VTV Japan Masaaki Okano Mon 19:30-20:30 - effects of music on dogs

Hello Okano-san,

I found something for you I thought I'd share with you - something that connects with the article we had done about the effects of music on plants.

Take a look at this and tell me what you think.  It might strengthen the idea that some sound frequencies have relaxing effects on certain kinds of life.

KGCC Sony Computers Tues 18:30-20:00 - some song & video links

Hello to all of you,

I know this is late - but here are some links to some songs and videos I like, and that you may find interesting.

First, check this one here by Japan - not Japanese, but a band from England. Maybe some of you might know them - they were popular in the 1980s.



Take a look at this one by Amy Winehouse.

Next, check this one out too - by Miles Davis, one of my favorite jazz artists. It's a little long, but good.

Finally, this is a band from my hometown, Boise, Idaho, in the U.S. They're called Built To Spill and I knew the lead singer and songwriter for a short time in the late 1980s. There's no video for this song, but hope you like it.

Let me know what you think of these.

KIFL English in Practice Mon & Fri 09:00-10:40 - final presentation support part 2

Hello all,

While I have been promising more uploads and information for final presentation support for all of you, time and other classes have gotten in my way and it has become harder for me to give that support. The one thing I've really wanted to find - and this has been hard for me to find - are some more videos about how to present without PowerPoint, but with pictures or other visual aids. There are lots of videos on YouTube about presenting with PP and many without, but with no pictures. But my apologies to all of you - I've said I'd get more support and that's been difficult.

But here is a kind of long, but good video, from South Korea in a hagwon - a Korean eikaiwa school - and a student presenting about English teaching in South Korea, with her using books as visual material to help create interest. I finally found this just now. It's actually only part 1 of an even longer video, but I think this shows a lot and I'm sharing it with all of you here who are presenting later this week. Hope this helps all of you, and my apologies once again for this being as late as it is.

KIFL English in Practice Mon & Fri 09:00-10:40 - final presentation support

Hello,

I have some links here that I hope may help some of you. I will try to talk with all of you Friday and suggest more resources as well.

Shihori - a website of a New York graffiti artist group

plus - an article about vandalism and street art in New York City
Masayuki -  song about an abused child
Kuni - a link about being a father in Japan
Nanae - here's a link for you

Natsu - an article about the U.N. sanctions before the Iraq War
the English version of the al-Jazeera website

Yuko - an article for you

Kiwa - a short film about land mines in Cambodia

Aruno - an article about tattooing and body piercing, with links
Kenji - a list of techniques shoplifters use to try and get away with what they do
Pan - a brief history of Somalia's troubles

Sorry if the formatting seems strange - I'm still learning how to do embedded links in text, and it causes the formatting to be off.

I will try to get more for the rest of you, or at least talk with you in class or in VISTA Friday about your topics.

For fun - here's a funny video about how NOT to do a presentation. Hope you enjoy it!

KIFL Global Studies Weds 09:00-10:40 follow-up topic support

Hello all,

For Daisuke, Yuto, Yuichiro and Izumi, I have the following email links that may help you along with your final presentation topics.

Daisuke & Izumi - check out this link at:
http://www.englishforums.com/English/Religion/3/vpcnp/Post.htm

Yuto - http://breakingnewsenglish/com/0603/060318-water-e.html

Yuichiro - http://breakingnewsenglish.com/0511/051107-cigarette-e.html
http://mrstoutsblog.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

I hope these can help. I also have posted two videos on the English in Practice post that you can see below - their class is also doing presentations and I posted two examples of strong short presentations. You will be doing longer ones but these may help as well with your presentation manner, style, and such. Good luck!

KIFL English in Practice Mon & Fri 09:00-10:40 - final presentation video examples

Hello all,

I have posted here, for now, two good examples of final presentations - one short, the other a little longer. Hope you find these useful for you as models for your final presentation preparation. Play them as many times as you like or need - I hope they will help you. Here's the first one:



Here's the second one:



In the next day or two, I hope to upload more ideas, suggestions, and videos for all of you.

VTV Japan Yuka Kanai/Tomomi Someya 17:30-18:30 Wed "Centerfield"

Hello Yuka and Tomomi,

Here's something for the both of you that Yuka will especially enjoy (though maybe you will too, Tomomi). It's a song about baseball with a video of old clips of major league baseball, with some old major league baseball stars.



Let's watch this in class, and you can watch on your own as well. I can also post the lyrics to the song as well, when I find them!

Hope you enjoy this,

Lee

VTV Japan Mikiko Kitagaki/Aki Honda 17:30-18:30 Mon Friends 2nd clip

Hello Mikiko and Aki,

Here's another Friends clip from season 1 - actually, a series of funny clips edited together from an episode called "The One With the Thumb." Let's do one or two parts in the class, then you can do some other parts outside, on your own.

Let's take the approach we were doing with the video last week - listening to parts without sound, with some note-taking, then with sound, and some note-taking.

Access the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbaCXOX2kPs

Have fun!

Lee

KGCC Akemi Suzuki Thurs 19:00-21:00 how to use a gas pump in the U.S.

Hello Akemi-san,

Here's a YouTube video I found for you that shows you how to pump gas at a self-service gas station in the U.S. It connects to Unit 4 in the Passport textbook about instructions, and is useful for you when you go to the U.S.

