Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for April 2006
NOTE: The OBJECTIVE of this BLOG is to help my students with their study of English.
AND
For all of you, out there, around the world to;
SEE HOKKAIDO
2006 April 30 Sunday.
I awoke with the first light of dawn. I don't have any curtains on the windows of my van, and I forgot to bring the eye shades with me so I got up with the early birds. After a quick trip to the toilet, I walked back to my van to eat breakfast. What's on the menu? Natto and Brown Rice with hot mustard and Konbu Ponzu. Yummy. This is my usual feast even when I am not on the road. It makes my tummy feel good and constipation is never a problem. By the way, while I was at the Tsuru Tsuru Onsen last night, I weighted myself on the digital scale, and was surprised to see that I had lost about 5 kilograms as compared to about 3 months ago. It must be because of my breakfast menu. Anyway, after eating my healthful breakfast, it was back on the road again. I was feeling very sleepy because of my short nap. What should I do today, head over to Kitami or Abashiri? Or, should I just go back to Asahikawa and get some more sleep? I decided to return to my base of operations in Asahikawa. Along the way there were some reckless drivers who were driving much too fast and endangering everyone else on the road at the same time. It's no secret that Hokkaido has the most traffic accident fatalities of any region in Japan. I wonder why??? It is because of these phuckin' assholes and others like them that I saw again today. I mean if they drive off of the road and kill themselves that's one thing, but when they crash into another car or cars and kill other people, that is unforgivable. SLOW DOWN DAMN IT!!! All in all there were not many cars on Route 39 today so I was making good time while cursing the reckless drivers as they zoomed past me on their way to where ever. Along the way, I was able to use the IC from Aibetsu to Pippu free of charge. So I hopped on board and was cruising at about 120 km per hour for much of the way. What??? You were just cursing people who drive too fast and now you yourself are speeding??? Yes, I was, but the road is wide and straight. Just like the runway for an airplane. Little or no danger of driving too fast around a curve in the road. In fact, I was enjoying my new found speed so much that I continued on into the Asahikawa/Takasu IC where I had to pay about 700 yen at the toll gate. Kind of expensive for a joy ride. Maybe I'll try that again some day. I got back to home at about 8:00. Just as my wife was waking up and getting ready to go to her part time job at HOMAC in Kagura. She would be working, I would be going back to sleep. Hey! This is Golden Week. I deserve a rest.
2006 April 29 Saturday.
Today is the official start of GW (Golden Week), a week long national holiday. For the lucky people, there is about 10 consecutive holidays running until May 7. As for me, I have to be back at work on May 1 and 2. However, today I am on the road. The reason I haven't written a blog for about 4 days, is because I was busy reading various books and also spending more time outside walking around. One of the things I spent time reading about were the best places in Hokkaido to take a nice outdoor bath in an all natural hot spring 天然温泉の露天風呂. I am not staying overnight in a hotel room, I will be sleeping in my van. Therefore, I need to find places where I can take a long relaxing soak, and then go park at a Roadside Rest Station 道の駅 to spend the night. One such place I found was Shiobetsu Tsuru Tsuru Onsen 塩別つるつる温泉. This place is only about 120km from Asahikawa and very easy to get to. All you have to do is drive on Route 39 which is the same road as Taisetsu Doori 大雪通り until you get there. And that is just what I did today. I left Asahikawa at about 14:30 and took my time, driving slowly along the route in the late afternoon sunshine. The slowest part of the drive was the very beginning of it. As you know, route 39 passes right through the Nagayama District of Asahikawa. A district that is always full of cars. Today, it was even more crowded than usual, with people going in all directions. It was very slow going until I got past Asahikawa University, then there were far less cars on the road and I was able to relax and lean my seat back for a more scenic drive. After a brief stop at the Toma Roadside Rest Station とうま道の駅 I continued on Route 39 past Kamikawa Town and the Taisetsu Dam 大雪ダム where the water in the lake below is still frozen. In fact the Taisetsu Lake 大雪湖 looked very strange indeed with it's white, gray and gray-blue patterns of chunky ice. It made me feel cold to the bone by just looking at it. At this point along the way, I headed into the very long tunnel that takes me to the Sekihoku Mountain Pass 石北峠. The roads were completely clear of snow, but there was snow and ice right up to the edges of all the roads. Once I reached the top of the pass and started heading down the other side, I could see many deer grazing along the grassy areas of the roadside. They didn't seem to be at all bothered by the cars zooming past on either side as they were all too busy getting some long awaited fresh food. The deer in Hokkaido have a very tough time of it during the snowy season because there is so little for them to eat. Most of them resort to eating the bark off of the trees and indeed I saw many examples along the way were the bark had been completely chewed away from lower part of many trees. The golden afternoon sunlight reflected beautifully off of the remaining snow and this part of the drive was very relaxing and enjoyable. At about 18:00 I arrived at Shiobetsu Tsuru Tsuru Onsen. I drove up to the entrance to take a look. There were many cars parked there and the place looked crowded. I decided to continue driving another 5 kilometers until I reached the OnNeYu Onsen 温根湯温泉 Roadside Rest Station. This is were I will be staying tonight. I went to the A Coop grocery store nearby and bought some food and drink for dinner. Then I drove around the town to take a look at what was there. What was there was not much. Not many people and not many things to do or see at this time of the year. After my short tour of the town, I drove the 5 km back to Tsuru Tsuru Onsen were I sat in my van eating dinner and reading a book until just before 21:00. That is the latest time that a person who is not staying at the hotel can enter the hot spring to take a bath. It only costs 500 yen for an adult and only 200 yen for a child to use the facilities. There is even body soap and shampoo provided. What a deal. As is turned out, I made a good choice by waiting until the last minute because there were only 3 other people on the men's side of the spa. I made a bee-line for the outdoor hot tub and eased my body into the hot, slippery water. Ahhhhh! What a feeling. True to it's name, Tsuru Tsuru, the 100% natural hot water is very slippery with the slight smell of sulpher. There is a steep hill with a forest of Mountain Ash Trees on one side of the tub, and a small inlet of the Shiobetsu River on the other side. With the sound of the gurgling river on one side and the black starry sky above, I enjoyed spending about 90 minutes in Onsen Heaven. This is what being one with nature is all about! What a nice place. Finally at about 22:30 I dried off, got back into my van and drove the 5 km back to the OnNeYu Roadside Rest Station. There were only about 10 other cars parked there including 3 very large camping cars. I parked in an area away from most of the cars and got my van ready for the camping mode. As I was doing so, I enjoyed some Sapporo Classic All Malt Beer and some Mugi Shochu while looking at the beautiful stars above. The night air was rather cold, but the warmth of the hot spring was still in my bones and the booze was starting to take hold on the surface. After about 90 minutes of star gazing, I crawled into my van and turned off the lights. Good Night Hokkaido.
| 2006 April 28 Friday |
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY.
| 2006 April 27 Thursday |
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY.
| 2006 April 26 Wednesday |
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY.
| 2006 April 25 Tuesday |
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY.
