Answers to your survey questions/アンケートの答え

Hello!

How are you? As I have promised, I will answer your survey questions.

Questions about me
First, many of you have asked this question: how old are you? Well, I'll tell you. I'm 52 years old.

One or two people asked me: where are you from? Well, I put this on my profile on this blog in both English and Japanese - I'm from the U.S., but grew up in Australia.

One person asked me: do you like turtleneck sweaters? The answer is yes, I do! 

Another person asked me: what's your favorite kanji? Well, that's a hard question, but I guess one kanji I really like is this one:

園

In English, this is "garden." It's very simple, but I love the design of the kanji. It's like a woman in a beautiful kimono in a nice space!

I also like my wife's kanji too, because it's a beautiful one too: 愛香 (あいか).  In English, this means "beautiful fragrance."

Questions about sports
I got some questions about sports. Here's one:

What's your favorite baseball team? I don't know that I have a favorite baseball team, but one major league team I like is the Detroit Tigers. Detroit, as a city, has had a lot of problems, so when their sports teams play well, I'm very glad. The Tigers were a poor team for a long time, but over the last few years they have gotten much better.

I think for Japanese teams, I really like the Hiroshima Carp and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Carp weren't very good for a long time, but they also are playing much better now. The Golden Eagles are still a new team, and they beat the Giants for the Japan Series last year! I was so glad!

Another person asked me: what's your favorite basketball team? Well, right now, maybe the Portland Trail Blazers, because they're doing very well in the NBA playoffs right now. They're the closest good team to my home state of Idaho in the U.S., so I'm really happy for them.

A student asked me: do I know world soccer teams? The answer is yes, I do! I know all the English Premier League teams. I also know the big Serie A teams, and the Liga Espanol teams too. Of course, I also know the Bundesliga teams too.

Maybe my favorite English team is Wigan Athletic. They were a small team that went all the way up in English soccer to the Premier League. They won the FA Cup last year of the first time. Here's a video of Wigan Athletic FA Cup victory highlights:

But one question another student asked me was: what's your favorite sport?

For me, that would be ice hockey. This is my favorite sport. It's fast, hard, great scoring, and I love it!

This was a clip of Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup finals - the championship of ice hockey in the U.S. and Canada.

I have many questions to answer! So this is Part 1 of my answers. Look for Part 2 next!

See you then!

All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. They have been uploaded here strictly for educational use.

Writing about a gift/プレゼント、おみやげを描写している

Hello!

Image "Orange Colored Box" courtesy of adamr/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today let's begin our first writing assignment (作文1) - writing about a gift. 

Activity

Look at the gift box in the picture. What do you think is in it? Imagine what kind of present is in the box. Who is it for? Is it expensive? Where was the gift bought? 

Thank about all these things, and write a short paragraph, 4-5 sentences long, about it.  

Good luck! See you next time!

Paragraph formatting/節のフォーマットしている

Hello!

Image "Notes" courtesy of healingdream/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? This post is about formatting paragraphs (節をフォーマット) plus some rules about writing names of places, bands and album titles in English.

NOTES
These notes are things to do in your writing. 

1. Remember that you are not writing sentences! You are writing paragraphs (節). For example:

My life at Shibaura            My life at university is good.
My life at Shibaura            I have made many friends here. 
My life at Shibaura            The classes are hard.
My life at Shibaura            So far I enjoy this school. 

ブッ！

(That's not good!) 

Please write like this: 
My life at university is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. 

2. Connect your sentences to make longer ones. For example:

My life at university is good and I have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy this school. 

Finally, remember to put capital letters for days of the week and months. For example:

   wednesday Wednesday       april 2nd   April 2nd

Also - names of places or music groups are not in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, or with "quotes" around the names! For example: 

I went to "Hakone" in February.  I went to Hakone in February.

I really love GLAY.  I really love Glay. 

My favorite group is "Aqua Timez".  My favorite group is Aqua Timez. 

Plus - song titles do have "quotes" around them, but albums or CDs are in italics. For example:

正：I really love Glay and their song "Winter, Again." 

正：The first CD I ever bought was the Beatles album Rubber Soul. 

I will show you more on formatting and rules for titles of books and stories soon! 

See you next class!

このブログにようこそ！

Hello to all my Daito Bunka students,

このブログにようこそ！私はリー・アーノルドです。楽しいクラスしましょう！ブログが授業のためにヴィデオ、写真、画像やアップする。どちでも英語とか日本語コメントの書くができる。楽しいクラスしましょう！

How are you? I'm Lee Arnold. Welcome to my blog, Sekaijin's Learning Pages! On it I will post videos, pictures and other things for you for our classes. You can write comments here too. We can have fun in these classes!
classes! 

Now - I will show you a little bit about myself. 

This picture is of me and my wife's family. We're enjoying hanami. Did you have a hanami party this year?  

I hope I can be your teacher this year! Let me show you some pictures of me and my family. You can ask me about these pictures. I'll be happy to tell you about them. Here's the first picture:

Here's some more. Ask me about these!

