April 2007
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
2007 April 30 Monday.
Speaking
of new bridges, how's this one for a shocker? For details see the
photo above/left. A few months ago, Mr. T. who used to come on
Tuesdays, but now comes on Wednesdays, told me about a new bridge that was going
in across the Chubetsu River, connecting the center of the city, and the
district of Kagura. I assumed that he was talking about the one that
goes directly into the parking lot at the Ayako Miura Literature Museum.
He said no, I'm talking about another one that will go from directly in front of
this building, and Taisetsu Arena, that will be built also. I
couldn't believe my ears. These two new bridges would be only about 1
kilometer far apart from each other along the river banks. Wow!
What a luxury. Today, I reconfirmed that information when I saw the
billboard in front of this building. Proof positive that it will in fact
happen. What a pleasant surprise. Today is also a
national holiday and the weather is great. I think I'll grab my camera and
go for a very long walk in the warm afternoon sun. The sky is clear and
the light is perfect. I mean, after all, photography is ALL ABOUT LIGHT.
In fact the word itself literally means PHOTO light
GRAPH drawing.
2007 April 29 Sunday.
The
photo you can see above/left is looking across the Chubetsu River into the
Kagura district of Asahikawa. Behind me is the Asahikawa JR train station
and the city center. It is difficult to see it from this photograph,
but at the end of this road in Kagura is the
Ayako Miura Literature Museum. Most likely this is why a brand
new bridge is being built right here. It will be easy for tour buses
to come from the city center and right straight into the parking lot of the
literature museum. I can't remember for sure, but I think the big
construction info billboard says it it be finished by the end of this year.
Or is it next year? What ever. I also am very happy to
see this new bridge being installed right here. It makes it easier
for many of my students to get to my classroom. Our tax money at
work. And for a good purpose. I am not only looking
forward to the completion of this new facility, but also to seeing the remaining
construction while it is in progress. A free lesson in Bridge
Construction. I'll be sure to take lots of photos. I
could even use it as an eLearning lesson for English someday.
2007 April 28 Saturday.
Whoopie! The start of Golden Week.
What do do? Take a drive? Maybe some other day.
During the evening hours I took a walk alone along a different route than I usually
do.
I started out the same as usual, walking through Crystal Park. Stop by at
Lawson. Continue on over to the asphalt paved cycling roads along the Chubetsu River heading southeast. Before the entrance to Kagura Oka Park,
there are two bridges across the river. The older one is now part of the
cycling road, and the cars and buses pass along overhead and off to the SE on
the New Kagura Bridge.
I walked over the Old Kagura Bridge and into the area on the other side of the
river where a new park and more cycling roads are being built right at this
moment. Well, not right now, it's dark, but during the days.
It is coming along nicely. The reason this part of the river bank is
important to beautify is because the Science Museum SaiPal is right across
the street. This place needs to look good for the tourists as
well as the local folk. Me included. You can see the two
bridges in the daylight photo above/left. It's a nice place to take a walk
and soak up some sunshine.
2007 April 27 Friday.
My
first gig of the day was at the Dokan Nursing School starting at 9:00.
Today, I divided the class into groups of 3 students and we used page one of my
original textbook, Questions and Answers. With one student absent
today, the way the groups divided up left me paired with the only boy in this
half of the class and we did the print together. Just the two of us.
During the course of our discussions, I was surprised to learn that he lives
rather far away from this school, and has to take the train everyday in order to
commute to this nursing school. He told me that he rides the train
for 90 minutes in the morning, and then again for 90 minutes in the evening, a
total of 3 hours every school day. That sounds more like a salary man
working in Tokyo and living in some small suburban bed town near the big city,
than it does a student living alone, away from home, for the very FIRST TIME.
Why this young man does not live in an apartment or at a dormitory which
is much closer to this school, I do not know. After that class was
finished at 10:30, I took a taxi back to my classroom and got ready for straight
lessons from 15:00 until 20:00. After that I wanted to go for a
walk, but the weather was rather nasty, and it killed my meager motivation to
meander beneath the night sky. Instead, I spent some time reading
about next year's G8 summit which will HAPPEN right here in Hokkaido.
I even took the liberty of using a photo from the front page of the Hokkaido
Newspaper, which shows Prime Minister Abe meeting G. W. Bush in the USA.
Mr. Abe's next stops will be in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and other
destinations. The written dialogue between the two national leaders,
that I added to the photo of a photo, are of course, a complete
fabrication by me, but wouldn't it be nice if something like this had actually
been said between the two distinguished gentlemen. I DO
KNOW for a fact that President Bush is much too busy to read this blog or
even look at this website, but some of his supporters may not be too busy, and
therefore MAY DO SO. Also, I am only assuming that President
Bush has never visited Hokkaido, because I can not recall any mass media news
reports to the contrary. I think President Bush will REALLY like
what he sees when he stops by to TAKE A LOOK in here, HOKKAIDO, next summer.
Welcome to the dragon head of East Asia Mr. President. I hope that
Laura and the daughters can come along as well. I know you'all
will really like it here in Nature Base Hokkaido. Lots of
LOVE, from HOKKAIDO to TEXAS and all points beyond.
BROADCASTING FROM HOKKAIDO.
