My New Friend, Tom

My Friends

Today I am going to introduce my lovely friends.

This is Jeff. He is from Montana, America. I went to Montana last year, but we did not meet each other at all. He likes outdoor activities like rock climbing and hiking. He wants to go to 3333 stairs in Kumamoto, but I don’t want to. Also he is a really funny guy.

This is Megumu We have met each other when we entered this University. She is one of my best friends. I often stay at her place like once / twice a week. She is really kind and wants to be sheep someday.

This is Yuki. I know you guys know her. She is talkative and funny. Also she can speak English like a native speaker. She has been to America and England as an exchange student. I am so proud of her. She has got an English boyfriend, Alex.

Next I am going to talk about Alex. We have met like two months ago, but we easily became friends because he is such a nice guy. Now he went back to England so I’m missing him. He tries to learn Japanese and his Japanese is getting way better.

This is Yumie. Last year, she went to Canada as an exchange student so she can speak English well. We met in NY on Christmas season last year and that memories are precious for me. I like her skin because it is so white and beautiful.

This is Pang. She is an exchange student from Thailand. She always smiles and her smile makes me happy. She loves dancing and listening to music. We have a lot of the same favorite songs. Actually, she is my boyfriend on Facebook.

This is Anna. She is from Ottawa, Canada. She is always funny and pretty. She is not only pretty, but also kind. When she eats chocolates, she would like to share everyone. I went to Korea with Pang and Anna like one month ago. We had so much fun there.

This is Yukiko. Actually, I went to America with her. So she always cheers me up when I feel sad. We have tons of good memories in America. She is so pretty that everyone likes her. We have a plant to visit America together again in the future.

This is Asami. We call her Ikedy. She is so funny and kind, but she is too lazy to go to school. I really want you to meet her, but it is difficult to see her in college.

These are my fabulous memories with my awesome friends. I love my friends!! (438)

What Could Music Be?

What is a role of music for us? Some people might consider it as a thing which makes them happy, and others use it to show their feelings. I think we can use music as a way to understand other people. In terms of that, it is easy for everyone to know a person’s favorite music with play lists.

One thing music does for people is connect. When we meet a person for the first time, we try to know about him or her by talking about individual information such as name, age, hobbies and so on. Private information shows who the person is externally, but music play lists may become a new way to size up potential mates. Maria Valcheva says, “Nevertheless, music is found to function as a “badge” that conveys information about the personality traits and the individual preferences of person who consumes or possesses the particular piece of music.” This thought helps my opinion in that it is easy to see a part of other person’s inside with music play lists. Keeping this thought in mind, the discussion is going to take an example from daily life. When we talk about music, we may tell favorite singers, groups and genres. Asking someone’s favorite things is very easy if it is the first time to meet each other. In my experiences, introducing myself, I always try to say my favorite singer. If we like the same things, we are going to be interested in each other. This situation might lead to getting along with each other. Therefore, music play lists help us to find someone who could be a good friend easily.

Another thing is that I think we cannot assume that music play lists can be the best item to judge other people. There are people who think about a situation or a mood. That means we often choose the most suitable song in a situation. For example, I like both reggae and classical music. When I study, I listen to classical music. On the other hand, when I want to have fun with my friends, reggae is the best kind of music. Also, it is natural that we think about a suitable kind of music for the situation. I believe that few people feel comfortable listening to rock music when they want to sleep. By considering suitable music, it should also be noted that music could be regarded as diary. This is because our feeling change every day, so songs which are considered suitable also turn one after another. There is a function that can record a day I listened to any songs and we can see when happy days or sad days are. Therefore, we have a large true diary in our own music play lists.

All in all, music could show us who a person is, but we cannot believe the information too much because the music a person listens to depends on what he is doing and the situation. We have to judge a person with not only play lists, but also their feelings. I think an important role in music is to distinguish a person who could be a nice friend from who could not.(531)

The Truman Show

I watched the movie named “The Truman Show” today. One of my favorite actors, Jim Carrey, comes out the movie. That is why I wanted to watch it. Also my friend recommended it to me.

Truman is a common guy, who lives common life, which means, he has got a beautiful wife, Meryl, got a job, been living in his own house. Also, he has got nice neighborhoods, the old guy with a big dog and a family living in front of his hose. Every morning he goes to his job place, he greets them saying like “Good morning. In case I don’t see you… Good afternoon, good evening, and good night.” However, he has a woman he a woman he cannot forget for a long time, Lauren. They meet each other in college and fall in love. Lauren takes him to the sea and seems to run away from something. He doesn’t know what she is afraid of, but as soon as they get to the sea, a black car follows them. A guy comes out from the car and takes her inside. The guy calls himself Lauren’s dad and says “I take her to the hospital in Fiji.” From the experience, Truman tries to go to Fiji many times, but he can’t. This is because someone around him always disturb him. Afterwards, he starts to notice some strange things happening to him, for example, he tries to get on an elevator. But it closed right in front of him. So he pushes the open button quickly and sees the different view of inside. Also when he is in his car and looking at the back mirror, he guesses what kind of people is going to pass through the road. As he guesses, people he mentions are walking out. Then he tries to get out of the town by car, but immediately tons of cars appear and his car can’t move.

These strange things make him want to go somewhere else. Finally he tries to get out of his town by boat. The director tries to disturb him by changing weather from sunny to storm. However, he never gives up what he is doing even if he is about to die. Finally he gets to the edge of the world; there is a wall which separates the real world and the world Truman lives in. He opens the door to enter the real world, but the director stop him by telling him he is not strong enough to go. What he answers is “In case I don’t see you… Good afternoon, good evening, and good night.” And he goes.

