6/15,16/10

on the 15th, we got in groups and takled about what 12 things we would bring to a deserted island.
i couldn't believe there would be anyone coming up with things like sunscreen and swimsuits;)jk
it was fun but it also made me feel that playing games in ELP meant it was almost the end of class and it made me sad.

on the 16th, we watched a documentary about after school arms club.
i felt strongly that we had seen a documentary that was a bit simular to what we saw on the day about recovering the environments of a river..?
anyways, the video was really interesting. but i also thought that it wasn't really the teenagers who changed the law, but it was the man(political comedian?). the teenagers were taught how to buy dangerous weapons from other countries and they actually succeeded, but the person who spoke in the trial to change the law was the person. but overall it was an excellent project and i felt that i want to make a good presentation too.

the 16th was our last class and i felt so sad about it.
as everyone in CB says, Rab is a fantastic teacher and im really glad i got to know him.
Rab was the only teacher who (almost) never made me sleep because all of his classes were interesting.
i learned that thinking critically and presenting it was a good thing and that we should try to keep on thinking that way. its hard to actually think so because critics are not welcome in many opportunities.
i'll really miss you and i'm so sad that i can't go to the BBQ but i hope everyone has fun there.
good bye Rab and thank you very much for everything!;)

6/14/10

today we had PWT test.
the questions we were asked were the sort of ones we were expecting.
but i couldn't prepare for it so i'm not sure if my grades will be as good..


just a bit more of study and its SUMMER VACATION;)

6/11/10

on this day we had our last class in ILC.
it makes me sad that we aren't taking classes in that room with Rab anymore:(

we watched a lot of videos.
ken tanaka was so cute!!! lol
he must be a really good person!
i hope he will be able to find his parents soon.

we watched other videos that were sort of like Earthlings except it was a bit easier to watch because it was a cartoon movie.
we got magnets and postcards of the Meatrix.
its on my refrigerator right now:)

6/9/10

i used my brain so much today!
we had debates about our thesis statements, and i figured how hard it is to make an opposition in a short time.
Rab was really good at protecting his statement although the thesis was so bad.
i wish my brain could work that fast.

i really have to finish my essay!
i can't help doing other things when i turn on the computer:(



today we have LAMBS!
so excited^^

6/8/10

today we had discussions about the old man and the sea.
oh we did arm wrestling brfore that:)
i couldn't believe i was weaker than Yumi..she's so thin..orz

Shantonu and Fumika was arguing whether the book had a happy ending or a sad ending.
i hadn't finished reading the story but i agreed with Shantonu's by the things he said.
but after the debate, by finishing the book i realised that i wasn't so sure.
maybe this is a sad ending, and i kind of agreed to what Fumika was saying.
sorry Fumika! lol
then i remembered that after class Shantonu was telling Fumika that there were things she should have said to make her argument stronger.
it made me realise the power of persuasive arguments.

---------------------------------------

i just watched the first part of earthlings..
i couldn't help turning it off.
it was so shocking.
but i also felt that it is our duty to see it, and to face the truth.
the part i watched was about pets.
i can't believe how people could treat dogs and cats in such a horrid way.
they were throwing the dead bodies like garbage.
....
the next part was "food" but i couldn't go further on.

..

6/7/10

today we first had NP and Paul talked to us about Hemingway's frusteration and the three ways to interpret the old man and the sea and so forth.
i did not agree in some of Paul's ideas.
for example, he told us that some of the scenes in the book represents christianity and the story in the bible. one of the part Paul introduced us was the part where Santiago ate raw fish. Paul explained to us that it represented communion, but i couldn't agree.

then during class we talked about the book.
Rab told us that Hemingway was a hunter and a person who wants to protect nature (i forgot the name..) at the same time. he asked us whether that was a contradiction or not.
i thought it is be possible for the two to coexist. i have read something before that said it was the hunter's manner to kill only parts of the ecosystem and keep the rest so that they don't become extinct and can live on for ever. this is to protect nature and to be able to hunt forever.

the saddest thing today was that i slept during class..
im so sorry rab;;

6/4/10

on Friday we first decided when to go to Rab's place.
i was so shocked to find that i can't go;;
have fun everyone;;

then we worked on our essays.
i was losing track of my thesis because by research i found that it is hard to decide which country has the best way of negotiating.
then Rab and i had a talk and he suggested some other thesis for me.
i decided a new thesis; Japanese way of negotiating should be improved.
i am going to write about the reason and how Japanese negotiation can be improved.
i'm looking for a news clip that shows how weak Japanese negotiation is, but i still can't find it.
i have to research more and finish the first draft this week!

