The Truth of the Great Writer

I guess Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous and popular writers in the world. Before ARW class, I had never read his book, but I certainly knew his name and some titles like ”For Whom the Bell Tolls."  However, I didn't know he was almost alcoholic, tried to kill himself, and had such a rough time in Cuba at all. I think it's not rare that people who are engaged in artistic works, including writers, suffer due to their too sensitive senses (e.g. Ryunoske Akutagawa, Osamu Dazai, and Yasunari Kawabata in Japan) but he might spend especially hard life because of the Cold War and the conflict between his origin countries, U.S and Cuba. Personally, I'm interested in war literature, so I want to read his other books in this summer. 

I'm still not sure what stoicism is, but I guess without it, Santiago was not able to see the big fish, and it means you must have stoicism if you want to catch your dream in the life....?

Fallacies

At the last class, we learned about fallacies, expressions that we must not use in our essays and what I thought most difficult usage of them was begging the question. I think I have written these sentences at least once before. In my opinion, this fallacies is difficult for non-native English speaker, especially Japanese because the usage of ”it” is confusing and seems like correct sentence. As I mentioned previous post, I had writing classes in high school, yet I feel I'm learning new things at every ARW classes in ICU! Now I'm sure ELA is informative for everyone, and I want to improve my writing skill more.

Comment on the Content

During the video, Peer reviewing 1 attached with Dan's mail, there was the advice ”Always comment on the text, never the writer." When I heard it, I recalled that I was told the same thing in the debate class of high school. My high school teacher told me  the more debates get exciting, the more I have to be careful not to attack with personal thing, and also not to take what I am said personally otherwise I might hurt friends or feel uncomfortable though I am just studying. We have to pay attention everyone can take a class comfortably. However, saying only nice comments and always flattering friends are not good because they may never improve themselves and neglect. Thus, I believe I have to pay more attention than usual when I study with my friends. 

I am trying to use Evernote but actually I don't undesrstand the full function yet. I want to be familiar with it more....

How to Keep Drafting

I had writing classes when I was in high school, so actually this is not my first time to write a report in English, yet, I didn't know introduction and conclusion  can be written last and I was pretty surprised to watch the tutorial  video. It is a good idea because I sometimes fond it difficult to write a brief introduction especially when I didn't decide my thesis statement yet. I guess it's much easier to choose thesis statement after writing whole essay and also it may be more persuasive one. I'm gonna try this way and want to be better at writing essays than I was in high school!

Tools to Write

In todays's class, we graded CWT of students in other class. It was quite interesting to see and grade other's test because I could know how their ideas are different from mine though we are learning the same material. Especially, I was impressed at the idea that scholars should not be subversive while he or she believes a university ought to be subversive. He/She means if all the scholars were subversive, they might be aggressive too much and there is a possibility they try to overturn even correct beliefs. Thus, he/she suggests even if the university is subversive, scholars don't have to be subversive. It's pretty interesting, isn't it? Also, we learned the use of Evernote. I knew the name of it, but I had never tried, so I want to make a good use of it from today on. I feel I am getting better at computers through ARW classes! 

(I tried grammarly for the first time! It's amazing! )

What we did in the last class

In the last class, we leaned citation again. Citation have many kinds so we have to use them up to the purpose. I was bit confused but I want to memorize the use because I know it's important to use citation correctly especially in academic reports. 

I am planning to write a report about death penalty in Japan. Although few countries have death penalty today, Japan is sticking to it and most Japanese people are for. Personally, I am against death penalty so I wonder why people in Japan prefer it. Is there any religious back ground? I want to know that by comparing penalties in Asian country with  Western ones. Also I'm gonna research the history and changes of penalty in Japan. Through academic report, I want to learn not only English skills, but many things and get some knowledge how to argue my opinion. 

To write my report smoothly, I'm gonna do freewriting like the video. As the video said, I'm pretty sure an essay with five W(who,what,when,why and where)is much more understandable and persuasive, so I want make it clear in my essay. 

We are All Monkeys!

Actually I didn't know this affair and even the name of Daniel Alves because I don't know much about pro soccer, but after watching the video, I got some interests and searched about this event on the Internet. Then, I was surprised that he, Alves pleases extenuation of the man who threw the banana. Why he can be so tolerate? He said, "the man has family, he has to take care of them" and also he added that someone who can forgive is the strongest. I was impressed at his thought a lot. His behavior is really respectable and I 'm sure that his way of thinking is needed to solve many other problems in the world. I felt I should have more tolerance like him. Also this event reminds me that racism are still in many places. In Japan, we seldom think about racism but in fact, it has not been so much since the bill against racism made by JFK was admitted in American Congress. 

Through this video, I also felt it is good to display our will with video because everyone all over the world can watch and join easily. I want to join kind of those campaigns if I have an opportunity. Finally, I wanna say, "We are all monkeys"! 

If I had an unlimited ticket for a month...

Photo credit:  http://dlift.jp/photo/photoDisplayWorldHeritage125

If I had an unlimited ticket, I definitely visit World heritage sites all over the world. Especially, where I want to visit most is Petra Treasury in Jordan. Petra appears in the movie, Indiana Jones and since I watched it when I was small, it is my dream to go. Originally, Petra was based camp for the caravans acrossing deserts in Middle East before the Cristian era and also they say that only 1% of the whole treasury has discovered until today. Petra was registered in World Heritage in 1985 because it fulfilled requirements, like as a masterpiece which can describe the magnificence of human creativity. I personally really like history, so I have a strong mind to visit Petra someday even if I have no unlimited ticket! 

