KGU ESL3 Blog

Jan 19 -- Ryosaikenbo

2006-01-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

Hello. I want to go over the reading, but I am a little worried. In class on Tuesday, I noticed a lot of.... silence in groups while reading Ryosaikenbo and the work on the different questions seemed to take a lot longer than I expected. Perhaps we will start off today by taking a few minutes to discuss our feelings, concerns, thoughts about the subject of the article first before we discuss the content. So let's start off today by thinking back to what each of us thought about the reading and the questions. Let's try to get beyond general statements like "I liked/didn't like it," "It was very interesting/difficult/confusing," and explore the reasons for our feelings. You might start with 'I liked/ didn't like it,' but then tell us why and be specific. What did you think of the reading (and/or the questions and/or the discussion group set up) and more importantly why did you feel this way. Next, what suggestions would you make to help create a more communicative exercise out of this assignment?

Be honest, be focused. Notice I have left this short writing assignment (you will have until 12:55 to finish) open so even if you were absent on Tuesday, if you read the assignment, you should be able to participate. If you didn't read, your writing should be short, 'i didn't read.' post this, I will give you minimal credit (better than a zero) and then spend the time before our discussion reading!

After posting, we will spend a few minutes on comments about the assignment, then we will (hopefully) begin exploring some of your answers to the questions. Finally, we will discuss next week's classes and what we want to do... your ideas are valued and i want to hear fro myou on this. Lots of opportunities for people to speak in calss, Everyone should get a 5 today! Everyone!

Jan12th - Social Change

2006-01-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

05-12-22snowleaves
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Some thoughts and photos to start off the class, our assignment is below (the redish-looking text)

05-12-22dad_kinkakuji
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Welcome back to the blogs! Aren't you just thrilled to be back?

As I mentioned in class, it has been a busy month and I felt I wanted to share some pictures with you of some of my better moments. As I said on Tuesday, we had a houseful of people. My father, Temre's parents, her sister, and of course the four of us. We did alright really. A friend lent us her apratment for my dad and T's sister to stay in so our house was never too terribly crowded. Except at dinner. Anyway, these shots are from the snow-day in Kyoto. My father and I rushed out of the house to get up there and take photos. So did everyone else! Still, it was good fun.

Even before all the people came, Isaac came home from the hospital.

05-12-18naomi+isaac
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

We were a little worried how Naomi would react but as you can see, she was pretty okay with the idea of a new brother. She was very gentle, liked to hold him, and always tries to give him his binky (pacifier) when he cries, which, I might add is amazingly infrequently. So my immediate family is doing alright and adjusting well to each other.

Well that was fun. Now we should probably get to work.
I want to start us on a new issue today, namely, social change. Here is your assignment. You will have about 10minutes to look, think, discuss with others, however you want to develop your thoughts and/or come up with a response. Then, we will take about 10 more minutes to write a response. Finally, we will discuss your responses. Ready?

Our topic is "Social Change." Think about recent headlines and articles in the news media: newspapers, telvision, the Internet, and other sources. Once you have an idea, thought, in your head, I want you to write one positive and one negative side of a social change that they have heard or read about recently.

ex. Young Japanese People are becoming more self-expressive and this is good because while in the past, Japan was innovative and dynamic, has become rather stagnant and resistant to change and is in danger of being left behind.

Some forms of self-expression are agressive and argumentative, like the boy who lit a firecracker at a crowded "Coming-of-Age" ceremony this Monday, and then when asked to leave by "The Great Sasuke" argued with and, with his firend supporting him, almost attacked the ex-wrestler.

Please write your own responses on the blog and be prepared to share in groups and with the class. After this, we will look at this next (and probably final) unit in our book.

At the end of class, I will ask for your help in deciding our assignments for the end of the semester: either from this book or from ... another source, or other suggestions you have.

PhotoBlog Assignments: We have.... two more photo blogs to do, and I am out of assignments. So here is the deal. Students will be free to take any photos they wish and write about them. Show me what you are thinking aobut or seeing in your lives these days. Or... wait, I gave you an assignment for this week, didn't I? Saving Grace, right? Well you can do that if you wish or do a photo of anything else you wish to. Free writing, free photo blogging for the last two weeks... woo woo! Go bananas.

uh oh -- Homwork for Tuesday

2005-12-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

You know what, I don't have everyone's email address! So I am putting the links up on our KGU ESL3 site.

The Gift of the Magi
or another
The Gift of the Magi

These are links to the story, that you can download. You can also stop by my office and pick up a copy when I am around. In fact, I will hang the folder of the story on the board next to my office. Finally, I will put a comment in everyone's blog alerting them of this situation.

Sorry guys (and gals) my head is not... in the game and I appologize. Maybe this is what it feels like to get old. What a depressing thought.

It's a ... boy?!?

2005-12-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

It's a.... boy?!?
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

A picture, because some of you were curious. Not much to see here, really, sorry. Give us a year, we will be a lot more interesting!

Today, I would like to have you write reflection on last Tuesday's class. If you weren't there, maybe you can tell us what you were doing ... :) we missed you. For those of you who were in class, well what did you think? I am specifically interested in your thoughts on:

the reading
the questions
the discussion

and finally,

the issue

Take a few minutes (10-15minute), collect your thoughts, and write down some of your ideas, suggestions, criticism, new thoughts, whatever on the issue and the class. Remember, I am thinking of using this text next year in my ESL class. The final question I wish you to consider is: do you think this text and this lesson plan is appropriate for an ESL class? Why/why not?

After this, I hope to have a short conversation, in groups, sharing yoru thoughts, then I will ask people from their groups to share their thoughts. Seemed to work in class on Tuesday.

Finally, with any time left (hee hee) I hope to get back to our book and the final section of Unit8.... must... move forward!

Ok. Let's learning!

p.s. homework: I have a short reading for you. an old, american short story that is purrrrrfect for this time of the year. what do you think?

12.01

2005-11-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome to December!

I am curious to know which communication style you prefer and in what situation you prefer it. I would say in my class, most of you are pretty well reserved: you don't usually wish to offer your opinions or speak up in the whole class setting, and yet in small groups, you often chat away at great length. So I would say in large groups maybe many of you prefer to be reserved.

Well what about at your house, in your home with your family. Are you reserved or not? Why / Why not? Explore your communication styles at home and the reasons why you adopt this style, then choose a situation that you are the opposite to how you act in your house (for example, if you are expressive in your home, then choose a setting where you are not so expressive, and vice versa -- reserved at home, choose a situation you are expressive). Explain why you are different in this other setting. What causes you to feel more expressive and/or more reserved depending on the setting, the people, the situation.

After this, we will have a short conversation about this. I am curious to hear your answers. Below is my example, please feel free to read it.

Personally, I am pretty reserved at home, both now and when I was young. I think it is becuase both of my parents are quite talkative and I am an only child. Maybe there I felt there was already a lot of focus on me, and at home, I tended to be rather quiet -- no loud music, a lot of reading or watching movies but usually on my own. Outside, well let's see in class I have never had any shyness or reserve. I have always been very expressive and talaktive in class. When I was younger, I was always getting in trouble in class because I never NEVER could shut up. I liked to ask questions, and answer those that I could. When we were suppose to work, I would often talk to my neighbors. I was a real chatterbox, and I was often punished for it. My primary school teachers would have loved all of you ;)

11/24 Turkey Day!