2007 April 26 Thursday.
A
cold, windy and rainy day. Not much to talk about except the newspaper
headline on the left. This is a photo of the evening edition of the
Hokkaido Newspaper for Monday, April 23. It says; "2008 G8 SUMMIT to be
held at the Windsor Resort Hotel at Lake Toya in HOKKAIDO. Why do I
always have this certain feeling, that things for Hokkaido are coming together
BIG TIME. Now, I see it again in the mass media. My wife, her
mother and I were just in this area last summer, and in fact we stayed one night
at the 湖畔亭 Hotel which is right on the shore of this beautiful lake. As
you can see from the photograph within the photograph on the upper/left, The
Windsor Resort Hotel is high on a hill overlooking the beautiful horizons of
Hokkaido. This facility was originally built during the Japan Bubble
Economy and was initially called the APEX Resort Hotel. As with all
bubbles, that look pretty on the outside, but have nothing except hot air inside
of them, it went BOOM and BUST, and the building sat there, unused for many
years. Until recently. Not only is this an exquisitely
beautiful place, but there is only one road up to the top of this mountain where
the hotel sits at the apex. This of course is a dream come true for
security personnel who will be responsible for protecting these big wig
actors on the world stage. For a preliminary list as to who will be
attending the G8 Summit at Lake Toya during the summer of 2008,
click here.
2007 April 25 Wednesday.
A
beautiful sunny day with high temps reaching up to about 14 degrees C.
Possibly the warmest day of this year thus far in Asahikawa. I drove out
to the Kosei Nursing School and arrived there at about 8:35, fifteen minutes
before the start of my class with the first year students. Today, we
enacting a short dialogue about shopping for a fitted hat. I gave the
students the conversation script last week, so they all had plenty of time to
memorize it. All 13 lines of it, by this time today. Seven
lines for me, and 6 lines for them.
I called each and every one of the students up to the front of the classroom,
one by one, so we could enact the premeditated conversation with each other,
face to face. Many of the students could say their lines without
much hesitation, but others could not. The thing about TODAY that really
impressed me the most was, the fact that one of my former students, at my
classroom, displayed the best American English, pronunciation of the dialogue,
much better than any of the other 44 students in this class. This
young lady started coming to my classroom during her last year of elementary
school, and all throughout her 3 years of junior high school.
Now she is a first year student here at the Kosei Nursing School. During
those four years at my classroom, we did a lot of dialogue memorization and
spoken rehearsal. Today, I saw the results of our training together,
up close and personal. CONTACT
It really does make a difference if you start learning languages young.
Learn from a native speaker, if you want to learn a foreign language. That is what I have always done in the past, and on into the present.
2007 April 24 Tuesday.
Meet
my sister's immediate family members. Aren't they cute!
And so well behaved. One is named Ollie. She was found wandering
around the Ballard District of Seattle, Hoe 'ing for fish. The
other one flew in on a space ship and was initially named Baby Boy, but was
later re-labeled as Boy Gorge because of his bad behavior. I'm
not exactly sure which one is which, but I think the big one on top is Mr. Gorge
and the smaller one below is Miss Ollie. So cute! Sooooo
Precious. 101 uses for a CAT.
2007 April 23 Monday.
Back
to school. The English Circle at the Kagura Kominkan was very enjoyable as
usual. Next Monday we won't have a class because it is a National
Holiday which as of this year, will be called 昭和の日. It used to be called
みどりの日, but as of this year, May 4 has become the new みどりの日, instead of just a
plain old vanilla packaged 休日. The other two holidays remain the
same, even in name. Is that a good idea? Yeah, I
think so. Presentation is everything. Especially in the Same
Game, Different Name category. Go Fish. As I have mentioned
once before in this blog, one of the newer members of this group has a very good
sense of humor and likes to play around with words. Just like me.
Other members talked about various things, including a trip to Tokyo and a trip
to Izu. This timely and active sharing of real time information,
which is the STUFF of our daily lives, is the essence of communication and
indeed, life itself.
What could be better than experiencing the moment, or reliving that moment,
again and again and again,.... by simply remembering it, in great
detail. At 15:00 I had a class with the very nice lady who comes to
my classroom almost every week at this time. As I have mentioned
before, she is translating a children's book called スーホの白い馬 from Japanese into
English. Today, she brought with her about 5 or 6 pages of what she
had translated at home on her own time, and I took a look at it. I
only needed to make a few small corrections in her translation to make it flow
more smoothly. Other than that, it was a very readable English
version of this children's story. After that, we still had about 20
minutes or so left before the start of my next lesson at 16:00, so she taught me
a new Hebrew song which I quickly learned how to play on my guitar. Not
only did she play her recorder (short vertical flute) along with me, but she
also sang the song in Hebrew, Italian and Japanese as well. A very
enjoyable experience for me, and also for her. Between
the hours of 18:00 and 19:00 I didn't have a class, so I sat down to practice
reading and writing Korean some more. About 3 years ago, when I
first started from ground zero with this language, I bought some textbooks with
audio CDs, and also a software package called
Korean Writer V5 which can be used together with Microsoft WORD, to create
good looking Korean Language documents. One of the textbooks which
came with 6 audio CDs was a rather small pocket sized version of a book, and it
was a bit difficult for me to easily see the writing in it.