1. Watch the video. Watch it as many times as you like or need. Then, answer the questions below the video:



2.  What is the first thing the man in the video says you have to do for safety reasons?
3.  What comes next?
4.  Then, what do you need to do?
5.  How about after that?
6.  What does he say you can use to protect your hand?
7.  What kind of card does he put into the pump?
8.  What is he choosing after he takes the card out?
9.  What does he do to let the gas flow out without having to hold the lever?
10. What finally happens?

VTV Japan Masaaki Okano Mon 19:30-20:30 difficult kanji

Hello Okano-san,

Here's something for you that connects with our article and discussion topic from last Monday (11/1) about kanji and difficulties in correct readings of kanji. Hope you enjoy this!

Can you correctly read, without a dictionary, the following words?

蟻
胡瓜
海豚
氷柱
大角豆

Give me your guesses next Monday (11/8)!

VTV Japan Mikiko Kitagaki/Aki Honda Mon 17:30-18:30 Friends clip

Hello Mikiko and Aki,

Here's a Friends clip for you from season 1 - the one where Chandler gets trapped in an ATM. It's just over 5 minutes and 30 seconds long.  You can access it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYbBjSda550

Here is what you can do with this:

1. Watch the first 1:07 of the clip without sound. What's happening in it? Can you guess what Chandler might be saying?

2. Now, watch the same part again, with sound. Is anything he says different than what you guessed? Why does he act the way he does?

3. Now watch from 1:08 to 2:39 without sound. What's happening in it? Can you guess what he might be saying?

4. Now watch it again, with sound. Does anything differ from what you guessed?

5. Now do the same with the following three clips - 2:40 to 3:19, 3:20 to 4:25, and 4:26 to the end (5:32). Watch each in order, first with sound, take notes, then with sound. Does your sense of what he said differ from watching it without sound to when you watch it with sound?

Let me know what you think.

KIFL English in Practice M&F 09:00-10:40 final presentation topics

Hello all,

Here are the topics you've decided on for your final presentation projects:

Aya - refugees in Japan*
Mickey (Kazuma) - landscapes (good idea, but you need to tie it into a social or environmental theme)
Miyu - death penalty - should it be stopped?*
Shihori - graffiti and vandalism in Tokyo
Masayuki - child abuse in Japan
Kuni - declining birthrate in Japan
Natsu - causes and effects of Iraq War
Nanae - young people and cell phones (good, but be sure to focus one positive point & one negative point)
Yuko - career choices - those most popular among men, and those most popular among women
Kenji - shoplifting - reasons why people do so
Miku - food waste in Japan
Hinakoppi - smoking and related health problems
Manami - housework among single people
Aruno - body art and piercing - why people are interested in it
Kiwa - removing landmines in Cambodia
Yuta - cultural differences and individual solutions to them
Takeshi - immigration issues in Japan*
Pan (Aya Takahashi) - civil war in Somalia
Remi - influences of gaming violence

I have yet to hear from Sachiko and Ryosuke.

*SPECIAL NOTE FOR MIYU, AYA & TAKESHI : I have YouTube videos for each of you that relate to your topics. First, here's a video for you, Miyu. Think about this song and the words to it. It connects to your subject about the death penalty:



And for the both of you, Aya and Takeshi - here's a video that relates to both of your topics (it may seem to relate more to Aya's topic than yours, Takeshi, but it does, indirectly). Think about the words to this song:



I will find other Internet links and things to support all of you with your projects when I can - but the main parts of your research has to be your own. Good luck!

KIFL Global Studies Wed 09:00-10:40 final presentation topics

Hello to all of you,

While I wrote down today what your final presentation topic ideas for Global Studies were, I will post these here so that all of you can clearly see what each class member is doing, and know where not to repeat each other's ideas.

Hiroko - the issue of stray animals in Japan and Germany
Mitsuo - one of two possible topics: biodiversity or promotion of green societies
Yuto - issues of water in countries
Izumi - differences between monotheistic and other religions (monotheistic = one god [such as Christianty, Judaism, and Islam])
Ayami - differences between educational systems of Japan and other countries
Daisuke - religion and war
Yuichiro - issues with tobacco

I have to hear from Kazu, Junko and Kana.

For those of you who gave me your topics, you've got some good ideas here. Please tell me more over the next 2-3 weeks. Good luck!

Blog contents, information, language and other uploads

Hello everyone,

This is to let you know about what more I would like to do with this blog for all of you.

I will try to post as much as possible. Most of what I will post will be lesson outlines, some details about some lessons, worksheets or their contents, and helpful grammar and vocabulary points. I will also title them by the kinds of classes and courses they are for, and the schools or programs they are in.

But I will also post some things that might not be connected with your language learning focus directly, but will be interesting and fun, that you might like and that you can comment on in class or as a reply here. They could include Internet links (especially from YouTube), photos, or posts from other teachers I work with or know who would be happy to help you. I might even post about events or restaurants! Anything you might like.

You can share things here too. You can post on a topic or an Internet link that you think your classmates might like.

From time to time, I will even post some things in Japanese. I am still a language learner too, and while my writing is not perfect and I know I will make mistakes, I will do my best.

Thank you, and hope to see you on this blog!

Welcome to my blog

Hello to everyone out there,

Welcome to my blog. I've designed it for both students and teachers of English. While I may not be able to post on it every day, this blog will be a place on the Internet where you can get to know me, and write to me at anytime. I will do my best to make it interesting and enjoyable for you!