Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for March 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 March 30 Monday and March 31 Tuesday.
Today
is my skinny little sister's 46th birthday! Happy birthday Sissy-O!
Are you still skinny, or are you getting chubby in your older age? As for
me, I am a fat older man who never gets enough exercise, anymore. I spend
most of my time, sitting in a chair, improving my brain.
The last time I saw my little sister, she was skinny as she always has been since childhood, but that was almost ten years ago, so things may have changed by now.
After our father and mother died, I have not traveled back to the USA. In fact, I have not even been outside of Hokkaido, since that time either.
I lived in the USA for 33 years, and I have been to almost everywhere within that country, except for the deep south, so I have no compelling reason to go back there, ever again.
My sister has never been to Hokkaido, nor Japan for that matter, so I always invite her to come and visit me and Ikuko every summer, but she never comes because she doesn't want to leave her two cats alone, for more than 24 hours.
Don't they have pet hotels in the USA?
They have them over here.
Anyway, Happy Birthday!!!! Meow Now Paws. It's that time in the life cycle to take stock of what's really important, and do something different for a change.
As for me, I would like to visit Korea within the next year or two. I have been studying the Korean Language for almost 4 years now, and I am making much progress in all 4 areas of language acquisition. Listening comprehension, speaking ability, reading and writing.
When I get to the point where I feel comfortable talking to a total stranger in Korean, about daily life customs, and when I can read the menus and signboards quickly and easily, I will make a trip to Korea and use my knowledge of the language to gain even more knowledge, about everything Korean, exponentially.
Xit! By that time, South and North Korea might even be reunited into one country, already!!! Phuck Yeah!!!
Either way, I will be there, when it happens.
2009 March 25 Tuesday thru March 29 Sunday.
Last
Tuesday while I was watching the Samurai Japan vs. Korea World Classic Baseball
championship game on TV, I noticed a crew of workmen putting something new on
the big highway signboard that is just outside of my window.
At first, I though that they were going to take the sign down and put up a new one, but as the work progressed, I could see that they were doing something different.
First they put metal brackets on both sides of the sign board.
Then they hoisted up a roll, of what looks from here, like nylon sheeting.
They put the roll of nylon sheeting on the top of the frame, then they rolled it down over the metal frame so that it covers the back of the signboard.
You can see in the photos on the left, what I have just described above.
In photo number 4 you can see the finished job.
The only question I have is; "What is the purpose of this?"
To protect the sign from wind?
I doubt it. This sign has lived through the big typhoon that hit here in September of 2004. In fact, the new nylon sheet if it had been attached to the sign at that time, most likely would have been ripped off by the strong winds.
I still can't figure out what the purpose of this new attachment to the road sign is all about.
Maybe I will in the future if I see it in action on some other day.
What do you think it is for?
2009 March 24 Tuesday.
Well,
they have done it again. Samurai Japan has won the World Baseball Classic
tournament for the second time in a row, defending their victory in the very
first ever WBC, which was held in March of 2006.
This year was only the second time this event has taken place, and Japan has won it both times.
Today's game was probably the best baseball game I have ever seen, anywhere. There were no slackers on either team and it was a very tense 4 hour event.
Japan scored first, with one run in the top of the 3rd inning. Korea scored one run in the bottom of the 5th inning to tie the score at 1 to 1.
Japan scored one run in the top of the 7th inning, and one run in the top of the 8th inning, bringing the score to 3 to 1 in Japan's favor.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Korea struck back with one run, narrowing Japan's lead to 3 to 2.
Then, things got really interesting in the bottom of the 9th inning, when Korea scored another run, tying the score at 3 to 3.
As
a result, the game went into extra innings when Japan came to bat at the top of
the 10th inning.
This was when ICHIRO showed everybody, yet again, why he is the best overall baseball player in the world today.
In the top of the 10th inning, Japan had runners at 1st base and 3rd base. While ICHIRO was up at bat, the runner on first base, stole second base and entered into scoring position.