2006 April 24 Monday.
I woke up today with almost no symptoms of my nasty 3 day old cold. I felt much better, but I was still not up to par. The biggest difference between yesterday and today, is that I have the fighting spirit back inside of me as of late last night. When my physical condition is down, my available energy to do something creative is way down too. I just can't move. I hate it when that happens. I know that you do too. My first class of the day was at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会 which started at 13:00. Today there were 14 people at the classroom including one new student. It is nice to meet you Mrs. E! See you again next week! With a full 90 minutes plus spare change to work with, everybody got to say what they wanted to say, and a lively discussion ensued. Sometimes, I just sat back and listened as the students talked to each other in English. This is a example of real communication about real information using English as the tool. That is what the true purpose of all that study in the past was for. Not to get a diploma or a certificate made of thick paper, but to gain sufficient knowledge of a useful tool that can be carried with you whenever and wherever you go. A variety of topics were discussed again today. Interesting stories and useful information. After that good time was finished at 14:30, I slowly walked back to my classroom for classes from 15:00 until 20:00. One of my students, a 3rd year junior high school student, did show up for her 18:00 class. At about 20:30, her mother called my classroom and said; "I'm sorry that Azusa didn't come to her lesson today. When I got home from work, she was sleeping in her room. She also forgot to go to her cram school 塾." Good job! Azusa! You can still use your lesson ticket next week. See you then! OK??? Japanese high school and junior high school students are a very busy bunch of young people. Only those young people who have A SPECIFIC GOAL for learning spoken English will come to my classroom. Those are the type that I can help the most. The rest of them will have various other priorities. Speaking of priorities, I got an email from one of my long time students who is now studying at Chico California, USA. She said that she is having a great time and even went to see an NBA game live. She will continue to visit my classroom when she comes back to Asahikawa later this year. I will be looking forward to talking with her in my native language. I know she has some interesting stories to tell. At about 21:00, my wife and I went out for a walk. Tonight we walked down Route 237, turned right and crossed the 平成大橋 down into Kamui. Then we turned right again and walked through Kamui until we got to the main intersection near GEO and turned right again so as to cross over the 両神橋 back into Kagura. It was rather windy, but not so cold. We will do that again in the very near future. Lights out at 25:00.
2006 April 23 Sunday.
Today was mostly sunny but rather cold. It would have been a good day for a drive in the country, but the big bad cold I caught on Friday was still hanging on to me so I felt too lethargic to make the effort. Instead, I sat around my home taking hot baths and reading books. I also watched the movie Great Balls of Fire on Sky Perfect TV. It is the story of the legendary rock and roll piano player, Jerry Lee Lewis aka The Killer. Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the wildest rockers to emerge from the 1950s. As far as I know he is about 71 years old now and still rocking out on the keyboard. It is amazing that this guy is still alive considering what a heavy drinker of alcohol he has always been, but he has always had one big obsession in his life. To be the King of Rock-a-Billy, and that he most certainly is. Japanese music fans would surely recognize many of his hit songs. The movie Great Balls of Fire which I watched today was interesting enough to keep me watching it until the very end. Something a lot of movies fail to do. After that, I did some more research on the internet. Today, I found a website that can only be described as AWESOME. It has many examples of eye-popping computer graphics as well as tutorials which show the viewer how they were made. Also, it has a ton of very interesting photo galleries of Western Canada as well as other places in the western hemisphere. I spent a total of about 5 hours looking at almost every photo and CG example on the website. It is called Phong.com and you can see it too by clicking here. After that, it was time for dinner and a good night's sleep. By bedtime, my cold symptoms were almost completely gone. Tomorrow should be a very good day.
2006 April 22 Saturday.
I woke up at about 9:00 and noticed right away that my big bad cold symptoms had not improved much. I still had the stuffy nose/runny nose problem and a hacking cough as well. What a miserable feeling. At 11:00, I had a private lesson with a girl who is a first year student at the Fuji Girls Senior High School. She has been coming to my classroom for many years, but she only comes about 1 time every month. Because she takes a private lesson every time, she has the full advantage to speak English as much as she wants to. Unfortunately, she speaks Japanese most of the time. What can I do? I can try to gently persuade her to speak English in a humorous manner. For example, pretending to get angry at her for not speaking English and politely scolding her in real American English. Does this work? Yes it does, but how well it works depends upon the person with whom it is being used upon. This high school girl is making progress, but I think she could progress much faster if she would only MAKE MORE OF AN EFFORT to speak English when she is with me. There is a well known proverb in English that goes like this; "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink." There it is, a big pool of cool fresh water. You can drink as much as you want, but you only have this one opportunity today for about 60 minutes to do so. It's your choice. Take advantage of the opportunity, or let it slip slide away by not doing anything at all. WAIT A MINUTE! Maybe I should try a different approach. Maybe I should stand up, stomp my feet on the floor and shout, "Speak English! Speeeeeeeeak English!" Maybe that is the best way to guide a student. Yes, it is the best way to guide a student. Guide them away from my classroom. They would never come back for another lesson. How do I know this? I know this because I got my PhD from REAL WORLD UNIVERSITY. A university where you do your research on a face to face basis, each and every day. After about 20 years of trial and error, a dedicated teacher, a teacher who truly likes and cares about each and every student, learns which methods work, and which activities don't work. Yelling at students only gets their attention for a very short time. After the shouting incident is over, they will never again pay any serious attention to you. If a student doesn't like and respect the teacher, the teacher can not teach that student anything at all. Why? Because the student ignores the teacher. Duh! One plus one equals,........... As you may know, the English Language Teaching phenomena is a very big business in Japan. I have seen reports that put it into the range of a billion dollar industry. Why the big demand for English Language Education in Japan? That is another very long story, but the point I want to make here is that this field of business is so big that it gets divided into two main categories. The world wide chain of big schools making big promises and charging big money for their products and services, and the small independent schools that may or may not try to imitate the big chain schools. Either way, the ultimate long term success of any school, depends upon the competence of the people who are always on the front line, face to face with the people who buy the products and services of that school. In this case, the English teachers who work at the schools. There it is. My doctor's dissertation on teaching English to non-native speakers of the language. Maybe I should start calling myself, professor.
