Last Class - 6/16/2010

It was already our last class with Rab.

We watched a document about students trying to have the government to make the bill on weapon trade limitation more strict. I was astonished to see this documentary at many points.

The most thing that surprised me was that students younger than me were working on serious problems as an afterschool club. The support by a famous comedian (according to Rab) and TV group might have promoted more achievement, but I have never even tried to do something related to government or a well known organization. My activity has always stayed inside school. Watching this made me feel that the possibility of what I can do during my university life is infinte, and made me to have the feeling to try something bigger. It was like the one Rab showed us in April, of a skateboarder skating in a city, doing amazing movements.
I didn't like seeing the weapons, but some of them were funny.


Rab's classes gave me opportunity to see the outside world and be curious about the reality in the society. Critical thinking was also new and difficult to me, but once I started being critical against the media and other opinions, I felt that it was endless being critical. So I decided not to be super-critical so that I can trust people. I thought Rab's skill of critical thinking was extremely high that it was really hard to convince him! But it was stimulating to learn. Through all the classes in computer room, I strongly realized that pursuing to know the truth, collect information, and not to be controlled by the media were our responsibility as citizen. I would like keepthese feeling in mind and make use of them in myuniversity life and later on.

Thank you Rab for teaching us!
You taught me many things even though it was only three months.
I won't forget your positive attitude toward society and the world.

See you next Friday!

Class - 6/14/2010

We finally had a PWT on The Old Man and the Sea on Monday.
Even though it was predictable what would be asked in the test, questions or topics not handed out made me feel that it wasn't fair compared to the other sections. It also didn't prompt me to study and prepare for the test.
So, to be honest, I only had a vague image of the interpretation to this book, and when I wasn't either satisfied or unsatisfied. I was just happy that I finished the PWT.
But at least, I learned the attitude to try to guess what the story symbolizes when reading a literature. It was also a good opportunity to read such a famous literature in English.

If possible, I want to read and understand this book more deeply and discuss with CBs on the interpretations each had............

Class - 6/15/2010

It seemed a long time since our last normal class in normal rooms, probably because of yesterday's PWT which ended up not talking much in class.

Today, after running to Nogawa Park in PE, we had our second-to-last class with Rab.
I didn't know that we have already covered all things for this term!
So we did a groupwork called 'Meeting Simulation.'
In groups, we discussed about what we would take to an island tosurvive.

I didn't know the TV series of "Lost", but the work was really fun! We came up with ideas in variety.
The idea of 'Entertainment' was something natural, but what we couldn't think of something to include in the 12 items. My group first had 'music' as an entertainment, but because it uses electricity, we decided to have Tomoya and Natsuko play the music with the instruments of LAMBS!haha But realizing that it counts as one item, we changed to the opinion that singing is enough. One more thing. We were working on the 12th item and I said "Spirit to survive", and what Natsuko added to that was "Love"! It was funny:)

I can't believe that tomorrow is our last ELP class with Rab:(
But I'm also looking forward to visiting Rab's house in summer:)

Class - 6/11/2010

Today's class was in ILC.
This week went so fast! For me, the last time we had class there, which is last Friday, seems like yesterday.

Rab inroduced us five short films, each having some kind of important message to the viewer.
The first one was called 'The Story of Stuff'. This showed us the process of exploiting, producing, selling, consuming, and wasting of things we use in daily life and also the problems that occur in each stage. I didn't know how easy a ' country of consumers' was made by humans, that it did not star naturally at all. The woman was right that we humans have to stop this vicious circle, or "line" according to the narrator, and produce a new circle which is friendly to nature.

This movie was so easy to understand that I took notes of on the google docs. They are 'externalized costs' and 'perceived obsolescence'. Besides using chemicals and low quality stuff, cutting the payment for the workers is also a big issue to be focused on when considering the issue of things sold cheap. Who pays for me? I probably wouldn't forget this quote. I thought that the second one, perceived obsolescence, fit exactly to Japan, where people don't want to stand out, lose faces, and people wanting to caught up in (流行にのる).

