My goals for the first presentation

Purpose:
-To introduce myself to my classmates so that they know a bit more about me.
-To improve my presentation skills, especially gesture and the use of voice, by recording my presentation.

Audience:
-my classmates in AEP class, Mark and Sylvan.

Logistics:
-time limit of 3 min
-one question can be asked after the presentation
-computer
-slide
-presenter is able to bring anything that is related to one's presentation.

1. Preparation/ Rehearsal
-I did brainstorming to come up with good presentation topics.
-I made my reasons why I am passionate about having meals with my friends clear to make easier to make presentation slides.
-I want to know my presentation is coherence, easy to understand, and interesting to the audience.
-I want to rehearsals many times in order to be confident in my presentation.

2.Content/ Overall impression
-I want to everyone to know about my favorite thing to do and know about me.
-Hopefully, I want to get some good info. of good restaurants near school!


3.Voice
-I want to talk with cheerful voice because I will be talking about what I love to do.
-I want to put emphasis on what I want to really tell mu audience.

4.Body Language
-I want to have good eye contact because I usually look at the computer screen when I give presentation with slides.
-I want to show what I want to emphasize by doing gesture.

5.Visuals
-I want to make some slides on google doc to show the pictures of having meals with my friends, and to make my presentation memorable.

Homework: analyze the TED video

URL:http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html

1) General impression of the video
- persuative
- a new idea which I never thought about
- familiar topic

2) In terms of speaking skills, what are the strengths of the presenter?
- he questions a lot so that audience actually thinks about the topic
- good timing of pause
- gives very familiar examples which make easy for poeple to understand his point
- his topic claim is very clear
- I like when he says M&M, which means manager and meetings, because usually we think of chocolate when we hear M&M. it was pretty funny.
- he says numbers many times which gives specific ideas.
- good use of voice!
- I think it is good to just walk around on the stage as he talks


3) What are the weaknesses of the presentation? How could it be better?
- he talks a bit fast?
- it would be better if he had slides for his presentation. presentation with no slides is sometimes boring....and slides make easier to understand.

Hello everyone in APE class!!

This is my first blog post for the Advanced English class. How are you guys doing?
In today's class, we introduced ourselves to classmates and memorized everybody's names. I'm not sure if I still remember the names though... haha

Anyway, today's homework!

Characteristics of GOOD presentations:
- presentation with good sources
- presenters are confident
- good eye contacts
- start presentation with good attention getter
- topic and claim are clear and specific

Characteristics of BAD presentations:
- repeating the same things over and over
- saying "like"s and "ummmm"s many times
- reading papers that presenter prepare, not presenting
- presenter is not confident in the content of presentation
- not looking toward audience
- boring
- slides include lots of letters

See you on Wednesday!

Thank you all!! xoxo

Today was the last day of Freshman ELP! I can't believe it actually finished....Even though I had hard times doing all the homework, I really enjoyed ELP classes.On the last day of ELP, we continued to watch the movie "This is What Democracy Looks Like". I was wondering what was the position of the police side. We have to listen to them before making judge of the movie. I also thought that Japanese young people do not demonstrate because we do not know about what is going on in the world, we do not care what is going on because we are busy with personal problems and we know that only people on the top can control the world. I personally feel that the world exists somewhere else, I mean I feel it is far away from us. I also got surprised that demo against the Iraq war, only 30,000 people out of 30million did demonstration , although there are much more around the world. Iraq war is not directly related to our life in Japan, which can be the reason for not having demo in Japan. have to thank Rab for giving us many useful knowledge, especially computer skills. I'm sure that those skills will be used in my future work. Also, thank my section mates! Even though we had SEKUKON once in the spring term, I really like you guys that you always go your own way! Best wishes to you all<3Have a great fall break!

Presentations!

Today, we gave our presentations to our classmates to explain the website we made for the group project.

Every group did such a great job and I was actually amazed all the works they had done!

We had classes in 2nd and 5th period today, and in 5th period, we watched the movie"this is what real democracy looks like."(am I right with the title?) I was once interested in media and wanted to get job related to media. However, now I don't because now I figured out that the majority of the media doesn't tell reality to audience. If I worked in the field of media, I would like to tell reality to audience, making documentary, etc.

