If 80% Of Our Communication Is Self Talk, Then What Do You Say?

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If 80% Of Our Communication Is Self Talk, Then What Do You Say?


It is said (though I have not been able to find empirical corroboration for it) that 80% of our communication is self talk. That means that only 20% of the communication that we engage in is with others.

The Three P’s to Remedy the Plagiarism Problem

I will no longer be publishing to this blogger as my main blog site. My main site will be http://yokkaichi1.wordpress.com/

"Current ideas about writing and expression in academia do not empower students be better express themselves, and encourage plagiarism"

Why Learn Another Language: And why English

Every new school year, which begins in April here, I reconsider my reason for being as an English teacher in an institution where every first year student must take the class. What explanation should I give for this university's insistence on the importance of learning the language? What is in it for my students, and how can I add value to their lives?

As years pass, information falls through my mind that reinforms my decisions about how to organize what I offer.  This year, the most significant bit of information that is influencing my thinking on these issues is Dunbar's Number.

Robin Dunbar is an anthropologist at the University College of London who theorizes that

"this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained."

He suggests that this size is somewhere around 150 people.

I am less interested in the specifics of this group size than I am in the evolution of the human species. The evolution of the species Homo sapien was predated by and coexistent with Homo neaderthalensis. The Neanderthals were larger, stronger, and their craniums actually contained more brain space. How did they differ? Group size.

Paleoanthropologists suggest that Neanderthal group size was around 10 to 15 including children. It is thought that Neanderthals interacted with other groups infrequently, and developed slowly. If the Homo sapien group size was larger, then we can suggest that somehow, greater interaction may have led to more rapid development, and greater success as a species.

It appears that there is a positive correlation between connectedness within a group and success. As connectedness grows, or as Terence McKenna would call it, novelty, defined as increase over time in the universe's interconnectedness, or organized complexity, humanity succeeds. Language is essential for the success of the species as well as individuals. 

Foreign Languages, Alien Languages

I am a teacher of English as a Foreign Language. That means that I teach the English language to people who are learning in a place where English is not the primary language of everyday interaction.

Remember that where I live, in Japan, the word foreign is translated as alien when it comes to people. The words foreign language in English are most frequently translated as "gaikokugo" "外国語” or outside country language as a direct translation of the Chinese characters. Remember also that gaikokujin is translated as alien.

This may seem like I am stretching an idea to it's breaking point, but here is my conclusion up front. My students are traumatized in school by English. It is sold to them as a thing so far from their own natures as to be feared or reviled.

The alien language concept is a disservice to humankind. It is a construct of masculine, reductionist science, with it's agenda of distinguishing discrete forms as one method of control.

English, and all other languages are only foreign because they evolved in slightly different ways as humanity spread out across the globe from it's origins somewhere around 100,000 years ago according to Noam Chomsky's theories.

New words are formed or borrowed by all living languages, and languages become extinct as the last native speakers of the language die off.

Written languages came after spoken languages, because writing is one step further along the route of abstraction. People decided that if they could somehow record stories in a more perminant form, it would be helpful, so the someone came up with the idea of a set of symbols that would represent the sound of spoken words, or ideas in the case of pictographic syllabaries.

Language is a Psychokinetic, Telepathic Act

Language is evidence that psychokinesis and telepathy exist and that most humans posses the ability. First the mind conceives of an idea that the thinker wants to transmit. The thinker then uses psychokinesis to move muscles in the body in order to control breath and muscles in order to make sounds that the listener, the receiver, can collect in order to translate them into meaning in their minds.

It not only transmits meaning, but emotion and feeling that causes those who understand to manifest physical reactions, the production of saliva when told about food, tears when told about loss, increased blood flow when told about sexuality, and physical flight when told about danger.

This was also found to work with symbols, so instead of creating sound, marks were made on a physical object that would carry and transmit ideas into the mind of the beholder, soliciting the same range of feelings and physical reactions as speech.

Another way humans communicate with each other is through body language, the ultimate manifestation of this being signing, usually used by people who would find it difficult to translate sounds into meaning. And with this kind of communication, there is often less information transmitted intentionally than with verbal or written communication forms. The movement of the extremities, the angle and distance of the speaker to the listener, and facial expressions often communicate truth more clearly than words or symbols.

So What Would a Truly Alien Language Look Like?

