Hello, my name is Kyoauke Machida

 Hello, my name is Kyosuke Machida. In this term I take Advanced English class, then startd use the blogger! I have to post a disucussing topic here, but first of all, I introduce my self.
 I was born in Aomori and have lived here for 20 years. Since junior high school student, I have played basketball. My hobby is playing basketball and reading "Manga" ! I work at Izakaya "Za Watami". So please come to there when you wanna drink !

 Next I post a topic about English education in japan. Students are worried about making mistakes in English. Who is responsible for instilliing in students this fear of making mistakes? teacher? students? system of how to teach english? I'm going to post a link of this topic. This news says that this problem is a teacher's fault. is it really only teacher's responsibility?

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/01/10/our-lives/teachers-must-nurture-critical-thinking-confidence-in-english-for-a-shot-at-2020-goals/#.U1C8GqyKDcs

Reliability of information on the internet

Hi everyone!
I'm Enkhbat Enkhbaatar. I have taken this class before but didn't post anything on this blog. So, I decided to retake the course and will try to be more active and vigorous this time. Some of you might know me quite well. Anyways, let me introduce myself here. I am Mongolian citizen and came to japan in 2011 as a regular student. I was born and raised in Moscow because my parents were studying in Russia for long time. I was able to speak and understand in Russian language fluently but since my parents returned to Ulanbaatar I had almost no chance to communicate in Russian, so now I only understand in  Russian. As you know, I am in Professor Philip's seminar and researching about Cuban Missile Crisis. When I asked you about the Crisis, none of you even heard of it. So, please check this out.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis or you can watch the movie here 'The thirteen days'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEL45ffs2x4.

Today, during the class, I recommended topic about the purpose of education but it seemed to me quite broad topic, so how about discussing reliability of information on the internet which I found it very interesting. Here is one article which explains how to judge the reliability of information on internet. http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/webtutor/judging.htm.
Looking forward to reading your posts. Thank you!

ICJ orderd halt whaling

In March 31, ICJ ordered to Japan  halt whaling in Antarctic.
ICJ judged the scientific investigation can't justify whaling.
And this judgment affect Japanese Pacific Whaling.

I agree with research whaling. Because the research discover the effect of environment change for ecosystem.
The whale which by-product of the research whaling in Antarctic is about 20% of domestic traffic. And it's used with out being wasted.

URL is here
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-considers-curtailing-whale-hunt-further-media-061319796.html;_ylt=AwrSyCSOuE9TvSUAd.fQtDMD

http://news.yahoo.com/world-court-rules-japans-whaling-not-scientific-ends-095413929.html

11H2088 Takuya Horikawa

Slang?

There are some words that have been used in Chicago but its doesn't appear in my eng-eng dictionary..

1.lavalier
2.veg (it does exist but I don't think thats the real meaning, it said the meaning is vegetable)
3.nerts
4.girder( it does exist in the dictionary but I don't think that was what they try to say in the movie)
5.onyx(same as above)

About the movie "Ｃｈｉｃａｇｏ"

In the latter half of this movie, after Roxy was judged innocent, one woman shot one man and then she was arrested in front of the courthouse.

It was the sudden incident to me, therefore I do not understand why she killed him.

Is there anyone who knows the reason?

About the dance party in the movie `Little Women`.

As I was watching the movie `Little Women` in the class, I noticed few soldiers were in the dance party with other gentlemen and ladies. I thought that only high-society people could attend that kind of dance party, but the soldiers were not even a commissioned officer, they were sergeant and corporal according to their chevron on sleeve. So now, my question is that were anyone allowed to join that kind of party or not.

Free audiobooks and eBook

Hey guys, I just found something cool!!

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

From this website, you could download free audiobooks and eBooks
There are many kind of book you can find here.. Check it out.. :)

HOW TO IMPROVE OUR ENGLISH SKILLS

Could everyone share what did you do to improve your english skills? I got problem especially in listening and writing skills..
1.  I watch same movie for many times so that I could catch up what they were saying, but it seems like doesn't work for me..
2. I'm started to learn back english grammar, but I don't have idea from where and what the best way I could start..
3. What is the best way to improve our english pronunciation? I thought by listening english music and sing it is the best way, however, my english pronunciation never get better.. Do someone got some advice or idea to share to improve this skill?

YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIES

I just wonder what kind of movie that was very famous during your childhood time, of course english movie. For example in Malaysia, the famous movie at that time (1998-2002)

1. Baby Day Out
2. Harry Potter
3. James Bond
4. Home Alone
5. Zorro

In our country, there are no dubbing for english movie but subtitle are provided..(in Malay language of course)

So, what about Japan... I just wonder why all english movie in Japan were dubbed since they wish to improve their english. So,everyone could learn english by watching the movie.
What do you think?

question about Blues Brothers 2

Hi! Did you spend good weekend? I had a part time-job this weekend and had lots of

assignment. So I couldn't enjoy weekend.

After watching the movie all, I still have some questions.

1 Who is the lady? I could understand she tald brothers about her family, but I couldn't understand her connection with brothers.

2 Finally the brothers were arrested by police. But I couldn't understand why their band members were also arrested?

It was so fun movie. And if I have an opportunity,I want to watch another version.

