Negativity on the Internet

Until just now I had been getting a little down about all the negativity on the Internet. Maybe it's just that I consume too much news. That's pretty negative. I thought about doing a survey to see how much negative stuff is out there. My solution was to search for a on Google. That's pretty random. Here are my results. Not as bad as I thought.

Big Conversation

I teach one "conversation" class, which is probably more closely related to dentistry since it's like pulling teeth. They don't want to talk, and sometimes I get discouraged. Today, though, I was looking around the Internet, looking at sites related to conversation, and I came back to an old favorite, "New Dimensions Radio." On this particular day, they were airing a show entitled "Circles, Conversation and Community with Vicki Robin, Juanita Brown, Leif Utne." It was a great show on conversation cafes. I'm going to see what I can borrow to plug into an intermediate or advanced course using some of these concepts. Maybe not for my regular classes, but for community college classes at least. It might be really interesting.

Students given zero mark for agreeing with SDF dispatch

Wow! Someone felt strongly about this. I'd give all the students a top score for expressing their opinions.
Mainichi Interactive - Top News

Korean Censorship

This isn't about Japan, but it is about English teachers in Korea. It appears that the Korean goverment has pulled the plug on internet connections to certain bloggers that may, but probably are not, posting links to video of the Korean national who was beheaded in Iraq.

Blinger has alot of posts about the issue.

Garbage Day

Yes, I know this post is one post away from the photo. I just thought I would play catch up this morning. The last Sunday of the month is recycle day in our neighborhood. This time was my neighborhood's turn to staff the recycle center. Our job was to help people unload their cars and make sure that the stuff that they brought went into the right bins. Our trash is separated into the following types:

corrigated paper, cardboard, newspapers and advertisements, books and magazines, old clothes, general plastic, styrofoam, PET bottles, brown glass, green glass, clear glass, aluminum, steel, batteries, and light bulbs

Everything is clean with labels removed, or it is returned to the owner. We worked from 9 to noon, and around 12, the trucks arrived to take away the stuff. It was a great system. My guess is that the recycling companies aren't really making a go of this alone. They must be getting some money from the township.

I was impressed by the honest hard work of the volunteers, and that this activity gives people a chance to sit around among other people's garbage and discuss various ways of reducing the amount of it that people produce. It was a great opportunity for people to raise their environmental IQ's.

Learner motivations

Last Thursday I volunteered to visit a class that one of the teachers attending the Teachers' Seminar teaches. She is Japanese and her class of about 15 people wanted to talk to a "foreigner." I won't get into how I feel about that particular situation right now. I want to focus here on the motivations that the students have for learning English. All of the people in the group are over 65. Their language ablilty is very much at the beginner level. I was curious about what the people wanted to get out of the series of classes.

The class was basically a getting-to-know-you kind of effort. The learners would introduce themselves and I would ask some questions about them. I also requested at the beginning of the session that they tell me why they are studying English. Some of the motivations were very practical. They want to study so that they can speak more when they travel or speak with foreign nationals at their church. Two of the people had dual-citizenship grandchildren living in other countries, and one person had a daughter living in Singapore. Other people wanted to learn English to become "an international human," to prevent senility, or simply as a hobby. Two people said that they had no real motivation. I'm not sure what gets them into the classroom every week, but they were there.

I was encouraged to see so many people interested in learning English. Near the end of the class, they asked me what they could do to improve their language ability. I suggested that they focus on the most basic grammar and vocabulary and build a strong base. Make sure that they can listen, speak, read, and write all of it. Then with that base they can do most anything they want with language. If they find that they need more, then build on that.

I was really unsure about going to this before the fact. I was glad that I made the effort. It was good to meet people in that age group who are learning language and find out something about what motivates them.

Recycle Day

Today was recycle day in the neighborhood. This is a shot of the venue. People from each of the homes in the section responsible for that day's collection volunteer to help people unload their month's worth of recyclable trash and separate it into the correct container. Great system.

Internationalization of universities, especially in Asia

Interesting article on the roles of universities in the world. It emphasizes that quality of education will be key to insitutions that want to benefit from this trend.
FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment

Rainy season in Yokkaichi

This is what rainy season looks like. It is beautiful, really.

