Culture through English A: Spring final assignment・前期末課題

Hello!

How are you? Here are the topics, deadline, and guidelines for our spring semester final presentations. 

Topics

You can choose one (1) of these topics: 

• The origins of some family names in Japan 
• An immigrant community in Japan (such as Koreans or Chinese born in Japan) or immigrant/unique ethnic community in another country 
• How a foreign person can become a citizen of Japan or how a person can become a citizen of another country you choose and research about (for example, how a foreign immigrant to the U.S. can become a U.S. citizen)

Task & guidelines 

You have a choice for this assignment. Because this is the final assignment, I will ask for a little more than on assignments 1 and 2. You can:

• Make a video of yourself giving a 5-7 minute Power Point, Key Note, or Google Slides presentation –or-
• Write a longer 5-7 paragraph (段落) research report, on a Word document or handwritten on notebook pages, with clear pictures taken of the pages 

About family names

For the first theme choice, be sure to show:

• The ranking of the family name in Japan or another country (for example, how common is the name) and number of people in Japan or another country with this name
• Any changes in the kanji of the family name, or the spelling of the name in a different language, over time
• In the case of Japanese family names, any differences in kanji within the same family name (for example, the difference between 渡辺 and 渡邉) and reasons for this difference
• In the case of a foreign family name, any possible differences in spelling of the name within  the country (or other countries that have the same language - for example, German language family names in Austria or Switzerland)
• The different parts of Japan or another country that the family name has migrated to and the parts of Japan or another country that the name is most often found in 

For the second theme choice, here is a list of some unique communities and ethnic groups in some different countries. You do not have to choose one of these - you can think of a refugee, ethnic group or community of your own. But you can choose one (1) of these if you like:

• The Travelers (Ireland)
• Vietnamese refugee boat people from the Vietnam War
• Bretons (northwestern France)
• The Basques and their language (northwestern Spain/southwestern France)
• The Sorbs and their language (eastern Germany/southwestern Poland)
• German minorities of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan
• Hungarian minority of Romania
• The Sami people (northern Norway and Finland)
• Metis people of Quebec (Quebec, Canada)
• The Haida First Nations (British Columbia, Canada)
• Hasidic Jews of New York (New York City, U.S)
• The Lumbees (east central coast of the U.S.)
• Cajun (Acadian) people of Louisiana (the U.S.)
• Cham people (Cambodia)

For the third theme choice, make sure to research points such as: 

• Possibilities and issues of dual citizenship rights (二重国籍の権利) 
• Obligations of military service (徴兵制度) 
• Any possibility of double taxation (課税) between the person’s new country and old country 
• any other interesting or unique points that you may find about citizenship rights and responsibilities 

About presentations

If you make a Power Point show, I would like you to follow these guidelines: 

• You have to have a title slide - then a summary slide - then after that 5-7 slides with pictures and text on it - then finally a closing slide
• It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
• You have to video-record yourself giving the presentation - or if you can - do a narration to your slides where you talk out your presentation
• As with our other assignments, you are free to design the presentation display any way you want to.

About reports

If you choose to write a report, as we have done on the other assignments, you can also include pictures with it on a Word document - or take some pictures to go with your report. 

Deadline

Please upload your presentation files or written documents/pictures to Manaba no later than 23:59 on August 5th (8/5). However, I can take your files or documents up to 23:59 on August 8th (8/8). 

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

t_suzuki_cteA_final_assignment

("cteA" means Culture through English A)

If you have to upload more than one file, add the extra files with the same name, but with a letter after “final_assignment.” For example:

t_suzuki_cteA_final_assignment_a  (this shows that it is an extra file)

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. 

I cannot take any more files after 23:59 on August 8th (8/8).

Good luck! 

Image: Top - by Angie from Sawara, Chiba-ken, Japan - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=639426/Screenshot taken from photograph originally uploaded to the Daily Mail website - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3437455/Not-passport-equals-travel-documents-come-different colors-countries-choose-them.html. I do not own the rights to the original image. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only.

Culture through English A: Example of family history・家族史の例え

Hello!

How are you? Today, I have for you a video from a Japanese TV program you may know about family histories. 

On this video, a Canadian man who had a mother who was half-Dutch and half-Japanese has come to Japan to track his family origins. What he has found surprised him greatly. 

