4/28/2010

Worksheets!
Today I felt like I was back to high school because it has been a while to work on worksheets in class. It made me realize again how practices are important besides understanding the method.

By the way, I had tutorial today with Rab for the first time. Since my topic is about English education, Rab gave me very useful advices for me to make my essay a stronger one by getting at the weak point of an existing method.
I've started improving my essay, but it takes time X(

I wish for all of us good luck writing our essays.....

4/27/2010

It was rainy again today.
I think there's too many rainy days since our entrance ceremony.

Anyways, I liked today's group work on the PWT worksheet because I felt cooperating with each other. I also was anxious to read the Meiland text again because I already forgot some of the parts. Rab's advice to choose the questions which require less memorizing information was very useful in case we won't be allowed to bring in our ELP Reader to PWT.

4/26/2010

Today was Sayako's birthday!
It's always nice to celebrate birthdays.

In the class, we discussed about our essays and talking to someone made my opinion more clear. The question Rab asked, how school, teachers, and classes should be was interesting because I realized then that conditions I've expected before entering ICU was actually here now. I've just got to use it!
It was also the first time to use the LBH. I first didn't feel like opening it since it's a thick book, but after Rab's explanation about it, I started to like it because there are exact information I look for.
Using the tips there, I still have to work on my essay draft.........

Chapter 2:The Social Origins of Mind

In the second chapter, Nisbett tried to search for what makes the Westerners and Easterners think so differently. He presented a schematic model one of his own idea and one with his Chinese American student's. I've sympathized more with the latter rather than the former because the outside process is indispensable for the inner process.

The parts Nisbett examined the connections between each process was interesting. Although it always turned out to be that the relationship with the social outside world is the account of the different points of view, it made sense and was easy to understand for me.

The "field dependent" explanation was a little bit different from other parts because it focused just on the types of people and not country differences. But the difference expressed here was environment one which leads to the comparison the author is now working on. Thinking along this route was convincing to me.


"I've had an experience similar to this!"
This is what I felt when I finished reading this chapter, and I think I'm not the only one who has had this experience in the section CB. It was during the 10 months I've stayed in Germany as an exchange student. There were events with exchange students from other countries and sometimes we had discussions. A girl from the US insisted her opinion, eager to persuade others. A boy from China, on the pther hand, tried to gather the suggestions each of us made. This is exactly what Nisbett introduced as the Middle Way!


Okay, I've done reading two chapters, but it is still difficult to care about looking for how the writing is biased. To do this, I need more time and experience:( The only good thing is that I'm now used to facing technical terms......

Chapter 1: Syllogism and the Tao

I finally started to write about the chapter.
Before reading this book,The Geography of Thought, I tried to do the 3Bs and found out that the author, Richard E. Nisbett publishes some other books also about the differnces of views between Westerners and Asians. The idea of the author was not new to me because I've already heard of these topics.

In the first chapter, the author compares ancient Greek and China. He asserts that the Greeks have a strong sense of personal agency, which individualism comes in the first place in their life. To the contrary, what is important in China is harmony, being one part of the community more than one individual. The following section "Science and Mathematics" was a little bit confusing for me.

I don't doubt that Nisbett introducing China as an example of East Asians, but the Greeks as an example of Westerners. I agree to the former because I thought the part "Chinese... to minimize friction others"(pp.5) is depicting something similar to cases in Japan such as "to sense the atmosphere not to stand out." As for Westereners, however, I believe it is not justified to explain the cultural differences in cognition because there are many countries (which means various cultures) to represent.

Finishing the first chapter, it was difficult for me to see the bias Nisbett has. So I would like to
keep on trying through reading the continuing parts of this book.
By the way, Taoism and the original definition of the word "school"(pp.4) interested me the most: the freedom to pursue knowledge. I felt that I should appreciate the freedom I have now:)

Class 4/20/2010

For yesterday's homework, I have decided my essay topic and came to class today.
In class, Rab talked about the points you need to care about and the process of writing an essay.
The five points starting with A (Argumentative, Academic, Achievable, Access, and Attractive) were understandable, but the next thing Rab (and Meiland in the text) mentioned was the most difficult thing today. It was that you should be careful that no assumptions lie behind your writings. Considering all these points to decide the research question made it hard for our group to discuss about our ideas we've brought today. I'm sure I have to rethink about my research question again........

Besides these problems, I found out a new tip.
Everytime I read essays or reports, I wondered why the writer's research goes smooth along his thinkings. But Rab's advice that you can decide the thesis statement while or after researching, which means you don't need to stick to your answer you've set in the beginning and can change when needed, made it easier for me to start reconsidering on my research.

I'll try my best start working on my essay without complaining because it should be a lot easier than what the bicycler we saw on YouTube does.

Class 4/21/2010

Today we didn't have much time to discuss our reasearch topics, but instead we learned about writing an essay. Since I have never learned how and the basic rules to write an academic essay before coming to ICU, I was thinking that it would be too formal to get bored reading and also difficult to write. Even though I had such images, Rab's detailed explanation was easy to understand, with the banana and Toyota examples. I learned two important things. One thing is that each part in paragraphs has its role and reasons, which was also written in Meiland text. Second thing is that you need to catch the reader's attention also in an academic essay, without caring about grammer rules because the reader, especially the teacher, gets uninterested if the title and introduction are not eye-catching.


When we start writing our first essays, I will try to write following the notes I took today in class.
But first of all, I need to rethink and decide my research question.......

In the class on Thursday, I have learned many new things.
Posting comments on my own blog, taking short videos with the camera on the computer,
and editing the paragraphs of each other with a partner.

I first thought that looking for mistakes woukd be difficult, but the basic information about how to write a paragraph, such as "Rule 3" , helped me a lot. After the class, I wondered why there were no classes like this in high school, writing essays or short paragraphs and have them checked by a third person other than the teacher, because it helps both the writer and the editor to learn about paragraph structure. I have also noticed that you exclude some obvious informations for your paragraph unconsciously which can be easily spotted by other person.

And at the end of the class on Thursday, I've resolved not to say "I can't do this" for ELP assignments, seeing the YouTube video of the bicycler:)

From the first video, I learned that you can create one perfect music even if each part plays different music as long as each of the content is a good one and the creator has a skill to gather them in a good balance.

The second video was made from pieces singing one same music, but because they were gathered unbalanced, the video didn't sound like one song.

Hello:)