5/31/10

We had some group discussions on nationality today.
What decides person's nationality... it's a really difficult question...
But the story Rab told us, one about a man who couldn't go into onsen because he looks foreigner, was shocking. I felt sad that there are still places in Japan that considers foreigners separated from Japanese people and that people who have non- Japanese blood are having such problems. I think if the man says he is Japanese and he has proof, then he should be treated as Japanese.
We also discussed if we would vote if we have a right to do so. For now, I do not think I would because I don't have a party that I strongly support... hmm.. Rab's questions were very difficult that we were all thinking hard and could not speak much.

I want a good essay topic because I would not be able to write well if I chose to write on international marriage as Rab said and 9.11 one is kinda difficult topic...
I want something more interesting...something about culture...
hmm...hmmmm....

5/28/10

We had three guests again in today's class at ILC and they seemed like they were enjoying the class:)

We first graded our own PWT. I had a lot of grammar mistakes... I should have left some time to revise it during PWT because they are just small errors but they make me seem stupid:S
Then we learned how we can get information that is not as biased as what is on the news or on the newspaper. Rab gave us like 6 websites, which deal with the news that are not showed in the media. He told me the website called venezuelanalysis, which has all the information about venezuela. It made me get homesick again... That led me to choose "Caracas" as the topic of the presentation. The presentation is in google document that is similar to powerpoint, and I learned how to insert the video.

Then we edited our essays using sentenceworks. We are Rab's guinnypigs:P
I thought this program was good to find the spelling error but not that useful because it just sees the writing based on grammar and punctuation rules, and most of the time how it corrects changes the meaning of what I want to say.



I had a golf practice until 7:00pm and then we went for dinner. Total of 12 people gathered and we had so much fun! Fumika and I prepared for a birthday cake for our friend and we had a little birthday party kind of thing. Yusuke, you should come for the next dinner!;)

5/26/10

Rab could not come today and Sylvan taught us instead.
I hope Rab's wife's mother gets better soon...

Sylvan is such a really nice person who loves those attacking advertisements. It really interested me and I did not know that such ads were actually showed on the TV. The ones that go for Obama and for McCain are both so rude attacking each other, after I got to know how the information is selected and put together, and they were surprising. Especially for the McCain doesn't know how to use computers one, because it had a back story that I didn't know and most of the young people wouldn't know. I think I would be convinced by this to believe that he is an old man who doesn't even know how to use computers and how to send email. So there might have been a huge number of people who were controlled by these ads and voted with a lot of information missing. It was fun to analyze these and surprising to see how straight and strong they attack their election rivals. In Japan, it seems that even if the representatives do attack their rivals they would not do it in such obvious way, but more in a hidden way.

5/25/10

I felt like today's class was really short!
..yes, it was actually short for me because I came late...:(
I went to this waste treatment center(?) where all the flammable garbage go to, for the class of environmental studies. It was pretty interesting but I felt like I was back in elementary school or something.lol
I was watching garbage being carried by the huge crane, while my CB friends were jogging...lol

Sorry Rab for missing part of your class!

By the way, I am the best student in the class. It can be seen from today's class, in where we learned about slanting by describing Rab's bag in a favorable way and unfavorable way. I came late so I joined the discussion late but I came up with many great ideas and I could be a big help to create a paragraph with many supporting ideas. Also, I am organized so I could notice and tell the others when the paragraph is going off topic or the sentences are not connected. Then I could speak when the discussion stoppped when it should not be, therefore I could make the group discussion smoothly done. I contribute a lot for this class so I am the best student.


Ok, I don't actually think in this way, I think everyone else in CB is so much better than me and I don't think I can be better than the others in any skills....:'(
Does this count as an example of favorable slanting...? I am so not sure, I just tried my best to admire myself. haha


I'm watching and listening to Tohoshinki now..
I just love tohoshinki!<3
No other tohoshinki fan in CB class?:(

5/24/10

In yesterday's class, we did the P&D. It didn't come to my turn and it was good because I wasn't ready... I had the topic but I realized that it was not arguable, after discussing it in group.
My topic is: why does Japan have small percentage of international marriage?
When I asked Rab if this is not good for the essay question, he said it was ok if I put the three reasons in order, less important to the most important. But he added that it would be better if I have some suggestions. So! I'm going to say why Japan has a small percentage of inernational marriage and how it can be improved... do you think it is ok?

I also thought of writing about how 9.11 is shown by the media but people told me that it will be hard to find the information about it because the US hide it, so I chose the marriage one. But is it really hard to find the info? I could write about 9.11 if I can find the info and if it is appropriate... should I?

At night, there was the explanation for the students who want to get the teacher's license.
It seemed way too tough for me so I think I'll give up getting it...