Rab also taught me about google tool bar and put one on my portable firefox:)
its really useful because i can translate a website so easily.
all of the other students with firefox should get one too!

6/3/10

we had our class outside! it was really fun and i was happy i came to ICU:)

we talked about the 3B's of the old man and the sea.
i had read about Hemingway's life but i didn't take notes so i had forgotten most of what i read.
i also forgot to reserch the historical backgrounds.

then we got in groups and talked about the book.
Hemingway hadn't written a popular book for such a long time and he finally succeeded by writing this book.
However, many people in CB sais that the book isn't interesting until you compare Hemingway's life and thoughts with the story.
so it made me wonder why the book became popular at the time it was published. since the story itself isn't so interesting and it is impossible for people at the time to compare the story with the author, why did people want the book??
..weird:S

6/1/10

its already June!

today Rab told us our PWT scores. my scores were better than i expected, but there were many things in my answer that i should have improved.

then we had all the time left to work on our second essay. i researched more about cultural negotiations, but i figured out that it wasn't the kind of topic with so much sources. i want to hear more about the teacher Rab was mentioning who is teaching exactly the same thing as my essay topic.

there are so much things to do this week and the following week!!
anyways i have to finish my 5 page essay tonight so see you tomorrow:)

5/31/10

Rab first talked to us about the truth hidden behind the 51% of votes that Obama got.
i didn't know there were so much people who doesn't vote.
the Japanese voting rate was low as well.
we talked over ways to decide how we can get young people to vote.
i thought the politicians are making manifestations directed only to older people, which makes young people lose interest in elections.
this is because there are a lot of old people in Japan and it is easier to get more votes by making manifests aimed for them.
politicians might have gave up or even abondoned votes from young people.

then we made our groups for the second essay.
my topic is about cultural negotiation in terms of business.
i think it was sort of related to Natuko, Yuji, Sayaka and Sayako's topics.
i have to research more to get precise ideas about my body paragraphs.

there are so much essays to be done this week;(
i really want summer vacation to come soon!

5/27/10

today we graded our own PWTs.
i didn't think the new way of grading was better than before.
it is almost impossible for us to read at our answers objectively.

then Rab introduced us this really useful tool called sentenceworks and criteria.
i was amazed at the high technology of sentenceworks.
the first time i checked my essay, sentenceworks found 69 mistakes!
i regretted laughing at Miki's mistakes lol

at the end, Rab gave us homework to work on during the weekend:P
i have to understand the meaning of the question first..

i'm going to Izu tommorrow to scuba dive with my ORCA friends^^
i'm so excited!:)

5/26/10

today Rab's mother in law and Kiyo had a terrible accident so Rab couldn't come to the class.
Sylvas came to teach us unstead, and we looked closely at four elective attack ads in America. i never thought commercials like that actually existed! in Japan there are only commercials that advertise themselves.
it was really interesting to see how each candidate is trying to brainwash people with negative images of their enemies. the backstories were also interesting and shocking at times.

