Yokohama Waterworks #1: Presentation on Self Introduction

Due: On November 12 week
Give your presentation on
Yokohama Waterworks #1 (Self Introduction)

To love what you do....

October 28, 20p13
Dear Students and Friends

I was busy correcting the verbal behavior of students and had a little time to write the Quote...Unquote for a while
I should return to the initial approach of sending  Blogs of Quote..Unquote and with messages to guide students to their assignments.

Quote... Unquote:
"To love what you do and feel that it matters---how could anything be more fun?"
Katherine Graham
US newspaper Executive
1917-
自分のやっていることが大好きでそれに価値があると思っているなら、
それ以上に楽しいことなどあり得ない。

Newsmakers # 4

October 24, 2013
Dear Students

 Newsmakers # 4

Discuss by writing:
1. Do you think people rely too much on computers to look for information,
   instead of going to the library, for example?
2. Imagine you could not use a computer for a full month.
   How would your life change?

gto

Oral Interpretation#4: Kennedy's Speech #3

October 24, 2013

Kennedy's speech #3

"Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.  With a good conscience our only
sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth god's work must truly be our own.

(recite the above)
gto

Blog presentation: Chapter#4: Welcome to Britain: October 24

October 24, 2013
Dear Students(Welcome to Britain)
I would like to ask you to do the following questions as your presentation:
1. Do you think English should be a compulsory subject in Japanese schools?  Why(not)?
2. Which is the best way to assess the progress of pupils and students (tests, or what else)?
3. What is one good point Japan's system has which Britain doesn't have?
gto

Oral Interpretation #3: "Enter the Dragon" by Bruce Lee

October 21, 2013 Dear Students and Friends
We would like you to practice the following lines aｓ”Oral Interpretation":

Kick me.
What was that? An exhibition?
We need emotional content.
Try again.
I said emotional content.
Not anger.
Now try again.
With me.
That's it.
How did it feel to you?
Don't think.  Feel!

"Enter the Dragon"
Bruce Lee

What do you think of nursery education in Japan?

Dear Students and Friends
We had a party of three nursery schools which I am a board of director.
Nursery schools are doing fine and given money from Abenomics tax raise of 8 % before being raised.
The government ordered schools to spend money for the employees and pay raise is promised.
This will improve the conditions of the workers and more will work for the nurseries and schools will have easier access to hire teachers and more schools will be opened. This will lead to eliminate waiting list to get into Nurseries.

What do you thing of nursery education(hoikuen) in Japan?

gto

Imitation, imitation, imitation,,,,that is the base of language learning.."Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"〈模倣とは、最も誠実な追従なり。）

October 16, 2013
Dear Students and friends
Imitation, imitation, imitation that is the base of language learning was the words Professor Haga of Tsukuba and ICU mentioned to me about thirty years ago from what he learnt from his professor in Kobe University.
I am incorporating it into my Speaking classes. I found out those techniques are well used in Nihon, Aoyama, and Keio as courses called Oral Interpretation or Public Speaking.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".
(fromLacon)
Charles Caleb Colton
English cleric and writer
1780-1832

模倣とは、最も誠実な追従なり。

Recitation/Oral Interpretation/Public Speaking

October 15-20, 2013

Students task: (No.2)

Boys, be ambitious!
Be ambitious not for money or for selfish
aggrandize, nor for that evanescent thing
which men call fame.
Be ambitious for knowledge,
for righteousness, and for the uplift of your people.
Be ambitious for the attainment of all that
a man ought to be.

Recite above public speaking in next class.

gto

Aoyama Cemetery.... Thomas Jefferson's words: "Ignorance is preferable to error...."

October 14/15, 2013
Dear Friends and Students
Typhoon is coming
I have Ferris, Nursery school, and Yokohama Water workers on that day.
How to avoid typhoon and start teaching English is a good question.
 Quote of a day is:
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who
believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
Thomas Jefferson
Third President
1743-1826
無知は誤りよりましであり、間違っていることを信じているものよりも、
何も信じていない者のほうが、真実から遠くは離れていない。

gto

Aoyama Foreign Cemetery, a proof of spiritual tribute to Japan and Asia...

October 13, 2013
Dear Students and Friends
Today NHK  TV showed that China is not only accepting capitalism but also Christianity and growing fast.  I think there is a hint in my future mission so as to all in Japan.
 Aoyama foreign cemetery reveals  the dedication and devotion of Christian missionaries who gave their lives for modernization of Japan and Asia. Most of them risked their lives for their mission and died in Tokyo not in Yokohama or their home countries.

