About utilitarian (useful, practical etc.) purposes for university, like getting a teacher's license, and essential (spiritual, emotional etc.) purposes, like doing what you like to do, it's probably best to balance both purposes, and I hope that you're able to do so at Fukudai in the English Department!
Another way to look at purposes or motivations is in the extrinsic (from outside yourself) reasons (like studying to get good grades to get a good job) or intrinsic (from inside yourself) reasons (like studying English because you love it). Again, balancing those would be good, and I hope you can do so at Fukudai in our English Department. I regret we couldn't say TGIF today because it was Thursday! I hope you remember (for our whole class, Zenki and Koki), that American culture is varied and rich and dynamic, with many good points and bad points, and that you can never say anything is true of all Americans (or of no Americans). I like to say that I am from California. For example, when I'm traveling and people as me where I'm from, I usually say "California," not "America." But I do like America still! And I hope America will become. a less violent country in the future, for itself and for the world. And I hope you'll visit America some day. I thank you for a great year together! I hope to see you again at Fukudai-- bye bye for now-- JP HOMEWORK Study for our examination (January 19, 2023, Thursday, period 3) FOR SUBMITTING LAST COMMENTS (by January 18 at noon)
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Above are one of my favorite versions of "Auld Lang Syne" and four Peanuts comics about New Year's.
**Click on one of the comics to enter the gallery and see them larger and completely** Happy New Year to you all! I can't believe it's already 2023, and we just have one more class! I hope you had good holidays and have great New Years. From today's class, please remember the followings things. 1) American New Year's is really just to have a party on New Year's Eve to celebrate the coming of the new year. New Year's Day IS a holiday, but it's not as important as Christmas for many or most Americans, and it's only ONE day (not three, etc.). 2) American New Year's has no special food or drink or otoshidama etc. 3) Americans do make "resolutions," promises to themselves for how they will improve themselves in the new year (e.g., exercise more). 4) There is ONE song connected to New Year's Eve: "Auld Lang Syne" by Robert Burns (Japanese people use the tune for graduation or shop closing etc.) After class, Junsuke asked me a great question about "Auld Lang Syne," remembering that the American National Anthem is also set to a drinking song melody/tune... I found that when the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote the poem in 1788, he copied part of an older poem/song from 1700, and it had a different melody than the famous one today! That one got attached to the poem in 1799. ANYWAY, the American National Anthem is NOT a drinking song (in lyrics), but the words are set to a British drinking son melody, while "Auld Lang Syne" IS a drinking song (in lyrics), and I don't know if the melody was taken from another song or made new for "Auld Lang Syne." By the way, "Auld Lang Syne" was sung for New Year's in Scotland and then brought to the USA by Scottish immigrants. HOMEWORK Bring a question about anything in American culture you want to know about! Study for our examination (January 19, 2023, Thursday, period 3) FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by January 11 at 11:00 am)
Above you can find a Calvin and Hobbes Sunday newspaper comic about Santa watching kids to see if they deserve toys or not and links to two classic American Christmas songs, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (1934) and "Winter Wonderland" (1934), AND animations (cartoons): A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957).