Please ask me about these! I have things to tell you - and I hope you can tell me about yourselves.

I write this blog for all of you here at Daito Bunka. Let's have fun in our classes! 

がでいクラスしま！

ントができる。楽しいクラスしましょう！

あとでね！See you in class!

Final writing project repost: file attachment notes/期末プロジェクトの添付ファイルノートのリーポスト

Hello to all my students,

Image "Teenager Guy Working on Laptop" courtesy of imagerymajestic/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? This is a repost about the style and formatting of your file attachments. Some of you need to read this - so please look at this! 

Please look at this picture below: 

This picture is an example of writing style I used with my students at the Shibaura Institute of Technology (芝浦工業大学). I would like you to use the same style in your writing here.  

So please remember the following points, in this style:

Your name in romaji
Student number

Remember - double space below the student number and above the title!

Title of your paper

Remember to center the title. Then double space again!

Start writing here. Keep writing even when you get to the end of the line, then keep writing on to the next line...

Click on this link here (ここにくりっくしてください) about rules for writing names and places, and song and album titles. 

Have a great holiday. You do not have to work on this project over the holiday, but you can email me if you have questions about your project. 

Good luck with your projects!

Words on Music (Part 4): Frank Zappa - "Little Umbrellas"

Hello to my students,

Image "Colorful Puppets On A Market Stall In Kathmandu, Nepal" courtesy of think4photop/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here is the last post - Part 4 - of our collection Words on Music. This is what you wrote to the Frank Zappa piece you heard in class - "Little Umbrellas." 

Here is the video for the song:

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. No copyright infringement intended. 

It is uploaded strictly for classroom use.

Here are your thoughts and feelings on this music:

I imagine many a place with many adrenaline and laughs in the air. Many lights, many people, many feelings, many dramas on the stage and many hopes and dreams delivered for children and teenagers! But also for adults, it breaks the common sense that adults do not have dreams because they lived long time to give up their dreams for "real life." In this place, those type of people can learn that dreams are also real! This place is a circus.

This is strange music and a fun mood. I image cats are dancing at open space. Cats stand with two legs. Cats are talking, eating and something drink, and they look human. Today is the cat's dance party!

The mood of the music is weird and the music makes me lazy. It expresses depression, for example, when I go to the university in the morning, I don’t want to go to there because of sleepiness.

At first this goes slowly but one the way was bitter sound. I am good to listen to sound of this type. It is in a restaurant or tearoom. Especially, tearoom is a good place to listen. I think the story is that some people are a dancing at a party. This party is the anniversary party of something. Everyone burst with fun. But this party is coming to an end.

This is such a mature kind of dance. It is fun for pleasure. I think that anyone begins to dance to it. Because many people likes to fun or dance to music.  Of course I will dance. Anyone can feel fun that your body adjusts to this music, and begins to move to it naturally.

This piece of music is most bright, but at the same time, it may be mysterious. This gap may create a unique atmosphere. I think this atmosphere cannot be imitated. How mysterious this makes it! 

I see a snake charmer appearing. Here, it is India. He handles his snake on the street as he sits cross-legged.

Another great collection of some great reactions to this music!

To see more, click on here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2. Click here for Part 3. 

Good luck on your final writing projects! I hope Words on Music can help you in writing your final projects. 

Words on Music (Part 3): Miles Davis - "Portia"

Hello to all my students,

Image "Statue The Face" courtesy of sritangphoto/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here is Part 3 of our collection, Words on Music. This is what you wrote to the third piece of music you heard in class - Miles Davis' "Portia." Here is the music:

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. No copyright infringement intended. 

It is uploaded strictly for classroom use.

I have edited a few of these a little, but not much. Read and enjoy!

I imagine the night. In noon, the song will not hear. This may create an adult atmosphere. I felt melancholy music. I imagined that a man walks in the dark town and drinks liquor in a bar.

I sense imminent danger.  I am fearful. The image it is may show some fierce animals attacking in the jungle.

This is like dangerous music. There is a man who is an adventurer. He takes a ship and goes to an uninhabited island. He crosses the Atlantic Ocean alone. He feels lonely but likes adventure. So he is exciting this. Whenever he is in trouble, he believes in god. Later he reaches the island.

One person goes shopping in town. The shop was opened. It was in a quiet corner of town. He came into the shop. It is general shop. There are many miscellaneous goods. All of things are so good. I like them. He thought that this shop is so wonderful.

There is a girl who goes on an adventure. She is going to be in a very good mood, but she heard a strange noise. She was lonely. Just then, the figure of grandfather emerged in front of a girl, and he introduced his house near here. This house were five dwarfs, they welcome to her. For example, they played the music, and cooking. But, after a short time, she missed his mother, and she was cried. It can’t be helped, they gave her a night, and she was escaped by them next day.

An explorer searches for a treasure. A treasure sleeps in the grave. He devotes his life to it. He fined a clue of treasure. He went to Egypt. Then he solves cipher of treasure. He fined treasure at last. It is beautiful nature. There are many animal and fruit. And many animals are an endangered species. Though the treasure was not treasures, he feels very much.