We also watched other movies.
About people trying to save a chinese (tibet?) man from being executed by the chinese government, and about the workers who dig diamonds in a very poor and cruel working condition. It was very surprising to know that the case in China ended up in success! Each of these had a strong message that tried to encourage peopleto take some kind of action.
When we discussed in groups whether we would break a small law to save someone's life, the answers in our group reminded me of the discussion we did when we saw the demo movie last month. I think that many Japanese would move into action if everybody does it. I also thought that the motivation to do it would depend on how much the issue is related or important to you.


After that, we watched a parody of the movie, 'Matrix', 'The Meatrix'.
This focused on the problems of meat, showing how cruel for the animals and not goo for the humans the process of selling meat is.
This was comical and hilarious, but with serious theme, so it was kind of shocking, but it still didn't have a storng impact. It was a good opportunity to know these facts though because I still don't have the courage to watch Earthlings. After the final exams, however, I might watch it because I think it is our responsibility to know those things.


I felt that knowing all these knowledges is an obligation for humans and should be responsible about what we are actually doing to the environment and other living creatures.

Rab's classes make me know and face the facts happening in the world and also make me really think about the problems. It really stays in my mind. I can't believe that we only have three more classes with Rab:(:(

Class - 6/9/2010

We had another debate again yesterday in class.

The topic was on our essay. We were to attack one person in our group and he/she was to defend him/herself .

I've experienced a few debates in high school, of course in Japansese, but that time, I didn't receive the image that a debate was difficult. Yesterday, however, it seemed difficult for me, probably just a little because of the language, but mainly because I had only a small amount of information. I have a rough idea of the outline of my essay, but I haven't decided how I would set my thesis statement. I know that it's too behind when the due is the next Tuesday:(
Anyways, other people's opinions helped me to recognize the problems I have to improve my thesis statement and content.

I'm going to finish the Old Man today!

Class - 6/8/2010

It didn't rain today in the afternoon, so we had to run again in PE ;-;
well, I managed to run through the ICU campus and I like running better because we can show up in the class on time than we did when we had swimming:)


Today was again a discussion day!
I've read half way through the Old Man, but today's discussion was difficult for me especially about finding the political view of Hemingway. I'm always interested in politics, but I actually don't have that much knowledge. So it was hard to look for parts which showed or implied about Hemingway's political view. Also when we discussed and started a little debate on various types of interpretations and there were some good interpretations in our group, but I felt my lack of knowledge in history when Tomoaki mentioned something related to war. Rab introduced one way of interpreting, seeing the old man, the sea, and the shark each for countries, it also made me want to study world history of that time again.
Where did all my knowledge go when I used to be jukensei ?!?!

In discussions recently, even in the case I don't come up with an organized opinion, I try to open my mouth, which is the way American students do in class, according to Nisbett. Sometimes I feel my opinion a little bit organized through speaking in the group, and I think that when an argument occurs from those small comments, the discussion can be considered as a succesful one.


Now that I'm finished with my club activity, dinner, shower, and blog post, I'm going to finish reading the Old Man:)
only if I manage to do it before falling asleep....zzZZ

Class - 6/7/2010

Today was a discussion day.
At the beginning, we talked about the Old Man and the Sea and the author Hemingway.
From the discussion about Hemingway, one side of him as a hunter and the other as a conservationist,and whether those two are contradictory or not. Then the topic developed to the nature problems and social problems such as factory farming. It was amazing how the topic moved on from a person's biography to a big issue like the relationship and rights of human and other living objects.

When it came to the topic of food, I couldn't simply answer the question: 'Should we stop eating porks and beefs?' I got a new information about how the pigs and cows are raised and that the current amount of feeding stuff such as grains and wheats for one cow is enough to feed nine times as much people as one cow can. I was surprised to hear that and wondered why people still didn't refrain from or reduce the frequency to eat meat. One reason we came up with was that this information is not widely noticed by people. I think that even if people know the fact, it is difficult to move into action. People would prefer to receive what is worth for their work, and as for food, meat is often welcomed for its nutritious and tasty point. Therefore, the percentage people would stop eating meat is probably low. Since this is my point of view, I admire the ones who have clear-cut faith not to eat meat.

