Nishin...

It's Wednesday today. This week, I have a lot things to read, write, listen, and remember. I am exhausted now, but I'll give much effort to write this blog.

In today's ARW class, firstly, we continued to learn about fallacies. I found that there are many kinds of fallacies, and each has own unique name. One of the names I found interesting was "Red Herring". When I read this at first, I realized there was a small picture of fish. And I wondered why this picture was put here. Since I didn't know the meaning of a word "herring", I looked it up in my dictionary. Then I understood the reason. "Herring" is a name of a fish, in Japanese, "Nishin". I was a litter surprised at this because I ate Nishin yesterday! So, I could remember at least this one. However,  I have to remember all of the other fallacies. I' ll do the best!!

Fallacy, What Is It?

In the Monday's ARW class, we continued to learn about argumentation. And in that class, we focused on fallacies. Do you know what fallacy mean? Fallacy is a mistake when people make an argument. I didn't know that mistakes in an argument are named special names, so at first, I didn't understand what thing I was going to learn. Moreover, I was very sleepy during the class, so I still don't know much about it (Sorry Dan......). So, I have to recheck the material and know what it is.

Key Is Evidence

Today's topic is "argument" in academic writing. Since we entered the university, we have learned how to write or read an academic paper in ELA classes. Argumentation is one of the things we have learned for this two months. But, I didn't understand well about it, for example, what "assumption" exactly is, or how to strengthen my claims more efficiently. These days, I'm working on a 5 paragraph essay and often struggle with argumentation. So, when the teacher gave us some materials about argumentation, I watched and read them very carefully. And they could solve my questions.

Here are some things I learned.

1. Evidence should be different, for example, facts, examples, expert opinions, and statistics.
2. Evidence should be accurate, relevant to topic, representative, which means true to the context, and adequate.

Note: These are from "The Little, Brown, Compact Handbook."

I know evidence plays a paramount role in argumentation, so to use appropriate evidence is necessary for a good writing. However, searching that kind of evidence is a hard work, and it sometimes takes a long time (and this leads to the lack of sleep!!!). I think it is crucial to acquire searching skill as well as knowing about argumentation.

Anyway, I'll "do", not "try" my best to write my essay!
   

I'm Not a Machine...

Today's topic is drafting and peer reviewing. My teacher providing videos about it, and I thought they were interesting and much useful in my writing and peer reviewing. While I was watching the videos, I realized many things that I should do, but I will tell you only one of them.

 I found that when I peer-review other person's work, I tend to comment on grammar mistakes a lot, and not on concepts because I didn't know well how to check concepts. According to the video, the first thing that peer reviewers should do is to understand massages of writing, and checking grammar is the last thing to do. I recognized that if a writer uses a grammar check tool, he/she doesn't need a kind of peer reviewer who only check grammar, such as I. From now on,  I should concentrate more on understanding massages of a writer and give comments on them. Because I'm not a machine...

Nervous Than Comfortable

Today's homework was to understand how to write a draft. In our ARW (Academic Reading and Writing) class, we will start to write to write a five paragraph essay soon. Actually, the deadline of 1 paragraph is tomorrow!!! So, I checked carefully how to write a first draft.

I have some notices through reading and watching materials about drafting.

1. To have much time to write essays

2. To have a comfortable and quiet space to write

3. To make efforts to keep writing

4. Not to worry about grammar                                   etc.

In fact, I don't like writing papers so much since I was in a junior high school. I often cried because of the lack of my writing ability and having poor ideas. So, when I knew about these things, I felt comfortable about writing and was encouraged a little. However, I also found that I'm in a critical situation. That is, it's about 3:30 am, and I have about only 1 hour and a half to write my first draft. The material that I read said, it's the most important to set much time to write, so now I'm really nervous and upset. I hope I will make a good paragraph though I have little time. I'll do my best!

Useful Tools

We had a retreat from May 16 to 17, and I had a great and precious time with my section mates and new friends. I will never forget this experience from now on. But, if I write about this, surely it will be a long blog, so I'll write it next time.

I'll write about the last ARW class this time. First, we evaluated ARW CWTs (Course Wide Test ) of other class. It was difficult for me to check another person's writings in all viewpoints of grammar, content, and paragraph structure. However, through this experience, I realized my lack of knowledge, and I think I should think more about how I should write more clearly. Second, we learned about Evernote. Evernote is a useful tool in sharing web pages and video clips. I want to try to use this when I write my 5 paragraphs essay.

