Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for January 2009
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
2009 January 26 Monday thru January 31 Saturday.
The
last week of January and still the day time temperatures get above freezing with
warm sunshine to help the melting, but night time temperatures are getting down
to minus 12 to minus 14 degrees Celsius, thus freezing everything into the most
bizarre skating rink that you can imagine. Even walking on over to the
supermarket next door is a hazardous undertaking.
During the previous 3 weeks since the end of my winter vacation, about 7 or 8 new students have signed up to take weekly lessons at my little classroom. About half of them are adults and the other half are elementary school and junior high school students.
Some of them knew about my classroom from the Town Pages (Yellow Pages) but most of them found this website on the internet while looking for an English Conversation School in Asahikawa. One new student found out about my classroom from the recommendation 口コミ of one of my current students.
Speaking of the Town Pages, when I got the new book for this year of 2009, I was shocked to discover that my ad for this school, is now the biggest in size of all of the other ads for English Conversation Schools, including the nationwide chain schools!
I didn't make my advertisement bigger this year, everyone else made theirs smaller. Frankly speaking, I'm a little bit embarrassed by this. I think next year I will reduce the size (and cost) of the advertisement so that I don't look like such a show-off.
By the way, since about 3 years ago, most of the people who contact me about taking lessons at this school, have found my website on the internet, and didn't even bother to look at the Town Pages at all. Obviously, the internet is a much more cost effective way to advertise almost any product or service, especially if you can design and launch your own websites without having to hire someone else to do it for you.
In my opinion, any business that doesn't have a website which is Search Engine Optimized, and thus easy to find through any Search Engine, is losing many sales each and every day, because almost nobody knows that the businesses exist.
Wake up guys! We are firmly into the Information Technology age. Jump on board or get left behind.
By the way, the photo in today's blog is of a crappy ice sculpture that I did for the 2001 Asahikawa Winter Festival. It was my first attempt at making an ice sculpture, and it will be my last. Not only was it bitterly cold, but I couldn't get the ice to form the way I wanted it to, so I ended up with this boring and ridiculous "snowman" looking thing. Every other ice carving at that year's event was much better than mine. To see a self-playing photo slide show of the 2001 Asahikawa Winter Festival, click here.
2009 January 19 Monday thru January 25 Sunday.
It
has been a week of various weather patterns. Everything from blowing snow
storms to rain in the afternoon. I can't decide if it is winter or spring.
The unfortunate results for people using the roads and sidewalks is that you get a very uneven surface, with large humps and big depressions of icy snow, making driving less than pleasant, and dangerously slippery.
Even walking can be a challenge in not falling down, which I did one time as I stepped onto an elevated ridge of ice, and then promptly slipped down into the depression, falling down onto my right knee. No harm done and no pain, but it could have been worse.
The photo you can see in today's blog, is of an ongoing new project of mine, to make photographs into flash cards, that I can use to teach English to my youngest beginning students, and to older "false beginner" students.
The term "false beginner" is used by language teachers to describe students who have studied a foreign language in the past, but have not used that language for a long time and have thus forgotten much of it. A "true beginner", is a person who is trying to learn a foreign language for the very first time.
For example, in my case, I am a false beginner of the German, French, Chinese and Thai languages. I have spent hundreds even thousands of hours, in the past, actively studying these languages, and at those times, I could actually use them in daily life if necessary. However, that was many years ago.
USE IT, OR LOSE IT. Is a universal law that never changes when it comes to proficiency in almost any skill. In other words, the things which you do not do on an almost daily basis, are the things which you will forget how to do.
On the other hand, I am a "true beginner" in my study of the Korean Language, because I only began learning it for the first time less than 4 years ago. It was completely and totally new to me. Which means, I had to start from the most basic of basics and struggle to remember them. I have made much progress, but I still have a very long way to go. That is one of the things that makes it extremely interesting for me. The chance to relive an experience which I had, when I first started learning the Japanese Language more than 30 years ago.
It is also a valuable lesson for me, when thinking about how to best teach English to the True Beginners, who come to my classroom. Using images, especially photographs, to show things that everyone intrinsically understands, but does not yet know how to say in a foreign language, is the most effective learning tool in getting off to a quick start, in the learning of any new language.
