BR 1-1: The Sky's the Limit

"Oh, please stay," said Angela. "I don't see you a lot these days. And the children don't see you at all." "I'm sorry, Angela," said Max. But it's an important dinner. I must go."

The Sky's the Limit

I read The Sky's the Limit. It's a Heinemann Guided Reader. It's about a man called Max, who is poor but then finds a job at a company called Friendship Services International. He is ambitious and he becomes more and more distant from his friends and family.

Whitney, Norman. (1992). The sky's the limit. Oxford: Heinemann.
(91 words)

More on the Premier League and F.A. Cup

As I mentioned earlier, the FA Cup is also reaching its climax in England now. The semi-finals were held yesterday and the day before. In those semi-finals, Chelsea beat Tottenham, and Liverpool beat Everton. The matches were especially interesting because they were both local derbies (Chelsea and Tottenham are in London, and Liverpool and Everton are both in Liverpool). The final between Chelsea and Liverpool will be held at Wembley on May 5th.

As I mentioned earlier, the Champions league semi-finals are also fast approaching!

(84 words)

BR 1-1: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

"Someone has been sleeping in our beds!" said Papa Bear and Mama Bear. "And someone is still in mine!" cried Baby Bear.

I read the Scholastic version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Maybe everyone knows this story, which is originally from Tolstoy. It's about a girl who goes into the bears' house when they are out, and eats and drinks their food and drink, and sleeps in their beds. She is very rude!

Findley, Violet. (2006). Goldilocks and the three bears. New York: Scholastic.

Premier League and Champions League

These days, the Premier League is rather exciting. Although it seems fairly clear that Manchester United will win the championship, the difference between them and Manchester City is not so big now. The fight for 3rd and 4th place is also quite intense. Although now Arsenal is in 3rd place, Tottenham and Chelsea are close behind. And Chelsea appear to be in good form now, so probably it won't be decided until the last week of matches. 3rd and 4th places are very important because 3rd place means automatic qualification for the Champions League, while 4th place means qualification via playoffs.

The Champions League is also exciting this year. The semi-finals feature Chelsea against Barcelona, and Real Madrid against Bayern Munich (Munchen). Both should be exciting matches, because the opposing teams have a history of rivalry. The Chelsea semi-final is made even more interesting by the fact that Chelsea yesterday won another semi-final, the FA Cup match against Tottenham.

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the Writing 3 course! Last week, we did the Typing homework, and I hope you mastered the method of opening the Word document sent to you by Mr Tomei, pasting your typing into it, and then saving the document and attaching it to your reply to Mr Tomei.

This week, let's talk more about the syllabus. But before that, let's try Juppun ha Juubun and book reviews!

(68 words)

Football, football, and more football!

As I mentioned yesterday, there is lots of football going on all through the winter holidays in the UK, and this includes not only the Premier League but also the F.A. Cup and the Carling Cup (formerly the League Cup). I watched some soccer news on TV this morning, and I heard that the Japan Under-23 team will be playing a match on February 5th, and then two more matches soon after that

Things to do on January 17th and until the final exam

1. Work on improving movie essays
2. Recording
3. Blog stats (word count) posts
4. Check your tags (labels)
5. Adding books to Booklog
6. Typing homework
7. Book reviews
8. General blogging (increase words)

Mr Tomei is doing a special course from this week until the end of January for students who need to write more words to pass the course. If you are in this situation (fewer than 10,000 words as of today), please go to his computer classroom at 11:40 today to sign up and get details. Don't miss this opportunity to pass this year rather than taking the course again next year!

If you have a class in today's second period, please email him to tell him you want to take part.

Football during the holidays

Christmas and the New Year are big times for football in the UK. Most teams play a match on Boxing Day (December 26th), and then another 3 days later, and then another immediately after the New Year. The fatigue affects teams quite heavily, and there are many surprising results. This winter, the two leading teams in the Premier League, Manchester City and Manchester United, lost some matches. With Tottenham drawing, and Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool all getting poor results, the race is wide open. Many people think now that Manchester United's superior experience may seem them through to the championship.