2005-11-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

Carving2003
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Back home in the States, they are celebrating my favorite holiday today. Here, we celebrated the "5th Annual Thanksgiving in Japan" yesterday. Most often, Thanksgiving is considered a 'family holiday' where everyone rushes home for the long four-day weekend (Thursday & Friday vacation), but as people nowadays are more likely to live further from home (sometimes even across the entire country) is becoming more common for friends to celebrate Turkey Day together. We had a wonderful get-together with about 20 people. Sadly, we didn't get many good pictures so here are some from our Thanksgiving celebration in Kanazawa, 2003. Different place, but same basic priciple: we ask everyone to bring a "traditional Thanksgiving dish," and something to drink. We (usually a friend or myself) cook and carve the bird. Then we all sit around and eat. And eat. And eat some more. It's gooooooood!

So I'm curious about your favorite holidays; how, when, where, and with whom you celebrate your special day(s). I'd love you to share some of your thoughts about your favorite days of the year, why, and what you do at these times. I'd like you to take about 10 minutes and discuss your favorite holidays with the people sitting near you, sharing ideas is a good way to get ourselves ready to write. Then, I will give you about 15minutes to write a paragraph about your favorite holiday. If you finish early, feel free to read up about Thanksgiving at this link.

T'giving_spread
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Once we finish the writing, we will choose to either work on Unit8 or discuss holidays, (Thanksgiving - if you want me to lecture, your favorites if you are willing to share...) If we work on U8, "Communication Styles," we will be continuing to discuss the differences between expressive and reserved with a couple additional activities before we look at the book, page 31.

Ok so that's the plan. Let's get to it!

11/17 Etiquette

2005-11-15T02:34:00.000-08:00

Consider the following quote.

"Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything."
- Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)

First describe what it means - what is the message, can you make it more clear? Then explain the reasons you beleive it to be true (or not). This should take about 15-20minutes.

Following this, we will (hoepfully) as a class, share ideas about our suggestion to Ms. Jones' questions. Below, you will find her letter and questions, just to remind you of what we are talking about. I am hoping for detailed responses here, not just the basic (don't wear your shoes in the house, we use chopsticks at dinner, I think these are pretty common knowledge, but what other standard etiquette rules might she want to know? Discuss it, be specific then let's share our thoughts.

Dear Ms./Mr. Manners,
I am an American college student visiting Japan for the first time. I will be living with a host family there, and need to know how to act polite. Can you help me? I wrote some questions below. Thank you!
Mary Jones

Ms. Jones’ questions

How do I greet my host family?
What should I bring as a gift?
What important ‘house rules’ are there?
What is the proper way to eat with my family?
Is there anything else I should know?

11/10 Is this polite?

2005-11-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

To start class, I want you to pull our your homework and place it on top of your computer so I might give you credit for it. Then go on to the next assignment: the reading& writing below.

I found this article in the paper on the succession to the throne in Japan, and it got me thinking. In my country, we don't have a supreme ruler that is chosen by their lineage/family lines, at least not like you do in Japan, or they do in England, or many other european countries. Not only am I curious about the issue, I am even more curious what you all think of this issue, and this argument by Prince Tomohito. Take a few minutes to look over the article (not read it, I'm not sure we have time to read it) then take about 10minutes to write a response. Questions you might consider are

Do you agree or disagree with Prince Tomohito's position? Why?
Do you personaly think Aiko should be allowed to become the Empress of Japan? Why/Why not?
Is this an issue of concern to people today?
Is this an issue that should be discussed/talked about/fought over in legislation or should the government of Japan be focused on other issues?

After you finish writing, you might want to take a few minutes to read over fellow students comments. I will then break you into smaller groups to discuss this issue. We might even talk about it as a class. Once we finish, we will look at our homework. Following this, if there is time, we will work on page 28.

Oct 27th Politeness

2005-10-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Not much to do online today for class, sorry. I do want to start off the class with a short exercise. What sorts of public behavior do you find to be rude? Discuss this in small groups for a few minutes, then I will ask you to briefly write down a response to this on the forum (giving you about 5-10minutes to write). We will then discuss these ideas.

Your photo homework due this week is 'October' I think. For next week (the photo due Saturday, November 5th) is 'what I will do/what I am doing over the short vacation.'

10/20 class

2005-10-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hello. In today's class, I want to finish off our mini-presentations. But before we do these last three presentations, I want us to get warmed up with a short speaking exercise about:

1. flexibility & change (20min) Please read. Some cultures tend to be more open and expressive, while people from other cultures tend to be more reserved and quiet. Which do you think is easier

a person from an expressive culture to be more reserved or for
a person from a reserved culture to be more expressive.

example answers: it is easier for a reserved person to be more expressive because she just has to relax more to be more expressive.
it is easier for an expressive person to be more reserved because even expressive people know they must be reserved in certain situations in their culture too.

Please discuss this in pairs and create a list of responses in order to support your opinion about this topic. In about 5-10 minutes, we will discuss briefly as a group.

2. Presentations (30min) During presentations, I would ask that you listen to the presenters carefully, and ask questions at the end. remember this is y our culture they are discussing, feel free to agree with them or ask for further inforamtion if you think a visitor should know more in order to help them succeed in their visit to Japan. Furthermore, remember that participation is graded....

3. Finally today (40min), I want to revist a short conversation we had briefly at the end of class last Tuesday about my thoughts for next year's class. I am interested in your feedback on this idea. Here is my idea. I think that ESL classes (or at least mine) is too teacher-centered (teacher speaks more than the students. I want students to speak and take a more leadership role in the class (classic Western-style education), so my thought has been to focus the class more on Japanese culture as the central topic, but I haven't been sure how to make this work. Then I found this book. It has a list of many important concepts in Japanese culture. My thought would be to use some of these Key-Japanese Concepts from a book I found this summer. Please have a look -- (right click and open the link in a new window).

If you can't open this up in lab (which is quite likely) try just going to Amazon.com and type in the title The Japanese Mind. From the front page of the book, choose 'look inside' and view the table of contents.

I am curious to know: do you think a class focused on these subjects, on discussing, explaining and sharing information on these would be benifitial (meaning help your English ability and your critical thinking skills) and enjoyable (meaning enterrtaining and not boring)? Please look at the ToC, and feel free to explore the rest of the information about the book as well for about 10minutes. Then, have a short conversation about the book and the possible class that would use this book with your. After another 10-15minutes of talking and sharing ideas, I would ask you to write your comments, your thoughts on this sort of focus for a future ESL class -- Would it be benifital? Would it be enjoyable? Why/why not? Any additional comments would be welcomed as well.

If we don't get enough time to finish the post in class, please consider it homework due before class next Tuesday.

05-10-13 fav_place2eat

2005-10-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

fav_place2eat
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

First thing: Write your name on the board if you posted today's: "Favorite place to eat." I will only credit people whose names are on the board, so please do this. Next, change the language of your blog to English from your dashboard, so sign in first. Now you're ready!

Today, we will work on creating longer posts. You're choosing good images, but we need more writing about them. With only 1 post a week, I want 10 or more sentences. Please read this 'sample journal post'

When I took this picture, I felt a bit guilty, like I was cheating. Could this really be my favorite place to eat in Japan? When I stopped and thought about it on my way to work, the easy answer was: heck yeah it is! I love dinner time at home! It is fun, and exciting, and quite honestly, I haven't found much in the Hirakata-shi area to rival it for quality of food and none that come close for company of my fellow dinners. My wife is a good cook. No, not gourmet, but very quick with the homemade, comfort foods as well as the delicious Japanese food we have learned in Kanazawa, since I haven't learned any delicious Kansai recipies yet... Our standard meal is grilled fish, rice, vegetables, and very strong miso soup, which I learned in Aomori. My wife also loves to make Nabe - my favorite is with oysters! MMM! When guests come over, we often make sushi rolls, seared tuna, and takoyaki. Maybe I will tell you about our American meals later, but now I am getting too hungry!