2006 April 21 Friday.
My classes for today started off at 9:00 with a group of 18 second year students at the 北海道立旭川高等看護学院 which is located right next door to the Asahikawa Medical College. The class of second year students actually has about 40 members, but they are divided into 2 groups. Mr. I. and I teach the two groups on the same day, and then switch groups the following week and so on. I asked Mr. I. if he had a smooth time giving the TOEIC Bridge test at the university last week. He said that when he arrived an hour early before the start of his 13:00 class, the "professor" showed him how to use the Language Laboratory LL教室 equipment before the start of his class. Then when Mr. I's class started at 13:00, the professor observed him for only a few minutes before taking over the entire class and running it by herself. Mr. I. told me how the "professor" was ordering him around by saying such things as "Come here!" "Do this." "Do that." etc. I too have had the exact same experience last year when the "professor" came to observe one of my classes held in the computer room. I wrote the lesson plan for that day on the white board and then started the class. After about 5 minutes, the "professor" interrupted me and started barking orders at me and the students. Just like with Mr. I. she said to me such things as "Come here!" "Do this." "Do that." etc. Not only was she saying these things to me, but she was also yelling at the students to "speak English!" and "go talk to that person!" etc. She even went as far as to stomp her feet on the classroom floor in an attempt to get the students attention! I was amazed at how unprofessional and amateurish this "professor" really is. What a hoot! Anyway, that is another story. For my 9:00 class today, I did the same thing with this group that I did with the other group last week. After that class was finished, I took a taxi into downtown Asahikawa to pick up a book that I had ordered last week. In addition, I bought a book with an audio CD for the Russian Language ロシア語. I have never really had any interest in the Russian Language before, but this year I am working with another assistant professor at Asahikawa University in conjunction with my English class. This assistant professor is a very nice and courteous person whose specialty is Russian, German, Spanish as well as research into other foreign languages and cultures. I asked him to teach me one new word or phrase in Russian every week when I meet him before and after my English class. He agreed to do so. Therefore, to take full advantage of this chance to learn something about a language which I have never studied before, I bought a book and CD today. After spending about an hour in downtown Asahikawa, I walked back to my classroom to eat lunch and get ready for my first class at 13:30. While I was eating lunch, I listened to the Russian Language CD. I must say, that the pronunciation is rather difficult for me to imitate. I suppose I will get better at it as time goes on. At 13:30, the two lovely ladies who come every week at this time came again for their private lesson. Just as the lesson was getting started, I began sneezing and my nose became very congested. Somehow, I had managed to catch a very bad cold. These unpleasant symptoms continued throughout the rest of the day. This is the worst cold that I have had in a long time. After all of my classes were finished at 20:00, I went to the Seikyo Supermarket next door to buy some Russian Vodka and red vegetable juice. With these ingredients, I made some cocktails known as a Bloody Mary. I thought it would lessen the symptoms of my cold, but it didn't help much. About the only thing that the cocktails did for me was to help me get a good night's sleep. I hope I feel better tomorrow.
2006 April 20 Thursday.
My first class of the day started at 15:00 with two girls who are both 4th graders, but at two different elementary schools. One of the girls who came today, has been coming every week since about 7 months ago, and the other girl I haven't seen in about 7 months. The one that I haven't seen for about 7 months came to my classroom for about 2 years and then quit for a while. She said that she was studying at home by herself using some type of computer software. However, as today's lesson progressed, it was obvious to both me and her mother, that her real ability in speaking and reading English had gotten worse, not better during that time. Her mother told me that at first, her young daughter had been very enthusiastic about using the PC to learn English, but after a few months, she lost interest in it. I told the mother that using PCs to study a foreign language has its good points, but it is not a substitute for face to face interaction with a qualified teacher of that language. For one thing, the computer software is predictable. Once the student learns the pattern of the software program, they tend to not pay close attention to it and answer the questions automatically. Is this learning? Yes it is. It is called rote memorization and it is very good for mastering the basics of a language. However, interaction with a human teacher of the target language is less predictable. The student who has regular classes with a native speaker of a foreign language, soon learns to pay close attention to everything that is being said, and therefore their responses are less automatic and more spontaneous. I recommend a well balance mixture of both PC and human based learning. Why not use the best of both worlds? I know this fact very well from my own personal experience. Before I came to live and work in Japan on March 12 of 1990, I had already spent about 15 years studying the Japanese language on my own and at two universities in Washington State. My self study approach was to have a Sony Walkman with me at all times and listen to Japanese Language tapes every day for between 2 to 6 hours per day. This worked very well for improving my listening comprehension. For learning how to read and write Japanese, I would practice writing 10 new Kanji every day. Each Kanji I would practice writing over and over again for as many times as it took me to memorize the correct stroke order. This also worked very well for learning the basics of the reading/writing system. Finally, when I came to Japan to live and work about 16 years ago, I had my first real chance to use the language in daily life. To my surprise and delight, I could understand what people were saying to me, for the most part. However, I could only respond in a rather slow and methodical manner. Fortunately for me, I had a lot of preparatory knowledge stored in my brain, and with the opportunity to speak, read and write Japanese every day in the real world, my abilities in all these areas improved very rapidly. Nowadays, I don't really study Japanese anymore per se. It's not because my Japanese is so good that I don't need to improve it. I DO need to improve it. But I use it all day, everyday, 24/7, so I am not that motivated to use a textbook to improve my Japanese Language ability. The closest thing I do to studying Japanese nowadays is to read the Hokkaido Newspaper every day, and also listen to TV and radio broadcasts. This is, in and of itself, a very valuable lesson for me because I am learning real and timely information via the living Japanese Language. All in all, living and working in a country or community where your target language is spoken is by far the best way to learn a foreign language. Any language. If that is not possible, the next best thing is to study on your own AND at a classroom with a native speaker (or a very competent non-native speaker) and then try to use the language whenever possible. This is what I am currently doing in regards to my study of Chinese, Korean, Thai, German and French. It's just a hobby right now, but a hobby that stimulates my brain. In my opinion, that is the very best type of hobby to have. One that stimulates the brain. Active rather than passive. A person is just as young (or old) as they think (feel) they are. I am still a child. Living in an old man's body. It is much better than being the other way around. Never Forget the Innocence of Youth!!!
2006 April 19 Wednesday.
Today was a rather long day with my first class starting at 8:50 at the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連 旭川厚生看護専門学校). Today, I tried something completely different with this group of 40 students. Instead of giving a lecture, or just doing conversation practice with each and every student, I divided the students into 8 groups of 5 students each, and used page one of my original textbook Q and A. I use this type of textbook at my classroom all the time, but I have never tried to use it with this many students at one time before. Each page of this textbook has 6 sections of 5 questions each. The instructions at the top of the page say; Ask a question. Listen to the answer. Write down what you hear. The 6 sections are named A B C D E and F. Each student is given a card that has one of these 6 letters written on it. At the top of each section it is written; Ask student A the following question. Student A says. Ask student B the following question. Student B says. Etc. etc. All of the questions begin with one of the 6W1H interrogatives 疑問詞 What, When, Where, Who, Why, How and Which. The students sit in a circle and each student asks the student to their left one question and then writes down the answer of that student. This continues in a clockwise direction 時計回り until all five questions have been asked and answered. Then the students pass their A B C D E or F lettered card to the student on their left, and the next 5 questions are asked and answered. This continues until all of the students in the group have asked and answered all of the questions on the page. It is essentially a free talking exercise controlled mostly by the students themselves. Because there are 40 people in this class divided in 8 groups of 5 people, the questions in section F were not used. This textbook can be used by 2,3,4,5 or 6 students at a time. It always produces good results in my own classroom, and today it produced good results in this class of 40 students divided into 8 groups. There was a real exchange of information going on between the students, and all I had to do was listen in, correct some pronunciation mistakes and explain the meaning of some words that the students didn't understand. All in all, it was a big success and the students and I both had a very enjoyable class time. Next week's class will be my usual style of practicing a memorized dialogue with each and every student in turn, but the week after that, I will use page 2 of the Q and A textbook. I think it might be a good idea to use this Q and A textbook about 50% of the time so that the students have plenty of opportunity to use the words and phrases that they have previously memorized, in the gathering of information from each other. Teaching and learning a foreign language is not rocket science. It's nothing more than common sense carried out to its extreme. After that class was finished at 10:20, I went to another classroom in the same school to join some of the second year students for their Chinese Language lesson which is taught by a very nice older woman whom I met for the first time just last week. I enjoy her classes very much. When that was finished at 12:00, I drove back to my classroom to eat lunch and get ready for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. When all of my classes were finished for the day, I was rather tired. Too tired to study or learn anything new, so I drank some beer while reading some news on the internet. Lights out at 22:00.