Therefore, I used Korean Writer and Microsoft WORD to create my own A4 sized
pages with big letters that are really easy to see, and I even laminated them
two sheets back to back per page, so that I could use them for a long time and
not damage or dirty the printed sheets. Because I have been listening to
the first half of the first CD over and over again for almost 3 years, I know
the sounds of the words and expressions by heart. Today while I was
sitting at my lesson table and practicing the writing of those same expressions,
I noticed something strange. Two of the expressions had a written mistake
in them that I had never noticed before. For details, see the
graphic above/left. As I was looking at the laminated print I
thought to myself; "This doesn't look right. The pronunciation does
not at all match the spoken word." I went back and checked the
original textbook, and sure enough, I had made a mistake when I produced the
computer generated printout. The only reason I am writing about
this, is because it shows that I have made a major leap in progress towards my
study of Hangul. I actually knew for a fact that something was
wrong, even before I confirmed it by looking at the original textbook.
I also see this exact same phenomena occurring among my students as they
progress with their study of written English. They themselves
realize that what they have written is not quite right and they pause to think
about it. That's when I jump in with the correct spelling of the word or
phrase. In the terms of a computer system, you might call something
like this "automatic error detection". In human beings you can
call it "progress in learning." When a person, any person gets to
this very basic but very important level during their study of a foreign
language, any foreign language, it makes that student feel very good inside, and
motivates them to try even harder in the future. That is a very good
thing, any way you look at it.
2007 April 22 Sunday.
Ah!
Much better than yesterday. Sunny with clear skies and a high temp
of 14 degrees C. A good day to go for a drive. Today I
drove east towards Higashi Asahikawa, and all the way up to the East Entrance of
the Asahiyama Zoo. The NEW East Entrance I should say.
The ZOO is closed until Saturday April 28, when they will open it again for the
start of Golden Week and the rest of the summer season. After
driving around in the new parking area, I went back down the hill, and got onto
Route 611 heading southeast towards HigashiKawa Town. I haven't been
on this road for several years, so I wasn't at all surprised to see some new
houses and some new rice field irrigation construction here and there.
I took this very well maintained asphalt covered road all the way to the edge of the Taisetsu
National Park. When I reached the edge of the national park boundary, I discovered that
the big metal gate was still closed and blocking the road leading up to the inside
of the park. A big chain and padlock insured that cars and
motorcycles could not pass by. A mountain biker however, could slip
through with no problem. Most likely, they will open this gate on or
about April 29, which is the start of GW, next Sunday. After getting out
of my van and walking around the area, breathing in the most delicious fresh
air, I drove back down the hill and towards Asahikawa. Not far along
the way, I noticed an abandoned school building that had the name of 東川町第四小学校
written on it. I decided to pull into the mud covered parking lot in
front of the old school to take a closer look. The first thing I
noticed was a concrete statue of 二宮金次郎 which was in very bad shape. The
second thing I noticed was the after smell of a fire, and upon closer inspection
of the right side of the school building, could see the blackened and charred
remains of what once was an elementary school. I have no idea about
what the history of this school might be, but I do suppose that over the years
the number of students and the number of teachers became less and less,
because the surrounding area is nothing but rice farms. The younger
generations of these families have mostly moved away to some city, to live and
work at some "more modern profession" and thus the number of new families in
this area is almost zero. Seems like a good explanation, but it is
only my less than educated guess. I wouldn't mind living here myself, but
rice farming is too difficult. Maybe growing corn would be better.
No flooded fields to attract frogs and mosquitoes. Much more quite at
night. A night under the stars.
2007 April 21 Saturday.
A windy, rainy, cold and nasty day. I think I'll stay at home and study Korean and a few other things. Not much else to write about today.
2007 April 20 Friday.
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY!
2007 April 19 Thursday.
A
thoroughly enjoyable day. Was I really at WORK?
Yes, I was. I didn't have to go to any outside jobs today so I
stayed at home and did my works. Including straight lessons from
15:00 until 20:00. That was a big part of it. I also practiced
writing some BASIC daily expressions of the Korean Language using the Hangul
Alphabet. The more I learn about this language and it's associated
alphabet, the more I like it. Could this be a new obsession?
Yeah, it could be. I'm always interesting in acquiring new knowledge.
New to me that is. My wife really wants to go and visit Korea, but I
am not all that enthusiastic about it. Yeah, I would like to go and visit
Pusan and Cheju Island, but as for Seoul, I have already been there and I can
tell you that it is just a very big city. The good news is that you
can fly directly from Asahikawa to Seoul and it takes only about 3 hours.
Also, there are some very inexpensive package tours which show you the main
attractions and let you eat some good food. Even then, I would
still want to be more proficient in the Korean Language than I am right now.
Maybe next year? I told my wife that if she wants to go to
Korea with me on something other than a package tour, she must learn the basics
of the Hangul Alphabet. I mean, there are only 24 basic letters.
That's two less than English! I don't expect her to read
everything, just a few simple words and phrases that you might see on a menu or at
a gift shop. That sort of thing. Hopefully this will get
her motivated to do more that just watch Korean dramas on the internet.
I mean if a person has a specific goal that they want to achieve, then acquiring
the essential knowledge to achieve that goal should be an enjoyable and
meaningful learning experience. It's time to open up a whole new
world. A world that exists right next door. Take an airplane,
then get on board the SOUL TRAIN.
2007 April 18 Wednesday.
My
teaching day started off at 8:50 this morning at the JA Kosei Nursing School.
Today was my second class of the new school year here, and I used page one of my
textbook, Q and A, meaning Questions and Answers. This textbook is
designed for group work so I divided up the class into 7 groups of 6 people
each, and one more group of 2 students plus myself making 3.
This style of classroom activity, allows the students to be more active, and me
to be more passive. All questions on this first page of the
textbook, start with one of the 6W1H Interrogatives 疑問詞,
meaning; What, When, Where, Who, Why, Which and How.