5/21/10

Today's class in ILC was really fun!
We spent the 4th period by searching and looking at the stereograms.
It worked only when I did it in cross eyed way and the weird thing is that I saw it not popping out but curving inside(?).
I want to learn how to see them by using the method that Rab told us, to not see the screen but beyond it. It was really hard for me:S
Also, the one with woman spinning was really interesting too.
I could see it in both ways but I saw it more in clockwise than anti-clockwise so it means I am a little more creative than logic...
Well, this was all about perspectives.
We learned that perspective is selective, by analysing fisher.

After the free 6th period, I had the golf practice until 7pm.
Then I went to the gold shop with Fumika and two guys from other section and bought the globes. It was my first time to go to a golf shop in Japan and things were really pretty!
I was surprised to see that even golf goods are made pretty in Japan!

I feel so freeeeeee after the PWT!
I gotta decide my topic for the next essay...

5/19/10

In yesterday's class, we learned about the full presentation.
Rab gave us that the full presentation is consisted of three parts such as structure, content, and delivery.
It was really persuasive when he said that delivery is the most important one by showing us the bad ways of delivering food.

Then we learned the structure of the full presentation, which starts with greeting.
I've done a lot of presentations but I didn't think of doing self introduction of your background, outline, and the announce for the last question and answer time. Also, we practiced the good eyecontact by looking 5 seconds at each person. With all the contents that Rab told us, the presentation seemed professional and it was my first time to learn about presentation that clearly and completely.
I thought it was true when Rab told us to not laugh, commedians don't laugh with their own joke, because Rab never laughs when he tells us funny jokes.

I learned a lot today and the class was also really fun.
I wrote an essay just two days ago about Japanese schools with no discussion and presentation and by taking yesterday's class, I thought Japanese schools really need such classes of presentations in order to make students more active in their classes and give them an entertaining time.

In yesterday's lunch, Tomoya and I gathered with the people we played card with in the retreat night.
It was fun and I'm happy that I got some new friends there:)

5/18/10

When I entered the class room today(sorry for being late...), the mood was tensed.
Everyone was quiet and serious, writing some words down.
Kaya told me that Rab is angry and that he told us to write down five adjectives that describe him. We all wrote down some negative words like mad, angry, furious, irritated, upset, and dissapointed.
However, actually he was acting as if he was mad and he also had winked to some people to show that he was joking.
I didn't realize that and interpreted as he was mad by just looking at part of his attitude.
He told us that this is an example of nonverbal misinterpretation.

love Rab's way of teaching.


Then we did another psychological test.
It was a drawing type test.
It was pretty right but this was not as accurate as the last one because I think our experience affect what we draw. For example, I drew my old house where I lived in the US, when I was told to draw a house. Also, I think it depends on the ability of drawing, that I drew straight snake because I didn't know how to draw a coiled one.lol

Then we had some group discussions on the six stumbling blocks (Barna).
I think I have a lot of cases that I experienced these blocks but I could come up with only some of them... I've experienced a lot of them especially in Venezuela, where had a big cultural difference. For example, Venezuelan people thought I could speak Spanish fluently even if I am Japanese, and they just kept on talking to me in spanish really fast and never tried to slow down...this is assumption of similarities. Of course I had language differences there too.

When I came back home, I was looking at some pictures of my Venezuelan friends that were uploaded. Then my family were watching a documentary on TV about Venezuelan guiana mountains and I really felt like visiting there.

Today was a day that I remembered about Venezuela a lot of times, now I really wanna go there again, I'm kind of homesick now. :(

Chapter5: "The bad seed" or "The other boys made him do it"?

I had finished this chapter a long time ago... so I have to try to remember the content of it.

It basically says that Westerners consider the personality importantly, while the Easterners consider the situational factors more.

From page 127, it talks about the difference in education in American elementary schools.
It says that the Japanese teachers are focused on asking "How" questions and the American teachers ask a lot of "Why" questions. I was surprised knowing that "Why" questions are asked twise as frequently in American classrooms as in Japanese classrooms. The way of education is that different in the US and in Japan?

It is kind of related to my essay topic. This is one of the reasons why Japanese people are not active.

The experiment explained in page 124 was interesting and reading all these experiments, I think I am more Asian than Westerner, though I've spent a long period of time out of Japan.

By the way, it is not a good idea to do hw at home....my parents are argueing right next to me:S

I couldn't concentrate at all arggggg!

5/17/10

Today's class was 60 minutes because of C week and we went over some grammar worksheets.
I need more practice in order to write in more academic way as we learned today...
I still have to work on my essay! I hope I can apply those stuffs we learned to my essay well.

Then Rab gave us an interesting psychological test.
I thought this test was pretty accurate, since my adjectives for purple were how I wish to be!
And seeing the other people's results, it surprised me more because they were all very different and these adjectives seem to describe each person.
The results on favorite animal and water, and white room were right too, it was surprising!
It was fun! I'm looking forward for the next ones:)

Then fumika, yusuke, and I had the golf practice until 19:00.
There were a lottt of freshmen today, like 15!
The coach came and taught us how to swing and hit.
It was fun, the golf club is such a big club now!