There is a branch of linguistics called xenolinguistics, exolinguistics, or astrolinguistics where scholars knock this question about. Since these branches of linguistics are hypothetical, there is no way to tell for sure, but let's think about methods for communication that exist on earth that we have yet to understand.

Cetaceans use clicks, whistles, pops, groans and moans to communicate with each other possibly as far away as the other side of the planet. Insects use pheromones to communicate ideas like, "I am a baby, feed me," or direction. The bodies of squids change texture and exhibit moving colors to communicate with their own and other species. Up to 90% of ocean creatures are bioluminescent, and probably use that ability to communicate a variety of messages.

Humans on earth developed syllabaries up to 8 thousand years ago that remain undeciphered even now, like Jiahu symbols or or Banpo symbols.

There are indeed truly alien languages around us, unrecognized, and uninterpreted. There is no reason for governments to manipulate human languages to make them artificially difficult.

Induction into the power and mystery of language is what we should aim for, not the creation of artificial difficulties.

Alien Mind, Beginner's Mind

"Men in Black" came out in 1997. I was in Kumamoto, Japan then, and I took my son to see it.

The premise of the movie was that the main characters were immigration and naturalization officers of the intergalactic kind. They monitored the activities of beings who were visiting earth from outside the planet. Those beings though, were difficult for the average terrestrial to identify, because they looked and behaved the same as Earth people.

One scene in the film showed a large board with the faces of Sylvester Stallone and other well known individuals who were aliens living on earth. Other aliens were clerks at the corner store and other common folk.

My son was quite young then, probably in first grade, and after the film was over, I told him that I was an alien. He didn't believe me, so I took out my alien registration card, the one my hosts so generously provided me with, and showed him where it said "alien registration." He stared at me slack-jawed. It was so funny I laughed and told him that I was not really and alien, and that the word can have more meanings than just an extraterrestrial.

In the years immediately following my arrival in Japan in 1986, I was constantly made aware of my alienness. I was present in this country because of it. My alienness was a business, or at least part of one, where the owners used me to encourage people to learn English as a foreign language.

I moved on to a university which also used my foreignness, but this time as a form of credential with the national Education Ministry. Students could care less who their teachers were. I also found later that they had used my alienness as way to make financial savings by paying me less than my colleagues who were, by their standards, not aliens.

My alienness is no longer an issue for me, though it is for those around me, because I know I am excellent at what I do. My profession is not my alienness, though it had been for some time.

There was a time when I struggled to be as terrestrial as those who had legitimate claims to the title. I studied Japanese, learned what passes as "Japanese culture," and fought in the streets and in the courts to have my alienness not matter. That struggle failed.

I am an alien, and as such, the system can treat me as it wishes.

So what was I to do about that? Return to a place where I was not an alien? Fly back to my home world? Very uninteresting and not helpful in the least. I complained to my father once in a phone call that "I didn't fit in here." His reply jerked the view finder to reveal the accurate perspective. "Well, you don't fit in here, either."

I could no more be "like" Japanese people than I could be "like" American people. We can no more be "like" someone who we are not than we can be anyone else. Possessing a common nationality does not make us any more like or unlike someone than do our names.

With that new perspective in mind, what was I to do? It gave me a new place to look more rationally on my circumstances. I could look at where I might want to be and consider it as a possible next destination. As it turned out, I decided that I and my small family were right where we should be.

The bigger question this raises then is, so what do we know? What do we know about where we are, and does that knowledge make us any more than aliens?

I don't think so.

I remember what it is like to be a terrestrial, to know that I was not an alien. I knew all the roads, all the seasons, much about the woods. I knew the guys who hung out in front of the stores downtown and their personal ticks. I knew where to get good cheesecake and a joint if I wanted it.

My alien registration card even has that place's name written on it, as it does other irrelevant information like my place of birth. Those places are no more relevant to my life now than the places my parents inhabited when they were teens.

And even though I have resided in the area that I presently do, am I a local? Hardly. People still ask me if I have eaten sushi or if I eat natto based on my race, my appearance, my skin color, facial features, and blue eyes. I am most happy that they do not try to kill me in reaction to my physical features.

What does a local here know? Any number of people, where to find food, water, where to go to get laid, and how to get from point A to point B. I know those things and infinitely more, but I do not now, nor will I ever know enough.

