Practice makes perfect?

I have been thinking that it would be nice for students to have a place to practice writing English with no fear of making mistakes. There are many websites where that can be done.  I thought that my students and I could use this sleepy blog for that purpose.

This is how it would work.

Students, and anyone really, would be allowed to write comments to posts anonymously.  Anonymously means they would not have to give their name.  No names and no fear of making mistakes. 

Good idea?  Bad idea?

Busier than .....

Oh my god.  I have been so busy.  I have been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!  Can you imagine that?  One thing that I haven't done recently is update this blog. I want to.  But I just don't have the time.  There is always something more important that I have to get done first.

Recently at the junior high schools, the 8th graders are studying the comparative and superlative forms. That always reminds me of all the interesting English sayings that make use of these forms. Like the one I introduced at the beginning of this post.

I am busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

To understand this, first you have to know what "busy" means.  This is an easy word.  It means that you have a lot of things to do.  It means that you can't sit still because you have to keep moving.  I am very busy because I have many lesson plans to make and other work to do.  My daughter is very busy because she can't sit still.  Next you need to understand what "a long tailed cat" is.  This should be easy, especially if you use a dictionary to look up any words you don't know.  Surely you can understand what a cat with a long tail is.  That is what "long tailed cat" means.  尻尾の長い猫.  You can say "a cat with a long tail" but you can also modify "cat" with "long tailed".  There is a rocking chair in the picture above.  Now imagine a room that has many rocking chairs.  Now imagine that all those rocking chairs are moving, rocking back and forth.  Do you have that image in your mind?  Now put a cat in there with a long tail and you'll understand how busy it would be.

Other phrases that make use of the comparative (比較級)

• colder than ice
• cooler than a cucumber
• faster than a bullet
• higher than a kite
• lighter than a feather
• slower than molasses
• hotter than hell

Well, does this give you any ideas?  Do you think you could come up with some of your own comparisons to make an interesting phrase or two?

Have fun!

Chocolate is so important!

organic dark chocolate, a photo by f10n4 on Flickr.

Everyone knows that I love chocolate.  The teachers that I work with know.  The students who I teach know.  And now I have another great reason to eat chocolate!

It turns out that something in cocoa, epicatechin, helps increase time to exhaustion in mice.  Mice who took liquid epicatechin can run 50% longer than mice who took an equal amount of water.  I read this on the New York Times Well blog.  You can find the article link here: How Chocolate Can Help Your Workout.

But here is the problem, we humans could possibly get a similar effect from just 5 grams of dark chocolate a day!  Just 5 grams a day!  Why not more?  If you take too much it doesn't help and may even hinder the effect.  

In another article from 2007, it was said that this compound epicatechin, which is  a flavonal, is so important that maybe it should be considered an essential vitamin!

OK.  I got it! I need to get some dark chocolate and have a bite whenever I go out for a run from now on!

ふくふく29%さんのブログに日本語の概要がありました。
一日5グラム：http://fuku29.seesaa.net/article/218658467.html

Getting Ready to Go

We have only two more classes left before we head for Australia!  I had meant to post updates all along about this but I just didn't have the time.  I guess it is better late than never.

Here is some interesting English phrases in both American English and Australian English with their Japanese equivalents.

I am copy pasting these directly from MS Word so forgive me if the formatting gets strange.

Australian English words and expressions.

She'll be right!: Everything will be fine!	大丈夫、よくなるよ
Take away food: Take-out food	持ち帰り
Tea: evening meal	夕食、食事
Telly: The television.	テレビ
This arvo: This afternoon.	今日の午後
Too right!: Absolutely	もちろん！そうだよ！
Strewth!: It's the truth!	本当だよ
Spunky: Good-looking, attractive as in "what a spunk"	カワイイ、かっこいい
Sport	くだけた「お前、あなた」
See you in the soup: See you around.	またね
Q: Thank you (mumbled).	ども（ありがとう）
Num-nums: Tasty food.	美味しい食べ物
Mate: This usually means a friend but it can be used to talk about or to anyone - even a total stranger.	友達に対して使う「お前、あなた」
Matey with: Familiar or friendly with.	（誰かと）親しい
Beaut	よい。よかった。最高。素晴らしい。
Bush	いなか
Dead to the world	ぐっすりと寝ている
Dekko	a look, ひと目 Go and have a dekko at it. 見に行ってごらん。
have a go at	try,　挑戦する、やってみる よくわからないけど、やってっみる Don’t know much about it, but I’ll have a go at it.

Internationalization is....

