Memories in Australia and Test

Hi, it's been long time since I wrote the last blog. The last Tuesday is the last class of the autumn term, and the autumn break has started!
The last night, I went to Kichijoji with one of my friends, who went to Australia together this summer. I hadn't known her before we met at the orientation for SEA programm in which we joind. But we became very good friends and visited many sightweeing spots, talked about our exeriences in the unfamiliar countries with each other. Sometimes, both of us suffered from serious worries and ill health, but each time we helped one another. For example, since I have a tendency to get my body cold and it was winter when we visited Australia, I had difficulty living in a cold house without warm boots. (How can Australian people live in a such cold house? I assumed that there is a difference in physical constitution between Australian people and Japanese people.) And the friend lent me her warm and thick socks so that I could avoid getting my body cold.
We talked about it at the last night's dinner table and laughed together. I realized again that my first time to go abroad was a unforgettabole and special experience. I want to continue good relationships with SEA pro members and also, friends in Australia.
Anyway, recently, I feel yearning for the experience in Australia not only because I had the opportunity to talk with the SEA pro members, but also I'm studing for IELTS test on 22nd of this month. In Australia, I took Monash English course, which is an English course provided by university, and there were 6 students in my class. At that time, 2 of them were studying very hard for IELTS, and I often heard for example, about how hard they studied or how bad their scores were. And they helped each other with recommending good study materials or teaching how to study. Now, I understood well about  why they said that kind of things since I became a future test taker of IELTS. There are only 1 week to study, but I want to follow these 2 hard-working students and do my best on my IELTS test!!!      

Melbourne!!!

Finally, I arrived in Melbourne!!! The airplane left Japan at 8:50 pm the day before yesterday, and arrived in Sidney at around 7:00 am (in Japan, 6:00 am) yesterday. We had another flight from Sidney to Melbourne. It left at 10:00 am and arrived at around 12:00. It was very long flight, and I could not sleep well, so I'm a little tired now.

After the long flight, we met with our host families. At first, I was very nervous because this is the first time to go abroad and I worried about my poor English level.  But now, I'm in a good state because all of the members of my host family was very kind to me. In addition, we walked around the university I will go to yesterday. The city has both modern and old buildings, and they are beautiful. While we were walking around, I had many oppotunities to tell about myself or my opinion of the scenery. Moreover, the host mother told me ask questions whenever I have. Thus, now I can talk with them without worry.

Today, the English course we will attend starts. I'll do my best to learn!!!

Preparing for Winter

The day after tomorrow, I'll go to Australia and spend six weeks there. So, now I'm preparing clothes and other things for my trip. As you know, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so the country is going to be in winter soon. And the most difficult things to prepare is to choose which winter clothes I will bring. First, winter clothes are usually heavier and thicker than summer clothes. Therefore, I should think which clothes I really need. Otherwise, the weight of my suitcase will be over the air company's limit. Second, of course, Japan is in summer now, so it is difficult to imagine how cold winter is. What is worse, I have to feel clothes which are made from wool or other warm materials in my hot room. It's awful! However, I must endure this to make my trip more comfortable.

During the stay, I'm going to write this blog as much as I can. Maybe my blog will help you feel a little cool with the words, "Today was very very cold and windy." or "The temperature is 4 degrees now!" and so on.

I hope my first trip and study abroad will be successful and enjoyable. And I also hope all of you will have nice summer holidays!!!

The Finish Line Is Near!!!

Today, we had a test about The Old Man and the Sea. This was an essay type test, so it was a little difficult for me because I'm not good at writing. Actually, I prepared for the test by choosing a theme and writing about it. And when the test began, I wrote the same things on the paper. However, in a few minutes, I wanted to change the topic. Then I erased and started to write again from the beginning. So, I finished writing just in time, but I could only one sentence for concluding. I hope I can get a good grade.

Anyway, next Monday is a deadline of our five paragraph essays. And Tuesday is the last day of this term. Finish line is close to us!!! I will do my best on the finishing touch!

Zozozo......Zotero!!!

Yesterday's class was "introduction of Zotero." Have you ever heard "Zotero"? Zotero is a very useful citation tool. When we want to use an article on the internet in our essays, we just move the cursor up to address bar and click an icon that says "Save to Zotero." And by doing just a few operation, we can do not only in-text citations but also putting information in bibliographies. However, Zotero is not a perfect tool, so we have to remember and re-check what information is needed in each pattern of citation. I want to use this tool and cite correctly in my essay.