5/25/10

I am Rab's best student because of all the efforts I make.
I have three reasons for it.
First, I used to be sleeping in most of the classes of high school and I just couldn't resist the drowsiness that attacks me so often. When I entered college and found out that Rab becomes really angry when one of his students sleep, I got so terrified that I bought a huge box of black mint gums which were so expencive to me. After that I realised that I don't get so sleepy in Rab's class, but the effort I made should be evaluated.
Second, Rab should have seen the way I run after PE to get to class on time. I must admit that most of the times I didn't make it on time, but the fact that I always tried my best should be counted as well. Running with wet hair after endless swimming is not an easy thing to do.
Thirdly, I usually post my blogs during the day. Though I forgot to post one yesterday and I just posted it about 15 minutes ago, I have posted all my other blogs on that day. Remember the phrase that people say, persistance is power. Continuing something can lead to power, which means by posting blogs after every class, my English is improving day by day. I'm sure that Rab would want a growing student than a student who is good from the beginning:)

So, these are the reasons why I am the best student. Are you convinced?;D

5/24/10

today we had P&D on our second essays.
i hadn't reaserched so much yet, so i was in a panic when Rab told us to talk about our structures and about the topics for the three body paragraphs.

i am thinking of comparing the Japanese way of negotiating with other coutries but i am not sure which countries to choose.
i also need to decide what i am going to write of the third part of the body paragraph.

The Geography of Thought-Ch.8

this chapter answers to the question, (above all the results written in the book) do they actually matter to the real-world thought or behaviour?
Nisebett answers this question by approaching to the real world from different aspects and comparing it to the claims he have made in the book.
his approach varies from medicine to human rights and he is specific in each viewpoint.
my frank reaction to this was that i thought Nisebett must be a perfectionist.
it is important to be perfect and not to have any weak points in articulating something, but his work must have been very dull. i wonder how he picked each aspects of the real world. maybe there were some viewpoints that does not correspond with his claims that Nisebett decided not to refer to.

im sorry that the review for this chapter is shorter than the others:(
ive got to finish my outline!

The Geography of Thought-Ch.7

For the other chapters i have frequently criticised Nisebett's conclusion being too optimistic to conclude his statements. For example, there was a part where he determined that something was A because 65 percent of the students had A. In this chapter there was a place where Nisebett showed the same kind of behavior but this time being pessimistic.

On page 180 line 26, Nisebett claims that "only 60 percent of Americans preferred Galileo's argument." It was surprising that he used the phrase "only" in spite of the fact that he was telling us that there were "as much as" 60 percent of something in other chapters.

This reminded me of the famous allegory of a cup half filled with water. An optimistic person would comment that there is "still half a cup of water left". In comparison, a pessimistic person would comment that there is "only half a cup of water left". The important thing is that the fact does not change and the only difference is the way a person regards the fact.
Nisebett is trying to control the reader's opinion by using phrases as "only" or "as much as".

5/21/10

today we had PWT.
i managed to get to the classroom five minutes before the test begins:)
it was a bit irritating that there were two same questions on number one and two.
i realised it during the test and i had to copy what i've written on the back of the sheet and it was a waste of time.

in ELP, Rab tricked us again-_-lol
he told us that there was a new war going on and he made two of his students say that they knew the news so that the rest of us will believe him. no one stood up to challenge him because we had perceptions that he was telling the truth.
then we discussed Fisher and looked at stereograms. it was so fun!
i had never been able to see those kind of 3D things, but thanks to Miki i saw them for the first time in my life;)
but i didn't get how stereograms are connected to perceptions:/hmm

oh and at the end we decided our topics for the second essay.
i'm thinking of writing about cross cultural negotiations at the moment.
i might change it if i can't find much sources.

and i'm soooo excited about the trip Rab talked to us about!!
i can't wait till the end of semester^^

5/19/10

we practiced P&D today by eye-contacting with everyone for five seconds.
i was really nervous but it was kind of fun:)
i have to get used to this because i am not good at doing two things at once.
it was hard to look at everyone and make up a speech at the same time.
and i usually panic during presentations. must have more confidence:/

i finally realised why Rab always wears a poker face in class- because comedians don't laugh on stage!
Rab is really a professional^^


need to work on Meiland and the Geography of Thought!!
good night everyone.