American humor in the movies

I would object to this review's apparent assumption that American humor is monolithic, when in fact it is wildly diverse, from highbrow of various sorts (Steve Allen and Woody Allen should never be confused, just for example) to vulgar slapstick of various sorts. Charles Chaplin seemed to combine all levels in his comedy, but then he was an expatriate Briton who never became an American. He just worked in Hollywood. And the article did note how American humor has changed over time, although ignoring how diverse it remains at any given time.

But I have to recommend this article if only for the following observation:

Yodo-san, as he was affectionately known throughout the Japanese film industry, could as easily tell you why John Belushi was so scintillating in “The Blues Brothers” as weep over the line about life being like a box of chocolates in “Forrest Gump.” He was a living, breathing incarnation of IMDb.com long before the Internet.

I didn't know which was your favorite scene and/or song in the movie, and I had so many myself. Maybe I'll just put this one on the blog for you to enjoy, and you can tell us what else you liked about the movie. If you liked it.



Oh, heck. Why don't I include my favorite song, the only actual 12-bar blues in the film?

Question and comment for BLUES BROTHERS

Hi!I'm Sachiyo.
Did you enjoy today's English class movie BLUES BROTHERS? I really enjoyed it. I have some questions and comment about it.

Questions
1 Who is the lady tried to kill Jake and Elwood? Why she have to kill them?
2 At the car chase, why the brothers dicided to crash into the shopping mall?Why Elwood is good at driving a car?
3 At their first concert, why there is the wire netting in foront of the performer? Is it popular in U.S? Why did the audience throw bottles?

I have many favorite characters, Matt's wife, sister, Ray and of course brothers.
I want to see it all as soon as possible. But actually I couldn't understand jorkes in it. Why don't we have a class about how to understand American jokes? It is probably interesting!

The history of English in 10 minutes

I came across an informative YouTube video about the history of English that I hope you enjoy:

Questions about Psycho

Questions about Psycho

Good evening everyone. I’m Sachiyo. Did you enjoy today’s English class movie Psycho? Actually I couldn’t understand the contents of it. So I ask you 5 questions about it.
1 Who is the man appeared at the first scene? And how is he related with the woman?
2 Why did she steal money?
3 Why did she run away with that money?

4 Why did police man chase her?

5 Why did the motel owner feel affection for her?

The movie was so difficult for me to understand and listen what they talked about. So I couldn’t take any note and get new vocabularies. Next time how about to watch it with English subtitles?

Sachiyo TANDO

Countries I would love to go

I have been to the US, the UK, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore. As for the US, the UK, and New Zealand, the purpose of staying there was to learn English. For Singapore, it was to switch planes.

    I used to wanted to be a backpacker and wanted to visit every country in the world. Now, I do not really want to be a backpacker but I still want to go to every country, even to the North Korea.

    One of the places that I would love to visit Taiwan next because it is relatively close to Japan and I have heard that the food there is nice. I love bubble tea. (๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)

    Another place that I want to visit is Hawaii because the climate there is nice. Also, I am interested in volcanic activities. I have heard that in the Hawaii island, we can see lava going into the ocean.

    Eventually, I will visit every country in the world, hopefully.

Where in the world have you been? (or would like to go)

I really enjoyed today's report, but then it was by one of my students. Maybe the rest of you can tell us a little bit here about places you've been to and others you'd like to visit. I've been to Japan (OK, I know you knew that, but to me it's an exotic overseas location). But I won't tell you that. I guess I'm the only one here who's been to Africa, except Ryo's been to a corner of it in Egypt. How about I post a photo of the lecture I gave at Bayero University, Kano last time I was there?

No? OK, how about Nigerian tofu?

OK, how about something more touristy, like a cool refreshing waterfall on the plateau?

Kurosawa's movie

 Здравствуйте!
Yesterday, I had watched the movie; Dersu Uzala. This movie was my first Kurosawa's movie. I  heard Russian words after so long. I learned Russian languages in my high school.

• До сьидания. → See you!
• Правила → a rule
• Пожалуйста → please
• Вы всегд можете. → You're welcome. 
• Это → this

I heard these words from this movie.
I want to study and learn Russian languages and conversation more.
Thank you for reading.
 Дасвидания!

My first Kurosawa movie: Dersu Uzala

We have finished watching ''Dersu Uzala' directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was my first Kurosawa movie, so do everyone else. I was surprised that the character was based on the real person. The ending was a bit sad but it was like a spice for the movie. I just thought that, for Dersu, it was the tiger that led him to the fate. Overall,  I, unexpectedly ,enjoyed the movie. ^_^

   About the similarities between the Altaic languages and Japanese language: even though both types of language has SOV word order, that does not mean anything when we talk about the relationship between those languages, since 43% of the languages in the world has SOV order. Even with the Korean language which seems to be quit similar to the Japanese language, it can not be said that those two are related because those languages does not share the basic terms.

    I am looking forward the presentations next week!

Let's blog about the movies we're watching

Here's a scene you've already seen, one of the most famous from the film, if not in all cinema. 
Tell us what you liked about the film, what you didn't like, what you learned from it, and how you think it will end.