2006 April 18 Tuesday.
My teaching day started out at 10:40 at the university where I have one class of about 30 students. The class is a mix of new freshman students and the "repeaters", students who have taken this class before (some of them more than once) and failed to pass it. Some of the new freshman are very enthusiastic and participate actively in the class. The repeaters,... well,... They don't. As usual. That's why they are repeaters. After that was finished at 12:10, I drove back towards my classroom. Along the way, I stopped at the big Western Supermarket in Nagayama Powers, so that I could buy 5 kg of brown rice 玄米. Since about 8 months ago, I have been eating mostly brown rice instead of white rice. Why? It is more chewy and it has more flavor. Also, it has a lot more fiber than white rice and constipation is never a problem anymore. About the only time I don't eat brown rice is when I eat lunch at a revolving sushi counter 回転寿司. I think that sushi tastes much better with vinegar flavored white rice. That is the traditional taste. When I finished my shopping there, I continued my drive back to my classroom. After I ate lunch, I had straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. As usual, Mr. T. came for coffee and conversation at 15:00. He reads this blog almost everyday, and he had some comments about my "professor" blog of last Friday. He explained to me that in the Japanese university system, there are basically two types of professors. Those who are certified/accredited by the Ministry of Education 文部省 （旧名）and those who are not. It became clear to me that the "professor" in question, is of the later group. In fact, Mr. T.'s older brother, who is now deceased, was a fully accredited, very well known and influential professor of Japanese Literature and Philosophy whom anyone in the Asahikawa Academic Community would surely know about. I have see his photograph in the newspaper as well as at other famous places around this city of Asahikawa. Unfortunately, I never had the privilege of meeting him, face to face. From what little I know about him, he was the kind of professor that really serious students would want to take his class so much, that they would choose to attend the university, because he was a TEACHER at that university. In American English slang, this rather rare type of entity is known as a Drawing Card 引っ張り凧. For example, at certain universities in the USA, certain professors have so much knowledge of their subject matter, that students who are also interested in that same subject matter, choose the university where that professor teaches for the main purpose of taking that professor's classes and learning from the best in that field of study. This type of professor is a very valuable asset for any university or college to have. That is what real teaching and real learning is all about. Face to face with the master, every time. After all of my classes were finished, I decided to take a walk in the cold night air while listening to Chinese language conversation dialogues on my portable MD player. This time, with a brand new battery fully charged, I had no interruptions in audio service during my 90 minute walk. Tonight, I tried walking on the paved cycling roads that run along the Chubetsu 忠別 and Biei Rivers 美瑛川 in this part of town. What I discovered is that the cycling roads on the high ground above the rivers are mostly clear of snow and ice, whereas the cycling roads down below, closer to the rivers, still have about 2 inches of snow and ice on them in most places. It still doesn't quite feel like spring. However, I am eternally hopeful that the real springtime in Asahikawa, is just around the corner. Come on Sunshine!
2006 April 17 Monday.
My first class of the day started at 13:00 at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. Today, only 6 of the 14 members showed up. That was very good for the 6 who could make it today. They had a lot of time to express any opinion, tell any story or ask any questions that they wanted to ask. It was one of the best lessons ever with this group. How many will come next week? I'll have to wait and see. As usual, the 6 who did show up today, are the same people who come every week. Rain or Shine. What does that tell you about continued effort? 継続は＿＿＿なり。 During the 95 minute class today, a variety of subjects were discussed. Some of them required an intimate knowledge of Japanese history, or the history of religions or a knowledge of Major League Baseball. It sort of reminded me of my many and varied discussions with Mr. T. What an interesting and pleasant way to spend an hour or two. After that class was finished at 14:35, I walked slowly back to my classroom while observing the casual and sometimes careless driving manners of people in large parking lots. In my experience, a parking lot is a very easy place to get involved in a traffic accident. I mean people are either in a hurry to get into or out of the parking lot so, they tend to drive too fast for the very confined and crowded area that they are in. Self inflicted wounds are not uncommon. ゆっくり走ろう北海道. When my last class of the evening was finished, I sat down to do some reading. Reading is a good thing to do, if the book you are reading is interesting enough to keep you from falling asleep while reading it. The one I was reading tonite, was sufficiently interesting. Tomorrow morning, I must go out to the university. I wonder how many students will show up for that class. I'll let you know about it tomorrow. Sweet Dreams.
2006 April 16 Sunday.
Another overcast but somewhat warmer day. A
lot of people were out and about. I was too, walking around here and there
enjoying the slight scent of spring in the air. The flowers will start
blooming soon. Today my MD player worked fine, having a new battery in it.
Unlike yesterday when I listened to Chinese conversation, today I listened to
Thai conversation. Last Friday, when I went downtown to the book
stores, one of the books I bought was the one you can see in the photo on the
left. It came with 2 audio CDs which I dubbed onto 2 audio MDs that
I can listen to while I am walking around and getting some much needed exercise.
You might be thinking to yourself, "Why would you want to learn Thai?"
Actually, I studied Thai on my own between 1980 and 1984 while I was a student
at Washington State University.
The reason for this is that I had a girlfriend from Thailand at that time, and
when we got together with her Thai friends, I would have the opportunity to
listen to them talk to each other in Thai. At that time, I was able
to remember quite a bit, but since that time, I haven't used it at all so I have
forgotten most of it. I bought this book in order to see how much of the
language I could still remember. To my surprise and delight, it came back to me
very quickly. What a nostalgic feeling it is to hear spoken Thai again.
I also learned the Thai alphabet back then, and I still remember most of it
after looking through the textbook. Maybe I should go and visit
Thailand someday. A short stay there during the long Hokkaido winter might
be just the ticket to rest and relaxation.
2006 April 15 Saturday.
A sunny but cold day this morning, turning overcast in the late afternoon and evening. I had no classes today so I worked on various things for my classroom and new website. While I was eating lunch, I watched a documentary on the internet entitled: Occupation, Dreamland which was made by some independent film makers about the daily life of a squad of American soldiers in Falluja Iraq during the winter of 2004. This honest look at the reality of "Boots on the Ground" is a real wake up for those of you who have never served in the military. You can watch the documentary by clicking here. After I finished lunch, I went out for a short walk in the late afternoon while listening to basic Chinese language conversation audio on my portable MD player. After a few minutes of walking around, I noticed that the MD player was no longer playing despite the fact that I had just finished recharging the battery. This means that the old rechargeable battery is no longer viable. I need to go buy a new one. So, when I finished my short walk, I got into my van and drove down to the 1,000,000 VOLTS electric store near Kagura to get a new one. They had one in stock so I bought it, brought it back home with me, and put it in the battery charger 充電器. It will be ready for my walk tomorrow. After working some more on a new textbook and a new web design, I watched another, very long 4 hour documentary on the internet about the birth of the Public Relations (PR) industry. This is a truly fascinating story and you can watch it too by clicking here. After watching 4 straight hours of this documentary, I was feeling rather sleepy from sitting in one chair for so long so I went to bed early. Tomorrow is another day to do more things.