5/18/10

I was really scared at the beggining of the class because I thought Rab was really being angry at us. but by the time he told us to make adjectives of Rab's feelings, I kind of realised that he was joking:) I was sooo relieved.

then we did a second psychological test. I thought the one we did yesterday was more accurate than today because for example if you did not respect your mother, you wouldn't imagine her as the sun. same thing for your father. Tomoaki's sun was enormous- it was almost taking half of the page! lol
some of the snakes i saw were really funny too^^

then we talked about the six stumbling blocks that leads to misunderstanding between people from different countries.
i remembered that when I used to live in Canada, I ripped open my birthday presents in front of my friends. It felt weird at first because i was told in Japan that i should not open a present in front of the person who gave it to me. Also, I used to re-wrap the wrappings in a really neat way, trying not to rip it by gently peeling off the tapes. it seems like Canadians open their present in an energetic way to show how happy and excited they are, but in Japan it is considered rude to do so.

i wanted to write a little more but i swam for two hours today because i had ORCA before PE and I'm so sleepy..
have to read Fisher before I sleep:(
good night!

5/17/10

today we did this really fun psychological test during class.
My favorite color is yellow, and I thought it was warm, bright, rich, soft and cute.
I guess that was the kind of person that I want to become. I certainly want to become rich, cute and soft if it means flexible^^

what astonished me was that Yumi's description of herself was so true.
Her favorite color was purple, and the descriptions for it was something like cool, beautiful, rich, cute and mysterious. That is so Yumi!

Though the reasons why the questions resembled each of the things was not that convincing, I felt it strange that the psychology test could be so accurate. I guess this is kind of the same thing as what Meiland was saying; that it is the truth of the belief, not its rationality, that matters. The reason why this psychological test works is not rational, but the fact that many people thought the result was accurate leads to our belief that the psychological test really works.


Oh and about the retreat^^
I thought the word that describes retreat the most would be "tiring". I was really fun, but I couldn't stop sleeping in the train on the way home and I went all the way from Kichijyouji to Shibuya and than back to Kichijyouji again. I slept from the first station of Inokashira line to the last stop and came back again for no reason!lol It was really unbelievable..
The sad thing was that no one woke me up when I was at the last stop:(

and Natsukoooo!lol
I was really shocked to hear that she wasn't coming. We all wanted her to!
I saw her pictures of her nephew today. He was so adorable;)

I've got to get on my essay now.
I'm really excited about tomorrow's second psychological test.

5/12/10

today we used the LBH and learned about fallacies.
I didn't know that there were so much types of them. some of them are easy to spot but it will be hard to memorize all of the names and which fallacies mean which. i understand that they are important and useful but i feel there is no point in memorizing them.

then we got in groups and worked on a yomiuri article which is mostly Red Harry.
i felt that the things that were written on the article was not convincing me at all.
there is a little chance that eliminating English from entrance exams and having better English teachers at school will make the students like English. in fact, getting English out of entrance tests might even make the students lose motivation to study English because many students will only want to study the things that will be on the exam.
i hope there aren't any fallacies in the things i just mentioned. and I'll have to look for fallacies in my essay as well.

i REALLY wanted to go to LAMBS practice and the Yakiniku today! :(
but i chose study so i hope something good happens to me!

5/11/10

today we had to rush to the ELP class again because of PE and it was really tireing:(
i'm already getting sleepy because of all that swimming..zz

in class we talked about assumptions and we got in groups to find the assumptions on the worksheet.
the person who came to see our class was in our group for the whole time. She was writing down things on her paper and she didn't join our conversation. I felt unconfortable at first but I got used to it. I wonder what kind of things she was noting down. silence during discussions made me nervous because she might write down negative things on her paper, so I talked more than I usually do. haha

anyways, I gotta get on with my other homeworks!
for people taking Invitation to Asian Studies class, エッセイがんばろ！

5/10/10

I watched Alice in Wonderland with my friend today!
The best part was that Johnny Depp was 3D!! :):)
I wish I could fall down a hole and go to Wonderland.
Then I wouldn't have to do all the homeworks.hehe

today we checked our partner's PWTs using the LBH.
I talked with Naoko about whether Meiland is really trying to say the same thing throughout two of the examples he gave. We chose different examples in our PWTs but our conclusions were slightly different...hmm

tommorow some people are going to come and watch us do academic and critical discussions because Rab said "Yes!"