About Souls & Akuma-kun

I have been thinking about souls, and tonight, I had a chance to talk about this, with a person who was raised in France and had studied in a Catholic school for five years. He told me that animals do not have souls, as professor Philips mentioned in the class, and that the laughter is the evidence for someone having a soul, as explained in one of the Simpsons's episodes.
    It is a little bit difficult for me to understand the definition of the soul in the way that is understood by the people who have Christianity background. For me souls are something that are in the animals including human beings. I guess this was the same idea that people in ancient Rome had, because the word for 'soul' in Latin is 'anima' and from this the word 'animal (living creature)' had been derived. However, apparently the concept had been changed with time and the word soul is started to be used to differentiate humans from other creatures.
    It, relatively, makes sense to distinguish human beings and other animals by whether to laugh or not. I have never seen any creatures laugh like humans except apes(Chimps, Other Apes Laugh Like People.). I am impressed how people could notice the difference between them. Also, the person that I have talked told me an interesting story about a debate over whether native Americans have souls or not, during the Age of Exploration (Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1547) - Digital History).
    I assume that for a religion such as Christianity, they needed to categorise humans into a different group to teach people about morals, because, to me, animals do not really have a rational mind to control their behaviour.
   This, soul, is a quite interesting concept, so I would love to study more when I have time.


The top picture is a game package for Akuma-kun which was the originally a comic by Shigeru Mizuki. The boy in the middle with a card is the main character, Akuma-kun. A man next to him who is in a suit, is Mefist II. To my surprise, there is a character called Doctor Faust II. He is the old man with lots of white hair with a green cloak. He is the principal of the Mienai Gakkou (Invisible School).

Akuma-kun has to save the world from bad devils with the helps of the good devils that he calls from the devildom using magic circle.
    I remember the theme song of this animation and believe that I used to watch this, however, the stories seem so new to me and interesting. I would love to watch this again and see what kind of features had been adopted from the original 'Faust'.

Coming up next . . .

OK, I know nobody likes Saturday classes but I just work here, I don't make the rules. To try to make everyone happy and continue with our study of classical English literature, I'd like to show you the two "Simpsons" episodes that deal with selling one's soul. Bart sells his soul to Milhouse Van Houten for $5 (kaching!) while Homer sells his for (what else?) a donut.

I'm looking forward to Saturday's discussion. I think we had a nice one today, don't you?

about "Faust"

I don't know where to start with "Faust" here. Maybe I'll just google "Faust" on the Internet. First comes up Wikipedia (why am I not surprised?) with sublinks to Goethe's Faust and the French opera. The Wikipedia page has two different disambiguation pages, one for "Faust" and the other for "Faustus". But since Faustus is a name of other persons, I'll just link the page about Dr. Faustus here. Anyway, that's how important and influential this story is in world literature. The "Faustian Bargain" (or deal with the Devil) has another Wikipedia entry. It also has an entry in the standard folktale type index used by folklorists. There's even a faust.com page about the legend. The Wikipedia page about Marlowe's play probably has more than you wanted to know about the play, including arguments scholars still have about its religious meaning, and the different ways it can be interpreted. Let me quote a little of that section of the page:

The theological implications of Doctor Faustus have been the subject of considerable debate throughout the last century. Among the most complicated points of contention is whether the play supports or challenges the Calvinist doctrine of absolute predestination, which dominated the lectures and writings of many English scholars in the latter half of the sixteenth century. According to Calvin, predestination meant that God, acting of his own free will, elects some people to be saved and others to be damned — thus, the individual has no control over his own ultimate fate. This doctrine was the source of great controversy because it was seen by the so-called anti-Calvinists to limit man's free will in regard to faith and salvation, and to present a dilemma in terms of theodicy. At the time Doctor Faustus was performed, this doctrine was on the rise in England, and under the direction of Puritan theologians at Cambridge and Oxford had come to be considered the orthodox position of the Church of England.[16] Nevertheless, it remained the source of vigorous and, at times, heated debate between Calvinist scholars, such as William Whitaker and William Perkins, and anti-Calvinists, such as William Barrett and Peter Baro.[17] The dispute between these Cambridge intellectuals had quite nearly reached its zenith by the time Marlowe was a student there in the 1580s, and likely would have influenced him deeply, as it did many of his fellow students.[18]

I'm looking for a good video to post here, but as I said, it's a pity that this "Liz and Dick" vehicle is the only major film version of Marlowe's "Tragical Historie of Dr. Faustus", one of the most influential plays in history. Here's a video of part of a college production (Burton's film was almost a college production, too): Someone posted an entire video of the complete stage play, but I didn't watch through the whole thing. One of the comments reads:

The entire first scene is wasted the acoustics are so bad. The actors shout instead of project their voices. The play is actually more subtle than one would think from this reading.

Tell me what you thought about it, and if you know any other stories influenced by it.

My Hobbies

 1. watching baseball games

  I like to watch baseball games; especially professional baseball. I'm excited at their plays. A month ago, I went to Akita to watch the games, the Swallows vs the Giants. I'm glad to see my favorite players and to watch games. In fact, it was cold that day, and I had a cold for several days. I want to go to watch games again someday.

