2006 October 24 Tuesday.
Tuesdays with Mr. T. The image you can see on the left, was photographed by me from a full-open one-page special article, in the Hokkaido Newspaper Evening Edition of October 7 （土）, entitled; The Written Languages of the World 世界の文字. This is only a small section of that page, but it shows how the Japanese "alphabet" would be rendered if the same sounds were written using the Korean Alphabet, HanGul. Mr. T and I had a very amusing time, writing Japanese words using the Korean Alphabet as our symbol system. Although Korean children do not learn their native alphabet from this same chart, for any person who is interested in learning some of the basic "letters" of the Korean Alphabet, and who can also read the Japanese KaNa, this chart is a very good quick-fire introduction to the HanGul writing system. After my fun filled lesson with Mr. T., I had straight classes until 20:00. Then, it was time to do some research on the internet. Oh, how I love the World Wide Web. Information, and misinformation and also a whole lot of disinformation, at your fingertips, for anyone to access at anytime, from almost anywhere on the planet. For those students of English who are not familiar with the two vocabulary items; misinformation and disinformation, let me take this brief opportunity to explain the difference in their meanings and common usages. Misinformation means that; I tell you some information, but I unintentionally make a mistake with the facts. For example, I might say; "The 1974 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo." Clearly, I have my facts mixed up. First of all, there were no Olympic Games in 1974. It was an off year. There were Winter Olympics in 1972 and then again in 1976. Which one was the Sapporo Winter Olympics? Do a search on the internet for yourself, if you are not sure. On the other hand,..... Disinformation, means that; I know what I am telling you is not true, I know it is a lie, a complete fiction, but I tell it to you anyway in the hope that you will believe it, just long enough, so that I can achieve my hidden agenda. For example, if I tell you a fantastic story and say that; "19 Arab hijackers took over 4 civilian airliners inside the USA and, crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and that the burning jet fuel weakened the steel core buildings so much that they completely collapsed into they very own footprints at ground level, and that the master mind control center of these terrorist attacks is located inside an ultra-modern, high-tech underground cave-system network, deep inside the mountains of AFGHANISTAN"., you might believe me for a few minutes or a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months, or maybe even a few years, but finally you would be able to figure out that this wild story is a complete work of fiction. It doesn't make any sense at all, and in fact, the story can be disproved by using the laws of physics and simple mathematics. You would then be able to recognize for yourself that, it is in fact, disinformation. Does everyone now understand the difference in the meanings and usages of the two words; MISINFORMATION and DISINFORMATION? Read and watch everything with a critical eye, and listen to everything with a critical ear. Use your brain. Thank you again, for coming here today. Class dismissed!
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