Writing English 2B: Final writing assignment support post - the future (Part 3)・期末作文のサポート「未来」(Part 3)

Hello! 

How are you? Here is one more supporting post for your final writing assignment about Japan and the future. 

Some of you might have gotten the feeling that writing about the future only means writing about science and technology - and if I gave you that feeling, I'm very sorry! I did not mean only to focus on science and technology. I made my Part 1 and Part 2 posts about science and technology only because so much of what a lot of people imagine about the future involves things like computers, robots, rockets, space travel, and things like that.

But this is not all there is about the future - there is also society and culture too. You do not have to focus on science and technology in your thinking about the future - there are also things such as fashion and music, and the looks of cars and buildings, and the way people live in their day-to-day lives.  

Look at the picture above. It shows an average Japanese family having dinner, and it comes from a Japanese magazine article from 1954 about home life. Is there anything different about family dinner time now than from then? 

Activity
What kinds of social or cultural changes can you see happening in Japan in the future? Japanese society and culture has already been through many changes since World War II. 

Take a look at these next group of pictures. They show some changes that have happened in around the last 50 years, up to now. What do you notice about the buildings, or the cars, or the way people dress? How do you feel that things have changed? 

Chuo-dori, Ginza, Tokyo, 1967

Chuo-dori, Ginza, Tokyo, 2017

Japanese young people, 1964

Japanese young people, 2017

Some street fashions in Japan, late 1960s

Some street fashions in Japan, 2017

So what kinds of changes can you imagine happening in society or culture in the future? What sorts of fashions might people be wearing? For example, would long hair come back into fashion among men? Would women wear mini-skirts again? Or - would men wear skirts and women wear suits? How about music? What would it sound like in the future? 

What designs in cars could you see in the future? Would we see a return to some older designs in cars? How about buildings? How might they be different? Perhaps would we see something that people 50 years ago would never have imagined? 

Good luck with this! I hope this can give you more ideas on how you can write on Japan and the future. 

See you next week!

Images: Top - by Unknown - Japanese magazine "Photograph Gazette, May 1954 issue" published by Government of Japan., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17850644/Ginza in 1967 - By Roger W from Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. - Tokyo - Chuo-Dori, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60804070/Ginza in 2017 - By Gary - DSC08269 - Chuo-dori Ginza, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40961932/Japanese young people in 1964 - screenshot taken from Japanese+youth,+Tokyo,+1964+(11).jpg/Japanese young people in 2017 - screenshot taken from https://www.google.co.jp/search?biw=1199&bih=746&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=w2dXWpWxAcr08QXcjLHAAg&q=japanese+young+people&oq=japanese+young+people&gs_l=psy-ab.12...0.0.0.37755.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c..64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.ZsHKi1iiTEI#imgrc=VXhxXXgo1PeJ-M:/Fashions in the 1960s - screenshot taken from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVifNM1qJpNSwRHH30eGOOMQ8u1eWIFbtfL4B4grLM0EviNv46NNj9VRDifgsZfFAEvaTiqIjWnD_UNt_16_RwAXy9_4PHc47nUIu8RRYAJYcTeEPqcCIDsukeHRDb2yeAS0lm4qld3xE/s1600/Street fashion in 2017 – screenshot taken from https://medium.com/@TokyoFashion/japanese-street-fashion-2017-15-things-you-need-to-know-ab06eabfca39

Writing English 2B: Final writing assignment support post - the future (Part 2)・期末作文のサポート「未来」(Part 2)

Hello! 

How are you? Here is a second supporting blogpost for all of you from a different viewpoint about Japanese technology for the future, and the role it might play in shaping our lives and society here. 

As you can see above, this is a picture of ASIMO - the robot that can walk on two legs that Honda developed. Do you feel that this is a great achievement - or do you see any problems or difficulties with the role that robots might play in our lives, or even society, in the future?  

Activity
This is a short video that was made in 2015, but it is still timely. Watch it as many times as you want or need - there's no dialog on it, so it is easy to follow. 

Here's one basic question: How would you compare and contrast (比較対照して) the things you see about technology and the future in this video with what you saw in the first supporting blogpost about American ideas of the future after World War II? 

One common idea is that technology will be important in our societies and lives in the future, and play a positive role. Would you agree with this - or do you see any problems with technology and its possible impact on Japanese society in the future?  

Good luck with this! I hope this can give you some more ideas and some different ways to think about this theme of writing about Japan and the future.

Have fun with this! See you next week!

Image: By Morio - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29969316
Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content of the video or the products depicted. All rights reserved to the copyright owner(s) of content and products. Uploaded for classroom use only.

Writing English 2B: Final writing assignment support post - the future (Part 1)・期末作文のサポート「未来」(Part 1)

Hello!

How are you? Here is a first supporting post for the final writing assignment about Japan and the future. Today let's look at this theme from a unique angle - some ideas that were common in the U.S. after World War II about the future (未来). 

Every culture has its own ideas about what the future looks like. The picture above comes from an American magazine called Popular Science. It has been published for a long time, and this picture is from 1947. 

In one of their magazines from that year, Popular Science had a report about the future. It imagined many things about it. How many of these things do you think have become real? 

These are very some American ideas, especially after World War II, about what the future would look like. But would any of these ideas be the same as some Japanese ideas at that time about the future?  

Activity

Let's look at these other pictures from the 1947 Popular Science article. What do you think Americans might have imagined in them? 

例えば：In the picture at the top, maybe they thought all our electricity (電気) would come from nuclear power plants (原子力発電所) in the future. 

As one way to help you with ideas for writing about the future from a different viewpoint - let's try to imagine what they thought in these pictures!

If you want to see the where these pictures came from with a report about them, go to the Popular Science website here. 