Anyway, I enjoyed listening to everyone's presentation and watching the movie!

ELP is almost done!

Today, we were supposed to give presentation in the class, but we are good students that nobody had completed websites. haha So we will do that tomorrow morning in the class.

Well, I was working on my website today as well.

We have only two days left. Time goes by so fast. I'll miss you all, and Rab.

gotta enjoy the rest of the class!

Fall break is almost there!

Hello! I finished my essay today! soooo happy, even though task of finishing making presentation and website is waiting for me...

anyway, today we worked on our group project as usual, but somehow Yugo was so high today. lol I'm worried about him... haha I like my group members because they are hard workers that I respect!! Thanks for the all works you do to encourage me to work harder!

As Saki mentioned on her blog, we both are going to Canada for the Fall break coming up. So is Rab! Saki is going to Quebec, and I'm going to Saskatchewan, very very country side, to visit my host family and friends! wonder where Rab is going!

okay, have a good weekend!

Hello Hello!

Wow, we've been working on our group project... so there is basically nothing to write about lol

On Tuesday, our group was so passionate about the project that we came early in the morning and polished up our essays! haha
Rab told us a lot of things that we didn't know, such as how facebook is not private... etc
actually, we only have 4 classes? of ELP left. Time goes by so fast!

Group Work Group Work!!

Rab, thank you for your comment! I understand your point that you don't want to give your money to such a company..... Maybe I'll start to drink Pepsi instead of coke!?! Anyway, the way that corporations earn money should be changed to avoid incidents such Coka Cola did.

In today's class, we got time to work on our group project like yesterday! I worked on my essay because we decided to finish it by next Monday...!
Even though we have school festival on this weekend... have to do this!!!!! lol

By the way, P.E. in 1st period was sooooo much fun! We played softball( baseball) and had a lots of fun!

Working for the group project!

Today, we used the class to work on the group project.

-I uploaded the video on our website and tidied up it a little bit.

-Rab gave us good sources for our essay.

-gained the new knowledge for website...

These are the things that I did in today's class, basically.

To answer Rab's question from yesterday, I think most people know that coke is not healthy, even if they don't know about the fact of 13 cubes of sugar are in coke. It is their choice to decide whether to keep drinking coke, sacrificing their health, or stop drinking it. knowing it has bad affect on their health. Also, I think what coke did to the university students in the past is very cruel and not ethical, but it doesn't change the taste of coke.

What would be like living in the afterlife?

Today, Rab gave us NP lecture of GM foods. Keywords are "For corporations, benefits are much more important than people". I had not known anything about GM foods until Rab told us. Well, I'm scared of food because I usually don't look at the ingredients in the food and where it is from. People really don't care about GM foods until they actually get sick by it. I think I'll keep drinking coke even though it has 13 cubes of suger in it.

In the class, we talked about Morioka's reading! He is a professor of philosophy and ethics at Osaka Prefecture University. We talked about the afterlife and xeno as well. Xeno was kind of groos but interesting topic.

G-night!

I-movie is awesome!

On Friday, we played with I-movie, which was fun and amazing!
We practiced how to use it, and after that we worked with our group members for the group project.
Our group were making introduction video to put on the website! I was the editor of the video, and I really enjoyed doing it. I'm gonna finish editing it tomorrow morning, so Saki, Eri, please check it out!

We only have a couple weeks left for ELP class!

What do I know about bioethics?

Today we watched the short movie called "Constructing Public Opinion". It was very interesting that how media affects when people make decisions and it also affects on politics. It was interesting to me that people support conservative ideas and liberal policy. The example of land use that Rab gave us in the class was easy to understand this theory. I wanted to watch some documentaries on the website of Media Education Foundation and I registered, but I couldn't figure out how to watch for free( maybe do I have to call or something?). It will be great if Rab can teach us how to do it. Anyway one of the movies on MEF, "Gloucester 18, The Realities of Teen Pregnancy",got my attention. You can watch trailer here: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=242

After watching the movie, we had a discussion about bioethics. "What did we know about bioethics before reading Radical Evolution and Fukuyama's airticle?" The answer for this question is "I basically knew nothing about it." Well, people usually don't know about things that they are not interested in.
Another question: why politicians pick the topic of cloning, not the topic of free health care? I think it is because politicians like the new things( that will actually be beneficial) and they don't care about citizens. To me, topics of coning is not my business, I mean I don't find any meanings of discussing cloning, because I feel it is far from realistic. There are many everyday problems that we have to consider.