Premiership race

The Premiership race is heating up. Traditionally, it is said that the team at the top of the league on New Year's Day is likely to end the season as champion. Because Manchester City lost last week, the gap is now very small, and many people say that Alex Ferguson's superior experience will allow Manchester United to overtake Manchester City. Spurs have a few key injuries, and Chelsea find it difficult to be ruthless in putting away weaker teams, and Arsenal and Liverpool are a little behind and losing games here and there.

12 dancing princesses

[117 * 2 = 134 words]

Remember that, if the number of words in your podcast script is 125 or lower, you should multiply by 2 to get the nominal word count.

Book review script

The twelve princesses in this story like to have fun. When their father finds out they've been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's furious. But can he stop them?

     Every night, the King locked the tower door, so that the princesses couldn't sneak out. One day, the maid went to the princesses' room, and she noticed their shoes were lying in a wet pile on the floor. The shoes were worn out. When the king heard about the shoes, he was very angry. Then he had an idea. He decided that the first man to discover where his daughters went each night could marry them. Who can find the princesses' secret?


(117 words)

A sample book review

[Thanks to Kana]

Princesses are supposed to be quiet and well behaved, but the twelve princesses in this story like to have fun. When their father finds out they've been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's furious. "Dancing is banned!" he declares. But will that stop them?

     This story is about the twelve princesses' dancing. Their father, the king, was a grumpy old man who didn't believe in having fun. He believed that princesses should be seen and not heard. The princesses strongly disagreed. Their father hated dancing, but the princesses loved it, so whenever he wasn't looking, they danced anyway. The girls slept in a tall tower with their beds side by side. Every night, the king locked the tower door, so that they couldn't sneak out. One day, the maid went to the princesses' room, and she noticed their shoes were lying in a soggy pile on the floor. The shoes were worn out. When the king heard about the shoes, he was furious. Then he had a brilliant idea. He decided that the first man to discover where his daughters went each night could marry of them. Posters went up across the land. Who can find the princesses' secret?


(205 words)

The process of writing and recording a book review

1. Read a book!
2. Write a book review and post it to your blog (Use the Books or Book reviews tag.)
3. Edit your book review to make a shorter version (preferably fewer than 100 words). Post it on your blog with the Scripts tag.)
4. Practice reading the shorter version aloud. Key points are volume, going down and then pausing at periods, and differentiating content from function words.
5. Record your short book review, using the Audioboo app.
6. Upload to Audioboo, find the recording on Audioboo, and embed it into your blog. Use the tag My podcast. If the number of words in your podcast episode is 125 or fewer, multiply by 2 to get the official word count for the post.
7. Listen to the recording! Make sure that your volume and intonation are OK.

Notice how the word count works in this process. My book review was 205 words, my script was 117 words, and my recording itself was calculated as 117 words, multiplied by 2:

205
132
234
TOTAL: 571 words for 1 book review with recording

If you work efficiently, it may be possible for you to do 2 book reviews in 1 class, which would mean about 2400 words in these Monday and Tuesday classes, in addition to Juppun ha Juubun.

Remaining Writing 4 classes

After the classes on December 19th and 20th, there will be a long break. During that time, your main job is to finish writing your two movie review essays. (The deadline to submit the first draft is January 11th. See my earlier post for details.)

The next two classes are on January 16th and 17th, and those will be the final classes of the semester. Much of that time will be spent on movie review essay corrections, so I recommend that you try to finish off your 12 book reviews before the winter holiday.

Note that the minimum number of recordings this semester is 3, but I recommend that you do more than that, because reading aloud and recording book reviews improves your intonation and pronunciation. Also, remember that the official word count for a recorded book review is double the number of words actually in the script.

At the bottom of the post with your recording, use this format for the word count. (Imagine that your script has 90 words.)