Ichiro took 8 pitches during his at bat, fouling off about 4 or 5 of them.
Finally on the 8th pitch, Ichiro smacked a perfectly placed base hit into center field, exactly half way between the 2nd baseman and the center fielder.
This made it possible for the two on base runners to score, putting Japan in the lead, at 5 to 3.
In the bottom of the 10 inning, with Darvish on the mound, Korea was unable to score any more runs, and the game ended with Japan as the victor.
Oh! what a feeling!!!!
The next World Baseball Classic is scheduled for the year 2013. Will there still be a world at that time? Let's all hope so.
2009 March 23 Monday.
The
2009 World Baseball Classic is almost finished, as Japan and Korea will meet
again, in the final game of the championship series.
The game between the USA and Japan was broadcast live, starting at about 09:00 Japan Standard Time. I didn't have any morning classes today, so I switched on the TV to watch the entire game. I almost never watch sports on TV, but for special events such as this one, I make an exception.
What struck me most about the match between the USA and Japan, was the over abundance of enthusiasm of the Japanese team, and the lack of effort by the USA team.
The game started out with a homerun by the USA team, and things didn't look so good for Japan at that moment, but as the game went on, everything changed in favor of Japan.
In fact, as the game went into the 4th inning, Japan was behind 2 to 1, but they scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning, and completely took the fight out of the USA team. The American players looked as if they had just given up, and weren't even trying to play baseball anymore. They came off looking like a bunch of spoiled cry babies. What ever happened to "YES WE CAN!"???
In my opinion, the USA players were thinking more about the money side of things and less about the baseball side of things. They are not getting paid as much as they do in the MLB games, so they don't really care what happens. They are not interested in baseball for the sake of baseball. Everyone wants to be a homerun hitter, and not play as a team. Plus, they had some very sloppy defense during this game, throwing from 3rd base and shortstop to first base, too high, forcing the first baseman to jump up and take his foot off of the bag. Ichiro and several other players used their running speed to step onto the first base bag faster than the first baseman, and later scored runs out of these situations. Also, the USA outfielders were not running very fast nor trying to chase the ball very hard, allowing the Japanese players run around the bases and score extra points. Very sloppy indeed.
On
the other hand, the Japanese team kept up the pace and fought harder and harder
as the game went on, even though they had a very comfortable lead in points from
the 4th inning onwards.
In the photo on the left, you can see ICHIRO turning a very low pitch, into a base hit, and driving home another run.
It looks more like he is playing golf, than playing baseball.
It takes a lot of extra effort to go after a bad pitch like that one, and turn it into gold.
Tomorrow morning, starting at 10:30 Japan Standard Time, will be the final match between Japan and Korea.
I am really looking forward to watching this game, because both of these teams train hard and play hard. There won't be any slacking off by any of the players in tomorrow's game. They both play the basics very well, and play as a team.
I just hope the air pollution in Los Angeles isn't too bad for the occasion.
2009 March 21 Saturday and March 22 Sunday.
Both
yesterday and today were beautiful sunny days with above freezing temperatures
during the day, and well into the evening hours. All of the major roads
are completely free of snow and ice, and most of them are bone dry as well.
Of course, on days like these, it is time to go for a drive.
As expected, a lot of other people had the same idea and there were many cars out on the roads.
One of the places I stopped at along the way, after a quick car wash, was the One Million Volts (100万ボルト) electronics and home appliances store on Route 237.
I needed to buy some more A4 sized, super fine color graphics ink jet printer paper. This is same printer paper which I use to make the laminated photo flash cards, that you can see in the photo above/left.
This particular job took me all of Saturday night and all of Sunday morning, plus part of Sunday evening, to complete.
If you look at my advertisement in the NTT Town Pages (Yellow Pages), or the poster of that same design on the top page of this website, you will see that it says; スノーマン先生のオリジナル手作り教材使用. Translated into English this says; We use Snowman Teacher's original, handmade learning materials.
