Do you know much about Christmas? The first thing that many people don't know in Japan is that Christmas is twelve days long. The best way to remember that is to remember the song The Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love sent to me… a partridge in a pear tree
On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the 4th day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree

On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me 5 golden rings... 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

partridge ヤマウズラ
pear tree 梨の木
turtle dove キジバト
hen めんどり
calling bird = collie bird = 炭鉱用の鳥

Reading aloud

Today, let's practice reading aloud. Please print out one of your podcast episode scripts and practice. I shall come around to give you guidance. The basic rule for natural reading aloud is:
Emphasize only content words.

Vocabulary

Let's try this one!

November & December events

November & December are very busy months. I was hoping that November would be a more relaxing because I overdid it in October, but unfortunately November was almost as busy as October. Maybe next year will be a little easier?

English Games

Let's play the Dolphin Game!

Then let's play the Frog Game!

Then let's try Fernando Goes to School!

RED

They used to be the CIA's top agents, but the things they know just made them the agency's top targets.

RED means retired and extremely dangerous. I saw the trailer at Apple's trailers site. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovitch, and Helen Mirren, with appearances from legendary actors like Richard Dreyfuss. Helen Mirren has been in many top movies, including The Queen, Excalibur, State of Play, The Last Station, Mosquito Coast, Gosford Park, and so on.

The movie's Japanese title is simply レッド

The PUK campus festival was held yesterday and on Saturday. I went both days and ate lots of things, including:

• tacos
• onigiri wrapped in beef
• yakisoba
• waffle
• ramen
• fried potato
• cake

and so on!

I also enjoyed some of the stage performances, including the dance yesterday afternoon.

Movie Links

When you write a movie review or look for information on a movie, here are some standard sites to use:

• iTunes Movie Trailers: see a 2-minute preview of the movie
• the Internet Movie Database: find out all kinds of information about the movie, the director, the actors, and so on
• AllCinema.net: find out the Japanese title, if it has been decided
• the movie website: usually, you'll find this at the end of the trailer

Guidelines for the next class (November 8th)

By the next class, you should have reached the following targets:

1. 3000 words on your blog (including typing homeworks, book reviews, and so on)
2. 13 points remaining on book reviews (i.e. you have read 7 points' worth of books or more)
3. 1 podcast episode (My Podcast)
4. 4 posts (including the podcast episode) related to My Project

Introduction to Usborne Books

The first episode of my podcast is now available. In this episode, I talk about the history of Usborne Publishing, a leading publisher of children's books.

Format for links to podcast episodes

http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/wink/lavinmonday/______ss__.mp3

Project

Your project should be about:

• Books
• Movies
• A place
• Other (discuss with your teacher)

Your project should have:

• About Me
• Welcome
• Podcast
• others as necessary

2nd class (October 4th, 2010)

A reminder first: Next week (October 11th) is a holiday, so there will be more homework this week!

And a couple of things about the course as a whole that I may not have made clear last week:

• You need to write a total of at least 10,000 words this semester
• You need to bring a USB flash memory stick to class.
• You need to write a total of at least 20 points' worth of book reviews

Today's menu:

• Juppun ha Juubun
• Start working on personal project

Homework:

• Book reviews 3 & 4 (depending on the level of books you are reading)
• at least 3 other posts (preferably at least 1 or 2 should be connected to your topic)

 

Reading Links

Yomiyasusa Levels

Please check out this page!

Cambridge English Readers

See the homepage.

Writing 4: First class (September 27th, 2010)

Hi, everyone. In the first class, we will start with:

• Juppun ha Juubun.

Think about what you want to write about (maybe your summer holiday or your plans for this semester). Then we will kick off the book reviews by doing some reading in class and then immediately:

• writing a book review on our blog.

Then I'll talk about my

• plans for Writing 4. (Please take a look at the previous post.)

If there's any free time, you can do some free blogging or typing homework, or ask me questions about Writing 4, or start your homework!

Homework:

• another book review
• free blogging

My Totals

19
24
59
261
141
39
133


Total words: 676

Book reviews: 0

Total posts: 7

Alice in Wonderland

I went to see Alice in Wonderland on Friday night. It was important to go and see it as soon as possible because it is the theme of two of my classes this semester. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting very much, because my general impression is that Tim Burton's movies are gradually going down in quality, and I don't like the fact that he always uses Johnny Depp (although I like Johnny Depp).

However, this movie was great. I thought it was the first movie to really take full advantage of 3-D technology, much better than Avatar. And Johnny Depp did great work. I recommend that you see this movie in the 3-D subtitled version at Clea, where the 3-D glasses are light! And say hello to Kin-chan at the entrance!

133

Alice in Wonderland again

I saw the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie yesterday (the subtitled version, in 3D). I thought it was magical, the first 3D movie where the 3D really added something.

If you're interested in Alice, check out the graphic novel!

39

Alice in Wonderland

I have decided that Alice in Wonderland will be the theme of two of my classes this semester at PUK. Of course, this is because the Alice in Wonderland movie is now playing at the cinema, so many students are interested in the topic. Preparing for this class is actually a little difficult for me because I don't know the Alice in Wonderland story very well, so I am reading the book now and I have ordered two versions of the Alice stage play for my students to perform. I also hoped to see the movie at the weekend, but I was too busy preparing other classes to go, so I will go soon.

In the meantime, I've been looking into themes of Alice in Wonderland. One interesting theme is mathematics (of which Lewis Carroll was a professor). Please check it out!

141

2nd class (April 19th)

In the first session, you should have added Labels (Tags) and a class feed to your blog sidebar. In the second session, after doing our first "Juppun ha Juubun", let's add the following items. (Use the Command key when you click on the links below.)

• Word count
• Recent Comments

Recent Comments and the Class Feed together help you to keep in touch with your classmates. Please read and comment on their posts often. Also, please use the 読者 feature with some of your friends' blogs.

Then we will learn how to write a book review. Please refer to the course map. Basically, a book review should consist of:

• a quote (clearly marked, and less than half of the post)
• your own comments on the book
• basic book information, usually the title, series, and ISBN

You will have some time to work alone. During this time, you should write a book review and write another blog post on a topic of your choice. I will hand out about 12 books. While half of the class is reading a book and writing a review, the other half should read other students' blogs and comment on them. Then, the students who have written a book review should pass the books on to the other students and visit other students' blogs to write comments.

Homework:

• Write your 3rd book review
• Write more blog posts
• Write comments on other students' blogs
• Choose the book for your 4th book review and bring it to class next time

Next week, we will create a LibraryThing account and start work on essays. Please don't forget to bring 1 or 2 books to class!

261

Word count widget

You can find the word count widget here. Click in the Directions textbox and select ALL the text and copy it. (Press Command-A and Command-C.) Then create an HTML/JavaScript, and paste that text in. (Use Command-V to paste.)

By the way, it's useful to learn how to use the Command key on a Mac. Here are a few commands:

59

Some useful academic words

• available
• specific
• process
• method
• identify
• assume
• issue
• concept
• structure
• require
• derive
• approach
• consistent
• involve

These are all from Sublist 1 of the Academic Word List (AWL), a list of 570 words that are very common in academic English. (24 words)

A graphical overview of Writing 3

Please take a look at this graphic. It shows an overview of Writing 3. See a larger version here. (19 words)

Welcome to Writing Ⅲ

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Writing Ⅲ. This course is designed to help you develop confidence in writing and improve your writing, especially your writing fluency. We'll use blogs for the course. I think the course will be challenging, but I think it will also be a lot of fun. Let's enjoy writing in English! (55 words)