2. cooking and making

  I like cooking and making cakes. Though I say it myself, I'm good at cooking fried chicken, chili con carne and making cheesecake. I like not only to cook but also to eat alone or with my friends. I sometimes study meals and cooking by reading recipe books and columns in newspapers.

3. collecting goods

  I'm collecting a variety of goods; especially, baseball and Snoopy. I have 6 stuffed dolls, 4 megaphones, 3 posters and other goods. My room is filled with these goods, but I like Snoopy and baseball, and I can't stop collecting them.

      

Hobbies?

It can be difficult when I think about my hobbies. During the school period, I do not have enough time to enjoy doing something else other than my study. The other day, I "managed" to make some time to watch American TV series called 'Medium'. I quite liked it. Besides this series I also like to watch the Big Bang Theory. I have finished watching all the episodes but I watch some of them again. The main character, Sheldon Cooper is nerdy and sometimes he speaks really fast so it can be a good practise for my listening skill. I can learn academic vocabulary as  well, since he is a physicist and works for a university.

I also like to wonder about languages. This is something related to my study and often for my assignment but it is quite fun for me to do so. Recently I had been thinking how strange the Japanese word 'toumorokoshi (corn)' is. I have noticed that in classical Japanese texts, the word 'morokoshi' means the Chinese Tang dynasty, but also 'tou' means Chinese Tang dynasty. Therefore I thought it was interesting word.

However, when I have spare time, I do enjoy other things like, creating websites with HTML, drawing, painting, listening to music, singing, dancing, travelling, and reading.

My Hobby

My hobby...it's a kinda difficult question for me...
I may be able to say that my hobby is wacthing movies.
Usually I do not watch romances but socially ones
like "OUR DAILY BREAD", "Darwin's Nightmare", and "Black Gold".
    
They are about food issues, so if you are interested in them, I can lent them to you.
And also I like to wacth love-hate battles between females like "Ooku" and "Fusin no Toki"!:D
 


Watching them give me motivations for many things like study or being a girl.
And I really like to watch them because they give me lots of info I did not know.
Maybe it is not what Professor Philips since I am not relaxes by them,
but when I have nothing to do, I try to watch some movies so I could say it is my hobby.
If you have time, I would lile to know what kind of movies you like to watch.

Let's blog about our hobbies!

One of my hobbies is playing chess. This is the western form of the same game that started in central or south Asia somewhere, went east and became shogi in Japan. At my former university my senpai was interested in learning chess and I used to help him. He also taught me shogi. There are not many in Japan who play chess, although shogi is quite popular, so now I mostly play on my computer. I use the software "Big Bang Chess" which came with a previous computer of mine. It crashes a lot and I had to increase the difficulty from the original setting, but I think my game is improving by practicing with it.

So what's your hobby? What do you do when you're waiting for a download or the website you want to watch is loading, or when you're done with all your work and just want to relax?

English education

I have read some articles about English education in elementary schools in Japan on the Japan Times. Those were relatively old, but I have found an interesting survey result on this article, and I quote,  "A survey published by the ministry in 2005 found 71 percent of parents and guardians favored making English compulsory in elementary schools, while 54 percent of teachers were opposed." This survey was done in 2005, and can be too old, however, I believe this result depicts the reality well.
    It is now a common knowledge that learning English is important to have some kind of advantages in Japan's society. If someone has high TOEIC score, he or she might have more chance to get a well-paying job, which is considered as a good job.
    It seems that many Japanese people, especially parents of young children, may be obsessed by English education. The survey shows that 71 percent of parents or guardians want their children to learn English, in elementary schools. This might be because they had some difficulties with not being able to use the language. 
    Looking at the real situation, the one who has to teach English language at elementary school is mainly the homeroom teachers, who have not trained to teach it. Therefore  they are not confident, and also it can be too much of a work for them  because they teaches many subjects and also have to deal with pupils' parents and even with some 'monster parents'. They might have some help from ALT, but as the words indicate, Assistant Language Teachers are just to assist, so mainly the homeroom teacher have to make the lesson plans. For this reason, I assume that, as the survey result showed, teachers do not want to make English language compulsory.
    I do not know how teachers at elementary schools are coping with English lessons right now, but I hope the lessons are interesting for pupils. Otherwise it is nothing but a disaster, possibly making children to hate English language at an earlier age.


Thankfully, I did not receive proper English education at secondary schools so I did not hate it, but I must admit that since I have entered the university and been having to study English, I started to have less interest in it than before. However, by enjoying using English, especially in this class, I hope I will be able not to hate it. (?)

Something about education this week?

This week we wound up talking a lot about education, especially language education, and especially English language education, and maybe especially English language education in Japan. It's a big topic. Wikipedia has a whole category of articles about English language education, including one about English language education in Japan. Of course Wikipedia is controversial, and not always accurate, but it's a good place to start researching anything. I always tell students to use Wikipedia but don't cite it. Read the footnotes and track down the information as far as you can, to find out where they're getting it from. Don't forget to go back a few weeks later to see if the article has changed. I have some favorite Wikipedia articles that I like to follow as they change. But I do use Wikipedia, especially to start research, although I don't think I would put it into a footnote. I'll let you find other sites about learning English and link to them for us. I'd like to show you a video from YouTube about English as a second language: I hope you enjoy it! (^_^)

I have no favorite food; I eat meats, fish and vegetables.
I like cooking and eating. Recently, I have tried to cook various food; chili con carne, borshch, fried chicken and so on... I always enjoy cooking.
 However, I don't like mushrooms, konnyaku, bean-starch vermicelli (harusame in Japan), jellies and chocolates.