That is true for 99% of all classes at this school. The only exceptions, being for students who are studying for the Eiken 英検 TOEIC or TOFEL examinations. There are already thousands of good textbooks available on the market which are perfectly suited for these purposes, and it doesn't make any sense to try and reduplicate these teaching materials.
Also, I have some students who have lived in the USA for several years as children, and who have attended American Public Schools, so I will use the books and other learning materials, which they bring with them to my classroom.
The bottom line, is to make each and every lesson, easy to understand and enjoyable for the students. So far, I have done a damn good job of it. And every day, I get better at what I do, because that is what I do for a living. I have no guaranteed monthly salary and no guaranteed retirement pension. Phuck that Xit! I wanna live every day, doing what I love to do, when I want to do it, and learning as much as possible, along the way. Despite what many people believe, there is no guarantee for tomorrow. There is only the present moment. It is always NOW. Everything else are merely photographs and memories. Let's hope that they are mostly good ones.
2009 March 14 Saturday thru March 20 Friday.
Today
is a National Holiday in Japan because it is the Spring Equinox Day.
After another very long winter, I am so happy to see this day again. The daylight hours will be more than the nighttime hours for a full six months.
Winter in Hokkaido is still not quite finished though, as there will be more snowfalls during the next month, but the amount of snow on the ground will quickly decrease on a daily basis. In fact, the parking lot in front of my classroom is completely free of snow and ice, thanks to the efforts of the snow removal team.
I didn't have any lessons at my classroom today because of the national holiday, so I used the time to print out some more photograph flash cards, that I am using with my youngest students.
There are 5 photos on each A4 sized sheet of paper, and it takes about 5 minutes to print out just one sheet. I printed out about 35 sheets today so it took me all morning and some of the afternoon to get the job done.
Tomorrow, after my private lesson in the morning, I will start to cut and laminate the photos into business card sized flash cards. This will also take many hours over the next two days to complete. However, once the cards have been made, they can be used over and over again for hundreds or even thousands of lesson hours in the future.
Also, during the previous week after lessons where finished at 20:00 or 21:00, I got out my electric bass guitar and practiced the Circle of Fourths Jazz scales, over and over again, every day.
I have found that doing these basic major scale exercises, has greatly improved my spontaneous bass playing, over all. If a person has mastered the basics, in any endeavor, then the other more complicated stuff comes much more quickly and naturally. ICHIRO knows this very well. That is why he is always at the baseball park 3 hours before the start of every game, warming up and practicing the basics. His statistics prove that this method works.
2009 March 9 Monday thru March 13 Friday.
The
snow continues to melt during the day, only to be replaced in part, by snow
storms during the night. Because it doesn't get dark in the evening
as early as it did in previous months, it is starting to feel a lot more like
springtime, bit by bit, every day. However, the real feeling of springtime
is still a few months away.
On Tuesday evening starting at 19:00, I went to the Asahikawa Grand Hotel in order to attend the Graduation Party for the Kosei Nursing School students. As usual, the food was excellent, and the whisky wasn't bad either. I taught English to these students when they were in their first year at the school. That was 3 years ago, so I had some trouble remembering their names, and even some of their faces.
You can see all of the 66 graduating students in the photo on the left, which I took right at the end of the party as they were all up on stage singing.
The nice thing about graduating from a nursing school, is that each and every student has a guaranteed full time job, if they pass the National Nursing Examination.
In tough economic times like these, that is a very good thing indeed.
Some of the students were even able to get jobs in or very near to their hometowns. That way, they can live at home with their parents and save even more money for their futures.
After
the graduation party was finished at 21:00, I walked on over to the Planet
Building and took the elevator up to the 8th floor where the
Piano in Pub is located.
Being a Tuesday night, it wasn't at all crowded so I had a lot of opportunity to play the bass guitar and sing songs.