2006 April 14 Friday.
My classes for today started off at 9:00 with a group of 18 second year students at the 北海道立旭川高等看護学院 which is located right next door to the Asahikawa Medical College. The class of second year students actually has about 40 members, but they are divided into 2 groups. Mr. I. and I teach the two groups on the same day, and then switch groups the following week and so on. In the group I taught today, 3 of the students could speak English quite well and with clear pronunciation. When I asked them what level of the Eiken 英検 they had, they replied level 2 and pre level 2. I was not surprised, but rather pleased to hear it. My first class of the year is always the same so I went through the motions while enjoying every moment. Most of the students seemed to enjoy it too. After that class was over at 10:30, I went back down to the office on the first floor to have a cup of tea and talk with Mr. Ikeda. Mr. I. also teaches at the same university that I do, but he teaches on Fridays, whereas I teach on Tuesdays. He told me that the head of the English department of the university had asked him to come one hour early today to prepare for giving the TOEIC Bridge test to the students. I asked him if this "professor" was going to pay him overtime for his efforts. We both just laughed, knowing that it was not going to happen. I too have had some rather weird experiences with this "professor". Not only does this "professor" hold the part time teachers in low regard and treat them with no respect, but this "professor's" written English is very very bad. I am serious. So bad in fact, that the meaning of the emails this "professor" sends to us part time teachers is not only offensive, but the intended meaning of the messages is not clear. I have had to reply to these emails and ask questions in an attempt to understand what it is I am supposed to do in my class. The very rude answer comes back in the same terrible English which is full of sloppy grammar mistakes and even spelling mistakes! Why this "professor" is in charge of the English program at this university, I have no idea. This person would never be able to get a job at an American university teaching TESL/TEFL. Maybe this person could get a job teaching Japanese. Anyway, after I talked with Mr. Ikeda, I got into a taxi and rode into downtown Asahikawa to visit some bookstores. One of the things I did was to buy a copy of the new English textbook that will be used by the 1st year junior high school students in Asahikawa. For my classroom, I write all of my own original textbooks. For my students who are between the ages of 10 and 15, I wrote textbooks that are modeled on the actual textbooks that they will be using in junior high school. I did this so that they will be well prepared, and be at the top of their English class in junior high school. After getting the books I needed, I walked back to my classroom in the sunshine and somewhat cold breeze. When I got home, I ate lunch and had straight classes from 13:30 until 20:00. Tonight the sky was clear and a beautiful full moon hung over the city. I was tempted to go out for a long walk again this evening, but I knew that if I did, I would get sore muscles. So, I decided to take a walk again tomorrow.
2006 April 13 Thursday.
No classes until 15:00 today, so I had plenty of time to do some reading. At 18:00, the junior high school girl who just came back from a 10 day home stay in Asahikawa's sister city of Bloomington-Normal Illinois, came for her first lesson since her return home. She brought some photographs with her. "A picture is worth a thousand words.", is a famous proverb to describe this situation. However, I did notice that the English speaking ability of this student has improved dramatically. Even a very short 10 day stay in the USA has increased her fluency a lot. It has also given her even more motivation to continue her study of English. It is a very good thing that she went. After that lesson was finished at 19:00, I had no more classes for today, so I decided to take a long walk, even though it was raining lightly. A little rain never hurt anyone. Tonight, I walked across the New Kagura Bridge and down into the Kita Saito Area. From there, I walked into downtown Asahikawa and then crossed over the Chubetsu Bridge and continued walking until I arrived back at my classroom. It took me about 2 hours because I walked rather slowly. It is the longest walk that I have been on in over a year. I need to do this again, and more often. When I got home, there was a nice dinner waiting for me. Tomorrow will be a much busier day than today.
2006 April 12 Wednesday.
I got up at 6:00 this morning, a bit earlier than usual because I had a class at the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連 旭川厚生看護専門学校) which started at 8:50 today. I have been teaching English at this school for about 13 years. Among all of the other places where I teach English outside of my classroom, I must say that this school is the best organized, most professional and most friendly of all the other places. I am really impressed by the competence and dedication of the full time teachers/staff members of this institution. They are by far the best in my experience in Asahikawa. I won't mention who is the worst. Since about 4 years ago, this nursing school has increased the size of its freshman class from 40 to 80 students! That's right, again this year, there are 80 new, first year students at this school. I only teach one half of this class, 40 students. I have done this every April for the past 12 years or so, so I gave my usual lesson for the first day. The style of the lessons after this one will be somewhat different than in previous years. I will be using my newly revised original textbook entitled Q & A. Meaning of course, Question and Answer. This is an interactive text that encourages all of the students in the classroom, to interact with each other, using spoken English as much as possible. After that class was finished at 10:20, I went down to the teacher's lounge to have a hot cup of green tea and relax before I attended a Chinese language class for the 2nd year students at this same school. The teacher of this class is an older lady who speaks very slowly and softly. I enjoyed her class very much today. I have studied the Chinese language in the past, but I seldom have a chance to use it in my present day life, so I have forgotten most of what I learned previously. I will get it back, and try to speak the language at every opportunity. Speaking of the Chinese language, I have been reading many articles in the Hokkaido Newspaper recently about an increase in the number of Chinese speaking tourists, mostly from Taiwan, who are coming to Hokkaido. If I am lucky enough to see any Chinese speaking people walking around the city, I will be sure to say to them, "Welcome to Asahikawa." in Chinese. I already know how to say it, so I am all set to go. After that class was finished at about 12:00, I drove back to my classroom for a bit of lunch and then straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. This evening is not a good evening to take a walk, so I stayed at home and did some research on the internet about how to make a better website. There is a lot of information out there, and for free. I am eager to learn.
2006 April 11 Tuesday.
Today at 10:10 I drove over to the University where I have one class teaching English to the 1st year students. Again this year, just like last year, all of the first year students as well as the repeaters must use an internet based e-learning program. It is the same exact program we used last year. I even recognized some of the same students I had from last year. They were back again because they had failed my class or the class of another teacher who was also teaching them last year. I'll bet they are happy to be going through the very same program again this year. They might as well, they didn't seem to learn much the last time around. I have done a lot of research into e-learning, and I must say that this software product that we are using again this year, is not one of the best that I have seen. I have also heard what it costs the university to lease this product for one semester. It is very expensive. This software seems to be much better at record keeping than it is at teaching English. It certainly is not the best product on the market. After that class was finished at 12:20, I drove back to my classroom for straight classes from 14:00 until 20:00. The 14:00 class was with the young lady that will be going to Toronto Canada for one year for her on the job training. In fact, she will be leaving on Thursday of this week. We spent the lesson time going over some of the DOs and DON'Ts of staying with a Canadian family. We also practiced some model telephone conversations as well as how to describe the city of Asahikawa to someone who has never been here. When the lesson was over I said, "Best of luck with your new adventure." I know that she will get along just fine. When all lessons were over at 20:00, it was time to eat dinner and go to bed a bit early. I have another long day tomorrow.