That's what it's all about though, isn't it, the plots to movies like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." It's about what we don't know. The people who live just meters away from us could just be not like us. Of course they aren't like us, but I mean really not like us.

I used to listen to my parents talk as I lay awake in bed, and imagine that the language they were speaking was not of this Earth. It was easy to do. Easy to make up the story that they weren't really my parents. I have been afraid of aliens for some time. Little knowing that, as it always turns out, we are what we most fear.

We don't know anything, really. We tell ourselves that we do, that we know the sun will come up tomorrow, that the letter carrier will come around 4:30, that milk is good for us, but we know nothing.

And in that nothingness comes our liberation.

When I lived in Kumamoto, I became interested in Buddhism. I read widely, visited a temple some miles away frequently, and even dabbled in the organized religion. That experiment sent me spinning away from Buddhism like a top that strikes an obstacle.

However, as time moves on, my ideas about alienness overlap with the teachings of Buddhism, especially with the teachings of Shynryu Suzuki as presented in the small book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.  In it, Suzuki Roshi talks about "beginner's mind," or "shoshin" "初心" in Japanese.

The essence of the concept is that, though we practice something or just go about our lives day to day, it is a good thing to live or practice as if this was our first day, or first practice. Without preconceptions, without knowing, without believing.

"If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything."

My alien mind is the same. I know nothing, because I can know nothing. My mind is open, because I don't have the dualistic expectation that there is someplace that I do know but I am just in a place that I do not know at this moment. How could that be true?

I also think that the terrestrial mind is the wellspring of territorial conflict. "This is mine. I am a native of this place. I have always been here, and so have my ancestors, which makes all others aliens. This gives me legitimate claim to this place."

Another version of this conflict happens in Japan when the Japanese wish to claim something as their own by right of origin, but also want people to desire it. For example, sushi. Japan sends their sushi police out around the world to try and maintain the purity of sushi.  Sorry, it now belongs to the world and is no longer under Japanese purvey.

My conclusion is that, though I have struggled to be terrestrial, to try and lay claim to my right to belongingness by squirreling away knowledge as a kind of currency with which to buy my way in, I have failed in an endeavor that was mistaken from the start. I belong here as much as I do anywhere simply by my presence. So do you.

Live long and prosper.

Universal Gaijin

Gaijin, a Japanese word, means outside person if the kanji (外人）are translated literally. This term only applies to people, not corporations as much as they would like to be people in that kind of Pinocchio "I'm a real boy" kind of way.

It also does not refer to life forms that come from beyond the borders of our atmosphere. The term only applies to homo sapiens who reside within the recognized borders of the nation called Japan who were not branded with the Japanese label at birth, or who have not appealed to government bureaucracies in order to be so branded later in life.

Gaijin is actually a shortened form of the word Gaikokujin.（外国人） This word refers to country or nation with the added koku character in the middle, and would be outside country person. However, when translated by the Justice Ministry of the Japanese government, one word is used, Alien.

I am an officially registered alien by the Japanese government. I carry a registration card which says that I am required to carry it "in person at all times." I am not required to wear special clothing or mark myself in any way, but my physical appearance is enough to suggest my alienness.

My appearance is enough to cause clerks in shops to run away, to sufficiently confer a feeling of entitlement on the parts of some people to ask me for language lessons or to inquire if I know of others of my kind who may be willing to teach a language.

It sis also sufficient to attract the interests of police officers who may ask if the bicycle I am riding is my own, or if they could examining documents that would confirm the obvious reality that I am an alien.

The creation of nation states is a method to protect the wealth and power of a few. This necessitates the creation of borders that slow the flow of goods inward. This allows the powerful to impose taxes on the inbound people and goods. The powerful claim that borders are essential for the protection of the residents' safety, and higher prices as a result of imposed taxes is claimed to be in the interest of public safety.

Borders are an excuse to erect physical or imaginary barriers, to impose taxes, and raise armies. They are in fact meaningless conveniences for a hegemony.

Those borders are meaningless in nature. They cannot restrict the flow of energy, plants, animals, human waste, weather, or time. In fact, they cannot even restrict the flow of the people and goods that they are intended to control.

I am an alien, and I recommend it as a lifestyle. The life of a terrestrial is a schizophrenic existence, where distinctions of inside or outside （内／外）us or them （内／他人）past/present/future, knowledge/ignorance, or legal/illegal haunt the residents.