Economics

I used to sneak into classes which were related to business, while I was in New Zealand. It was the closest that I have got to economics, because I had interests in other subjects but not in them.  However, someone told me that if I am planning to work for a company in the future, it will be better to know about things related to business. Therefore, now I take an introductory economics class, and some business classes.

    However, I do not usually read any economic newspapers. I get information on economy by reading economic topics (?) on Yahoo! JAPAN, or by skimming through general newspapers such as The Japan Times, though I do not particularly try to pick up economic articles.

    The only Japanese economist that I know is the lecturer of my economics class.

    I do not know much about economics now but I am hoping to obtain some knowledge through taking the economics class. Right now, I can only tell that by restoring from the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan's economy grew slightly.

Something about economics this week?

Somehow we went from ordering food to my discussing basic economics and why I think it should be a required subject. Economics at Japanese universities seems to be a very diverse subject, with Keynesians, Marxians, Ricardans and even supply-siders, although I can't say I've met anyone from the Austrian school here yet. This is an English class, though, not economics, although a little basic English vocabulary about economics probably wouldn't be a bad subject for you to learn. I studied economics when Paul Samuelson wrote the standard textbook in the US. Milton Friedman and John Kenneth Galbraith defined the right and left of US economics respectively, but they're both dead now, as is Paul Samuelson. Economics has moved on, and I was never really an expert, anyway, I just knew enough to follow stories and discuss it intelligently, or at least try to discuss it intelligently. Some of my favorite economists working today include Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winning development economist with some original and challenging ideas, and Paul Krugman, another Nobel Prize winner who writes for the New York Times. They are both controversial, but even if you don't agree with them you can't ignore their ideas, which are always interesting and thought provoking. I recommend you read something they wrote if you are interested in development economics or the problems of contemporary policy. Do you read any economists? How do you get information about the economy? Can you tell us about Japanese economists? I'd like you to link to some source(s) of economic information, but I don't know if you have any sources in English. The Wall Street Journal is sort of the 日本経済新聞 of the United States. Even people who don't read their editorials trust their information. AAMOF, I was just reading one of their articles before posting this to the blog. What can you find about economics on the Internet, preferably in English, and what can you tell us about it?

Self-introduction and Favorite Food

It's Rikako!
Finally I figured out how to post here...

Well, my name is Rikako Nakajima.
I do not care how you call me, so call me whatever you like.
I belong to Mr. Caprpenter's International Politics Seminar.
By the way, I am junior.

About my favorite food...
I really like sweets with drinks, like some chocolates with cups of coffee.
But recently I can not just eat sweets...maybe I got old.
So I also like salty food, not spicy, not hot.
I have cried by Thai food many times...
If it is not spicy or hot, I really like Chinese food
like Mabo-tofu, Mabo-egg plant, and Chinjaorosu
(I cound not find good English words for them...)

Roti Canai!

I have many favourite food. One of my favourite cuisines is Roti Canai. It is an Indian-influenced Malaysian (or Indonesian) crêpe-like food often served with curry. OMG! It looks so delicious in the picture! It contains quite a bit of ghee (butter) so it can be oily, but tastes soooo good. They way people make it is interesting as well. Check the youtube video! I like to have Roti Canai with beef curry and tea with milk called Teh Tarik.

I have tried hummus at some Turkish restaurants and I loved it! Hummus is pasted chickpeas mixed with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and oil, originated Egypt (according to Wikipedia). I usually eat hummus with lamb shish, pita bread, and apple tea.

I have never tried Greek food so I would love to try it someday.

Next assignment: FOOD

Since I brought money to explain about other countries' systems of currency, and since we're going to use menus to order food with the money, I thought we should talk on the blog about what kinds of food we like and what we would like to try. One cuisine I miss a lot in Japan is Greek. There are plenty of French, Italian, Chinese, Indian and of course Japanese restaurants in Japan, but I can't think when I have ever seen a Greek restaurant. Does anyone know of a Greek restaurant in Japan? Greek food is very popular in the US, to the extent that it's a stereotype of Greek Americans that they own restaurants. There are plenty of other stereotypes, of course, but the Greek American diner has even been satirized on "Saturday Night Live." According to the New York Times:

Estimates are that there are well over 1,000 coffee shops and diners operated by Greek immigrants in the New York metropolitan area alone, and countless others up and down the East Coast.

The most stereotypical Greek dish is probably Moussaka, but the word is derived from Arabic, and in fact the dish is found all over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Greek is really just one variety of cuisine from that part of the world, and is similar to most of the others. There are many "falafel joints" in the United States that sell the same bean cakes in pita bread. Sometimes they are Greek, sometimes Lebanese or Egyptian, sometimes Israeli, but they all have basically the same food. I remember asking the waitress in a Greek restaurant one time what the "Greek Coffee" on the menu was. She leaned over and whispered "It's Turkish Coffee, but don't tell my boss I said that." Whenever I'm back in the States or passing through Europe I try to get to a Greek restaurant. I hope you try Greek food someday. They really know how to cook lamb deliciously. Here are some pictures of Greek food from the Internet:

 Hello!!