The funny thing is that when I moved here from Kanazawa, my friends and students talked about the food in Osaka and how delicious it was, but since i have been here I haven't seen evidence of this yet. True I don't live in Osaka, and true too when I do go to Osaka, there are plenty of resetaurants, but it seems to me that quantity of food has become more important than quality of food in most Osaka meals. Please, if I am wrong correct me!

I only wish I could have captured it on camera, instead you get the breakfast table. Still fun, but not as interesting.

So what do you think? After taking about 10 minutes to read this, I want you to discuss it with a small group. Take notes on your groups' ideas:

Is it a 'good post'?
What do you like about it?
What do you dislike about it?
What questions do you have?
What sort of response/comment would you make to this post?

I will give you about 10 minutes to discuss, then ask for feedback. Hopefully we will have a class-wide conversation about this blog and what sorts of information we want and how much we should be aiming for. Please feel free to be as critical of my post as you wish, I doubt that anything you say will offend me, but you are welcome to try!

After focusing in and exercising our critical skills a bit, I will turn you loose on each others' blogs. Go out there, take about 30-40 minutes looking at each others' blogs, writing comments on the latest blog entry only. I would hope you could comment on 5-10 blogs in this much time -- short posts, lots of typing.

In the last 10-15minutes of class, I will ask you to make a comment on this post, about the post, (you took notes in your group right?) and questions or comments about the class. I will also give you your blog photo assignment for next Thursday. Good luck

05-04-03 'movement'

2005-10-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

05-04-03goingforaride
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Please read my "Sample Entry" below. We will then have a short discussion about this image and the assignment. If you did not load your photo, please DO NOT do so in class. I want you to participate in conversations and the writing in class. Your blog is already late, do it on your own time, outside of class. If you are loading photos in class, I will count you as absent, since you are not working on the assignment.

Sample Entry: We don't have a car, and this strikes some people as a very strange way to live, but actually, it isn't all that bad. Yesterday, I had to pick Naomi up from daycare in the rain, and that wasn't a great amount of fun, but noone suffered, and although we both got wet, I am dry now, the sun is out and we are ready for another bikeride! Riding bikes is for me a great form of transportation. It is decent exercise and it is actually quicker for short trips. One of the comlaints friends have about a bike as your main transport is that you have a hard time going shopping. I agree, biking does make it hard to go shopping but is that a bad thing? We live in an age of too much over-consumption, where people are overly concerned with the 'stuff' they own and what they will get next. Heck, cars are often considered as status symbols rather than an object to get from here to there and back. Wondering what comments you might have on this.

Class Discussion on "Sample Entry"
we will talk briefly on how to generate writing topics from the images we place on our blogs. There is no set way to generate ideas, but if you are having troubles, I would like to suggest you try this method. You may alter your process as you need for future assignments

start by making a brief mental description of what you see in the photo, be as detailed as possible. based on your description we will try to create a list of things to write about. look for things:
you are curious about in your photo. sometimes lookin at your own photo, you notice things that make you wonder about how/what is different/unique/the same about other people in similar situations.
stuff that looks strange, interesting, or surprising, or that you think other people might find strange or interesting. you have to try and 'guess' what others might wonder about in your photo.
that you know are uniquely Japanese, or show some aspect of your own personal taste, or lifestyle. People are often interested in these
if all esle fails and you can find nothing to write about, you could do a very detailed description of your image: what it is, what is the function, where you find it, when you took it, why you took it.

Group discussion/bloggin assignment.

open a second window (cntrl+n and then go to blogger.com/start.
sign into your blog and go to the dashboard.
change the language on your blog to English (third button down on the right under your profile).
back to the dashboard, click your blog's name then choose edit post and open the post with your photo assignment. press 'preview' so we can see them and discuss them.
form a group of 3-4 students, of which at least half MUST have a photo on their blog.
in groups, take turns discussing your group's photos brainstorming ideas for possible writing topics
discuss photos for larger class (30minutes)
write about your photo. (remaining class minutes) if you do not finish writing about your photo, the assignment is still due by the end of the week (this is your blog entry for the week).
review the new image assignment for next thursday 'favorite place to eat'

we will discuss the possible writing prompts and should have time to finish all of these assignments in class. If you finish in class, you will have no more posts due for the week. If you did not upload your photo before class, you missed the assignment for class, but you can still do the in-class work. If you are working on uploading photos during class, I will count you as absent, since you are not participating in discussing and working on the in-class assignment. Do your work in class, help your group. Then, at the end of class, while they are typing their assignments, you may finish your homework. Try to do the work on time for next class.

9/29 blog upkeep.

2005-09-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hello. Please try to change the language setting on your computer now. Today's class will start with some reading.

Okay for today's lesson, we will work on three things: adding some extra protection against evil spammers to our blog, changing the blogger page to English, and posting comments on our photos.
READ THIS CAREFULLY. Work with a partner. One partner is Group A and one Partner is Group B. Group A partner does assignment A then B, Group B partner does assignmnet B then A. Partners, help each other, ask questions if neither of you understand, then ask for help from me, or other students.

Group A. Changing the security on our blog to stop the spammers (remember, 'spam' is unwanted junk mail advertising, a spammer is a person who sends this junk mail) & operating language.

Open a new window, (right-click and choose the N from the menu -- I think the second option).
log in to your blog and go to your dashboard.
on the dashboard page, under your profile to the right side, there is a link, the third link down "Change Language" will allow you to change your language from Japanese to English. Please click the link, then click the top choice (English) and then at the bottom of that page is an orange button, that says "Save settings." Once you hit the save settings button, you will be taken back to your dashboard. Congratulations, you have changed the language, go on to the next step -- adding "word verification" to peoples' comments on your blog.
From the dashboard, choose "Change Settings" The icon looks like this:
From the second set of buttons near the top, click on "Comments" (4th)
Now we will add some security to your blog comments. Find the " Show word verification for comments?" (6th) option and change from 'no' to 'yes.'
This will add an extra step on your comment page. If people want to comment on your blog, they will need to type out the colorful letters they see under the comment window. This should stop some of the spam, since most won't take the time to fill out these letters (easy for humans to do) but you have to look at it, so a computer can't do it on its own.
Now click on the happy orange button at the bottom that says "Save Settings" and the computer will work. It will refresh the page (just let it work on its own) and the message "Your settings were saved successfully" will appear at the top in orange.
After you see this message, you must click the blue botton at the top left part of the page that says "Republish"
If your computer takes you to a new page that says "Your blog published successfully," then you are finished! Good work. You can start on the other part of the assignment.

Group B. Uploading pictures with comments.Your weekly blogs should contain pictures. We will practice uploading pictures in class, and then discuss how to comment on them. If you can not load pictures in class, you can and should still post a blog. This entry does not count for your weekly blog post, unless it has an image and a regular sized writing (usually 8-12 sentences).
First we will talk about the kind of pictures, then about how to write about them. Please follow the steps below.

