My experience at Integrated Skills 1

Before the beginning of this class, I knew almost anything both about the class and the professour.  So  I was wondering whether I could successfully manage to do variety of tasks in the classes.  But now I can know that anxiety was just a waste of time.  Actually, I could enjoy almost each of classes, because this class dealed with not only literature but also other areas, like the ways of delivering nice speeches and presentations.  And I also loved to learn children's literature, like "Moomintroll" and "Hobbit."  It was the first time for me to learn those kinds of literature, because at classes of the Writing Skills, I learned mainly classical literature, like Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, and so on.  Besides, I found that  Prof. Cheetham is really gentle, kind, friendly teacher.  With Prof. Cheetham, I could learn many things with easy atmosphere!  Next term, I'm going to be taught by Prof. Pinner.  I doesn't know anything about him, but there is no anxiety, and I'm looking forward to seeing him!

My Faborite Song

I love songs.  As a matter of fact, I listen to various songs every day, using my i-Pod.  These days, especially, I enjoy the songs sung in English, not only to take pleasure in it, but also to improve my English ability.  Among those songs, one of my favorite songs is "Imagine" by John Lennon, which is chosen as a "top 100 most performed songs of the 20th century" by the Broadcast Music Corporation in 1999.  There are mainly three reasons why I chose this song.

              The first reason is peaceful message with the love of the human race.  This is one of the factors why "Imagine" is so popular with various kinds of listeners all over the world.  First of all, John lived the age of many conflicts, for example, the Cold War involving many countries after the two Great Wars, and the Vietnam War.  John Lennon felt sad about the situation that people cannot understand each other even after the two World Wars.  Then he composed "Imagine" and tried to awaken public sympathy with his idea that the world has to become one.  His strong ideas can be found from some sentences and descriptions like, "Imagine there's no Heaven," "A brotherhood of man," "Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world," and "I hope somebody you'll join us, And the world will live as one."  His thought was greatly empathized with a lot of people in the world and even recently, the song was sung after 9.11 and following the Iraq War.

              Besides, "Imagine" is good at making people call favorable responses, using special ways. First, this song has simple structure. To take an illustration, this song is consist of repeated phrases of "Imagine" and "You may say I'm a dreamer."  It can be said that it is monotonous , but at the same time, this kind of structure make listeners understand what singers want to tell easily and remember them.  The repeated effects of same or similar kinds of phrase and sounds are publicly admitted. 

              Besides, this song has many phrases that make us feel familiarity with it.  Some phrases like "Imagine," "You may say I'm a dreamer," and "I hope someday you'll join us" make us feel as if we are actually talked to by John Lennon.  It helps us think about the theme seriously and emphasize his idea.

              Though those great attractions, as well, some people criticize some parts of the words.  First there are some descriptions implying the communism. "Imagine no possessions," "I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger," and "Sharing all the world" are one of them.  In addition, some words, like "Imagine there's no Heaven" and "no religion," are not acceptable one for those who concerning Christianity or other religions.  In fact, recently, singing this song at funerals was forbidden.

              This song, "Imagine," is a masterpiece in many meaning with some approval or disapproval.  Any way, it is sure that this song is known to the people all over the world.  This popularity will continue forever.

Today, I'd like to talk about "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland" because I dealed with this stroy as a topic of my term paper of Integrated Skills.  My first encounter with this extremely famous children's literature is not through book.  As a matter of fact, I came to know the basic plot and strange characters, watching an animated version of it with the titile of "Alice in Wonderland," produced by Walt Desney.  It was really amazing and unbelievable for just a little boy like me to watch Alice's unexpected travel in her dream world.  But I have never read the book before.  So it was the first time for me to read it at the class of Integrated Skills.  We read only the first chapter, but that two pages were enough for me to be surprised.  Because it has a lot of unique features, like constitution of a paragraph with just one long sentence.  And what I felt most interesting as a English literature student is the narrator.  I was so shocked to know that even third person narrator can give his or her own subjective comments in a story.  Like this, the only first chapter has rich enough contents and surprise for me, and  I realized the big defference between the animation movie and original book.  This time, I have read just the introduciton, so I would like to read the book altogether and find new discoveries!!

my plan

These days, I'm so busy doing my part-time job at a cram school teacher, joinning circle activity of ESS, and especially dealing with comming tests and term papers.  But I can keep trying hard, because I know that there is long summer vacation in few weeks!!  I'm wondering what should I do in that big big holidays!  And I can remember that I was also thinking about that on last July.
Concerning the last summer vacation, I tried to read a lot of famous literaly works, like "Crime and Punishment" and some other major stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  And I also read "Botchan" by one of the most famous Japanese writers in Meiji era, Souseki Natume.  Among various books I read during the last summer vacation, my best faborite book is the collection of short stories by O Henry.  This is the first time I came to realize the attractiveness of his stories.  I especially love to read "The Gift of the Magi" and the last paragraph.  But after that, I came to know that the stories by O Henry are not academically studied so much, so it is difficult to write some kind of term paper on his stories.  But anyway, he is one of my faborite writers!!
Also this year, I'm going to read various kinds of books and want to find great and exciting stories!!