The alien has no reason to consider these dualities. They have no bearing on our lives.

In Japan alienation is also closely associated with racism, in fact, most Japanese people do not make a distinction, assuming that a person of a race other than Asian is an alien. This assumption is often faulty, as people of any race can obtain Japanese citizenship, and not all Asians obtain Japanese citizenship.

This podcast is dedicated to the examination for Alienness and Aliens, especially those living in Japan.

Korean Missile Launch = Multifaceted Fail for all but North Korea

This morning at about 7:38 Korea time, North Korea launched a missile that they claim carried a satellite intended for orbit around the earth. Shortly after launch, the missile is said to have broken into pieces.

The Defense Minister was on the tube at about 8:10 saying that he didn't know, but it looked like the missile crashed about 1 minute after launch. However reporters near the missile defense sites around Japan reported a flurry of activity at around 7:40, after which everyone went away. Government lie fail.

The media, after a week of fear mongering, labeled the launch a failure. They aren't commenting on the fact that North Korea stood up to the UN Security Council and did exactly as it pleased, even after the action was condemned. Media myopia fail.

‎"Still, the rocket failure is a major embarrassment for Pyongyang, which has invited dozens of international journalists to observe the rocket launch and other celebrations."Everybody who thinks that inviting journalists to the site had anything to do with "staking its pride" on the ostensible outcome of the lauch, raise your hands. I don't see any hands. Media perspective fail.

Japanese reporters were heard to opine, "Well if the Americans knew anything, surely they would tell Japan about it." Naivete fail.

The UN agrees on issues so infrequently, and here they issued a joint statement and an opinion by the general secretary about the launch being a violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, but the missile went up anyway. UN Security Council ineffectual fail.

The average North Korean will hear about the wonderful step forward toward space exploration and world domination, including clips of the first seconds of the launch and their fearless leader, and all will cheer. North Korea government win.

Alien

What is an alien? Something biological, existing in a place where it previously did not. This previousness also defines alienness, as it must be a thing that has appeared in a given place within a humanly memorable time span. Plant life alien to a given area, like kudzu in Georgia, must have arrived within a time frame where humans can identify a period when it did not exist there in order to make it invasive, or in Japanese, 外来種, gai rai shu, or a variety come from outside as a direct translation (mine).

An evolutionary timeline would not be instructive in identifying alienness, because then all life would be alien. (or no life would be alien) There was a time before which there was no life, according to mainstream biological thought.

This leads to the point that alienness is a human construct. Alienness is not recognized by nature. New species, possessing never-before-experienced DNA may enter an environment in many ways, evolution, mutation, various modes of locomotion. It may exert a variety of effects, again evolution, mutation, extinction, or even a combination of changes. But nature does not discriminate among causes, only among the results.

"This is alien, but this is not," is also a distinction that humans make. Animals, like dogs, may be curious about a never-before-experienced odor or life form, but once their curiosity is satisfied, it is back to life as usual.

Modern humans obsess over alienness. Sometimes, if it can be monetized, alienness can be marketed as a new and prestige product. Japan is a fine example of this. The Japanese ability, on a large scale, to import previously unexperienced foods began after WWII, during their spectacular economic rise. Japan began importing fruits from other countries. Once inaccessible, tropical delicacies, such as bananas, became commonplace. Bananas are not grown domestically, and once very expensive, are now the cheapest fruit available at most markets.

Kiwi fruit is another example of a fruit that was imported and began as an expensive treat, but now, in addition to being imported, kiwis are easily grown domestically. Similar to the distinction people make between crops and weeds, gai rai shu is never used for a crop, like kiwi, only for weeds.

When it comes to people, the distinction of being an alien becomes a tricky one. In the feature film "Men in Black," we were introduced to an Earth where people are not as they seem. Clerks in shops and even Hollywood stars and politicians are exposed to be aliens, not from other countries, but of the extraterrestrial variety.

We never gave a thought to their alienness. They were entertainment brands and local fixtures. No one knew, and then after they were exposed to us in this fictional portrayal, it brought a laugh, not condemnation or fear.

People are alienized by other people, based on characteristics that are multitude, and for reasons that are equally varied, but making people into aliens endangers more than their images. Humans who are alienized based on an association with the geographical location of their birth, most often referred to as nationality, and are characterized differently than plants. If plants serve a purpose, as in the case of the kiwi fruit from above, they are not referred to as invasive species, or alien. People are alien until they petition and receive acceptance from a government. This is often referred to as naturalization. A bizarre term in itself, as it is a biological term that means,

a process by which a non-native organism spreads into the wild and its reproduction is sufficient to maintain its population.  