We also talked about how "green" Hemingway was as a conservationist. My group's answe was YES because he describes the sea in the book as an equal position to the old man, which is human. At least from this book, such as the expression of birdsand fish, we can see that his view towards the nature is equal to human.

Today's class made me consider many new things again.

After the class, I had tutorial with Rab and he showed me the "eco-house"!

I've seen many of those houses on TV and in commercials, but not in a real life!

I'm excited for the visit in the summer:)

6/4/2010

In the first period, we had our second PWT!
Preparation for the test seemed easier than the last one.
The test itself was also not so difficult, but there were a few questions I got confused, which I realized that one of them was wrong in today's class. Oh well, at least I got used to searching fallacies and oversimplifications more than before through this PWT. By the way, the classroom was too warm and I was half asleep! The atmosphere was like a summer afternoon, feeling the light breeze and taking a short nap.

In the afternoon, we had our class in the smaller mac room.
We were supposed to work on our essays, but I was still on the step of worrying about what to choose for the topic. I know that my essay is not coming along, but since my first essay, it has been difficult for me to choose a topic which is arguable, resources can be found mostly in English, and achievable. I was more interested in cultural difference, but I couldn't find the way to make that topic into an argumentative essay. I mean, it's not possible to declare that one culture is better than the other. So I was stuck.
On the other hand, the cultural differences between Asian countries were something I first wanted to focus on, so Rab advised me to set this as the topic and be kind of critic against the writing of Nisbett.
Now, I can start working on my essay, searching for evidences and start writing:)

I have to get busy until the tutorial I signed up for on Monday..............

Class - 5/31/2010

Uh oh, I realized that I have three blog posts I have to write(;-;)

In Monday's class, we worked mainly on politics and nationality.
Rab talked about election. The reality of types of people who vote, percentage, and how candidates get voted or not in the U.S.
In the election of 2008, it is true that Obama won the election for getting the most votes compared to other candidates. The number of the people who had rights to vote but did not vote to any of them, however, was more than the number of people who voted for Obama! This was surprising for me to know that the result might have appeared differently depending on those voters, and that the fact that there were so many people who were unsatisfied with all the candidates.

Then we moved on to the topic of elections in Japan.
My group's discussion ended up in these result for the reasons of people who do not vote:
1.There are no attractive, reliable, and suitable person to be elected.
2.The Japanese government is not trustworthy. People can not believe its plans such as manifestos because the image of them often failing to achieve the plans is strong.
3.People, we thought especially young people, are not interested in politics because they haven't felt that government's action directly changed their life. It can be also said that the government is too far from the citizens. I think that the fact that it is difficult to recognize the importance of one vote might be also the cause. Therefore, they don't get the meaning of voting, which leads to low voting rates.
There were other small reasons brought up,but they all related to indifference towards the government, it being undependable, and lack of person who fit to be elected.

After that was about nationality.
I think nationality should be proved abd admitted by people by an official paper instead of how people look. The case in Onsen and driving Rab mentioned was unbelievably rude, but somewhat understandable to hear as a case in Japan. I personally think Japanese people have a special view of seeing foreigners, especially for the people who do not look like Asians. When Japanese spot someone whose appearance differs from most of the Japanese, they would definitely say "Hey, there's 'Gaijin' !" Japanese seem to recognize foreigners as 'outside people' and feel as if they are not same 'people' , as it is so literally. If people are judged which nationality you probably belong to by how they look, what happens then in America, or other countries??There were suggestions in our discussion that it's because Japan had a 'sakoku' period and that the country itself is an island.
In spite of these or any of the reasons, Japanese should be more generous to foreigners, respect them, and judge by how they look because there are a lot of non-Japanese who love Japan, maybe more than a Japanese does!
What I wanted to say was that people should not judge by how one looks and nationality is something

Now I'm not sure about what I wrote, it might be unconnected to each other, but I have to go to bed now...zzZZ