Wednesday was our last class with Rab.
i don't know what to say, but I thought the ELP classes ended very fast than I expected.
before Rab 's lecture, i had been thinking that arguing about the media and propaganda stuff was boring. I somehow had a feeling that news were not being fair and telling the truth, but i didn't know how biased they were, how serious it was, how negatively affected us.
I think the biggest change that happened in myself during this term was not caused by foundation courses, but it was Rab's classes.
Even the area of study which I'm interested in had slightly changed, too.
I really wanted to have class with rab in the Fall term
there should be more fun since we 're gonna be doing project and presentation using computers more.
It is too obvious to say this, but what Rab taught us through the ELP was far more than English. so again, Thank you very much Rab!!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Chapter 8 - And If the Nature of Thought is Not Everywhere the Same?
I must have posted the last blog after writing this one...what a stupid!
the chapter 8 was a summary and conclusion of the whole story of the book.
Nisbett explains that all those theories explained in body chapters by using laboratory tests could be applied to our real world.
Although the author has been arguing his theory about significant difference between westerner's and easterner's way of thinking strongly, and it sometimes look like they are biased somehow(like Nisbett is preferring western way of thinking rather than that of eastern's because he himself is a westerner.),
I think the way Nisbett argue in this last chapter is effective and persuasive.
for instance, he gives many examples of real world such as Laws, Debate, Human Rights , International Relations and Religions to prove that those field reflect his theories of cultural difference.
However, I couldn't get the author's point of arguing these many differences among the two.
well i haven't read the Epilogue but does Nisbett makes any suggestions??
i thought he didn't clearly state what is the point of arguing that both differ in many field
In p.211, he explains Korean graduate student having trouble not to speak out in his psychology class.
he mentions the quote of Lao-tzu and admits that easterner's way of understanding the material is not verbal.
and there's a famous Japanese proverb which most Japanese probably agrees: "The clever hawk hides his claws."
I think this is a good adage that reflect Japanese way of thinking toward smart person.
Japanese don't expect clever people to speak out their knowledge too much.
It is obvious that people from other countries have different way of thinking.
and this is not only about west and east. all parts of the world have different backgrounds and cultures.
the chapter 8 was a summary and conclusion of the whole story of the book.
Nisbett explains that all those theories explained in body chapters by using laboratory tests could be applied to our real world.
Although the author has been arguing his theory about significant difference between westerner's and easterner's way of thinking strongly, and it sometimes look like they are biased somehow(like Nisbett is preferring western way of thinking rather than that of eastern's because he himself is a westerner.),
I think the way Nisbett argue in this last chapter is effective and persuasive.
for instance, he gives many examples of real world such as Laws, Debate, Human Rights , International Relations and Religions to prove that those field reflect his theories of cultural difference.
However, I couldn't get the author's point of arguing these many differences among the two.
well i haven't read the Epilogue but does Nisbett makes any suggestions??
i thought he didn't clearly state what is the point of arguing that both differ in many field
In p.211, he explains Korean graduate student having trouble not to speak out in his psychology class.
he mentions the quote of Lao-tzu and admits that easterner's way of understanding the material is not verbal.
and there's a famous Japanese proverb which most Japanese probably agrees: "The clever hawk hides his claws."
I think this is a good adage that reflect Japanese way of thinking toward smart person.
Japanese don't expect clever people to speak out their knowledge too much.
It is obvious that people from other countries have different way of thinking.
and this is not only about west and east. all parts of the world have different backgrounds and cultures.
Friday, June 11, 2010
June 11th
to tell the truth, i couldn't believe all the facts that were shown in the videos
because I'm too much influenced by rab's dont-trust-media lecture.
we should not trust everything rab shows and tells us just because rab said that
that's what meiland told us. we have to have our own good reasons to support our belief to be true. just because teacher said it is not a good reason.
we have to see if the sources they used to make the film were whether reliable or not.
but we should not also simply trust what meiland says just because meiland said that
...well I'm writing this because i can fill the space.
I know this is not the main point of yesterday's class.
but I also know that i can't think of a good solution to the problems we've learned in the videos yesterday. Im not that creative and not informed enough
all i can say is : first and foremost, people should at least try to know the real facts.
but this is the same thing i was saying one year ago. maybe two or three.
maybe my thoughts haven't changed at all. I wanna do something about this
by the way,
did everyone have already planned what to do during the long summer??
I haven't decided...the first three month of ICU did pass really fast that i couldn't get time to think about summer...
my ICU friend who is a sophomore told me that you have to plan everything what to do in the summer during April.
I think im gonna be working at Ajinomoto Stadium as a haken worker on weekends, and
I'm going to NY for the second time with my friend who did the tap dancing in May, who's actually a professional stage actor. but that's just for a week or so.
I have many, many friends i want to talk to, but i don't wanna just play around with friends for two month.