Lastly, I'll write about Grammarly, a grammar check tool. I like this because I can check my writing as soon as I wrote, so I can avoid remembering wrong spelling or use of grammar. One more thing I like this tool is that this tool has a function of checking plagiarism. From my writing experience in my high school and ARW class, I felt that it was difficult to avoid plagiarism, and didn't like to spend a long time to check plagiarism. But with this tool, we can avoid plagiarism and our precious time! I recommend you to use Grammarly!

Group Work Is Important and Useful

Today, we all had a course wide test (CWT) of ARW. This was our first exam since we entered the university, so I worried much about this. I wanted to prepare well, but recently, I'm exhausted  in every evening, so I couldn't prepare for it. Now, I can only wish I could get a good score.

Anyway, I'm going to write about the last class of ARW. First, we made a group of three people, and discuss about each topic of the next essay using scratch outline. I'm going to write about English education of elementary schools in Japan. In fact, I could come up with only one question to my topic. But, my peers asked me some good questions, for example, "Why is there a need of teaching English?" and I was able to think the topic much more deeply. Thank you my partners. I realized the importance of group work. Second, we learned about how to organize our essays appropriately. Moreover, we realized we have to collect a variety of sources. It seems to be very hard work for me, but  I'll do my best. These are what we did in the class. 

We Are All Monkeys!

Have you heard the phrase "We are all monkeys"? Do you know the story and deep meaning behind this phrase? If you click the link below, you can see the story in detail, and recognize what the meaning of the phrase.

http://fusion.net/modern_life/story/dani-alves-inspires-monkeys-anti-racist-meme-63203

When I heard "racial discrimination", I always imagine a discrimination against black people in America. But, now I rethink it, I can find many of them around the world. And through this article, I learn there is an action of discrimination even in a soccer match. I disappointed in these things and I have to do something to eradicate discriminations. 

I don't wanna do that!!!

I have some things that I don't wanna do forever. The following are those;

• to wind a snake around my neck
• to go on scary rides

The first one is about snakes. I have hated snakes since I was a little child. How do I dislike snakes? For example,  I don't wanna touch them, and see them whether they are live ones or even in pictures. If I happen to see a snake somewhere, I will turn around immediately, and run off in a hurry as possible as I can. And if I happen to see a picture of a snake on a book, I will close the book like a flash of lightning, and stay away from it. Now, I'm sure all of you can imagine what I will do or become if I wind a snake around my neck. certainly, that will give me a shudder, or I will fall down on a floor in faint. I don't wanna do that never and ever.

The second one is about scary rides. The reason why I don't like scary rides is that simply I'm afraid of heights and speed. So, actually, I've never ridden roller coasters, even a small one or one for children. Therefore, it is a nightmare for me to go on scary rides. I don't wanna do that never and ever.

photo credit: http://j.people.com.cn/94638/205938/8239886.html 

Netiquette

It is often said that netiquette is important. However, what really is "netiquette"? In my opinion, netiquette is a rule and a manner that people should always keep in their minds and follow whenever they use the internet. For instance, "You have to use calm words when you comment on something.", and "You must not mention a person's name that can specify the person." I think both are easy to forget if people are really absorbed into something on the internet, but these are also easy to remember if people think there are someone on the other side, and think over the feelings of the other people.

 Furthermore,  I'd like to add an own rule when I write this blog. My teacher told us that some people who aren't Japanese also see our blogs. So, I should write to explain Japanese words and culture in detail to understand them well whenever they appear in this blog. In order to do so, I should see my blog more objectively than before.

I think explaining Japanese things in detail is not only kind to people from other countries, but also gives such people many opportunities to know Japanese culture well, and improve my English more and rethink Japanese language and culture. Therefore, I want to write to make this blog beneficial to other people as well as me. 

The Seasons of GoGatsuByo is Coming...

It's May 1st today. I'm surprised that a month already passed when I entered the university, and, I' m looking forward to Golden Week(GW)!  GW is a series of national holidays at the beginning of May in Japan, and we often take a trip, meet with old friends, and so on. In other words, GW makes us feel refreshed after having  a month with tence caused by many new things, like new friends or circumstances.

However, some people, especially freshman and new employees will feel depressed after GW. This is commonly called GoGatsuByo. GoGatsuByo is mainly caused when people can't adjust to their new circumstances. Symptoms of GoGatsuByo are depression, apathetic, fears and impatience. If these symproms get worse, patients will become heavy depression.

To avoid GoGatsuByo, I think it is important to recognize ourselves. If we are under considerable stress now, we should relieve them by doing sports, or hobbies. Besides. it is also important to think possitively. For example, "we can do this because we did these tasks." Moreover, it is also a good way to receive counseling, and we may feel much comfortable.

I think we should be careful about our conditions, and enjoy GW so much!