Yuriko from great gaidai

the last day of IES-b class!

2006-01-26T05:41:00.000-08:00

wow~~~its the last day of our ies class! i cant believe it!!!! we studied toghether for 2 years now i dont feel we are just friends,,,its like a ies family~
^u^ now some of us go overseas and others stay here at Gaidai. i hope whatever we do will be successuful!

are you keeping a diary?

2006-01-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

have you ever kept a diary? or are you keeping a diary? i think its interesting! you dont always need to write something i think, you can do it whenever you want ! i just write a diary when something unusual happened ^u^ so ...its really interesting to read it again! i can know how i felt or what i did at that time. i write things as if i was talking to someone. and maybe it doesnt need to be a diary, so why dont you write down what you thought on a piece of paper? it might be fun for some people

studying with international students

2006-01-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

i studied with international students in Kansai Gaidai for 4 nonths since im going to Australia. (pre depature course). now im taking classes which is taught in English but the pre depature course was quite different!! actually its a class for foreign students so the teacher spoke really fast and so do students. so it was really hard for me to catch up. so i was really worried about the test ,,,, but i asked some of the foreign students to study with me and it really helped me! i could get a better grade than i thought it would be! thank you for helping me~~~><

what is the meaning of studying literature

2006-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

we talked about the meaning of studying literature. is it valuable to study literature in English? my answer is yes. i studies literature in English for 1 year. when we read a story, we usually reaserch about the authors and then connect their eperience or backgroung to the story. This kind of study helped me when i did a reserch in other classes. the strategy to study literature can be used in other fields of study. moreover, in literature, i can know other people's experience that i have never experience and it was the most interesting part of studying literature.
and since its different from Japanese literature, i can know about different cultures and different ways of thinking.

studying other language in English?

2006-01-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

im thinking of studying Spanish when I go to Australia. actually i was interested in Spanish. (well i was interested in both French and Spanish). i studied Frence and and Spanish a bit by myuself but it was really difficult to do it without anyone to teach me;;; the university im going dosnt have French class so i want to take Spanish but im worried if its too difficult to study Spanish in English. im thinking of taking Spanish book explained in Japanese with me(would it help me a little?) well, ill find out...

Gun society (Mr adn Mrs Smith)

2006-01-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

The other day, i watched Mr and Mrs Smith. its about a couple that both husband and wife is a killer. since they are killer, they are really good at shooting guns! they use more that 1 gun at the same time and their action is beautiful and attracts people. the film was interesting but i wonderd if this kind of film will have a bad infuence to children's image of guns.wouldnt children think they want to shoot guns like cool actors in the movie? or can they accept it as a story which just happens in a movie?

ceremony for study abroad

2006-01-23T18:52:00.000-08:00

we had a ceremony for study abroad. all the students who are going to study abroad were gathered in a hall and some of the students gave a speech. the speech was really impressive! i made me thihk that next 10 months im gonna spend in Australia will be affect my life, my way of thinkng , and everything. i hope it will be a meaningful experience.

women in Japan

2006-01-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

For the last essay in IES-b class, i wrote about women's position in Japan. do you think women in Japan are discriminated in a society? Recently, the term Kangohu(nurse) was changed into Kangoshi because Kangohu includes a word which describes women. (nurse is not a job just for women so the term was changed). it seems the position of Japanese women has been changing, now women have more opportunities to get a job, and in some fiels, women are more active than men.i dont think that women and men always need to be the same because they are different and that will never change.but if people value our abilty equally, it would be good.

Fairy tales

2006-01-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

we talked and studies about fairy tale in the literature class. stories such as Red Riding hood, Cinderella etc,,,, always have a happy ending. (prince and princess lived happily ever after,,,) however, i knew its a story made for children later. For example,in a original version of Red riding hood, a little girl is raped and both the girl and her grandmother are killed. i think it would be interesting to know the origibal version of fairy tales.

Study abroad

2006-01-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

i decided to go to Australia to study from February 8th. its coming soon! now i feel weird because im really glad that i can go to Australia to study but which mean i can not meet my classmats at kansai Gaidai uni anymore,,,, im coming back next year and will study 1 more year here but most of the students in my class go overseas for 2 years, so we cannot study together again;; but spending time in this ies-b class was a great an experience and it had a great influence in my life.

Winter Break

2006-01-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

I went back to my hometown during the winter break. my home town is in Okayama.(Next to Hiroshima). and i celebrated my 20th birthday with my family. i can not believe that im already 20! in Japan we can drink alcohol from the age of 20. and we are able to do many other things without our parents' permission. on the other hand , now i have to be responsible to many things. (if i commit a crime, my name will be on TV...)
i need to think about the meaning of being 20.

Girl suspected of slowly poisoning mum

2005-11-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

i was really surprised when i knew this news. 16 years old girl poisoned her mother and attempted to kill her. And what surprised me more is that the girl wrote how her mother became ill in her diary.i dont know how she poisoned her mum, probably she put the poison in food or drinks. Since she kept a diry , it seems that she experimented with the poison. i wonder why she experimanted on her mum. Do you think that children dont respect their parents recently?

