１１・１２ The last class of Patterson.

The class on today was the last class of ARW in Autumn term. This class, as a whole, was not too difficult and not too easy. I think Mr. Paterson is good at taking a balance of difficulty with observing students. I wonder this is a great way of Great Britain's great universities. In Japanese educational culture, it is not so easy to find, at least for me, the ability to observe and watch students well, and to select the best way for learners. In my experience, teachers have given same information in same ways to all students. This is because, I guess, in Japan, there are only smaller presentation culture compared with the UK and perhaps the U.S. What I learned from Rab Patterson is to express information in the best way both on paper and presentation. Surprisingly, Buddha said the same thing. Buddha prohibited meaningless spells and said that Buddhists must teach his ideas in a spoken language (appropriate language in a situation) in order to deliver information to listeners heart. I recalled that when I was in a class.

10.1 practice for CWT

I took a preparation test for CWT. It was about intercultural conflicts between a Japanese girl and a NewZealandic woman. I explained the conflicts using terms of fisher and barna. That was nice case study. If I really understand a statements or theory, I can see the world with their knowledge and frame.

In this case , I need little bit more reviewing.

9.28 Influence of media to our perception.

That day I was late for the class. I am sorry to have overslept. I wish I had listened the story about Iranian image among the people reading newspapers of the US or Japan because I have been to Iran last year and I talked with people in Iran about some topics including political issues, but not so much. Some young people I met at the hotel in Esfahan said they do not like their government because they have no freedom to press, to have sex before marriage and to drink alcohol.According to them, if they were seen drinking or known having sex, they would be arrested. On the contrary, the tour guide said that Iran has a lot of problems, but the society is changing now from conservative to liberal.

That was precious experience.

Speaking of the class, the media absolutely affect how people recognize societies. It is important to think about the image of society made by media and the real one. 

I wonder it is possible to see society without media.

9.26 The Stereograms

 In the class , I searched books that is related to the essay and save information on the online database. My essay topic is Khazar empire . It is difficult to get much much information about it , but using computers , I will do as well as I can.
After that , I watched stereograms .it was the turning woman that I could only see in several ways. I was pretty shocked that I could not see hidden pictures. It is good training to see things from different views in order to change states of consciousness and gestalts.
I want to go beyond the realities.

The class on 9.24 . "book review" review.

  In the class , I learned many points that should be taken care of when I write an academic essay. The most important point is citation. If I picked up sentences and pasted on my paper without citation, it would be same as stealing. Therefore, it is necessary to write where the sentences and idea are from.
I wondered what is my originality . I am included in the culture and I use languages other people use . I am sure that I am composed of what is not me .That is why ,I am concerned that I write t other people's idea subconsciously.
After the class , I asked Rab of that kind of thing. One of his answer was that my idea is how to combine theories that I researched. I need a lot of information and process to compare them with each other and find solution or new gestalt.

The class on 9 .19

In the class , I learned how to use google reader . By google reader , it is possible to check the favorite articles on a page.  Furthermore , I can search any words in the articles even if each source pages do not have search bar. By the way, I subscribed "National Geographic news". That has good articles.
Also , I learned more how to use Zotero . That saves time to change word style of reference in papers. I tried to use it at home. It was amazing.

The class on 9.17

 At the  beginning of the class , Rab lost his temper and got angry about the quality of our summer reading book review. I was pretty surprised and confused at his loud voice at first. However, I tried to separate my ability to write from the value of myself , and not to be nervous of that. Eventually , that he looked angry was his role play . That was a good example of the difference of people's interpretation of body-contact , such as a wink , between two cultures. After that,  we discussed the topics about the difference of people's believes through handout Rab gave to us. In the handout there are many examples around the world , in particular , ilramic countries. I want to add that there are many differences in islamic countries and people. To think in each case is important .

The class on 9.14

In the class , I discussed with the classmates and Mr . Paterson(not  Mr.PEterson or Mr.PaRterson) the topics written in the Barna's paper in ELA reader. The main topic is intercultural communication. At first , we researched about Barna before reading the text using smart phones and tablet PCs. Speaking the contents, one of interesting points is the difference of meaning that gestures express between different cultures. For example, in the UK, showing the back of a hand with two fingers standing means "Go to Heaven"  , not in Japan.  I like Rab 's style of classes that people discuss raising many examples of the text.

the class on 9.12

In this class I learned about zotero ,which is something like online database which provides he information of books and journals or even music.It is also possible to store the data online. I have never used it yet . However , I will get used to soon. In addition to this , I learned  how to book the office hour of Rab. google provides really good service, but i am concern about user's privacy information. According to Google Privacy policy, they can gather the information that what webpage do we see and when do we call to whom.These information is held by one private company . I wonder how do they use these info.

The class on 9.10

   The class was outside this time. In this class , they had presentation and discussion of the book  that we read in summer  (most of them are novels ) . Whole members of this class was divided into some groups that is composed of 4 or 5 people. Each person had about 15 minutes present and discuss the book.  In first 5 minutes , presenters explained the abstract of the story. In next 5minutes ,  the audience asked some questions of them. In the last 5minutes , all 5 members of groups freely discussed the topic that mainly presenters propose. 

   I was asked some questions by section mates of mine , such as "What kind of person is Daniel Defoe ?  " and "Does he have another job ?" and " How did Robinson Crusoe come back to England ? ". Most these questions helped me realize point that had passed through my frame of understandings and encouraged me to to explain much better. Presenting something , questioning and discussing are not only good method to share knowledge and to think by own self .