Using these seven words is not the only way to ask a question, but it is one of
the most basic methods used. As a matter of fact, in my own study of
the Korean Language, I am currently focused on the use of these 7 words, at this
time. Very helpful for learning the basics of daily conversation.
Next week, we will focus on a typical conversation used when shopping for
clothing. I gave them the very short printed dialogue today, and
asked them to memorize the 6 lines of conversation for the shopper, by this time
next week. At that time, I will call each and every student up to
the front of the classroom, all 44 of them, and we will have a simulated
conversation about buying a fitted hat. I will even bring three hats
into the classroom with me, and use them as props, in order to make the
situation more realistic and more enjoyable. It is a lesson plan
which I have used many times, over the course of many years. It is a
proven winner. The students will compete with each other, to see who can
actually memorize the dialogue, and also who can take the conversation to a
higher level by improvising on the written lines. I am looking forward to
next week's lesson. As I do, every year at this time.
2007 April 17 Tuesday.
This
morning, while I was in the office of professor S. at Asahikawa University,
another full time instructor, whom I first met last year, came in and said that
he would like to talk to me about one of my former students, who is now in her
4th year at the university. When he mentioned the student's name, I
remembered her right away. She is a very tall and good looking young
lady, not to mention the fact that she is also on the university volleyball
team. Because my first class started in a few minutes at 10:40, we
decided to meet again later, in the instructor's office at about 12:15.
When I arrived at the instructor's office, the young lady was waiting outside
his door, and we recognized each other immediately. A few moments later,
the instructor himself arrived and we all went inside his office to sit down for
an important discussion. The gist of the conversation, was that this
very nice young woman, has decided to become a flight attendant for an airline
company, and that she needs to improve her level of communication ability in the
English language. Therefore, the full time instructor had recommended her
to start taking lessons at my classroom, as soon as possible. Thank
you so much for your recommendation Mr. H.S.!!! Training people how
to communicate in English (together with other ways) is my specialty. That
IS what I do for a living. If the student is ready, I am always
there for them. I asked the young lady to please take a look at
www.snowmanjapan.net for
detailed information about lesson times and lesson prices. Then, when she
has determined her schedule for the next several months, to call my
classroom and make an appointment. A reservation to start her very own
journey to the SUN. Her intensive study of spoken English.
If she really tries hard, and becomes able to communicate freely and at will in
spoken English, I know for a fact, that she will be able to participate in a
bigger world. A world of which she now knows very little.
Believe me, it is a very big world that can be made smaller by learning another
language or two, or three, or even more. Languages are not difficult
to learn, if you JUST GET USED TO USING THEM. 習うより慣れろ。Listen and Repeat.
Listen and Repeat. Listen and Repeat. Once you understand the
basic FRAMEWORK of a spoken language, you can substitute vocabulary into
standard sentence patterns, and become able to express your own ideas and
feelings in that language. A language, any language, is merely a
TOOL for communication. Learn how to use a TOOL well, and the world is
your canvas. A canvas not just for painting, but also for sailing.
Sailing a way, any way, to where you want to BE.
2007 April 16 Monday.
Today
at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会, one of the gentlemen brought in a very interesting copy
that he had taken from some magazine. What it showed was a very
innovative way of combining Kanji and English to form an artistic representation
of a word. This is called 英漢字 and was invented by Kunishige
Tomomi. Please click on the photo above/left to see more of her work and to read
more about her in English. In the photo on the left, you can see the
27 year old artist herself and one of her creations. It is a
representation of the Kanji 花, written in the same general shape as that very
same Kanji and using the English letters "f l o w e r" Can you
clearly see it for yourself? I most certainly can. This
is only one such example. There are many others. See below for two
more. The thing that really intrigued me about this NEW FORM OF ART,
is that the same picture, conveys 3 very distinct meanings. Number
1, the original Chinese ideograph form of the word. Number 2.
The same general shape of the original Chinese ideograph, drawn using modified
but still recognizable letters of the English alphabet. Number 3.
Not only is the "word" written in two languages, but the over all view of the
ART conveys a NATURAL visual IMAGE of the OBJECT itself. This is
really cool. The only question I have about this new and very
excellent form of ART work is, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF IT by myself?
I was busy doing other things. Other good things, good for ME and my
STUDENTS. GOOD stuff, all around and everywhere. Hey
Tomomi, I LOVE your art work. It really IS a NEW WAY to look at the BASICS
of all BASICS. A job well done. Please make more!!!!
LOVE from Norman D. Tomomi,................ If you ever
come to Asahikawa, please give me a call. 62 - 0216. 24/7
留守伝あり。
 |
How about this one? The Kanji should look like this, 海 The English letters used are, S E A Can you see it? I can. |
 |
II
really like this one. The Kanji should look like this, 夢 The English letters used are, d r E a M Can you see it too??? It is crystal clear to me. This is truly a NEW ART FORM. Thank you for making it!!!! |
2007 April 15 Sunday.
Lots to write about today but no time to write it. SORRY!
2007 April 14 Saturday.
It's
a cold gray day,.....
Say! What the Hey? Take a Dive,......
NOT a Drive. NO! Stay at HOME. BE where you
ARE,..... Pick up the guitar, BE a star!
For a moment or 2. IT IS UP 2 YOU!!! It's
ALL in your mind so sing it IN time. In SYNC with the DRINK.
