World News B #4 October 26th, 2007

(I took this photo in my neighborhood the other day)

1. Visit your classmates' blogs from last week.
2. Look at question #11. Choose your 3 favourites.
I chose the following three. All are cool!!!

I want to equal world.
Doraemon appeared.
A day becomes more than 24 hours.


3. 20 minutes language practice (listening, vocabulary, grammar, etc)
I did the "Criminal terms" (http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz34mmn.htm)
I learned the following terms.
accessory 共犯
leprosy　腐敗
larceny　窃盗罪
perjury　偽証罪


4. Find a news item in English. Blog it. 45 minutes.

Title: Living Beneath the Surface, Undocumented and Unsure
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/nyregion/24about.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Summary: This article is about the new proposal of the New York State's Governor, Eliot Spitzer, in which he said he would permit people who could meet rigorous standards of proof for their identity to get driver's license, regardless of their immigration status. The governor argues that it would reduce unlicensed or uninsured drivers on the streets and also hit-and-run accidents.

My thoughts: I know breaking the law of where you live is a bad thing. So staying in a country where you don't have any legal status would be also a bad thing. Apparently giving undocumented immigrants driver's licenses wouldn't be a good thing. But it's not that simple in America.

I met many people in ESL school in NY when I studied there for 3 months in 2005. They all were immigrants from all over the world. Most of them worked for a very long hours every day and night illegally. But I couldn't blame them because they needed money for their family and they were needed by somebody. In the U.S., a lot of undocumented immigrants are working in a harsh environment. And the government knows it and rather overlooks the problem. Now America can't exist without illegal immigrant labor force. They need their credit cards to live in an apartment on their own or some of them need their driver's licenses to work. But they can't have both of the needed ones. It's very complicated situation. We might have similar problems in our country in the future since we will have less labor force year by year. So I'm interested in how America deals with the problem.

The phrases that struck me in this article are words by Bishop DiMarzio:
"There is a demand for the labor provided by immigrants, but no coherent system for recognizing their presence in society."
"We have allowed persons to enter and have integrated them into the labor market, but now through sporadic enforcement of immigration laws we hope that they will leave and no others will come."

Ummmm.....it's a difficult situation!!!!

5. Read your classmates blogs. Blog about some of them. 15 minutes.

I read the first posting of RAGAMI san's blog and liked the title's meaning!
The title is "あいり～らいふ". And she says that:
「あいり～（irie）」はジャマイカの言葉で
「楽しい」とか「最高」、「平和」という意味♪
だから日常が楽しかったり最高な日に
なるようにってことでこれにしました(*･∀･*)

Now, I'll try to translate her idea into English. I'm sorry if I'm wrong. Maybe she wants to say:

"My blog's title 'irie' is a Jamican term, meaning 'exciting!', 'fabulous!' or 'peaceful!' I wish everybody's life would be fun and great so that's why I chose it!"

I love your idea, RAGAMI!


Naoko

World News B 2007 October 19th

(I took this photo just near the Shoin university when I was enjoy walking along the river with my husband the other day)

1-4. [Vocabulary quiz by my favorite order]

1. independent 独立した
2. integrity　誠実、正直、高潔、品位
3. creative　創造的
4. unique　唯一、独特
5. individual　個人、個々
6. compromise　妥協、和解
7. freedom　自由（特に、束縛からの自由）
8. group グループ、集団
9. beauty　美、美しいこと
10. power　力、権力

8. Go to your blog and read any comments you may have. If you have comments, answer them.
No comment so far.

9. On your blog write your answer to this question: "Our World News Blogs are all completely public. What do you think about this? Do you prefer some privacy, or is it ok to be completely public?"

I think our blogs' being public has both positive and negative points.
Positive points are:
1. We can communicate not only with the class members but also with people in the world! There are millions of people who speak and write English!
2. We maybe try to write meaningful things if we know anybody in the world might look at it.
3. The number of people you know off the net is limited, at school, in your neighborhood, or your relatives. You can know new people, possibly who live in a country which is far away from your country through the Internet.

Negative points are:
1. You might find stranger's harmful comments on your blog. So you have to maintain your blog in good condition.
2. You have to decide to what extent you can reveal your privacy. Anybody can get your information by reading your blog.

So as for our World News class blogs, I'm in favor of being public because I think it's good for us to be able to communicate with people in the world!


10. Practice English vocabulary online for 15 minutes
I went to this website: http://a4esl.org/a/v5.html
I tried "Top 20 World Languages" and got 15/20.

11. What news would make you happy to read today? Write 3 imaginary headlines.
"Free ride on any transportation system this weekend!"
"Free admission fee for USJ until Christmas!"
"Perfect telepathy system invented!"


