Why Arabian are bad people? 10/12

We watched the movie about the reason why people have bad impressions toward Arabian. Watching through the movie, I was very surprised and shocked because people's perceptions were controlled by media. I am always wondering why am I having bad impressions toward Arabian even though I know there were only one part of Arabian occurring terrorism. Now I know that influence of Hollywood is huge and unconsciously controlled my perception in long terms. It is difficult to gather information which is omitted from media, but recognizing the fact that media is controlling the perception would be much different than ignorance. I would like to have more doubtless toward media's information and make clear what have been omitted and is an true information published to the world.

Categorizing people 10/10

From yesterday's class, we started new ELA topic about the Race. Rab suddenly told our class to categorize people who are in the picture along race. There were  various people such as Asian, European, African. I found it difficult to categorize because there is no clear definition or border which country is Asia or Middle East. In these days, mixed marriage is not rare by development of globalization, thus it is no necessity to categorize people due to race. However, some Asian people wants to dye their hair to blond by having an eager to be European. Therefore, sometimes I cannot understand why they are trying to delete their race's characteristics.

I cannot claim very strong in this topic because I am only having my opinion with my little knowledge about race. Maybe it is good opportunity to have more knowledge about it through my second essay work, although I am not really sure what can I write about the race in essay.

Explaining one side's viewpoint 10/5

In today's class, we did an interesting exercise. Rab separated the class in four groups and gave a task to write good points about his bag on two and bad points on another two groups. Our group got a task to write bad descriptions about Rab's bag. It is necessary to select the information which is not needed to explain the side of the view point we are going to write. What was surprising is our group eventually chose the words of bad discrimination to get the horrible impression and only look at the bad points. It was almost same trick as the British media used the word "kidnapped" in the conflict between Islam and Palestine. Put in mind in one direction often makes the view narrower. I would like to be careful not to have narrow viewpoints.

Using Google Docs effectively 10/3

It is true that Google Docs is not really good in writing essays or any project which needs some graphs or pictures. However, Google Docs has a great function in sharing with others. This ables to look and comment on other people's works easily, which is very convenience for the students who can not bring computers from home. These are all points that Rab taught me in last class.

I did not know why I used Evernote in writing essay. Possibly I used it because Evernote was the most convenience online document for me in spring semester. However, in this essay work, I had to use Google Docs otherwise my partner Eriko could not look at my work. In this class, I realized I was doing essay work only thinking about myself. From now, I would like to work on essays helping each other with my essay partner.

CWT Practice 10/1

The first day of October! I am glad that typhoon has passed Tokyo on midnight.
We did CWT's practice test on today's ARW class. It was different from what I took in last semester's CWT. In this time, I have to read the situation story which is related to Barna, Fisher, and Birk and Birk's article. After reading a situation story, I need to read the question and answer in an essay form. I was very shocked because I almost forgot about the theme of Barna's article. I should read through Fisher and Barna's article again to put the context in the mind and be ready for the next week's CWT. Therefore, today's class was very effective time for me because now I realized what I have to do for the test. Thank you, Rab!

Different viewpoints, different perceptions 9/28

Today, Rab introduced us many types of perceptions. He mentioned that our perceptions would be different by our viewpoints, situation, or environment. The most important example Rab showed us is the movie about Japanese culture. There were many jokes which every Japanese are able to realize but these jokes would be not understood by foreigners. From this movie, I found that having little knowledge is easy to cause trouble between other cultures and be deceived too. It is necessary to have more knowledge to get right view towards world society.

Stereogram! 9/26

We learned many things today in Rab's class.

At first, he taught us how to use Zotero in more useful way. It was surprised that Zotero is able to save various types of files such as movie, article, and newspapers. It is a good opportunity to use movie as a source for a first time in essay work.

Later, we watched some movies and saw many pictures which is calked stereo gram. By watching a movie, I recognized that my brain is using left side usually, meaning my brain is artist type. However, I do not really have opportunity to feel that my viewpoint is similar to artist, or not understanding the common viewpoint of artist. It is interesting to research the difference between right and left brain.