The Calvin and Hobbes comic plays with the concept of Santa as watching and judging kids in "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." The Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon is the first Peanuts Christmas special. I watched it many times on TV when I was a kid in America. Unfortunately, I could not find a good whole 27-minute version on YouTube, but above you can find two short parts that will give you a feeling for it, and you can follow links to other 1-minute sections from the original show after you watch them. Below the Peanuts TV show links is the whole original picture book The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1957) being read to you like karaoke, so you can see the words and practice pronunciation. It is a great classic American Christmas story for kids. Also, you can find a video that is the first part of six four-minute parts of the anime Grinch, so you need to click on five more parts at Youtube to watch the whole thing. The video has a "captions" feature, so you can click it to turn on English sub-titles, to help you understand the story. From today's class, remember the following points: 1) Christmas comes from many sources, many of them pre-Christian (like trees, lights, presents, wreaths, etc.), because every people like to have a colorful bright happy festival at the start of winter, to help them survive the cold and dark. 2) Most Americans put up Christmas trees (most of which are artificial today) about a week before Christmas, and probably all Americans put presents under their Christmas trees in the days leading up to Christmas. 4) American kids usually get MANY presents: toys and games and so on from Santa, from parents, from grandparents and other relatives, from brothers and sisters, and so on. (They have no otoshidama for New Year's.) 5) Most Americans eat Christmas cookies (often homemade), not Christmas cake. 6) For most Americans, Christmas Eve is not SO romantic, and Christmas Day is the main event.. 7) American school usually has a holiday that goes from one week before Christmas to one week after. **Do you ever wonder, "Why/how did Santa Claus get into Christmas?" I found out that it goes back to when the Christian church was trying to get pagans (non-Christians) to become Christians. St. Nicholas was a real person, but he was put together in the pagan mind with a pre-Christian god of water and sailors etc., and then when the pagans started converting to Christianity, they brought St. Nicholas with them. That's why St. Nicholas became a VERY important saint for many European countries, including Russia, France, and Holland. The pagans also had festivals around December in which they gave each other presents, and when Christmas was fixed on December 25th, they brought their gift giving tradition into Christmas, AND some (SOME) of those people used St. Nicholas to be the gift-giving symbol (because he gave gifts in the stories about him). Really it is more complicated than that (some countries like Sweden and France and England don't really use Santa Claus, but instead use other similar figures), and is also all influenced by American culture power, especially in the 20th century. If you're interested, go to this very detailed link: http://www.lnstar.com/mall/main-areas/xmas-santa-origin2.htm I hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you in 2023 (can you believe it???) TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by December 29 at noon) 1) you could watch one or both of the above animations (including all six parts of the Grinch one) and write your impressions of one or both of them. 2) you could read and write about the Calvin and Hobbes comic and about your feeling about Santa watching children like that. 3) you could watch and listen to and SING the two Christmas songs above and write about how you feel when you sing them, etc. 4) you could write any ideas or questions or impressions of Christmas. 5) you could write about your favorite Christmas memory (from your life). HOMEWORK (for Jan. 6): Read the handout about the test and the New Year's topic on the Christmas handout and bring a question or comment. TGIF, Everybody!
Do you like the UCSD Library in the pictures above? It was made in 1970. I went to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) from 1979 through 1983. It was fun to look for books and to study in that library and to play Frisbee golf around the outside of it. (I remember studying there with a girl I liked called Carol in our first year... but... I finally learned that she already had a boyfriend!!!) And do you like those University of Michigan (UM or U of M) shirt on the dog??? GO MAIZE (gold) AND BLUE! (those are the UM colors) GO WOLVERINES! (that's the name of the UM nickname or animal symbol) HAIL TO THE CHAMPIONS! (that is the title of the U of M song, that the marching band plays at every sports event.) If you're curious about the high tension atmosphere at a college football game, go to YouTube and do a search for "Michigan-Ohio State football" and watch the video of a game for a few minutes. Finally, why not check out the U of Michigan President Santa Ono's December message on youtube? It lasts 4 minutes, and you can turn on CC (closed captions for English subtitles). The video shows some scenes of the U of M campus, and he talks about the holiday season, Iranian women, and therapy dogs! By the way, he's a Canadian American nisei (his father immigrated from Japan to the USA.) From today's class, please remember these points. 1) American universities are top level because they offer a big variety of interesting classes in many different majors (and minors), because they have beautiful campuses and excellent facilities (libraries, classrooms, gyms, etc.), and because their professors are usually intelligent and interesting. **Check this website's University page to see some pics of UCSD and UM's campuses! 2) American university students take about half as many classes that meet twice as often as students in Japan. I took 40 classes during my four university years, and each one met for 180 minutes per week, some two days 90 minutes each, some three days 60 minutes each. 3) There are two different ways to do GPA, depending on the school: "hard" or "flat" GPA (4 = A, 3 = B, 2 = C, 1 = D) or "soft" GPA (9 = A+, 8 = A, 7= A-, etc.). I experienced both: hard at UCSD and soft at UM. 4) American university nicknames focus student's pride and community feeling related to their university and make universities stand out among others. (U of M is the Wolverines, UCSD the Tritons; what is Fukudai???) 