Netiquette

According to a survey, about more than 90% pepole in Japan have own either computer or phone. From this number, it is obvious that today we live in the digital soceity and we are also required to be careful about how to use them. 

To be a good user, we must know the word,”netiquette” . netiquette is a coin word mixed up with network + etiquette and as the letter, it means etiquette with using Internet. Actually, netiquette is not so different from the etiquette in an actual soceity like using clear and polite words, pay attention for personal information. Thus, having netiquette means to be a polite person at the same time. We should think more about how to get along with network so that everyone can be comfortable in both digital and actual world. 

What is the GOGATSUBYO?

Japan has many national holidays and especially from the last week of April, we have eight holidays(including Sat and Sunday) during two weeks. This "mini" vacation is called "Golden Week" in Japan. After Golden Week, many of people in Japan contract kind of a disease. This is really horrible disease because once we caught it, it is hard to recover.  The name of it, is "GOGATSUBYO", which means "May disease" in English. The main symptoms is that you do not want to work at all and do just nothing.
Then, how to overcome this scared disease?  All we can do is to wait summer vacation! Summer will come soon so don't be discouraged too much. It might be difficult, but if every day became a holiday, it is no longer a holiday. So I believe we are working weekdays in order to have a great time in holidays.

China's Massive Pollution Problem

I guess most of the pepole have seen  a photo or movie of serious pollution in China through massmedia. Especially, it is said that you can't see even the very front of you in Beijing. Given the fact that polluted air is bad for not only the environment but also humans' health, this situation must be impoved with help from other countries as soon as possible.

The one of the major reasons of this problem is exhaust gas from factories which do not have enough facilities. They emit a lot of chemical substances into air. Of course this may be a fault of China(government should control those factories by law), but I think some of the factolies in China are not Chinese company's one but other developed country's one like U.S and Japan. Dr.Davis in California university also points out that Western countries have responsibility for part of the pollution in China. I believe Japanese pepole should not think it is only China's duty to improve this issue and think more carefully about the environment.

Human beings are the only intelligent life in the universe?

We, human being had believed for a long time that we are the only organism can think, speak, write and communicate in the world or even space. However, these days many studies suggest the possibility that some of other animals are also really intelligent like apes, crows and cetaceans. Personally, I have read the report about intelligence of dolphins and I found they have many similarities with human beings.
First of all, they can communicate each other with supersonic waves. They are helping each other by using this ability. The report also said there were many cases that dolphins had saved humans. One of the cases, is that dolphins reascued a boy who was attacked by a shark.
To my surprise, human beings and dolphins are also alike in bad ways. Dolphins are so sentive just like us, and it often happens a dolphin commit suicide due to the stress. For example, in Janurary, newspaper publicized the case that a mother dolphin killed herself after she was separated from her baby in Wakayama.
For the reasons I menioned above, I cannnot belive that human beings are the only intelligent life in the universe and I want studies in these field to advance more and more.

My impression of lecture from Dr. Paul Wadden

It was so interesting for me, a person who actually wanted to go to the American university, to learn the difference between universities in U.S. and Japan.  I was inspired a lot and also felt that I am lucky to be a ICU student.
Honestly speaking, when I was a high school student, I really hated to go to a university in Japan because I have a strong image that most of Japanese university students do not study in a university even though they really study hard to pass the entrance exam.  I couldn't understand those people's feeling and always wondered why it is so.
Dr. Paul said that American high school students are busy in personal explosion while Japanese students study hard, and when students in American university are studying a lot to graduate, Japanese students are absorbed in personal explosion. Also he suggested, "Qualities stressed in high school tend to be the most important in a society, for almost everyone goes to high school. For further development, however, other parts of character need to be cultivated." Those proposal was quite understandable for me.
I think I should appreciate the circumstance of ICU and want to spend great time for four years with making a good use of  the advantages like he mentioned.

Proverb

I have a motto for my life, and that is a proverb, "Every cloud has silver lining. "
This proverb means that if you never give up, you will make it come true someday, so I think this proverb has a kind of cheerful meaning. Since my teacher who I respected a lot taught me the meaning of it in high school, every time I meet something difficult and worry, I just try to tell myself that "Every cloud has a silver lining".
Similarly, in Japanese, there is a word "Akenai yoruwa nai" means  every night comes to an end in English. I believe even the living country or speaking language is different, Japanese and Western pepole are similar in terms of being cheered up by proverbs.

What is the perfect teacher?

・First of all, He loves his students. Thus he is willing to spend much time for students, like preparing for classes. He is always seeking for the class all students can join interestingly.
・She knows her jod well, so she is always "supporting" students. For example, if a trouble comes out in a class, she won't just solve it, but encourages students to think how to manage it.
・He understands every student's character and knows how to get along with each of them. He loves the time he can be with his students.
・She is basically kind to all students and get their humor, but sometimes turn to be strict to punish them because She wants them to be well disciplined students.