Types of images for our blog. Please take a picture of something you see during a regular day. These pictures do not need to be special or outstanding, or unique, although they can be, and they should not be posed (arranged or set in front of the camera) This means if you take a picture of your room, don't clean it first; if you take a picture of your friend, don't tell them "I'm taking a picture for my blog, smile and say 'cheese';" instead of a picture of your dog's face, take a picture of him asleep, or eating, or doing something that he/she always does. Posed and arranged shots often look fake, life is interesting enough for others without posing and besides, the goal of this is to show images of your 'real life,' the things you would see even if there was no camera.
I will give you photo assignments over the next few weeks to help you understand this more clearly.
Please try to post a photo. Even if you think yoru photo is 'wrong' please post it. You remember how? Move your photo from your email/disk/camera to the computer desktop, in a 'new post' click the "add image" button, upload your photo. Your photo should appear in your post, and you can then work on your comments.
If your photo does not appear to have been uploaded, hit the "refresh" button. You can also go to "Edit posts" and see if it posted your photo. If it did not post your photo try again. Try two more times, then if it still does not work, Ask for help! I will look at your image, and then tell you to move on to the next step: write a comment about your photo. Write about the photo witout the photo.
Ok now lets talk about commenting on your images. When you put up an image, think of it as a normal, weekly blog entry, meaning you need to write a paragraph with it. Two or three sentences is not enough. These writings are a excellent opportunity to practice close description, if not what you see, then how you feel about this photo, or the thing we see in the photo. It is difficult for me to tell you what to say about your picture other than ask you to explore and write (like a freewrite exercise) about the photo you are looking at. Tell us the situation, tell us a story about the thing, tell us your feelings about the photo, how it is connected to you and your life. Often times this sort of freewrite about an image we have chosen is difficult since we see it so much, we forget to notice our feelings and connections to it, but hopefully the idea of looking at the image, and discussing it (its story, its connection to you, your feelings about it, etc.) will help you notice the things in your life, and how you can explain them to others. This is sharing your life, your culture, your existence with others, I think they will be interested. I know I am! Please write about your image, and explain your connection to it. The writing should take 30minutes or less. To make this happen, you should close your dictionary and write using the vocabulary in your head. Once you have done this, publish it, and then go on to the other half of the assignment.

Once you finish both assignments, please make a comment on our class blog. This comment can be a short paragraph. Tell me about this assignment, was it difficult? Was it easy? Why and how could we make this better 'next time?'

If you do not finish both assignments (and the comment on our class blog) in class, they are homework, due by Friday (a normal blog post).

Good luck. Don't forget to talk with your partner if you need help. Or, if you are both confused and/or stuck, you can ask me questions too. I think you can do this assignment, on your own or with a little help. Do your best!

Week1 - new blog!

2005-09-25T02:48:00.000-07:00

To make my posting responsbilities more manageable and to better separate the in-class work from the more personal journaling, I have created a new blog. This blog will be where I make my weekly posting for class, a journal of life this semester at KGU. Please feel free to check it out at your convinience and don't forget to add this new blog's URL to your own blog. Assuming you want to read and would care to comment on what I have put up.

Enjoy.

And here is.... liveinjapan

the address is http://scottsotherblog.blogspot.com/

Sept 22 -- posting a day in the life photos

2005-09-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hello. It seems that posting photos on your blog is even easier than I first thought! That's wonderful becuase this will give us more time to talk about the important stuff: writing about our digital images. I have given an example of the type of picture I am looking for. Notice the picture here is not really of anyone person, or some object necessarily, but more of a view of life, a view of a room in this case. The photos I will ask you to take do not need to be posed, (where you arrange a specific shot) they should be more natural -- just part of your actual life, what you see, what you noticed, what struck you as interesting or telling, or noteworthy about this thing.

Before we discuss what sorts of things we can/will say about our images, lets get organized. First thing I want you to do is change the language setting on your computer to English. I hope you remember how. Help each other (using English to explain, please). Don't forget to hit 'refresh,' and please let me know if it doesn't work.
Then, check to make sure that you have signed into blogger - as I will ask you to post a comment before the end of class.
Next, we will find out who was able to bring images to class and who wasn't. Remember if you didn't bring an image it is ok, this week, but by next week, this is a required assignment and if you are unable to complete it, your grade will suffer. I will ask you to share how you brought your media to class, then we will pair people who didn't bring an image with someone who did, so you can at least watch how the uploading is acomplished.
After that, I will turn you lose on the blogger help page, where you (and your partner) will read the instructions on how to upload photos to the blog. From this help page, please find information on how to post pictures on your blog. If you need help finding information on this, please ask.
Once you find the information on how to post a photo, read it, and then post the photo. THis process might be slow (the posting process) becuase the campus internet connection is a bit slow today, so be patient. Follow instructions, and you should be able to post a photo.
After you have posted your photo, you will want to go back to your dashboard, and edit your post so you can add some text and explain the photo. We will talk more about what to do for this part, but for right now, work on writing a brief, clear description and meaning of your photo and explain why you chose to share this image. Good work!

I think this will take between 45minutes to an hour. After this, we will discuss the process, and I will have you do a short comment on our blog about it, then we will do our participation scores and leave. Sounds easy enough. We shall see!

July 14th some new drills

2005-07-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hello. Let's try a bit of typing shall we?

I want you to open a few new windows. One is a typing program. Right-Click on this link and then select the (N) option -- to open the link in a new window. This link is a typing practice program. To open the program, click on the orange "To Start the Program (Online)." From here choose a lesson that will allow you to practice typing. Just play with it for a minute, learning how to open and close the lessons. Its pretty neat: you can practice typing online for free! Next I want you to right-click and choose (N) on this link to open this link to the Japan Times' article entitled "City Opts to Use Revisionist Text" in a new window. Take a moment and scan (read) the text, I'll give you about 5 minutes, I don't expect you to finish it, but do your best. Next, I want you to copy the text. Highlight it all and then cntrl + C to copy. Then go back to the typing program window (you still have it open, right?) and in the big white space in the middle of the screen left-click, then right-click and choose (P) paste to put the article text in there. Then click the big, pretty orange button, "practice the text." We will take about 15-20 minutes to work on typing this text. Please try to remember not to look at your fingers. After this, we will take a bit to discuss the text, and how we might use this sort of article next semester in class. Finally, I will have you write a comment on this blog about the typing practice. To finish the class, if there is any time, we will work on a couple of the exercises I have been storing up to get you talking in small groups.

Good luck!

05-07-10 10cm "Mukade"

2005-07-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

05-07-10 10cm "Mukade"
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

im cheating for today's post. i will post the exact same post as I put on my other blog on here. please don't hate me, I figured grading and stuff was more important than writing lots of blogs today, sorry. and now with no further adieu or apologies, here is... my blog.

I think i have the name correct. This is what I found in the woods in Japan. Here I thought this country was safe: that yoour borders were protected, that your people praised the way of non-violence and ultra-strict gun-control, that you had killed the only really dangerous predator (the wolf) long ago, and even your only posionous land-based snake the mamushi is not really all that dangerous since it's teeth are small and it doesn't put out a lot of venom. Here I thought I was pretty safe as long as I wore a bell in the woods, and stuck to the path. Boy how little did I know. These incredibly fascinating critters, are very fast, as is evidenced by the fact I couldn't get him in my photo frame, nor could I get my boot in there for a size comparison, run in packs of two and grow up to about 15cms. Why on earth did no one tell me about these crazy killer centipedes that leap out at you and, from what I read, are very aggressive. My students tell me they are called "mukade" and since i know no better, I am willing to beleive them.

Funny, it seems that the information on them is a bit scattered. One student says, very dangerous one says not dangerous, one says, 'only if they bite you three times.' everyone who asks says that it hurts if they bite you and thus I suspect it the chances are pretty remote I will get bit more than once. Besides, I learned to check my shoes and boots in Tucson, and usually pay close attention to where I am stepping, so I sincerely doubt i will get bit at all (knock on wood) but man, I wish someone would have warned me before I went around rooting in the bushes in the damp, sticky forests!