Cloning is good or bad?

We talked about Fukuyama's reading today as well.
According to Rab, our next PWT is going to be about topics on "Radical Evolution". So we kinda connected Fukuyama's reading to Radical Evolution.

Today's main topic was cloning.
I am against to having cloning children because there is no connection between dad( or sometimes mom?) If a child was born by having sex, then dad feels connection or bound to the child.

I think, it is such a rare thing to do cloning, we are against to it. But what if it becomes normal to have cloned children? I don't know what I want to say and I can't find out my answer for the cloning... It might turn out to be good solution for some people.
In my group, we came to the conclusion that we have to make laws of cloning. Under which situation we can use cloning? Should cloning be treated equally to human beings?
As technology advances, we will have to consider these kind of problems. And politicians are the ones who make the law. ughhh

neoconservative

Yesterday, we went over Fukuyama's reading.
Rab told us about politics, such as Right/Left, and Liberal/Conservative. Although I have heard those names, I did not really understand what they mean. So it was very meaningful to know about the basic knowledge of politics. I was gonna try the political compass, but I figured out it would take a ling time, then I quit doing it. haha I'll try it when I find time to do.

After that, we discussed stem cell research. Rab asked us the question "when can human beings have stem cell research?"/ "When human beings become human?". In my opinion, human beings become human beings when they recognize themselves us human. And the life starts after having sex. So, I disagree with stem cell research.
Oh, and I had a good discussion(fight?) with Yugo today. We were having the totally opposite opinions, which made the discussion interesting.

Group Project!

Fun Friday!

Today, we graded our PTW tests. My score was quite accurate as the 1st grader. I didn't study much, so it was such a disaster.... but oh well, it is the story of past.

After that, we gave a short speech about our research topics so that we can works with people who have similar topics. My research topic is going to be about technology and education, and how technology affects on education, especially how it develops/improves education.
It not very clear yet, but I'm gonna compare Japan with USA.
In my group, we have Eri, Saki, and me! well, we gotta work hard to make a great website, presentaions etc....

Good luck to everyone and myself...
and have a good weekend!

After School Club

Today, we watched documentary movie in class.
It scared me that even ordinary high school kids can get weapons very easily. What was the fun part in the movei was when the Israel man was saying that "I'm not telling you because you are not honest." well, I thought that he is the one who is not honest!! lol
anyway, the movie made me think about we could change the law if we make actions and work hard to realize missions.

I am looking forward to doing our projects, even though I have no clue what I wanna do for the project...
maybe I can get some ideas on Friday's class.

the best blood type is ....B!!!!!

In today's class, we had discussion about the Shipman reading.
Nature vs. Nurture. which wins?
I think nurture affects more on making one's personality. how people look has something to do with genes, but, for example, family has a lot in common because they spend a lot of time together, and it affects the way of thinking and acting.

the most interesting topic for today was about blood type. my blood type is B, which is the one disliked by many people...lol Because B-poeple tend to be selfish, however, we think that we are just being "decisive"!! B-people in CE were me, Shiori and Yuna!! and we all agreed that B-people have fellowship(?). I think that because B-people are mostly disliked by people, we want to get together not to lose our power. This is our guess!

I enjoyed today's class!!

good night!

Oct. 11

Today was supposed to be a national holiday, but we had school as usual.

we had the class outside today because it was sooo nice :) I feel happy when it's nice and warm.

we had discussions and talked about many topics.
I think Japan should be more open to foregners so that Japanese economy will boost.
The fact that Japan had SAKOKU during edo period affects the current situation of not being able to accept many foreigners in Japan, maybe?
If Japan wants to win the economic competitition, then we have to change our mind and be more international.