2006 April 10 Monday.
Today was a mostly clear and sunny day. It is still rather cold and there are many areas where the snow has remained piled up high, but is slowly melting. Most of these remaining piles of snow are the result of snow being dumped there during snow removal operations. These big mountains of snow are melting slowly, but it will still take a while for them to melt completely. As a consequence, when the wind blows, it blows cold. Very cold. I remember one time in the month of May, several years ago, when I was riding my mountain bike along the beginning part of the Asahikawa Cycling Road. It was a warm and sunny day, and I was dressed appropriately for such weather. As I passed by the garbage incinerator 清掃事務所 located in Chika Bumi 近文, there was still remaining a very large pile of snow on the left side of the cycling road. As I was passing by this big pile of snow, the air temperature suddenly dropped, and I felt rather cold until I passed farther away from the area of the snow pile. I'll never forget the feeling of that day. It is the same way now, but it is only April so the warmth of spring is not quite yet in the air. My first class of the day started at 13:00 at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. As I mentioned last week, I extended the class from 60 minutes to 90 minutes on a Pro Bono basis, so that everybody could have a chance to speak during the class time. Also, I was given a new member's list that had a total of 14 names on it. That is a good thing. Unfortunately, if we get many more new members, we will be back to the situation of not having enough time for everyone to say what they want to say. Today, only 9 of the 14 members came to class so we finished in 80 minutes, about 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. At that point in the class one member said in Japanese to the other members, "Maybe we should start this lesson at 13:15. Starting at 13:00 is a little bit tight for my lunch schedule." One of the other members said to him; "You will get used to it." I told him and all the other class members that; "I will be here at 13:00, the rest of you can come at any time you like, either before or after that time." Most of the class members seemed to be happy with that statement. After that class was finished at 14:25, I walked back to my classroom to eat some lunch and get ready for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. Actually, the lesson that was supposed to start at 19:00 didn't happen because the student, who is a teacher at the Kagura Elementary School, was too busy to come today. As a result, the wife and I went out for a walk at about 19:30. As we were walking past the South Fire Station 南消防署 on our way down route 237, we ran into Mr. T. who comes to our classroom every Tuesday at 15:00 for coffee and conversation. He was just getting back from his walk. He is a regular reader of this blog so he asked me "Are you going to walk all the way down to サイパル?" I replied, "Yeah, maybe so." I said that because I had two routes in mind at that time. One going to the new Asahikawa Science Center サイパル and the other going across the Heisei Oohashi Bridge 平成大橋 and down into Kamui. When the wife and I got to the intersection where we had to make our decision, we decided to walk up the hill and head towards the entrance of the New Kagura Bridge 新神楽橋. I like this route better because it affords a good view of the city and the Chubetsu River 忠別川 below. After we crossed the bridge, we walked across the street and turned around to come back the same way. We wanted to walk farther, but there were just too many things that we needed to get done before tomorrow, and it was already 20:40. It was a nice walk, but because we sweat, it starts to feel cold towards the end of the journey. Happy Trails Hokkaido Walkers!
2006 April 9 Sunday.
This morning, it was sunny and the day looked right for a drive in the country, but it was not to be. It starting getting overcast and windy by early afternoon and then there was even a bit of snow blowing around in the cold air. Go for a drive? Why bother. Gasoline is expensive, and there is nothing special to go and see today. Time to stay at home and read a good book. A book that I received from Mr. T. last Tuesday. BUSHIDO. This is truly an excellent book. One of the best that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this book is a must read for any thinking person who is truly interested the the soul of Japan. Not just Japan, but also the very soul and essence of many other countries and civilizations throughout the relatively short history of this world. In English, the best word to describe Bushido would be Chivalry. A concept that many young people in the world today, seem to have no idea about. And it's not just young people, but in my opinion most people alive on this planet today. If a person has never been in a situation where they needed to make a decision about either doing the right thing, and risking their very life by doing so, OR, just looking the other way and therefore not risking anything, that person has no personal experience with Chivalry. No real experience of Bushido. You can read all about it and understand the words in the book, but actually being there and doing that, is a life transforming experience that you will never forget. Have I had such an experience? Yes, many times. I have so much to say on this subject, that this blog is too short, and therefore is not the best forum, to discuss it. Maybe I should write an essay about what it means to put your very life on the line for what you truly believe in. Some of the stories that I have to tell, will make your eyes spin with disbelief. But it's all true. It really did happen. I was there when it happened. I was an eyewitness. More about that later.
2006 April 8 Saturday.
No classes today so I had a lot of time to do whatever I needed to do. A few days ago, I received an email from a young husband and wife who used to come to my classroom before a job transfer took them to Sapporo where they live now. Before they left for Sapporo, they told me that they were expecting a child in March of this year. The email informed me that a baby boy was born on March 20. They are now a new family of 3! That is wonderful news. Congratulations on the birth of your new son! Please email me a photo someday. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again some day. During the late afternoon, I walked down to the KyokuYu supermarket in Kagura. Recently they sent me a notice in the mail that I could upgrade my KyokYu Point Card to a point card/credit card combination for free. I very seldom use a credit card, but it is a good thing to have if you are in a pinch. I walked into the store, and went to the service counter where I presented the post card and my point card to the young lady behind the counter. She led me over to a folding table were two men were sitting and processing the new credit card applications. As the young lady and I approached the table, the older man asked her; "彼は日本語、読める？" She just smiled and said nothing. I too smiled and said nothing up front. I just sat down at the table and showed them my postcard and my old point card. Once we started talking to each other, it became obvious to them that I can speak, read and write Japanese. No problem. None of that, "Japanese Only" BULLSHIT. Just responsible citizens, doing their jobs. Me too. I filled out the application form in about 5 minutes, and I was back on my way out the door to continue my walk. Along the way, I stopped by the 100 yen store and the book store ZONE that is next door to the Choice Rotating Sushi Counter. As usual, Choice was very crowded. I have eaten lunch there many times before, but never dinner. At the 100 yen shop, I bought some light bulbs 電球 for my home. At the book store, I just looked around at what's new in print. Then, I walked back home and spent the rest of the evening trying to learn how to play the jazz standard "Fly Me to the Moon", on my bass guitar. I met with some success. Even though I have been playing the bass guitar for only about 3 years, I am liking it more and more. In fact, I'm starting to like it more than the 6 string guitar which I have been playing for almost 40 years. Yeah it's true. The older I get, the less I want to jump around while playing rhythm and lead guitar in a rock and roll band. I think playing jazz on the bass guitar is a better hobby for me at this time in my life. It is a lot more relaxing.
2006 April 7 Friday.
When I got up this morning at about 5:00 and
looked out of the window, there was snow all over the ground, including on the main
streets. Uh! When is the real spring time
coming to Asahikawa? Sooner rather than later, but none too soon for me.
Of course as the day grew brighter, the sloppy snow slush was literally burned
away by the beautiful sunlight. What a relief! I mean, Geez Louize! The Vernal (Spring) Equinox 春分の日 was on March 21.
How many days ago was that, I wonder. You do the math. Anyway, I had
a lot to do this morning before my classes got started at 13:30. I
mean stuff like going to the post office, the Home Amenity Store HOMAC, the
supermarket etc. Running errands is another way to say it. Not
a lot of fun but necessary. It does take a good chunk of time
however. When that bit of running around was finished, I took a hot
bath, ate lunch and was ready for my 13:30 lesson, about 5 minutes before it
started. Today's lesson with these two lovely ladies started out
with a very special topic. A photograph that appeared in yesterday's
Hokkaido Newspaper morning edition. You can see a scanned copy of it on
the left. Yes, that is a photo of their two dogs, Vivi and Birdie.
