Writing English B: Routines & problems・日課、問題

Hello!

How are you? Let's talk about routines (日課) and possible problems (問題) you can have in them! 

What order (順番) do you think this routine of different people should go in? 

Activity 1
Now let's try these. What's the right order (正しい順番)? 
After you have finished - what could be some possible problems you can see in this routine? 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.  

6.

7.

8.

9.

Activity 2

Now what things do you think could go wrong in this routine? Let's imagine some things!

例えば: You could wake up late for your first class or job because you forgot to set your alarm clock.

How about your daily routine? What time do you get up? Come to campus? Finish your last class? Go to a part-time job if you have one? What problems do you sometimes have in your daily routine? 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our class on 9/25:

Have fun! See you next class!

Images: Top - by 1dragon (talk) (Uploads) - Own work, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3615640/1. "Business Meeting" (courtesy of Ambro)/2. "Adorable Couple Watching TV" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/3. "Woman Asleep" (courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti)/4. "A Cheeseburger Isolated" (courtesy of Grant Cochrane)/5. "Businessman Running With Briefcase" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/6. "Drive" (courtesy of graur razvan donut)/7. "Drinking Coffee" (courtesy of Ambro)/8. "Woman Cooking Pasta" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/9. "Bedroom" (courtesy of winnond)/All images except top from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Writing English B: Routines & problems・日課、問題

Hello!

How are you? Let's talk about routines (日課) and possible problems (問題) you can have in them! 

What order (順番) do you think this routine of different people should go in? 

Activity 1
Now let's try these. What's the right order (正しい順番)? 
After you have finished - what could be some possible problems you can see in this routine? 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.  

6.

7.

8.

9.

Activity 2

Now what things do you think could go wrong in this routine? Let's imagine some things!

例えば: You could wake up late for your first class or job because you forgot to set your alarm clock.

How about your daily routine? What time do you get up? Come to campus? Finish your last class? Go to a part-time job if you have one? What problems do you sometimes have in your daily routine? 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our class on 9/25:

Have fun! See you next class!

Images: Top - by 1dragon (talk) (Uploads) - Own work, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3615640/1. "Business Meeting" (courtesy of Ambro)/2. "Adorable Couple Watching TV" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/3. "Woman Asleep" (courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti)/4. "A Cheeseburger Isolated" (courtesy of Grant Cochrane)/5. "Businessman Running With Briefcase" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/6. "Drive" (courtesy of graur razvan donut)/7. "Drinking Coffee" (courtesy of Ambro)/8. "Woman Cooking Pasta" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/9. "Bedroom" (courtesy of winnond)/All images except top from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Culture through English B: Most common names in Spain・スペインの一般的な名字

Hello!

How are you? Let's look today at names in Spanish!

The picture above shows the most common surnames in Spain. You can see that overall, the most common surname is Garcia. 

Activity/homework

There are some interesting points about naming in Spanish that are different from both English and Japanese. 

Watch this video about Spanish names. Watch it as many times as you want or need, then answer the questions below it in your notebooks.

(If you cannot see the video, go to this link, or go to YouTube and look for "Primer Nombres y Apellidos" at https://youtu.be/HUosdlR6Gy8)

1. What is the first name called in Spanish? 

2. What has had the biggest influence (影響) on names in Spanish in history? 

3. What is another influence on naming that is talked about in the video?     

4. What are last names (surnames) called in Spanish? 

5. How many surnames do Spanish people use? 

     *Which name comes first, and which name comes second? 

     *What is traditionally used to connect the two surnames?  

6. What does the ~ez at the end of some surnames (like Gonzalez, or Martinez), mean? 

7. What does the de mean in surnames?  

8. In the example of Pablo Picasso, which side of the family does “Picasso” come from – his father’s, or mother’s? 

Here are the board notes for our class on 9/25:

I hope you find this interesting. See you next time!

Image: By anonymous (No machine-readable author provided.) Alfanje~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1430242

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom purposes only. 

Freshman English Reading B: About deserts・砂漠について

Hello!

How are you? Today, to go with our first reading, let's look a little more at deserts (砂漠).  

Activity/homework

What is a desert? This short video will show you about what a desert is. 

(If you have trouble seeing this video below, go to this link here.)

What do you see in the video? What surprises you the most? What did you not know?

I hope this will be interesting for you. 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our first class on 9/18:

See you next time!

Image: By Benutzer:Elian - Own work. Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25470

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only.

Freshman English Reading B: About deserts・砂漠について

Hello!

How are you? Today, to go with our first reading, let's look a little more at deserts (砂漠).  

Activity/homework

What is a desert? This short video will show you about what a desert is. 

(If you have trouble seeing this video below, go to this link here.)

What do you see in the video? What surprises you the most? What did you not know?

I hope this will be interesting for you. 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our first class on 9/18:

See you next time!

Image: By Benutzer:Elian - Own work. Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25470

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only.

Culture through English B: Most common names in Vietnam・ベトナムの一般的な名字

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at Vietnamese names!

You might notice an important point - that Vietnamese surnames (名字) match to kanji. 

Before the French came and colonized (植民した) Vietnam in the early 19th century, the Vietnamese language was written in Chinese hanzi - the Japanese version of which is kanji. Since then, however, the Vietnamese language is written in a version of romaji. 

In Vietnam, the most common surname is Nguyễn (阮「グエン」).  

Activity/homework
Watch this video about Vietnamese names. Watch it as many times as you want or need, and answer the questions below it in your notebooks. 

(If you cannot see the video here, go to this link, or go to YouTube and look for "Vietnamese Culture #2: Vietnamese Names" at https://youtu.be/dPeSxwvjiTc)

1. How many names do most Vietnamese people have?  

2. Where does the surname (family name) come in the naming order?

3. What percentage of the Vietnamese population uses Nguyễn as a family name?

4. What do women do with their own family names when they get married? 

    * What is one purpose of a woman’s family name when she gets married? 

5. What is the main purpose of a middle name in Vietnamese? 

    * What is another purpose of a middle name? 

6. Who usually decides the given names in Vietnamese culture? 

7. Where do given names come from in Vietnamese? 

8. What kinds of meanings do given names have in Vietnamese? 

I hope you find this interesting. 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our first class on 9/18: 

See you next time!

Image: By Hintha - Lê Trung Hoa (2005) Họ và tên người Việt Nam, Hà Nội, Việt Nam: NXB Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Publishing House), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21862789

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only. 

Culture through English・Writing English・Freshman English Reading B: My summer

Hello! 

How are you? Welcome back to classes for our new semester! 

How was your summer? Did you do anything fun, interesting, or exciting? I'll tell you about my summer! 

I had a friend of mine from the U.S. come to visit me here for two weeks. It was his first time in Japan and he was excited to see and do things. He loves Japanese food and wanted to do two special things - first, ride the Mario Kart in Tokyo, and second, go hiking along the Kumano Kodou in Wakayama prefecture. 

The picture at the top is of the Hongu Taisha - one of the three great shrines that make the Kumano Kodou a World Heritage site (世界自然遺産). So we went!

First, here he is in the Mario Kart:

Here's me in my kart:

Here is the group we were a part of, riding past Tokyo Tower. (I'm all the way near the end!) This was a lot of fun!

Now here was our trip along the Kumano Kodou. We took so many pictures - here are just a few of the places along the way:

These are a lot of pictures - more than I usually upload on these blogposts! 

So how was your summer? Let's talk about our summers with each other!

I'm glad to see all of you again. See you next time!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.