CRAP!! Oct.8

Today we learned how to make good presentation slides!
we checked over the slides of people in group and gave comments.

And Rab told us CRAP to make our slides better.
C-contrast
R-repetition
A-alignment
P-proximity

Simple slides are the best to give information.

everyone was tired today because we hat PWT this morning? or you worked hard last night to finish essays and slide shows?

hope you have a good weekend.
byebye

Affirmative Action! Oct. 6

Today, we discussed "affirmative action", the system which allows minorities to enter universities. We can say it "positive discrimination" in easy words. I've never heard the words, but it was an interesting topic.
I thought that the words "positive discrimination" is kind of irony that people were actually trying to help minority, but it was also discriminating them bu racism.

White people from poor family couldn't get in to universities because SAT score for them was set higher than minorities.

well, treating people equally is kinda difficult, but i know i should. people have their own stereotype and we tend to judge others by the stereotype for the first sight.

ELP class always makes me think and consider issues around me!!

Tuesday, Oct.5

Today we discussed the video we watched for homework.
the video made me realize that i had streotype toward Arabs that they are bad people.
but i don't know where the stereotype came from.. maybe from 9.11? when I see Arabs at airport, even though i know that all Arabs are not bad, i get scared.

I thought the media infuluence is so storong that control people's minds.

and also we talked a little bit about PWT coming up this Friday.

I recommend you guys to watch movie "Crash". it is very interesting and made me think about racism. you can rent DVD at TSUTAYA!!
and one more.. go on to the Youtube and look for the video called" talk to Iraqi". it is also an interesting video too.
well, right now, we are busy with essay, PWT, and presentation, but when you get time to chill, please check it out!!

ttyl

Oct. 4

Today, Rab started the class with talking about Census in U.S.A.
Here are the changes through the American history:
1830's: white, black, mulatto
1850's: white, black, mulatto, Chinese, Indian
1950's: white, negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Philippino, Other
2000: Starts with question"Are you Spanish/ Hispanic/ Latin?"

Today's class was very interesting, I thought. The history of American Census shows history of American and progress of racism. The most recent census in 2000 was because there are many illegal immigrants from Mexico, also U.S.A. doesn't have good relations with Cuba.
Later on, we had discussion. It is very difficult to categorize and define nationality. Rab always asks "Why?" questions to us, which makes us struggle....
The way of Japan treats foreigners should be reconsiderred. And I came with the quetion that should be people allowed to have two nationalities? well, if people are allowed to get only one nationality, it will establish their identity.

I am watching the video that Rab told us to watch for homework as I am posting my blog...... some scenes are pretty gross.... ouch...

Have a good night everyone!

Radical Evolution Chapter7 & Epilogue

"Transcend builds on, expands and gives measure to The Prevail Scenario, in which technology does not control us, but we control technology."

I think that technology will never exceed human nature. Because technology is what people create, it is impossible that technology create themselves. I liked the scentence on tehe page 234 due to this reason.

On page 253, it says that culture and values change more slowly than technology. "Yes, it is true," I thought. But I also thought that our culture and values change as technology develops, which means the more rapidily technology develops, the more rapidly our life changes. I am not able to catch up with advanced technology.... The rapid delvelop of technology brings up the gap between people who master technology and people who are not familiar with technology.

In this chapter, I kinda felt people's ego that people say they use technology to help those who are in need, but it seems to me that they are testing those people for their pleasure. I mean that it seemed to be hypocrisy. What purpose of us using technology? we have to be clear about it. Now, it doesn't seem like we are using technolgy for only the usefulness. It's more than that.
Do we need to make a limit of technology advance?

Actually, I am so sleepy and I don't really know what I am writng...

Anyway, we have to carefully think how we deal with technology!

Presentaion....

Funky Friday!

Today, we learned how to use google doc, and how to make google presentation .

I like making presentation in front of people, even though, I felt kind of shy when I was recording video and listing to my voice. But Rab said that listening and watching one's presentation is the best way to practice presentaions.