Oh and the retreat...
I had a great time there, meeting some new people.
But I was with the people who I knew since before so I don't think I made new friends...
I just got two new people in my phone lol
I stayed awake over night, playing cards, dodgeball, tag, and so on using the loby or the whole 1st floor. I felt like I was with Fumika the whole time lol
I could be closer to my friends through the retreat and I had a lot of fun:)
Thanks to Yusuke who organised this such a big event!

5/12/10

Today, we went over the fallacies and oversimplifications that are explained in page103 in little brown handbook.
I had not checked if I have them in my essay so I have to revise it well.
He then taught us about deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. I have learned about this but I couldn't remember what they are so I didn't raise my hand:P

Then we discussed about the article, "deletion of English from Entrance Exams Urged".
I think this article has a huge assumption because we never know if students would like English if it is not included in the exams.
Also, Rab said that the evidences used in Barna are weak because she used a comment made by just one Japanese students as the evidence of how Japanese feel. I think this writing is old plus does not really say the truth because I do not think such case that is explained in page 5-4 line 31 is true for every American students. A lot of them do not think in such negative way and some of them are unfriendly.

5/10/10

In yesterday's class, we revised and edited the practice PWT, using the little brown handbook.
By checking Sayaka's paragraphs, I realized how weak my writing is and I thought I need more vocabularies and expressions to improve it...

In today's class, we discussed about the different assumptions that exist in the world.
It was really interesting to hear many assumptions of the other cultures, especially for the assumption in Italy that women do not shave their legs. I didn't know about it and it was really fun to know many aspects that would be very abnormal in Japan but are normal in other countries. I feel like now I understand much more about assumptions.
And it seemed like the guest woman had a great time, joining Rab's class;)


I was watching the news and it was about the futenma problem. I realised how news is controlling watchers' mind when I heard the reporter saying: "the goverment that gave up to move the Futenma-base out of prefecture..." The government never said that they gave up doing it; they are still considering what is the best thing they can do. I thought the news is inputting the bad image of the government automatically into the people's mind by using such description of the government. Also, I forgot the content but the news said: "according to the person who relates to the prime minister, Mr. Hatoyama said..." but never mentioned who the person is. There is no evidence that Mr. Hatoyama said it.
I now think that news has tons of false informations. We certainly should not just believe the information given by media.

5/7/10

In Friday's class, we had the practice PWT.
I couldn't write well and I should have reviewed the book more since I spent too much time on remembering the content of the book. So I will review it before the real PWT!

After the practice PWT, we watched the video about the demonstrations in Seattle.
I was shocked how cruel the police are and how biased the media are.
After watching the video, we had some group discussions on why Japanese don't join the demonstrations. I thought it is because Japanese became too rich and got used to the peaceful life to do the demonstrations but I came up with the new question, "then why the rich Europeans or Americans are active on doing demonstrations?"
So I then thought it was because Japanese media are showing too less information and news about everything so people are not interested in what are happening in the world. I think it is nearly impossible to change this Japanese behavior because media has too much power in Japan.

Chapter4: "Eyes in back of your head" or "Keep your eye on the ball"?

This chapter is about how Easterners and Westerners perceive world differently.
Asians see the substances while Westerners see the objects: "Westerner sees a wall where the Asians sees concrete." (82)

Like the previous chapters, this chapter says that East Asians attend more closely to other people's attitudes and behaviors and I think so too thinking about Japanese. However, I don't think Chinese are like this because Chinese people who I have met are not. I think Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and other Asians are too different from each other to be grouped as Easterners. Although, I don't know how Chinese think and feel because I am Japanese so I'm reading this book considering that there are many Chinese people who think and feel like Japanese.

I thought it was interesting when I read that "Asians seem to believe outcomes will be better for them if they are simply in the same boat with others"(97), because I am like that too.

By the way, I joined the golf club on Friday!
There are already 4 people from CB, you should join us too! xD

Chapter3: Living Together vs. Going It Alone

This is my first blog post during GW, how is everyone doing?

So, here is the late blog post about the third chapter...

In this chapter, Nisbett basically says that East people are interdependent, while Westerners are independent. Society is more important for Easterners and individuals are more important in the West.

I think what he says makes sense because I see Asians in groups more than the Westerners.
However, there are many of the ideas that I thought strange. For example, the chart in page 52 shows the Eastern and Western views of the realtions and I could not agree with this because I thought American people also had the Eastern view that is represented in this chart.
Thinking about the Japanese people in ICU and American people in the public American school that I went, this chart is not persuasive.

This chapter had a lot of examples that are about Japan and it was pretty interesting to see Japan from the non-Japanese point of view.