"Internationalization is a process of personal growth. It is born in the conflict of persons, ideas and cultures. Therein ones eyes are opened to oneself, and to others, and a bond of personal responsibility is forged for the future. "

Going Abroad

In March, Makubetsu junior high and high school students have the opportunity to go abroad. The town will help pay for the expenses and take care of all the logistics. Once students arrive at their destination they will start a "home stay" at the home of a family with children close to their age. It is a great opportunity. A chance not to be missed!

However, many Japanese students and their families choose not to take advantage of this opportunity. They feel as if they could not return the favor. This demonstrates a big difference in the cultures of the two countries. I am under the impression that families in the home stay country are much less likely to skip out on such an opportunity because they wouldn't be able to return the favor of providing a student from abroad with the proper hospitality.

I can't claim to know all the reasons why Japanese families would feel that they could not take on a student for home stay. I know that the daily lives of the average Japanese student are probably quite different from those of their counterparts abroad. Japanese students seem to be extremely busy, or at least that is my impression. After school many stay at the school until 5, 6 or 7pm for various club and sports activities. If they are not at the school many of them are at cram schools called "juku" to study for high school or university entrance examinations. Some go to English conversation schools at night. They are away from home just as long if not longer than their working parents.

Not only are the students and their families busy, they feel as if their homes are too small to take on a guest. Contrast this to an American family. They might open up a bedroom for the guest or if they couldn't do that, they might invite them to sleep on the floor or a couch. This is something that I am guessing Japanese families don't feel they can do. But more than that, I imagine that it is because they take their children's education so seriously. I imagine that they think that there is no way they could fit taking care of another child when their own children are never home, always away for sports, clubs, or educational activities. Skipping those activities for a few days is probably not something that crosses their minds. It would put their children behind the others. Their children have to get the best scores that they can get on entrance exams so that they can beat out other applicants for limited spots available at the schools of their choice.

This makes Study Abroad programs between Japan and other nations rather difficult. Especially when it involves a reciprocal study trip to the Japan. These difficulties don't seem to stop them from happening however. It seems as if most cities and towns have some sort of international relationship and many of those involve some sort of international visits.

I want you, to want me!

This week the JHS 3rd graders are studying, or have studied, the following grammar.

My father tells me to work hard.

私の父が 私に　一所懸命動力して　と言います。

主語＋動詞　（tell, want, say, askなど）+目的語＋to不定詞

機能てきには人の言葉を伝えることです。「人に～してほしい」と言う

Recently I have been listening to music while I run. Usually I listen to podcasts where people are talking and not to music. I have been listening to a music podcast done by Adam Curry, a former MTV VJ. During one of the podcasts he played a song by the band Cheap Trick called "I want you to want me.". The grammar from this song is the same is the grammar the JHS 3rd graders are studying now. However, it is a little hard to translate the title "I want you to want me" directly into Japanese. The Japanese title is 「甘い罠」 wich would a direct translation back into English would render something like "Sweet Trap".


By the way, my children want me to play with them and not get angry. My wife wants me enjoy my life in Japan. My mother wants me to come home. She is always telling me to find a job in the USA. What do you want me to do? What do people want you to do? What do people tell you to do? What do they ask you to do?

Here is a link to Cheap Trick performing the song at the Budokan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBQ9dm7zaQU

And here is a link to the band KSM performing a cover of the song. The girls in KSM are about 15 years old, by the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vQ9q3qMLMQ&feature=related


Enjoy!

Make Mistakes!

I was reading a mailing list for bilingual families, the Bilingual Families mailing list today and there was an interesting post that caught my eye. Normally I don't have time to even open the messages but I opened this one. A 17 year old had just joined the list and was introducing himself. He is a bilingual Spanish-English speaker. He was talking about how now he rarely speaks Spanish because maybe, he doesn't have confidence in his abilities. He's afraid of making mistakes. In the very first response to his message, one list member said:

My husband, a native Spanish speaker, who didn't learn English until late in life, always encourages me to just speak - don't let mistakes stop you from connecting with people. He says, "The important thing is to be able to communicate. If people can understand you, then you've accomplished the goal."

It is such an obvious suggestion and one that is reiterated over and over again and one that can't be stressed enough. That is don't let mistakes stop you from connecting with people! Teachers almost always say the same thing to their students. Don't let fear of making mistakes prevent you from connecting with people. However, at the same time, we put fear of making mistakes into the students by testing them and giving them grades and by forcing them to perform in front of a group and then making a big deal of their mistakes by correcting them in front of everyone. That's like being publicly whipped for some students.