A twister or two, making LOVE on the SIX STRING, that IS a NATURAL thing to DO.
ME TOO. And YOU, cranking out VIBES is the ACTIVE thing
to DO. Acoustic Six String and Gordon Lightfoot on the headphones.
DREAMLAND. The country rock song that gets my juices flowing, along
with an assortment of other songs on this and other albums. This
CANADIAN born and raised singer/song writer IS by far AND most clearly my NUMBER ONE
favorite English Language original one man show. Creative to the CORE.
核まで Ya gotta respect that. Even if you
personally,
don't dig his VIBES. Something like that, can't be helped. Whatever WAVE
length you are TUNED IN 2, it is the VITAL ONE of this moment.
Therefore, NEVER DESPAIR. It is ONLY a state of mind.
A state of mind which YOU can create in absolutely any WAY that you THINK you
CAN. As for me, I'm gonna pick the six string and sing,
totally UNPLUGGED for the rest of the afternoon. Most of the other
residents of this very well maintained and thoroughly managed building, are
probably out and about, and won't be disturbed by my not too loud LIVE
performance. I'm just practicing in an ENDLESS attempt to get it
better than before. THAT IS ALL. Simple minded
humanoid. Simple COUNTRY living. I'm prime, this is the
TIME of our lives. I feel like singing about it. KARAOKE
anyone??? I'm prime. I'm game. It's all the
same,.......
I'm repeating myself,....... Maybe I should write and perform RAP "songs"
(chants). The very same sounds that occurred at the very first
beginnings of MUSIC as the COSMOS knows IT. CHANTING お経 etc.
etc. etc.
2007 April 13 Friday.
Friday the 13th!!! SO WHAT?
I spent the first hour and a half of my work day with 20 second year students at
the Dokan Nursing School. Our first class together of the new school year.
Many of them were very sleepy. I know it has been a long and rough first week
of back to
school for them. That is why today's lesson was very active by me,
and very passive for them. Getting to know you, getting to know all about
YOU. After 90 some minutes of pure fun, I went for a drive in
Mr. NOAH to give him a shower, and also to just do some driving around for the fun
of it.
It was a warm sunny day, and the perfect time to take a drive. I
drove around to various shopping centers that I rarely visit. I looked
around inside, and didn't see any thing that I either wanted or needed.
Maybe that's why I rarely come to these places. The drive was nice
and I got back to my classroom about 2 hours before the start of my next lesson.
Time enough to eat lunch while NOT watching the TV news.
Instead, I looked out of a big window at the big blue sky while munching away on
my brown rice and MaPoDoFu. Both made just last night.
Both Yummy. The next series of lessons went from 15:00 until 20:00.
During that time, the two families that came yesterday for a free trial lesson,
called back on the telephone again today, and said that they would like to start
weekly lessons within the next 6 days. Welcome aboard mates!!!
And, a great big MERCI BEAUCOUP to Mr. Hajime. Thank you mes ami!!!
2007 April 12 Thursday.
Another
busy day at my classroom with straight lessons from 15:00 until 20:00.
Today at 17:00, two mothers and their four children came to my classroom for the
first time to take a free trial lesson. They told me when they
arrived that they had been recommended to visit my classroom, by another
English/French teacher who also has his own classroom in another part of this
city. This particular teacher is more into adult lessons, and
medical English than he is into children's lessons. I am not much
interested in medical English but I do have many adult lessons as well.
Anyway, the four children, all in elementary school, who came with their mothers
today, have had some experience with the study of English before, so we were
able to move along rapidly. The 50 minute lesson was over before we
all knew it and, each and every child had a very enjoyable time while learning
something new. As they were all leaving my classroom, the mothers
asked their children; "Did you enjoy your lesson today?" and every child said;
"Yes!". No big surprise there. Then they said that they
would talk about it in more detail with their kids and make a decision on
whether or not to join my classroom within the next few days. I
said; "OK, I will be waiting for your phone call." When all of
my lessons where finished at 20:00, Ikuko and I went out for a 60 minute walk
along the cycling roads that border the Biei and Chubetsu Rivers. It
was Ikuko's first walk of the season so she began feeling tired quite early on
during the walk. Not me. I have been out several times
already, so I was all fired up and ready to go for more. The
night sky was crystal clear and the stars and planets above where awesomely
beautiful. Tonight, Ikuko brought along her MD player and was
listening to a Korean Language basic conversation disc while we were walking
together. I dubbed this MD from a CD that I have, and one that I
listen to all the time when I am driving. Even though, I couldn't
hear the MD itself, I could hear Ikuko's voice as she tried to repeat the words
and phrases on the MD. Her pronunciation was pretty good, and I was
able to listen to her voice and repeat the same phrases myself out loud.
I even understood what most of them meant without hearing the Japanese Language
equivalent. It gave me the satisfaction of knowing that I have
been making some progress with my study of the Korean Language. When we
got back home after our walk, I sat down and practiced writing some of the words
and phrases in Hangul for about one hour. Learning is fun. As
it should be.