Don't get me started on the big hairy spiders.... ooooo give me cold cool Aomori with its general dirth of icky crawly bugs. Bears I can handle, they are big and you know to be afraid of them, don't touch the big toothy hairy thing, but small little scuttling bugs that hide and bite ya when you aren't looking, that is just uncool!

Thursday July 7th

2005-07-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

What did you think of the poem? I would like you to take a few minutes and respond to it, or write your feelings, comments and questions about the reading. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about it. What do you think this proverb means? I am just going to give you about a few minutes to write about this. After you finish, go back to this post, and read the rest so you know what we will do today in class.

After your 10minute writing, we will (hopefully) discuss the proverb.

I will also give you and your partner a proverb to think about, another one from Robert Frost (I like Frost's work).

Next there is a handout I want you to work on. Your task will be to define these words as best you and your partner can WITHOUT a dictionary. On those words you do not know, I want you to guess, based on the word itself, what it looks like, what it 'sounds like.' You will leave no blank spaces on this document, since the goal of this assignment is to get you to guess. Have fun with this, don't worry about the answers right or wrong, think of it as a guessing game and hopefully you will find it more enjoyable.

Thats it, guys, the rest of the class will be spent on secret stuff!

Homework for Thursday

2005-07-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I found that poem, told you I would. "Mending Walls" I want you to read it, even though it will be diffficult. The proverb comes from line 26. After reading this, i want you to consider the reasoning behind the proverb. What do you think is the justification, or logic behind the statement? Why would someone thing fences make good neighbors? Then decide if you agree. I will ask you about this in class, if we are able to have a conversation about it, there will be no further assignment, if we can't have a conversation, there will be a writing. I realize this is not an easy poem, but I think you are a smart group of students, and if you spend a half-hour, to an hour reading and re-reading (not translating every word, but reading and looking for the overall meaning) you will be able to do okay with this.

Here I will help with the first sentence (four lines)

SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

This shows the writer wondering about why his walls keep falling down. He says there is some unknown force that seems to hate his perfect walls, and this force is always trying to tear it down. I think he means nature, since he discusses that the winter season makes the ground move and cause the wall to break and how the weather creates huge holes in the wall. Basically he is complaining, in a semi-joking way that he has to go out and fix his fence.

I hope that helps. Good luck.

rainy weekends 05

2005-07-03T04:07:00.000-07:00

rainy weekends 05
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Whew, now this is more like it! I was worried that the hot weather of June meant it was going to be outrageously sticky and icky in July, August and September but this brief respite of rain has given me hope. Yes it is overly humid and wet but it is cooler and much more bearable. Thank you Weather Gods, you have heard my unsaid prayers, made the rain fall, and slashed 10 degrees C off the temperature. Not bad work.As for me, I had a pretty relaxing weekend. The rain also helped me to catch up on my sleep and I also had time to just sort of hang out with the family a bit too! When it is hot, i tend to stay up too late, since that is the only time I feel I can get anything done without sweating to death. The last two nights have allowed me to sleep a bit. IN between grading papers, I took Naomi out for a bit of fun in the rain. Being from Seattle, I miss stomping in puddles and poking around outdoors, I think kids need that, otherwise they will go crazy cooped up in their houses in the rain. They should learn you can still have fun when it isn't sunny. Naomi seems to be catching on just fine.

June30th idiomatic expressions in Japanese

2005-06-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today's short writing assignment is to share your two idioms each for Happiness and Anger in your own language. Share the Idiom, Translate it and try to explain the thinking behind its' usage. I'll give you an example from English:

Happy:

Jazzed. Means happy, and excited, kind of like the musical tradition. The musical style Jazz is often described as animated and enthusiastic.... well, some forms of Jazz are anyway (not smooth Jazz) and this term seems to want to express a person who is excited and happy and just can't stay still. I ofen use this when describing my actions after drinking a lot of coffee.
High as a kite. In the West, there is a believe that flying is equal to freedom, and we often use birds or flying as a sort of idiomatic way to express this concept. The idea of being free is equated in a positive way with happiness. Kites fly high and seem to be without real guidance: they sort of float on the wind, going this way and that. I guess "Happy as a kite" has something to do with the non-directional this way and that flight pattern of kites. Or maybe it is because we often associate kite flying with children and children are happy, so in general the whole experience of Kite flying is considered positive.

Angry:

Going ballistic. This means to get angry or irrational. There are lots of expressions that equate anger with explosions and fire. The word ballistic is associated with projectiles', like arrows, bullets or missiles, motions and effects. This idiom, seems to imply a directed attack or launching of oneself at something in an angry, hurtful way.
Pissed off. In American English, 'pissed' means angry, but in British and Australian English it means drunk. Although this might seem difference, actually maybe there is a pretty strong connection between these two expression. Often, a drunk person gets belligerent and angry and likes to fight, which is really pretty s

June 23 Class writing

2005-06-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

For homework on Tuesday, I had asked you to think of a Japanese word that sort of defines or helps explain Japanese culture for you. In the comment link below, I would like you to share your word.

In class I gave some example words that I do not want you to use. Here they are just so you remember...

Kyouroku
Gambaru
Ehhhhhhhh
Muri

You will have about ten minutes at the start of class to acomplish this activity... plenty of time to write the word in Romanji, translate it into English and then explain the significance of this word and its place in Japanese culture. If you are unsure what I mean by this, you might think back to the list of words I offered up in Tuesday's class that I felt represented American culture. I hope that helps.

For the rest of class, we will work from our book for a while until we come back to the ideas of Proverbs, so don't forget the work you did last week on those. We will look at the ideas of 'exageration' in language. Do you konw what exaggeration means? Look it up if you don't because you will need to be able to explain it and demonstrate examples of exaggeration in Japanese as well as in the States.

Good luck

June 19th Fathers Day = no work!

2005-06-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

Today is Father's Day and I am not feeling much like writing. Apart from reading Beauty and the Beast for the second time, I acomplished very little actual school work this weekend. I hope you will all forgive me. I did, however get to check out some of the dance 'thingy' that happened on Sunday at school. I had a few students from one class who were in a couple different groups, so I felt like going. We went. It was fun to watch in a way, interesting more like it. I enjoyed what I saw, but sadly, we weren't lucky enough to see any of my students (or any of the groups in army camos) perform. Naomi is pretty finicky: she can't stand being in a dark, hot room for long and quite frankly neither can her father. Oh well.

Its too hot to write anymore tonight... is it me or did it just get a bit hotter and more humid? ugh... here comes my least favorite season. it is cooking my brain! So I have a question then. Many of you are from the Kansai region and it seems to me when I watch the temperature on the news each night, Osaka and the surrounding areas are some of the hottest in Japan. First off why is that and second, how do you beat the heat in the summer? What do you do to keep cool? Please enlighten me!

June 16th -- Idioms and expressions

2005-06-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

Culture in Language

The next Unit of our text book is "Culture in Language"
In groups of three or four, I want you to browse these three sites, look at some of the expressions and share what you find with your partners.

American Idioms An interesting page of many US-English expressions

Origins of words, phrases and sayings A less, complete list, but some interesting explanations of words, their meanings and their origins.

More English Idioms This page seems more British English-oriented. Not that this is bad, only different. I offer this up for your purusal as well.
Take about 20minutes looking and searching these.