Even though I have been meeting these two ladies every week for almost 3 years,
I have never met their dogs, face to face. Oh, I know what the dogs look
like, and I know it very well. I have received Xmas Cards and Birthday
Cards and New Year's Cards from them which featured Vivi and Birdie's photographs
prominently in the design of these cards. Therefore, yesterday morning when
I sat down with my hot cup of tea to read the Hokkaido Newspaper, I was very
surprised and delighted to see a photo of the same 2 dogs, the dogs of lore, right
there inside my morning newspaper. Of course, I cut it out and put
it on the white board with a magnet. "I wonder how long it will take
them to notice this newspaper clipping, when they come for their
private lesson tomorrow?" I thought to myself as I plotted my innocent
experiment. To make a long story short, they noticed it right away.
Well, almost. It was a lively topic of conversation for a good 8 minutes.
Real People. Real Information. Real Communication. And a
really good time doing it. Thanks again ladies. See you again
next Friday! After that, it was straight classes until 20:00.
During my 17:00 lesson with a mother and her 7 year old daughter, the junior
high school girl who went for the 10 day home stay experience in BN ILL, came by
my classroom with her little sister to give me a gift of American Junk Food.
How nostalgic 懐かしい. I remember this stuff! Thank you. It
will be interesting to rediscover the flavor of a past lifetime. Yummy.
I thought about going for a walk again tonite, because the sky was clear, there
was very little wind and it was not painfully cold. However, I gave up the
idea after remembering all of the things that I must get done before tomorrow.
Maybe I can go for a walk tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday, and according to my
desktop reminder book, I have no classes on that day. Therefore, I
have time to do all
of the things I've always wanted to do, but was too busy to do them. Well,
not all of the things. Maybe a few of them will be experienced this
weekend. A drive in the countryside would be nice.
2006 April 6 Thursday.
It is a good thing that I went for a walk last night, because today it was snowing, and snowing big time. Not the light fluffy powder snow that Asahikawa is famous for during the months of December through March, but the wet and heavy snow that many other places around the planet have to put up with. It's not good for skiing, and it's not got for walking. In fact, it's not good for much of anything. That was the weather from morning until night. Along with a rather strong wind to blow it all into your face if you had to be out and about. The junior high school student who went for the 10 day home stay program to Asahikawa's sister city in Bloomington-Normal Illinois, called me on the phone today at about 17:30, to tell me she was too sleepy to come to her lesson today. I know how she feels. It's jet lag 時差ぼけ. I have been there and done that. Flying from Japan to the west coast of the USA is about an 8 or 9 hour flight. You leave Japan in the late afternoon at about 16:00 and then arrive in the USA at about 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. Oh boy! I get to live the same day all over again, one more time. The best thing to do is stay awake until the late evening or early night time, and then go to bed. You will get a very good sleep, and wake up the next morning feeling quite normal. However, on the way back from the USA to Japan, it is quite the opposite feeling. You leave the USA late in the day, arrive in Japan late in the day, in fact you have lost one day because of crossing the International Date Line, and are totally confused as to your biorhythms. You will go to bed at 22:00, only to wake up about 5 or 6 hours later at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Still not quite completely rested, but having to start the work day or school day at about 8:00 or 9:00. It is no picnic. It will take a few days to get your biological clock back into a steady rhythm again. She told me that she will come to her lesson next week. I am looking forward to seeing her again and hearing all about her big adventure in America. I will bet you that her ability in spoken English as improved as well.
2006 April 5 Wednesday.
No classes during the morning hours of today, but it was a full house from 15:00 until 20:00. The weather today was quite pleasant. Pleasant enough for me to take a walk under a partly cloudy sky, with the star light shining through the gray overcast, while being beautifully accentuated by the black curtain of the cosmos that is ever present, and everywhere around the heavenly bodies. During my walk, I passed by the Taisetsu Arena, the Taisetsu Crystal Hall, and proceeded on down towards the Hokkaido Development Agency. Then, I turned right. Walked along the narrow sidewalk past Koshiro 小城, past the vacant lot that becomes a vegetable garden during the spring and summer, continued straight onwards until I saw a yellow and black signboard, illuminated from within that says らびっと. I have been to this store many times before. They sell mainly one thing. Booze. They have everything from beer and wine, to Japanese Rice Wine 日本酒 and every other kind of hard liquor that you can possibly image. They also sell a sparse variety of snack foods to go with the booze. I stopped in tonight because a scent of spring was in the air and some 100% rice 純米酒 wine from Otokoyama 男山 was just the ticket to fill up my tank with high octane fuel ハイオク燃料. I bought a 500ml bottle of the new rice wine that is brewed only during the winter. It is one of my seasonal favorites. The owners of this store know me well because I am a regular, yet seasonal customer of theirs. After getting the bottle of fuel that I wanted, I set off on a 90 minute walk that took me across the New Kagura Bridge 新神楽橋 and down into the edge of downtown right next to the new Science Museum サイパル which is located in an area that is known as Kita no Saito 北の彩都. This is a very new section of the city, and in my opinion, a very nice addition to the cultural welfare of the citizens. I feel good when I am in this part of town. After walking around the area for a while, I headed back to my home in Kagura. It was rather cold tonight, but it was not windy. Therefore, it was tolerable. It was a nice walk and it gave me some much needed exercise. I wanna do this again in the very near future.
My first lesson of the day was at 14:00 with the
nice young lady who just graduated from a University in Chitose. She will
be going to Canada or the USA for about 1 year for job training. She will
be living with a Canadian or American family during that time. She already
has a very good grasp of the English language, and only needs some intensive
practical training in actually speaking the language before she departs from
Japan. That is why she is coming to my classroom now, and that is what we
are doing every time. Speaking English. Face to face. She will
be ready to go when she goes. Also, every Tuesday at 15:00 it's
coffee time with Mr. T. I drink tea, he drinks coffee.
Today, he brought me a book as a gift. You can see a photo of the cover on
the left. One of the nice features of this book is that it has the
same text in both English and Japanese on opposite pages. Woah! This
is deep. Not only is it good for language study, but it is an
excellent way to rediscover the ROOTS OF JAPAN. I can still remember when
I first came to live and work here about 16 years ago and I had contact with a
lot of young people in the form of university students. I used to tell
them, "It is OK to emulate America on many points, but do go to extremes.
You need to look west. Towards China and Korea. The ROOTS of your
written and spoken language comes mostly from there. Never forget your
ROOTS." Some of the students listened to me and took my message to
heart, some didn't. Where they are today, for the most part I don't know.
Although I do stay in contact with some of them. Anyway, back to the
book. It is something that will make you think. Thinking is good.
Critical thinking is even better. This book has the stuff ネタ to take your
mind on a journey into the past, and hopefully, back to the future. Climb
aboard. The ROAD 道 is still there, but fading fast. Don't let is
fade away completely. You will never get it back if you do.
Rediscover what everybody knew before the age of; telephones, radios,
television, the internet. What's next? I'm not sure. But
as for me, it is time to sit down with this very cool book and spend many hours
reading and contemplating the significance of what is said therein.
I do not expect to agree with everything that is written in the book. That
is a good thing. Because that is what makes people think. Well, many
people anyway. If this book is available at the Asahikawa Central
Library, you can be sure that there will be a waiting list to get a hold of it.
By the way, Mr. T. bought two copies of this book. One for me and
one for himself. Thank you Mr. T!
A gift of knowledge is the best gift of all.
Another
rather cold and windy day. No classes until 13:30 so I ate my usual
breakfast of Brown Rice 玄米 and Natto 納豆 sprinkled with hot mustard からし and
Seaweed Vinegar Sauce 昆布ぽんず plus a bit of seaweed laver 味付けのり if I have it.