I could feel Claudius like my close friend!!

Today, I'm going to talk about the introduction of a book named, "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves.  The main character is, as the title says, Claudius, who is the Emperor of Rome, and he goes on to tell his own story, like an autobiography, though it is not he who wrote this story.  And one of the most interesting point in this book is that there are some strange features in his narration.  For example, in he first chapter, Claudius insists again and again that he wrote this story by himself, like "In the present work, I swear by all the Gods, I am my own mere secretary, and my own official annalist: I am writing with my won hand, and what favour can I hope to win from myself by flattery?"  However, it does not mean that the story itself is difficult to understand.  Conversely, we can read this book comfortably.  This is partly because, maybe, the narrator uses relatively easy words, which even we Japanese students know.  Moreover, Robert Graves's way of narration is just like a conversation with a friend, and it makes us feel close to the narrator and the story.  So I think one cause of the great success of this book is the closeness and feel of comfortable for readers.

 Today, I'm going to write about my faborite movie again because I love seeing them very much.  This time, I would like to recommend you "Batman" series by the great director, Christopher Nolan.  He is famous because each of his movies has their great originality in his plot, ideas, and images, using VFX.  As a matter of fact, he skillfully described the unexpected development of the story and unbelievable scenery in people's dreams, in "Inception."  He made three "Batman" movies, "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight," and "The Dark Knight Rises."  The main character is, as you know, Batman, who is famous for one of the best hero in American comic series.  In the story, he saves his home town, Gotham city, (which is imginable one) from evil guys, like Bane and the Joker, who try to threaten the city and also him.  Through the story, you can enjoy really exciting action scenes and battle scene with cool Batmobiles, which is special vehicles only for Batman.  But this is not all the feature of the movies.  Actually, the story is so deep, different from other action movies, which often tend to be simple plot, focusing too much on the action scenes.  That is, this series have the highest quality of plot and images.  So never assume that they are mere action movies, like those for children.  Try to see them once!  You have to be involved in the surprising new world!

Have you ever seen it?

Today, I'm going to write about one of my best movies, "Avatar." I guess, many of you have already seen, or at least known this movie. For the people who haven't yet watched it, I would like to explain the brief story and the appearings of this story. The most interesting and exciting point in this story is the extremely original, innovatory, and detailed settings. We cannot see the surprising scene in any other movies. Actually, the place is not on earth. It is other planet, which far from our one. So, of course, there are numerous kinds of strange creatures, plants and so on. For example, you can see dragons, living on the floating islands in the air! And human like creatures, Na'vi, are one of them. In this story, the main character , Jake Sully, visit this world and he contacts with the native Na'vi. The interesting point is that he actually uses Na'vi as his body with their high technology, and this is the origin of the titile of this movie. I have told you the attraction of this movie, but I'm never able to explain the excitement even in thousands of words. So, if you haven't seen it yet, I strongly recommend you to experience the unbelievable world!!

One of the Best Holiday

Last week, I spent  both of holidays joining the 19th Sophia Cup, which held by the Sophia University E.S.S. speech section.  As I said before, I belong to the speech section, and every year, the members hold this large speech contest, usually at the huge 10th hall at this university.  And this contest is well known not only by the speech seciton members in Tokyo but those in all over Japan.  As a matter of fact, one of the speaker is from Kyoto University.  Each of 8 speakers makes his or her prepared speech for about 8 minutes and short prepared speech for about 4 minutes with a theme of "Kokoro."  Almost all of speech contests don't have the short prepared speech session becuase this is unique event in our contest.  And the representive speaker from our speech section also made a speech, under the title of, "Pray for Them, and for You."  In her speech, she suggests that it is important to pray for people and herself to improve your situation and to make closer relations between people and you.    She prepared and practiced her speech hundred times for this day, and actually, she made really brilliant speech.  However, other 7 speakers also made great and impressive speeches, so regrettably, she couldn't get any prize.   But I think her speech made a lot of people there moved and inspired.  As for me, I played a role as a door man, who opens a door to let judges,questioner, and speakers enter the hall.  I felt a little nervous, but I had successfully done it.  Through the contest, I got to be inspired and moved to listen to the speeches by 8 great speakers, and I talked a lot of people concerning speech secion members in other universities.  I felt tired, but I could enjoy the precious opportunity so much!!

Through these two classes of Integrated Skills, we have read and talked about the first few chapters of "Arthur and Merlin" by Kevin Crossley-Holland.  For me, to tell the truth, I couldn't find this stroy exciting...

There are mainly two reasons.

First, the author uses unusual words or descriptions.  As a matter of fact, he gives us a very long adjective from the very first paragraph, like, "clamber-and-tumble-and-beech-and-bramble."  I saw this kind of a strange adjective, and couldn't understand at all what those hyphens mean.  That is, I'm not used to this kind of unusual way of writing, so I came to be confused, reading the sentences.

Then, in this story, there are too many things, which remains unknown.  Actually, the narrator seems to have least intention to tell us detailed information about his world, which is rather different from ours.  Because of our lack of knowledge about their world, it is really difficult for readers to clearly and exactly imagine the sight the main character sees.  And it is so trying boring because the story goes on and on without my understanding.

