next assignment

Because next week is Golden Week I am tempted to give you the same assignment I gave the other class with a blog, i.e. to chronicle their plans and activities for Golden Week. I'd like you all to do that, too, if you could. Please include pictures of your activities if you can. Golden Week in Hirosaki is very beautiful, and we all like to see cherry blossoms.

I'd also like you to let us know how you think we can best use this blog and let us know what you think we should do on it. Some of your suggestions will become blog assignments, so please be careful to suggest things that you really think will be useful for the class.

the subject of our debate

I'd like to devate the atomic power station. There is a nuclear facility in Aomori. How about that.
Do you think it's necessary, or not?

My goodness that was an interesting class today!

I'm sorry I talked more than I had intended to in the class, but everyone got a chance to say something, and several people had to work on what they were going to say. I think everyone learned some new vocabulary that may come in handy later. So in general it was a productive class. I hope we have more like it. Please try to speak up more and interact more directly with other students. It should become easier over the course of the class, until by the end you won't need me to hold a class. In fact, when I am in the UK you will have to do it without me. (--);

Everyone said they wanted to debate something in the class but they couldn't decide what to debate. Either it has to be something that the class disagrees on, with a fairly even split, or you have to agree to take a position you don't really agree with and defend it in the debate. It's up to you students what you want to debate, but you have to agree on a topic.

This week's topic, therefore, is to decide on a topic of debate for the class. This is in addition to your regular groups that will report as already planned. In fact, the debate groups will probably be very different from the report groups that you are already in, but that will give you a chance to interact in English with more people from the class.

BTW, here is the video of the Japanese political assassination that I mentioned:

Hello! This is Misato☆

Hi! This is Misato. This article is my first contribution. Today, let me introduce about myself.
My name is Misato Yoshida. I came from Morioka in Iwate. And now I live in Hirosaki.
My family grow up apples. My father is office worker, so my mother and my grandmother work for apples. On a holiday, my father and my sisters help them. Thanks for them, I can eat a lot of apples for free. Aomori is famous of apples, but I have never eaten apples which made in Aomori.
My major is International cooperation. This theme is very difficult, but it's very interesteding. My teacher is Mr.Kojimoto. I thought he is VERY strict person, but he has a strong passion for his study. His attitude for his study is always intense. That's very excellnt. Next Wednesday, we hold a discourse about Japan Overseas Coorperation Volunteers. I have to prepare of this discourse, and I'm so busy. But I don't diskile it because this is my interst field. Please attend the discourse if you have a interest to Japan Overseas Coorperation Volunteers.

That's all. Thank you.

P.S Please tell me if you find some mistakes about my English!

Hey, everybody

Welcome to the advanced English practice class. I haven't used this particular blog for a while because I haven't had the advanced class, but I just cleared the decks and sent invitations to everyone enrolled. Feel free to check out the links, and suggest anything you would like to see improving the blog.

This blog is an assignment for the class, to give you practice with English and the Internet, as well as to provide a means of communication for the class. Don't forget to check the blog regularly and see what others are posting. You will be required to post at least one message and one comment every week. Many of the weeks' assignments will be specific projects, and most of them will be made here on the class blog, not in class. So don't forget to keep coming back.

Let's start with self-introductions. Please tell us a little about yourself, what you hope to get out of this English class (besides credit) and what you suggest we do on the blog together.

the class party

I went to the class party yesterday, and I enjoyed it very much.
I ate yakiniku after a long time, so I enjoyed eating itself, and ofcourse, talking with you all was fantastic! I might eat too much yesterday...(^-^;)

I enjoyed and loved this class a lot. I was happy I could talk with you all a lot. There were lots of fun and good stimulation. And I feel my English has improved since I took this class.
I wish we could continue the class...(>_<)

Thanks everyone! and thank you, Mr.Philips!

Finish!!

The communication class l4 finished today. Good job everyone!!
How was the lesson of English?
I could enjoy. Today's the report of English game was fun,too.
I love the song "you're beautiful". The pure love song!!
With playing game, I was crying because the lyric was...Excellent!!
And Thanks my members of English members. I could play interesting game!!
Ah,party!! I am going to go MOMO!!
I would like to talk with you!!
Let's have a party, eating, and drinking!!