Korean taste or Japanese taste, either way is OK with me. Why do I always
eat this for breakfast? Because it makes my stomach feel good and it is a
natural source of life energy. That's why. After I took
a long hot bath and then cleaned up my classroom before today's lessons, I
walked on over to the Kagura Komin Kan for my weekly class with the very nice
people at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. As I mentioned last week in
Monday's blog, 4 new people came to take a look at the class and decide whether
or not to join the circle. All 4 of them did. Now this class
has about 16 students and only 60 minutes to give everyone a chance to express
their feelings and opinions in REAL TIME ENGLISH CONVERSATION. Sixty
minutes is not enough. Again today, at the end of class, there was a
discussion in Japanese only, between the members of the circle about who would
speak this time, and who would speak the next time, because the lesson time was
too short. I have been noticing this rather odd behavior for the
past several weeks now and therefore I finally decided to find a better solution
to this problem. So, as I was about to leave the
classroom after today's 70 minute class I blurted out; "Wait a second,
I have a good idea! Why don't we start this class at 13:00
instead of 13:30? One lady asked "Until what time?" My reply was,
"The same time as today." Another man who is a more recent member of
this circle said "But we can't pay any more money for the extra time." I
said, "You don't need to pay me any more money. What all of you need is
more time to speak English during this class time. Can everybody come at
13:00?" Everyone said that it was OK with their schedules.
"When will we start our lessons at 13:00?" Mrs. K. asked me. I
responded, "How about next week?" Everybody seemed to be in agreement on
that point as well. It's a done deal.
Why didn't I think of this before? Actually, I did. Many, many
times over the past months and years. In recent years, this class which is
scheduled for 60 minutes has run into 70, 75 or even 80 minutes. That is
no problem with me except for the fact that, I have to be at my classroom before
15:00 every weekday so that I can start teaching my classes for that day.
Doesn't it make more sense to to start this lesson 30 minutes earlier and have a
full 90 minutes plus spare change. It makes a whole lot of sense to
me! Everyone else seemed to agree. OK folks,
see you next Monday at 13:00,... OK? OK!!! was the
resolute response. Let's DO IT!!! For those of you out
there who don't know this group of people very well, or even know them at all, I
must say here and now that this English Conversation Circle at the
神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会 has been happening almost every week on Monday from 13:30 until
14:30 FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS!!! Thank you so much everyone! It
is an honor and a privilege to serve you all. As I have said before,
I have much more time than money, so please use your own time to your best
advantage in your pursuit of mastering spoken English. I am here to assist
you in whatever way that I can. That is my all consuming, obsessive
objective, in this brief lifetime. Next time around, who knows what
my mission will be. But I will carry it out to it's intended
objective. As Arnie likes to say, " I'll be back."
But for now, I am in Hokkaido. Let's go, Bro.
2006 April 2 Sunday.
It is a good thing that the wife and I went for a drive in the countryside yesterday, because today was overcast and partly snowy. Not a good day to be driving for pleasure. A much better way to spend the day was to stay at home and work on my new website that will be completely different from this one. Speaking of websites, I first decided to make my own website about 8 years ago. Therefore, I bought a lot of books and software in order to learn how to do it. Unfortunately for me, I had nobody to show me the basics of how to design a website so I had to figure it out all by myself. Finally about 6 years ago, I had made my first website and launched it onto the internet. Looking back now, I must say that is was a truly dreadful creation with a lot of broken links to the photos and the like. I even got telephone calls from several professional website design companies offering to help me upgrade my website (for a fee of course). At first I was a bit offended by their phone calls, but as I became more familiar with other websites on the internet, I realized that my first attempt at making my own website was, lame. It really did suck big time. Interestingly enough, I was the only locally produced English Conversation School in Asahikawa that had a real website at that time. Amazing. Finally, about two years ago, I got really serious about making a much better website so I upgraded my software to FrontPage 2002 and bought a huge 668 page book from Amazon dot Com entitled "FrontPage 2002 Developer's Guide". After reading only the first two chapters of the book, I learned how to make frames for my website. Frames are very useful if used correctly because they can provide an easy to use navigation bar for a website. So, I set about completely redesigning this website to include frames and provide an every present navigation bar on the left side of the pages. Finally about a year and a half ago, I was ready to launch my new website. It looked much better than before and it was much easier to use. I was rather proud of myself and e-mailed all of my friends asking them to "please take a look at it". I also dramatically increased the number of photo galleries on this website by using the photo gallery web components function contained in the new software. In fact, this is one of the major reasons that I decided to upgrade to FrontPage 2002. I love to take photos and this was a quick and easy way to display them on the internet. Finally about one year and 2 months ago, I decided to write a blog (web log) every day on this website for the purpose of helping my students with their reading and writing of American English. I love to write anyway so it was a big bonus for me as well. Finally, about 8 months ago, I discovered the true power of the Macromedia Software Suite Studio MX. It contains a program called FLASH which has become the de facto internet standard for delivering movies as well as interactive games and the like to the end users of the web. It is also very useful for developing E-Learning programs that people can use at home, at any time they choose, for their further education in whatever field of study that they are interested in. I bought the software using my Education Discount option and have so far used it only for the banner AD of my classroom on the top page of this website, as well as all of the shows on Snow TV. Again, I have only scratched the surface of using this software, and I need to do a lot more study by both reading the books and doing the hands-on examples shown in those books. Now that I have already spent the money on the hardware, software and training manuals that I need to make my next website, all I have to do is spend the time to learn how to make it happen. I have more time than money so maybe this is the perfect hobby for me. I will do my best. More coming soon. Stayed tuned.
2006 April 1 Saturday.
What a big
day! America has decided to withdraw all military forces from Iraq,
starting today. The Japanese government has decided to abolish the 5%
consumption tax, starting today. Also, the new PSE law has been scrapped.
You can sell all of your old electrical appliances to the recycle store and keep
the money for yourself. The high ranking persons at the Kagura Elementary
School and also the Asahi Elementary School called me up again and said "Thank
you for removing those photo galleries from your website. We really
appreciate your voluntary cooperation" Does this all sound too good to be
true??? It is. APRIL FOOLS! With so many selfish,
greedy, backstabbing assholes in this crazy world, how could it ever be true?
This morning the sky was cloudy, but by the middle of the afternoon, it was
clear and sunny with no wind. The wife and I decided to take a drive in
the country. I haven't driven my van for about 2 weeks so it was about
time to fire up the engine and get the oil flowing again. We headed south
on Highway 237 until we reached the intersection near 聖和 elementary
school. Then we turned off onto Route 452. From that point on we were all alone
except for the very few other cars also on these back country roads that lead to
the central area of Biei Town. I call this route the Back Door to Biei. It is
a beautiful drive in any season. Today the roads were clear of snow except
for a very few areas. We drove all the way up to Shirogane Onsen 白金温泉 and
tried to go up to the Observation Point 望岳台 at the base of Mt. Tokachi 十勝岳 but
the road is still closed and full of snow. So we turned around and drove
back to Asahikawa along the same roads upon which we had come. It was a
rather nice drive and because there was no significant wind, no so cold.
After we got home, I looked at the photos that I had taken today but most of
them weren't very good. Certainly not good enough to make a new photo
gallery. What will tomorrow's weather be like? According to the
newspaper, not as nice as today.
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