[90 * 2 = 180 words]

Club World Cup

As you may know, yesterday was the final day of the FIFA Club World Cup. I didn't have time to watch the 3rd place playoff, at 4 pm, but I did watch the final, at 7 pm. It was between Santos, the South American champions, and Barcelona, the European champions. The commentators were very excited about a matchup between Barcelona's top star, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, Santos's Brazilian forward.

In the event, both players looked really good, but Barcelona had around 73% of the possession, so Neymar had few chances on the ball. Barcelona were much stronger as a team, passing the ball around quickly and not giving the Santos players many opportunities to attack. Messi was on top form, making several long dribbles past 3 or 4 Santos players and scoring 2 goals. Xavi and Cesc Fabregas also scored a goal each, for a final score of 4–0.

December 19th & 20th

We'll spend most of our time in these two classes working on our book reviews, both writing them and recording them in Audioboo.  These classes are a good chance to increase your book reviews and your word count!

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.

This week in football

The most notable results this past week have been Barcelona's win against Real Madrid, and Sunderland's win against Blackburn Rovers.

The first result means that Barcelona still have a realistic chance of catching Real Madrid in the championship race.

Soccer again

As I mentioned in my previous post, the two top teams under some pressure, Manchester City and Chelsea, both won at the weekend. Sunderland, playing between managers, weren't able to win, and their victors were Blackburn Rovers, whose manager is under lots of pressure because they are near the relegation zone, and because the fans don't seem to like him.

Go

Hey, everyone, I'm not sure what to talk about today, so I guess I'll talk about soccer… as usual! All eyes were on Manchester City and Chelsea this weekend, because of their poor performances in the Champions League, but both won fairly straightforward victories. There was also excitement surrounding Sunderland, because the manager, Steve Bruce, was fired last week, and Martin O'Neill was appointed in his place. Sunderland lost yesterday, as usual, and O'Neill will take over today.

Lucky Number

I read Lucky Number. This is about a poor boy who works all day shining shoes. One day, a rich man buys a lottery ticket but drops it by accident and the boy picks it up. He tries to give it to the man but the man is in a hurry and doesn't hear him. Will the boy and his mother become rich?

Lucky Number: Starter (Macmillan Readers)

Macmillan Education

発売日：2008-01-31

ブクログでレビューを見る»

Milne, J. (2005). Lucky number. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT.

Recent and upcoming movies

Autumn is a good season for films, and there have been a lot this year as usual. But unfortunately, many of them are not well promoted, and they play for only two weeks or so, often with only one or two showings a day, and it is difficult to find the time to see them.

The best one I have seen was Fair Game. This movie is a true story, about a CIA agent called Valerie Plame whose identity is revealed by the government and who thus loses her livelihood. The actors are Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, and they're really good. This film is very moving.

Another movie was The Three Musketeers. This was quite entertaining, but rather superficial and not very memorable.

Macmillan Readers

I read two Macmillan Readers today. They were both Starter level, so I finished them in about 5 minutes each.

The first one was Anna and the Fighter. This is about a girl who travels on a train by herself for the first time to visit her aunt. Unfortunately, she falls asleep and goes past her stop, and she doesn't have any money to ride in the train again to her destination. And a big man with a scar is in the carriage with her and she's afraid.

Anna and the Fighter: Beginner (Macmillan Readers)

Macmillan Education

発売日：2008-01-31

ブクログでレビューを見る»

The other one is The Lost Ship. This is about a captain of a ship who finds another ship with no crew. He goes aboard to see what is happening, and finds himself trapped.

The Lost Ship: Starter (Macmillan Readers)

Macmillan Education

発売日：2008-01-31

ブクログでレビューを見る»

Laird, E. (2005). Anna and the fighter. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT.
Colbourn, S. (2005). The lost ship. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT.

New York Review of Books… and football!