Party, huh?

I was lucky enough to be in the class today. I asked you questions cos. I wanted to share ideas with you, guys. That was fun! The modern world is now a place which I think we got a lot to talk about.

Since I am absent from Thursday's class because of a job interview in Aomori-shi, I guess I should take a role as an organizer of our party this week if you like. Any suggestions, please. For example, we could choose MoMo, a yakiniku place, as a venue for a party since the place is close to HiroDai and the cost is not so as high as that of several fancy restaurants in Dotemachi or anywhere else. But we haven't decided yet. Wide open. Some of you may work the day we go. Although we got only several days to decide, I think we can decide since we've got this virtual blog site in which each of our messages are basically uploaded on the site within a second or so. I'm so glad to take the role of organizer for you all, so please tell me where we will go and which day we shall go, Friday or Saturday. The blog is always opened online unless we have some technical problem or blackouts in the coming days.

Thanks for reading. All the best...

How are you?

Long time no see not only on blog, but also in class（＾ ＾；）But don't worry, I'm fine☆ I'm tired of final exam and club activity...
By the way, I got a friend from Honduran recently. In my seninar, we are trying to make our homepage in foreign language in order to spread our study in the world. And now we are making it in English. So we need someone who check our English. First we asked Mrs. Hanna Sawada to check it, but she is busy and doesn't have enough time. In place of her, she intoroduced us one international student, Maribel. She said she can help us to check it if we help her to study Japanese.She wants friend to practice her Japanese. We agreed with her suggestion. Last friday we had lunch together. Her Japanese was very good, I surprised. We enjoyed our conversation. We'll meet in summer vacation. I want to try teaching Japanese and become more friendly with her. I also want her to teach English.
And I'll start a tutor of Chinese student from the second semester. Now I don't know what should I do yet, but I'm looking forward to meet and talk with the Chinese student. I think I can spend worthwhile days!!

I went to the US★

I went to Amerika ! ...in Aomori★　Can you see what I mean?
I found a cafe in Aomori. The cafe had Amerikan atmosphere. Because the orner and staff were Amerikan. All of there was Amerikan style. So I was surprised and became happy. I felt like I'm in Amerika（＾.＾）
And, actually, there is a international scool beside the cafe. Maybe the same person is running them.
I was very interested in there. If you are interested in, please try to visit.
Do you know ASPAM in Aomori city? They are near ASPAM. They face a big road which is in front of ASPAM.

Thai restaurant in Aomori?

I was talking about Thai food a few weeks ago and how I miss it from the States because it's so hard to find in Japan. I just found out that the Thai embassy has a list of Thai restaurants in Japan. There was none in Akita, but one was listed for Aomori:

TOM YAM KUN
030-0802
3-3-3 Honcho, Aomori-shi
0177-77-9899

I don't know how authentic it is. I've never eaten there. Maybe someone else can try it out and tell us how it is.

About Presentation, to Kazuko, Mitsuki, and Yui

How is your preparation for our presentation next week? Did you find any nice games?

I found an interesting game. That is Word Ladder, which is kind of word game. I found this the site below, so please access it, and tell me your opinions.

I also want you to tell me games you found, suggestions, or anything about our presentation. Let's discuss them on this blog, and make our presentation better.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Ladder

Like a prayer

Like a prayer, I hereby accept the nomination of ... Oops! I made a mistake. To those who will start the test week within one or two weeks, good luck! I want you to the same for me cos. I feel like jumping off the roof now. I don't know if I can get through the following weeks, but I'll do my best. And my summer vacation will start...of course after the tests! Keep in touch.

To group3(Mizuki,Takashi,Maimi)

Which game are we going to show in class? I think we should decide and start preparing before we become busy for exams.
Please show your opinion on this blog.

Inuneko Report

I introduced the showing event of a film Inuneko before. It was held last Sunday. I want to write about this below.

The showing was taken place twice, and both of them were practically full. After that, Director of the film Nami Iguchi talked about the film in front of the audiences. They also asked a lot of questions. They appeared to be satisfied with the showing and the talk, so I, a volunteer staff, was very happy.