We'd not better put many letters on slides because pictures are more effective to make people memorize things. So less letters on slides are better!!!

By next Friday, we have to finish our essays and presentaions! next week is gonna be such a tough week...!!

have a good weekend!

Wednesday, Sep.29

In the beginning of today's class, Rab told us to take off our shoe and sock. After that, he quickly checked our feet and divided into groups of 2. (actually 3) :Greek feet, Egyptian feet, and farmer/peasant feet. I was in the group of Egyptian, but later on I realized that my feet are similar to the farmer's ones. So Akie and me were together in the farmer/peasant group. I thought we had a lot in common.

Next, we moved on the group discussion and talked over the Gould article. According to Bluemenbach, there are five types of races devided by beauty: Cocasion, American, Mongolian, Ethiopia, and Malay. He thinks that Cocasion is the most beautiful race. I thought that the definition of beauty differs from a person to person... so it is very hard to define beauty.

And the end of the class, we shared the topic of our essays! In my group, I am going to have Shiori, Aiko, and Naomichi :)

see you on Friday<3

Tuesday, Sep.28

Today, we learned about "unity". We have to make each paragraph coherent when we write essays. I want to improve my writing skills, so things that Rab teaches us in the class really help me out to improve my English skills. We have to remember that ELP finishes after this term. Although ELP is such a hard work, I think I will miss it. How about you guys?

After learning and doing handouts, we had a discussion over Ohinata's reading. Our group mostly talked about the difference between "encouraging" and "forcing". In the past, Japanese government forced women to stay home and take care of their children. However, recently, the government encourages women to have many kids. Um... I know we should have many kids for Japanese future, but economically, it is pretty hard.

Okay, now I am going to work on my essay....

Monday, Sep.27

We discussed Ohinata's reading today. We mainly covered her way of writing the essay. It was not very good, actually. I would like to read it in Japanese.
To tell you the truth, I didn't know that we had to read the Ohinata's reading by today and I have to say sorry to people who were in my group... Because I didn't know about the essay, I couldn't talk much in the group....>< What a shame! After the class, I read the Ohinata...even though it was too late... haha

When we write our essay, we have to be careful of the constructure of paragraph and try to make the essay coherrent. I thought that now we know how to write good essays, it is going to be useful when we check essays of others.

byebye!

Radical Evolution Chap.5&6

In the Chaper 5, The Hell Scenario, Bill Joy predicts that technology will be such an evil in the future. Because I'm not for relying on technology, I pretty much agree with this scenario. I am afraid that technology will control our world someday and human will lose their power and human feelings. Bill makes the same kinds of comments as I mentioned in my past journal of this book. On page 162, he says "It is some how necessary to our self-understandings of what we are as human beings. I mean, you can't have courage without risk. You can't have real compassion or sympathy without the personal experience of pain". I totally agree with this comment. Yes, we can rely on technology at the certain extent, however, it should not destroy human nature. I am very afraid that the history of human beings will be ended by ourselves, because of this quickly development of technology. Also in this chapter, it says that the gap between developing and developed countries will occur as we develop technology. Or we can say that the gap is already happening. Since rich people tend to get first pick throughout all of history, people in developing countries are left behind in the field of technology. However, I think those people might be happy, in a way, that they are left behind. Why I think life this is because if the technology world will rule us in the future, people in developing countries can survive. This gap might be important and needed, I thought.

The Prevail Scenario(chapter6) is odd and unprecedented. Is is less well defined compared to the Heaven or Hell Scenario. The future predicts are not always correct, and this scenario is more likely to follow the thoughts. We can pick which direction to proceed, either heaven or hell (or curve?) in order to realize our desirable future. Now, we have to consider carefully what we really want in our future: technology? or human feelings?

This book really makes me think about our future.

As*hole Aso LOL

Fun & Funky Friday!