I was really moved the last words he said. That phrase became one of my favorites. I want everyone to watch it. (462)

The season I hate

The season I hate is winter. I like summer the best, which means I like hot weather. Winter is opposite. It is cold every day and sometimes it snows even in Kumamoto. I love ice creams, but I do not feel like them in winter because it is too cold to eat. Also I really hate waking up in the morning. I can get up early in the morning. Basically I have to get up at like 6 o’clock because I have a class on 1st period every day. That is not that tough for me in summer, however, it is so difficult for me to get out of my blanket in winter. I don’t want to be late for school, but winter makes me don’t want to go outside. The only thing I like in winter is Christmas. I have really good time in Christmas season with my friends. (150)

Christmas!

This Christmas season was the best days ever. I didn’t expect that I could spend time with my friends, but I was with friends from 21st to 25th. That’s such an amazing thing. I didn’t want to be with my family during Christmas because they didn’t seem to be happy with it. They don’t think we should get some presents or chicken, but I wanted so I decided to stay all day with my friends. On 21st, I went to an Italian restaurant with Meg, Yumie and Asami. I booked the restaurant so I was kind of nervous if they liked it or not. Unfortunately the foods were not enough for us. However all foods was tasty, especially pizza. After that we went take a purikura. Actually Asami didn’t want to go, but we make her go there. It had been a while since I took it last time. Like for a year? Anyway I had so much fun with them. On 24th, the Christmas party was held the dorm of exchange students. It was first time to take part in the Christmas party. There were tons of food and everything looked delicious. It was a potluck party so I brought some breads from Fukuoka with me. There were a Turkey, which was really good, a lot of cakes, amazing chocolates and so many foods! I liked the Turkey. There was Okonomiyaki as well, of course I loved it. We talked so much, took pictures and played some games. I played twister for the first time. It was terrible, but really funny. I realized that I was not good at it. On 25th, I had another party with Yuki and Yumie. We didn’t have a nice place to do so lent Meg’s place. We had Umesyu, which we bought for English Weekend, many snacks and KFC! I was looking forward to eat KFC, but they were not that good actually. I prefer chickens from Mos Burger. We watched the movie named Bridget Jones's Diary. The movie was awesome. I didn’t know my favorite people came out the movie. Since Yuki and Yumie were tired and they had to wake up early morning, we went to bed at like 2 o’clock. I had a good time with them. Now you see why this Christmas was good for me. I really love my friends and oh I forgot to say about it. I’ve got two presents from my lovely friends! I am so happy with it. Also I am looking forward to see them in January, when classes will start. (428)

The food I hate

The food I don’t like is pineapples. Actually I do like fresh ones, but I hate caned ones because it is too sweet and tastes weird. I think I could eat it when I was child. I don’t know exactly when I started to hate it, but I have a bad memory in junior high school. Me and my friends went to Okinawa as a school trip and I was so excited because of Okinawa foods, including fresh pineapples. We stayed one night at the hotel and dinner was served. Then there were pineapples. I was so happy that I ate them at first. However, they were not fresh ones, but caned ones. I gave them to my friend and finished the other dishes up. Also, one thing I really hate is pizzas with pineapples, Hawaiian pizza. I really loved American pizza, but Hawaiian was an exception. I don’t like the taste. (152)

The Analysis of "I have a dream"

For all of us in the world, the history of black slavery is one of the biggest parts of the world history. To understand the importance of the history, we need to know as much about “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King. Why did the speech make an impact on the history of black slavery? What was the situation of black slavery like? I am going to analyze this speech, making consideration for these questions.

First, begin with the background of this speech. Originally the matter of black slavery began since 19th century with coming of black people from Africa as slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation was announced in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln and that was supposed to contribute the problem. That means to amendment constitution would change the situation and black people could get the same right to live as white people. However, each senate in South part of America established the laws which segregate black people in daily life and Supreme Court of the United States accepted those. There was the fact that the public places like hotels, restaurants, churches, schools and theaters were completely separated into “white” and “colored.” As you can see, it had been difficult to recognize the difference of people’s awareness to the prejudice since The Emancipation Proclamation was announced. In this situation, what a woman did became one of the trigger of the revolution of black history; the woman named Rosa Parks. In　1955, she finished working and was about to go home by bus. At that time, buses were also separated into “white” and “colored” and blacks had to give up their seats if there was no seat for white people. However, Rosa Parks was exhausted so didn’t give space to white. As a result of that, she was arrested by police. Blacks were furious about the affair so they decided to boycott to ride buses which were the most important transportation for them and the revolution of black history began. The campaign had lasted from 1995 to 1963, the year The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom happened, and Martin Luther King announced “I have a dream” speech in the march.

With the background, it is important to understand the purpose of the speech. This speech was given to back the campaign of civil rights. Even though it had passed a hundred year since The Emancipation Proclamation was announced, it was true that blacks had had an unfair treatment and that is why they supported the civil rights movement. The purpose can be found out from the part that the speech says “Let freedom ring ~.” Because of appealing to everyone that let freedom ring from various places, Martin Luther King tries to success the movement by not only him, but also by everyone who is listening to.

Third, I am going to write about the people who were listening to this speech and the place where Martin Luther King gave the speech. This speech was announced in front of the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to end up the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The number of people who were gathered at the place was about 2500 thousands and there were white as well. The place is between the statue of Lincoln and Washington Monument which was built to laud the founding president in America, George Washington. People chose the place because they wanted to start to change the situation at that time with these two great people; George Washington who gave a big achievement of building United States of America and Abraham Lincoln who announced The Emancipation Proclamation. Also so many people gathered there and there were people who came by even plane from far away. It is considered how important day it was from that.

Next, I will go on the speech has rhetorical strategies and it is useful to talk about the two of them on understanding it; iteration and space order. Firstly, the speech has iteration. Iteration is to reword same words or phrases. That allows for making the speech cadent and impressing the words and phrases on people. Many focuses on how Martin Luther King gives the speech, he doesn’t give a pause between the sentences, but tells the parts of iteration right after the prior sentences and then gives a pause. It helps to make the speech more vigorous. Secondly, the speech has speech order, which means the speech goes along geographical spaces. It can be seen the last part of the speech; “Let freedom ring.” The speech says “Let freedom ring from” from the East side of America such as New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania to the west side like Colorado and California. Both iteration and space order are used to make the speech more impressive.