Now I want you to take some time to try your skills. Take a look at this site and the long list of sayings from English.
Common Proverbs and Sayings
On it, you will find many different idioms, with no explanations. I want to change that. In pairs, I want you to choose 6-12 RANDOM (can NOT be the first 6-12 -- pick ones from different points), try to decipher and figure out the meaning, then make a comment on this blog where you list the Idiom and your definition for them. I will ask you to be prepared to share them with the class. Depending on the time remaining in class, I will ask you to create a list of Japanese Idioms and expressions in Japanese, and translated into English.

I will ask you to be prepared to share them in Class on Tuesday.

assignment for Thursday 6/17

2005-06-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Consider this quote:
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
-- L.P. Hartley (1953)

In groups, you discussed what sorts of culture shock you would feel if you were able to visit Japan of 60, 100, or 150 years ago. I would like you to choose one time period, and write about three or four possible instances of culture shock you might feel. As a class, we came up with a list of different categories that might help you focus your thoughts on things that cause culture shock. Here is the list. (religion, education, housing, transportation & travel, language, fashion & clothing, food, communication, money, news, education).

In your writings, I want you to name the area of culture shock, describe how you might feel, and suggest a strategy for overcoming this shock. Here is an example.

"60 years ago in Japan, most people didn't have television. I think it would be uncomfortable and boring with out T.V. since I use it for both entertainment and news. Without television, I would have to find a new source of information, like radio and/or newspapers. I guess for entertainment, I would read books, or scratch in the dirt... :("

I would like you to do three short writings like this by Thursday, post them in the comment link below and sign your name on your writing.

Good luck

05-06-11heretheycome

2005-06-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

05-06-11heretheycome
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

Hello all!

I had a great time at dinner on Friday night, Nozomi and all of you who could make it, thank you very much. Those of you who had other engagements, you missed out, but we won't hold it against you: hope to see you at the 'next' ESL3 dinner party. I am curious to know how the Karaoke went, so anyone wanting to tell me all about it, please enlighten me, thanks.

As for the rest of the weekend, well it was a wild one. I went back to Shiga this weekend, but this time it was for silly, grown-up kids excitment. My friends and I went to the woods of Shiga to play paintball with a company called "Alpex"
( http://www.alpex.ne.jp/?lang=en )it was a lot of fun. So if you don't know what paintball is, let me tell you in the simplest of terms: it is a game where you run around in the woods, trying to shoot other people with guns that shoot paint. Yes it is violent and silly, but it is also exciting and really challenging as well. Actually, most of the time you spend hiding or crouching or trying to walk very very quietly through the woods. At these times it is rather tranquil being in the dripping forest (it rained in Shiga the entire time). Then comes the few minutes of adreniline rushes where people are shooting paint at you and you are either running, screaming, shooting back, or all of the above.

I know it was not the most civil or reserved thing to do, but I don't care: it was fun, and while it is true that this is a game that in a way glorfies violence, I don't think it is a bad by itself. First of all none of the people I played with seem violent, nor is any of them a danger to society. We played hard in the game, when it was over, we joked around and treated each other civilly. It was a game and when the game was finished, we went back to being normal, caring individuals. Anyway, that is what I did this weekend: ate good foood and shot paint at my friends.

Enjoy the picture of Team TEF (Tanuki Execution Force)

June 9th bloggin assignment

2005-06-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hello.

Did you read my previous blog entry, the 0ne with the links? I am guessing no, since i have had no comments on it. Oh well. Today is community relation building day in class. I want you to get more comfortable visiting and commenting on other people's blogs.

Now the lecture.
1st point: English ability. Of all my English classes, you guys are by far the most able speakers. Your class is more capable of expressing opinons and discussing on your own than any other class I have. I am not sure if that is because you have better English skills, or that you like the topics we discuss better, or that you are in general a more mature (in terms of years of school attended) class and thus know what is required. Do you know the answer? What if I asked you to answer this question? Hmmmm I can hear the conversation grinding to a halt. Think about an answer, I might ask you.

2nd topic: Work load in this class. At the beginning of class. One thing I have been careful about in this class is to keep homework to a minimum, which I have done: I said you need to give time each week to write to your blog (minimum) and I suggested you comment on other peoples blogs. Everyone is doing the minimum, any chance of doing more? I mentioned that you should be reading and commenting on other people's blogs, many times throughout the semester, but it seems most of you haven't done this. I do not feel this is a major task: you should be able to write to your blog in about 20-30 minutes, once a week and you should be spending 30minutes to an hour (minimum, more if you want to improve) reading and commenting on other people's blogs. An hour+ of homework a week of reading and writing, I really don't think this is too much to ask, and in fact it is far less than I ask even my first year students.

In class, lets practice reading and commenting on other people's blogs. Remember those links we put on your pages back in the fourth week of class? Use them. Visit some other students' blogs, read their posts, make some comments. I will give you about 30 minutes, you should be able to read and comment on at least three blogs. IN one half-hour, I will give you 10 minutes to then report on your readings and comments in the comment section on this post. (CLick comments and type away). Then, I will ask you to look at the post I made on Monday, check the links, search these other blogs, and then discuss and share what you found with people around you. I will ask for comments, so we might ahve a discussino about it. From there, we will decide whether we want to work on our homework, or the blogs.

Any questions, please ask.
GL

2005-06-06T05:34:00.000-07:00

This is late and it is a copy from my IES-h class blog, but it was some interesting thoughts on what i did this weekend.

I spent the weekend at Ritsumeikan University Biwako Campusat a CALL conference. CALL is the term for using computers to help teach language. (Computer Assisted Language Learning). It is fun to attend this conference in that I am getting to see what other people are doing in their classes. Basically, it seems like a lot of students are blogging now in Japan, so you are all on the 'cutting edge' of Language Learning, so congratulations!

While I did get a few new ideas, but mostly I learned that not many people really know what to do with the technology they have. THere doesn't seem to be a specific way to use computers in general (or blogs specifically) and most people are just sort of trying a lot of things. One thing I did like was the sharing. I saw a lot of people sharing ideas on the blogs they like the most. Here are a couple I was introduced to. A couple different ideas for blogs, for your consideration.

Mikan Moblog
This is a "mobile blog" a mo-blog where the writer is taking a picture a day of different things in Hiroshima. Its pretty fun and could be useful if you wanted to go visit Hiroshima.

Fatman-Seoul Blog
Another interesting blog writen by a person living in Korea who likes to eat. A good outsider's perspective on eating in Korea.

What do you think of these sites? What do you like about them and what do you think could be better?

June 2nd: ESL3 in-class assignment

2005-06-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

First of all I am sorry I didn't post this weekend, believe me, I tried many times, I just couldn't seem to get it to work. Let's hope this one works because I seem to have lost my voice today, so I won't be able to talk much.

As for class, if you haven't already gone to Nozomi's blog to take the poll ( vote, yes, no, or maybe) do so now. Once we get the information, we can begin to talk about it as a class.

Next, I want to get back to what we worked on in last class. With a partner, were imagining if a foreign student had just come to our neighboorhood or school. I had asked you how would you help this person to feel comfortable in your culture? An example of things you m ight do are:

We might say hello to the person when you see them,
We might invite him/her to our homes for dinner.

I want you to come up with a few possibilities with your partner, try to create a list of three or more other actions you could take to make the person feel comfortable. We will share your ideas in class, and make a list of them on the board so we can use them in another activity.

Explain this activity.

Discuss our Aesop Fable and the relations between the lesson in it, in this last exercise (how to be a friend) and the ideas of culture shock (and feelings of anxiety in general).

Comment. On today's activity. Was it intersting? Enjoyable? Should we do it again? Why or why not?

