of a series of columns where people get to talk back to the bureaucrats. It was written by a Japanese who teaches English. He places the blame on the Education Ministry as a whole, but fails to take into account divisions within the Education Ministry.

You may argue, "But the ministry of education hires thousands of native English speakers to teach English communication to the kids." This may be true, but because of the all-important entrance exams, which stress grammar and reading, even if there were time for communicative practice, the students and parents want teachers to focus on what is going to be on the next exam because it will determine the child's future school and most likely the child's future career.

The weight given to the entrance exams — and the system of clearly dividing schools into separate academic levels and allowing little room for a student to change his/her school/eventual career path — have created an out-of-touch bureaucracy and a cultural attitude of hopelessness.

I often hear other teachers say, "Those people in the ministry have no idea what it's like in the public sector or how to solve problems in state schools because they all went to the best private schools in Japan." This fundamental problem means that the ministry of education lacks understanding of what the public wants students to be taught, as well as how to teach students effectively.

All this may be true, but to blame the secondary education section of the Ministry for the insistence by the tertiary education section that all universities must write their own entrance exams seems to me to be displaced. The Center Test does, after all, include a listening section, although it is unfortunately only in US Network Standard English.

University EFL hiring: garbage in, garbage out focuses on the hiring of unqualified teachers at the university level. I applaud the author's concern that university teachers have some training and credentials, but I wonder if the problem is limited to English.

How does one become a EFL instructor at a Japanese university? In my experience many Japanese university administrators cannot speak English and view the whole hiring process as just too much trouble. Consequently, most instructors are hired because they are acquainted with an instructor who is working at a particular university.

The cronyism (i.e., favoritism shown to friends and associates) demonstrated at most universities in Japan almost certainly reduces intellectual debate and hampers institutional growth, thus guaranteeing a lower general standard of English education for students.

Basically, as long as the person "looks" the part, they can become a university English instructor in Japan. Background checks are almost never carried out. In the past, foreign "professors" have been found not to even have undergraduate degrees. In addition to some instructors having no master's degree, which is a prerequisite for having a university teaching job in the West, some instructors have masters that are not language- or teaching- related. Such people are, nevertheless, teaching language courses or are teaching classes unrelated to their masters (e.g., MBAs teaching conversation and writing classes).

This was responded to in a letter More to EFL hiring than 'garbage in, garbage out'

It might be worth noting that Amanda Ripley, in her piece in The Atlantic on primary and secondary education in the U.S., points out that education degrees do not necessarily produce good teaching in American schools. I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true with regard to Japanese universities.

While Tharn is right that some of us teachers are unqualified impostors who got through the door too quickly or easily, he's wrong when he says that the "calculation is a simple one" or that teachers with degrees unrelated to ESL, literature or education are garbage.

While it is true that Japan has a very shoddy higher education system with its fair share of shoddy teachers, the perspectives of people from many disciplines, not the least of which is the study of business, can prove effective in the classroom.

Another article from the same series is "Look overseas to address Japan's lag in English ability"

Japan seems to be the only country in the world where high school English-language textbooks are full of the native language of the learners. Japanese language in high school textbooks is used for various explanations and also for giving commands and instructions for what the students are required to do in a given section. Never has this author encountered a Japanese high school textbook where the learners are given a command or instruction in English. In comparison, high school English textbooks from other non-English countries such as China, France, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia contain absolutely no Chinese, French, Urdu or Arabic, respectively, and give all commands and instructions in English alone.

As a result of the use of such methods and tools, Japanese high school students are not accustomed to hearing English or to being given commands in English to do specific tasks.

In other words, Japan is perhaps the only country still using grammar translation methods to teach a living language.

Finally, a little time for Japan Times columnist Gregory Clark, not because I agree with his ideas or even think he knows what he's taking about (although even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I wouldn't disagree with everything he says here) but because he does seem to be very influential.

It's back to school in Japan, and back to the perennial questions:

• How to find enough teachers able properly to handle English-language classes in primary schools? (Answer: nearly impossible.)

• How to improve foreign-language education generally? (Cut back on high school teaching and concentrate intensive advanced teaching on those who really want it — at university level.)

Some background on Mr. Clark's university and its foreign language instruction is available at the Chronicle of Higher Education, a newspaper from the United States which covers university education around the world. They also have some articles that refer to the university, but you couldn't read them without subscribing to the magazine. Sorry.

update July 6, 2010

We were talking about this topic in class and I mentioned my own contribution to the debate. I wrote an article for the Japan Times, to which they gave the headline "Lay off the linguistics to address English lag", in which I argued that the tendency of Japanese linguistics to argue over transformational grammar, combined with the insistence of the Ministry that English teachers be trained in Linguistics, was in part responsible for the poor standard of English instruction and ability in Japan. I suppose it's worth adding to the discussion.