Finally, when we analyze the speech, it is required to discuss social effect of it. Basically this speech was given to solve the issue of black people and support the Civil Rights Movement. After Rev. King gave the speech, John F. Kennedy who was working on the issue of black people was killed. That made all of people who desired to change the situation at that time including Rev. King sad. However, they worked really hard for the campaign after the tragedy, and also the following president, Mr. Johnson, gave them a great support. Thus, The Civil Rights Act was established. It has passed a hundred year since the Emancipation Proclamation was announced so people thought it was an opportunity to start a revolution.

In conclusion there are many factors to make the speech great; the backgrounds, the purpose, the place, the listeners and the rhetorical strategies. However, these are not the only factors, but also the way Martin Luther King speaks affected the listeners with iron will for solving the issue of black people. When I listened to his speech on the video, I was moved by his voice and how he speaks. His voice was deep and cadent so that the words he said sank inside. When he was saying “I have a dream” part, the listeners let out a whoop of joy. I think it shows how many people trusted him and how much they counted on him. I have listened to some great American speeches, but this speech is the best speech of mine. Even though I am not the person who were in the same era as him or people who worked on the movement, his desire got to my heart. I believe this great speech is going to be transmitted by word of mouth to posterity to posterity.
(1104)

Review of Romeo and Juliet

There are two families which conflict each other; the House of Capulet and the House of Montague. The two families have had a bad relationship for a long time. They make troubles everyday and finally are said if they fight and make any trouble again, both of them are going to be arrested and punished.
Romeo, the only son of the Montagues, is in love with Juliet, who is the only daughter of the Capulets. Even though Romeo and Juliet are not supposed to be friends, they are in love. That is, of course, not allowed so Romeo tries to ask Friar Laurence if he has any ideas to solve this problem. Friar Laurence thinks that their love could solve the problem between the Montague and the Capulet. Therefore they get married in a church with Friar Laurence and the nurse. However, Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, because Tybalt kills Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio. That makes Juliet really shocked because she likes her cousin so much. Because of the trouble Romeo has to go away from the town. Then Juliet’s parents make her marry the prince and she pretends that she will marry the prince.
However, her thought is different. She has a plan that she will take a poison before the wedding ceremony and pretend to die, and then come back to life in 24 hours later. Actually that is Friar Laurence’s idea and he sends a letter to Romeo to inform him about the plan. Unfortunately he doesn’t receive the letter and thinks Juliet is dead so he gulps down poison next to Juliet’s body. As soon as Romeo drinks poison, Juliet opens her eyes, but it is too late. Romeo is dead and Juliet kills herself with Romeo’s gun.
I have seen that movie before so I knew the story, but the era they are in is different so it seemed like I was watching a different movie. They have guns, use cars, and wear aloha shirts. I believe the existence of guns and cars are big differences because Mercutio is killed by a gun and Romeo kills Tybalt with a car. In the one I have seen before, swords are the only weapon. (367)

Real or Fake

Recently, as the internet became an important useful communication tool, it seems people tend to spend more time finding their friends with computers. We can easily find someone who are famous or our friends by putting their name in a search engine. We can use these not only for people who we have met, but also for these whom we have never seen. We try to connect with people who we do not know before as well as we strive to get along with people who are around us in daily life. For example, it is not unusual that we are asked a question like “Do you have Facebook?” by someone whom we met for the first time. However, my thought is there are some differences between a real person and the person on the internet.
First, when we see someone’s Facebook profile, I think the first thing we always do is look at his or her picture. Seeing the pictures could be one of the materials used to judge a person and an important factor to think whether it is possible to get along with him or not. Besides, Emily Nussbaum writes “The biggest issue of living in public, of course, is simply that when people see you, they judge you” (Emily Nussbaum. Say Everything. February 12, 2007. pg 5). This mention supports my opinion in the way that it is easy for everyone to judge a person with some pieces of pictures on the web site. For example, if I saw a profile picture and it was kind of a crazy one, I would think that I cannot be a friend with the person. Judging a person with profile pictures might cause a big misunderstanding, but chances which could be a factor that brings some errors are everywhere on web in the modern world we are living. In addition, we have to consider these pictures are ones which are chosen by the person as favorites. Sometimes it might be funny one and other times a photo with a beautiful scene is selected. Therefore, profile pictures are considered surfaces of a person.
Moreover, there are people who become more talkative or active than their real life. According to my friend’s experience, she met a man who was so funny and kind on an internet site. After chatting online several times, they wanted to meet with each other so they planned to do that. Finally, she met the man but he didn’t talk with her so much. She wondered if the man that she had imagined was not real, but just an aspect of him on web. Like this situation, we can display fake faces to other people. Those could make us confused or sometimes make us even scared. I would like to take a lot of bad news which are involved in the internet for instance. One
of those is a case which a man and a girl got to know each other on a web site and exchanged personal information, unfortunately, he could kidnap her because of her personal information such as her address, name and pictures. Sometimes, disclosing individual information on the internet become life-threatening so we have to pay attention to put our information on the web site to save our life.
Also, Don Tapscott said like that. They have no shame. It is pretty routine these day for girls to post provocative pictures of themselves online,” warns M. Gigi Durham, the thoughtful author of The Lolita Effect. Young people, unaware that it may come back to haunt them, merrily give out all sorts of personal information online, whether it’s to a college recruiter, a future employer, or to a manipulative marketer, cyberbully or predator.(Don, Tapscott. Grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2009. pg 4). I think no shame does not mean just dishonor, but more serious things as I have discussed.
In conclusion, because of the worldwide growth of the internet, we are increasingly apt to communicate with each other using computer. A lot of information exists online and we can see that anywhere as long as there are computers. However, we cannot assume a face we can see on the internet is believable information because it might be an aspect of a person. In other words, we are able to fake our internet face as much as we want. (732)