People are labeled alien regardless of their contributions to society where they exist. This nationality is an arbitrary label, controlled by nation states for the purpose of controlling people.

People are necessarily harmed by this distinction, as was shown by Howard Saul Becker in his book, Outsiders, published in 1963. Becker's labeling theory holds that,

 Deviance is not inherent to an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms.  

and that

A stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person's self-concept and social identity. 

Alien is a powerfully negative label, and changes a person's self-concept and social identity.

University of Tokyo's 2-Dimensional Semester Shift

University of Tokyo and 30 other institutions plan to change their academic calendar in five years in order to conform with more global educational interests. This change was called a "major overhaul" in one article.

It is a 2-dimensional change along a time line, in a country where "new curriculum" consists of a reshuffling of classes in a schedule grid. Though substantial improvements in education over a broad spectrum would be useful in attracting attention to Japan's academic quality, the subterfuge that a change on a schedule of classes is meaningful again takes center stage.

As is often the case in these reschedulings, the need for people to learn English arises.

“The issue up to now has been the lack of an education [system] that can facilitate Japanese students to speak their mind in English. The internet is based on English proficiency and this is where Japanese education must raise its profile,” he (Researcher, Masakazu Goto) said.

Mr. Goto says that Japanese students who can speak their mind in English are valuable, but a change in the schedule of university classes is unlikely to make an impact. He also says that the Internet is based on English proficiency, and while a majority of shared information on the Internet is in English, the sharing is predominantly done through reading and writing.

A comprehensive change over the whole of society in order to help people develop their language skills is the only way to promote English ability or any other academic endeavor. In a country where many book stores carry not a single English title among their wares, a time change is unlikely to have a significant impact.

Words and letters may not be all they're cracked up to be

Today I want to tell a story. This story had an impact on the way that I organize my lessons, the way that I view my role as a teacher, and the importance of remembering or memorizing dialogs for language learning.

This story comes to us from Plato's Phaedrus. In the story Socrates tells the story of Theuth, an Egyptian god who  discovered numbers, calculation, geometry, and writing. One day Theuth was talking to the king of Egypt, Thamus, and said that he had a special gift. There is a thing that if the people learn it, they will improve their memories and become wiser. The king replied that Theuth's perception of writing was skewed, and that he did not understand it properly. Instead of remembering and understanding things, students would rely on writing as a way of being reminded. Students will be exposed to many ideas, but will not think about them properly, and while appearing to be wise, will know nothing.

I came to two conclusions after reading this story.

1. In a general sense, presenting material in a written form and not expecting students to remember it detracts from their ability to improve their intelligence. It has been shown that simple memory ability can predict intelligence, and that ability can be improved through practice.

 2. Written words interfere with my students' acquisition of English. This may sound like a rediscovery of the audio lingual method, and it may be, but without most of the behaviorist theory. In classes that I teach, I use my own teaching materials. I have been handing out the materials before an activity, and when it involves the use of a dialog, the students have it before they listen to me and/or my partner teacher repeat the dialog.

As a result of reading this story, I started to think about what was happening with my students. This, I guess, is the sequence they experience.

1. Materials received. Begin to read content.
2. Follow teacher's direction to look at the dialog (which they have read, if only silently, already).
3. Listen to the teacher(s) read the dialog while looking at the words on paper.
4. Follow the teacher's direction to read and repeat
5. Move on to related activities

They have read the dialog and heard what was said then by the teachers through their own filers first, and move on before having time to incorporate what is said.

To test this presumption about students' perceptions, I altered my presentation method. Since my students are at a beginner level, I chose a dialog that was applicable to the content we were going to cover anyway, so as to remain within the bounds of the syllabus, but shorter than the one originally planned.

This was the progression I used for both classes.
1. Instructed students not to write anything.
2. Introduced pre-listening questions
3. Reviewed answers to pre-listening questions
4. Asked students to repeat the dialog section by section after me, imitating my speech whether they "understood" it or not.
5. I then split the class into groups to recite parts of the dialog, which they were now beginning to memorize.
6. Finally, I asked them to use a pencil and do a dictation of the dialog, after which I gave each of them a paper version of the dialog to check their written dialog against.
7 I explained the content in Japanese (their L1) and then read it again with the paper.
8. We then practiced the dialog with the paper.