Learning Strategies this Weekend

This weekend, I am leading two workshops in the Yokkaichi Teachers' Development Initiative that we do here at Yokkaichi University. The first one is on presentations. The teachers will be doing presentations on their projects during the final gathering, so Andy and I wanted to work with the teachers to make their presentations more understandable, useful, and stress-free.

Then I'll be doing a workshop in the afternoon on learning strategies. This time I am focusing on the search for self awareness as a learning strategy. there are lots of different approaches to learning strategies. Jill Robbins, among others, has been doing work in strategies for years. I have one of her books, The Learning Strategies Handbook. It's alright. They have it all pretty much spelled out there, and it's a useful resource.

But I think an understanding of Howard Gardner's Seven Intelligences and the Enneagram, for example, give teachers insights into how really different people are. I think many people would say that we are all different, but I'm not sure how many people know just how very different we really are to one another. I don't think teachers really know how they are from their charges, or how students differ one from another. Especially in a country where there is one central ministry that controls education for 128 million people.

If we as teachers can be aware of differences and how they effect our students' learning and our teaching, we can help them grow in significant ways as well as help them learn a language.

The day after

Things are back to normal this morning. The typhoon blew through yesterday, not leaving very much destruction in its wake.

Today I worked with one class which had not done well on a quiz that I gave last week. We went over the quiz and redid parts of it, depending on the individual. Some of the students had to do more than others. Most completed the quiz. This semester students have to get over 90 percent for a passing grade. It is very slow. I'm not sure how the students feel about it, but after hearing a student from another class complain because they were moving too fast, I felt a little better.

Tonight, more late classes. This is getting to be a bother, this first period and then last period the same day.

Typhoon number 6

There is no school today, at least first period. Life in the windswept archipelago. For good picks of weather in Japan go to the Kochi University site.

Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning

Found this link on the Installer Guy's blog, Istalling Scripts.
Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning

This is something I definitely want to try and learn about. Already there is stuff that I'll have to study, though. "Social Constructionist Pedagogy," and PHP. Don't really know that much about either, but this sounds like it may be worth investing a little time in.

"Policy Measures Against Illegal Foreign Workers Campaign Month"

Didn't know it until this morning, but we are in the middle of a very imporant month here, so if you are a member of a group who doesn't get racially profiled much, for example a caucasian in the US, and you're feeling left out now is a good time to come to Japan. Be sure to come to Tokyo, though. I have never been stopped by the police for anything anywhere in Japan, other than that one speeding ticket. Here is a great photo of a banner proclaiming the event in the JR Shinagawa Station. It is just one of the many bits of really useful information you can find at Arudou Debito's site.

For all you teachers here in Japan who live in an area where you may be stopped, here is a reprint of some mail from Arudou on the issue. It has brief descriptions of the laws that govern stops and ID checks. Print it out and carry it with you. It has the Japanese, too, so you can just show it to the cop if you need to.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1) IF SOMEBODY ASKS FOR YOUR I.D. (namely your "Gaijin Card"):

meaning a hotelier, a video store, a JR staff member, etc., tell them
that only the police can demand it, under Foreign Registry Law
(Gaitouhou) Article 13 Clause 2:

====================================
"The Foreign Registry Law, Section 13, Clause 2. Foreigners, when
asked to show their Gaijin Cards by immigration investigation
officials (as outlined in separate laws), police, coast guard, or any
other national or local public official or group empowered by the
Ministry of Justice as part of the execution of their duties, must
show."
====================================
外国人登録法　第十三条　第二項　外国人は、入国審査官、入国警備官（入管
法に定 める入国警備官をいう）、警察官、海上保安官その他法務省令で定め
る国又は地方公 共団体の職員がその職務の執行に当たり登録証明書の掲示を
求めた場合には、これを 掲示しなければならない。
====================================

What you choose to show as I.D. is your decision. But some places
demand you display your passport or Gaijin Card just to receive
service. That is against the law. Next:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

2) IF THE POLICE ASK FOR YOUR I.D.:

ask why. Because, under Police Execution of Duties Law (Keisatsukan
Shokumu Shikkou Hou), Section 2:

====================================
"A police officer is able to ask for a person's ID, but only if based
on a reasonable judgment of a situation where the policeman sees some
strange conduct and some crime is being committed, or else he has
enough reason to suspect (utagau ni tariru soutou na riyuu) that a
person will commit or has committed a crime, or else it has been
acknowledged that a particular person knows a crime will be
committed. In these cases a police officer may stop a person for
questioning."
====================================
警察官職務執行法　第二条　警察官は、異常な挙動その他周囲の事情から合理
的に判 断して何らかの犯罪を犯し、若しくは犯そうとしていると疑うに足り
る相当な理由の ある者又は既に行われた犯罪について、若しくは犯罪が行わ
れようとしていることに ついて知っていると認められる者を停止させて質問
することができる。
====================================

Meaning that there must be a *specific crime* or *suspicion of a
crime* before questioning can occur. Just being a foreigner is
insufficient probable cause, and without a good reason a policeman's
arbitrary questions to a stranger are against the law.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

3) IF THE POLICE COME UP WITH A REASON FOR DEMANDING I.D.:

such as, if you are riding a bicycle, stopping you on the suspicion
that you may have stolen it (moreover, a sapient cop will know the
Gaitouhou trumps the Shokumu Shikkou Hou here), then, as a foreign
resident you will ultimately have to show your I.D.

However, there is a check. You can also ask the cop to show his
I.D., under Gaitouhou Section 13, Clause 3:

====================================
"The Foreign Registry Law, Section 13, Clause 3. Public officials
governed by the previous clause, if asking for the Gaijin Card
outside of their workplace, must carry a certificate of their
identity and present it if asked."
====================================
外国人登録法　第十三条　第三項　前項に規定する職員は、その事務所以外の
場所に おいて登録証明書の掲示を求める場合には、その身分を示す証票を携
帯し、請求があ るときは、これを掲示しなければならない。
====================================

Once displayed, I recommend you write down the cop's I.D. details (he
will do the same for you--you might as well show him how it feels).
It will provide some deterrent against a cop overstepping his
authority. (If you really want to get serious about this, audio
record the conversation, and make sure the cop sees you are doing so.)

Note that legally, the cop only has to show I.D. if he stops you on
the street, or anywhere other than the Police Box. So, to avoid
showing I.D.:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

4) IF THE POLICE TRY TO TAKE YOU TO THE POLICE BOX (kouban):

they cannot do so against your will, unless they formally arrest you,
under the Shokumu Shikkou Hou Article 2, Clause 2 and 3:

====================================
Clause Two: "It is possible to ask a particular person to accompany
the [police] to a nearby police station, police branch [i.e. kouban],
or any police administration area for questioning if it is determined
that this place is unsuitable for questioning because it obstructs
traffic or is disadvantageous to the questionee."

Clause Three: "Unless there is a regulation relating to criminal
action, officials may not confine, bring back to any police
administration area, or else coerce a person to reply to questions
against his will."
====================================
警察官職務執行法　第二条　第二項　その場で前項の質問をすることが本人に
対して 不利であり、又は交通の妨害になると認められる場合においては、質
問するため、そ の者に附近の警察署、派出所又は駐在所に同行することを求
めることができる。

警察官職務執行法　第二条　第三項　前二項に規定する者は、刑事訴訟に関す
る法律 の規定によらない限り、身柄を拘束され、又はその意に反して警察
署、派出所若しく は駐在所に連行され、若しくは答弁を強要されることはな
い。
====================================

which means that a cop has the right to ASK you to accompany him to
the Kouban, but you have the right to REFUSE, and he has no right to
restrict your movements without a formal charge or arrest.

Top court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners

This is an article about an American national, Tohoku University teacher, who sued Miyagi Prefecture for keeping him from playing hockey at the 2001 national sports festival.
Japan Today - News - Top court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners - Japan's Leading International News Network

A quote from the article:

In supporting earlier rulings by the district and high courts, Presiding Justice Hiroshi Fukuda said the constitution's Article 14 that guarantees equal treatment under law does not deny reasonable discrimination such as the ban in question.