I guess I'll be performing tap dancing at the Central park. (kind of serious...haha)
because I'm too much influenced by rab's dont-trust-media lecture.
we should not trust everything rab shows and tells us just because rab said that
that's what meiland told us. we have to have our own good reasons to support our belief to be true. just because teacher said it is not a good reason.
we have to see if the sources they used to make the film were whether reliable or not.
but we should not also simply trust what meiland says just because meiland said that
...well I'm writing this because i can fill the space.
I know this is not the main point of yesterday's class.
but I also know that i can't think of a good solution to the problems we've learned in the videos yesterday. Im not that creative and not informed enough
all i can say is : first and foremost, people should at least try to know the real facts.
but this is the same thing i was saying one year ago. maybe two or three.
maybe my thoughts haven't changed at all. I wanna do something about this
by the way,
did everyone have already planned what to do during the long summer??
I haven't decided...the first three month of ICU did pass really fast that i couldn't get time to think about summer...
my ICU friend who is a sophomore told me that you have to plan everything what to do in the summer during April.
I think im gonna be working at Ajinomoto Stadium as a haken worker on weekends, and
I'm going to NY for the second time with my friend who did the tap dancing in May, who's actually a professional stage actor. but that's just for a week or so.
I have many, many friends i want to talk to, but i don't wanna just play around with friends for two month.
I guess I'll be performing tap dancing at the Central park. (kind of serious...haha)
June 9th (about essay...)
okay...no one should not read this blog cause it might be soooo boring!!
I just wanted to write this because this was the only thing I remember about wednesday,
and wanted to organize my plan for the essay.
in Wednesday's class, we had a discussion, I mean, kind of a debate thing again,
but this time about our own topic of the essay.
before the class, I already knew that although I've written the body part of my essay, my thesis statement was kind of obscure and was not really argumentative.
but during the class, Rab told me the topic was okay that some people might be against my thesis.
another problem was, that my first paragraph and the second one looked similar.
actually, main idea of two were different, and Rab also said that in the tutorial time too.
i was worried and afraid to hear from rab that i have to rewrite the second paragraph.
But,
what rab told me was to switch the order of the three paragraph.
I was putting the three in the order of how strong and persuasive they were (like rab told us, 1 strong, 2 least strong, 3 strongest)
but rab said to me that how those three paragraphs connects and flows smoothly is rather important.
so i switched the first one to be the second.
I was amazed because three paragraphs actually flowed really well and got more coherent too.
I just wanted to write this because this was the only thing I remember about wednesday,
and wanted to organize my plan for the essay.
in Wednesday's class, we had a discussion, I mean, kind of a debate thing again,
but this time about our own topic of the essay.
before the class, I already knew that although I've written the body part of my essay, my thesis statement was kind of obscure and was not really argumentative.
but during the class, Rab told me the topic was okay that some people might be against my thesis.
another problem was, that my first paragraph and the second one looked similar.
actually, main idea of two were different, and Rab also said that in the tutorial time too.
i was worried and afraid to hear from rab that i have to rewrite the second paragraph.
But,
what rab told me was to switch the order of the three paragraph.
I was putting the three in the order of how strong and persuasive they were (like rab told us, 1 strong, 2 least strong, 3 strongest)
but rab said to me that how those three paragraphs connects and flows smoothly is rather important.
so i switched the first one to be the second.
I was amazed because three paragraphs actually flowed really well and got more coherent too.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
June 8th
today's class was actually interesting
I remember every thing we did in the class very clearly, because im writing this blog right after the class
well, as usual i couldn't participate that much in the discussion in the first half of the class,
but it was unusual for me to actually ENJOY the discussion when we did the debate thing in the last part of the class.
i did this discussion with Shantonu, Kana and Fumika.
first we argued whether Santiago was Hemingway himself or not,
I don't remember why but the topic of the argument somehow shifted to whether the story was a happy ending or sad ending.
I thought shantonu insisted that it is a happy ending because the fisherman eventually caught the big fish even though its meat was eaten by the shark.
Fumika was against (she was, really) the shantonu's argument because the shark had eaten up all of the meat and there was nothing to eat left, so Santiago was perfectly lost.
But Shantonu had said that that's OK because finding the fish meat for eating was not the main point, or the real purpose of catching the fish. So I thought that's a good point, so did Kana too.
So Fumika was the only one holding that belief that OMS was a sad storry. it was funny
as you know, i haven't read the book yet. i mean, none. zero.
that's because i was planning to read them on the weekend because i have many works that need to be done during this week.
However, to my surprise, i think I've already found an interesting interpretation, which I hope is purely original!
so thanks to Fumika for pointing that out that my one simple question could be a good interpretation for my essay test! (don't know whether she's reading my blog...i think not.ha)
maybe it's hard to connect that idea to the information in the book, but i think i can do it
oh wait, but does the essay test question gonna be asking about our own view or original interpretation?? if not, that's not gonna work out...
but anyway, there's one obvious thing. i definitely need to READ THE BOOK FIRST!!!