The Geography of Thought-Ch.6

Through Nisebett's experiment, I found out that some of the times I think like a Westerner. I read other CB's blogs, and figured out that some of them had the same experience. this was interesting to me and it made me wonder why. Maybe it is because most of the people in CB have lived in Western countries for a long time and the nature made them think like one.

Another way of reasoning this might be that Nisebett's statistics are not accurate enough to determine the difference between how Westerners and Easterners think. I tested Nisebett's experiments on my brother for a try. Although he lived in Western countries as much as I did, he made exactly the opposite answers as mine. I read over his experiments to see how much Nisebett's experiments and conclusions can be trusted. For example on page 142, Nisebett does an example of making Korean, European American and Asian American students classificate a flower among two groups of flowers. He does this to test whether Westerners categorise by applying rules and Easterners categorize based on family resemblance. His conclusion is that his statement is justified because of the experiment, but the average of positive reactions to his statements is too low. Can anyone determine something is A because Ais 67percent correct and B is 33 percent? Or even when A is 60 percent? It can almost be said that the experiment was a failure because it didn't show apparent results.

I have to catch up to chapter 8! still got a long way to go..

The Geography of Thought-Ch.5

My eyelids are swelling for no reason and I look like one of those muppets in the Sesame Street:(
And its not curing!! grr

Anyways, the introduction of this chaper was interesting and it pulled me into the story.
It was surprising to know that there are such clear differences in the way American and Chinese journalists analyse the same two cases of murder.
In the experiment that follows, American and Chinese students were asked if the circumstances that surrounded the murderer was different, more chance for him to stop killing existed or not. I agreed to the Chinese side because I also thought the circumstances mattered a lot to his killing.

On page 118, Nisebett explains another experiment about showing a cartoon fish to the three groups of students who have previously seen one of the three different types of pictures. Nisebett concludes this experiment in only two sentences, and his description was vague. I thought this was too short and too rough for a conclusion. Nisebett should have written a little more percisively about the result of the experiment.
Not only concerned to this part, but there seems to be a tendency for Nisebett to conclude important facts in a too concise way.

5/7/10

today we first had a pre-PWT test.
15 minutes seemed shorter than i thought.
i need to be able to use more academic words in my essay.

than we watched a DVD called "this is what demonstration looks like".
there were so many shocking facts that i had never seen before.
i didn't know that the police are so violent to the demonstrators because there were no such scenes on the news. they were actually pulling off people's masks and spraying tear gas right into their faces! they were also beating up a man who was trying to climb onto the car of the police. and yet there were many people still standing up for justice. i'm not sure if the Japanese would still be at the place, if there ever was a demo.
we talked in groups about why there isn't a demo in Japan. even people in Korea had a huge demo and overcame the country. But why not in Japan?
maybe the reason might somewhat be related to the personality of Japanese. there is no sense of "danger" in Japanese daily lives. they believe what the government sais and it is out of their imagination that the news might be controlled and might not always be telling the truth. it is the Japanese who most needs to learn the critical way of thinking. at least i'm really glad i learned the truth abut the news. i won't be biased further on.
Sayako and Natsuko said they saw demos in Ginza and Kichijyouji. I didn't know that demos existed in this country. and apparently, it was not on the news. when i lived in France, the strikes and demos were part of daily life. trains and buses stopped occasionally, and it was not surprising for us. in Japan there isn't the habit of demos. the Japanese are not used to it. maybe that's another reason why there aren't much demos in Japan.

The Geography of Thought-Ch.4

This chapter was easier to read than the other chapters. There were more experiments than explanations and it was facilier to catch the main points.
A thing that I thought was good about Nisebett's style of writing is that he writes a brief summary of all the things he talked about at the end of each chapter. It makes it easier for me to check if I haven't missed any of the importants facts he wanted to tell.

