Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Culture through English 2A: Spring semester mid-term presentations・前期中間プレゼンテーション

Hello!



How are you? Today, I will introduce our spring semester mid-term short presentations. Our topic will be about our family origins (素性) and migration (移動) patterns. 

Where did your parents - your mother and father - come from? How about your family history before your parents? Which parts of Japan did your grandparents, or their parents, come from? 

If you are from another country, which part, or parts, of the country did your family come from? If you have part of your origins in Japan and part in another country, which country was it and which side of your family - your mother's or father's - is the connection with the country on? 

Topic, task, & guidelines 
Look at the picture above. It's a small rough poster from a student who researched her family's migration history - the places where her parents came from and how they met. 

This is a good example of what you can do. I would like you to do some research - which could include asking your parents and/or grandparents - on your family's origins. You can make a Power Point show, or a small poster. 

Have some maps - you can hand draw them or download from the internet and note them yourself on computer - and some pictures of the places where your family and some relatives (親族) came from and where they went. 

If you hand draw things, simple pictures are okay - but make your posters or scanned pictures colorful and interesting to look at. 

Include information on your displays such as: 
  • Where your grandparents (or great-grandparents, if you can find out) came from and where they met
  • What the family names of the grandmothers (or great-grandmothers, if you can find out) were
  • Where your parents met and when they got married
  • When your parents moved to where they now live
For this presentation, you can design a small poster or make a Power Point show. 

If you design a poster, I would like you to follow these guidelines:
  • It has to be on A3 size paper
  • You have to have 3-4 pictures on it (hand-drawn or photos, or a mix)
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
If you make a Power Point show, I would like you to follow these guidelines: 
  • You have to have a title slide - then 5-7 slides with pictures and text on it - then a closing slide
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
  • Bring your own computer or tablet - I cannot give anyone any computers!
Deadline (締め切り)
Our presentation day will be on May 30th (5/30), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare.

For next week (5/23) - bring enough content so you can give me an idea about how you would organize your talk. This way we can do some basic presentation practice. 

You do not have to be 100% finished with your display - but you should have enough content to practice with. I would like to see the work you have done and give you some advice on what you can do to make the best presentations you can. You can then finish your work outside of class after and be ready to present on 5/30. 

IMPORTANT NOTE
Because this is our mid-term presentation, we all have to be here on the day of the presentation. Not coming will lower your grade. This is because we have to move onto other topics after these presentations, so we have to keep going on the syllabus. We will have no time for makeup (補講) presentation days for this.

So please be ready with your presentations, and be here on the presentation day!   


Good luck with this! I look forward to our presentation day!

Image: Personal photograph of student poster. All rights reserved on content to the student.

Culture through English 2A: Short presentation 1 displays

Hello!



How are you? Here is a post of selected displays from your great first short presentations. 

Everybody did a great job on these! I do not have the time or space, however, to upload every poster. So I selected some posters for their design, character, and content. 

So if your poster is not here, please do not feel bad! Everybody in the class who presented gets their points and credit for doing these presentations. But please take a look at these and be proud of yourselves and your classmates! These are what our class can make possible, and show your hard work and great effort.

So enjoy these! 






So good job not only to the students here, but all of you! 

Enjoy these!

Images: Personal photographs of student displays. All rights reserved on content to the students.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Reading English 1A: Healthy eating・健全な食べ物

Hello!



How are you? Let's look at some pictures of dishes from different countries. 

Activity

Let's look at these next dishes - and decide which ones are the healthiest.    


1. 

How many kilocalories (kcals) do you think this plate of pasta has? 

2.

How many kcals do you think this plate of bratwurst (German sausages) has? 


3. 

How many kcals does this Thai chicken curry have? 

4. 
 

How about all this sushi? How many kcals do you think it has? 

Talk about these and make some guesses about their kilocalorie count. Then I'll tell you what the kcal counts are! Talk about them like this: 

例えば:
A: I think Thai chicken curry is healthy. 
B: Really? I think sushi is healthier (= more healthy). ☞ (I think sushi is healthier than Thai chicken curry.)

Try this talk with different kinds of foods! 

See you next time!

Images: Top - "Food Selection" (courtesy of arztsamui) /"Pasta" (courtesy of savitkeawtavee)/"Sausages" (courtesy of savitkeawtavee)/"Thai Chicken Curry" (courtesy of John Kasawa)/"Mixed Sushi" (courtesy of rakratchada torsap)/All images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Writing English 2A: Writing assignment 1・作文1

Hello!


 
How are you? Today I will show you our first writing assignment (作文1) - writing about interesting people or places (面白い人達、場所、位置).
 