If you are interested, you can get more information about the Bilingual Families at the Bilingual Families Web Page.
URL: http://www.nethelp.no/cindy/biling-fam.html

Rhubarb and Haskap Jam!

Fresh rhubarb from our garden.

A pot with a broken lid handle.

Viola! Rhubarb and Haskap Jam!

Ok, I know I missed a lot of steps there but this was all that was left when I got home after work so I wasn't able to capture the other steps.  I was able to capture the wonderful smell of rhubarb when I walked in.  What a nice way to be greeted after work!  We have still not ever made a rhubarb and strawberry pie, mainly because rhubarb comes before the strawberries and store bought strawberries are so expensive.  Well, maybe that's not the main reason.  We are pretty frugal and pies, while very tasty, are relatively expensive and short lived.  Jam on the other hand can be stretched out for a long time and eaten again and again on toast, pancakes and in yogurt and the like.  One berry though that does go very well with rhubarb is the equally tart Haskap berry.

Haskap is native to Hokkaido and is being called other things in North America according to an article I read on the Home Orchard Society website. Link later.  Before when I had gone looking for an English name for haskap I couldn't find one but then recently we were at a jam shop in Furano (?) and they were calling it honeyberry.  I was skeptical and this jam here reminded me of my skepticism and I looked it up again.  There were several hits this time, especially from Canadian websites.  I agree with the Home Orchard Society when they say that the original name of Haskap should be used.  Haskap is very tart and perhaps a bit bitter.  It also is very red or purple and adding just a little to your rhubarb jam, not only enhances the flavor but more than that, gives it a nice red coloring.  This is particularly nice if your rhubarb is not very red to begin with. For example we have two varieties.  One that is mostly green and one that is red as you can see in the stalks in the photo above.

Haskap Arrives in North America
http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/article/42/

Rhubarb
ルバーブ

Garbage on the side of the Road

Ah, another post about garbage. Although I often see piles of garbage like this on the side of the road here in Makubetsu, I don't often talk about it. Since this was shortly after Earth Day (April 22) garbage was fresh on my mind. I saw this pile of trash on a long run between Makubetsu and Obihiro. I want to do something about it but I'm not sure yet what I can do. I'd have to convince my wife to let me do it too. It is hard to take of of things like this when you have small children to take care of, too. Sometimes, though, my children and I do pick up trash aroud our neighborhood. Now if only I can convince them to pick up their toys, too!

Number 12 Video

Over the last two weeks at elementary school we have been learning how to talk about our schedules.  In doing so we had to first make sure that everyone could say 1-12 so that they could at least say the hour at which they do something.  Most 5th graders already know English numbers from 1-10 but just to make sure that everyone could say 1-10 and 11 and 12 I introduced the number 12 song from my youth.  I watched this on America's public television channel, PBS. It was an animated video of a song and I watched it many times while watching Sesame Street.  So, now for your viewing and listening pleasure, here is the number 12 song from Sesame Street on YouTube.

12 and Pinball Animation.

Making Flour Tortillas

Today at an elementary school we are making flour tortillas.  To the left you can see a picture of what it might look like while making tortillas with a two-year-old. As you can see the tortillas before cooking are soft but they won't fall apart.

Here is the recipe.

Chewy Flour Tortillas

•  2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup lukewarm milk (2% is fine)

Stir together the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and vegetable oil to the lukewarm milk and whisk briefly to incorporate. Gradually add the milk to the flour, and work the mixture into a dough. It will be sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour and knead vigorously for about 2 minutes (fold and press, fold and press). The kneading will take care of the stickiness. Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rest for 15 minutes. (This dough will not rise, but it needs a rest.)

Divide your dough into 8 balls of equal size, cover them, and let them rest again for about 20 minutes. Avoid letting them touch, if you don't want them to stick together.

Dust your work surface with flour. Working one at a time, remove each piece of dough and pat it into a 5-inch circle. With a rolling pin, roll out the tortilla, working from the center out, until you have a 7- or 8-inch tortilla a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the tortilla to a hot, dry skillet or griddle. It will begin to blister. Let it cook for 30 seconds, turn it, and let the other side cook for 30 seconds. Remove the tortilla, place it in a napkin-lined basket and cover with aluminum foil. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.

Although flour tortillas, like corn tortillas, are best if eaten right after they are made, these tortillas will freeze well. Wrap them tightly in plastic, and they will keep, frozen, for several weeks. To serve tortillas that have been frozen, let them thaw and come to room temperature, then wrap them in aluminum foil and heat them in a warm oven. Microwaving tends to toughen them.