I hope these ideas can help you, or lead you to more or other ideas, for your final writing assignment about Japan and the future.

Have fun! See you next time!

Images: Screenshots of illustrations uploaded to Popular Science website. 

Uploaded for educational purposes only. I do not own the rights to these illustrations. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). 

Writing English 2B fall semester final writing assignment・後学期期末作文

Hello - and Happy New Year!

How are you? Here is our final writing assignment (期末作文) – writing a short essay with an outline. 

While I have already given all of you the handout about the assignment, I will post the information about it here as another way to help remind all of you about what you can write about. 

After this post, there will be some supporting blogwork for all of you that I hope might help you with ideas on how you can write about this theme.  

Theme

Your opinions and feelings about Japan and the future.

After this blogpost, you will first see about what many Americans after World War II thought the future might be like, and their hopes for it, then see another post about the role technology might play in Japanese life and society in the future. 

The picture at the top of this post is from Expo '85 (国際科学技術博覧会, or what many people called the つくば万博), held in Tsukuba in 1985. The theme of that exhibition was "Dwellings and Surroundings - Science and Technology for Man at Home" (人間・居住・環境と科学技術).  

It has now been going on 33 years since that time. There have already been many changes in Japan since then, and many changes going on now. As you think about the future, what further kinds of changes will happen in Japan? What other changes in technology or society do you feel might develop over time? Will we be living in space? Perhaps living on the Moon?

Even more – what are your hopes for Japan for the future? What problems or issues do you think are the most important that you hope can be solved, or at least be made less of problems?

How much to write

I would like to see around 1 to 1 1/2 pages, with a separate outline that will be about half (1/2) a page. (Make the paragraphs at least a little longer!) So the assignment will be in two (2) parts:

• Outline (あらすじ: about half [½] a page 
• Short essay (this means the assignment writing itself – about 1 to 1½ pages)


Deadline (締め切り)

It will be our final class – January 18th (1/18), so today (1/11) is an outline writing day. The outline will be a part of your grade for the final assignment, so it is important because it will make the writing of the short essay (下書き) go much easier.

Formatting

I would like the final assignment (outline and essay both) to be typed up. But I know because we do not have so much time that it may be difficult for some of you to get to a computer if you do not have one at home.

Because of this, you have the choice to turn in the outline and essay by handwriting in pen.  But either way – if you type up your assignment or if you write it in pen – you have to follow the correct format for the heading on the essay (your name on the first line, the class and period on the second line, “final writing assignment” on the third line, and the date (January 18, 2017) on the fourth line).

The essay should have a title, centered (センター 揃え), with a line space between the title and the first line of the first paragraph, and with line spaces between each paragraph, but with single spaces in the paragraphs.

The outline does not need your name on it, but please staple it on top of the essay, so that I see the outline on one sheet, and the essay on the next sheet. 

Good luck! You've done a great job over this year. I've been very happy to have had all of you as students in this class. So I will look forward to reading your great writing on this theme about Japan and the future.

See you next week!

Image: By ころぞう - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2149120

Writing English 1B: 6th writing assignment・作文6

Hello!

How are you? Here is the post about the 6th writing assignment (作文6) - your ideas of an ideal working life and lifestyle for yourselves. 

While I have given all of you the handouts about the assignment, I will post it on here as another way to remind all of you about what you can do. 

Topic

Think about the kind of working situations you would like to have. Would it be working in a company (株式会社)? Or would you maybe like to work more independently – for example, in a company that would let you to make your own schedule - perhaps even work part of the time from home and if you meet deadlines, you could even work anytime you wanted?

Would you like to even have a different kind of schedule – for example, working at night or even on weekends, and sleeping and resting during the daytime? Would you prefer working freelance (自営業), or even starting your own business, either with another person – or on your own?

I would like you to cover these points in your writing:

• the kind of working situation you would like (working for a company, working alone, having your own business, working different kinds of hours)

• the kind of place you would like to live in (such as in Tokyo or another big city, or perhaps in a small city or even a town somewhere in the country)

• the kind of life you see for yourself in the future (married, staying single, living in a large house or mansion, or some other kind of living arrangement)

While this assignment is only one topic, you have a lot of freedom to write about the kind of working life and lifestyle you wish for in your future.

How much to write

I would like you to write as much as you can, around 4-5 paragraphs' worth of writing. 

Deadline (締め切り)

It will be December 20th (12/20), so I want you to work on your first draft (下書き) in class today in your notebooks in pencil. I would recommend as well to work on this outside of class.

Next week, I will try to get us into a computer room, where we can then work on the final versions on Word. I will try to talk to as many of you as I can to review your drafts, and you can change things about the draft as you need to, then write to the finish in class, print the final version out, and turn in your work. 

Good luck with this! I hope you can have fun with this, and enjoy writing about your ideal working life and lifestyle. 

I look forward to reading your great writing on this topic! 

See you next week!

Image copyright-free photograph from Apple. 

Writing English 1B: Ideal working schedules・理想的な職の生活

Hello!

How are you? Today let's look at ideal working schedules (理想的な職の生活). What kind of working life do you see yourself having in the future?

Activity
Look at these pictures below. Which ones show the kind of working life you would like the best? Talk about these with your classmates and make some notes!

Working alone

Working with people

Working in a teaching or training situation

Working at night in an office or at home

Have fun with these! See you next time!

Images: Top - copyright-free photograph from Apple/People shaking hands - "Working Team Shaking Hands" & woman with laptop -"Woman in Kitchen With Laptop" (both courtesy of Ambro)/Classroom - By Laboratorio de Escritura - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18242352/Woman working at night - courtesy of Shutterstock/Ambro's images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net