Education

After listening to today’s presentations and reading what the new Minister of Education in the newspapers. Please read the opinion in the December 6th International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/06/opinion/edkumiko.php　Do you agree with the writer? Why? Give at least 3 examples to support your answer.

Yes, I think I agree with the writer. I hope I understood the article...

For this global world, using English is needed by many people and many situations. And people in the world already know about it.

We (Japanese people) live in an island which is named Japan, so I am pretty sure that is why some people do not care if they cannot speak English. Some people say “I don’t want to study English because I don’t need it, I will not get out from Japan, so I can still live here even I can’t speak English at all.” I know what the person means. Indeed, we can live without English in here.
We know that English is becoming one of international languages now, but I think many people thinking like “it is not our business”.

In Korea, they need TOEIC score at least 700 points when they do job hunting things. My Korean friend told me that they usually need that much high score because it is nearly always one of requirements to enter a company or so. Of course they have to study English, so they are studying English very hard at least more than Japanese people.
I think Japanese people do not have such like big motivation to study English.

The most of people or most of companies in Japan do not require us to speak English that much as long as we do not get any jobs which are obviously required to speak English. So there are not a lot of chances to use English in Japan. I think this situation is making us feel like “it’s ok if we couldn’t speak English” or something like that. And Japanese people do not have strong mind of “competition” I guess. Even if we couldn’t do something well most of people will think like “oh well…” that’s it. So, I feel that most of Japanese people just think “I wish I could speak English”, but they do not “do” something for the wish, they just wish something.

I think there are too many reasons why the writer thought like that... ;o(

Men and Women

This week's homework is to read an article from the Japan Times and give your opinion. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?ek20060110ks.htm
Do you agree or disagree with the author (who is Japanese). Please explain why in your blog.

Here is my opinion, but I am not sure that I could understand exactly the article…

I have no idea about that. I would like to say I do not agree with the author, but I know what the author means. But, I just cannot understand why there are such guys or men who are like in the article. And I hope I will never meet like that kind of person as my boyfriend, husband or anybody. It is just because it sounds “not nice” to me if there are such kind of guys or men. That is horrible to me!! To me, if people couldn’t “fall in love” with someone from the bottom of their hearts, then they do not have to make any “girlfriends”, do not have to go out of their way to make girlfriends. Why they have girlfriends? Just they should do whatever they want, like work or make money without worry about you do not have any partners right now! In my opinion, guys in the article are just selfish or they have too many things they want. It’s because it seems like the guys want partners, but they do not want to do something like “troublesome”. If they did not want to “waste” their money for girls, then just do not hang out with girls. I guess they are just lonely? They just want to someone “around them”? I think if people love somebody from the bottom of their hearts people will do anything for lovers without any worry, or people feel want to do anything for lovers.

Table Manners

Have you ever eaten in a foreign restaurant? Where? What did you eat? Did you make any mistakes? Please explain your experience. Did you learn anything?

Yes, I have eaten in foreign restaurant. It was a Korean restaurant. I ate some Korean food at Korean restaurant with my friend who is from Korean. I think I didn’t make any mistakes, but sometimes there were something made me surprise or made me giggle. First, they have a dish which is for rice (like “rice bowl”) in Korea too as we have it in Japan. Usually, the dish is kind of small, and Japanese people always hold up the rice bowl when we eat rice with the rice bowl because if we didn’t do it, it’s going to be “rude” in Japan. However, Korean people never hold the rice bowl because holding the rice bowl or any dishes when they eat is rude in Korea. So, it looked a little strange to me because nobody even touched or supported the dishes. To me, it was like they didn’t show their “the other hands” which didn’t have chopsticks or spoons. So, I felt like “wow… eating like that is uncomfortable to me…” That is one of what made me surprise.