5) American university goods are Big Business, making lots of money for universities (especially for universities with successful sports teams, like UCLA and UM). And university goods are worn by many students, so they also increase school spirit. SOME INTERESTING LINKS If you are interested in the different nicknames of American universities, you can go to this website that lists the nicknames in alphabetical order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_sports_team_nicknames_in_North_America Or you can go to this website that lists the universities in alphabetical order along with their nicknames: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_team_nicknames_in_the_United_States And if you are interested in what kinds of classes are taught in American universities and what kind of classes in the English department, you can go to the following links https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/academics/majors-minors.html that link is to U of Michigan's undergraduate LSA (College of Literature, Science, and Arts) majors and minors list. You can scroll through them to get a sense of how MANY choice you have for your major (senmon). When you see "English," click on it and then click on the link to the English department web page. Then click on Winter 2023 courses to see what classes they offer. Or you can read their mission statement. American university English departments try to introduce students to a big variety of topics in literature, like gender studies (including male, female,transgender, and gay studies); Asian American, Hispanic American, African American; and media studies (like movies and TV shows etc.); while still teaching some traditional topics like Shakespeare. Their mission is to open students' minds while improving their ability to read, write and speak) English and to enjoy and understand and evaluate (judge) different kinds of communication in English, all while helping students find their identities as individuals and as members of society. For American universities, literature, approached broadly and variedly, is a vital part of being a productive human being and member of society. English departments in America usually don't teach linguistics or phonology, from what I could find on their websites. Instead, they have separate linguistics departments that teach those things. Topics for Submitting Comments (by 12/22) 1) Write about American universities and or Japanese universities (like Fukudai). 2) Go to the links above, like to University of Michigan's website and the English Department classes etc., and write your impressions! (or go to another university's website like Harvard or Stanford and read about their English departments!) 3) Explain what nickname you'd want Fukudai to have (American universities have nicknames like the Warriors, the Beavers, the Lions, the Wolverines, the Bears, etc.). 4) Write about university goods (thinking of Fukudai and American schools). 5) Explain your feeling about Fukudai's library and about libraries in general. 6) Explain the good and bad points about Fukudai. 7) Write about whether you want more classes that meet less often (like in Japan) or fewer classes that meet more often (like in America) OR write about which GPA system you'd prefer, hard (A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, etc.) or soft (9 = A+, 8 = A, 7= A-, etc.) 8) Ask any questions or make any comments about universities. 9) Write about what you think Fukudai's English Department is giving you or should be giving you etc. etc. for your life etc. 10) Write about what other classes you'd like Fukudai's English Department to offer. HOMEWORK (for December 23)
TGIF, Everybody!
Why not watch Professor Michael Sandel's Harvard University lecture on Justice I put a link to above? It is in two 25-minute parts, and it's funny and interesting. You can turn on the "CC" (closed captions) to get English jimaku to help you understand. The video gives an example of an excellent American class at one of the very top/best American universities. Give it a try! From today's class, remember these points. 1) American universities are top level (in the world!) because they offer a big variety of interesting classes in many different majors (and minors), because they have excellent facilities (libraries, classrooms, gyms, etc.), and because their professors are usually intelligent and interesting. 2) A big drawback of American universities is their high cost (but you can try to get a scholarship!) 3) Americans who go to (and finish) university tend to be more open-minded and to vote more often and to divorce less often and be involved with crime less often, and American universities tend to be more democratic and less republican. 4) Spelling English words out loud is VERY difficult, and I was really impressed by how well you guys did. I mean, even though you missed words, usually when you missed them, you said reasonable spellings, assuming English to be a reasonable language for spelling, when really it's a crazy language for spelling. I can't spell "catsup!" I always make mistakes spelling... Native speakers are ALWAYS mistaking even easy words like writing their when they mean there or vice versa or it's when they mean its, and so on. There are lists online you can find if you want to of commonly misspelled words in English... Anyway, please don't feel ashamed or bad etc. about your English ability or spelling ability and so on!! You really did well in your first spelling bee. I bet you can find online websites where you can challenge spelling bees... Topics for Submitting Comments (by 12/15) 1) Write about American universities and or Japanese universities (like Fukudai). For example, do you like having many classes that meet only 90 minutes per week, or would you prefer to have fewer classes that meet 180 minutes per week (90 and 90 or 60, 60, and 60)? And why? 2) Explain the good and bad points about Fukudai. 3) Watch Professor Sandel's first Justice lecture at Harvard University and write your impression of it. Or you could go to Harvard''s website, find Professor Sandel's page, and watch any of his classes on Justice! Or you could watch them on YouTube. Then write about your impression. 4) Write about how you pay for Fukudai (tuition and housing and books etc.): what percent do YOU pay and what percent do your parents pay? etc. 5) Ask any questions or make any comments about universities. HOMEWORK (for 12/23) Re-read the universities handout and bring at least one new comment or question about it. REMEMBER: If you would like an American comic book for adults in two parts, with a realistic, romantic, mysterious story about a magician living in Seattle, I still have about fifteen of them in my office... TGIF, Everybody!
