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