 I'm Kanae. I have been in Aomori since I was born. There are many good things in Aomori; the Nebuta Festival, beautiful cherry blossom and sea in the park, and stars in the sky.

 I belong to international society course and major in international politics. Now, I'm interested in relationships Taiwan and China. I believe in the improvement in their relations, but it's very difficult. I want to consider the solution some day!

 See you, next!

I am the Ryo!

Hi, everyone!
My name is Ryo. I'm in Humanities.
I take this class to improve my English. Especially, speaking skill.
My dream is to order a hamburger in the US like an American.
I've been dreaming about that since I was little.
For my cool dream, I'll do my best in this awesome class!!

One of my favorite hobbies is traveling.
Egypt was pretty fun because I did scuba diving.
When I dived in a sea at night, I felt as if I was in the space.

Also, I joined the Egyptian revolution in 2011.
I'll never forget what I experienced there.

Hello there!


I am Sasha, majoring in Natural Language Analysis in the Department of Occidental Culture at Hirosaki Univerisity. I was born and raised in Tsugaru area.


I love learning languages including programming languages, and looking at paradigms (inflection charts) and letters. I think they are neat and beautiful, however, I do not really like capital letters of the Latin alphabet.


Recently I am interested in Japanese language, and hoping to continue my study in that field and become a Japanese language geek.
I also like listening to music, singing, drawing, snowboarding etc.


In this class, I would love to practice English by discussing some topics or watching sitcoms, especially The Big Bang Theory. I am also interested in learning English idioms, sayings and proverbs. My recent favourite proverb is 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. It refers to someone who is a generalist but not a specialist. Probably, we can pick up several useful idioms, sayings or proverbs and introduce them to the others in the class.

Welcome to 2012 English class!

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

My feeling

Good evening

We finished our English class. I hope this class was effective in learning English for us.  For me, even though I can not speak very well and do not have large vocabulary, I tried to speak in the range of my level. I think my speaking ability developed compared with before. Before I was very shy when I speak in English. Because  i was always worried about grammatical errors and could not speak. During this class , I know that i did many grammatical mistakes. But I did not care and I could communicate you guys . For that reason I could develope my speaking ability and realized should not be ashamed. 
  And I would like to express my thanks to guys for taking this class. Because you guys' English level was good (especially Shino and Saya)  it was an encouragement and envy to me. 
At last, thank you very much teacher. Although it is true that I could not understand your speaking well and it was very fast for me(:p) , this class could be good practice. 
Thank you everyone.

My topic was Palmistry

Good evening.
I saw you guys' discussion topic and i will think about them.
But there is not only my topic. Although we finished it, i want to tell my topic was about palmistry for someone who was not last class.

see you tomorrow, our last English class

For the last lesson...

Good evening, how's going?
I understood you guys.
My topick is about a marriage.
When you get married, do you want to keep your job or quit?
Why?
It's the debate topic.
Let's think about it together.

Good night and see you guys tomorrow:)

Shino

report topic

hi! how are you?

first, im sorry about last week. i overslept...xo
tomorrow i absolutely get up early... sorry

by the way, i decided my report topic and i wanna you to consider about "Same sex marriage".
On july, i read the news that N.Y state received the low "Same sex marrige".
of course among you guys, may think that it is inadmissible... but why?
many problems may be happen about "Same sex marrige" and construction of society.
however only that, it is strange to arrest people who got married to same sex person.
what do you think about it?

sorry, i cant introduce about my topic.
see you next class!!

Aska

Hi, how are you doing?
I'm dying coz of exams...

By the way,I heard I have to make a topic to discuss, and give you guys some introduction first...
so I said I was gonna talk about a movie "twilight", but I've changed it.
My topic is about "only child".
I don't know if you guys have any sisters or brothers, but I'm only child.
I mean I don't have any sis or bro.
Generally, the image of only child is like lonly,pitier,selfish,non sociability....
There is no good image.
What do you think about it?
Do you wanna have one kid or more?
Is there no advantage for only child??

Let's talk about it on Tuesday.
See you soon.

Report topic

hi,
How was your test?
I did my best, but I wonder if my score is good;; Thursday morning, I have Chinese class test, so I'm very nervous...

By the way, about tomorrow's class, I'm going to talk about a pet. This is not difficult question, I think^^
If you have time, please think about a pet. If you have a pet, please tell me about him/she.

But, I'm writing a report now;; I wonder if I finish writing a report by English class>< I do my best!!

see you, tomorrow:)

Shino vol.2

I would like to talk about ａmarriage.
Would you like to get married or not?
why?
Would you like your partner to quit the job or not?

It'll be my turn tomorrow, right?
If you have time, please think about it.

cheers,

Hi, everyone.
Actually I'm not available on Thursday.
I already told Mr.Philips.
Sorry , I will do my report on the last class.
Good luck;)

Saya

p.s I may be gonna talk about a movie "Twilight".
Have you guys watched it ?
Even if not, no worry, I will try to explain the story!

