Culture through English A: Assignment 1・課題1

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce our first short presentations about our identities.

Who are you as a person? What would you say about yourself - for example, your character or your temperament (気質)? What are your hobbies or interests? What do you think people like the most about you?

Task & guidelines

You have a choice for this assignment. You can:

• Make a video of yourself giving a short, 5-minute PowerPoint, Key Note, or Google Slides presentation about yourself and your identity –or-
• Write a short, 3-4 paragraph (段落) report about yourself and your identity, on a Word document or handwritten on notebook pages, with clear pictures taken of the pages

Your presentation or report can be titled My Identity or About Me, or some other title like that.

On your presentation or report, have different sections about the following points:

• your family
• where you come from
• what the schools you went to were like
• your hobbies & interests
• your character & habits (習性)

If you choose to do a presentation, you can design it any way you want, with pictures and some writing about yourself - but please have the pictures and the writing about the points above!

If you choose to write a report, do the same – please have your report be about the points above!

We will present in small groups to each other for around 4-5 minutes, including a Q&A from the classmates we will present to.

Deadline (締め切り) & notes about uploading 

Please upload your presentation files or written documents to Manaba no later than 23:59 on June 16th (6/16). 

Please name your display file or written document like this (here is an example):

t_suzuki_cte_a_self_identity

 (“cte_a” means Culture through English A)

Please remember again that if you don’t have a computer but want to write a report, you can write clearly by hand on notebook paper, take a clear picture with your smartphone of the notebook page(s), and upload the picture file to Manaba. Please name the file the same way as above for a presentation file or Word document.

Basic presentation tips

Here are some basic presentation tips for all of you who want to do presentations. I made these notes below for this class in 2019. I have uploaded them here for all of you to see. 

Basic report tips

Here are some useful phrases that you can use in your writing. These are not the only kinds of phrases you can use, but these are some examples of how to can begin and move into your writing, and move from one point to another in your ideas. 

Introductions:

I am glad to introduce myself in this report. I’m (your name) and I’m now a second-year student here. (…)

Beginning my second year at Daito Bunka, I’m (your name) and am happy to introduce myself here. (…) 

This year has been a strange one, but I am happy to finally begin the new school year. I’m (your name) and am beginning my second year here at Daito Bunka. (…)

Body (中心) of report*: 

Here is my background. I was born and raised in (your birthplace and where you grew up)(…)

First, about my background. I was born in (your birthplace) but raised in (the place where you grew up). My family left there when I was…years old, and (…)

Let me tell you about where I come from/(my birthplace)/(my background). To begin with (…)

First, I’ll begin with (my background)/(place of birth)/(where I come from)/(upbringing). I was (…)

To move from one point or idea to another in the body:

After graduating from junior high school, we moved to (name of place) and…

I enjoyed playing baseball in elementary school, and I was the ace pitcher for my team. When I got to junior high, however, I started getting into soccer, and…

I didn’t use to like being around people so much. But when I got to high school, I joined the volleyball club, and there, I started making many friends. (…) 

It’s still hard for me to make friends sometimes, but here at university, I’ve made some good friends I can trust. We do a lot of things together, and…

*Please remember that the body is the main part of your report, so it will be the longest part. 

Conclusions (まとめ):

Finally, I think that (my hobby or interest) is important to me because…

The last thing I want to say is that I hope to make this year better than last year. (…)

In the end, the support of my family has helped me in my school life, because…

I hope to enjoy this class, and make new friends through it. (…)

I hope all this will help you. Good luck!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.