I couldn't understand the two jokes he told in the chapter. One was about two Older American ladies asking a hotel doorman whether if they were in Geneva Sheraton or Brussels Sheraton. I know both are famous hotels and I knew what kind of thing Nisebett wanted to tell from the context of the paragraph, but I couldn't understand what was funny about it. The other one was about a boy telling his mother that he won a Pontiac in the raffle and that she replied that the tax would make them poor. I didn't even get to know what Pontiac was.. :(

By saying this I would be denying most of Nisebetts's experiments and the things he found out from them, but I thought he was too confident on what his experiment indicated. For example, on page 89 to 90, he does an experiment on the students of Kyoto University and the University of Mishigan, but he concludes that there are difference in the way "Asians" and "Westerners" react to the experiment. It is true that students of Kyoto University are Asians and that those of University of Mishigan are Westerners, but the way he concludes are as if he was reffering to all Asians and all Westerners. Is is a wonder why he chose students in Kyoto University as representatives of Asian and why he chose students in the University of Mishigan as representatives of Westerners, but anyway he should be careful in the way he explains the results of the experiment. If he wanted to be as confident in his statistics as he is now, he should have enough evidence to speak generally about all Asians and Westerners.

The Geography of Thought-Ch.3

I feel that I have been a little too critical toward Nizabett's words. After reading chapter three, I felt that most of the things he sais are true. But what I don't approve of in his writing is that there are few surprising or shocking facts in the book. They are many things that I feel I have heard of before. For example, I had already read something like the part about independence and interdependence in a different Japanese book.

I didn't understand the part where it said
"Westerners' commitment to universally applied rules influences their understanding of the nature of agreements between individuals and between corporations."
I looked up some of the words in the dictionary but it wtill didn't make sence to me..

I agreed about the part where Nisebett states that "even if their upbringing had not made them inclined in one direction or another, the cues that surround them would make people living in interdependent societies behave in generally interdependent ways and those living in independent societies behave in generally independent ways."
I have seen a lot of people who lived in a foreingn country for a long time, and I think it is true that some of their personalities are somewhat independent than interdependent.

I want to read my comic books but I'll have to move on to the next chapter before that.. :(

4/30/10

writing an essay is sooo tiring!
i wonder how much essay i'm going to write
until i graduate icu..

there's no word in English for otukaresama
but anyways otukaresama to everyone:)

yesterday we did a peer review on our essays.
it was a bit embarassing to have my essay checked but it helped me a lot.
then we had a discussion about demos and Nibett's words.
i think that it is hard for Japanese to compare and decide which prime minister is the best because there has not been a really good prime minister in Japan's history for a very long time. they are all bimyou. but even if there were and the Japanese wanted to do a demo, I don't think it would succeed because some people would think that it is mittomonai.
i'm using so much Japanese because it's hard to describe these words in English..

4/28/10

Today we wrote on paper during class-that's rare for Rab:)
We worked on some problems on topic sentence, the order of sentences in a paragraph, and the concluding sentence.
I have a lot of I's and me's in my essay so I'll have to fix them.
I was writing about my cousin but can't I use the phrase "my cousin" as well?
Otherwise it would be "the cousin"..

Then we had tutorials and learned about google tool bars, zotero and portable firefox.
I'm definately going to make one in my USB!

4/27/10

I really don't think it is a good idea to have ELP right after PE!;;
I was really sleepy in class because I swam like crazy in the period before that.
We got in groups and worked on the problems about Meiland and Morgan.
It made me nervous because I would have to remember pretty much details about the book.

After that we went to have dinner.
I was sleepy but it was fun:)
Next time I hope more people could come.

4/26/10

Today we discussed about our essay in our usual essay groups.
Then we split up and made groups with someone that had a totally different topic.
We did this to have a third opinion from a completely different view.

Then Rab explained to us about the ways of writing an essay draft.
There were several ways, but I thought the free writing style fits me the most.
That was the way I usually wrote essays in high school.
Cluster is also useful when you are need to get ideas sorted out inside your head.
We also talked about the ways of teaching and how students should treat teachers.

