Hallo!! This is Chiori

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

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

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

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


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

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

Hi, there

Hi, This is Mai SHISHIDO.

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

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


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

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

That's all!!!!

see you tomorrow.


Mai SHISHIDO

About discussion topics

Hi, this is Haruna. How are you?

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


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

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

Hi, this's Akiko.

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

Well..let me introduce of myself.

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

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

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

We have to choose some topics for discussion, right? 

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

I hope we can enjoy talking and improve English!

See you later-

 

Hiya! This is Eri NARA.

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

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

See you tomorrow at the class!!

Erin

Hello, this is Rie Kumabayashi!

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

Hi! This is Natsuko.

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

Hello! This is HARUNA

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

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

Hi! Everyone! This is Shun Hayasaka:)

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

Believe it or not, Mugabe still has supporters

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

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

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

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

Huye P.Long

Hi all!

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

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

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

And i am very found of this words.

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

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

Huey Long and Willie Stark

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

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

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

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

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

The American presidential race

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

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

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

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

Article 9 and UN peacekeeping

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

Advanced English class blog

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

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

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

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

Now I write my opinion about ODA to China.

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

Japan`s ODA for China

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

Japan`s ODA for China

ODA for China

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

ODA to China

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

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

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

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

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

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