I often listen to the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast, which each week features discussion on about three cultural topics, such as a new film or book, or an essay in the Slate or another magazine. Last week, one of the topics was a review in the New York Review of Books. As a result, I looked through the contents of the NYRB and found them very interesting. So I bought a short-term subscription and now I'm finding and saving lots of articles to read later.

The writing in the NYRB is very good, and often they feature long essays on 5 or 6 books on the same topic, so it is possible to find out about a lot of books from one essay.

In the Premier League, Manchester United and Manchester City both drew at the weekend. It's been a long time since neither of them won. Arsenal, Liverpool, and Newcastle also drew, while Tottenham and Chelsea won. Tottenham are now in 3rd or 4th place.

The two main characters in Amadeus

The two main characters in Amadeus are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. They were both composers in the Classical period. He was born in 1756 and died in 1791. He composed more than 600 works, including ______________, _____________, and _________________. He was active as a composer in Vienna for much of his life. It is said that he may have died of infection by a parasite in pork or rheumatic fever.

Salieri was important in the development of Italian opera. He was the director of the Italian opera in Vienna. Some of his famous students were Beethoven, Liszt, and Franz Schubert.

Salieri is played by F. Murray Abraham and Mozart is played by Tom Hulce.

Amadeus links

• Amadeus on Wikipedia (Japanese)
• Amadeus on IMDB
• Amadeus on YouTube 
• Amadeus on allcinema
• Amadeus on Kinema Junpou
• Amadeus on AllRovi

Premier League in late November

As I mentioned, the Premier League is hotting up. Chelsea seems to be the top team with the most problems at the moment; I think they've lost their last three matches. Arsenal, after a very bad start, have won their recent matches, but nearly all their goals are scored by Robin van Persie, who so far has been injured for long stretches of time every season. Manchester United have recovered from their bad loss to Manchester City and seem to be winning all their matches 1–0. Everyone seems to agree that the two Manchester teams will take the top two spots, but there are several teams who could possibly get one of the top 4 spots. These include Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, and Newcastle. And, for the first time in Premier League history, we are near the end of November and no manager has yet been sacked.

Actors (and other personnel) in Midnight Run

The two stars of Midnight Run are Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

Robert De Niro is considered to be one of the greatest movie actors. He was born in 1943 and has had a long career. He became famous with the movie Mean Streets. Midnight Run is considered to be one of his best performances because of his good chemistry with Charles Grodin.

Charles Grodin was born in 1935. He is probably best known for the Beethoven dog movies. In Midnight Run, he is credited with making it easy for Robert De Niro to give a great comic performance.

Links for Midnight Run

• Midnight Run best scenes on YouTube
• MR on Rotten Tomatoes
• MR on IMDB
• MR on Wikipedia

5 movies I like

I recommend these movies:

• Midnight Run (great scenes)
• Donnie Brasco (trailer)
• Heat (restaurant scene)
• Magnolia 
• Carlito's Way (final scene in Italian)

Premier League again

Things are continuing to heat up in the Premier League. Hitherto unbeaten side Newcastle United lost 3–1 to Manchester City, and Chelsea continued their losing streak, putting pressure on their manager.

SiL on Wikipedia

I just read the Wikipedia page on Shakespeare in Love.

Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 film written by Tom Stoppard. It was hugely popular and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. It contains many references to Shakespeare plays, featuring several paraphrases from Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, as well as references to Twelfth Night.

The movie includes several real people, including William Shakespeare himself, Christopher Marlowe, and Queen Elizabeth I.

The cast is very good, and includes Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, and Judi Dench.

Links for SiL

• SiL on IMDB
• SiL on Wikipedia
• SiL on Wikipedia (Japanese)
• SiL on allcinema
• SiL on Rotten Tomatoes
• SiL trailer
• SiL review in Japanese

England versus Sweden

As I mentioned in my previous post, England beat Spain on Saturday. England will next play Sweden, on Tuesday. It is expected that this will in some ways be a tougher game, because, while Spain are an attacking team who tend to leave a lot of space at the back, Sweden will be underdogs and therefore England will probably have to attack more and try to unlock the Swedish defence.