Today, we learned the rules of writing academic essays. We have to be careful about the words we use in our eesays to make them more academic. We have to avoide using casual languages, personal pronuns, contraction, phrasal verbs, and run-on. Also, a catchy title plays an important role in essays. I totally agreed with it! We need to catch reader's attention first of all!!
After reviewing our book review, we went on the internet and watched advertising videos. "Store Wars" was very funny but didn't have a lot of facts, which ended up with not getting people's coooperation. I liked the mouth one the most because it was very catchy, creative, and had a lot of facts to convince audience. In our essays, we have to write as many facts as we can to convinve readers.

Starting next week, new essay project is coming up. My essay topic is going to be about "Homosexual Marriage", and my argument will be "Homosexual marriage should be legal in Japan". If anyone who is going to write about the similar topic as me, let me know please!

It is getting chilly, summer has ended finally!

Take care friends<3

Wednesday, Sep. 22

Today, we had our class in ILC room and went over how to use zotero etc..
Zotero is very very useful once we know how to use it!! For the last term, I didn't use zotero because I didn't know how to use exactly.. such a waste of time!!

Anyway, thanks for teaching the cool technologies.

Tomorrow is a national holiday and we actually don't have school! yay!
but I have to work all day tomorrow.....
well, have a nice holiday everyone!

Tuesday, Sep.21

We had the class outside today! I looove being outside when it's nice like today. ( that's why I'm so tanned...haha)

We discussed 3B's of Yamaguchi article. Since we didn't have a lot of information of him, we couldn't understand why he supports women rights, even though he is a man. However, we guessed that his family has someting to do with women rights.... Now, we difinetely know the reasons why we need to research over the author's 3Bs. It is very important to deepen our understandings on their article.

After all, we did the activity called "What went wrong?". It was very interesting and I learned from the activity. For expample, in Dubai, there are 90% of foreigners living in. And in Italy, women don't shave their legs, which was very surprising!! The more legs hair we have, the more attractive we are...um.. pretty nice!! Also I always think that why Japanese women like to have white skin. I don't care about my skin color! My skin color is one of my personalities!! :P
Cultural differences are intresting. We all are the same human beings but we think differently and what we believe in varies.

Monday, Sep.20

Even it is a national holiday today, we had school as usual.... well, I like school days, so I didn't care much about going to school, but the only thing is that I wanted to sleep in....

Anyway, today we had discussion based on the Yamaguchi article. First of all, we did the activity and most people in CE thought that the surgeon was a man because of the bias they had. I didn't think that the surgeon was a son's mother.
The disscusion was pretty difficult. I'm not sure that men and women can get an equal treatment in the future. I cannot think of a woman being the prime minister of Japan. And I think it is okay that only men being in that position. However, currently, women are getting higher positions in companies, which should be a good thing. I think, only the personality or quality of a person matters, not gender.
I want to know how to get rid of this gender bias....

And we are reminded that when we read articles, we always have to check 3Bs!!!

Also, today's NP lecture about Japanese imigrants in US was very impressive. Especially, how she ended the lecture was just awesome! right, guys?!?!

oh, I forgot to ask you guys about the date of SEKUKON!!
anyway see you tomorrow<3

Radical Evolution Chap.3&4

In chapter 3, "The Curve", indicates that "the power of information technology will double every 18 months, for as far as the eye can see". Somehow, I got scared when I read this. I think it is because I felt some possibilities that information technology might exceed human brain sooner or later. After all, I've come to a question. Does the development of technology have a limit like other sources such as fossil fuels? Why technologies can be developed so much?
On page 53, it says that computers and technologies will do all the jobs for us. However, if it actually happened, people would lose their jobs and economy would go down. The people who are experts of technology would survive and others would suffer from poverty. Therefore, we need to put a certain limit on the development of technology in order to keep the economy stable.
Also, I think the current situation that some people cannot live without computers is a significant problem. Human beings are already relying on technology and some people feel fear without it. It could be said that the world of human are getting invaded by technology, which is very sad.