Shino

hi guys, how are you?
I had a test in the morning.
I could't do very well do that it still makes me depressed.

By the way, how many people are ganna make the reports?
Please let me know.

I hope everyone had a good time today!

Remember, you can listen to all different kinds of podcasts any time you want to listen to English for practice. I played some of my favorites today, but there are many more you can listen to at your leisure.

Don't forget there are plenty of movies you can watch in my office, too. Here's a trailer for one:

Good evening:D

first, sorry I was absent from before class(8/30) because I came back to Aomori from Osaka in the morning and I reached my home at 10:00. So I couldnt go to English class in time.

I read your comments...I wanna practece listening English too, but I wanna try to talk something in English.

However we dont have any time to prepare anyting...so...do you have any ideas?
if there are nothing to do next class, I wanna listen to English :)


Aska

More listening?

OK, you want more listening practice. Listening to podcasts is harder than listening to movies, since you can't watch. If you didn't know that before Thursday you should have learned it in the last class. The question is whether we try more of that or something else. Your comments welcome. :-)

tomorrow

Hi, everyone.
I would like to watch another movie tomorrow too.
Watching the movies is a good way to practice for reading, listening and vocab.
We chose some movies in our first class, and actually the simpsons and Chicago which we have already watched were my choices!
(maybe you guys also choose the simpsons)
So I would like to watch other movies which you guys chose.

And, I think we should do something after watching a movie...I mean, not just watching a movie...but I don't have any ideas ^^;
We should speak more...no?

thanks.

Tomorrow's Class

Hi,

Do you prepare for tests?
I have a lot of assignments;;
I cant do;;

Tomorrow's English class, what should we do?
Last week, we watched Russian movie, we practiced reading skill.
Tomorrow is writing or listening or speaking practice?

Shino, you wanna watch another movie, right?
I agree to you!! I'd like to watch a movie, especially English movie with English subtitles because I wanna practice reading and listening practice more!!

How about you, everyone?

tomorrow

hi guys, how are you?
id like to watch a movie which we've chosen several weeks ago.
i don't mind what kind of movie we are ganna have it.
how about you?

Have not seen you for a long time

Good morning. I haven't seen you guys and teacher for a long time. How was your first summer vocation. I hope it was wonderful.
First I need to apologize for being absent last week's English class. Because I was not in Japan. In my summer vocation, I went to Mongolia after 2 years. It is been a long time.  Last two years, there were lots of changes in Mongolia and I realized many things.
I wanted to come back here before beginning of university . But there was no ticket of 20 and so I bought only ticket of 24.  Therefore,  I could not get English class. I am so sorry.

I heard that you guys watched movie last class. But I do not know  what we do next class. I am glad if you answer this.






.

Here's the trailer

Sorry to add this after you've seen the film, but I hope it's interesting.

the movie

hi guys, good morning!

last time, the movie was so interesting, and easier to understand english than the simpsons!
derus is so smart, and has so much knowledges.
his skills are needed for living in that kind of environment.
i guess he means so much to the captain.
anyway i expect rest of the movie today.

see you soon

DERSU UZALA

Good evening, everyone!!

On Tuesday, we watched a movie "DERSU UZALA". This was Russian movie. Actors spoke Russian, so I couldn't understand what they said;; But English subtitles was on, this was easy to understand for me. I could understand the story of this movie.

DERSU UZALA helped soldiers and Captain of them. Yesterday's last scene, Captain told DERSU to come with them, but he refused. This scene means that he is proud of being a hunter, and he want to live in a place where his family died, I think. It was very interesting!!

In tomorrow's class, we will watch the rest of the movie, right?
I'm looking forward to it^^

thanks, see you tomorrow!!

Movie

Good evening, how is going everyone?

I enjoyed the movie yesterday.
It was interesting for me that listening to other languages because there's few chances to hear them except English.
I've seen a movie "Salt" before.
In that movie, Angelina Jolie was speaking Russian language.
I like it too.

I didn't understand some words in that movie but I've already got them by using dictionary.
I look forward to watching it again tomorrow.

See ya soon.

Hi everyone

I'm sorry that I hadn't been hare for a long time.
Last class on Tuesday, it was a good opportunity to know what the blues is.
In fact, it was the first time to think about it for me.

Why I'm here today is that I don't know what we are going to do tomorrow.
I think we would have writng test or something.
It is also last class just before the summer break.
If you want to do something else, please tell us.
Have a good night,

Shino

Here's now to add trailers

or anything from YouTube, really.

Press "share" then "embed" then copy to code. Then paste it in your message, like this:



From the most romantic movie ever made.

Recommend movie

Good morning guys

i want to share my favorite movies. These movies are ''Ugly Betty'' and ''One tree hill''.  It is very interesting and amazing. I saw all season and episode. ''Ugly Betty'' has 4season 85episode, '' One tree hill'' has 8 season and each season has 22episode. it takes much time if you see until the final season. But it is very interesting so recommend them.

