Culture through English 2A: Short presentation 1 displays

Hello!

How are you? Here is a post of selected displays from your great first short presentations. 

Everybody did a great job on these! I do not have the time or space, however, to upload every poster. So I selected some posters for their design, character, and content. 

So if your poster is not here, please do not feel bad! Everybody in the class who presented gets their points and credit for doing these presentations. But please take a look at these and be proud of yourselves and your classmates! These are what our class can make possible, and show your hard work and great effort.

So enjoy these! 

So good job not only to the students here, but all of you! 

Enjoy these!

Images: Personal photographs of student displays. All rights reserved on content to the students.

Reading English 1A: Healthy eating・健全な食べ物

Hello!

How are you? Let's look at some pictures of dishes from different countries. 

Activity
Let's look at these next dishes - and decide which ones are the healthiest.    

1. 

How many kilocalories (kcals) do you think this plate of pasta has? 

2.

How many kcals do you think this plate of bratwurst (German sausages) has? 

3. 

How many kcals does this Thai chicken curry have? 

4. 

 

How about all this sushi? How many kcals do you think it has? 

Talk about these and make some guesses about their kilocalorie count. Then I'll tell you what the kcal counts are! Talk about them like this: 

例えば：

A: I think Thai chicken curry is healthy. 

B: Really? I think sushi is healthier (= more healthy). ☞ (I think sushi is healthier than Thai chicken curry.)

Try this talk with different kinds of foods! 

See you next time!

Images: Top - "Food Selection" (courtesy of arztsamui) /"Pasta" (courtesy of savitkeawtavee)/"Sausages" (courtesy of savitkeawtavee)/"Thai Chicken Curry" (courtesy of John Kasawa)/"Mixed Sushi" (courtesy of rakratchada torsap)/All images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Writing English 2A: Writing assignment 1・作文1

Hello!

 

How are you? Today I will show you our first writing assignment (作文1) - writing about interesting people or places (面白い人達、場所、位置).

 

I have given you the handout about this assignment, but I will post this here to help remind you on what you can write about. 

 

I am gathering writing on this topic into two books – one called The Small Book of Big People, about your most interesting or respected people – and another called Places & Traces, about special places and other things that people remember. The best of your writing on these topics could go into these books, so write to the best you can! 

 

How much to write

I would like you to write as much as you can, because your work may be published (出版して) on both this blog and in the The Small Book of Big People and Places & Traces books. I would like to see maybe 2-3 paragraphs' worth of writing. 

 

Task (choose one)

About people 

Who do you think are some interesting or special people in Japan or the world today?  What are they famous for? You can write about people you know, but what is special about them? When you write about a person, include this information:

•           What they look like
•          How they dress (if they have a unique fashion sense or style)
•         What they are known to you for (or what they are famous for)
•         What is unique or interesting about them

About places

What are some interesting or special places you know of? You can write about a place you have been to, or a place you haven’t been to but want to go to. It can be a place in Japan, or a place in another country. It can be a local place, a historical (歴史的) place, a famous place – or a place that has all of these points. When you write about a place, include this information:

•          Where it is
•         What is special about it (to you)
•         What special things there are there (mountains, famous buildings, and so on)
•          How to get there

You can look at the pictures again in the blogposts about describing and characterizing people, and the one about describing places. They can help you with your writing. 

Deadline (締め切り)
It will be May 16th (5/16), so I want you to begin working on a first draft (下書き) today in your notebooks in pencil. Finish the draft and bring it in next week (来週). I will then give you some more directions, and you change things about the draft as you need to. Then you can write to the finish in class and turn it in on 5/16. 

 

 

Good luck! I look forward to reading your great writing about people or places!

 

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Culture through English 2A: My origins・先祖

Hello! 

How are you? Today let's look at the idea of your origins (先祖). What does this word - in English or Japanese - mean to you?

Let me share with you my origins. 

How about your origins? Where do you come from, far back?

See you next time!

Images: Mix of personal and copyrighted images. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational purposes only. 

Reading English 1A: Interesting sports - cricket & field hockey・クリケットとフィールドホッケー

Hello!

How are you? Today, to go with our extra readings on sports, I have two short videos for you - one on cricket and one on field hockey. 

The picture at the top is of a cricket playing field, often called an oval. 

Most of you, perhaps even all of you, have never seen a cricket match. But here is the short video about cricket. This will give you an idea about what the game looks like, and how it is played. 

You do not have to understand the game! The more important thing is that you get an idea about what it looks like. Here it is:

What do you think of it? This might give you more of an idea of what cricket is like when you do the extra reading about cricket.

Now here is a short video about field hockey. While many of you might know field hockey and have seen it on TV or the internet, here is a refresher about what the sport looks like:

Once again - you don't have to understand everything! The more important thing is that you have some idea about how it is played to help you with the extra reading about field hockey. 

I hope these videos help you with your reading. Have fun with these!

Have a great Golden Week!

Images: Top - CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52405/Field hockey - By Michelangelo-36 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2320991
Videos uploaded from YouTube. All rights reserved to the copyright holders. I do not own the rights to the video or any of the contents within. Uploaded for classroom purposes only. 

Writing English 2A: More on describing & characterizing people & places・人物、場所の性格描写つづいて

Hello!

How are you? Today let's look further at describing and characterizing people and places by imagining, and doing practice writing, on scenarios with people and places.  

Activity

Look at the pictures below. Choose one (1) picture and write a 1-3 paragraph scenario about what is happening between the people in it, and what kinds of places they are in. 

What do you think is the character of their relations? Are they happy with each other - or perhaps not so happy? More importantly - what could be the cause of their good (or bad) relations? Not only that - how would you characterize the kinds of places they are in? 

You can give names to the people and places in the pictures you choose for your scenarios! 

1.

2.

3.

4.

Have fun with these! Again - remember to choose only one (1) of these pictures. 

Have fun with these! Have a great Golden Week!

Images: Top - Personal photograph/Man and woman in park - "Woman Do Not Look Happy Standing" (courtesy of nuttakit) FreeDigitalPhotos.net/People at table - By Touzrimounir - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36884016/Woodstock couple - by Burk Uzzle/screenshot 
of image reproduced from file courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery/laurencemillergallery.com/Painting - Nighthawks by Edward Hopper - email, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25899486
All rights reserved on personal photograph. All rights reserved to the copyright holders of original Woodstock and Nighthawks images. I do not own the rights to these images. Uploaded for educational purposes only. 

Writing English 2A: Describing places・場所を描写して

Hello!

How are you? Let's look at some pictures of places. 

Look at this picture above of a mountain. What comes to your mind when you see this picture? What do you think of? How do you feel? What images do you get about mountains? 

Activity

Look at these pictures of places. 

Choose three (3) of these places, and write one (1) short paragraph about each place you chose. (You can choose the mountain picture above as one of your places to write about.) 

What comes to your mind when you see these places? What do you think of? How do you feel? What images do you get? 

Write these short paragraphs in your notebooks. 

River

Volcano

Rainforest

Desert

Have fun playing with your ideas! 

Take care! See you next week!

Images: Top - personal photograph/River - By Des Colhoun, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13208330/Volcano - By Nc tech3 at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9013884/Rainforest - By Makemake at the German language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63465/Desert - By Rife Charie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - http://www.public-domain-image.com/public-domain-images-pictures-free-stock-photos/nature-landscapes-public-domain-images-pictures/deserts-public-domain-images-pictures/desert-beauty-landscape.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24896551/All images except top from Wikimedia Commons/All rights reserved on personal photograph