Here are some tips as to technique:

l        Do not use bread flour. You want flour with a low gluten content.

l        You don't want to over-flour your work surface, but you don't want your rolled-out tortilla sticking to it either. I found that the dough adhered less to an unvarnished wood surface (like an old cutting board) than any other surface I tried.

l        A flat dough scraper, known in baking parlance as a "bench knife", is very efficient in removing the rolled-out tortilla from the work surface.

l        When rolling out tortillas, dust your rolling pin with flour, and don't be afraid to apply pressure. Flour tortilla dough is pretty sturdy; but not to the point of rerolling. You don't want tough tortillas.

l        The Border Cookbook recommends the use of a tortilla roller (similar to a short piece of broomstick), rather than a rolling pin.

l        Once again, I believe a cast-iron skillet or griddle is practically indispensable for making any kind of tortilla. A dry cast-iron utensil, unlike most other materials, can take high temperatures over a sustained period of time without being adversely affected, although you may have to do a reseasoning afterwards (see How to Love Your Cast-Iron Skillet).

Once you get a rhythm going, you can roll out a tortilla, put it on to cook and, while it cooks, roll out your next tortilla. Seems like an arduous process but, with this method, I could produce 8 tortillas in about 10 action-packed minutes. Be sure to rewrap your fresh tortillas each time you add another to the stack.

This recipe found at:
http://www.texascooking.com/features/sept98flourtortillas.htm

Merry Christmas

Timex Ironman Triathlon Shock
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Yes, I know, Christmas is over. But I was without a computer for the last month so I am posting this now. I didn't get a lot for Christmas, which is fine since I'm 35 now. My kids did get plenty of new toys and children's educational DVDs from my parents and their aunts and uncles and great grandparents. As for my wife and I, we both got pretty much what we asked for. What other time of year can you expect that someone will buy you something that you want?

The band of my previous Timex Ironman watch (http://tinyurl.com/y93zemu), which I just loved, broke after over two years of use. Timex does not sell replacement watch bands. So I put this watch here on my wishlist for Christmas and, look what Santa brought me! A new one! Yeah! Of course, this isn't the same watch, which was much cooler, but I can replace the band on THIS watch. With the other one, I could not find a replacement band for it. So, I carefully put watches on my wish list that I knew I could get replacement bands for. It is not the color I wanted but beggars can't be choosers and I will cherish it and my extra watch bands for as long as they will take a licking and keep on ticking!
The Watch http://tinyurl.com/y8nmhpy

It is water resistant up to 200 meters, shock resistant, has a timer and a chronograph with a 30 lap memory. It also has two time zones. Just a few less functions than my old one. It is also slight less bulky and a lot less cool. But one of the things I like about this one is that it reminds of the the original Timex Ironman watch, the one that I really wanted as a kid. It just looked so cool back then. Now, I know there are a lot of more advanced watches out there from other brands, watches that have GPS and heart monitors and watches that can store many runs and as many laps as you want, but I'm a simple runner and this watch meets all my needs.

Pain at the Pump

So we just got a new (used) car.
The mileage for our new car as turned out to be 11kpl (kilometers per liter). I've heard that the price of gas will be going up to about 186yen per liter. Our old car had a diesel engine and got a little better than 12kpl. Our new car is going to cost us more to own, not to mention the cost of buying it.

Have you done anything to try and save money since the price of fuel has risen so much? We are driving less and trying to drive as economically as possible. By changing my driving habits I have increased the mileage of my work vehicle from 9kpl to over 12kpl. I usually put 40 liters of gas in the tank when I fill it up. That means that I can drive about 480km on a tank of gas. Before I could only drive about 360 km on a tank. That is a difference of 120km! It works out to about 600yen difference per tank of gas at current prices. I usually use 12 tanks of gas a year. So that would work out to about 7200yen a year in savings, not to mention the reduced CO2 emissions. That also means that I can travel 1440km more per year using the same amount of gas.

This has made me think that it should be required that everyone learn how to eco drive. Especially public employees who are using vehicles bought and maintained by public money. They should be required to learn how to drive economically and they should be required to drive that way, keeping logs of fuel economy with fuel economy targets for each vehicle. We are shutting the lights off and turning down the airconditioning and heating. Why not? There is a hybrid vehicle in the office fleet. I never drive it but I asked one guy what it's gas mileage was. He said 13 or 14kpl. ???? Only 13 or 14kpl!? My 1989 Mazda Familia is getting slightly better than 12kpl! Obviously the people driving it are not concerned with fuel economy.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the junior high school students of Makubetsu, Satsunai and Churui who graduated! You will now start a new period in your life. Make the best of it!

