Welcome!

Welcome!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

ECA (英語基礎表現) I (Super A): Places & Traces

Hello!


How are you? In this post I'd like to show some more of your great writing, this time on places, for another collection I call Places & Traces - interesting and unique writing on interesting and unique places. 

A couple of you were drawn to this picture:


Here's what you wrote about it:

This is an uninhabited island. It looks beautiful, but it is empty. Nobody is here. There is only a ship! The ship is very old and rusted. In this island, there is the trace that somebody visited here.

Maybe, nobody could come back. Nobody can leave this island. Many specialists and adventurers were visited this island. But, they could not come back too! Were people who come to this island murdered by somebody? Or did they disappear into a time warp? I don’t know why! No one else knows either! The island that is full of wonder!

It may be a place of mystery! Now how about this one:

People are walking on the seashore. There are large puddles in the sand. There is also a very old ship and it is rusty. The ship had been drifting when water level was high, but it was left there when water level had dropped.

People look it and they think what happened there, who rode it, when came here. People go there in order to know them.

The rusty ship was formerly submarine and it traveled and saw under the sea all over the world. It saw a lot of sea creatures and sunken ships, and underwater ruins. The ship which was made more than a hundred years ago, contributed greatly to our oceanographic research.

The most surprised episode was to encounter mermaids. One day the crew found a town of mermen. The town was surprisingly beautiful and they lived so peacefully. They were astonished to see the submarine for the first time, but they were so curious and came closer to it. When they found there were human beings in the submarine, they played musical instruments, and danced and sang for them. There music was exquisite and the crew had never listened to such a marvelous melody in the human world. Mermaids were so beautiful that some crew fell into love with them.

There was a mermaid who could use magic. She enabled the crew to live with them, however the spell only lasted for a hundred years. The crew lived happily with mermaids but they all died when spell was gone out. Since the effect of the magic had disappeared, the submarine was washed up on the beach and it remains as it is.

Now that's incredible! 

Now - would you also like to know the real story behind this picture? Click on this link here to find out. 

Here's one more - a very moving one, based on this picture:



Every time I pass this street my feelings become bad. This street is called 77 street. It is small, narrow and very quite. There is not any traffic jam here so when you cross the street, you have to be careful, this street reminds me of a bad memory of my friend Takizawa, who was killed in a car accident on this street.
On May 25th 2015, after the school-year ending ceremony, we planned to have lunch at the restaurant that we usually ate after school. When we were on the way to the restaurant, I realized that there was trouble with the wheels on my bike, so I stopped to check what was wrong with it. He was riding in front of me and he didn't notice that my bike had problem so he kept going forward. When he nearly crossed the street, I yelled at him to wait for me. He then turned around to look back when he was crossing the street but he didn't notice that he was in the middle of the crossroad and that there was a car coming directly at him at high speed. The car crashed into his bike and he fell on the street. He was diagnosed with a bad brain injury and he had to go through surgery. After 5 hours of the operation, he didn't make it. I thought he was dead because of me so I was depressed. With time, I got over it but it's still a sad memory that haunts me for the rest of my life.
A moving story. 
I'm proud of the great effort you all put into this work. I'll look forward to seeing you in September to work on more great writing then. 
So see you then. Have a great summer!
Images: Top - personal photograph/Beach - "Arromanches" by Bulo78 - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons/Street - personal photograph. All rights reserved on personal images. 

ECA (英語基礎表現) I (Super A): The Small Book of Big People

Hello!



How are you? I would like to now highlight some of your great writing in this post. It's going into a collection I call The Small Book of Big People.

This is some great writing and I'd like you to look at your work again to be as proud of your writing as I am of it!

Many of you wrote about this picture:


I think many of you were inspired by it, and had some great feeling for it. Here's what you wrote about it:

His name is Junya. He’s Indian, forty years old, and active. In particular, he likes festival and actively takes part in it.

He put on unique hat and big necklace. And he paints his face. First, the hat has many feathers. And a color of the hat is red and white mainly. Secondly, a silver decoration is pounding the necklace in the center. Third, a color of his paint is red and green mainly. And it’s like mask. They are appearances of Indian traditional festival.

It means that Indian prays for their health and happiness. So, they continued it every year for three million years. But it’s lost with the modernization. So, he does activity to continue it now. I wish it’s inherited. And I pray for health and happiness of Indian.