The guy at the piano is the owner of the place, and he can play almost any song that you can think of, including all of the Jazz Standards that have ever been written.
The guy on the 6 string electric guitar lives in Yokohama now, but his hometown is Asahikawa, and he was up here to visit his mother and sister during his spring vacation from work.
The guy on the electric bass guitar is me!
When this photo was taken, we were playing an original instrumental song written by the guitar player. It was a smooth mellow tune, sort of like an old Santana song from the album Abraxas.
I stayed at the Piano in Pub until they closed at 01:00, and then took a taxi home.
I was rather hungry when I got home so I made myself a beef rice bowl and ate that slowly before going to bed at about 03:00. I don't have any morning classes until about mid-April, so now is my big chance to get out at night and play some live music. After morning classes start again, I won't be able to do this until about the end of July thru mid-August when I will take a 3 week summer vacation, but I will continue to practice Jazz Scales for the Bass Guitar, at my home, every chance I get.
2009 March 1 Sunday thru March 8 Sunday.
Another
wonderful week of classes at my classroom only, because all of my outside jobs
at the university, nursing schools and kindergartens are finished until about
mid-April of this year. The one exception is the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会 on
Monday afternoons.
Just last week, about 6 or 7 of my students took the Eiken exam at various levels, and ALL OF THEM PASSED! This includes the interview portion of the examination. I spent time with each and everyone of them before their exams, practicing for the interview portion of the test, and they all said that it really helped them a lot, on test day. I'm very glad to hear that, because that's my job.
The photo you can see in today's blog was taken on Saturday February 21, which I wrote about in this blog for that week.
It was taken by the owner of the place, and shows me playing his bass guitar in accompaniment with Coconut Crush on acoustic guitars.
I think I have mentioned it before, but I love to play the bass guitar more than any other musical instrument.
The sound is deep and soothing, I can play rhythm and melody at the same time, and I don't have to move around very much to get the job done. It's the perfect hobby for a fat old man like me.
In
fact, every day this week, after my lessons were finished, I got out my practice
bass and big amplifier, and played the electric bass guitar for about 2 or 3
hours.
My practice bass is the brown colored one on the right, and my stage bass is the gold colored one on the left.
Why do I have two bass guitars?
Simple. The stage bass is about two times heavier than the practice bass, but it does sound much better. The practice bass is much lighter than the stage bass and this is important when you are practicing many hours in one session. Also, it sounds good enough to play on stage if I need to use it for that purpose.
For my practice sessions at home, I start out with a textbook called "Easy Bass" and go through all of the exercises that I have learned so far, plus one new lesson each day. The book comes with a CD that plays each exercise two times. One time with the bass guitar and electric guitar parts together, and the second time with just the electric 6 string guitar part of the exercise.
This allows me to play the bass lines along with the 6 string guitar track, and see how well I can do it while looking at the sheet music.
After about 30 to 40 minutes of practicing out of the book, I put on some of my favorite music and play along with the CDs.
This week, I have been playing all of the songs on "The very best of the EAGLES" and the Canadian Country and Western singer Terri Clark's album "FEARLESS".
I think most people in Japan my age and somewhat younger, have heard the EAGLES music before. Especially popular over here is "The Hotel California". Although the 6 string guitar parts on this song are very difficult, the bass lines are not very hard. All of the songs on this album are very good, and I have learned to play almost all of them.
The Terri Clark album has a lot of pedal steel guitar tracks on it, and has that quintessential C&W sound. Also, it is a lot of fun to play along with, on the electric bass guitar.
Besides playing a lot of bass guitar recently, I am back to making more laminated flash cards of photographs for learning basic English vocabulary and sentences. These cards work very well with the really young students who can not yet read. They understand the meaning in the photographs and then listen to what I say and repeat it, over and over again. They learn how to THINK IN ENGLISH this way. The natural way. The very same way they learned how to speak Japanese.
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