2nd semester

2005-10-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

this is my first time to write here since the 2nd semester has started. actuallu it is very hard this semester because I started studying at CIE for study abroad.Im going to Australia so id like to learn a lot at Gaidai till Feb. In the class that im talikg with exchange students, i realised that students always say their opinions in class even if it is not really iomportant thing. So, i always try to say something in class, but actually,its really hard to understand the lecture so far. I think u need to improve my listening skill, and also my reading skill to manage a lot of homework.
because i have to do lots of readings as a homework, and probably it will be the same in Australia. im worried if i can do both IES and CIE well but i try my best.

The last day of the semester...

2005-07-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

its finally the last day of the class. i could know a lot of things i didnt know before, and i could learn it in an interesting way in this class. Thank you Scott. And thank you for everybody! in ies-b class, everyone has a great ability and i was really motivated! ill miss that Scott says " Speak English!" actually, i dont feel anything strange when i speak in English with my Japanese friends now.^o^ isnt it great? i though English was just a tool to survive in foreign countries before, but After i studied the things like Global Issues in English, i feel that English is not just a tool to talk with foreigners. its a langage which helps us to know the world.
it might be hard next semester, but im sure everybody can do their best cause we learned a lot this semester.
☆☆☆

Finished writting an essay!

2005-07-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

In my essay, i wrote about hunger. About the food production, the people who is suffering from hunger, and where they live. it was good for me to wite about hunger because i could look over the section again, and could have chance to reserch about it on the internet. Actually, i m not sure how we are going to deal with this kind of problem in the future.it seems the situation is getting better, theare are still many people suffering and dying from hunger..... however, just knowing whats happening in the world was really good for me actually, cause i didnt even know about it before.

air conditioners and tea..

2005-07-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

its funny that students in foreign teachers' classes are always freezing and teachers dont feel cold. in peter's class, he said we feel cold more cause we always have tea in summer. maybe we should have water instead...
if we think about global warming, we sholdnt use A/C very much, but the temperature in the world is geting up..what should we do ~><;; maybe we wont be able to survive without air condioners in the future.

study abroad

2005-07-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

hi ! i forgot to talk about this......everyone who applied to the study abroad program in my ies-b class passed the test ^u^its great isnt it? but we still have to study hard because if we got a bad mark on the test , we cant go to Australia....but if we could go to Australia in Feb, it would be really nice! its gonna be really busy next term....i hope i can survive.

its hot!

2005-07-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

hi ! i dont know if i can survive during this summer... its so hot and humid! i feel its hotter than last summer...dont you think so? and rainy season is very late this year. it seems the environment has been changing ;; is this a global warming??i guess its gonna be much hotter in the future...

ethics

2005-07-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

hello! its almost the end of the semester! time goes so fast >< but ive been enjoying this class so far and i think i could know many thing i didnt know before.
yesterday, we talked about ethics to understand the next chapter better. it seems everybody has different opinions about ethics. some people think it is made by our society, and some people think it comes from our conscience. but the meaning of ethic seems to be different in different countries. in some countries, what we think right might not be accepted. so i think i really need to know the cultual difference we i go to foreign countries.

Mini presentation about food☆

2005-06-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

Hi !Bonjour ^o^-☆we did a mini presentation in class! we practiced how to do a presentation in Allison's class a lot, but its still difficult to do it isnt it? especially, how to answer friends' question is difficult i think...we learned we shouldn't be quiet. Japanese like keeping silent but i didnt know that foreigners would think we are not interested in the question if we kept silent.
saying nothing is Japanese people's bad hibit>< maybe they love to say nothing because comunicating without words is considered as a virture in Japan. especially in the old days. my grandpa doesnt speak much cause he was taught not to speak too much when he was a child.
but now we cant survive in the world without showing our opinions i think^u^;;
Scott seemed to be surprised when we did mini presentation without any notes^u- but actually
we were doing about 15min presentation just with a small note in Allison's class^o^ we never memorized what we say in the presentation. some people did it without any notes... i heard they didnt have time to make notes , but its still great that they could make a nice presentation'o'/o
so... maybe we know how to do a presentation,but still need more practice^u^
Bon week-end!

What language are studying as a second language??

2005-05-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Hi^u^ are you taking a language class in Gaidai? ( of course except English ^o^;;)
I took Chinese class last year but i couldnt take any language classes because of my busy schedule...Chinese was OK but i cant speak it>< it was relly difficult! Kanji looks similar but actually its different! ( sometimes we can guess the meanings though)
i was thinking of studying Chinese by myself but foreigners sometimes think im chinese(no~~)so i wanted to study other languages^o-
Now ive decided to study French^u^;; because everybody says its difficult to study French and there are some difficult pronunciation that we dont have in Japanese. isnt it fun to try something that everybody thinks difficult 'u' i might give up but now i just want to try~ Is anyone in my class taking French class? If you have studied french a bit, please teach me a bit ^~^;;(if you have a textbook you dont need please give me^-^)

Can you feel the air in Osaka isnt clear?