An essay lecture 9/24

In this class, Rab did not teach about Mac or Barna, he taught us about some key points of writing essay. He mentioned that there are many mistakes in every students' book review. For example, it is important to put work cited in right order. However, there were many students who did not put in a right way. Therefore, Rab introduced us the way to solve problems. Solving problems are very simple and easy to remenber because Rab taught us in very detailed and with some reasons.

I understood the importance of writing essay correctly through this class. I hope I can improve my essay work more than book review.

My first absent on ARW class 9/21

I had a terrible time on this morning. I drank some medicine the day before to be relieved from the allegy I had on the skin. However, that medicine did not fit to my body well.Therefore, it produced strong side effect which made me very sick and feel slyggish. From this incident, I could not even wakre up and go to the classes on morning. I was dissapointed of not taking Rab's class, but this is the last time of being absent. By next time, I put aim to be careful to my body and would not be absent any more.

A new internet function to raise my English ability 9/19

In today's Rab's ELA class in the Mac room, he taught us two new internet functions, the Google Reader and Zotero. I am sure these functions would help me to raise my English ability vastly.

Before I enter this college, I only used the search engine tools in Google. I did not know all of the functions Google has and did not pay much attentions. My little knowledge toward Google became very big by Rab's lecture.  I was very surprised the the Google reader can select the websites I want to search from my subscriptions. it is very useful for me to get the newspapers article I would like to use for my essay task.

Moreover, Rab taught us how to use Zotero. Zotero is a research tool to save information of the  any books, movie, articles on the website I would like to save. The very good point of this research tool is it is able to save and sync the information fro any computer which have internet. Therefore, it is no need to take memos on the paper!

Now I have many tools to write my essay task at any time. I would like to use Google Reader and Zotero in utmost to complete my essay.

A very mean teacher 9/17

Rab's words at the beginning of the class made me panic. He mentioned that my section's book review was terrible, the worst class he ever had in his life. I was very shocked, did not know what to do, looked down not to see Rab's face because I was in a full of fear. However, this fear will be gone soon by recognizing that Rab's behavior was a joke.  He pretended he was joking and send some signals to some students telling " It is a joke!". All Rab did was just winked at some students. This signals means a joke in western culture. I did not even realized about the wink because I was looking down most of the time. Therefore, it took me a little time to understand Rab was joking, but it relieved  me from the fear.


At the same, time, I recognized I was lucky when I lived in London. I did not have big misunderstanding with British people and caused a big problem. However, it is necessary to have knowledge of different cultures to work at the foreign countries. This article is a very good opportunity for me to understand the misunderstanding different cultures.

Class review on 9/14

It was first class to take Rab's ELA Reader's lesson, and it was a full of amazement. Before I take his class, I had the image of discussing in the groups by reading ELA Reader. Actually, that was I got in last semester's class. However, Rab's class was different. He taught us many experiences and examples of differences and misunderstood between various cultures. Therefore, it was easy to understand the themes of Barna's article, and able to understand more deeply by discussing about our experiences in groups.

What I found in this class is the importance of way to comprehend. Many students are able to read many articles in English today. However, it is more important to understand the themes of article and can discuss with examples. I would like to read Barna more carefully again, to get higher ability of comprehension.

Class Review on 12th September

Today, I learned so many useful function of Mac, Google, and Zotero. It was first to take class at Mac room. First, he taught us about Google. I only used Google calender and drice before, and I knew it is very useful. However, Rab introduced the more useful function, the task. This can be viewed when we open Google account every time, reminding us the due of the task we have to do. I was impressed and thought its is very usuful for me. It shoten the time to take out the schedule book from back and write.

Moreover, Rab introduced us the way to use Zotero. Zotero helps us to store the research information we found on the internet. From today, I would like to use this for the report and essay essay for the boom review.