How do you like the above Peanuts comics about spelling and spelling bees? *Click on one of them to enter the gallery to see all of them!* **Maybe Snoopy never has to worry about spelling or entering a spelling bee, because, being a dog, he doesn't have to go to school???? I am VERY sorry to have messed up the time and spelling bee and all! Last year I did it OK with Kakuron, but we only had about 21 people then, and stupid JP didn't think about that enough for today (when we have almost 50). Next time we WILL finish the spelling bee (I hope...) So the people who spelled two words correctly people will sit in one group, and the people who spelled one word correctly but didn't get a chance to spell a second word yet will sit in another group (plus Sakura, Soyoka, and Tsuguko). I will bring prizes again! From today's class, please remember the following things. 1) Maybe when teaching young people your country's history, it's good to balance good and bad things, so the young people can feel proud about the good things and advance them while feeling regret for the bad things and avoid doing them? 2) Spelling bees are very American because English spelling is difficult and Americans like competition. I mean, as far as I know, other countries don't have spelling bees, and it was created by Americans. 3) You can eat turkey if you go to Costco.... 4) The best posts in our blog do at least two things: 1) summarize something you learned in our class and 2) express your idea or experience or impression or question about it. That is what good answers on our examination do, too... TOPICS FOR WRITING (by 12/8) Write about your spelling bee impressions. Write about anything else we did in class today. HOMEWORK (for 12/9) Read the American Universities handout, especially pages 1 and 2, and bring at least one question or comment about the information in them. Happy Black Friday! (Or TGIF!) (We are too late to say Happy Thanksgiving, cause it was yesterday, Thursday 11/24 this year...) **"Woof" is the noise a dog makes in English, so Woodstock is trying to be a dog! **Woodstock and Snoopy are wearing Puritan Pilgrim hats... the myth of Thanksgiving! I recommend eating turkey some day, if you ever get the chance, especially in Canada or America. Turkey is probably healthier than chicken, because it has less fat and more protein. From today's class, remember the following points. 1) Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November) is a VERY American holiday, an American creation without a European ancestor or influence. 2) Although the traditional ideal image of Thanksgiving Day history (Pilgrims and Indians sharing a feast in friendship) is still strong in America today, Native Americans and some other Americans believe that that is a false myth... 3) Today most Americans enjoy Thanksgiving with their friends and families getting together for a big turkey dinner, because it is a good time to express your thanks to good things and good people in your life. 4) However, it could be a time of great stress, because everyone is supposed to be happy and thankful, but some people don't have enough money or lost their job or don't get along well with their family, etc., and so they feel extra stress. 5) Black Friday (the first Friday after Thanksgiving Day Thursday) is the biggest shopping day of the year (usually) and is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, so sometimes people go a little crazy and fight trying to get bargain sale items. **At the bottom below is a Youtube link to a Peanuts Thanksgiving comic-picture book with English subtitles and to an old Tom and Jerry cartoon about Thanksgiving.** TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by 12/1) You could write about what you are thankful for in your life. You could write about the Peanuts comic at the top of this blog post. You could write about the YouTube videos below. You could write any questions or comments about American Thanksgiving. You could write about your experience eating turkey (if any). You could write about your experience shopping on Black Friday (if any). HOMEWORK (for 12/2) Nothing! Are you happy? :-)
TGIF! From today's class, please remember these points:
1) Americans use MANY bad words, and they have MANY kinds of grammatical uses (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, exclamations, and so on). 2) In general, bad words are used for four main purposes:
3) You should not use bad English words if you don't want to use them or if you are not comfortable using them or if you are among strangers or host family parents, etc. TOPICS FOR COMMENTING ON THIS POST (by November 24 at 11:00 am) --You could write about any of the images about swearing that I put at the top of this blog post. --You could compare Japanese and English for "swearing" or "taboo" expressions or bad language, etc. For example, English has many bad words, so how about Japanese? Does Japanese have bad grammar or bad words or both? --You could explain your own language: do you use bad words or bad grammar or not? If so, when do you use them? If not, why don't you use them? --You could write about any other English expressions that you use or like (not bad ones, but any other ones). --You could write about your experience with English bad words in movies or songs or TV shows or in person, etc. HOMEWORK (for November 25): Read the handout about Thanksgiving and bring a question or comment about something in it. And you should submit some comments for this Day 7 blog if you haven't done so already this semester. TGIF, everybody!