"Reasonable discrimination," isn't that an oximoron? Is there such a thing as reasonable discrimination? One might say that we discriminate everyday, that we choose the best person for a job, or which students get B's on tests. The difference is that the government gladly accepts our tax money for these boondoggles (and they are extraordinary tax wasters. I've seen it, and it's a story in itself.) , but prohibits us from participating. This isn't reasonable discrimination based on the merits of individual athletes' physical prowess. This is simply flouting the Japanese constitution and international treaties.

Many students still traumatized by girl's murder

Don't know how much you may have heard about this issue, but some weeks ago a 6th grade girl cut her friend's throat with a cutter knife for saying bad things about her on the internet.

Now in the
Daily Yomiuri On-Line there is a report that many of the students and teachers at the school are still traumatized by the event.

My son's teacher sent home a newsletter with some entries from students' journals about the issues. The class keeps a journal about what is happeining in their lives, and some of the children were horrified by the killing. Some of the students became emotional upon hearing about a girl their age killing a friend.

I was happy that the children expressed themselves and that we could read about what they were thinking. I had no idea about how they may have felt about it, and we are very much removed from the situation. I can't imagine how the children at the school involved may feel.

Backlash in Japan - by Suvendrini Kakuchi

Nobutaka Watanabe, one of the Japanese in Iraq who was kidnapped, is suing the Japanese government because he claimed that his kidnappers were angered by Prime Minister Koizumi sending Japanese troops to Iraq. My guess, the court will let him spin his wheels for months, and tell him in the decision that his case was never really being given any consideration. He may appeal, but the story will always be the same.
Backlash in Japan - by Suvendrini Kakuchi

Happy Birthday, 1,000 visits

Pretty cool! Nice birthday present. When I looked at my blog this morning, it showed that there have been 1,000 visits since I started the blog on February 10 this year. It is also my birthday today.

Let's celebrate by teaching! Two classes, hoffice hours, and a meeting from 5 this evening. Ain't it great.

Scotland on Sunday - Scotland - Teachers 'to strike' on class sizes

The teachers in Scotland are going for class sizes of around 20. They say theirs are the largest after England, Japan, and Korea. My son's class has over 40.
Scotland on Sunday - Scotland - Teachers 'to strike' on class sizes: "Japan"

Petrolia teacher selected for Japan expedition

I try to avoid becoming a cynical old man like my grandfather. Maybe I'm losing the fight, but this kind of article makes me cringe.

A group of American teachers are being shown around Japan by Toyota. The teacher in this article is interested in indigo dying and the economics there of. The positive spin is that I hope he finds out alot, because the craft won't be around for long. I knew a dyer in Kumamoto who was literally starving because she couldn't make enough to sustain herself.

Oh, and he said, "I'm going to avoid talking politics and religion." Good, Toyota will be pleased about the politics. Unfortunately he'll miss alot in Japan if he doesn't take in the temples and shrines.

A real conversation

In general I am disappointed with the level of conversation that I get to engage in with many people. Many conversations center on my being a foreigner, with the emphasis being that no matter how much this is my home, no matter how much I may contribute to the society in yen or other modes of volunteerism, I can't possibly know what is really happening.

These conversations are different than those that I have when visiting the US, but they are equally unfulfilling. Most conversations that I have with Americans goes something like:
"So, you live in Japan?" the person says.
"Yeah, I do," I reply, hoping for a really great discussion about American and Japanese relations or something.
"How do you like it over there."
"Well, it's life, really. I mean I pay taxes, fix the car, and play with the kids. It isn't so different from here, really."
"Yeah, I just put a new muffler on my truck. It had been on there since I bought the thing, and it just fell off one day. The funniest thing..."
Then I listen, and maybe have a beer just for something to do while I listen.

BUT TODAY... after class one of the students stayed on to ask me some questions about an assignment from one of her other classes. She was looking at part of the script from "American Beauty." I like the film anyway, so I was happy to stay and discuss it. We talked a little about American families and relationships, especially the relationships between the boy next door (Ricky?) and his father, a military man. We talked about people who have written about how American men never mature, either by some fault of their own (Dan Kiley, The Peter Pan Syndrome), or through a social flaw (i.e. Robert Bly, Iron John) that keeps them from growing up.

