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: 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.

Writing English 1B: Comparison & contrast in Japanese education・日本教育の比較対照

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look more about how to write on comparison and contrast (比較対照). We'll look at Japanese education (教育), and how it has changed over time. 

Activity
Look at these two pictures below. The first one is from a girl's high school sewing (裁縫) class in the 1930s. The second one is a recent, average high school class. 

With a partner or a small group talk about, and make some notes on, differences you notice and things you feel have changed - or perhaps anything you feel is also the same - between these two pictures. 

Practice writing

When we're finished, we can start some 2-3 paragraph practice writing on comparing and contrasting these different pictures, and what we believe we see and understand in them. This will be due in the next class.

Take care! See you next time!

Images: Top - By frwl - Takahata highschool 10, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3239163/Past girl’s high school classroom - by 能代実科高等女学校　Noshiro Practical Girls' High School - 能代実科高等女学校大正五年開校記念絵葉書　Postcard issued by the Noshiro Practical Girls' High School., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17018162/Contemporary high school classroom - screenshot taken from https://www.tofugu.com/japan/jet-program-self-intro-class/Original photograph by Dylan James at https://www.flickr.com/photos/organictokyo/33542326/in/photostream/Special thanks to Verity Lane at Tofugu.com. All rights reserved on original photograph to Dylan James. I do not own the rights to the image or the copyright holder(s). Dylan James photograph uploaded for classroom purposes only.

作文6/6th writing assignment

Hello!

How are you? Today we'll do our 6th writing assignment all in one class - writing a story about a strange, unique, and/or interesting experience.

Now - you remember our pictures from last week. You had to choose at the beginning two (2) of the pictures, and then write a few sentences about them in your notebooks.

Then you had to select four (4) more of the pictures, and add more to your story in 2-3 paragraphs in your notebooks. Here are the pictures again:

Task
Now - all you have to do for our 6th writing assignment is to finish up the writing you did last week. Try to go for 3-4 paragraphs if you can, now typed up on a Word document.

I will look for these things in your stories:

• imagination (想像、考え)
• creativity (創造力)
• cause-and-effect (原因結果) words to connect your ideas like as a result, consequently, or therefore
• correct formatting on your Word document

This will be a little like a writing test, so use your time well! But please also remember that you have done a lot of the work for this story already - all you have to do is make it better and a little longer, and finish it up.

These stories will go into a collection called White Rooms and Secret Stories - so write to the best you can!

So good luck again! Please have fun with these stories!

Images: Top - screenshot of Frank Zappa Hot Rats album cover/Door - "Empty Wall With Closed Door" (courtesy of master isolated images)/Train yard - "Silhouette Of Wires And Cables" (courtesy of papaija2008)/Sunset - "Beautiful Sunset" (courtesy of Photokanok)/Curtains - "Curtain Black With Texture" (courtesy of antpkr)/Wedding - "The Exit" (courtesy of Elwood W. McKay III)/Hand silhouettes - "Silhouette Of Man Asking For Help" (courtesy of foto76)/Plane - "Take Off At Sunset" (courtesy of Time Beach)/Woman - "Asian Model Woman" (courtesy of posterize)/Tiger - "White Bengal Tiger Face" (courtesy of anankkml)/all photos from FreeDigitalPhotos.net except for Frank Zappa album cover screenshot - all rights reserved to The Zappa Family Trust. No copyright infringement intended. Screenshot of album cover uploaded for illustrative and educational purposes only. 

面白い経験を書いて/writing about interesting experiences

Hello!

How are you? Today let's look at how to write about interesting, strange or unique experiences (面白い、不思議、ユニークな経験)! 

Activity
Look at these pictures. Can you make the beginning of an interesting, strange or unique story with these pictures? You can choose 1-2 of the pictures. 

Good luck! Have fun!

Photo credits: Top photo - "Sunset Holiday" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/Roofs - "Hiyama Tatsuno Hyogo Prefecture" (courtesy of 663highland)/ 

Images: Top - "Empty Wall With Closed Door" (courtesy of master isolated images)/train yard - "Silhouette Of Wires And Cables" (courtesy of papaija2008)/sunset - "Beautiful Sunset" (courtesy of Photokanok)/curtains - "Curtain Black With Texture" (courtesy of antpkr)/wedding - "The Exit" (courtesy of Elwood W. McKay III)/hand silhouettes - "Silhouette Of Man Asking For Help" (courtesy of foto76)/plane - "Take Off At Sunset" (courtesy of Time Beach)/woman - "Asian Model Woman" (courtesy of posterize)/tiger - "White Bengal Tiger Face" (courtesy of anankkml)/all photos from FreeDigitalPhotos.net. 