Judging by their reactions, the students experienced a heightened awareness of pronunciation and meaning in the dialog without having a print version available at the beginning. Since they were only listening to me and then repeating the dialog, they were less likely to read it in a Japanese pronunciation as they are encouraged to do in some of their high school classes.

They were more realized and playful than times when they were given a written version of the dialog first.

After reading the tale of Theuth and Thamus, I became convinced that letters can be counterproductive, especially if the one goal of the class is to remember and make language part of the learners' intellectual too kit. Simply reading aloud promotes the reuse and reinforcement of fossilized language habits.
(Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thoth.svg)

Using Newspaper Inserts to Teach Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

I teach a seminar class where we are learning debate, and last week we staged a debate about whether nurses from other countries should be admitted into the country. It went well, except that the students had a difficult time of attacking their opponents' arguments directly, so I was trying to think of how to give them experience in attacking an opinion or set of opinions.

I decided to give them something less emotionally charged than arguments from their classmates. My original plan was to buy some Japanese magazines so that the students could choose the ads that they were interested in. I abandoned that idea after I found it very difficult to choose suitable magazine content. 

Instead, I chose some inserts from the newspaper, all in Japanese, all touting easily identifiable products or services. 

I gave them a brief lesson on Aristotle's Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, and then let each group of 3 students choose one of the inserts to descent.  

There were several different advertisements to choose from. The easiest ones to use seemed to be those selling nutritional supplements, pachinko, restaurants, and electric appliances. My students were not interested in the pachinko advertisements. 

After finishing with the Japanese advertisements, I gave them magazines written in English so that they could search for an ad about which they could discern the Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, based mostly on the images rather than having to rely on the meaning of words. 

This activity worked well, and the students got some practice taking apart arguments using language, and those using predominantly images. Next we will have to try to examine verbal arguments from others in the same way. 

Another seal gets a certificate of residence (住民票）

A town in Saitama, Japan issued a Certificate of Residence (COR) to a seal that has found its way into a river and is living there.

I find this offensive, because as a tax-paying, volunteering, child-raising upstanding resident of my town, I will not be issued a COR because I am a foreigner.

That just about makes me more angry than I have been in a very long time. This cretinous government can't be trusted to make ethical decisions about any human rights issue. Remember that next time you consider doing business with any Japanese entity.

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00209724.html

FNNニュース: 埼玉・志木市の荒川に...

埼玉・志木市の荒川に現れたアザラシの「あらちゃん」に市が特別住民票交付:埼玉・志木市の荒川に現れ、話題となっているアザラシの「あらちゃん」

This isn't the first time someone has done this, and for any variety of animals. And this isn't the most egregious offense of late. The documents they issued to the UN about human rights in Japan is worthless, and doesn't even cover the issues that most interest the UN, like child abductions or discrimination laws.

This link is to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Human Rights Commitments and Pledges

Open Letter to the Reptilian Overlords RE: Education

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Dear Reptilian Overlords,

This letter is in reference to how education is supposed to work. It has come to my attention that you have abrogated our agreement. You have broken our contract. You may have done this willfully or without awareness, but you have failed to keep your end of the bargain as regards education. Allow me to remind you about how this is supposed to work.

People, young and old, but mostly young, spend great portions of their lives in learning sufficient amounts of information to be accredited graduates from the educational system. They may exit the system at various levels, but usually at the high school, college, or graduate levels.

This education is funded through taxes, individual earnings, family contributions, and private and public organizations. The cost increases as the level of education proceeds. The cost also varies according the content of the education and the institution that offers the graduate accreditation.

The following is where the most egregious abrogation of our agreements occurs, so please pay special attention. When a person has been conferred with the essential documents of graduation, that person will then seek gainful employment based on that education. At present they are not able to find this employment. Please see this graphic.

This graphic shows that 44.4% of graduates from undergraduate colleges under the age of 25 are not working or working in jobs that do not require a college education.