Our conversation led us from military families to our perspectives on the military. She grew up in occupied Japan, so she had great respect for Americans in uniform. I had several friends in the military families when I was growing up. Which led to the situation in Iraq.

This was really new. A student who was ready to discuss events in Iraq. Our opinions seemed to be similar, but that may have been that she did not want to contradict me. We talked all the way through lunch hour about bush, the events in Iraq, how Japan got itself tied up in the mess, and how Koizumi has all his eggs in the same basket.

The conversation was in Japanese, which was too bad, but I think she enjoyed, if nothing else, exchanging views with an American on current events. She mentioned that she had spoken with another professor on the subject, one of my Japanese colleagues, but she didn't seem ready to swallow that side of the story. More along the lines of, "Where would we be without the Americans. So we should support bush."

I was happy to talk about real topics with a student.

Where has the rainy season gone?

In a direct reference to my previous post, has it gone to the Pacific everyone? The rainy season is upon us, but the weather today is clear, warm, and dry! I didn't turn on the airconditioning in my classroom today, and no one complained. Usually people complain while I haven't started to sweat yet. Very comfortable in the shade today.

I'm sure it will come back soon, but this weather is really nice.

Where have all the flowers gone

This week's song is "Where Have all the Flowers Gone." I have decided to keep all the music on a peace theme. This is a really old song, long before my students' time, but it is good for them to try out the present perfective anyway.

Today's activity was just to listen to the music with the lyrics in front of them and follow along. Some of the students were trying to sing anyway. That was encourageing. I think some of the words were also new. graveyard isn't one of those words that comes up in textbooks very often, but nearly everywhere you go, there they are. It was good for that vocabulary at least. The rest is pretty repetetive, so they can catch on pretty easily.

TOEIC study

Today I only had one class, a class that the university set up to build students' basic academic skills. There are three disciplines available to students, Japanese, Math, and English. All three of them are set up to encourage students to take standardized aptitude tests in all three areas. The class that I'm teaching is also set up to encourage students to take the TOEIC Bridge test. There are three of the original ten students left. Everyone else lost interest. There is no obligation for students to take the classes. The are not for credit, and there is no requirement that they must take any exams at all.

All three of the students left in my class are signed up to take the TOEIC test in July. I'm happy for that. They said that they were most interested in improving their listening skills.

I was looking up some information on the test in general to see if I could find any hints on how to study for it. The TOEIC people produced a document, "TOEIC Can-Do Guide." There was some interesting information on who much academic background test takers have. Two statements that were of particular interest to me were:

"Most test-takers had never received English instruction outside of their formal schooling (primary school through university). However, of those who had, more paid for their own English instruction. That is, fewer had their employers pay for it. Those who paid for their own language training tended to score slightly higher on the test than those in company-sponsored English classes."

"Years of study (during school years) seemed to have a fairly consistent and positive relationship with TOEIC scores (Listening: r = .233, p < .001, Reading: r = .290, p < .001, Total: r = .274, p < .001). However, years of
study in English courses (self-paid or employer-sponsored) were generally not related to improvement in TOEIC scores (e.g., Total: r = -.003 [company-paid], p = .407; r = .013 [self-paid], p < .001)."

The lessons, study at school, and if you do go out somewhere to get some learning, pay for it yourself.

busy couple of days

Geez, where does the time go? Yesterday was classes from 9 to noon. Meetings from 2:30 to 6, and more classes from 6:30 to 9:30. This morning it was back in the saddle with two classes back to back, trying to fix up my web browser which had gone funny, and now off to teach the kids at The Children's Place.

Tomorrow will be laid back. (He says.)

The New York Times: An Aging Island Embraces Japan's Young Dropouts

There is alot to discover in a Ney York Times article about an island where children who have refused to attend school have been going.

For example:

"Japanese schools do not take punitive actions against parents of elementary and junior high school children who fail to attend classes; in fact, as long as they are enrolled, as required by law, they graduate. A result is that in 2002 more than 131,000 children nationwide, including nearly 3 percent of the junior high school population, did not go to school."

