First assignment: TED Video

a)My general impression on this speaker was that her speech was pretty clear. What I mean with clear here is that the pace of her speech was appropriate, not too fast nor too slow, she made it easy for listeners to know what are the important points by putting emphasis on and the effective use of visual media such as showing photos of tuna to describe how beautiful they are.

b)She is capable of showing the audience how much she understands about the field she is specialized in. I can see she is confident and all the things she say are firmly in her head not from memorization of some document, which I think is quite important to make the speech persuasive and convincing.

c)Maybe she could present the name of certain places or buildings on screen or say them more slowly. Some places sound pretty interesting and will be good to visit but she goes past it swiftly and I did not have much chance to catch the word like ".........Aquarium, here over fifty........". This is not really related to her presentation skill but I must say that I did not like how she mentioned Japan. I know I'm supposed to list the weakness of the presentation. at least more than two of it, but I do not come up with any more for now...

YAY I got a much better score than the last one for the second essay!!! getting comments and pointed out of the mistakes and stuff is really worthwhile for the next essay:)

Last Class with Rab... and my plan for the project

Since I maybe am supposed to be talking about the class I'm gonna start off by commenting on the lecture... Well we watched a video in which students from two high schools are trying to get their government to make the bill on weapon trade limitation more strict. there were several funny and shocking parts like the sh*t throwing machine which could kill people as the Israeli guy said 'you stand there I kill you' or something like that. well it was real shocking and very funy:DD
There is one idea of what im going to do for the project in the next semester is something like get some restaurants or hotels that presently are for only Japanese to change there policy into being open to foreigners as well. or at least trying to find a way and put it into action during the winter semester when we will have some extra time for not having ELP. I am not sure yet of course but it is something that ELP teachers will be interested and that should be done to be prepared for the more rapid decrease in population. ELP course taught me that it is an argent issue that we must do something about. I already talked about this with Yuga and she is in a way interested in different thing but in another way we are heading in the same direction so we might be doing this together. If any of you are interested please let me know:)))


For me, and most likely for the other CB students, Rab has been such a great teacher including even the times he tricked us and made us feel stupid more or less. Thank you so much. You taught us literary how to think. The way we are supposed to do to be a critical thinker. On the way, though, I sometimes thought that I do not want to be critical because then I would start to see so many dirty things and keep thinking and thinking so endlessly and have no time to breathe or to become doubtful to everything and trust nothing, which sound to my ears so pathetic. That was my honest feeling at some stage. But facing so many facts and truth, I know it was just a small portion of what is really going on, I start to feel that being ignorant is a kind of crime if I live in a country like Japan. You get stuff for such a cheap price and the facts that many people are forced to work for nearly nothing are not to be seen under words like 'economic crisis'. In the country you would not say 'I do not think one committed a crime if the person does not realize that he/she did it'. But what we are doing outside the country maybe in Africa or South America is about the same. In Tokyo it is illegal to hire people for under 791 yen but in countries in regions like listed earlier people are hired and paid little, if any, so that we get stuff so cheap. Does that make sense???? Don't tell me yes.
Thank you Rab again for opening my eyes. I was almost blind and now I see a little more and as I keep on in ELP I see more and more!:)) hopefully

Oh and I dig my new background picture:)

11 June

In class we watched short movies. The first one was about how stuff are produced, sold, and wasted. (well there are a lot more processes) It turned out that if the entire population lived the way like I do now we need more than 4 planets. Looks like I am one of the most honest person in CB, neh? The second (i do not remember the order for sure though) was about how people prevented a Chinese man from being executed under the control of government. Then we move on to the third one in which a pig, a chicken, and a cow are the main characters and fight against manufactured farming. Other ones were so hilarious and surely the editors have good skill and sense of humor, creation, and motivation but something was missing. That is , a strong impact. In that sense, I would say the second movie that called on people for breaking some small laws is really well-done. I would say yes to it depending on how much risk I will have to endure. After all, I'm self-centred and I believe most people are naturally so to some extent.

I was pretty much feeling embarrassed because those who made the videos are so motivated to protect other species whereas I did not even have a slight idea that breastfeeding is the harmful thing for infant the most and that I had never even tried to know stuff like that.

Earthling

I've just watched Earthling. Yes it is heavy and not easy to watch through it all. I strongly, however, recommend that you should watch this if you eat meat. Sorry to say this. I do respect the voice of those who say they do not want to watch it because it's too harsh, gross, and cruel but it is the truth. If you say you do not know the truth of what is truly going on because the media and government control the information and all that, here is one that shows some elements of hidden factor of our everyday life. I dare not say the movie was completely fair and unbiased. It certainly is one-sided for the movement of protecting animals or nature. Isn't it safe enough, though, to say that if the scientists want to know how human body will react to a particular medicine and chemical they must use human body rather than innocent animals who are not even seeking to know what humans do.


This movie gave me an opportunity to think about how we take too many things for granted without acknowledgment.

June 9

I'm sure at least half of the CB students know that my next essay will be based on my own experience in South Africa as an exchange student. I found it much better and easier to do than the previous one because I have better understanding and more motivation toward the current topic, culture. It includes especially cross-cultural communication and language but I'm not too sure yet.

In the discussion those who were in the same group gave me some hint and the weak point of my supporting statements for the claim. Thank you again;) I must work hard on the essay this coming weekend but when it's over,,,,, IT'S OVER!!! yesis I can do this:)))) But it's really kak that Rab won't be teaching us the next semester.;(((((

Anyways, is there any way that we know if the test is gonna be taken place tomorrow or not???lol