Here's another:

Everyone around the world has heard of United States of America at least once in their life but not many know or have heard that the first settlers were none other than the Native Americans. Today I will talk about one such tribe which is the Cherokee tribe that resided to the Southeastern United States. The Cherokee tribe consisted mainly of warriors and they were proud because they feared no one. Our hero`s name is Agasgi Nvya which in Cherokee language means Rainy Rock.

Rainy Rock was born into an ordinary family where his mother would look after the house and his father was one of the great warriors of the tribe. But alas Rock was born with a breathing problem that would restrain his future. Form early on his father gave up on him because no matter how much Rock trained he would always be sick and unable to become a decent warrior. For that reason almost everybody in the tribe looked down and loathed him as a disgrace to the tribe. But as the famous saying goes “even in the darkest of tunnels will be a sliver of light” and precisely that light was his mother which loved him dearly. So Rock promised that if not for himself at least for his mother sake he will do his utmost so as to show other tribesman that his mother was right and he could become a great warrior if he wished so. For that reason when he was 12 years old and considered an adult in his tribe he left for the mountains in order to train.

After 25 painstaking years of hard work he finally managed to conquer both his disease and also become strong enough to defeat a chieftain of his tribe and become a new chieftain himself. After the glorious battle he ran as fast as he could to his mother`s house in order to tell her the great news but unfortunately he found out that his mother died a few years ago. At that moment the world lost it color for Rock and he just stood there and bellowed towards the sky cursing the Gods for giving him this wretched fate. His one and only source of light was gone forever and it shall never return. But how he became the Legendary Chieftain is another story for another time.
 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

ECA (Speaking) I (C & A): 難民、移住のプレゼンテーションポスター

Hello!


How are you today! The poster at the top is an example of a display about Japanese leaving Japan and going to Brazil in the early 20th century. It's one example about a presentation on topics about refugees (難民) and immigration (移住).  

Vocabulary 
These are some important key words. There are many, but here are some maybe useful for you:

immigrant: 移民
immigration: 移住
refugee: 難民
Japanese-Brazilian: 日系ブラジール人
citizenship: 国籍
education: 教育
employment: 雇用
housing: 住宅

There are many other words you can find in your dictionaries, but the words in this list are a start.

Video about refugees
Here`s a video from TV Tokyo about refugees (難民) and some jobs they do in Tokyo. Watch it. It may give you some ideas and background about refugees and how they live here.


Presentation posters
Here are some examples of posters. The one at the top and these two come from my friend, who's a professor (教授) at Chuo University in the law faculty (中央大学法律学科). Look at these:



                             

Look at these again. This can give you ideas about how you could do a poster design. 

Now here are some from my students last year at Seigakuin. Check out this one - it's really great!






Here are some more. Many students presented on Japanese-Brazilians (日系ブラジール人) and Chinese in Japan:
  


Some students presented about refugees (難民) and their needs:


I hope these help you in your ideas about these topics. 

See you next class!

Monday, July 13, 2015

ECA (Speaking) I (C & A): 特別ポスト「移民」

Hello!  


How are you? Today I'd like to introduce a new topic to you about immigrants (移民) - people from one country who move to live in another country.  

Look at these pictures. Can you guess who are Japanese, and who are not Japanese? For the ones who are not Japanese - what are their countries?

1.

2.

3.
File:Berzoini125494.jpg

4.

5.

6.

See you next class!

Images: Top - By Jean Colemonts/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJapanese_Brazilian_Miko_Curitiba_Paran%C3%A1.jpg/1."Akemi Barbara Katsuki" by Hardworking/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Akemi_Barbara_Katsuki.jpg /2. "OFeldman, Tokyo, 2012" by Ofer Feldman- Own work/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OFeldman,_Tokyo,_2012.jpg#mediaviewer/File:OFeldman,_Tokyo,_2012.jpg/3. Berzoini125494/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berzoini125494.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Berzoini125494.jpg/4. Ryan Higa by Gage Skidmore/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Ryan_Higa_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/5. By norio nakayama (Flickr: 大宮アルディージャ vs 清水エスパルス @ NACK5スタジアム)/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Dido_Havenaar%2C_assistant_coach_for_Shimizu_S-Pulse.jpg/6. By Cristiano Sant´Anna/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Michio_Kaku-cropped.jpg/All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. All rights reserved to the copyright holders. Uploaded for educational purposes only.

ECA (Speaking) I (W): 将来の予定

Hello!



How are you? University will soon be finished for the year! So what are your plans for the holidays - our Christmas and New Year's break, or spring - or your near future (将来)? For example - look at the picture on top. Are you going to take a trip, such as to Kyoto?  