According to the Guardian, the England team will feature a few new players: Bobby Zamora, Kyle Walker, and Daniel Sturridge. It will be interesting to see how England do with these new players. It is interesting to note that England have not beaten Sweden since 1968, so, despite their lower world ranking, this is unlikely to be an easy game.

Much Ado on Wikipedia

I just read the Japanese Wikipedia page on Much Ado About Nothing (the Shakespeare play) and part of the English page on the same topic. I don't remember all the details, but there was good information on the characters who appear in the play.

• Leonato is the governor of Messina, part of Sicily
• Don Pedro is the Duke of Aragon
• Claudio is a Count and a companion of Don Pedro, and he falls in love with…
• Hero, who is Leonato's only daughter

Some of the themes of the play are love, infidelity, and deception.

It is thought that the play was written in about 1598.

Much Ado Trailer

I watched the trailer for Much Ado About Nothing just now. It's a 1993 movie, directed by Kenneth Branagh, based on the famous Shakespeare comedy. Actors starring in the movie include Kenneth Branagh (also the director), Emma Thompson (Branagh's wife at that time), Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, and Robert Sean Leonard (of The Dead Poets' Society fame). The movie begins with a poem:

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more

Men were deceivers ever

One foot in sea

And one on shore

To one thing constant never

Then sigh not so

But let them go

And be you blithe and bonny

Converting all your tales of woe

Into hey nonny nonny

My impression after watching the trailer is that it's a joyous movie. I'm looking forward to watching it (again).

Info on Much Ado About Nothing

• IMDB
• Shakespeare play on Wikipedia
• Branagh film on Wikipedia
• Shakespeare play on Wikipedia (Japanese)
• Rotten Tomatoes
• todok tosen
• Shakespeare's plays
• Trailer on YouTube

Go, England!

Last week saw the latest international break for soccer. Japan played a World Cup qualifier on Friday, winning 4–0 in Tajikistan after a rather depressing first half. Meanwhile, in Europe, a lot of friendlies were played. One of those was England versus Spain at Wembley. Everyone assumed that England would lose, because these last few years, although England usually does well in qualifying, they usually lose when laying a top team such as Holland, Brazil, France, Spain, and so on.

Apparently, this time was similar in the first half: Spain had possession for most of the time, and England wasn't able to mount any good attacks. Luckily, though, Spain wasn't able to convert their possession into a goal, and England scored a goal with a quick attack, winning 1–0.

Mary Queen of Scots

More on the Premier League

As I mentioned, the Premier League is gradually coming to resemble the Premier League that we are familiar with. The big difference is that Newcastle United are undefeated and right up there at the top. Generally, commentators say that Newcastle's opponents recently have not been very strong, and it is generally assumed that Liverpool, Arsenal, or Tottenham will be the 4th team (after Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea). However, Chelsea are looking a bit unsteady, and Newcastle's unbeaten run keeps going, so some commentators are starting to take the team seriously.

Jane Eyre

If you're interested in British literature, you will probably read Jane Eyre at some point. Before reading the original text, I recommend that you read a simplified version, for example the Oxford Bookworms version. You can find it in the University library.

Jane Eyre (Oxford Bookworms Library, Stage 6)

Charlotte Bronte,Clare (RTL) West

Oxford Univ Pr (Sd)

発売日：2007-11-29

ブクログでレビューを見る»

Premier League early November

As we move into November, the Premier League is hotting up. Many commentators say that the teams on the bottom now are unlikely to escape relegation, while the top 6 is becoming a more familiar group, the unusual thing being that, instead of Arsenal, that group includes Newcastle. Until several years ago, when manager Bobby Robson was fired, Newcastle were regularly in the top 4, but in recent years they have been closer to the relegation zone and were actually relegated for one season.
(84 words)

Book Reviews

How to do a book review on the IS4 blog

a good book review

Hi from Audioboo!