Activity/homework
Watch the video. As most of it is in Japanese, it would be no problem to follow it, though the Canadian man speaks English. 

What do you think of this man's story about his family? Watch the video, then free write your views about it. Write as much as you can - but don't worry about spelling or grammar. You do not need to download the video - just watch it here on your computer or smartphone.

When you are finished, upload your document (or a clear picture of your handwritten work on notebook paper) to Manaba. Name your document or picture file like this, with your own name (here is an example): 

t_suzuki_cteA_family_history 

I hope you find this interesting! 

Image: By Beato, Felice, approximately 1825-, photographer - Library of CongressCatalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2011649857Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3g10000/3g14000/3g14400/3g14493v.jpgOriginal url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649857/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66968268 

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the video or the television program it was a segment of. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational purposes only.

Culture through English A: Family origins・家族の出身

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at where we come from. The picture above is of the Chikuzen-no-kuni family register (戸籍謄本).

This is from Fukuoka-ken, and it's the oldest known family register in Japan, at over 1,300 years old!

All of us can trace our origins (先祖) - that is, our family beginnings - to somewhere. So let me share with you my origins. 

So those are my origins. But how about your family? How far back do you know about where it came from in Japan, or maybe another country?

The picture above is a shot of a student's notes. She researched about the origins of her family (家族の出身). Her family came from Kanagawa.

Activity/homework
How about your families? Which parts of Japan - or which parts of other countries - did they come from? 

Let's find out about our families and where they came from! 

See you next time!

Images: Top - screenshot from internet of Chikuzen-no-kuni household register courtesy of Asuka Historical Museum. All rights reserved/Screenshots of Power Point slides - personal images. All rights reserved/Student notebook page - personal photograph. All rights on content reserved to the student. All rights reserved on personal photograph.

Culture through English A: Short presentation 2・ショートプレゼンテーション 2

Hello!

How are you? Today I will show you our second presentations about immigration (移住) and naturalization (帰化).

I know I am showing this to all of you right after our mid-term presentation, but because our time is tight, I am showing it to you now. 

Background of theme
What does a person have to do to get citizenship (国籍) of another country? Many people do it all this time. In the cases of refugees (難民), they have to become citizens of another country in the long term, as they cannot go back to the countries they came from.

While I have given you all the handout about this topic, I will post it here as well to help remind all of you about what you can do for this presentation. 

Important notes

This topic will be about immigration, with an focus on the pros and cons (賛否両論) of naturalization - the steps of becoming a citizen of another country. 

Some countries will allow their new citizens to keep the citizenship of their old country, but some will not. Some countries would say that their new citizens must only have the citizenship of their country, while the person’s old country still says that the person is their citizen. 

Guidelines
So what might changes in citizenship mean for people in these situations? In the case of Japan, what does it take for a foreign-born person to become a Japanese citizen? 

So for this theme, design a small poster on A3-sized paper or make a Power Point on this theme of immigration and naturalization with a title of your choice. Choose one (1) of these topics: 

• research about how a foreign-born person can become a Japanese citizen 

• choose a country and research about how a person can become a citizen of that country

Make sure to research points such as: Possibilities and issues of dual citizenship rights (二重国籍の権利); obligations of military service (徴兵制度); any possibility of double taxation (課税) between the person’s new country and old country; plus any other interesting or unique points that you may find about citizenship rights and responsibilities.  

As before, you can design this any way you want - but please cover the points above. Very importantly - have a summary of your topic!

Like before, we will present in small groups to each other for around 5 minutes, including Q&A from the classmates we will present to. 

Deadline (締め切り) 

We will do these on July 3rd (7/3), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare these. 

We will do some presentation practice in class before we do the real presentations. These presentations will be the only things we will do on July 3rd. 

Here are the board notes for our class on 6/26:

Here also are the board notes for our class on 6/19:

Good luck! Have fun making these posters or Power Points as you've done before, but now on this theme. 

See you next week!

Image: Screenshot taken from photograph originally uploaded to the Daily Mail website - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3437455/Not-passport-equals-travel-documents-come-different colors-countries-choose-them.html. 

I do not own the rights to the original image. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only. 

Culture through English A: Family origins・家族の出身

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at where we come from. The picture above is of the Chikuzen-no-kuni family register (戸籍謄本).

This is from Fukuoka-ken, and it's the oldest known family register in Japan, at over 1,300 years old!