Today's quote:
"An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living."
Nicolas Chamfort
French writer
1741-1794
経済学者とは、切れ味抜群のメスと刃がギザギザのランセットを手にした外科医
であり、死人には見事な手術をやり、生きている人間には非常な苦痛を与える。
What do you think about this?

Aoyama Gaikokujin Bochi(Tokyo Aoyama Foreign Cemetery)

October 12, 2013

I went to Aoyama Cemetery first time. It is a huge place . It must be four to five times larger than the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery. The governor of Tokyo decided to keep the foreign section as a historical spot. There are the graves of missionaries, scholars, and doctors who came to Tokyo and devoted their lives for Japanese and Asian modernization.
As I went to the cemetery with the Quakers( officially Tokyo Yearly meeting of "Christian" Society of Friends)(in America they are called the Religious Organization of Friends because you don' t have to be Christians, happened to be mostly Christians). The ceremony is conducted by three other churches, namely Akasaka Kyoukai, Izumi Kyoukai, and Hongou Kyoukai with the Quakers. The founder of those churches were a Quaker and a doctor and father in law of Lord Katsu Kashu's son and Katsu himself became a member in the time of his death. So the grave was erected by Lord Katsu with his signature.
 After being introduced to the group as a director of Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery,
I had a chance of talking to the ministers of the churches and found out that they see Quakers as a lay Christian organization. In a sense it is true and reminded me of the Japanese Buddhist lay organization(信徒集団）. They are SoukaGakkai. I see a good contrast between the two.
SoukaGakkai based on their organizational structure of the Imperial Japanese Army whereas the Quakers based on democratic consensus structure. And today Soukla Gakkai or Koumei Party looks very middle path and pacifist is a sign that Japan is becoming authoritarian militant base. But let's face it, Japanese history has a  long military rule--Bakufu system and Meiji Fukoku Kyouhei system.
I think it is very hard for these 65 Quakers(if one increase in December it will be 66)to survive in this militant base going to be authoritarian state in future.
I am a realist and not an idealist but feel that there must be a Christian silence- belief, listening to your inner self and talking with Him in silence.
gto

...he who has not first laid his foundations....(The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli)

                                 Greek/Russian Orthodox Church in Yokohama
October 8, 2013
Dear Students and Friends
Read and think:
"...he who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards,
but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building."
from The Prince
Niccolo  Machiavelli
Italian historian, philosopher and writer
1469-1527

Assignment for the students taking "Newsmakers"

October 6, 2013
Dear Students for taking "Newsmakers"

Discuss
"Japan has its own territorial disagreement with Russia over the northern territories east of Hokkaido.
How do you think Japan and Russia should solve the this problem?

gto

Quote of the day...discuss with your friends... essential to success...

                                 Overlooking Tokyo from Liberty Tower, October 2013

Dear Friends and Students
Reading/writing class should be according to the task and Blogs,
but listening and speaking classes should have more pair speaking.

Quote of the day.
What do you think about it.
Discuss with your friends.
"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.
It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
John D. Rockefeller
US industrialist and philanthropist 1839-1937
いかなる成功にも不可欠な資質は。忍耐強さをおいてほかにはないと思う。
忍耐強さは、ほぼすべてのことを、　自然をも、克服する。

A message from a sage...Ecclesiastes...コヘレトの言葉

October 4, 2013
Dear Friends and Students

I went to Aoyama Gakuin University today and learnt about Ecclesiastes as this week's bible lesson.

In Japanese, the line of なんという空しさ、なんという空しさ」being repeated.

" Life is Useless."
These are the words of the Philosopher,
David's son, who was king in Jerusalem.
It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher
Life is useless, all useless.
You spend your life working, laboring, and what do
you have to show for it?
Generations come and generations go, but the
world stays just the same.
The sun still rises and it still goes down, going
wearily back to where it must start all over again.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north--
round and round and back again.
Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not
yet full.  The water returns to where the rivers
began, and starts all over again.
Everything leads to weariness-- a weariness
too great for words.  Our eyes can never see enough
to be satisfied ; our ears can never hear enough.

from the Bible
Ecclesiastes, 1.1

gto

How to be rich.....

October 2, 2013
Dear Students and Friends
How to be rich is the big discussion we always have.

" It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have got it, it requires ten times as much wit to keep it."

Mayer Amschel Rothschild
German intetnational banker
1744-1812

”そうだいな富を築くには、かなりの大胆さとかなりの用心深さが必要だが、
それを手にしたら、今度は　それを守るために１０倍の才覚が必要になる。