That is why I am, and will be, spending hundreds of hours making these new photographic flash cards for my True Beginner and False Beginner students. It is good for them to learn English, and also good for me to learn Korean.
Another win/win situation. There are no losers. It is merely a choice of how to spend the time of our lives. Being creative, or being passive. Learning something new, or forgetting what we have already learned thru lack of use. It is freedom of choice. My choice and your choice. The way we spend our time, is what we are becoming. There is a direct connection.
2009 January 13 Tuesday thru January 18 Sunday.
My
first week back at work after a 3 week winter vacation, and all I can say is
"It's great to be useful again."
Even though the elementary, junior high, and high schools don't open until Monday January 19, most of my students in those age groups came to my classroom anyway, during this week. In other words, they had to make a special effort to come to their lessons. Thank you!
The photo you can see above/left, was taken at the Asahiyama Zoo here in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido Japan. It is of the famous penguin walk that is held two times each day during the winter season, at 11:00 and 14:30.
Two of the students who come to my classroom, work at the Asahiyama Zoo. One of them is in charge of the Penguin House, and the other student is in charge of the Ezo Shika Deer Forest. Both of them were working on Saturday, and I really enjoyed seeing them at work, along with the beautiful animals that they take care of.
All in all, there were about 20 penguins of all sizes participating in the rather long penguin walk. I don't know for sure, but the circular course that they walked from the Penguin House towards the West Gate, and then back again to the Penguin House, must have been about one kilometer in length, and it took them about 40 minutes to complete.
Another interesting thing about watching this event, is that you can see how each and every penguin has a unique personality, which shows through in their individual behaviors.
For
example, one small penguin would walk far ahead of the group, and then stop
along the sidelines to look at all of the people, close up. Other
penguins would get off course and go for the deep powder snow, then slide down
to the bottom of the small hills on their bellies.
Other penguins would just follow along with the group, and do nothing remarkable or different.
Sounds a lot like human beings, doesn't it.
We are animals too.
Not only did I take some photos, but I also took about 4 minutes of video movie pictures with the same camera. The picture quality of the video is not very good, but the video does give you a very good idea of what this event is like. To watch the video on You Tube click here.
In addition to the Penguin walk, we also visited the Seal House あざらし館, the Ferocious Animals House 猛獣館 where I was fascinated with watching the very beautiful, but very scary TIGERS.
The Ezo Shika Deer Forest 蝦夷鹿の森 with the beautiful and resting four hoofed creatures that exist naturally all over Hokkaido, and the Wolf Forest 狼の森 which had about 3 wolves that I could see on this day.
Even though the temperatures got down to only about minus 3 degrees Celsius while we were there, it was starting to feel very cold by 15:30 when the Zoo was closing for the day.
The
Asahiyama Zoo is truly worth visiting, and visiting often. You can
buy a season ticket, called a PASSPORT for only 1,000 yen and come as often as
you like during the year.
What could be better?
Take your family and spend a day at the zoo.
Not only will you learn a lot about the beautiful animals, you will also learn something about yourself.
If you are fortunate, you will come to realize that you and I, all of the animals, all of the plants, and everything else that we can see, touch, taste, smell, feel and imagine, ARE ALL INTER-CONNECTED.
You need never feel all alone, ever again.
You never were, you never are, and you never will be, all alone.
Your very existence PROVES that you are a part of the whole.
That is why you exist in the first place. Again and again.
War is for idiots. PEACE is for the enlightened. Fasten your seat belts. XIT is going to hit the fan, big time, within the next few weeks. Don't get caught by surprise, with your mind in the gutter.
Love yourself. Love your neighbor.
2009 January 2 Friday thru January 12 Monday.
Today
is a National Holiday in Japan known as SeiJin no Hi 成人の日, in other words Coming
of Age Day. There were big and small ceremonies held all over Japan
today for those young people who turned 20 years old during the past year.
They are now considered adults, although many of them are still children at
heart. Some of the things that they can do now is to buy alcohol and
tobacco. Also, they need to start paying their monthly Retirement Pension
Contribution Payments 国民年金納付. In the USA they have a similar
scheme and it is called Social Security Tax. People like to think
that the government is taking their money and saving it in a special account
just for them, but the fact of the matter is, the government is paying out that
money as fast as they receive it, to the over 65 years old people who are living
now. This Social Security or Retirement Pension System is no
different than a
Ponzi Scheme. Unfortunately, for
the young people, making these payments is required by law. They've
got you either way, both coming and going.