However, I know that the second problem is only first, and as the story goes on, we can know more about another world step by step.  That is, it is highly possible that the process is really exciting even for me, and that my image against the story is just a bias.

Any way, at least, I'm going to read the first volume of this book!

Hello!

I had to submit some message for this blog last week, but I was really busy until the day before yesterday, so I couldn't!  So I'm typing this now, and I'm going to tell you why I was so busy.

There were mainly two reasons.
 
Firstly, I had a test of French.  This was first test in this semester, so I couldn't guess what kind of questins would be asked by my new teacher.  Besides, I also had some assignments, so I couldn't study for it enough...
But my teacher is so kind and gentle man, so I thoght that he wouldn't make a too severe test.  It was just my assumption.  Actually he gave us a test with A LOT OF questoins! 
Any way, I did do my best for it.  The result will come back next Friday!

And then, the next reason is that I had a speech contest for practice, named "the Carnation Cup".  Now, I belongs to the Speech Sectoin in E.S.S., and there I usually make two speeches a year.  This semester, I wrote a speech with a title of "See It As It Is."  In the speech, I stress the importance of seeing things without bias, and suggest the solution to get rid of it.  I presented at that speech contest in front of much audience.  There were also Speech-Section members of the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, and the Yokohama City University.  I made some mistakes, like forgetting sentences...but I was so happy to be cheered up by everyone!  I could also made many friends!

On the whole, I could enjoy those substantial experiences!!!

I don't know much about "Alice in Wonderland" because I only saw the movie of animation ver., produced by Desney when I was a little child.  I just know the general prot and the unusual characters, like the white rabbit, running for his appointment, and the cheshire cat, grinnning at everything.
So through this class of the integrrated skills, I got to know many things about "Alice in Wonderland," reading the first part of the story.  The most impressive new information for me was his writing style that he makes one long sentence as a paragraph.  In my opinion, this is because, "Alice in Wonderland" is weird story, so Lewis Carroll tried to give the strange impression also to the style of writing.
I don't know whether Lewis was intended it or not, but any way, I was interested in his unusual style.

And I also didn't know that this story is translated into sooooooooooo many languages!!  I don't know the reason, so I'm going to keep thinking!

There are numerous number of dragons, created by a lot of writers from ancient times.  Even now, we see various kinds of them through books or movies, like "Hobbit" and "Harry Potter." 
As for me, I got to know some of them through those kind of fantasy movies or books.  In my image, dragons have big and rough bodies with pairs of large wings, parts of which are teared and damaged.  To describe them simply, they are like smart dinosaurs with much lighter bodies and freedom in the air.  Most of them can brearh fire freely, and they seem to be stronger than any other animals on the earth.  Usually, they have some roles, like guarding something important.  In the movie, "Shrek" one red dragon is guarding a princess in a castle.  And though many of them are reagarded as a brutal bad animals, some of them sometimes can be good companies, like in "The Chronicles of Narnia 3" and "Shrek."  Anyway, dragons are one of the most exciting characters, and plays important roles in many movies!

I have a lot of hobbies, as I said at the bottom of this blog.  And one of my faborite way of spending time is to read comic books.  There are many, many, many of them in Japan, and a number of them are also read all over the world, such as "Dragon Ball" and "One Piece."  Among those popular and enjouyable comic books, I want to tell you one of the best works for me.  It is "Yotubato!" (or "Yotuba&!" in English).  In this story, five years old girl, named Yotuba, just enjoys her daily life with his father and neighbors, with out any big events.  Yotuba is really active and she can enjoy everything she finds, sometimes causing little problems.  This is why readers can be relaxed and enjoy by reading the series of comic books.  Anyway, try to read them!  My explanation on this page is meaningless to tell you the pleasure of this comic book!  I have vol.1 ~ 7 and 12.  If you felt like reading them, tell me!

One spring morning, Ken, who is a student of a high school, got up reluctantly because he slept at deep night.  He gave a big yawn, and rubbed his eye.  He felt like sleeping back.  But it was just a moment of dream.  He glanced at a watch, and then realized that it was already the time of the first class!  "Oh my....!" he grumbled.  He sprang out of bed immidiately.  He wanted to complain to his mother about not having awaken him until that time, but he could not spend any more minute!  He flied out of his house, and he went on to Rush! Rush! Rush!  Then he got to his school, and stopped in front of a door of his class room.  He got oneself ready to be scolded by his teacher.  He opened the door.  Next time, he could not understand what was happenning.  Not a soul of student was sitting and studying.  He could not see the figure of his teacher!  Suddenly, man`s voice came from his back.  He was his teacher!  Ken tried to ask what was happening.  But before he said that, the teacher asked.  "Why are you in school at Founder`s Day?"    

My name is Jun Hiramatsu.
Call me Jun!

As the title says, I LOVE cats!
I cannot imagine my life without cats!

I also like to watch movies and to read books.
But I don't have enough time to spend time for my hobbies...

If some people have favorite movies or books, please tell me them!