Final writing project: writing about places review/場所・位置を書いてレビュー

Hello to all my students,

This is a review post on writing about places. If your final writing project is writing about places, then I hope seeing these pictures again will help you. 

Look at the picture above. What feelings do you get about the place in the picture? What adjectives (形容詞) do you think of when you see this place? 

Review activity (for groups writing about places)
You wrote about places in the spring semester. I know you can look at the paragraphs you wrote about, but you can also practice this activity again as a refresher with your group to help you write about places. 

Look at these pictures. Choose one, write a short paragraph of 4-5 sentences about it, and share it with your group members. Here is an example about the picture below - the ancient ruins of Delphi in Greece.

例えば：

The ancient ruins of Delphi have inspired many throughout history, and this is how it inspires me. When I see a site such as this, the past and the present come together, and I feel we are not only seeing history, but living it too. I have never been to Greece, but some day I want to go. When I do, this place will be on my list of things to see. 

You do not have to do any of these, but they might help you to refresh your writing about places. Try one with your group members! 

  

Have fun!

Photo credits (in order): "Gate in Silhouette" (personal image)/"Ancient Ruins In Delphi" (courtesy of thephotoholic)/"Great Wall Of China" (courtesy of cescassawin)/ "Shop" (courtesy of Dino De Luca)/"Sydney Opera House At Night" (courtesy of Susie B)/"New York Times" (courtesy of Antoine Henrich)/"Japanese Street Festival" (personal image)/All pictures except "Gate in Silhouette" and "Japanese Street Festival" from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Our summers (Part 3)

Hello to all my students,

Here are more of your summer paragraphs. Check these great ones out!

Here's one: 

I went to Canada for three weeks by plane. I went there with my mother, sister and brother to meet my father. My father lives in Toronto near the Toronto airport. He works for Honda there. We stayed at my father’s house, and we went to Niagara Falls, the Wonderland amusement park, the CN Tower and some good old places. At Niagara Falls, I saw the American and Canadian sides. Both falls were so powerful. There were many people there too. I walked also the souvenir streets, and it was interesting. At Wonderland, the roller coaster was fun. I was saturated by it! I ate a big pizza too.

I lived in Toronto when I was little, and I visited the kindergarten and elementary school I went to. It was good and old, but I didn’t want to spend so much time there. I saw my old house too, but I couldn’t see my old neighbors. I really wanted to see them. My house had became a little dirty. I ate more pizza, hotdogs, and hamburgers at The Keg, a restaurant. We ate steak too. It was tender and delicious, but expensive. I liked it.

I felt Toronto’s temperature was colder than Tokyo, but I enjoyed this summer.

Great! Now how about this:

I enjoyed my summer vacation. I went to Disneyland with my friends. I rode on the roller coaster. It was very fun, and after I ate popcorn, pumpkin ice cream and other delicious food, so I was very happy. We enjoyed the electrical parade too. The beautiful lights were so bright in the dark night. We bought many souvenirs, like cookies for my family, and some character goods for my sister. My family were very pleased, and I become happy when I brought these to them.

We enjoyed ourselves very much, and we promised ourselves that we would come again.

Check this one out too!

I went to Aomori with my family by car. It was very long trip that took my father eight hours to drive.

Aomori was very hot, but my grandparents were very fine. They have a very large field which we enjoyed. 

The Aomori beaches are very beautiful and very clean. The first day we played around there. There were many different kinds of sea food, such as hotate, ikura, uni, salmon and so on.  I ate some delicious food. It was very fun.

Look at this one:

Most of my summer vacation was made up of club activities. I belong to cheerleading club, so I went to training camp three times. The training camp was very hard but the bond with my friends in the club deepened. Through this camp, my dance improved and my skill increased. We all had a barbecue and lit fireworks together. 

I also went to Sendai in August to do some volunteer work. I helped to encourage people in the stricken area and cultivated some oysters. After, I went to Niigata and did some more cheerleading practice. Overall, I was able to have many experiences in my summer vacation. They were both fun and serious, but I had a good time. 

There are still some of you who haven't sent me your paragraphs. Keep them coming in! I'll look forward to posting them here. 

Until then, see you soon!