In chapter 4, The Heaven, shows that how the development of technology could benefit our world. On this chapter, the advantages of radical evolution are listed. The conclusion of this list is: "The twenty-first century could end in world peace, universal prosperity, and evolution to a higher level of compassion and accomplishment". I strongly thought "can we actually realize all of these?!", especially the world peace is very difficult to realize. It means that by the end of this century, all people in the world have to be able to know how to use technology. But, wait a minute, before spreading all the skill of technology to realize the will, we have to consider how to stop the poverty, and reduce the gap between developed and developing countries.
In the end of this chapter, Kurzweil, predictor, says people could be God-like in the future. However, I thought that why we need to be God-like? What is the purpose of us developing technology? To be a God? To be alive forever?

I strongly felt that "what is the last purpose of doing this?" The purpose is no longer to make our life convenient.

Fun Fridays!!

Friday! yay!
as usual, we had our classes in ILC and played with MAC computers.
first of all, we did psychological test, which I enjoyed a lot. I thought my result of the test was 90% accurate. according to the result, I'll die with happiness, so it's good haha I'm going to try it with my friends<3
and we watched some dangerous videos on Youtube. I do love roller coasters only if I keep my eyes closed, because I'm afraid of height... but I wonder why they sacrifised their life for the climbing.
also, we did cards magic too. from the magic, we learned that we need to see things from different perspectives so that we don't narrow our understandings. we have to see the things behind the surface.
the stroy about democracy was very interesting. Japan has the system of representitive democracy, but it is not the way "democracy" supposed to be like. the power is taken by the goverment, so we do not know what is going on now in Japan. democracy.... difficult...
and I liked the "free documentray" website!! I will difinetely watch some of the movies!!
in the last, we checked how to use zotero. zotero is very useful!

I love Fridays!!!!!!!

Adjectives that illustrate.....

black
- simple
- stylish
- useful
- basic
- unchangeable


cat
- cute
- free
- slow
- relaxed
- sleepy

hot spring
- hot
- relaxing
- nice
- healthy
- clean

being in a white room
- lonely
- new
- clean
- fresh
- happy

Wed, Sep.15

In today's class, we made 4 groups and discussed about ethics. I always get impressed how Rab deliveries his class. Like today, firstly we talked about rescuing people under the ground, and he connected the discussion to the ethic discussion.
In my group, we had Naho, Akie, and Yuna. When we talked about the order of rescuing people, it was interesting that everyone had totally different opinions. And that is because we all have different ethics.

well, first of all, I would really want to use eennie minnes, but if I can't do that, I would ask my classmates to say all the things they know about me, and pick the one who knows me the most. Because that will be the one whom I had the best friendship with. Also the person and I would have good good friendships after all, and we could share the tragedy. I think I have ethics of relationship/responsibility and teleological.
I'm very curious about how you guys choose the one.

Tuesday, Sep.14

"Hello, everyone. My name is Asuka. Thank you for reading my post　on the blog..."

This is what we did today in the class. We learned how to do presentations which attract audience.
First, we have to follow the certain pattern of presentation, which has 9 steps: 1) greetings, 2) thank audience, 3) self intro, 4) topic intro, 5) overview, 6) BODY, 7) summery/conclusion, 8) Q&A, and 9)thank audience. Also, information should be high quantity, and high quality so that audience doesn't feel hungry. And the most important for presentations is how we deliver. I think that Rab's presentations are always good because the way of giving information is great.

After learning how to do presentations, we talked about ourselves in front of classmates to practice, which was fun! I don't mind speaking in front of people, actually I like that! But I got mixed up today, hope I can do better next time:)
In the end of this semester, we are going to give presentations in the class. I can't wait!
Actually, it will help us when we get job, if we have a good presentation skills.

Well, I have to work on my book review now......

see you tomorrow!

Monday, Sep.13

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AIKO!!!!
hope you had an awesome day<3

First of all, Rab, I was told as each county has their own sign language. But there is one worldwide sign language! It is "I love you." haha I'll show you the sign sometime. Actually, I want to learn ASL(American Sign Language), and there are some classes which teach sign language in ICU, so I may as well take that class!