Premier League again again

As I mentioned not long ago, yesterday Manchester United lost big time to Manchester City. The final score was…nan to…6−1! Towards the end, Manchester United were desperate to get a goal and their defence became terribly disorganized. Both Dzeko and Balotelli scored 2 goals each!

Hi!

Premier League re-revisited again

This week, I thought I would write about the Premier League for a change. If you are a football fan, you probably know that Manchester United played Manchester City yesterday. Anticipation was intense, because it is the first time for many, many years that Manchester City has been seen as a team that is competitive with Manchester United. The Guardian ran a series of 4 articles on the respective teams' goalkeepers, defences, midfields, and attacks. Most people assumed that Manchester United would win or that the result would be a draw. So what happened?

"That's a really good question, and I'm glad you asked." "I am asking." "And well you may."

Session 4: October 24th, 2011

It's time for our first podcast episode of the semester today. To make the procedure a little easier, and to make it possible for you to continue posting after this course finishes, let's switch to audioboo! Audioboo is a site just for short audio posts. You can link to your post from your blog.

1. Join Audioboo. I'll give you detailed instructions separately.
2. Make a "reverse outline" from your movie essay.
3. Create a short script from the reverse outline and print it out. Your aim should be to speak quite quickly for about 1 minute.
4. Record your script on Audioboo.
5. Create a new post on your blog. Tags should be "my podcast" and "movies". The text content should be the reverse outline you made in (2). You need to link to the recording you made in (4).
6. After you've finished, create another post with your script from (3). Tag this "movies" and "scripts".

HINT: When you're working, take a few moments to arrange your workspace. I suggest separate windows for (i) Audioboo, (ii) your own blog, and (iii) these instructions (at rickkgu.blogspot.com ; look for the Teachertalk tag).

UPDATE: Because of time problems, we will do the reverse outline and the recording for the movie essay next time. In this class, you should record a quick introduction and one of your book reviews from this semester. (Please count the number of words that you recorded, just as with a standard written post.)

HOMEWORK: We are now a third of the way through the semester. I am worried about people falling behind. There is no class next week. Before the next class (in November), please:

1. Make sure you have written 4 or 5 book reviews for this semester;
2. Updated your Booklog collection;
3. Finished and posted your essay movie;
4. Posted a Blog Stats post with your up-to-date number of words for this semester.

Autumn films

This month is a good one for films. Rise of the Planet of the Apes began last weekend, and at the end of the month, The Three Musketeers, Source Code, and Fair Game are all coming. To tell you the truth, October and November are very busy times of year for me, so I'm not sure whether I'll have time to see them, but I really want to see them all. I think Moneyball is also coming soon.

Of those movies, Fair Game and Moneyball are both based on true stories. Fair Game is about Valerie Plame, a CIA operative whose identity is exposed by the Bush administration as retaliation for a newspaper article written by her husband. Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, is about a baseball team that doesn't have much money but manages to win a championship.

Premier League revisited again

After the international break, the Premier League was back in action this weekend. The biggest match was Liverpool against Manchester United. The two teams are the most successful in English football history, with Manchester United having won 19 championships and Liverpool 18. In recent years, Manchester United have been by far the most successful team, winning the Premier League about once every two years and also getting to three Champions League finals in the last four or five years. However, when it comes to direct meetings of the two teams, in recent years Liverpool has the better record.

This year, Manchester United rested many players, including Rooney, who had taken part in the international matches or whom they want to include in next week's match against Manchester City. Apparently, the match was very dull until Gerard, returning from injury, scored. But, as happens very often, Manchester United came back to a draw with a late goal, after sending Rooney on as a substitute.

Manchester United's draw combined with Manchester City's win over Aston Villa to send Manchester City top for the first time. My suspicion is that Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, will be the most satisfied of the managers, because most of his top players have had a good rest, and I think he will be confident of beating Manchester City and going top again.