I had the privilege of being able to view Satsunai Higashi JHS's graduation ceremony. Many of the seniors and their juniors too were in tears as they gave their speeches of gratitude and talked about the three years spent at junior high. I have known all of them through class for the past three years and some of them I have known for longer. I didn't cry but I can tell you that I was filled with pride and sadness as they walked by in their processions in and out of the gym. I'm sad to part with them but happy to see them growing up and moving on.

From last week and continuing on into this week, graduated jhs students have been coming and going from the teacher's room to announce their acceptance into a private or public high school. They came to say thank you to all the teachers who taught them over the past three years and especially to their home room teachers and others who helped coach them for interviews and entrance examinations. Many of them were in tears of joy.

So once again, I say congratulations and good luck in your new endeavors.

Noelle Climbs

IMG_7843
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle climbs tables, chairs, trees, stairs, people and cat jungle gyms!

Here Tetsuya is trying to convince her to come down off the gym. You can see she can touch the ceiling from there! She loves climbing that thing and I usually stop her. It's hard to imagine a two year old climbing like she does. No fear. I wonder what she'll be like in 10 years or 20?

IMG_7843

Second Language Learning

I have started reading some articles about Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning by Greg Thomson. I have found them on a site called Language Impact's Language Learning Website. I have just finished reading Thomson's What? Me Worry About Language Learning? article. In it he talked about his experience and trails trying to learn new languages. In particular he talked about his experience and how he went about trying to learn Blackfoot. He also talks about why some people may be better at learning languages than others and why some languages may be more difficult for one person than another. It was very interesting for me and enlightening. The main gist of the article, other than being a primer for one who is thinking about starting to learn a new language, is that you have to have a good strategy. He says that a good strategy would include

• a time commitment,
  
• making yourself accountable,
  
• ways to keep improving your conversational ability, and
  
• a way to develop lots of relationships with speakers of the language you want to learn.

The first two should not be too difficult for most people to accomplish. The second and third strategies seem a bit more difficult. What if there are no or very few native speakers of the language you want to learn?

Well, anyways, I hope that this new insight into language learning will help me develop better activities and methods for teaching English. Although one of the things that he repeatedly stresses is that it is extremely difficult to learn a second language in a language class. 頑張るぞォ

It's a boy!

It's a boy!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Introducing Aspen Ross Lane. Born 12:54 in the afternoon. Weight 3594gm.
Ryo felt labor coming on at 6:30am and he was born that day at 12:54, just after noon. There were no complications. A few seconds after he came out he started to cry. I cut the umbilical cord. He started looking for a drink right away. Both mom and baby are doing great. They will be in the hospital until Friday.

Testing hurdle for international students

The link is no longer valid but I first read about this at http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/23/english.test.ap/index.html. I have a print out of it.

The article is about the TOEFL - the Test of English as a Foreign Language. It is a test that international students hoping to study in the United States can take to prove their language skills so that they can be admitted to a university.

The test has been changed to include a speaking component. Students will be asked to listen to some English and then read a passage and then speak about both. The organization the administers this test, the Educational Testing Services, hopes that the test will encourage a change in English education around the world. And I hope it does!

I have been looking for a good book to use in a short run English class for students going abroad. In my searcehs I have seen many books with titles like "Why Japanese can't speak English"and "What's wrong with English Education in Japan". There are many, many books like this that have been published. Many of them are quite old. Many more are published ever year. If everyone knows that there is something wrong, why is nothing changing? This is one of my biggest questions. It is a lament that I hear native English speakers teaching English in Japan and Japanese teaching English in Japan express all the time.

This reminded me of the article about the TOEFL.

So what IS wrong with English education? I don't know, but I think spending more effort on creating your own English is a start in the right direction. What I mean is, it is important not just to read and listen and memorize, but to try your hand at creating your own sentences. All the time. Just do it! Do it in your head. Do it on paper. Do it in class. You must practice making your own English sentences. You must practice making English your own.

And that is all I have to say about that.

bakudan

bakudan
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

This post marks the spot where a bomb from a "grandmother" bomber was dropped in Makubetsu Japan. I don't know what a "grandmother" bomber is. This spot is right next to the Makubetsu library. The US bombers were aiming for a factory nearby, the Nitta factory. This landmark is not very visible with trees standing in front of the post. I doubt many people see it and considering the fact that this hole was made over 60 years ago, I doubt many people remember it.