E. E. Cumings.

Today, I want to introduce E. E. Cumings.
I learned about him in creative writing class.

He was an American poet. He is also known for his works as a painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He had created about 2,900 poems, two autbiographical novels, four plays and several essays. He had done a lot of drawings as well as paintings. He isbest known as the preeminent voice od 20th century poetry. He is also regarded as the most popular poet in America.

After I learned about him, I read his poems.
His poems are creative and unique,
so I want many people to read his poems.

POETIC DEVICES

 I want to talk about "Poetic Devices".

First, Poem is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their sound and the images they suggest, not just for their obvious meanings.


"Poetic Devices"
  Alliterations : the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words.

  Repetition : repeat same words or sentence.
  Personalification : give human animal characteristics to objects.

Poem has many devices which can make poem interesting or creative.
If you know these devices, you can make creative poem.

TOEFL

In TOEFL listening class, I learned about how to answer the listening part A questions,
so I want to share that.

1, As you listen to each conversation, focus on the second line of the conversation.

2, Keep in mind that the correct answer  is probably a restatement of a key word or idea in the second  line of the conversation.

3, Keep in mind that certain structures and expressions are tasted regularly in Listening Part A.
    restatement, negatives, suggestions, passives,  conclusions about who and where, expressions of  agreement.

4, Keep in mind that these questions generally progress from easy to difficult.
5, Read the answers and choose the best answer to each question. Remenber to answer each question even if you are not sure of the correct response.

6, Even if you do not understand the complete conversation, you can find the correct answer.

I hope these strategies help you to get a good score on the TOEFL test.

Economic problems

Today, I want to talk about economic problems in Japan.
Japan has many economic problems now.
 a. International competition issues:
Japan's strategy was to export high value products
made with high priced labor and brain power.
Japan's prices were very high
Now other places can compete (Taiwan, Korea, China)
Shift manufacturing to China (more profits, more unemployment)
This issue remains unsolved.

b. Internal business management issues -- incentives, labor resources
keep permanent employment? Allow layoffs, shifting jobs.
incentives for entrepreneurship, creativity, flexibility

c. government fiscal policy:
spent a lot of money for infrastructure (roads, bridges, flood control), very little economic pay-off.
       
d. Economic structural reforms?
Price of rice, whether to allow imports of rice.
Maintain government leadership/control of the economy?

as above stated, Japan has different economic problems.
It will take much time to solve these problems or it may be impossible to solve them.

I think all we can do is to pay more attention to various problems in our own country,
otherwise we may not figure out what is happening in our own country.
Then,we should think about what we can/ should do.

                

For TOEIC

Today, many people take TOEIC test for getting better job or improving English skill.
Recently, I learned various skills to get good scores.
I want to talk about SCANNIG and SKIMMING.

SCANNING is very fast reading.
It is especially important for reading.
It means we don't need to read every word when you read.

SKIMMING is that we focus on finding out something about the book or article when we have a lot to read but not much time.
It is the way we can grasp the point of book or article as quickly as possible. 

If we can use these skills well, we will get good scores.
I hope that to use these skills we learned, we can get good scores.

Australia

I learned about Australia in International Travel class. I think learning about foreign countries is so fun and useful because we may find new things thorough doing so or if we travel overseas, information about foreign counties may be helpful for us. That is why I want to share my information about Australia.

Australia is an island country and over 90 % of the land is too dry for crops, farming. The capital of Australia is Sydney. Many people visit Australia on business or on vacation ever year because there are many tourist attractions and traditional cultures in Australia.
First, one of the most famous places in Australia is The Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s greatest natural wonder and actually largest living thing.Second, there are various contests in Australia. For example, Extreme Rowing, Surf Race, The camel cup and Sheep Shearing Contest. Third, the famous cultures are aboriginal painting and tribal dancing in Australia. Aborigine is native people in Australia and Two-thirds of them live on traditional land. Their painting describes landscape and dreams. When they dance, they use percussion instruments. Their tribal dancing shows that they respect for the God or nature. These famous places and traditional cultures attract many people.

I'm interested in foreign culture, tradition and so on, so I want to learn more about them in future.
I wish this information would be good for readers.

Asing Society in Japan

I read an article about Aging Society in Japan. Today, as most Japanese know, aging society is serious ploblem. It can have bad effects on not only the birth rate but also economic. It is reported that the increasing number of old people will lead to labor force shortage and hold back Japan's economic development. If young people like us do not care about it now, this problem will become more serious.   Now, we japanese need to seriously think about it, and also we should try to think about how to solve it.

Misunderstanding!!

Everyone has a possibility for misunderstanding someone.
Today, I want to talk about the horror misunderstanding about me.
One day,I went to eat Korean food with my friends. Of course, I have to get on the bus if I go somewhere. I headed for the bus stop and met a girl who is HELP student. When I talked with her as usual, my host family on the wheel passed in front of us by accident. They greeted us with smile. We enjoyed Korean food and came home. The moment I came home, my host family looked at me with grinning. First I did not know why. They suddenly said to me " The girl we saw this morning is your girlfriend?". I was surprised to hear that, and then I said "She is just friend, not girlfriend". After that, they kept gazing at me with grinnig. They did not believe what I said at all.

I think misunderstanding is terrible.
I wonder if they trust what I said someday....

TOEIC class's homework.

1. Fees vary by country.
2. 150minutes
3. online
4. 1/14/2012
5. I learned about how to register TOEIC test, and I got a lot of information of TOEIC from the website.