English Teaching in Japan

I made a report on English teaching in Japan.
They are three references I used.


English taught in English
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20090112a1.html

Test and Score Data Summary for TOEFL Internet-based and Paper-based Tests: 2009 Test Data
http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/test_score_data_summary_2009.pdf

アジア諸国における英語教育の取組み　英語非公用語国を中心として　
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/015/siryo/04052601/004.pdf

Food Crisis

My presentation was about Japanese Food Self-Sufficiency.

I used following materials for my presentation.

The cost of food: Facts and figures

Self-sufficiency rate of major grain products in Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Statistical Handbook of Japan - Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Also, this is interesting article about "Green Lanterns" which may promote people to eat food grown in Japan!

Japanese Pubs and Restaurants Display Green Lanterns to Promote Local Produce

or you can just google "green lanterns japan" and you will find it!

Thank you.

About The Darjeeling Limited

When I watched the movie, I couldn't understand more than half of it.
Thorough seeing Wikipedia or some website, the story is clear to me.
I want to watch the movie again.

I could not understand a word in this movie.
What does "T.B.D." mean?
I suppose Peter or Jack says the word when the train was lost and three brothers went up the hill.

The Darjeeling Limited

This movie is fascinating and a bit weird for me. I didn't catch up with the natural speed conversations in this movie sometimes, but I like it.

I have some questions about this film.
First, there are time lags on the way(before their father's funeral, and after it, I think) I didn't understand around there. And around that part, why did Peter try to move his father's car?

Second, What is the peacock's feather for? and what is the ceremony when they are using that feather, such as dancing and putting small stones?

Third, when the train clerk lady came to the brother's room to give them tea, why did she put red dots on their foreheads?

Finally, Why is the endind theme song "Aux Champs Elysees"?? I did not get the meaning at all...

That's it. I also wonder what did Bill Marley appear first, that was funny though.

I will look for this film in TSUTAYA later :) I'd like you to answer for my questions.

After watching the movie" The Darjjiling Limited"

When I watched this movie, I had lots of fun. However, I couldn't get joking in the movie too.

The parts I was interested in was that 3 guys were brothers. First I didn't think like that, because they were so different. Then I have a question about oldest brother. His face was full of scars. What happen on him? He said something about it in the movie, but I couldn't catch well. Another question, their mother was a munk and 3 guys wanted to see her so much. At the end, they could meet with her. She even didn't know about her husband who died. Also she dissapeared in early morning to run away from them....? Anyway, I'm comfused when I think about their mother. She is kind of strange character in that movie.

I just have these question now. If I find questions more, I'll write down here.

I hope someone answer these questions. Thanks for reading!

The Darjeeling Limited

I'm sure everyone must have a lot of questions about The Darjeeling Limited. I myself wondered what "gaslighting" meant and had to look it up. What new vocabulary did you get from this film? What words (and scenes) do you still not understand? What else do you want to know about the film, the actors, the soundtrack, or anything else related to it? Looking it up on the Internet Movie Database I learned that it did open in Japan in March 2008, but since "I'm not There" didn't get north of Sendai it may not have opened anywhere near Hirosaki. There is, however, an official Japanese site for the movie.

By the way, at least according to Wikipedia, there is no such train as The Darjeeling Limited, which really doesn't surprise me.

The Situation of Women in Japan

This is the article for the case of Japan. Data is kind of old, though...

causes of gender wage gap

This is from the Census Bureau:

Previous studies of the gender wage gap show that wages are generally lower for men and women in occupations that have a higher percentage of female workers (Bayard et al. 2003; Boraas and Rodgers 2003; Roksa 2005).

This analysis shows that the same holds true for work hours. Although sex is a significant predictor of work hours, both men and women work shorter hours in occupations with a higher percentage of female workers even after controlling for the effect of sex, showing an interaction between work hours, occupation, and percent female.

In other words, much of the gender wage gap is a result of men and women working different occupations, at least in the US.

Makeup class?

No, that's not a class in makeup, it means we have to make up some more classes we will miss.

Please add comments here about when you are free and when you would like to have the makeup classes. Maybe in the evenings?

a new information for discussion

I found this PDF file to discuss gender wage gap again.