12. Find a news article about your theme and write about it on your blog:

a. news article title,
"Navigation Help for Surfacing Subway Riders"

b. URL,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/nyregion/17direction.html?ref=nyregion

c. summary of content: who is it about? What is is about? Where is it about? When is it about?

This article is about the experiment by New York City and the private business improvement district around Grand Central Terminal, which offer a new way to help people go where they want to go when they emerge from the subway station to the streets. They have installed compass-shaped decals on sidewalks, which carry two kinds of information: directions for north, east, south and west, and the names of the nearest streets.

d. your comments: why did you find it interesting? Is there any useful information? What?

I am the one who have been completely lost when emerging from subway stations lots of times! Even in my familiar city, Osaka, I got lost many times at the top of the steps of the subway stations. I'm sure many of you have been in a similar situation! I've experienced it not only in Japan but also in other foreign big cities like New York, Hong Kong, or London! I think this idea is good for Osaka and Tokyo, too! I hope Japanese subway transportation companies' authorities look at it and consider installing these decals in my country's subway stations!

World News B 2007 October 12th

(This is one of my three kitties. Her name is Momo!)

Hi everyone! My name is Naoko. I’m new in this class. I was accepted as an auditing student. I’m very glad to be able to learn with all of you! So..... nice to meet you all!

I read the following 4 articles on Japan Times Online as my picks for today.

The questions for the answers are;

1. What is the title and URL of the news item?

2. Is this news item interesting to you?

3. Who (what sort of person) would be most interested in reading this news item?

4. Why?

5. Does this news item give you any useful information?

6. What is the useful information?

7. Could you use this information to improve your life or the life of your family, or your friends or people in the world?

8. How?

My first pick:

1. Title: Singles find community in 'social apartment

2. It is very interesting for me to know the new trend about how to communicate and even live with others who are not friends or relatives.

3. People who are single, or going to be single (maybe thinking of divorcing with their spouse?).

4. Because, I think, they might be looking for somewhere to live where they don’t feel lonely.

5. Yes, it does!

6. People in Japan and the living circumstances among young people have been changed to an active way. It pleased me a lot!

7. Yes, I could.

8. I can tell my single friends when they feel lonely and look for the new place to live. And they might find their new happy family there!

My second pick:

1. Title: Yoko Ono peace tower shines on in Reykjavik

2. I’m always very interested in how to improve peace in the world, so this article was really moving to me!

3. People who wish peace in the world and also who are in the Beatles’ generation would be interested in this article.

4. Because this article would make people aware of peace. I think it’s very important. Also the Beatles’ generation might want to know what Yoko Ono, the widow of John Lennon, is doing.

5. Yes, it does in some ways.

6. It gave me a conversation topic with others.

7. Actually, it might not improve my daily life in Japan, but I can talk about it with my friends who live not only in Japan but also in other countries.

8. As I answered to the prior question, I can talk with others about this, and I believe the conversation will improve the situation in the world.

My third pick:

1. Title: Alleged suicide helper for hire held in slaying

2. Interesting, but I felt very sad and angry.

3. Any people who read this article.

4. Because it’s so cruel criminal that would grip everybody’s attention.

5. Yes, it does.

6. I have to be careful there might be terribly bad websites on the net. Also I thought I have to be careful not to say, “I want to die!!” easily, because somebody might ask such kind of people to help me commit suicide!

7. Yes, I think I could.

8. We have to stop these kinds of criminals. Also we should help each other when someone around you has a trouble which might lead to killing himself or herself.

My forth pick:

1. Title: Videotaping interrogations worth a look?

2. Yes, very interesting.

3. People who are interested in the new lay judge system in Japan.

4. The day when the new lay judge system go into operation in Japan is soon coming, so we are more and more interested in the lay judge system and all the information around the Japanese Judicial system.

5. Yes, it does very much.

6. I’m basically in favor of recording the whole interrogation especially with serious crimes. This article gives me both pros and cons on this issue.

7. Yes, I could.

8. Many of my friends are also very much aware of the new lay judge system, or rather afraid of possibly being chosen as a lay judge in the future. So I can tell this information to my friends and talk over the issue deeply. It’d be useful when we are involved in criminal situations regardless of which kind of position we would be in.

OK, finally, as for my theme for this term, I’ll choose “New York City”!

I chose there because I’ve been listening to a radio talk show every weekday night airing from the city on the net, also I’ve been there two times before so I have several friends living there.

A new item about NYC, I’ll introduce one of the segment on my favorite radio program.

They conducted a project called, “Are you being gouged?” in which listeners go to shops in their neighborhood and report the price of the same three items on the project’s website.

You can see how the prices are vary depends on the areas in New York City.

Go to the following URL and see the segment “Are You Being Gouged? The Results”. Click any of the images you’d like to know the prices. You can listen to the segment if you like by clicking the play button. I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2007/10/11

OK, I’m going to visit your websites and write my comments on some of them.

See you next week!

Naoko