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