04-28-2010

What we had today? It was the very opposite from how usual class is being held. It was good opportunity for us to do those questions, especially for me. I dont know how I got so many of them wrong. I bet I got wrong more then any of those geniuses in CB, the choco-ball class. Hm suddenly I just imagend Rab with a choco-ball head, weird.

Well, when Yusuke suggested about Rab giving us worksheets, I thought those worksheets would be for us to do it at home. Instead, we worked on it in class. We idividually read paragraphs, and worked on our own. Those worksheets were good for us to practice how to construct a paragraph. But maybe we couldve done it on our own time and check it afterwards.

4-27-2010

Our PE teacher said,"usually, students do not have classes after PE". well then why do we have them?! It is impossible for us to change and come backto class in 10 minutes. Yes, most of the time, PE is held till the very last minute of its class time. oh and I just wanted to mention, since some people thought that a lot of girls dried their hair before coming to Rab's class, they did'nt. Few girls did, but most of them still had wet hair, even those that came in the last.

I didn't get to participate in the discussion that much today. Since discussions were about questions on PWT, I should have tried harder to speak up. However, I think I got the idea of crossing out the questions that are more likely the "memorization quiz". Taking those tests where students could choose which to answer from many questions, I had not much thought about the reason for choosing them. From now on, I will be discriminating those that includes memorization, few small questions, and well, simply the hard ones.

4-26-2010

My morning today started with an e-mail.It informed, "Dearly Rab giving lecture in NP" That was the beginning of an interesting day.NP discussed how someone could control the media.very interesting.In Introduction to Asian Culture, topic for today was also about media.very interesting.After lunch, I had tutorial and talked about, again, media.very interesting.

In the class today, we had time to discus our topic with each other.Again, i brought up about media.very interesting.After that, we had time to discus Mailand.Rab used magic to show how one can be easily fooleddepending where you stand. He used another magic to help us think if direct teaching is better than constructive teaching or the other way around. I personally, thought it was connected to the problems with media. The idea that someone focusing on only part of the event and making others believe something seemed similar. One again, very interesting.

yes it was an interesting day.
and happy birthday Sayako.

4-23-2010

"youuu areee miiinneeee" ...no.
I know all the girls have experienced THAT situation.
Yes that one guy in your grade.
The guy that every girl likes...
Maybe you were not one of the girls who goes after that guy.
However, I am sure you have seen such guy.
When one girl goes ahead and approaches him, all the other goes crazy and attacks her.
Yes. that situation. drama drama drama.
..no. everything belongs to all the girls.
we do not want to fight over such thing.
I am sorry but they are just not wroth it.
And here is an idea.
If we could share, everyone will be happy.
Well, same with the books.
Books online does not belong to just one person,
it belongs to all of us.
When we are bored, we could just turn on our computer
and look at them as much as we want.
If we put them online, we could look at it wherever we go.
Just like some girls do with a picture of their dream guy

ha.

NISBETT - 2nd chapter

Compared to the first chapter, chapter two seemed easier to read. In which I mean that I was little more interested then the last time. As Richard E. Nisbett continues to compare Greece and Chinese, he begins to discuss the difference between Western and Eastern. He, than, uses charts to explain what had caused such differences between those two and how it happened.

Though out the writing so far, I somehow do not get an impression of simple comparison being made. It is more like Eastern is being compared to Western, and not the other way around. Impression of this book gets worse when the author mentions that at one point, Westerners has caught up Easterners in every field. Before that, both plus and minus points were listed tentatively. However, from that statement, Westerners seems to have become perfect.

I understand so little about what is written in this book.

NISBETT - 1st chapter

Books often seem to be rather boring in the beginning then the latter half of the book. Anyway, in chapter one of the book called The Geography of Thought, ancient Greece and ancient Chinese traditions of thought is being compared. As the author, Richard E. Nisbett, uses numerous examples to help readers to see the comparison, it leads to the differences between current Eastern and Western thought, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

From parts I was able to understand, I found some interesting facts that I did not know about. First, the meanings that sign of the Tao has. I have seen that sign everywhere ever since I was little, but did not care to think about what it was symbolizing. Another is that there is no word for "size” in Chinese. Although we often say that there is no perfect English word for a Japanese word, such as "mottainai", such language differences sounds new to me when it comes to other Languages.

There is one thing I realized that this book might help me on the assignment essay. It is the introduction of The Geography of Thought. It gave me a better idea of my background information for the introduction paragraph.

4-21-2010

We didnt do our usual groups discussions today. Intead, Rab explained essantial points in writing an argumentative essay. Again, his examples on a title, a catch phrase, thesis statement, ordering of body paragraphs, and conclusion had made me feel like it was my first time being lectured how to write. Perhaps it was the first time for me to think why all those rules had to be there.
At the very end of the class, we all went to the front and quickly presented our topic for assigned essay. When I went up there, I am sure everyone in the class went 'huh?'. I had suddenly changed the topic right before that class and I had not really thought about it. That is why I said my topic was "whether ringing a bell before a class is good or not". ha...
I'm thinking about changing it again. I hope I'm allowed to do that.

Oh yes, I have a visiter tonight.
She has nowhere to go. ha

4-20-2010

Okay. Still not sure about what I should pick for my essay topic, we continued to disscuss about the same thing. This time, however, we had to reject every ideas that we came up with. It just makes me want to scream like crazy. Rab explains really well on how essay topics and research questions should not include certain things, such as assumptions. Well, the more I to understood Rab, the less topics I came up with, which is none. My "topic panic" continues to this very moment.

4-19-2010

In yesterdays class, considering the time it might be better to say 'in the-day-before-yesterdays class', we mainly discussed what our topic should be for the first essay. Since Rab had told us that what ELP department wanted is for us to develop our paragraph, I was thinking of using the same topic for my argumentitive essay. However, listening to section-mates' opinions on what they should write, I began to think that I should pick a new topic that interest me more. That was the start of "topic panic". Ever since then, every 5 minutes the same thing acrosses my mind : what should my topic be?! ah, panic.

One thing I realized today... Rab was right when he said that we would forget everything that happend in his class if we dont write a blog THAT day. yeah.

4-16-2010 #2

Today, we tried posting video blog for the first time.
It made me very uncomfortable.
Watching myself while talking and having everyone look at my video is a horrifying idea.
However, it is true that I have always felt this way and need to fix it.
I have to agree this is a good way to practice the speaking section on TOEFL.
I like the way how Rab shows us and lets us experience what he is trying to explain.
It makes it easier for me to understand. :D

4-16-2010

If you connect information randomly to prove a statement, it is easy for the others to tell that you did so. It is in our hands to make others believe what we state.

mother of all funk chords
angel on the moon

Testing123

mm flowers