In a battle between two clubs lower down the table, Arsenal beat Sunderland 2-1. Yeah!

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)

Premier League again

In the last post, I said that many people believe that the top 3 places will be taken by Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea, and that that order seems most likely. I actually think that Chelsea will overtake Manchester City once the new manager gets used to his team and possibly brings in a new player or two in the January transfer window. So my prediction for the top 3 is:

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Manchester City

The 4th spot is very interesting and important because the 4th team also gets a chance to play in the Champions League, which as I mentioned before brings in a quite a lot of money. For the last 14 years, Arsenal has always been one of the teams qualifying for the Champions league places but that looks unlikely this year. Most people think either Liverpool or Tottenham will get that 4th spot. I think it will probably be Tottenham, because many of Liverpool's players are not so strong (I believe), although Liverpool's manager is probably a little better than Tottenham's.

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.

Premier League

I'd like to talk today about the Premier League table. Most teams have now played 7 matches, which is about a fifth of the total matches for the season. The top 3 places are filled by Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea, and most people assume that those are the three teams that will be at the top at the end of the season. In fact, most people seem to think that the three teams will end in that order, with the odds of Manchester United being champions set at 5/6, Manchester City at 12/5, and Chelsea at 4/1.

All three of the top 3 teams qualify automatically for next season's Champions League, which means that they get extra income and have a better chance of continuing to improve their team.

On today's menu: October 3rd, 2011 (Session 2)

1. Juppun ha Juubun
2. Talking about the syllabus
3. Essay 1

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).

The Double

I watched the trailer for The Double, a movie starring Richard Gere. It starts in the US on October 28th.

It's Cassius. He's back. 

Cassius is dead...This is not his work - Then prove it.

This is not his work. 

Blog stats September 26th

94 + 82 + 29 + 65 + 15 = 285 words

My holiday 1

This year's summer holiday was all too short! I spent most of August marking exams and attending meetings, and making some preparations for a presentation in September. Then in September I went to the U.S. to do some research in New York, and to meet some people in New Jersey. I also did a presentation in Kyoto. Then last week my friend from my university days in the U.K. came to stay, so we went to Aso and Fukuoka. His field is civil engineering so he was very interested in Acros and Canal City.

94/285 words

Movies in autumn/winter

I watched a trailer for The Double. It's about a retired CIA agent played by Richard Gere, who is brought out of retirement to solve a murder that was apparently committed by a famous Soviet assassin. It looks very exciting and I want to see it. I don't know when it will come out in Japan.

I also watched the trailer for Abduction. This is about a young man who lives an ordinary life but then he is told that his life has been a lie.

I watched the trailer for The Double, a 2011 movie.

It's Cassius. He's back.

Cassius is dead.

He's dead.

This is not his work.

We'd like the two of you to work together. 

 

 

 

Abduction

I watched the trailer for Abduction, a 2011 movie.

What if you discovered your entire life was a lie?

You're going to kill each other.

There are only 4 of us. Two of us are dead.

There's a leak.

Whoever these people are, I have to stop them.

I want confirmation.

Listen to me, Nathan. We're going to find you. - Not if I find you first!

Abduction. In theaters September 23rd. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Writing 4

Hi everyone, nice to see you again! Please check out the outline for Writing 4.

Please have a listen to my second podcast episode, about KGU.

Link format:

Women's Soccer

Although everyone is very excited about women's soccer, I am more concerned about the English Premier League. It seems that Manchester United have renewed their side quite effectively, Liverpool have bought a lot of expensive players, and Chelsea and Arsenal don't have any major changes yet. Manchester City look a little unsettled.

Podcast tips

No spaces in mp3 filenames, please!

And no uppercase letters!

In your blog, add a link to the file in 2 places: in the body of the post, and in the enclosure link field.