I remember every thing we did in the class very clearly, because im writing this blog right after the class
well, as usual i couldn't participate that much in the discussion in the first half of the class,
but it was unusual for me to actually ENJOY the discussion when we did the debate thing in the last part of the class.
i did this discussion with Shantonu, Kana and Fumika.
first we argued whether Santiago was Hemingway himself or not,
I don't remember why but the topic of the argument somehow shifted to whether the story was a happy ending or sad ending.
I thought shantonu insisted that it is a happy ending because the fisherman eventually caught the big fish even though its meat was eaten by the shark.
Fumika was against (she was, really) the shantonu's argument because the shark had eaten up all of the meat and there was nothing to eat left, so Santiago was perfectly lost.
But Shantonu had said that that's OK because finding the fish meat for eating was not the main point, or the real purpose of catching the fish. So I thought that's a good point, so did Kana too.
So Fumika was the only one holding that belief that OMS was a sad storry. it was funny
as you know, i haven't read the book yet. i mean, none. zero.
that's because i was planning to read them on the weekend because i have many works that need to be done during this week.
However, to my surprise, i think I've already found an interesting interpretation, which I hope is purely original!
so thanks to Fumika for pointing that out that my one simple question could be a good interpretation for my essay test! (don't know whether she's reading my blog...i think not.ha)
maybe it's hard to connect that idea to the information in the book, but i think i can do it
oh wait, but does the essay test question gonna be asking about our own view or original interpretation?? if not, that's not gonna work out...
but anyway, there's one obvious thing. i definitely need to READ THE BOOK FIRST!!!
Chapter 7 - "CE N'EST PAS LOGIQUE" or "You've Got the Poiint There?"
I've finally finished reading chapter 7....
Nisbett mentions that easterners try to find the middle way between extreme propositions
by using the result of two conflict study.
I think this is really true. in conversations, Japanese tend to make and allow the third choice for people to answer when asking questions.
Americans don't make their decision that ambiguous. they make a clear distinction between YES and NO.
In my opinion, i prefer western way of thinking this time because things can't be both true and false.
but i think its very difficult for Japanese to quit preferring the vague stuff because Japanese tend to think the ambiguous things to be some kind of virtue.
Nisbett mentions that easterners try to find the middle way between extreme propositions
by using the result of two conflict study.
I think this is really true. in conversations, Japanese tend to make and allow the third choice for people to answer when asking questions.
Americans don't make their decision that ambiguous. they make a clear distinction between YES and NO.
In my opinion, i prefer western way of thinking this time because things can't be both true and false.
but i think its very difficult for Japanese to quit preferring the vague stuff because Japanese tend to think the ambiguous things to be some kind of virtue.
Monday, June 7, 2010
June 7th
yesterday, we mostly talked about the OMS again
but since i didn't know much about Hemingway's background, I couldn't discuss that much
Paul mentioned about hemingway capturing a big fish, so i thought the story is somehow connected or based on the author's own experience.
then, Rab asked us whether or not hemingway could be a hunter and a conservationist at the same time.
I think rab wanted to say that if the result was same, it doesn't matter if people kill animal for pleasure or for life.
when kana was warned not to sleep, i thought rab was pointing me because i was almost about to sleep at that time too!
after the class i went to have a hair cut but when I got home
I had a painful headache so i slept early (though it was 10 or 11)
and i wanted to wake up at 5 a.m. and do the home work,
but i actually woke up at 9 a.m. ;;
I was really shocked when rab said yesterday that we might gonna be having the OMS test early, because i haven't even started reading the book
i have to read the last two chapters of the nisbett as well, the book report for political science class, essay for american lit. class!!
the only good thing is that I've already finished writing three body paragraphs for the essay,
but i still got many things that need to be done.............
but since i didn't know much about Hemingway's background, I couldn't discuss that much
Paul mentioned about hemingway capturing a big fish, so i thought the story is somehow connected or based on the author's own experience.
then, Rab asked us whether or not hemingway could be a hunter and a conservationist at the same time.
I think rab wanted to say that if the result was same, it doesn't matter if people kill animal for pleasure or for life.
when kana was warned not to sleep, i thought rab was pointing me because i was almost about to sleep at that time too!
after the class i went to have a hair cut but when I got home
I had a painful headache so i slept early (though it was 10 or 11)
and i wanted to wake up at 5 a.m. and do the home work,
but i actually woke up at 9 a.m. ;;
I was really shocked when rab said yesterday that we might gonna be having the OMS test early, because i haven't even started reading the book
i have to read the last two chapters of the nisbett as well, the book report for political science class, essay for american lit. class!!
the only good thing is that I've already finished writing three body paragraphs for the essay,
but i still got many things that need to be done.............
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