Rab was really good at magic. His poker face made him look more professional:)
I still can't solve the second one though...

The Geography of Thought-Ch.2

This chapter also took me time because there were many parts where I had to re-read to understand what it meant. What this chapter said in total was simular to what was written in the previous chapter.

There were lots of words that were hard to understand even by using the dictionary. For example, the phrase "homeostatic socio-cognitive systems" on page 32 seemed like a really difficult topic, and I didn't know what it meant even in Japanese. I wondered if this was a good headline. There should have been a way to make it more interesting, more catchy and more detailed.

In this chapter, Nisbett shows the difference between Greece and China in terms of cognition. He uses two schematic model in his writing which shows that there is difference even in the way of understanding a chart. Now when I read this, I felt weird because the person who said that the right chart makes more sence was merely one of the author's student. That does not prove that all Asians prefer the right chart.


I think I'm becoming more critical than usual because I am soo sleepy..
Anyway, I finally finishied reading chapter 2:)

The Geography of Thought-Ch.1

I finally finished reading chapter 1!

This chapter was really long. But in spite of that I felt that Nisebett's own opinions were scarce and that there were too much explanations. It is a good thing to be precise, but being too detailed might make it hard for the reader to find the most important parts, and it also might seem boring for them.

In this chapter, Nisebett explains about the difference between Eastern and Western thought by looking back and comparing ancient Greece and China. He talks about the difference between their philosophies, religion and science/mathematics.
I agree with Rab and I also think it is weird for Nisebett to compare Asia and the West without considering the other continents.

It was interesting to read the part about Taoism. It reminded me of the NP class last week when Rab explained about how you have to do the oppisit of what you want to do in order to accomplish something. The part of "Tao Te Ching, Chapter 36" reminded me of the example that Rab talked to us about the fire on the island. Maybe Taoism is somewhat connected to lateral thinking..

4/23/10

Today we learned about how to use zotero.

this is the introduction of zotero
http://www.zotero.org/support/screencast_tutorials/zotero_tour

In a Zoom you can save books, news and reports in your own zotero.
It is obviOusly the best kind of system we should all use.
There's many Things you can use in zotero
that will makE your life in college more efficient.
For example theRe is a system that
makes your bibliOgraphies easier to cite.



I kind of copied someone. wara

4/22/10

today we learned about how to write an attractive, persuasive and academic essay.
first we learned the parts of an essay; the title, introduction, B1~3 and conclusion. the title is really important becuase you need to catch the reader's eye and also explain what you are going to talk about. in the introduction, you need to grab the reader's attention to pull into the essay.
then there were several techniques to place your supporting sentences through B1~3. the conclusion was the part where you can emphasize you thesis one more time.

Rab's examples of titles were so funnyXD
today's lecture made me want to make a really good essay.

4/20/10

Today we worked a bit more on Meiland and talked about our essay topics. First we discussed weather our topic had assumptions. Then we considered if the topic had any dogmatic essence. I thought the best way to find your weak points of your topic was to talk over about it with some other people and get their opinions. Finding assumptions was hard because you have to have a kind of border about how much you are going to question your topic. I need to think harder on my topic.

4/19/10

Today we went over 1-10 to 1-26 on Meiland. First we got in groups and discussed about why college is subversive.

Then Rab talked about the huge demonstration on the 14th of February. He told us that although many people in Europe had joined the demo, only a small group of people in Japan cooperated. Then we talked over why this happened. I thought that this matter is related to nurture, because there is a tendency in Japan to think it is weird to speak up and express your feelings.

After that Rab explained to us about ways to write an essay, and I learned that it was easier to decide your research question before your thesis. This was new to me and it seemed like a very good way to write an essay. I will have to start thinking for the next essay about education.

movie

today i posted my movie on my blog for the first time. it was very interesting and i didn't think it would be this easy. everyone was speaking at the same time so it was hard to hear my voice. next time i might need to speak up a little more.

videos

By watching the two movies, I learned that when I am searching for information to use in my essay, I should choose by quality than quantity.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjY3UvQ2n98
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA

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