Review of School of Rock

In this movie, a guy named Dewey, who is crazy for rock and wants to be a rock　superstar, does whatever he wants to do to make his dream come true. At first he　belongs to a rock band, but his fellow band members get rid of him because his　performance is not very good. Of course, he tries to persuade them to change their mind.　Their answer is, however, “No.” Afterwards he gets a chance to be a teacher in an　elementary school by pretending to be his nice roommate, Ned. The school is one of the　most prestigious schools in New York.
My favorite part is when Dewey and his students play the music written by Zack　instead of Dewey’s song at the competition. At the competition, everyone including the　teachers in the elementary school and students’ parents cheer for the kids who play　music with so much fun. I think this happens because students have practiced so hard　and overcame a lot of terrible and funny things. Also I believe Dewey has done a really　good job with his students. He is a kind of crazy and selfish guy, but I like his way of　thinking for rock and for his students.
The first time I saw the title of this movie, I thought that I have not listened to rock very often so I wondered if it was going to be an interesting movie to me. When I watched it, however, the movie turned into one of my favorite movies. In my opinion, what the movie wants to tell us is that all of us can be considered an important person in someone’s life. (278)

BR-8 Picture Puzzle

I read “Picture Puzzle.” This story is about a man who wants something exciting, Pete. He is thinking about that in the mall and a woman is running towards him. Then she pushes a film cassette into his hand and runs away. Some scary guys come up after her and seem like they look for her. Pete is wondering why she runs away and gives the film cassette to him, and then some guys run after her so he decides to try to solve this problem. He goes everywhere with the film cassette which is a key of this problem. Finally he finds out what is going on clearly. At that time a woman is caught by crooks so he goes to guy’s house to not only find out the truth, but also help her out. The scary guy also knows about him and tries to kill him. However, Pete is really smart so the guy fall out of the window finally. The police come and the case is over. But this story is not over yet. Pete and the woman go to police office and tell them his and her story. After all Pete and the woman get along with each other and go back their home together. It was really interesting that Pete was so smart in this story. I wish that kind of thing happen to me and I solve the problem so smartly. Though I want to be helped by a smart guy like Pete, it is going to be scary and tough. (257)

Escott, John, Picture Puzzle, 2005,Oxford : Macmillan Heinemann ELT

Review of Camp Rock

Mitchie is a girl who really loves music. She wants to take part in Camp Rock; a music event which is held every year. Many young people want to go to the event to meet other people who are interested in music and to just have fun. Mitchie is no exception. She does like music so she asks her parents to allow her to attend the event.However they can’t let her do it because they don’t have enough money. Mitchie is so sad when she realizes she can’t go to Camp Rock. But her parents change their mind. They give her a condition that she helps her mother with catering so she can go there finally.
Lots of people are gathered for the big event. Mitchie meets various kinds of people there; a pop music star, a girl who thinks she is special and people who always stick with the person who is to be seen special as well. Mitchie lies that her mother is the president of a company in China because she wants to be famous. Every time I see a person like her in movies, I wonder why they do such a stupid thing. There is no lie which is not found out and it is hard to keep lying for a long time. I think Mitchie can get good friends without lying because she is nice and talented.
I like Caitlyn so much because she is so brave and gives nice advice to Mitchie. Mitchie looks like she has so much fun and smiles with her best smile when Mitchie is with Caitlyn so I think she means a lot to Mitchie. She is not afraid of being hated by Tess. Although she has a murky past with Tess, she behaves like she doesn’t care about it. In addition she is so talented at producing music. I want to take part in Camp Rock as a piano player and also want her to be my friend too. (332)

Studing Everything

All of us have interested in something, and then, we tend to desire a deeper understanding of it. Learning occurs in many ways, for example, going to school, reading books, watching television and so on. Richard Dyer, a professor of film studies, mentions “Anything that exists can be studied, and in these last years of the twentieth century it may well seem that virtually everything is” (Dyer, 3). According to this mention, we can study everything that exists, and in other words, we could learn from everything around us as well. I believe this thought might work on learning a foreign language.
In a movie named The Terminal, a man learns English by himself with things around him. At first, he cannot speak English well and even cannot understand it. When he knows about the situation of his country, he calls for help to anybody in the terminal. The only word he can say, however, is, “Please” (The Terminal). At that time, he must feel a sense of loneliness. I exactly know how he feels because when I came to America from Japan, all people around me spoke not Japanese but English. I got nervous and worried
whether I would do fine at such a foreign country or not. Since he needs to know English to get more information about his country, he begins to learn the language from anything in the terminal. This is how the man decides to learn English. We can get interested in something by accident and sometimes it transforms our lives into different things.
Second, when we want to learn something, it is important to think about how to learn. The man has some unique ways to learn English with thing around him. The first thing he does is watching television such as news program. He picks up words which he can understand and remember. The second thing is comparing a guide book which is written in his language with same one which is written in English. He compares two books and finds two foreign words which have same meanings. I think that way helps his understanding of English very clearly especially in vocabulary. As you can see, he can study a foreign language without going to school. He found out how he could learn English by himself, in other words, he realized how he could live in a terminal in a foreign country.
Third, I believe the man has a very important point on learning. That is seeking to use knowledge he learned. When he remembers a word, he tries to say it in conversation. We can get skills not only by memorizing, but also using. By using knowledge, we can know whether a way of use is right or not. In my case, I have studied English for about eight years at school. However, there are a lot of differences between what I learned in classes and what native speakers are using. So also on that point, his way to learn English, learning from things around him and using what he got, is the fastest way to get skills to understand English.
All in all, learning something means being interested in something. In addition, we can learn from anything if we really want to know that. However, the most important thing about learning is ambition to what we want to learn. It is good for us to remember studying at a desk is not the only way to learn something when we have interested in many things many times in the future. (593)