This file uploaded in March 2010 so I think we can treat this information as nowadays situation.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350.pdf

Ayumi

Articles for discussion

I think there are some problems at women's perticipation to the society in Turkey, for instance, women's employment, gender gap in employment rates, and gender wage gaps, after I read the brief which Mifuru put on. And I found articles that I think it's related to these problems.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6903021.stm

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=174285

These are not statistics but I think it might help us to know what's going on in Turkey now.

Ayumi

Documents for our dicussion

According to the information that mifuru found, more than 70% of women are in paid employment in the Nordic countries.
I found some documents about women's specific situation in their countries.
They are produced under the support of European Commission within the framework of the Socrates.
http://www.women-employment.lt/situation.htm

These are information for our discussion.

I found information for our discussion.
I don't think this is enough, but this helps us to understand the fact about women's payment.

When you click URL below this, you can see information.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/23/31/44720649.pdf

This is "Gender Brief" prepared by the OECD social Policy Division.

I hope it will be useful.

After watching "The Color Purple"

Movie, " The Color Purple" impressed me so much. After watching this, I could know how was the women's position at that time. I thought Celie's life was not good because she was treated as like a slave. In contrast, her sister Nettie was in the good position. For example, Nettie could go to school and have good education. Also, she couldn't have to have children with her father who was not her real father in fact. I mean Nettie had lots of difficulties in her life of course. However, comparing to Celie, Nettie could have better life than Celie. Well, I don't know what kind of life is the best. That depends on you.

Moreover, I was interested in Shug, who was singer in this movie. She is so powerful, sexy, and outgoing. But she had also many tough things in her life.

In sum, this movie lets me think about women's position and women's independence like Celie. I want to see this movie again, then I can understand more deeply!

Mifuru.

statistics on women and men

This is the link to women's wages relative to men's of the United Nation Statistics Division.

about the color purple

This film made me think about discrimination against women. I was shocked to see how cruelly women had been treated in those days.Celie was like a slave for Albert.
Compared with the case of Celie, the situation of Sofia was just the opposite. As women had been fighting against men in her family, they hadn't been treated as Celie. I thought it was so complicated society.

In addition, I became interested in Afro-American English. I noticed that there were the use of "ain't" and the deletion of the auxiliary verb like " What you doing?". To see this film, I came to want to know more about Afro-American English.

questions to the movie

I have some questions to the movie.

#1: Does the sign Celie made when she got away from Albert's house have a special meaning?

#2: Why were Celie's son and daughter with Netti? (How did Netti find them?)

#3: What was Albert trying to do with the letter of immigration stuff? In the last scene, I saw the guy with the horse, and I am sure he was Albert, but why didn't he do anything? (he just thought he couldn't break the sisters apart anymore?)

comment - First, this movie was so moving and interesting. I could see the situation of women living at that time. It was a really difficult time for women to live. Especially, Celie was apart from Netti, her loving sister, so I can imagine her agony. When a man said, "The dead has risen.", I felt the time has come for Celie and everything changed. Celie also could rise from the dead, I thought.

yuya

questions about the color purple

Thank you for putting on nice picture and the author's interview, Mr. Philips.



We watched this movie until the part that Shug came back from her tour to Albert's place.

So far, I have some parts I did not understand in the movie.



First, I did not really get the first part around when Celie was giving birth to her baby. After that, a guy (her father?) took her girl away. Why did he do that? Was he going to give the baby to other people? Also was she raped by her father? If so, that's too horrible...



Second, Conversation between Celie's father and Albert at a scene which Celie's father visited Albert was difficult for me. I just could not understand what they were talking about.



Third, Nettie could read but Celie could not. I think that's why Nettie went to school. so why Celie could not go to school?



Questions about the color purple is that's all so far.


I'm looking forward you to explaining about my questions!

Ayumi

So, how's the movie so far?

If you've seen the first half or so of The Color Purple you should have some questions. It's a complex, long movie that deals with a lot of difficult and controversial themes. I hope you didn't just pick it because it was the only Spielberg movie I brought. You should at least have questions about some of the dialogue you may have had trouble understanding.

By the way, I notice that the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) recommends that if you like this film you'll probably also like "Gone with the Wind", that classic of Japanese culture. (^_~)

Next class - watching a movie

On May 6th and 11th(over the two classes), we will watch the movie called "The Color Purple".

According to IMDb(Internet Movie Database), this movie is about the life and trials of a young African American Woman.

It might be hard to catch what they say, so we will put English subtitles.

Also, it might be good if you look up some information about this movie beforehand on the Internet!

In addition to that, we should decide which topic we will discuss or debate, so you may give a boost to the blog by commenting someone's article and so on!!!

By the way, Enjoy your golden week!!

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.