Today, we did P&D in the class. We were devided into 4 groups and talked about the books we read over the summer. I read "Sky Train", which is about Tibetan women, and I actually like the book. I could learn a lot about Tibet: relations between China and TIbet and India and Tibet, Tibetan women, its culture, religion, etc. Everyone did a great job!
We have to remember the 3Bs: biography, biases, and background to do presentation about books.
Also, I respect Rab for his presentation skills. He catches audience's attention and good at making great examples to support his opinion!
When I speak English, I have a bad habid of keeping saying '"like"...well, I gotta fix this. haha

Now, we have to work on our academic book review!!!! Good luck to you and myself. haha

see you tomorrow!

Radical Evolution: Chapter1&2

I have never ever been interested in technology before I started reading this book. I knew that technology has been rapidly improving, but that is all I knew. However, right after I started reading this book, I realized that I cannot ignore the facts/problems that technology is facing with now, as a person who lives in this century. As you all know, we cannot do anything without technologies. The author of the book says that "Now our techonologies have started to merge with our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities, our progeny and perhaps our souls." Technology has a huge influence on our life now.
In chapter 1 (Prologue), the author talks about how fast technology has developed and the Three Scenarios: The Heaven, The Hell, and The Prevail. According to the author, the last scenario "The Prevail" should be the most complicated one. Because in the scenario, we cannot predict the future.
In chapter 2 (Be All You Can Be), there is the story of the girl, Gina, who has cerebral palsy. Technology actually helps those who are disabled to reach their potential, and it could cure her disease of cerebral palsy. However, the end of the chapter, she says "My cerebral palsy is part of me." She does not need to cure her cerebral palsy because it is part of her human nature. I was impressed when I read this. In general, healthy smart people invent technology. And they invent technology for disabled people so they can lead their life with less problems. But what if disabled people see their disabilities as their human nature? Do we still need to device technology for them? I think we should do that if they need it.
Since I have deaf parents, I think the invention of Skype was great. When I went to Canada for my study abroad, we could go on Skype to talk in sign language and see each other on the video. Skype is not exactly one of the technologies to assist to reach their potential, but it does make life of deaf people easier.

Honestly, I think we should stop improving technology because I feel it's enough. I am happy with current situation and don't need any more development. We don't need superhuman because people are all like superhuman. I mean the existence of human beings are already super amazing thing!However, people are greedy and want to have some goals to achieve. So I am sure that they will keep developing technology.

This book makes me think a lot about the presence.

Sep.10

TGIF!!

today is the Friday!
we went on the MAC computers and did some fun things!
honestly, I'm not the computer freak, so I was not sure that I would be able to keep up with all works with computers.
but today, I thought "technology rocks!". it just smart, useful, and handy!

Anyway, we went over how to use google, which is very useful if we can master.
And we learned about the way of writing good academic essays by watching youtube.
Actually, I like the song "Angels on the Moon". It is a nice song!
To write essays, we have to choose good information, see through the background of the information, and so on.
My writing is poor, so I wish to improve it until the fall term finishes.

And, oh, last night, i was hanging out in Kichijoji and I ran into Rab there!haha
He was at a Izakaya with ICU teachers! It was awesome! haha

Everyone, have a good weekend!

Back to School! YEAH!!

Summer has ended and now we are back to school.


Unlike others, I like school days. Because it keeps me busy and I can learn things. Also it's nice to be with my friends.


Anyway, we had the first class of ELP today, having our new teacher Mr.Paterson. (or can we call you Rab?) In the class, we introduced ourselves a little and talked about being creative etc. Creative people are usually weired, which means that to be a creative person, we have to be abnormal. As I suppose, there are many creative studetns at ICU because of the culliculum that emphasizes critical thinking. And it is the reason why ICU is called as "Isolated Crazy Utopia". We like to be unusual and we are proud of being unusual. (I don't know about other ICU students think like that..but at least I DO!) The words such as "usual" and "common" don't sound like fun to me!


However, I came with a question that what "creative" exactlly means? From my point of view, "creative" is unusual, but can be distortd sometimes.


I'd like to hear fro you what you guys think about the word "creative".


↑ this is one of my favorite summer memories, which was taken at the beautiful river in Yamanashi. Please pay your attention to the naked kid on the photo who was accidentlly taken. haha




Asuka

April 14. 2010

hello.
^^/ and bye