I have given you the handout about this assignment, but I will post this here to help remind you on what you can write about. 
 
I am gathering writing on this topic into two books – one called The Small Book of Big People, about your most interesting or respected people – and another called Places & Traces, about special places and other things that people remember. The best of your writing on these topics could go into these books, so write to the best you can! 
 
How much to write
I would like you to write as much as you can, because your work may be published (出版して) on both this blog and in the The Small Book of Big People and Places & Traces books. I would like to see maybe 2-3 paragraphs' worth of writing. 
 
Task (choose one)
About people 
Who do you think are some interesting or special people in Japan or the world today?  What are they famous for? You can write about people you know, but what is special about them? When you write about a person, include this information:
  •           What they look like
  •          How they dress (if they have a unique fashion sense or style)
  •         What they are known to you for (or what they are famous for)
  •         What is unique or interesting about them
About places
What are some interesting or special places you know of? You can write about a place you have been to, or a place you haven’t been to but want to go to. It can be a place in Japan, or a place in another country. It can be a local place, a historical (歴史的) place, a famous place – or a place that has all of these points. When you write about a place, include this information:
  •          Where it is
  •         What is special about it (to you)
  •         What special things there are there (mountains, famous buildings, and so on)
  •          How to get there
You can look at the pictures again in the blogposts about describing and characterizing people, and the one about describing places. They can help you with your writing. 

Deadline (締め切り)
It will be May 16th (5/16), so I want you to begin working on a first draft (下書き) today in your notebooks in pencil. Finish the draft and bring it in next week (来週). I will then give you some more directions, and you change things about the draft as you need to. Then you can write to the finish in class and turn it in on 5/16. 
 
 
Good luck! I look forward to reading your great writing about people or places!
 
Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Culture through English 2A: My origins・先祖

Hello! 




How are you? Today let's look at the idea of your origins (先祖). What does this word - in English or Japanese - mean to you?

Let me share with you my origins. 









How about your origins? Where do you come from, far back?

See you next time!

Images: Mix of personal and copyrighted images. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational purposes only. 

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Reading English 1A: Interesting sports - cricket & field hockey・クリケットとフィールドホッケー

Hello!



How are you? Today, to go with our extra readings on sports, I have two short videos for you - one on cricket and one on field hockey. 

The picture at the top is of a cricket playing field, often called an oval. 

Most of you, perhaps even all of you, have never seen a cricket match. But here is the short video about cricket. This will give you an idea about what the game looks like, and how it is played. 

You do not have to understand the game! The more important thing is that you get an idea about what it looks like. Here it is:


What do you think of it? This might give you more of an idea of what cricket is like when you do the extra reading about cricket.

Now here is a short video about field hockey. While many of you might know field hockey and have seen it on TV or the internet, here is a refresher about what the sport looks like:


Once again - you don't have to understand everything! The more important thing is that you have some idea about how it is played to help you with the extra reading about field hockey. 

I hope these videos help you with your reading. Have fun with these!




Have a great Golden Week!

Images: Top - CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52405/Field hockey - By Michelangelo-36 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2320991
Videos uploaded from YouTube. All rights reserved to the copyright holders. I do not own the rights to the video or any of the contents within. Uploaded for classroom purposes only. 

Writing English 2A: More on describing & characterizing people & places・人物、場所の性格描写つづいて

Hello!



How are you? Today let's look further at describing and characterizing people and places by imagining, and doing practice writing, on scenarios with people and places.  

Activity
Look at the pictures below. Choose one (1) picture and write a 1-3 paragraph scenario about what is happening between the people in it, and what kinds of places they are in. 

What do you think is the character of their relations? Are they happy with each other - or perhaps not so happy? More importantly - what could be the cause of their good (or bad) relations? Not only that - how would you characterize the kinds of places they are in? 

You can give names to the people and places in the pictures you choose for your scenarios! 


1.

2.

3.

4.

Have fun with these! Again - remember to choose only one (1) of these pictures. 

Have fun with these! Have a great Golden Week!

Images: Top - Personal photograph/Man and woman in park - "Woman Do Not Look Happy Standing" (courtesy of nuttakit) FreeDigitalPhotos.net/People at table - By Touzrimounir - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36884016/Woodstock couple - by Burk Uzzle/screenshot 
of image reproduced from file courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery/laurencemillergallery.com/Painting - Nighthawks by Edward Hopper - email, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25899486
All rights reserved on personal photograph. All rights reserved to the copyright holders of original Woodstock and Nighthawks images. I do not own the rights to these images. Uploaded for educational purposes only.