The photo you can see above/left, was taken on January 11 and is of the annual DonDo Yaki どんど焼き that takes place at the Kamikawa Shrine 上川神社 which is not far from my home.
Before New Year's Day, many people, including Ikuko and I, buy very beautiful year-end/new-year decorations, and put them up at the front entrance to our classroom, and other places around the inside of our home/classroom. These decorations are very beautiful, and in Western eyes it would seem to be a big waste, but this custom is rooted in the Shinto Belief System 神道 which views the SUN 太陽 as the supreme god that rules over the earth. Fire is closely associated with the sun, and the rising smoke takes the prayers and wishes of the people closer to that source of all life on earth. It makes perfectly good sense to me.
Starting tomorrow, January 13, it is back to teaching classes here at my school and at all of the other schools outside of my little ole classroom. Even though I had a three week vacation and did many things at I normally can't do when I am working full time, I did get a bit bored by having so much free time on my hands.
Some of the things we did during the three week winter vacation were to go out and have lunchor dinner at various sushi and ramen shops. I especially love KaiTenZushi 回転寿司 the revolving sushi counter restaurants where you can start eating, as soon as you sit down.
My skinny little sister who lives in Seattle, likes to make fun of Japanese Food, but she really has no idea as to what she is missing. Raw Fish!?! Slimy Fermented Soy Beans!?! Oh my gawd!!! About the only thing we can agree on is Brown Rice, but most Japanese people don't eat it that way, nowadays.
What else did I do during winter vacation,.... I spent a lot of time learning the Korean Language, using my newly purchased Rosetta World PC software language learning package for levels 1, 2 & 3 with Audio Companion. I must say, this language learning software is EXCELLENT!!! It uses photographs, sound and written language WITH NO TRANSLATIONS. It uses exactly the same approach to learning a foreign language, that you used when learning your own native language. What could be better? Rosetta World software is available in 31 languages including Latin! If you are learning English, Japanese, Chinese, Thai or whatever, you owe it to yourself to check out this excellent language learning software. You can study at home, by yourself, and then try out your newly acquired knowledge on a native speaker of that language. For more information on Rosetta World, CLICK HERE.
Let's see,..... What else did I do during winter vacation????
Oh yeah, I made a series of completely new flash cards for my students of all ages, about 250 new laminated, full color photographs with text on the back, made into the standard business card size. These new cards will be useful for many many years, meaning thousands and thousands of lessons. Yeah, in reality, I was still working even during my winter vacation.
Also, I spent some time playing the ShakuHachi 尺八 and the electric guitar unplugged. The ShakuHachi is not easy to play, but the more I play it the better I get at it. This encourages me to continue. The electric guitar is something that I have been playing for more than 30 years, so it is automatic. Especially when playing such simple songs as written by Tom Petty, SPITZ and other Kick Ass Rock and Roll bands. Music should be FUN. Simple is best when it comes to Rock and Roll.
2009 January 1 Thursday.
Happy New Year everyone! If you live in a nation
of Western Culture, you may have spent the final minutes of the count down to
2009, at some loud and rowdy party, or a least watching such an event on the TV.
Here in Japan, the final minutes towards the countdown to the new year, are observed with a much more solemn and serious frame of mind.
Ikuko and I stayed at home and had a nice meal of chicken and shrimp, cooked every so slowly on a big round electric hot plate which was placed on the lesson table of our classroom.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, we started watching NHK television as they showed scenes from various parts of Japan, where many people had gathered at Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines, including the Numata Shrine right here in Hokkaido 沼田町にある沼田神社。 The video broadcast from Numata Town was particularly interesting because the townspeople had taken 108 burning torches 松明 and placed them on the local ski ground in the shape of the word for HOPE 希.
What a beautiful gesture of hope that was.
Ikuko and I hope that all of you, in Hokkaido, throughout Japan and all around the rest of the world have a hopeful and peaceful new year in 2009.
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