BR-07 Happy Granny

It was Tuesday. I hate Tuesdays. We have two science classes on Tuesdays and our science teacher doesn't like me. (p.1)

I read the book named "Happy Granny" and it was a good story. Tim is a boy who doesn't like school very much, but he has a goal to get a first prize in a big competition at his school. In he get a first prize, he can go to a musical concert of Black Dog, which is his favorite band. To win the competition he always works on that after school most evening. One day his grandma, Diana, visits him and stays for several days. Diana is a young grandma. That means she likes music Tim likes, not old women's favorite, and wears clothes Tim wants. I think she is really nice, but Tim doesn't think so. He is kind of tired of her. Another day, he goes skateboarding with Diana and accidentally his mean friends see that. Next day everyone in his school knows that. He gets embarrassing and he tells teacher it. His friends get mad at him because of that and then they mess his competition thing and guitar up. He is really depressed because he finds out he can't go to Black Dog's concert. The next day he gets a letter from someone he doesn't know. In the letter two tickets for Black Dog's concert are included. He is so happy and wonders who the writer is. Actually it is Diana. He thanks her and has fun with the concert. It is such a happy ending. I like that. (277)

Moses, Antoinette ,Happy granny and the wood circle,Harlow : Pearson Education, c2000

BR-6 Fixing Cars

I guess playing around with cars can be useful after all! (p.24)

There is a girl who likes fixing cars and her parents don't understand her. Even her friend, Rick, don't think what she does is interesting. He doesn't even know how to find a part of car. However, her grandpa is the only one who understands her. Basically her fixing skill is from grandpa. She is watching what he does when he fixes cars. One day, Bonnie goes to a theme park with her parents. Actually she doesn't really want to go there, but they are going. On the way to the theme park, she hears strange sound. And then she realized it is because of fan belt. Her mom stops her, but she tries to fix it in heavy rain. Finally she can fix it and her parents know what she likes really.

I think misunderstanding between parents and children is really common stuff. In my case, I always have that kind of problem with my parents. I think they are wrong, but they think I am wrong. Actually they seem that they don't think I am wrong, but they know better way to do everything than me so they want to help me somehow. Unfortunately, I don't want to follow them. Am I selfish? (217)

Holt, Sharon, 2007Adam Nickel]

South Melbourne : Thomson Learning Australia

November 11th, I had a speaking class on third period and gave a presentation about Bangkok, Thailand. So I am going to write the script of my presentation.

Today, I am going to talk about Bangkok, Thailand. This is the flag of Thailand and it has three colors; red, white and blue. Each color has its own meaning. First, red means nation. Second, white means religion. Finally, blue means king.
Next, this is the map of Thailand and do you know where Bangkok is? Bangkok is here and it is really close to the sea. Now I am going to talk about Thailand for a little bit. Thailand is in south east Asia and they have 70,000,000 people. Also they have three seasons; summer, rainy and winter. The capital city is Bangkok.
Here is Thai letters. Unfortunately, I can understand nothing, but I think these looks so cute.
Then I am going to talk about clothes. Beautiful, isn't it? These are Thai traditional clothes so Thai don't wear it usually. They use it for special events like wedding ceremony or graduation ceremony.
　　　These are Thai food. Most of Thai foods are really spicy. They are way spicier than Japanese food. I think we know some of them.
These picture shows Bangkok, the city of contrast. Beautiful, isn't it? They have old cities and a lot of grand palace.
Next, I am going to talk about Tuk Tuk. They are like taxi, but motorcycle taxi. It is not that cheap, but really famous among tourist. Of course Thai people also use it.
This is a picture of floating market. They sell flowers, some souvenirs and something like that. If you go to Thailand, you should visit them and buy something special.
Okay, this is the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening. I have a friend in Thailand so if you want more information about Thailand, feel free to ask me.(321)

My seminar

Today, I am going to write about my seminar, zemi. I am taking Yuji Sato sensei's seminar which is about famous speeches in America. We analyze the speeches by researching its historical background, figure of speech, the speakers, something like that. We did "I have a dream" by Martin Luther King, "Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Gun Control” by Charlton Heston and so on. Of course it is interesting to read the speeches and understand what they say, but I am also interested in researching the historical backgrounds of the speeches. Actually I don’t like learning history. I mean I hate learning history using text book and just reading them. However I realized that I like research the history by myself and understand what happened in the past. I had some research about American War of Independence which had been happening from 1775 to 1783. I had known the war was happened and the other things related to the war like Boston Tea Party, but I had not known the reason why these events happened or why people needed to do such horrible things. I am so glad when I find the historical things really make sense to me. So if you like history, I want recommend you to take this seminar. Also Sato sensei gives really useful advices to us at the begging of every class. These are about what we need to do in college, what we can do now for our future, how to do job hunting and many things! His experiences are so amazing so I like to hear his story. In addition, he has connection with so many people. I think taking this seminar is the right decision for me because I can learn so many things. (297)

BR-05 Saying Goodbye

It's going to be hard to say all these things, but I think it will be good. It will be a good way for me to say goodbye. (p.16)

I am going to introduce a kind of sad story, Saying Goodbye. A boy is dressed up because his mom says "Today is going to be a big day." He seems like he doesn't like formal style and his grandpa, who is gone, doesn't like him wearing such clothes. However, the day is the day for the funeral of his grandpa. He remembers a lot of memories he had with his grandpa. I think his grandpa was really nice because all of his memory is amazing and funny. I like the story telling that grandpa loves telling jokes and he can even do some magic tricks. I think if I had such a grandpa, I could have so much fun with him. But I so love my grandpa. He is 81 years old and is good at everything like ping pong, cook, fishing, singing, something like that. I don't want to go away from him, but I am planning going out of Kumamoto to get a job. I want him to be healthy and kind forever. He is always kind to me. He gives me some snacks every time I see him. He gives me some advice if I have problems. He is always thinking about me and sometime calls me because he wants to hear my voice. Sweet. I will take care of him unless I go somewhere far away.(259)

Reilly, Carmel ,Saying Goodbye,2007,South Melbourne : Thomson Learning Australia

BR-04 Tales of Amanda Pig

This story is about a pig family. There are Father, Mother, Oliver and Amanda in the family and something always happens around them. There are five stories in the book I read; Amanda's Egg, The Very Long Trip, The Monster, The Fight and Sleeping Time. And my faorite stories are Amanda's Egg and The Fight.