2007 April 11 Wednesday.
Back
to school again. Today was my first class at the Kosei Nursing School
JA厚生旭川看護専門学校 starting at 8:50. I have been teaching English at
this school since about 13 or 14 years ago. I have always enjoyed
it, and still do to this day. Today, I was in for an unexpected and very
pleasant surprise. When I first walked into the classroom at
8:50, with the administrative office manager 総務部長, I didn't really look around
at the students very carefully. The administrative official had a piece of
paper with him that had my essential education and work experience information
written upon it, which he read out loud to the students before the start of our
first class. Because it is the first class of the year, I have a
standard introductory lesson, that I present to the students in about the same
manner, each and every year. The main point of this power
presentation, is the fact that SOUNDs and written SYMBOLs for these sounds,
never have an exact correlation. They most often DO have a very
close vibration, and this is the basis for SHEET MUSIC. I am
always in AWE of anyone, who can sit down with any musical instrument, and by
just looking at the written symbols upon a piece of paper, play that song.
THAT is phuckin awesome. I know several people like that, but
I am not one of them. not YET. Anyway, getting back to my big
surprise for today. When I stepped up onto the stand and took
command, the lesson was ON for the next 90 minutes.
First on the agenda, a quiz about the TOP 10 BIGGEST cities in the USA and
JAPAN. Next, the topic just mentioned above. Third and
last, my personal profile, and the Home Work assignment of, please write down
your own personal profile in brief, on one sheet of notebook paper by this time
next week. During the course of today's lesson, I noticed a
name on the student list which was very familiar to me. When I
finally called her name, we looked up at each other, and I was so happy to see a
young lady, whom had come to my classroom from about her 5th year of elementary
school, until her last year of junior high school. She quit coming
to my classroom, when she started her studies in high school. Three years
later, HERE SHE IS AGAIN. At a school were I have been an English
teacher since the time of her 4th or 5th birthday.
CONTACT What
goes around, comes around. Always Has. Always Will.
She is a very good student and I was so happy to see her get into this school,
because it is an EXCELLENT school, with many excellent students and many
excellent teachers. FRUITION.
I love my life's work, and I love my students. ALL of them.
2007 April 10 Tuesday.
I
was wrong. Tuesday was cold, and rainy. Never the less,
I was on the road to AU. A chance to meet some new students, and
also some familiar faces in the form of repeaters. Well, well,...
Today is the first day of the spring semester, and we must use the computer
room, and we must use a certain specified software for eLearning, and we must
take a vocabulary test and a listening test, before we can even access the
lessons menu. Everybody got logged on and did the tests
from various starting times. As the students finished their
tests and had nothing better to do in my classroom today, I recorded their
attendance using their labor, and put their hand written chits into my pocket,
as they all passed by me, on their way out of the classroom for other parts
unknown. All except for one woman, who wisely stayed for the entire 90
minutes, and after everyone else had left she and I had a conversation, in
Japanese, about her lack of confidence in her own ability to learn English well
enough to pass the course. She told me that when she enrolled in
this class, she had asked the office staff about which English teachers they
would recommend for her needs. They told her that Norman and professor S,
would be the best choice. I agree with their decision.
Welcome to our Enjoyable English Environment. Let's have fun WHILE
learning. I'm game. By the way, the Easter Bunny
came by my place today, and said; "HOWDY!" I said; "Howdy
Doody Do to you too, Hare Von Bunny Sama. What's NEW?"
He said, "Nothing". Ah! The wisdom of the rabbit.
How many of you out there were born in the
YEAR OF THE RABBIT? I was not. But I do have a
natural affinity for bunnies. Not just Ishtar Bunnies, but rabbits
of many kinds. How many kinds are there? I'm
not sure. Time to do some research.
2007 April 9 Monday.
It's
the start of "Everybody Back to School Week", including me. I'll be going
out to Asahikawa University on Tuesday, the JA Kosei Nursing School on Wednesday
and the Dokan Nursing School on Friday. All in the morning.
The warm and sunny morning. Not rainy like today.
Two of my adult students who came today, saw the CG I made for
yesterday's blog and said; "We thought that Easter was all about colored eggs
and rabbits. I didn't see any in your illustration." I
explained that "easter" is represented by many symbols that basically
convey the same message of rebirth. They both understood what I
meant, and we sat down at the lesson table and played games with antonym 反意語
cards, that I had made myself many years ago, but rarely use in class.
After about 50 minutes of doing it in English, we tried doing it in Japanese.
I did pretty well at that game too. Many words do have antonyms, but
some do not. Also, the perceived antonym for certain words
such as "sweet" or "salt" seem to have a cultural bias
attached to them. If you were to ask me; "What is the opposite
of "sweet?", I would say "sour". Sweet and Sour.
Most Japanese people will say "bitter" or "salty". Fair
enough. There are different ways of experiencing sensations.
Likewise, if you were to ask me; "What is the opposite of "salt"?, I
would say "pepper ". Most Japanese people will say "sugar".
Again, a legitimate answer. Salt and Pepper. Black and
White. A common Western notion. When looking at
the world around us, we need to ask ourselves, "What cultural, political,
religious,... etc. FILTERS are we looking thru?" We all
have filters. A person could not deal with the modern world around
them, if they didn't have FILTERS.
2007 April 8 Sunday.
Gray skies, cold winds and rain.
Happy Easter. At least there is sunshine inside of my head.
NOT a good day to go for a walk, or even take a drive, for that matter.
It might be a nice day to go to church if you are so inclined. I
think I'll stay at home and sleep, among other things here and there.
More here, than there. There is literally an endless amount of things
that I could do around the house, such as cleaning up the place AGAIN and,
Nah! I don't feel like cleaning up, when the skies are gray.
Maybe some other day. I know, I'll make a
simple CG for Easter, while listening to the BBC Radio on the internet.