All of us can trace our origins (先祖) - that is, our family beginnings - to somewhere. So let me share with you my origins. 

So those are my origins. But how about your family? How far back do you know about where your family came from - in Japan, or maybe another country?

The picture above is a shot of a student's notes. She researched about the origins of her family (家族の出身). Her family came from Kanagawa.

Activity/homework
How about your families? Which parts of Japan - or which parts of other countries - did they come from? 

Let's find out about our families and where they came from!

Here are the board notes for today's (5/22) class:

See you next time!

Images: Top - screenshot from internet of Chikuzen-no-kuni household register courtesy of Asuka Historical Museum. All rights reserved/Screenshots of Power Point slides - personal images. All rights reserved/Student notebook page - personal photograph. All rights on content reserved to the student. All rights reserved on personal photograph.

Culture through English 2A: Mid-term presentation displays

Hello!

How are you? I'm uploading this later than what I wanted, but I have finally done so! Here are some selected displays from your mid-term presentations! 

Take a look at these displays, and be proud of your work, and your classmates' work! All of you did a good job on the speaking, and organization of your ideas, on these projects. Good job and a great effort from all of you! 

So here are some more great displays!

I hope you can enjoy these! See you next time!

Images: Personal photographs of student work. All rights reserved to the students for their content.

Culture through English 2A: Supplemental post about refugees・難民についてポスト

Hello!

How are you? Here is a special post to go with our 2nd short presentation - about refugees (難民) and what they need for immigration (移住). 

Support & preparation (準備)
If you choose to present on this topic, here is some support for you. 

The picture at the top is of a refugee boy in a refugee center in Germany. While he may be smiling, refugees have many problems, and many things they need. Watch this video below. It's mostly in Japanese, but with some English, with Japanese subtitles  (日本語の字幕). 

Watch the video as many times as you need to. When you are finished, answer these questions in your notebook about the different parts of the video (you can make notes in English or Japanese):

日本のメッセージ
1. What did the first woman say about coming to Australia as a refugee?
2. What did the second woman say about communication between the government (政府) and refugees?

シンポジウムから待たヒント
What did Ishii-san say about the two women's refugee stories?

日本にできること
What did Moriya-sensei from Hokkaido Educational University (北海道教育大学) say about the needs of refugees?

長野県松本市の取り組み
What did Takizawa-sensei from Toyo Eiwa Women's University graduate school (東洋英和女学院大学大学院) say about help for refugees in Matsumoto city in Nagano (長野県松本市)?

求められる視点
What did Daniel Alkhal (ダニエル・  アルカル ) from the UNHCR (国連難民高等弁務官事務所) say about the three different steps of support refugees need?

Make these notes in your notebook. You can make these notes in Japanese or English.

Good luck! Take care!

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asylbewerber_-_15.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Asylbewerber_-_15.jpg
Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the video. Uploaded strictly for educational purposes only. All rights reserved to the 
copyright holder(s).

Culture through English 2A: Short presentation 2・ショートプレゼンテーション2

Hello!

How are you? Today here is the information about our second short presentations. While I have given all of you the handout about the presentations, I am also posting about it here as another way to help remind you about what you can present about. 

Topic

Our topic will be about immigrant communities, or refugee issues (難民の問題) and what they need for immigration (移住).  

There are immigrant communities in Japan as well as immigrant and refugee communities in other countries. Here are some examples of communities, refugee issues, or other things connected to these topics you could present about:

• Chinese in Japan (for example, as in the Motomachi Chukagai)
• Koreans in Japan
• Japanese-Brazilians in Japan
• Japanese emigration to the U.S., Canada, Brazil, or other countries
• Refugee immigration and resettlement in Japan 
• How permanent foreign residents in Japan can become Japanese citizens
• Refugee problems in other countries
• African-Caribbean immigrants to Britain
• Turkish immigrants in Germany

Guidelines

I would like you to design a small poster on A3-size paper. It can be titled with the name of the immigrant community you are presenting about, or some other title like that. 

We will present in small groups to each other for around 5-6 minutes, with a Q&A from the classmates we will present to. 

Deadline (締め切り)

We will do these presentations two (2) weeks from today on July 4th (7/4).

We will do some presentation practice in class before the real presentations. These presentations will be the only things we will do on July 4th.  

Good luck! I look forward to hearing your great presentations on these topics!

Image: By MMKK2 - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46977800