In Amanda's Egg, Amanda really doesn't want to eat her egg for breakfast because the egg looks weird to her. She wants to go out to rake leaves with Father and Oliver. They already had been done with their breakfast. But Mother says Amanda has to finish up her breakfast and then she can go out and play. I like the way Mother make Amanda eat the egg. She said like "I will count 10 with my eyes closed, and then the eggs will be gone." Actually Amanda doesn't eat the egg while Mother closes her eyes. She finally eats it when Mother looks at Father and Oliver raking leaves outside. She eats the egg like a magic, just disappear so Mother doubts of her.

Another my favorite story is "The Fight." This story goes like Amanda and Oliver play with each other, but they start to fight becasue Oliver says something Amanda doesn't want him to do to her. To solve the problem Father let them play separate for a while. So they play by themselves in their own rooms. However, both of them go to Father's place, saying like "I have nothing to do." and then Father says "Okay, play with each other then." Afterwards, they play with each other with so much fun. Father's idea is such a nice idea. If I have kids in the future and they fight each other, I am going to do the same thing. (298)



Van Leeuwen, Jean ,Tales of Amanda Pig,1994 ,New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Puffin Books

My favorite song: Without You

Today, I am going to introduce one of my favorite songs to you guys. I love listening to music, especially Western music. So I think I will write about my favorite songs a lot from now on. Okay, today's song is "Without You / David Guetta ft. Usher."

This song was released on October 21st, 2011. What this song says is like "I can't do anything without you." First time I heard this song, I thought that its melody is amazingly beautiful and I totally liked it. And then I researched the lyrics and this song became my favorite song. Basically, I like Usher so much because his voice is amazing and is just cool. Also he is good at dancing so if you watch his music video, I bet you will never regret. David Guetta is also one of my favorite DJs. Every music he composed is really famous for everyone. Not everyone, but so many people. Every time I hear his songs, I feel like I want to dance with them. I will put the music video of "Without You" on this blog so please check it out. (190)

BR-03, Just Like A Movie

'Yeah,' I said. 'A sad story... That's life. It's just like a movie...' (p.32)

I read "Just Like A Movie" and thought this story was so sad. I think Brad is such a nice guy and he just had a too big dream; he wants to be a rich man, marry Gina and have a beautiful house in Paris. He meets Gina in the cinema because they both are crazy about movies and that makes them together. Gina, the girl who is going to marry Brad, is such a nice and smart person. I like her way of think about the conditions of marry. All she wants is just a love, not money. I totally agree with her. But Brad tries to get a lot of money by killing another girl. I don't know why he thinks that way, but it is clear that the idea is not the best one. And I feel sorry for Carrie because she just wants a love from someone, but what she gets is not a real love. What I learned from this story was that we shouldn’t trust guys too much and girls can pay them back somehow so that we are going to be happy. I want everyone to read this book and recognize guys can be stupid if they are in love. (222)

Leather, Sue, Just Like A Movie,2000

BR-02, Sam Runs Away

Sam is upset because her Mum and Dad keep arguing with each other. She runs away to the secret room and doesn’t want to go home again.

This book is much more touched than what I expected. I recommend you to read this story when you have conflicts between you and your parents. I can understand how Sam feels. I believe everyone has felt bad when parents did something not okay with us. Then, the best friend helped us by just being with us and listening to our story. In Sam’s case, her close friend, Ben, had some candy and stayed with her until they finished eating everything. I think sweets help us when we feel bad with thinking about things we hate. Anyway, I am glad that she has such a nice friend and at the end of story, she finally has got a good relationship with her parents. (153)


Alexander, Jenny(2001),Sam runs away, Harlow : Pearson Education

Review of Kung Fu Panda

There is a panda whose name is Po in the Valley of Peace in China. He is dreaming　that he would become one of the Furious Five, composed of Tigress, Monkey, Mantis,　Viper and Crane. They are a group of Kung Fu masters who receive respect from the　citizens in the valley.
Po gets up in the morning and his goose father asks him what he dreamed about. Po lies and says that he dreamed he is going to sell noodles like his father. His father is so glad to hear that because the dream is a sign which means he would take over the noodle shop. However, Po wants to be one of the Furious Five, not a noodle seller. At that time, Oogway, an old tortoise, holds a ceremony to identify the legendary Dragon Warrior, the one Kung Fu master worthy of receiving the Dragon Scroll. Po really wants to see the Kung Fu masters so he is trying to enter the ceremony. Accidently, when Oogway points to the person to receive the Dragon scroll, Po has landed in front of him, so that Oogway picks Po as the legendary Dragon Warrior. Afterwards Po begins training to be a Kung Fu master.
I like Po so much because he works as hard as he can to make his dream come true. Even though he is lazy and too crazy for food, he tries to catch up with the other members of the Furious Five. Even though Shifu tried to get rid of him many times, he comes back with a more powerful spirit. I believe his efforts let the others consider him as one of them.
It is also interesting to me that the voice cast of Po is Jack Black. I think he is similar to Po in appearance and character. So I enjoyed this movie not only the story but also Po's voice. (314)

The Terminal

Today, I am going to write about one of my favorite movies, The Terminal.