Activity

What are your plans for the Christmas and New Year's or spring holidays - or your near future

Look at these other pictures. Are you going to do any of these things? If not, what would you like to do? 


Are you going (or would you like) to go back to your hometown?  



you going to (or would you like to) go back to your hometow
…or go sightseeing in another country, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia
Go sightseeing in another part of Japan? 

...go to the U.S - maybe California
Go to the U.S - maybe California

Or maybe New York


Or maybe New York
Or maybe Australia - for example, Sydney? 
Or maybe Australia - for example, Sydney? 

Are you going (or would you like) to study abroad (in another country)Are you going (or would 


Work a part-time job? 
...work a part-time job? 

Talk about these with a partner or group! What are you going to do - or - what would you like to do?


Have fun!

Have fun!
Images: Top "Kinkakuji Temple, Kyoto, Japan" (courtesy of Worakit Sirijinda)/Cherry blossoms - "Sakura" (courtesy of coward_lion)/Angkor Wat - "Angkor Wat Sunrise" (courtesy of J Frasse)/Sign - "Hollywood Sign" (courtesy of portal)/Statue of Liberty - "Statue of Liberty Face" (courtesy of portal)Sydney Opera House - "Sydney Opera House At Night" (courtesy of Susie B)/People - "Group of Young Students" (courtesy of photostock)/Pizza - "Pizza" (courtesy of federico stevanin)/All photos from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

ECA (Travel English): 春期・期末プレゼンテーションについて

Hello!



How are you? Here is a special post for all of you - some points about your final presentations (期末プレゼンテーション). Here are some rules and points:

Presenting with a partner or presenting alone
You can present with one (1) partner - or present alone. But I have to know next week (7/20) which way you are presenting

You can select any partner you want if you want a partner - but remember, only one (1) partner! 

Displays 
You can make posters or a Power Point. My advice is to have 5-6 pictures for a poster - or 7-8 pictures for a Power Point show

Remember to put your Power Point show on a USB hard drive!

Information to put on your poster or Power Point 
Here's what you should have in your presentation:

1. Pictures of famous sightseeing spots or places you would like to go to

2. Pictures of historical places (old buildings such as castles, famous houses, shrines or temples, parks -places of interest that you and people would go and see)

3. Pictures of shopping and entertainment areas (for example, Myongdong in Seoul, Times Square or Broadway in New York, Gastown in Vancouver, Motomachi Chugakai in Yokohama, or other areas like these in the places you want to present about) 

4. Pictures of unique or famous food and drink in the places you want to present about

5. Information about travel to these places - airlines and flying times, trains, Shinkansen, buses, and travel times, and access from Haneda or Narita (for example, are there direct flights or trains to the places you are presenting about, or do you have to change planes or trains somewhere?)

Schedule for our last classes 
7/20 - open class time for presentation work, checking by me with advice, comments, or any help you need - plus presentation practice if you can

7/27 -  final presentations

I hope this helps you. Let's get to work - but let's also have fun with these displays!


See you next week!

Images: Top - "Hakone window" (personal photograph)/Bottom - Hagia Sophia (image reproduced from unattributed National Geographic source)/All rights reserved on personal image. I do not own the rights to the National Geographic image. Uploaded for classroom purposes only.  

Sunday, July 12, 2015

ECA (Speaking) I (C, W, & A): 話すと言うことのポシター

Hello!



How are you? Here is the latest collection of great storytelling posters from all of you. Take a look at these and be proud of your work - like this incredible one at the top!

Here are some more of your great posters! Take a look at these - a short kamishibai:



Isn't it great! Now here are some more posters on a love triangle theme!




There were some other stories - like these last two:



Some incredible artwork - and incredible stories! Some great work by all here!

See you next class!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

ECA (Speaking) II (All): 難民、移住のプレゼンテーションポスター

Hello!


How are you today! Here are some examples of posters for presentations on topics about refugees (難民) and immigration (移住).  

Vocabulary 
These are some important key words:

refugee: 難民
immigrant: 移民
immigration: 移住
Japanese-Brazilian: 日系ブラジール人
education: 教育
employment: 雇用
housing: 住宅

There are many other words you can find in your dictionaries, but the words in the list above are a start.

Presentation posters
Here are some examples of posters. They come from my friend, who's a professor (教授) at Chuo University in the law faculty (中央大学法律学科). Look at these:



Take a look at these in detail. Make the pictures of the posters larger
Look at these again. This can give you ideas about how you could do a poster design. 
See you next class!

Image: "Presentation Word" courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net