Immediate redress of this situation is in your best interests as well as ours. If this situation is not addressed, education will be seen for the general farce that most of it is. The situation is this, and I will use my own personal experience in American public education as an example. I was subject to far too many hours of tedium, expected to learn irrelevant minutiae while being prevented from exploring valuable real learning, and graduated with a graduate degree in foreign languages that I grudgingly admit has been of hardly any use to me at all in my profession as a foreign language teacher. The only value I believe I received from this experience are the human connections I made while in the school.

If this situation continues, you will be the ones who lose, because the flimsy veil of legitimacy will have been removed, and the low quality waste of time will be revealed for what it is.

Dolphins in Taiji

In Taiji, Japan at this time of year, there is a harvest of the dolphin population. A few are collected and sent of to aquariums around the world. More are slaughtered for their meat. At other times during the year, Japanese ships head out to hunt whales, whose meat finds its way to grocery shelves around Japan in both fresh and canned form. This harvest is said to be for scientific purposes.

This post is not an argument for or against the controversial killing of living things, but rather a proposal for action that removes the necessity for struggle and the squandering of life in pursuit of personal gain. 

People who oppose these slaughters are many and vocal. Protesters stand outside Japanese embassies and around the area where the dolphins are killed in Taiji. Some post appeals in various places against the killing.

This post is not an argument for or against the controversial killing of living things, but an examination of the irrational arguments on both sides. Those who would prevent harm coming to dolphins and whales argue that the animals posses significant intelligence and emotional faculties. Those who support the killing, actively or passively, posses a variety of beliefs, completely unexamined and irrational.

The opposition makes appeals to the general public to stop the killing, hoping that, 1.) they will put some kind of pressure on politicians, 2.) will send financial support to groups who may be able to exert political pressure or monkey wrench hunts, 3.) will influence buying habits of sympathetic people, becoming an economic force that can sway businesses to exert some kind of political pressure to stop the practices.

Each of these options rely, in the end, on some kind of political action. 1.) and 3.) directly imply some kind of political action, and 3.) necessitates political action in that government will be asked to reimburse losses to businesses as a result of direct action, increasing the tax burden on the population.

These actions will be totally ineffectual without significant comprehensive change, as governments care not a whit about their populations in general (I offer the example of the Fukushima nuclear power plants as an example) much less sea creatures. Their task is to protect their existence by maintaining the status quo through violence if necessary.

I see a parallel between this issue and the annual slaughter of baby harp seals in Canada. The struggle to end this harvest, largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world, has continued since I became aware of environmental issues in the 1970's.

Governments and those who support whaling and dolphin harvests argue that Japanese people have always eaten whale/dolphin meat and that since it is a traditional food source, then it is appropriate for them to continue the hunts.

This argument is a red herring. There is no relationship to animals traditionally eaten or banned. In A.D. 675, Emperor Temmu prohibited people from eating the meat of horses, monkeys, dogs, chickens and cows. I assume that since the ruler prohibited people from eating them that it must have been a practice at the time to consume these animals for food.

I have never heard a Japanese person say that they have eaten dog, nor have I seen a place where dog meat was on sale, though people who travel abroad may consume dog meat in other countries where eating do is not taboo. The hunting of monkeys in Japan is strictly forbidden, even though they do serious damage to crops and periodically attack humans. I do not believe they eat them. However, Japanese people regularly eat all of the other animals, both raw and cooked. Eating habits can change instantly or slowly over time. "Tradition" excuses nothing.

I would prefer to see this needless suffering end, and so I propose two solutions, but this will require some difficult changes. First, I propose that the struggle to stop/ban/prohibit the hunting and killing of dolphins should end. It is not metaphysically useful to continue expending energy that reinforces an undesirable situation.

It was Neville Goddard, a New Thought lecturer of the mid 20th century, who recommended that we “assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled” if we want our dreams to become real. Feeling good is feeling God—our good feelings align us with Spirit.

— Dr. Wayne Dyer

"To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease."

— Eckhart Tolle

My second proposal is to stop consuming. Stop consuming as much as possible. This grotesque squandering of life is all connected with the desire to posses things at the expense of others and our earth. If you are reading this, you have access to the Internet, which makes you one of the 3-5% of the world's population who does. You can do with less. I can do with less.


dolphin photo provided by http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/148624

Eat Right, Learn Right

You want to learn better? Then eat right!

The verdict is in. What we put into our bodies affects all of our physical and intellectual selves.

Eat
1. Whole foods: Whole grains lead to better memory power.
2. Fruit and vegetables: Fruit and vegetables can improve your memory.
3. With others: Eating with others has a raft of physical and emotional benefits.