This movie is about a guy who is from Krakozhia, Viktor Navorski, tries to go to America, but his home country gets revolution so that he cannot only enter to America, but also go back to his native country. All he can do in the JFK airport is staying there. He does a lot of things in the airport to live. First thing he does is learning English from things around him such as TV shows, books and etc. He tries to understand what the TV news show says by reading subtitles because information about his own country is the most important for him at that time. Then he uses the words he learned from TV in conversation with Customs and Border Protection officer Dolores. She is always at the room to judge if people can enter to America or not. Victor is no exception. He goes to the room to get an "acceptable" seal. One time he goes that room, he says like "You have two seals; green and red. So getting out of here is half and half." Actually I don't remember exactly what he says, but he says something like that. And then she smiles beautifully. At the moment they are talking, a guy are looking at them. He is Enrique Cruz who likes her. He comes close to Viktor to ask about her. And he makes a deal with Viktor exchanging meals and information about het. This is how Viktor gets his every day food with no money at the airport.

There is one story I want to talk about. That is a guy from another country comes to the airport and he has medicine but doesn't know he needs a prescription from a doctor. He speak Russian, not English so tries to attack people who disturb him and injure himself by a knife because he doesn't have any choice. Everyone wants a person who can speak Russian and persuade him so Viktor is made come there. They talk in Russian for a while. The guy claims the medicine is for his father - his dad needs that medicine seriously. Once he is caught by police, but suddenly Viktor says that medicine is for goats not human. He knows there is a low about medicine. And then the guy goes free and thanks for Viktor a lot. Since this happened, he has been famous all around the airport.

There are so many things I want to tell you, but if I write everything I want, its gonna be too long to write at one time. So I'm gonna stop it here. I just want to say this is an amazing movie so you should check it out! (466)

BR-01, The Song

A man is singing and playing the guitar.(p.1)

Have you heard a sing from the room next to yours? This story begins with that situation. This is not only a love story, but also a sad story. If I were Lucia, I could not stand this situation. I think I am going to keep crying like her if I realize he has got a girlfrined. The point I think she is so strong is that she goes to his concert and stands in front of him even though he cannot realize her. When I got the last part, I felt so sad because she is looking at him with smiling. It is not fair that he could make his dream come true, but Lucia is not even realized by him. I hope she is going to be happy with someone not Daniel. That is sad too though.
(139)

Tomalin Mary(2003),The song, Harlow : Pearson Education

My junior high memory I hate

Most of my junior high memories are so good, but there are some things I don't even want to remember. One of them is memory of my club activity. I was belonging to a basketball club which was so strict and tough. One thing that I hated was to run for a long distance. When we couldn't use inside of the gym, we had to run around our school. We run 1 kilometer and then take a rest for one minute and do same thing like ten times. Basically I don't like running so that practice was so hard for me. Also, I was a captain of our team so I needed to get everyone together. Some of my teammates were not happy if I said something they did not want to do so it was the hardest thing I ever experienced to tell them what to do. They were usually nice though. (153)

Toy Story

Have you got a feeling that no one likes you? Woody, who is a cowboy toy belonging to a boy named Andy, thinks he is the best friend of Andy. One day, however, a brand new toy, Buzz, shows up at Andy’s house. Andy starts to play with Buzz more often than Woody and Buzz becomes famous among Andy’s toys too. Everyone likes Buzz. Woody feels so lonely that he decides to get rid of Buzz somehow.
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I think Woody is just sad because everyone including Andy has liked him for a long time and that makes him do such a bad thing. I myself have felt that kind of feeling so I know how he feels. When I was three years old, my little brother was born. My mom had always been with him and took care of him. My dad said I suddenly started crying for no reason so he was so confused. I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I do remember I was just sad because everyone seemed to consider only my brother. I believe this is how Woody felt. Also, I think the other toys of Andy should have thought about Woody more carefully. They have been with him for a long time, but they begin to wonder whether he is right or not as soon as Buzz comes out. If I were one of them, I would try to trust him more.

At the end, Woody and Buzz get along with each other and Woody realizes Buzz would be his best friend. I was so happy when I saw the scene where Woody and Buzz share a wink because I realized they won’t be alone anymore unless they leave each other. (288)

Presentation day

Yesterday, I had two presentations. One of them was for speaking class and I talked about myself with 10 slides. I am going to write down my script.

Hello my name is Amara, from Turkey. Do you know where Turkey is? This is a world map. Can you see the red part? Here is Turkey. And then this is a map of my country. Actually, here, Ankar, is a capital city of Turkey, but the biggest city in my country is Istanbul, where I live. My favorite place to go is Sultanahmet Camii. This is a kind of temple and so famous all over the world. So if you go to Turkey, you should visit there. Next, I am going to talk about food. Did you know Turkish food is one of three great cuisines in the world as well as French and Chinese. I will introduce to you "kebab" which is my favorite food. Kebab is grilled meats on sticks. After grill it we slice them off. I recommend you to eat them with yogurt sauce. It is so delicious. My job is to sell "Nazar Boncugu." This is a kind of talisman. They protect you from evils by watching around you. That is why they look like eyes. You should get one! Finally, I am going to talk about my hobby. My hobby is dancing, especially Turkish belly dance, which is so sexy. And the guy who is playing the violin in this picture is my by friend. He is so good at playing the violin. Thank you!