In the Peanuts comics above, Charlie Brown is participating in a class spelling bee (spelling competition) and tries to remember the helpful rule, "i before e except after c," but he mixes it up, and then he gets a very easy word to spell, but misspells "maze" because his favorite baseball player is Willie Mays. Poor Charlie Brown! He really is a loser in everything: school, sports, love, and life. But he always tries again! In those two Calvin and Hobbes comics above, you can see that sometimes Americans say/write "Whatcha doin'?" and sometimes "What are you doing?" It depends on their mood and their situation and their interlocutor. From today's class, please remember the following points: 1. English is difficult to spell correctly, and Americans love competition, so in the 19th century they created the spelling bee (the spelling competition), and spelling bees are still popular today.. 2. American English is casual, slangy, fast, spicy, dynamic for some reasons. One is that many different kinds of people from different cultures and countries have gone (and still go) to live in the USA. Another is that Americans like to think that they live in a society where everyone is equal. Another is that the American education system is not so effective in teaching grammar and spelling etc. 3. Black English (also known as Ebonics or African American Vernacular) has its own vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, and grammar. 4) Many or most American people like to speak English quickly and casually. Therefore, they do lots of elision (shortening words by eliminating sounds). Page 4 of the American English handout has ten kinds of shortening that are very common. You becomes ya, of becomes a, to after a verb becomes a, and so on. And t between vowels (tomato's second t) sounds like d, and t after consonants is often eliminated (I want to say "twenty" as "tweny"). 5) If you keep those kinds of shortenings in your mind (and ears) as you watch American movies and TV shows or listen to American music, you might become better (bedder!) able to understand them. 6) To learn to understand spoken American English, you should watch many American movies (especially with English voices and English sub-titles) and TV shows and news shows, talk with Americans (in person and in email or on SNS), and keep in mind the features on page 4 of the handout. TOPICS FOR COMMENTING ON OUR BLOG (by November 17 at 11:00 am)
HOMEWORK (for November 18) Read American English handout pages 5 and 6 about expressions and bad words and bring a question or comment about something in those pages. Happy Halloween, everyone!
Click on one of the pictures above to enter the gallery and see the complete comics and pictures larger etc. The photograph is from my hometown, Huntington Beach, California, in October 2022. Look at that blue sky! The three newspaper comics are called Mutts, and they feature a dog and cat best friends. I hope that even if you don't dress up in a costume to go to a party (or to go Trick-or-Treating), that you at least eat some tasty chocolate (or make popcorn balls), or watch a scary movie on Halloween, or watch the moon at night or turn out your lights and light a candle for a while.... From today's class, please remember the following points: 1) Halloween comes from pre-Christian Celtic culture, and became a Christian holiday, but today in America it is really outside religion, compared to Easter and Christmas (also because the main Christian part of the holiday was actually the day after, November 1, All Saints Day, which most Americans do not celebrate). 2) Costumes (for kids and adults), house decorations, trick-or-treating (for kids), jack-o-lanterns, parties, and Halloween-theme TV shows and movies are all part of American Halloween today. 3) It really is a magical festival, because it happens at night, because being in a costume is being outside your daily life persona, and because you can get lots of free candy and chocolate (if you're a kid). And it is nice to celebrate autumn, which is a great season, and the last good weather before winter. Why don't you check out the videos I put in the Halloween page in the Fall Semester section of our website. TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING WRITING (by 11/3) You could write about Halloween and you! Your Halloween experiences, feelings, ideas, plans, etc. etc. You could write about any of the Mutts comics I put at the top of this blog post. You could write about any movies or TV shows you've seen that feature Halloween, or, why not, any horror or scary things. HOMEWORK: (for 11/11) Reread the American English handout page 3 and read page 4 about pronunciation!!! And of course bring a question or comment about something in them. |
JP
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