Don't eat
1. Refined sugar: Talk about something that will harm your ability to remember stuff...
2. Too much: Obesity impairs people's ability to think.

Posted via email from Daniel's posterous

Startled Awake: tanka

Startled wide awake
Chickens crowing their praise to morning
Each day waking thus
Though each time is different
Birth into a brand new world

Public speaking: Comparison speech preparation with "would you rather..." gambits

In today's seminar class, this semester's theme being public speaking, we began a new section on comparison speeches. The goal is for everyone to make a speech comparing two things that are important to him or her.

Since today's class was a preparation class, we did impromptu speeches on topics that began with the question, "Would you rather..." I translated a list of these gambits that are listed here into English and used them with some modifications to make them applicable to my students. For example, "Would you rather have a one-year supply of chocolate or a lifetime supply of potatoes," I changed potatoes to rice.

The students enjoyed it, and are now ready to prepare topics for comparison.

When Less Might Be More: Improptu vs. Planned Conversation

Recorded student conversations today. They had been working on conversations for several weeks, and they have finally put themselves in front of a video camera and spoken to each other.

The objectives were to :
1.) build student confidence in their ability to speak English;
2.) activate vocabulary and grammar ability so that students can speak about themselves, their interests and those of one other;
3.) encourage collaborative language learning.

The suggested theme was, "Tell me about yourself." Students were asked to choose a partner. The teachers gave them a suggested pattern for the conversation: (Greeting, Small talk, Topics, Farewell), gambits for initiating a conversation (for example offering your name and then a statement about the state of your current condition, and leave taking strategies.

After the pair was finished with their conversation, they had an interview with the teacher, where they were asked to share information about their experience with the recording, ideas about the class in general, and then to talk about their English Log 2.0's.

The exit inverviews were all very similar, with most students saying that they were nervous. A few said that they enjoyed it.

My conclusion after this experience, though, is that rather than prepare for this kind of event for some weeks, the objectives stated above may be better achieved by providing less time for perparation and more time in conversation.

In the next cycle, I will provide less time for preparation, and focus their attention more on communicating.

Advanced English Class: A Better Way curriculum

My first experience with a class of near-native English speakers was about 24 years ago. It was similar to the group that I have now, a group of professionals who use English for their work, who want a place to exercise their linguistic muscles, but who want to do little else with it in terms of serious development.

The question I ask week after week is, "What do I do," and "What do they want"? I am little better off in answering either of those questions now than I was 24 years ago.

Then last week there was a problem. One of the participants became frustrated with one of the others' pedantic questions and comments and blew up at him. It didn't come to blows, but it emphasized to me that everyone is there for slightly different reasons, and that not all of their needs are being met.

This is a group class, so I am now struggling to find a way to insure that all of their needs are met. My overall conclusion is that they should have more autonomy than they do now to choose and discuss topics that are of interest to them.

These are how I plan to structure future classes, starting tonight.

• I will give them the task of deciding what topics are covered for the 6-week period. (I have done that in previous sessions, but with limited success, mostly because the proposed topics did not include learning-specific options. For example I gave them lists that included topics such as music or food, but which did not include options such as TOEIC preparation, or learning strategies.)
• I will include learning-specific options in the list, including TOEIC preparation, learning strategies, public speaking, and Internet options for learning. 
• Finally I plan to give them their own time for asking questions to me or other learners about the topic at hand. Depending on the number of students, I could imagine giving each learner 5 minutes to ask, comment on, or just express themselves on topics that interest them.

Advanced learners attend classes for a variety of reasons, and the teacher's role in these settings is to provide the space for each one to express her/his needs and fulfill them for him/herself.

Social Contribution Ads on Japanese Television

After the earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, television has focused a good deal of time on the events in the areas damaged in the event and the Fukushima nuclear power plants that have been leaking radioactive material.

There has also been an obvious increase in the number of public service announcements from the Japan Advertising Council. This agency was started in 1971, during the economic boom in Japan, by Keizo Saji, the then president of Suntory, a beverage (alcohol and soft drinks) manufacturer.

These spots focus on manners, child rearing, and other topics that contribute to society.

The reason that there are so many of these commercials now is because it would be inappropriate to show other commercials that promote the consumption of goods that are unavailable to so many people as a result of the natural disasters.