To listening to the other classmates' presentation was so fun and interesting. Everyone is from different country and each of them has unique points. It is supposed that some of classmates will give presentations next week so I am really looking forward to that. (304)

My favorite movie

I have bunch of favorite movies because watching movies is one of my hobbies. So this is a difficult question for me, but I can say Disney movies are my favorites. I watched almost every Disney movies and I love Lion King especially. First time I saw it was when I was six years old. My father gave it to me as my birthday present, but that was only in English with Japanese subtitle. I was so mad at him because it was boring to watch a movie with subtitle at that time. However, when I was around ten years old, I tried to watch that and it was so excited. I watched it so many times and learned to watch it without subtitle.(122)

My favorite sport to watch

I like to play basketball, but my favorite sport to watch is different. I often watch baseball game on TV. This is because my father loves baseball and he watches baseball game on TV every night so I learned to watch it. At first I was not interested in baseball, but I went to Fukuoka stadium to see a game when I was 12 years old. That got me like watching baseball games. Although I don't know much about the rules or favorite player, I always watch one when I have a time. My favorite team is SoftBank Forks because the game I watched in a stadium was theirs. Every time I hear their song, it reminds me of the exciting memory.(122)

My favorite season

My favorite season is summer because there are lots of things we can do during this season. In summer, I have three things I really want to do. First, I want to eat ice cream whenever I want to. In winter I barely want to do that because it is too cold to have ice cream. Eating ice cream in summer is awesome. Second, I think most of people want to go to sea. Sun and sea are perfect situation to have fun. Finally, fire works are considered as the best thing to do in summer. I believe it is the most beautiful thing and Japanese culture. But I did not do two things besides eating ice cream. I am so sad and regretting a little bit.(127)

My favorite place I've been

My favorite place I have been is California. I have been there twice last year. First I went to San Francisco with my friends. That trip was crazy because we drove all the way. It took almost 24 hours to get there. At that time, heavy storm came around even in a season of thanksgiving. We drove snowy way in the night. That was one of the scariest memories. However, San Francisco was really good place. I thought I wanted to live there. Its climate is great and they have sea. Next I went to Los Angels and went to Disney Land and Universal Studio. I had so much fun with my friends, but it cost a lot to me. I want to go there again if I get enough money to go.(130)

In a speaking class

Last week, I went to the speaking class on Wednesday. I was nervous because that class was basically for students who were younger than me. Since I went to America for one year, I have to take some classes with them now. However, all students in that class is so nice and unique. There is a difference between this class and the class I took last year with my friends. Sophomore students are more aggressive to speak English and they are even enjoying talking each other in English. I had been afraid of taking this class, but I was so happy because the atmosphere in the class was so good. I thought I could do my best in this class.

I will write about what I got from this class. We had a talking time in the class and the question was about summer vacation. Most of students had a very good summer vacation, but I asked to Asuka about it and she said "Yes." On the other hand, I could not find someone who didn't have a good vacation. That's relieved me because I have never heard there is someone who doesn’t enjoy their summer vacation. Next, I found someone who went overseas during summer vacation, Ayano. She said she went to Minnesota for about three weeks to have homestay family. Actually, this is one of programs English department has so some other people went there as well. Then I found Haruna, who bought something expensive during vacation. She got a swim wear for 30000 yen, so expensive! I was so surprised when I heard that because I've never bought that expensive swim wear. Now, I want to write about my friend, Yuki. She went to England last year so she has to take this class like me. I guess she is one of the best people who enjoyed this summer vacation. This is because she went to Osaka with her friends and also went to Universal Studio Japan. But she said she paid a lot of money so she has little money now. Also, I found someone who did something for the first time during the vacation, Yuka. She got a car license so she drove her own car for the first time. And Yukiko travelled Fukuoka with their family.

I had a very good time with them! I have a lot of things to do though... (400)

My Favorite Drink

I like sodas so much such as coke, sprite, mountain dew and so on. When I can choose, however, I will pick coke as a first choice. Coke is amazing drink, but Japanese coke (cola) and American one is a little bit different. I think American one is sweeter than Japanese one. So I am kind of missing American coke. I cannot believe I couldn’t drink American coke at first because it was too sweet for me. When I was in America, I drank it almost everyday. That is one of the reasons why I gained weight. I like to drink coke with potato chips, Lays is going to be perfect. Also, in summer, I drink sodas a lot. That makes me happy. (123)

My Favorite Songs

Basically, I do love music so I do not care what kind of music is playing. I had learned playing the piano for fifteen years so I listen to classical music and one of my friends likes rock music so I am interested in that kind of music as well. However, I can say songs written in English are the best. When I was in America, I listened to the radio everyday and then I love it so I am still listening it even in my house on the Internet. This experience made me love English songs so much. My favorite singers are Usher, Flo Rida, Lady Gaga and so many more. I want Japanese to like English songs more. (120)

My Favorite Dish

My favorite dish is, of course, Japanese food. This feeling became strong when I was in America. When I was there and stayed at a dorm, I ate every meal in a cafeteria which was on campus. There were so many American foods such as hamburger, hotdog, pizza and macaroni cheese. At first I felt happy because these foods were so delicious for me. However it had been about five months since I got to America, I was sick of eating these American foods. I missed Japanese food so badly. Actually, I cooked some Japanese food sometime in my friend’s house but it was not really good. Also, it was hard to get Japanese things in America like Dashi and good rice. (122)

Something special I did during vacation

I went to Fukuoka to see my friends off with Meg. They went to Canada as exchange students. First, I went to Fukuoka airport. But an accident happened. Since I took a flight from Fukuoka to Korea when I went to America, Meg and I went to international section in Fukuoka airport. However, my friends were going to go to Narita airport from Fukuoka first so we should have gone to domestic section. We called our friends and then we went to the right place in a rush. We were so surprised but could not stop laughing. We could see our friends and said good bye. I know they will do well in Canada, but I am a little sad because I have to take classes without them. (128)

Good and bad points about summer

Basically, I love summer because I don't like being cold. In summer, we only have to wear t-shirts and jeans. That means we don't have to worry about what we wear in the morning so much. Also, I like eating ice cream in summer. On the other hand, I don't like sweating a lot in summer. If I make up in the morning, that is going to be gone when I get to a place I want to go because I sweat. However, I really like taking a shower after I sweat. That makes me feel comfortable. So I will but my favorite body soap for good shower taking. (109)