And here is a site link, there are many movies in this site, of course included these two movies.
http://www.sidereel.com/

i tried to share trailers of these movies, but there is error - [URL contains illegal characters ]? i don't know
'One tree hill' trailer is  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nk-Tp5ZSPs
'Ugly Betty' trailer is  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IFgj1A6uMU

Have a good time and enjoy your weekend and Monday, yeah we have no class on Monday

Tomorrow ...

Good evening everyone.

I decided my report topic and it's about "Uti and Soto".
When I was young, my mother usually said "Uti is uti, soto is soto."
Japanese like to gather with Japanese and they(we) are reluctant to make a group with Yosomono(others).

This way of thinking is good but it leads to many problems, I think.

Thanks:)

Report topic

Good evening

My report topic is ''Japanese respectful language(honorifics 敬語)''.
A half year ago, I took a survey from foreigner students about their surprised things when they came in Japan. Most of students answered that  there were many honorifics and  Japanese respectful language was tiresome. And i think that too.
So i decided to write this topic.

To Saya...

See!
In fact, I was not sure about that.
I forgot what we were ganna research on our report...lol
I'm sorry, now I got it.

Shino

I guees...

Hi guys, how was this weekend?
I did nothing special as usual lol

Shino, Y mean that y will introduce one of "Japanese traditional stuff",right?
Well, that's a nice idea, but actually I meant debate about both bad and good sides about Japanese culture.
Anyway, that's fine!

I'm gonna write a report about ''Honne to(and) Tatemae''...maybe...
if i can...

have a good night


saya

Shino

Good evening;)
How was your weeked?
I had no part-time job this weeked, I enjoyed a party with my friends at Mr. Sawada's home yesterday and I slept allday:-)

I'm going to tell about tea ceremony and Japanese dance on my report.
How about you guys?

Actually....

I said i cant attend the class next Tuesday, but I was wrong!!!
I can attend the class next Tuesday, but I have to be abcent on Tuesday, 19th July.
Sorry, so I should write a report about Japanese culture by next Tuesday,right??



Saya

Shino

Ok, sounds good Shunsuke.
In my opinion, I'd like to discuss "First impression".
What is the first impression, how important it is for you guys, sth like that:)

Thanx,

Shino

Hi!!

Hi, how are you?

Shino, I think you are right. Tomorrow, we have to do discussion(debate??), maybe.
We had better decide a topic, but we have little time for preparing. So, an easy topic is good!!

For example, How about Communication??(what is good communication?, How to ice-breaking, How to communicate people who you meet first time...etc). But this is a little bit difficult topic...;;
Though I suggested, I don't reccomend...

So, do you have any other ideas?

Gd evening:)

Hi, how's going?
What are we ganna talk about tmr?
I mean we're going to have discussion tomorrow, right?
we have to decide the topic tonight...well, do I misunderstand?

I hope someone will reply for me;)

Shino

Hi, there^^

Hi guys, you had a good weekend, didn't you?


my opinion what we do after watching the Simpsons is debating about Japanese culture.
actually i just combined you guys' ideas...
coz we are gonna watch the Simpsons, the story is about visiting Japan.
we will know what foreigners think about Japan.
we will realize there are many both good and bad japanese culture or habits.
also,we may be able to get many opinions from Mr,Philips and Tsagaanaa:)

during the kind of debate, we should use new vocabs that we get them from the movie.
.....

that's my opinion:)


Saya

Good evening

Hi!
I forgot my password, I couldn't write article.
Now, I get new password. Be careful so as not to forget your password.

By the way... I think what we sould do next English class.
Watching Simpsons is good idea becouse we like Simpsons and animation can remind us easier what they do and what they say.
If we can't understand perfectly what they say, we can imagine them from scenes.
The result of watching and hearing , we can study vocabulary or idiom, I think.
I want to more increase my vocabulary...

And I think listening to news is good, Shunsuke. I wanna lisning to English, too.

Thanks:)

Aska

About Tomorrow's Class

Hi,

I don't have any ideas yet, but I think watching Simpsons is a good idea. I agree with Shino.
And, Tsagaanaa's idea(Talking about some topics) sounds good, but there is little time for preparing for the topic. So, if we do that, we should choose easy topic (introducing our hobbies, how was our weekend, ...etc).



...How about listening training??
That was done last class, but I don't think it was enough.
So, I want to do that again!!!!
If we do it, I'd like to listen to more News.

Do you have any ohter ideas????

Hi

Hi, how are you today?
Tsagaanaa, you had a good weekend!
That sounds really fun;)
I think I should spend my time outside more.

It's rainy, and I'm so cold today:(
I know some people get sick 'caz of the weather, and can't attend their classes.
Please take care of yourself, don't catch a cold;;

Well, I have thought of the next class, what we should do on Tuesday, but haven't come up with any ideas yet.
I think Tsagaanaa's idea is good:)

We'll watch the Simpsons first, and then talk about sth...
Well wait, if we do that, we should've decide the topic, and look over it, searching on the Internet or books to spread our knowledge out in advance.
Umm...oh, it maybe depends on the topic...:(

How about writing?
Mr. Philips said we've done well on the writing test on that day.

I also look forward to hearing from other people about the class.

Thanx,

Shino:)

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.