GL

May28&29 mid-term weekend

2005-05-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to report this weekend, so this will be a brief post. I was feeling 'a bit under the weather' (a euphemism for 'sick'), and so I was able to acomplish very little this weekend. I went home after class, took a couple hour nap, helped with dinner, played with Naomi a bit, and then.... I think we watched a movie. Oh yeah! The first half of Star Wars3. Pretty sad: We are so old and tired we can't make it through an entire movie anymore... Saturday, I graded papers and blogs and such. It was a work day. We went out for dinner that night at a mexican restaurant in Makino called "El Moustache" It was pretty good, all things considered. I felt pretty bad that night so I had to take some sinus medicine. Naomi is also sick and she had a rough night sleeps, with lots of coughing so Temre didn't get a lot of sleep. Poor Temre. Sunday is today. I think I worked all day, grading more papers and stuff. I still feel terrible with a headache and stuffed up head and sore throat. No fair: I worked all weekend, took it easy and I am still sick! Hope you all had better times than I did.

May28th&29th: Mid-term weekend

2005-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to report this weekend, so this will be a brief post. As some of you noticed in class, I was feeling 'a bit under the weather' (a euphemism for 'sick'), and so I was able to acomplish very little this weekend. I went home after class, took a couple hour nap, helped with dinner, played with Naomi a bit, and then.... I think we watched a movie. Oh yeah! The first half of Star Wars3. Pretty sad: We are so old and tired we can't make it through an entire movie anymore... Saturday, I graded papers and blogs and such. It was a work day. We went out for dinner that night at a mexican restaurant in Makino called "El Moustache" It was pretty good, all things considered. I felt pretty bad that night so I had to take some sinus medicine. Naomi is also sick and she had a rough night sleeps, with lots of coughing so Temre didn't get a lot of sleep. Poor Temre. Sunday is today. I think I worked all day, grading more papers and stuff. I still feel terrible with a headache and stuffed up head and sore throat. No fair: I worked all weekend, took it easy and I am still sick! Hope you all had better times than I did.

New Unit: Culture Shock

2005-05-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

What does Culture Shock mean? Have you ever experienced it? What do you remember about it? Can we avoid it? How do we deal with it? These are the questions I want you and your partner to consider.

With your partner, create a definition for the word Culture Shock.

Rules:

You may not use your electronic dictionary, but you may use the internet.
You may not copy a definition from another source, you can read the definition and then write it in your own words.
You should be able to mention the site or person who your definition came from.

Next I want you to take a few minutes to share your thoughts on the subject. Have you ever had culture shock, or felt feelings similar to culture shock? When? What were you doing? How did you deal with it? If you have never felt culture shock/similar feelings, maybe you know someone who has, you might tell about their experiences. Based on these stories, cna you give any advice to people in how they might deal with (handle/overcome) culture shock? What are they? You should take notes on this, there is no writing assignment on the blog for this, but You should take notes.

You will ahve about 20minutes to search and discuss your thoughts with your partner, then we will have a class discussion where I hope you will be willing to share your stories.

SP

May 26th final thoughts on personal values

2005-05-25T20:01:00.000-07:00

Values are necessary for a happy and fulfilling life. Most values come from a source, be they traditional (from culture, from family, from friends) or from personal expereinces. Please consider the following quote.

"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values."
--William Ralph Inge (1860-1954)

With your partner, take a 5-10minutes to discuss the following questions:

What is the meaning of the quote in your own words?
What are the most important values that education teaches us? (an example answer to this question: Education can teach us how to meet deadlines.) try to create a verbal list of the values we learn in education beyond the obvious studied subjects (english, math, history).

Next, please take 5 minutes to write your thoughts in the comment secttion of this post. Make sure you are logged in and that you sign your post with your given name. Work quickly, we will discuss the quote and your responses at 12:55.

Good luck
SP

05-05-21_n_t_hiroko_flowers

2005-05-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

05-05-21_n_t_hiroko_flowers
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

This weekend we had visitors from the states... well kind of. At university, i had many Japanese friends and one of them stayed in the US after graduation. She and her husband and 5-month old daughter came to visit us. They had been in Tokyo seeing her family for the past two weeks. It was great to see them and their new baby Minako. We had a BBQ on Friday night and went to the park on Yodogawa on Saturday. The flowers were out and we all enjoyed our nice relaxing walk around the park. That night we had ramen for dinner. It was nice to see our friends, but I tell you, it is very tiring to entertain for the weekend and we didn't even do very much. Ah, I must be getting old. Or out of shape. Or both.

My daughter loves going to the park because there are always lots of dogs to see. She gets so very excited by dogs but she is not really big on touching them, she would rather just stand close and point at them. If they come up to here she gets really still but she doesn't want to pet them. Maybe this is becuase she was scratched by a cat when she was younger. Oh well, at least she is not too afraid of them.

I hope you all had a nice weekend too. See ya in class.

may 19th class freewrite

2005-05-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

Your homework for today was to read the handout called "Module 8.3: You can't Escape Uchi" Relationshops Outside the Family"
( found here http://athome.nime.ac.jp/part_3/8_3.html )
At the start of class, I would like you to take about 15minutes and write about this reading. This is a non-directed writing, other than I want you to share your thoughts, interpretations and feelings about this reading, so what you write about specifically is up to you, but I want you to write non-stop. Write about what comes to mind when you think back to what you read (if you didn't read, you should type in "I didn't read it" sign your comment and then read the article. You will receive a non-passing mark on the assignment, but it is still better than a zero.
Assuming you did read, what you write about is up to you, just write a lot. You might choose any number of focused topics to write about for example:

*the overall subject itself,
*experiences from your life that are similar or different (maybe comparing family/society relationships in Japan to other cultures)
*focus specifically on commenting on one of the examples.
*discuss the relevance or irrelevance of reading this sort of article in this class.

What you write about is up to you, but I would like a focused writing that is more than a couple sentences in length, so you do not have time to re-read or skim the article. And let me be clear on that: I do not want you to spend these 15 minutes reading the article. I want you to type about your thoughts on it.

Please sign your posts with your given name and remember to LOG IN before you publish your posts.

After we are finished, I will ask you to discuss the article in small groups then ask you to share your thoughts and feelings about this Uchi & gift-giving.
good luck
SP

Osaka: the underground city

2005-05-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

Let me start my post by saying I really really like the people I have met from Osaka. While the people are wonderful, I have to tell you, your city is very confusing and strange to interact with! If I was asked to describe my experiences in Osaka, I would say it feels like a city designed to imitate what it would be like living in a gigantic prairie dog colony. Prairie dogs are small little rodents that live in large family groups of a few dozen animals. These living groups are called colonies, I guess because they are isolated and self-contained, homogeneous group. Prairie dogs live on the plains and build these large underground warrens; a system of linked tunnels and living spaces. When you watch a prairie dog colony there is always a lot of action, with some of them sitting on their hind legs watching the surroundings (guarding) some of them chasing each other around (playing) and some of them lazing in the sun (relaxing). The one key feature to these colonies is that there is consistent frantic energy and action and that prairie dogs keep popping up out of these many holes all the time, looking around then dashing this way and that then running into another hole.

a painting of a prairie dog colony

Pop up dash dash dash, pop down, scurry scurry scurry, more pop! pop! pop!