Sounds like a plan. And I did so. You
can see the result on the upper/left. What?
No eggs? Neither rabbits? Well, actually
freshly laid eggs do in fact symbolize a new life, and a new beginning.
RABBITS are profusely breeding mammalians, which DO NOT LAY EGGS onto the cold
hard ground, but none the less can multiply at a fairly rapid rate. Again,
a symbol for a new spring time, and a new life. I choose the cherry
blossom as my symbol because it is so widely recognized in Japan as a sure sign
that spring is finally here. Hokkaido is a bit different, because
the Cherry Blossom Front Line 桜前線 doesn't reach Asahikawa until about the
beginning or the middle of May. That is a cold hard fact.
Maybe I should have selected the 蕗の薹 as my rebirth symbol in this CG, because it
is much closer to this heartland of mine. Another symbol I
used in this new CG, is the cross 十字架. Known in Roman Times ローマ帝国時代 as a very
cruel and convenient method of torture and execution. Isn't it
amazing how clever humans can be when it comes to thinking up new ways to murder
and cause maximum pain to their fellow human beings? What will we
think of next? I know, how about laser weapons, and death rays.
Unfortunately, they already exist and have existed for a very long time, almost
60 years to be exact. Anyway, for me this time of each year is the
REAL NEW YEAR RECYCLE SEASON. Same thing happens year after
year, over and over again. Why is that? Jeeeez,
I wonder. There is a season for everything. And,
everybody. But seasons are continually, recycled again and
again, But only if you have left, something useful behind. Something
that is useful, for other humans. Not JUST for yourself, but for
EVERY thinking and feeling animated being. Human and beyond.
What are you waiting for? The time is NOW.
Every day is Easter Sunday.
2007 April 7 Saturday.
Oh
what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day. I've
got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way. Daytime
temps reached up to about 12 degrees C., and the warm sun felt so nice, on the
skin. At about 13:00, I left my classroom and took a short walk
along the Biei River banks and on into and all the way through the 見本林.
I was looking for signs of the Fukinotou フキノトウ and I wasn't disappointed.
There were many of them all over the place. These plants which are also
known by the Latin based scientific name of Petasites Japonicus, are also
called Japanese Butterbur or maybe even, Sweet Coltsfoot, in English Word
Equivalents. I don't like any of the above options in English, so I
made up one for myself, and anyone else who is willing to listen. I
chose to call it, Ezo Broccoli. After all, it does have a very bitter
taste. But if it is prepared well, it can be an excellent snack when
it comes to beer drinking time. This is a very short lived seasonal
product, so YOU MUST ACT NOW. It is available for a very
limited time only. Free for the taking. No laws against
it. The plant that you can see in the photo on the above/left, has
just started its life journey. As the days grow longer, on the way
to and approaching the Summer Solstice, this plant will change its form so much,
that if you saw it in June, you wouldn't recognize it, at all.
I never did until Saito Sensei pointed it out to me and his class of first year
students at the Dokan Nursing School. In order to document this
amazing phenomena, I will have to make another walking trip over to the Kagura
Oka Park before this Ezo Broccoli looking thing, becomes big beyond belief.
The change in size and shape of this clean green fast growing flora, is truly
amazing. Stay tuned for more photos in June and July.
2007 April 6 Friday.
My
teaching day ended at 18:00 today, about 2 hours earlier than usual. My
other 2 students had other things to do today, so they could not come to my
classroom. I took advantage of this rare situation by going out for a 90
minute walk along the paved cycling roads that border the Biei and Chubetsu
Rivers. These cycling roads are now about 95 percent free of snow and ice,
and I was able to walk quickly and easily along the asphalt paved route while
observing the very bright planet Venus, as well as the constellation of Orion
and many other stars. The sky was not completely clear, but there
were many clear patches of sky between the moving clouds. I could
even see rain falling in not too distant locations around me, but I didn't get
hit by many of the drops. The smell of spring was in the night air,
as the ground pops its face through the melting snow and ice. I bet
if I go for another walk again tomorrow during the daylight hours, I can find
some
フキノトウ (蕗の薹) growing along the banks of the rivers. That
might be a good thing to go look for right now, because the young sprouts of
this plant are
edible. However, the season for doing this in Hokkaido is very
short. I guess I had better go looking for them tomorrow afternoon.
2007 April 5 Thursday.
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY!
2007 April 4 Wednesday.
Lots to write about today, but no time to write it. SORRY!
2007 April 3 Tuesday.
Today
was a very short teaching day. Only two, fifty minute lessons until
17:00. Then I closed my classroom down for the rest of the day, and went on over
to the Grand Hotel for the annual teacher's meeting and dinner party of
the Kosei Nursing School. The one hour long meeting is about the
same every year, and the food again this year, was not too bad. I
sat right next to a young man from Canada who has lived in Asahikawa for about 5
years, and just got married to a fine young Japanese lady last October.
One of the most interesting things about this young stud, is that he was born
and raised in a French speaking family in the eastern part of Canada.
He didn't really start speaking English until he was about 4 years old.
I'm envious. My childhood was spent 99% of the time speaking English and
about 1% of the time speaking German. As a result, I can not speak
German at the present moment. I can't speak French either, but I did
study it for 3 years in junior and senior high school. Once again,
with no opportunity to use it during daily life, I have forgotten most of it,
perhaps about 90% of what I may have learned in the distant past. Anyway,
we had an interesting conversation that lasted for about 2 hours.