After this event, we held a drinking party. I talked a lot with Director Iguchi over delicious food and drink. She told me how hard it is to finish a film, how strong power a producer has, her new film information, and so on. It was very valuable experience for me to be able to talk with a great and famous director.

Finally, I will give you information. 8mm version Inuneko DVD is released August 26(35mm version DVD is on sale). If you are interested in these films, please watch them. I hope you'll enjoy them, and I'm looking forward to talking about it with you.

How long has the rainy season lasted?

It was fine today but the rainy season hasn't ended.
Do you think this year's one is a little long?
I dislike damp weather because my motivation to do everything become bad...(-.-)

Please end the rainy season!!
After that the summer vacation is coming, and we will be able to enjoy some summer festivals, such as Nebuta, Neputa, fireworks display and so on.
But before that, we have to get over exams and reports...(；一_一)
Anyway, let's try our best!!

The Blues

I hope you enjoyed today's class.

As I mentioned, The Blues Brothers was one of my children's most popular videos. I think most children have fantasies about acting the way John Belushi and Dan Akroyd did in the Chez Paul.

Alan Lomax was an amazing collector of folk music, not just in the US but around the world. I use his books and recordings in my folk ballads class at Akita University. Some of his collections are available from the Library of Congress. Others are available commercially. One song, "Po' Lazarus", a ballad he recorded in a penitentiary, was even included in the movie "Oh, Brother". The soundtrack from the movie, mostly traditional folk music, went number one, and was best album at the Grammy Awards that year (2001). Not best folk album. Not best Country album. Not best film soundtrack album (well, it did also win that). Best album.

"The Land Where the Blues Began" is one of the most popular videos I have shown to my American students at Misawa. The American Patchwork series of videos doesn't seem to be available at the website for PBS anymore, but the American Roots Music series is.

Traditional American music continues to be popular. Amazon.com was advertising Bruce Springsteen's new folk music CD on its front page, and the CD was number one even before it was released.

Visiting a buried cultural properties center

Hi! How are you doing?? Are you enjoying your weekends?

Yesterday I visited Inakadate village with a friend for archaeology homework.
Inakadate has a great buried cultural properties of Yayoi era.
The remains of paddy fields. Before this remains were found, most of archaeologist thought there was no Yayoi era in northern tohoku area. That was a really big finding. The center was really good. The most interesting thing was that we could walk on the Yayoi ground!! And you can see footprints of Yayoi people. Isn't that so interesting?

And we also visited a museum which shows paintings, old fariming tools, old furnitures and so on. That was interesting too. We had really good time. I loved the center a lot.

But... there are not so many people who visit this center which holds great remain, a staff sighed. The problem is... there were no signs or information for the center! And there is a big 'Michino-Eki' in front of that, so people never notice the center.
If you are interested in archaeology, please visit Inakadate and have a look!

music of past time

Do you know a person, hide?
mabye you will imagine Nakata Hidetoshi（＾＾；？

But the person I want to talk about here is a former menber of a group, whose name is X-japan. It's japanese rock music group. They broke up long time ago and hide restarted his work alone.

His activity was probably going well, but he was killed in an accident. Many media reported about it. In some TV program, a lerge number of his fans cried. they said he was fantastic man. according to the news, i got to know him in detail in fact.

I liked some of his work. "pink spider","ever free"etc.. these are new products in his works.

Recentlly, I suddenly want to listen to cassette tape. And I found his music. It was the tribute album in which many kind of people who respect him sing his song with their condolences.

I remenbered one of them said such a thing at that time.
' why do people say ,"he was wonderful man," ? why didn't people said, "he is wonderful man," while he lived?'

I think there has been many invisible thing at various points. his music is really uniqe, atractive and exellent . but I can't found it during his life.

It is not until when we lose somone or something that we notice sincerely the importance.

This is good♪

Today, I went to take rock bath??(GANBANYOKU) in SAKURANO ONSEN with my friend. This is the first time for us. It costs １３００ yen. We spent ２hours there. We are on diets for this summer! We were sweating all over, but it's very confortable and we could refresh! I wanna recomend you(^_^)/

By the way, we are going to present about English games in the last week. It's interesting and I think it is useful for teaching English. I'm looking forward to our presentations!!