2005-05-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hi^u- i think everybody knows that the air in Osaka is not clear....but can you feel it ?
i live in a flat which is kind of a dormitory(im gonna talk about the house later.^u^;;) . and one of the gaidai students in the flat said that she cant survive in Osaka because of its foul air.She is a 1st grade student and came from Aomori. She is from contryside of Aomori and the air was really clear there so she can feel the air was not clear here in Osaka. She said that she cant stop coughing when she get to school ! i didnt know the air in Osaka was that bad 'o';; i think its a serious problem....When i go to Umeda, i always feel sick...maybe its because of so many people and a bad air....;; Osaka has a lot of problems to think about.
well, now ill tell you a bit about where i live cause many of my friends ask me if live by myself or live in a dormitory and i dont know what to say.^u^;; i live in a house called Osaka English House.do you know?　there are 24 people living here at the monent. there are 7 foreigners and 17 Japanese in the house. We have our own room but we can talk with people in the lounge or we can cook with them in a big kitchen.its so much fun to live here.^u^ now there are Australian people, Swedish guy, Canadian .....etc..i can see many culture here^w^

How was the first essay test?

2005-05-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

hi ! we had an essay test about population today. we used the whole class for the test so we had enough time for the essay. i'm not sure if i could do well or not though...>< anyways, it was good for me to prepare for the test cause i could look over the things we studied and i could understant more this time!^o^
actually it was a bit hard for me to write by hand cause im used to typing for my homework. so maybe there are lots of spelling mistakes i think^o^;; scott said we didnt need worry about grammar mistakes but one of the things i really want to improve is my grammar actually><;; so i might ask him for some help 'o'

Black Gum !

2005-05-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody^u^ thanks for replying to my blog. I always enjoy reading your comments☆
today i want to talk about sleepiness... do you often feel sleepy in class? I do sometimes. ( maybe often...;;) I try to go to bed early before busy day.but I sometimes can' help falling asleep....i don't know why I'm so tired. One of my friends suggested me to chew "Black Gum"( name of the gum) during the class and it worked more than i expected! i need to eat 2 or 3 black gums in one class though....^o^;; but you know, I rarely fall asleep in my favourite teacher's class...*^o^* Im busy looking at him ..haha ^w^
anyways, when you r really sleepy, try some Black Gum !

After Golden week..

2005-05-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hi! did everybody enjoy Golden Week holidays? I went back to my hometown during the holiday and went to my gran's house. Her house was renovated and now it looks better! its in the country and is a very old Japanese house. I think foreigners would like it ^u^
anyways, during the holiday, i was thinking of my future. I wanna study abroad but i also want to go to graduate school in Australia to study Japanese teaching after I graduate from uni. Studying Japanese is quite popular in Australia so I wanna teach there. So I need to talk with my theacher who teaches Japanese at Kansai Gaidai. I'm sure its really hard to work in foreign country but I don't wanna give up my dream.
One of my friends who is 19 is going to get married. i sometimes think everybody has a totally different life. I want to get married in my early 2o's(haha ^o^;; ) but at the same time, i wanna pursuit my dream.

Study abroad

2005-04-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

Hi! how are you? i've got a lot of homework from many subjects and i'm really tired recently..^u^;; but i'm sure that i have to think about studing abroad seriously ! i havent taken TOEFL this year yet so i'll take it tomorrow. if i couldn't get a high score by June, i might not be able to study abroad ><;; i'm thinking of going to Australia but i haven't decided which uni to go. i want to work as a Japanese teacher in Australia in the future so i'm interested in studying education. our uni has many universities( exchange program) in Australia so i dont know which uni to choose. i've got a friend in Melbourne so i wanna go to the university in Melbourne or the uni near Melbourne. i have a friend who wants to do study abroad in Australia in my class, so its better to research about the universities with her i think.

out door activity

2005-04-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

hi ! we are studying about wealth and poverty in Scott's class . after taking mini lecture about Wealth and poverty, we went outside of the class. it was the first time i went outside during the class! He devided us into some groups like poor people, rich people...and made a small world with this class. we could know that there are so many poor people who dont have enough money to survive. i was chosen as a richest people who can do anything with their money and i wondered why the population of the poor people can not be decreased . if there are some rich people who can use their money in many ways, why dont they spend some money for the poor people? i asked this question in my discssion group and my friends said it was because many rich people dont even think about spendind money in that way. i think this problem is really difficult to solve.

today's class had a new style and i really liked it !

My goals for IES class this term

2005-04-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hello. this is my second year in IES class. its really nice to meet my classmates again! last year, everything was new and it was really hard for all of us. however, we studied many things in one year! how to write essay, how to do presentations... Now we are getting used to using English for our study. therefore, i want to try to study many thing with using English just like foreign students do. last year, i had my own opinion and knew how to say it in English but i didnt talk very much. maybe it was because i was afraid of making mistakes... so i want to try to say my thinking in English this year.

i'm thinking of studying abroad next year so i've got to prepare really hard for that i think. its not easy to pass many tests and interviews so i really need to show my opinion!

My first Blog

2005-04-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hello. this is my first blog.