After the dinner party was finished, a very senior and partially retired physics
professor from the Hokkaido Education University and another very distinguished
retired professor of Japanese Literature invited me to come along with them on
another round of drinking at a different location. Somewhere smaller
and more relaxing. Dr. Y. led us to one of his favorite hangouts.
A very nice place to drink whatever you like, and sing as many songs as you can
belt out. We all did all of the above. It was an excellent
Talk and Listen. Listen and Sing. Listen and Hum along.
With the SONG. We were all on the same page this evening.
2007 April 2 Monday.
It
won't be long now until everybody will be going back to school, and the full
time housewives can finally get some rest during the day, when their kids are
not at home. In my case, my outside teaching jobs will resume next
week, except for the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 which just kept rolling along during the
spring break. Again today, most of the members were present and we
all talked about various things. Today, I discovered that one of the
ladies who joined our group just last week, has a very good sense of humor, and
likes to play around with words making puns 駄洒落 and other plays on words 語呂合わせ.
I myself do this all the time in both English and in Japanese. It just
comes naturally to me and is a part of my personality. It always has been
since I was a very young child. Maybe I should have been a stand up
comedian instead of a language aficionado. What am I talking about,
they ARE the same thing. Anyway, today was another
completely enjoyable 90 minutes with this very nice group of people.
When that lesson was finished at about 14:40, I hurried back to my classroom for
straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. During my 15:00
lesson, the lady who has been coming almost every week since April of last year,
brought along her vertical flute again, and also a children's book which was
written in Japanese entitled スーホの白い馬. She told me that she wanted to
try and translate this story into English, and that she would first like to read
it to me out loud 朗読. I was more than happy to sit there and look at
the illustrations and listen to the words of this very old story. I
was immediately impressed by her very easy to listen to voice, which in my
opinion is most certainly good enough for recording audio books for the blind,
or anyone else who likes to listen to book readings. After she had read
the entire book out loud, she went back to page one and began to read it out
loud in English while looking at the Japanese script. She did a
pretty good job. However, this being a children's story, the choice of
words and the cadence of the rhythms is of utmost importance, and I was able to
help her with vocabulary and syntax in order to help the translation move along
more smoothly. She said that she would try and do some more of it at
home, and then show me what she has written at next week's lesson. I
replied that I thought that was a very good idea, and asked her if she wanted to
play some live music again today. She said yes, so I went and
fetched my guitar and we played a Hebrew song over and over about 5 or 6 or
maybe even 7 times. I played the guitar much better this week than I
did last week. It's because I finally got the rhythm almost right.
I still haven't learned how to play the flute. Let me correct that.
I can play a grand total of three notes clearly on it so if I change the
ordering and timing, along with the rhythm I can play around on it for a short
while. But it does get old rather quickly. Obviously, I
need more practice time.
2007 April 1 Sunday.
This
afternoon, Ikuko and I took a drive towards the mountains, going east.
We crossed over the Chubetsu Bridge from Kagura, turned right onto 4 Jo Doori
and then just drove straight ahead for about 24 kilometers. We ended up at an
elementary school called 志比内小学校, which is in Higashi Kagura, and right next door
to Higashikawa Town. An easy drive from the center of Asahikawa, and
a damn nice place to live and raise children among the endless wonders of
nature. I have been here many many times before. In
fact, up until about 2 years ago, I would pedal my mountain bike all the way out
to here, from Kagura, along the Chubetsu River Cycling Road and, end up
right here at this very location.
I think I need to start doing that again this year. It's been a long
time since I have taken this excellent bicycle ride. Anyway, one of the things
that I was surprised to see here today, was a statue of Kinjiro in front of the
school. These statues have become more and more rare in Japan since
the end of the Pacific War. This one is not made of bronze, it is
made from concrete. But, that's OK because IT IS in real time. IT IS the
intention (thought) that counts. By the way, the air out here,
just a couple of dozen kilometers away from the center of Asahikawa, is really
fresh and clean. I would describe it as being "delicious", because smell
and taste are virtually the same thing. Have you ever been in a
situation where you have had a stuffed up nose, because of a cold or allergies?
I mean a nose that is so plugged up, that you can not breathe through it.
At such times, food doesn't taste very good, does it. In fact, it
seems to have almost not taste at all. The nose and the mouth.
Smells and Tastes. What is the difference? Not much.
When both are working in tandem at optimal levels, everything IS beautiful.
Everything. Except for maybe when living in the middle of a BIG
CITY. Then it might cause some discomfort, because the smells
emanating from that crowded environment, may not be so pleasant.
A stand up comedian from Texas by the name of Bill Hicks
put it succinctly when he said the following in one of his endless comedy
routines. "People tell me that if I quit
smoking, I will get my sense of smell back. Hey, I live in New York
City. I don't want my sense of smell back. Do I smell urine?
Is that the smell of a dead guy? I don't want my sense of smell back."
The other option to this dilemma is to move out to the country, and quit
smoking. Unfortunately, Bill Hicks is no longer with us. He
died at the age of about 33 years old. However, his wit and humor
live on forever in the form of CDs, DVDs, and of course, videos on the internet.
If you are totally unfamiliar with the persona of Bill Hicks, of whom I am
talking about, you can see a sample of his stand up comedy by
clicking here. It is better to laugh, than it is to
cry. It is better to love your life, than it is to hate it.
Either way, it is YOUR choice. And YOURS ALONE.
Learning Should BE fun. And it IS SO if DONE properly.
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