First, I did not know that schools avoid going after parents, nor did I know that 3 percent of the jr high poplulation refuses to attend school.

I've written about this before because I work with a group of children who are refusing to go to school. They are interested in English so they come along on Wednesdays and we do stuff together. They are fun, maybe a little fragile, but they are kids.

I'd like to know that, with the social pressure to conform, if 3% of the kids outright refuse to attend schools, what is happening with the other 97%. Who is satisfied and flourishing in the environment?

Joi Ito's Web

Joi Ito's Web is an interesting read by an interesting Japanese businessman. More about the individual from CNN.

Culture

Saturday was the latest installment of the Yokkaichi Teachers' Initiative. The day was, as usual, broken up into two parts. The morning was devoted to a writing workshop. The afternoon was a workshop on using culture. In the workshop on writing up the teachers' accounts of their action research projects, Andy showed the teachers how to organize the material. We worked with them to get a start on writing up the first couple of sections, one on goals, and the other on writing the background information on their projects.

After lunch Andy led another workshop, this one on using culture in the language classroom. I guess the biggest learning point for me was the realization that teachers thought that when they used language they had to focus on the cultures of the target language. It was our contention that in learning more about themselves as well as others that they were better able to appreciate various people's styles of communication. One topic that came up, that I am especially fond of using in my classes, is names. I ask my students about their names, where they got them, what the kanji means, where their family names came from, and what their names might mean in English. Very very few students can tell me anything about them at first. After a bit of prodding and interrogation under bright lights, they start coming up with ideas. They also have homework to find out about their names. Then we discuss other naming customs around the world.

My impression of the activity in general was that the teachers were happy to find another approach to incorporating culture into their classrooms, one that may not take some much time or imagination.

new comments

I am trying out the new commenting feature that Blogger provides. It should be available with this post. I'll try it out here for a bit.

comments

I'm thinking about switching from Haloscan commenting to the Blogger commenting features. As Blinger pointed out the other day, the Haloscan comment volume is limited. Another reason for switching is because, even though I have gotten a few comments, all of which I value, I don't get that many. Maybe now is the time to do it.

TOEIC Bridge class

Yesterday was my day for the Basic Skills class. I think I've blogged about it before, but I don't remember when. Anyway it is a series of ten classes that students can take. There are three subjects that they can choose from, English, Math, and Japanese. My class started off with ten students. We are down to three. Two of them will take the TOEIC Bridge, or the TOEIC test the next time it comes around, which will be at the beginning of July.

Yesterday we worked on the reading section of the practice test. After it was over I asked the students what they would like to focus on, they said that they need more of the listening section.

We'll do more, but I don't think test preparation is a replacement for language skills development, so I have to think of something that will serve both purposes.

Aljazeera.Net - Japan's secret epidemic

Aljazeera.Net - Japan's secret epidemic is about people who shut themselves off from the rest of the world. Something to think about in light of my previous post.

"Teach your kids well in your native tongue"

Daily Yomiuri On-Line suggests that parents stick to communicating with their kids in their native languages.

Communicate with your kids and make sure their language education opportunities are quality efforts.

The midway point

We are at midway point, and I had to give the my first-year class a wake up call this morning. We did a writing assignment, and products were pretty abysmal. Students in my classes tend to write lists of sentences rather than paragraphs. I have showed them paragraphs before, and they have even had another assignment with paragraphs. I think some of them forgot. There are also students who haven't worked out subject verb agreement, or how to work with other students and their teacher to check and make sure their work is as good as they can make it.

I told them that university is different from high school. I have a responsibility to them, their parents, the community in general, and to the university to make sure that students that leave my class at the end of the year can do English better than when they came in April. I have shown them how powerful a tool English, but if there are some people who wish to pass up the opportunity, I told them that they are free to make that choice, but come July, I have to make a mark on a sheet with my name on it that says that they get university credit for English. I will not pass people who have not met the mark.

Makes me want to scream sometimes. I can see how valuable language ability is to the society, and how that could translate into money in their pockets. A very few will take make the best of the opportunity. Maybe that's why it is such a great opportunity.