Osaka feels like this to me as well. Everytime I go there, I feel like a prairie dog. I always come to the city by train, I jump off run around in an underground maze of shopping malls, boutiques food stalls, bathrooms, and wall-to-wall bodies of scurrying people: Osaka is a bustling, fast-moving city, there is no doubt about that. We finally find our way to an exit and burst to the surface, all blinking madly as our eyes adjust to the sunlight. We then rush towards our goal. There are many possible destinations in Osaka, but all are underground or inside: a big building of boutiques, a department store, or (usually) a covered arcade with lots of bars and pachinko, or a restaurant or (as often as not) simply across the street and into another subway line.... I am telling you, I feel like a prairie dog living in a high-tech, futuristic colony! When I go to Osaka I always get a good workout of walking and stairs but 80% or more of this walking is underground and/or in a covered street. It isn't scary, it is fascinating and to me at least, worth commenting on.

for class Tuesday, May 17th

2005-05-11T23:51:00.010-07:00

For our next class, consider this little joke about values. We will discuss it in class. Additionally, I will also ask you to think of and make a list of the most important values in Japan. What do you think are the most important values for Japanese people? For example, In the US, three of the top ten values are Freedom, Happiness, and Health, what about in Japan? Make your list. Note I did not ask what are your personal top ten values, but what are some of the most imporant values of all Japanese people. Don't know? Try guessing!
Okay, here is your reading, enjoy. You don't need to post, but you might if you want to share ideas.

Mr.Masumi Muramatsu, a famous interpreter, once introduced the following joke: A plush passenger boat is in danger of sinking due to a bad weather. The captain gives orders that all women and children be put on lifeboats and all men passengers jump into the rough sea wearing life jacket. What would he say most effectually to the men of different countries?

To an English man, the captain says, "You are a gentleman....," "Yes, of course...." and the man jumps.

To a German, "This is captain's order.... "Ja!", the man jumps.

To an Italian, "It's against the rule to jump...." The Italian laughs, "Who cares about the rules?" and flops into the water.

To a Dutchman, "This is the last life jacket left...." and the Dutch grabs it and jumps.
The captain says to an American, "Don't worry, sir, you have a high amount of life insurance policy...." Relieved, the American jumps.

And to a Canadian, just telling him, "The American, over there, tells me he won't jump...." is enough. Now, why is this the case? Perhaps you Canadians can tell me why.

Now, what would the captain of the sinking ship have said to a Japanese who might have been one of the passengers? He would have whispered this way: "Sir, all other Japanese passengers have jumped already, you know...." "Oh, is that right? Then, I will, too...." The Japanese would jump then, though deliberately.

Note the attitude exhibited by this Japanese. Wouldn't it show the generally known tardiness in Japanese decision-making? Or, might this tendency, that is, "I'll do it if all others are doing so....", be an indication that the Japanese are quite incapable of making autonomous decision

From: "What are Japanese Values?" by Professor HAMAGUCHI Eshun, Professor, University of Shiga Prefecture
http://www.toronto.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/english/news/econ-biz-news/hamaguchi.html

May 12th in class

2005-05-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today's class. Values. (n.): beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important in life.
Values play an important role in who we are. IN this unit, we will see that soceital values help decide how we live our lives. We will look to many sources to find these values: family, friends, culture, as well as our own personal values. Your task is to consider the cocept of value and with a partner, decide why is it important to study them? What can values tell us about ourselves, our culture and other cultures?

In pairs/small groups, talk about the questions above.

Discuss the concept of values.
p7 from our text.
Talk about our reading
Talk about Aesop

Comment for class: TBA...

writing for thursday

2005-05-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

In unit 1, we have looked at ideas of 'identity,' who we are as individuals. Identity is closely linked to personalities which are part of our character that makes us individuals. We develop our personalities while living among people who belong to our culture and our community. in this way, both sharing culture with others and having our own personality are part of being an individual and developing ourselves.

Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.

-- Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

Question for you: How can an individual reach his/her full potential? ('potential' is everything that is possible for us to become / to achieve.) Please respond through the comments link at the bottom of this post, thank you.

Thursday April 28th

2005-04-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

We have three things to work on today:

learning how to make links,
making comments on other people's blogs,
writing about the reading of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"

There is a handout for you. Please take a look. We will go over this sheet in class, but if you are able to go faster than the class, please feel free. You should also plan on helping each other out as you can. Ask questions and offer solutions (in English, of course). Once we have finished adding links and such, I would ask students to check out some of their fellow students sites, read what they have written and if the mood strikes you, make a comment. Adding links takes a lot of concentration, but it is not impossible. This part of the class should take about an hour.

Once we are finished with linking and commenting, I will ask you to make a comment about the reading. What was the story's message? What was it trying to say or teach you, the reader? Can you connect the content, the information (teaching) from the story to the ideas of identity and/or the larger idea of culture?

GL

April 26th homework

2005-04-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Pretty straightforward, but I know I didn't give a lot of time discussing it in class, so I mention it here as well. The homework is two readings from our reader book Aesop's Fables, specficially The preface "About the Author" and page 11-15 "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." Come to class on Thursday ready to discuss and perhaps even write a little bit about this story and the author.

GL!

Thursday April 21st class assignment

2005-04-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hello. For this class remember you have to publish at least one post per week. How will you acomplish this? What will you write about? Here are some suggestions.

A good place to start looking for ideas to write about are your own interests, so you might suggest people write about (and specific examples):

things you like or enjoy doing, (e.g. snowboarding)
subjects you enjoy talking with your friends about (e.g. recent movies, food)
ideas or topics you are currently thinking about in or outside of school (e.g. chinese demonstations, where you want to study next year)
classes or assignments. (e.g. my homwork in communicative english is too hard!)

! Keep in mind these are open journals so you want to focus on topics that you don't mind other people reading.

Writing assignment. Make a list of possible writing topics. I want you to try and come up with a list of as many topics as you can think of in the next 10 minutes. Once we are finished, we will take a look at the posts. We should have quite a list to work with. Do you have any questions?

! A couple things to keep in mind about posting over this semester:

Remember that one post a week is the minimum requirement. Although we only have 16 weeks in the semester, you don't have to stop your list once you think of 16 topics.
Your posts should be over 120 words or more in length. I am not going to count words, but I give you this number as a 'ball park figure.' 120 wrods is a long paragraph, or about 10-12 sentences. If your post is only a sentence or two it will not count. You need to be writing a substantial amount, so try to write at least a paragraph for each post.
This list is to help you think of many ideas, not restrict your ideas and topics. You don't have to write about the topics we have brainstormed. You can write about anything: you can use another person's idea, or if something during the week gets you excited, write about that instead.
Work on your posts every week. You should try to finish your post every week by Friday, 11:59pm. At the end of the semester, it is not acceptable to write many posts in one day.

Defining Culture

2005-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

What is culture? What does this very commonly used word mean? Try to define the term in writing. You may also wish to list some of the characteristics of culture, offer examples of culture, as well as examples of what culture is not in order to make your ideas more clear. Oooh this is a poorly worded post, but the idea should still be clear: define this term.
Good luck

welcome to our online spot

2005-04-10T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome!
Please have a look around, make yourself at home. Feel free to write anywhere and everywhere. I am going to guess that the idea of regularly writing online is a new experience for most of you and that is okay. I don't expect you to be experts, nor do I expect you to be overly enthusiastic at first, but I do expect you to try. I am looking for regular, thoughtful posts. To get started, I am going to ask you to post a comment to this entry, but to do this, you will need to create an account. Creating an account is easy, but it is also entirely in Enlgish, so you will have to read and ask for help when you get stuck. But don't only ask me, as each other too! Work together, help each other. And if all else fails, just [b] play around [/b] with things. The best way to learn how to do things is through playing with them and just trying to use it the best you can. You can't break this (at least I hope you can't) and you can almost always undo what you have done. If you just mess around and play, you will learn things that probably I don't even know.
Ok, time to get started. Any questions? Please ask away!

SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.