ASP (4/27)

Today, we discussed videos and the following topic:
" Women are about 50% of human but women in the government are 10%.
What do you think about it?"

To do good discussion, we have to listen to other's ideas, see the speaker's face, and tell cleary and concisely. Leader plays a very important role and has to be good at concluding.
The second topic is really difficult. I realized the difference of ideas between men and women. If women make more effort, can women get the government job? It might be true, but it is not all the because of only 10%. Why are men's state higher than women's? Why are women expected to support men at home or in the society? Why is the women's salary lower than men's if they do the same work? Probably it is just because THEY ARE WOMEN. Women have to do movements more active to get oppotunities. I want society to be equal in the future even though it is really difficult to break the difference.

COMMENTS ( ASP )

The shocking way is really dangerous. If we use that way, we might always pay attention to the meetings, but we might feel fear and we might think just about expressing our own ideas, so we might tend not to listen to other's ideas. We run effective meetings not by machine but by ourselves.
In the bad group discussion, people did what they wanted to do. Loud lady and offend lady continued to tell their own ideas and not listen to each other. Shy lady missed the chances to tell ideas and bored lady do not take part in the discussion! People in the discussion is selfish. When we do group discussion, we not only express our own ideas, but also listen to each other and think about the ideas. When someone tell ideas, others must listen to whole ideas, then comment about it if you want. We have to interact with each other in the group discussion.

ASP (4/23)

We discussed the following topics in the class:
" What is a good discussion and what is a bad discussion."
" Japan should start teaching English (language) from the beginning of elementary school every day."
" The age of consent/adulthood should be 18 (or other age) in Japan."


The most difficult topic for me is the third one. Our group thought that 20 is ok and I think so because we do not know about society just after high school graduaion. If I work after high school graduation, however, I might not think so. It is strange that I work and pay tax but I can not vote. There are many different type of people in Japan. We can not accept all ideas but we must think constantly that what is the best. In the class, I think we can discuss the first and second topics somewhat, but we can not do the third one. The topic is very difficult to judge and very important for us.

Blogging Assignment 2

The thesis statement I've chosen for Essay 1 is the following:
Group work is very helpful in developing other academic skills because in group work students can practice expressing own ideas, listning and speaking in English, and communicating with others.

Blogging Assignment 1 : How do "good" college teachers present information?"

According to Meiland, "good" college teachers present information in the following way. "In general, they present some information, in the sense of "what is currently believed." Yet they also spend much time talking about the basis on which this information is currently believed. In fact, a large part of college work consists of discussing and examining the basis of current beliefs."　That is to say "good" college teachers always have questions about current beliefs and seek the good reasons. I agree with Meiland's opinion. Firstly, we tend to accept current beliefs without thinking. If they present some questions, however, we can get chance to think about it. Secondly, I think examining the basis of current beliefs and seeking the reasons is important. The belief might be wrong or we might misunderstand the beliefs. If we have good reasons, we can believes it stronger. Therefore, "good" college teachers present us the opportunity to think about things we consider common.