The Monday's Class

In Monday's ARW class, we learned about how to write an introduction in an essay. According to Little Brown Handbook (LBH), openings to avoid are...

1. A vague generality or truth.
2. A flat announcement.
3. A reference to the essay's title.
4. According to Webster...  This means that you shouldn't begin by telling dictionary's definition.
5. An apology.

I think I must keep these in my mind; otherwise I will start to write with any of these things.

Actually, I have to write a 3 page-essay for History of Western Music class by next Tuesday. However, I haven't started to write it yet. What is worse, I haven't read books about the theme. I should begin as soon as possible and use the knowledge about how to write an essay that I learned in this class. I hope my essay will become a good one.

Not Be Defeated!

"Man can be destroyed but not defeated." This is the words of Santiago who is the main character in The Old Man and the Sea. This was said after sharks attacked, tore, and ate his giant Marlin. I think this phrase is similar to a well-known Japanese proverb, "Nanakorobi Yaoki." This means that a person stumbles seven times, but he/she recovers eight times.
As long as we live it is inevitable for us to encounter bad things we don't want to. Some of them may be other person 's or people's own faults, and others may be things no one can control, for example, nature. Sometimes we may feel discouraged, and cannot do anything and anymore. However, we should never give up. We should stand up again. This is a powerful and useful message, I think.

Unfourtunately, the author of this novel, Earnest Hemingway committed suicide with a short gun. It is said that this suicide was because of his psychological disease. It might have be unavoidable, but it is a sad story for readers who received the message"Not be defeated. "

Fictions

I'm so sorry to write the blog at this time (Oh, I wrote same sentence in the last time!).

In the last class, we learned about 3Bs in fiction. What's that? 3Bs are Background, Biography, and Bias. These points are important things to know when we read fictions. By doing so, we can deepen our understanding of the story and it will easy to make interpretations.

Other things we learned were "compassion and love" in a novel, "The Old Man and the Sea." We recognized compassion between the old man and the boy many times in the book. They have a strong and nice relationship through whole story, and at the end of it, I felt something warm in my heart, how he needed the boy, and how the boy loved and respected him.

This time I read so fast to catch up with the class, but I want to read it again more thoroughly if I have time to do it.

The Old Man and the Sea

First, I'm sorry for writing this article at this time. I couldn't finish this yesterday.

Anyway, in ARW class, we are now working on reading a famous novel, "The Old Man and the Sea."  According to this article, I learned the writer of this novel, Earnest Hemingway was a difficult person unlike Santiago, who is a main character of this novel. However, there are also similarities between them. Both of Hemingway and Santiago are physically strong men and like fishing. The article has a picture of Hemingway, and I thought my image of Santiago was the person who was in the picture. Hemingway's eyes are little scary, but except this, he was Santiago.

Also, I read a material about stoicism in this novel. In this book, Santiago wasn't able to catch fish for 84 days, but he never give up until he caught a fish. Even when he was in a bad situation, he took it positively. This is important and necessary things to live through tough situation. As for me, I tend to take things negatively, so I admire his mental strength. I think I must follow his attitude and never lose my hope. Because my name is "hope."

A Heavy Day...

The last weed has ended, and a new week starts. Although I had a few big events in the week, I felt so busy and tired. Why? Perhaps, I had two exams on the last Friday.

One was a mid-term exam of Principles of Language Learning and Teaching class. The content of this exam was based on a textbook that was not used in our classes. So I had to read and understand the book all by myself. At the beginning of April, I made a reading plan. However, since I had had a lot of homework and because of my poor time management ability, I couldn't read it little by little. As a result, by the last Monday, I could finish only five of 200 pages! That was the most terrible thing since I entered this university. Therefore, I worked hard on reading from Monday to the exam day, and I finished reading 150 pages, in other words, I couldn't finish. I don't wanna do the same things again!!! I hope I'll be a good planner and performer.

Since this blog is ARW class's journal, I'll write about the other test I had today (Sorry for a long introduction...). That was ARW's CWT about fallacies and argumentation. We learned about total to 13 fallacies through classes and homework. Some of them were easy to understand, but others were difficult to distinguish their meanings from each other. I took the test with my uncertain understanding, so my exam result was not quite good. I should examine them once again and use the knowledge when I write my essay!  

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.