Apr 28th

Like everyone's saying, we didn't have any discussions and just worked on worksheets.
Some information was new to me, but i think it would be really difficult if we follow all the rules...

about the essay, I'm having trouble with the Introduction.
I think it was last week when Rab said you have to get people's attention with the title and the introduction using humorous, shocking statement or interesting quote etc.
I can't think of an interesting introduction.

I like today's weather!!!

Apr 27th

I don't know why everyone's blog posts are so interesting!
I've been reading all of the people's blogs everyday, and I think they're thoughts are really creative...
I want to be more creative and be able to look things from many different aspects like everyone else does

In today's class, we had a discussion again and this time we mostly talked about Meiland.
When solving the questions for PWT practice, people in my group gave opinions and examples which seemed interesting to me.
Maybe they didn't think those opinions are creative at all, but for me, it's hard to think of my own ideas immediately and to share it with friends.
It's not only because I can't speak English well, but even if we do exactly the same thing in Japanese, I don't know if I can discuss that much.

however, I still feel really lucky to be in this section CB because everyone is so nice and unique! especially Tomoaki!!

I had few hours to have a talk with him today before we had the ELP class,
And I realized that he is the kind of guy I really wanted to be.lol
its true. The way he thinks and worries about other friends was wonderful.

but unfortunately, right now he seems to be in a bad mood or something, so I hope he gets better tomorrow.

I've been talking about Tomoaki too much...
I think I should tell you just in case, that I'M NOT A GAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

maybe i should talk about girls sometimes.......but there's too many! ha!

Apr 26th

Today we had Rab's interesting NP lecture in the morning
and in later class we discussed about our essays

In the NP class, Rab was talking about Propaganda, media, news, biases and all those kinds of stuff.
I think we're going to read about Propaganda in the ELP reader book, so I'm excited to know more about these things from Rab in our class!

I've finally started writing essay. It's so hard to make it persuasive!!

oh and happy birthday Sayako!

Chapter 2 - The Social Origins of Mind

I learned from the second chapter that Greeks often dealt with contradiction because of their individuality.
As a result, contradiction among outsiders and insiders helped the development of cognitive procedures.

Moreover, I thought that ancient Chinese pursued harmonious society because peasants had to get along with each other in their farms, but on the other hand, the Greeks had to work by themselves because the ecology of Greece wasn't suitable for large cooperation with other people which promoted an individualized society.

To tell the truth, I think this book is not going to be interesting any more, because of the reasons I have already said in the older post.

And I'm sooo sleepy! I don't want my answer card to be ripped off at tomorrow's NP lecture.....

Chapter 1 - The Syllogism and the Tao

My first impression after reading the first chapter was,
hey, maybe this Nisbett guy is challenging us to "think critically"....

the reason why I thought this way is that although he provides many many interesting views on ancient Greek and ancient Chinese people, those stories had no sufficient reasons to support them.

But one of the insightful views I've found interesting was in page 6, when the author says:
"Individual rights in China were one's share of the rights of the community as a whole".
When I read this part, I immediately remembered the Japanese lacking sense of individualism. Japanese are often said that they tend to stuck in groups all the time and hesitate insisting something by him or herself alone.
I thought this phenomenon is somehow related to Nisbett's statement.

Although what the writer says might be true, and it sounds like true, we have to be skeptical to his points made in this chapter. He does not actually states enough evidence and explanation to argue the differences between westerners and easterners. Thus, I think we should not simply believe his idea, for instance, that ancient Greeks emphasized individual values while ancient Chinese thought differently and tried to create harmonious society.
Once again, Nisbett had reminded me the importance of thinking critically on the issues even if those seem to be true.

Apr 23rd

Today's class were really interesting(as always).

But what we learned from Rab today was really beneficial for us!
Google books and Zotero are going to be very useful in writing an essay, but not only that,
he also told us how important for us to be confident when giving a presentation.

I'm a soooo slow reader, I'm still reading chapter 1 of Nisbett's book.><
so I'm not going to write much for today. I'll see some of you tomorrow, bye!

aaaaa

Well,Rab told us to make creative blog now,
but I'm really not so creative so I'm going to talk about how I love this section CB.

First of all, one of the section member whose name is Tomoaki who is sitting right next to me now is really nice and funny guy.
Yesterday he told us about a story when he went for a home staying in England. His roommate was a gay and Tomoaki massaged the roommate.

If I have some time I want to introduce more people in CB section! Love CB

Apr 21st

In today's class, mostly Rab gave us a lecture of how to write a good essay.
He talked about three big parts of an essay.
His examples　were very interesting and made it easier to get the main idea.

The order of the three body paragraphs is really important to make the essay more persuasive, and even more, it was new to hear that concerning carefully on the order is necessary for not having any bias and would make more balanced essay.

Now the problem is, that I have chosen really hard topic for my essay...

Apr 20th

Today we had a deeper discussion about Meiland's opinion about argumentative essay.

We learned that assumption which has no reasons should not be made in our essay. But I think it's very difficult to completely exclude assumptions. Mostly that kind of mistake happens unconsciously and not deliberately.

Rab also told us today that he wants to be challenged by us. I really want to, but he is so logical and persuasive that I will definitely loose. But he also said very interesting thing that if we persuade him with an opinion that is different from his, he is still winning because he is gaining new ideas.

I'm not sure I can convince him, but I think I will challenge him with a research question: What is the disadvantages of applying new technology to education?

Apr 19th

Today, we started discussing how to write an argumentative essay.
First of all, Rab told us we should start thinking of a question, the question we are trying to answer in our essays.
Then secondly, we have to make a research, and once we found the answer, then that answer is going to be the "thesis statement".

What I most felt impressed today was this. I had studied how to write essay for TOEFL, and I have always thought that thesis statement must be decided first, and then the reasons.
However, what surprised me from Rab's lecture today was that "It is okay not to clarify the thesis first, but we should start by questioning, researching and finding the answer to the question. Only after we find the answers or evidence to the question that can support your opinion, should we write our thesis statement."

Well I think this made me feel much more easier to find a topic of my essay.
In fact, it is already midnight but I still haven't got a good idea of the essay.
Maybe finding out good question is the skill that can not be actually taught by our instructor, but we have to discover it on my own.

Apr 16th

On Friday's class, the peer review writing activity made me realize many errors in structures.
When I completed the paragraph, I thought it was perfect, but my partner found many mistakes.
I also simply thought that google document is a very useful devise to work on essays with other people.

The video activity was not an easy thing to do, but may be this could be a most useful material for practicing speaking.
I thought it was embarrassing to have myself on videos on blogs, because my speaking is not good and not organized.
However, I also felt that this kind of class is interesting. Sometimes it is important to evaluate my own English by myself which is not an easy thing to do.

Kutiman mother of funk chords
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA

Thriving ivory - fans cover - angel on the moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjY3UvQ2n98


From watching two youtube videos, I learned that unifying different but good information is important in essay writings too.