Taiwan collaboration

Don't forget that the collaboration with Taiwan lasts for only three weeks! In that time, you need to communicate to get to know the students, as well as complete an essay introducing sightseeing spots in both countries. As I mentioned before, the students know that our classes are on Mondays, and most of them are looking out for your contributions, and responding on Tuesday or Wednesday. If you ignore them until the following Monday, it will be difficult to complete the assignment well, and it is also bad manners.

• Please try to contribute twice a week between classes.
• At the end, please edit and compile your contributions into an essay at the bottom of your page.

Sightseeing in Kyushu

Kyushu is Japan's southwestern island. It consists of eight prefectures: Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Oita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa. Each prefecture has its own attractions. In this essay, I will introduce Oita, Nagasaki, and Okinawa.

Nagasaki is located in the north-west of Kyushu. It is famous for its trade with Portugal in the 16th century. Nagasaki is the biggest city in Nagasaki. It has a nice Chinatown and Oura Church. Sasebo has a naval base, Huis Ten Bosch (a famous theme park), and Sasebo Burgers! Shimabara is a castle town and the site of a Christian rebellion in 1637.

Oita Prefecture

Oita is in the north-eastern part of Kyushu. It has many mountains and forests. Mount Yufu and Mount Kuju are very famous mountains in Oita. Probably the best place to visit is Yufu, especially the part known as Yufuin. Both Yufuin and Beppu have famous hot springs.

Okinawa is the most southern of the prefectures of Kyushu, and the culture and atmosphere is very different. The four Okinawa islands are Ie-jima, Kume-jima, Okinawa Island, and Kerama Island. The people on Okinawa Island are the longest-lived in the world. The cliffs at Manzamo and the Gusuku Wall are well worth a visit. But above all, just walk around and enjoy the nice atmosphere and lovely views!

Any visit to Japan is incomplete without a visit to Kyushu. You may not have time to visit every prefecture, but try to make time to visit at least one or two, and notice how different things are from Honshu. Of course, a visit to Hokkaido would also be fun, but that is outside the scope of this essay!

270 words

Food in Kyushu (essay)

Kyushu, Japan's south-western island, consists of eight prefectures, including Kumamoto and Fukuoka. Each prefecture has its own special foods and drinks. In addition, Kyushu food as a whole has special characteristics: the food tends to have a comparatively rich taste, and to emphasize sweetness over saltiness.

The first food I'd like to focus on is karashi-renkon, one of the most famous dishes in Kumamoto Prefecture. It is made by stuffing a paste containing mustard into a lotus root and then deep frying the root after coating it in a batter.

The next food I'd like to mention is yaki-ramen. Probably every prefecture in Japan has its own twist on ramen, noodles in a big bowl of soup. The ramen in Kyushu tends to have a rich, oily taste, being based on boiled pork bones. Yaki-ramen has almost no soup, and has an especially rich, buttery taste.

Finally, let's consider beer in Kyushu. While beer is generally best in the north of Japan, Miyazaki and Kagoshima both have very good micro-breweries. Those in Kagoshima tend to feature a kind of purple sweet potato, while those in Miyazaki are sometimes lambics featuring hyuuga-natsu or other local citrus fruits.

The above are just a few of the foods and drinks that you can find in Kyushu. As mentioned earlier, each prefecture has its own specialities, and a tour of Kyushu will yield many unexpected delights.

231 words

France

France is a country in the west of Europe. Its capital is Paris. France's population is about 65 million, and its area is about 675,000.

France

France is a major country situated in the west of Europe. Its area is about 675,000 square kilometers, about twice the size of Japan. Its population is about 65 million, about half that of Japan.

About your movie essays

Remember that you need to watch two movies (please check which movies apply to your class), if you haven't already his semester, and write an essay on each of them. Each essay must have at least five paragraphs and at least 500 words, and preferably you should write between 750 and 1000 words for each one.

If you still haven't watched the movies, please make arrangements to do so as soon as possible. Also, make sure that you have been writing lots of Essay prep posts, based on the sites that we have looked at related to these movies. Be sure to use those Essay prep posts effectively to help you write your essay.

Many students will have already noticed that Essay prep posts give you the chance to use some of the same words twice on your blog. In addition, everyone should post each essay twice (1st and final drafts).

How to submit your essays: Send each essay as a Word, Pages, or RTF attachment to your teacher's email address.

Schedule

• January 11th: Deadline for submission of both essays (1st drafts). After submitting, paste the text into a new blog post. Use the tags Essays and Movies.
• January 16th or 17th: A chance to ask questions about corrections and make revisions.
• January 20th: Deadline for 2nd (final)* drafts
• January 23rd: Deadline for final drafts (for students whose 2nd draft was not acceptable).
• January 30th: Final exam

*January 20th is the deadline for the 2nd draft. If you have made good improvements to your 1st draft, this will be the final draft. However, if your 2nd draft is not acceptable, you will need to edit the essay one more time. Once your final version is accepted, please paste it into your blog. Use the tags Essays and Movies. Note that you may post only two versions of each essay to your blog, even if you wrote three versions.

Mary Queen of Scots

Movies to watch this semester (C class)

1. Shakespeare in Love (available in Tsutaya, etc., and in the KGU Library)
2. Amadeus (available in Tsutaya, etc., and in the KGU Library)

Movies to watch this semester (A class)

1. Midnight Run

Available on VHS in the KGU Library. Also available at Tsutaya and so on.

2. Much ado about nothing

Available on DVD at the KGU Library. Also available at Tsutaya and so on.

Writing 4: October 3rd 2011

Hi, everyone, today let's do the first essay of this semester. The title is My favorite movies. Please choose about 3 movies that you have enjoyed very much, and tell us about them. Some things you could write about:

• the story (but don't tell us the ending!)
• why it was interesting to you
• the actors
• the director
• the English and Japanese titles: is there anything interesting about the translation of the title?
• any famous lines or speeches from the movie
• any other similar movies

Some sites you could use:

• Internet Movie Database
• allcinema

Please don't read detailed explanations (in English) of the movies too soon, because if you do you may find it difficult to think of your own words to write about the movies.

The deadline for the essay is October 16th (before the next Writing class on October 17th).