Exam

The content of the writing exam will be as follows:

1. Your final declaration for word count, post count, and so on;
2. An original short essay.

Some notes:

• 1 is the most important part. In order to do it quickly, you should prepare a Blog Stats post the day before the exam. Then you can copy the figures from that post onto the exam paper.
• The essay question will be a new one, but it will be similar in some ways with the essays you have done this semester. Watch out especially for simple errors such as santangen no S, and matching singular and plural. Also remember that, in general, a singular noun has an article!
• You can use the Internet to look up information for the essay. But don't spend too long collecting information. Get a few bits of interesting and relevant information, and spend most of your time writing and checking your writing.

Women's Soccer, and other matters

As you probably know, Japan won the women's soccer World Cup. They played the US in the final and won on penalties. Their performance will hopefully serve as an inspiration to the men's team, under coach Zaccheroni.

In the English Premier League, Liverpool have been spending big in the transfer market, while Arsenal look like they are going to lose more than they gain.

Red Gyuu

As you know, yesterday I had a hamburger made from Aso aka ushi. So today I drank a Red Bull. Maybe I will give birth to some red veal soon.

APA reference practice

Daynes, K. (2007). Aladdin and his magical lamp. Usborne.

Mason, C. (2008). Macbeth. Usborne.

Aka ushi

Yesterday, I went to Yagogawa with my family to get our rice milled. Then we went to Aso to eat some sweetcorn and finally we went to Miyaji station to eat a red beef hamburger with demiglace sauce.

Class of July 11th, 2011

On today's menu:

1. Juppun ha Juubun
2. Second-semester typing (notice from Mr Tomei)
3. A note on blog tags (labels)
4. Revision of APA reference format
5. Creating and recording your 2nd podcast episode
6. Blog stats ( Post before class of June 21st.)

Make sure you do your blog stats before July 21st! Also, make sure to finish recording your 2nd podcast episode, and save it in your folder on the 学内私書箱 server, before July 21st.

Also, don't forget to check the Writing Targets!

The number of book reviews for this semester is 12.

The exam is on August 1st.

You can start second-semester blogging on September 1st.

Baskin Robbins

Baskin Robbins is the most famous ice cream speciality store in Japan. (In fact, I don't know any other chains of such stores, though there used to be a single store in Kengun.) During the summer months, they have a special sale allowing you to buy 3 scoops of ice cream for the price of two. Yesterday, my wife said "Hey, let's go out", but she didn't tell us where. But we arrived at Baskin Robbins in Kengun and we all had 3 scoops. I had Love Potion 31, Oreo Cookies, and Caramel Ribbon. Actually, the seasonal flavours available now don't interest me so much. (May favorite time of year is spring when they have Burgundy Cherry.)

Under-21 Football

Last night, as I mentioned in my previous post, Japan's Under-21 team played a match against Kuwait. This was their 2rd round qualifier. These 2nd round qualifiers are played in two legs, and last night's match was the first leg. It was in Japan. Generally, it is more difficult to play away, so it is generally considered important to win the home leg. If the total number of goals for the two teams over the two legs is the same, the team with the most away goals wins, so, just as the away team wants to score, the home team wants to avoid conceding any goals.

The result was 3–1 to Japan. It was a good result, though Japan was a little disappointed to concede a goal, especially after looking so much better than Kuwait throughout the match. Ohsako (from Kashima Antlers) played pretty well. I think the away leg will be held on Thursday in Kuwait, and I hope it will be televised too.

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. I am very busy these days with work, so I had to go to Kumamoto University for the whole day. But I finished work early, in order to get home by 6, and when I got home my wife said: "Hey, let's go out to eat." So we went to a nearby restaurant that sells "kushi katsu", and we had a nice meal there. When we got home, I discovered that my wife had recorded a soccer match for me to watch. I hadn't realised that there was a match so this was a nice surprise. Moreover, the match was very nice. It was a qualifying match for next year's Olympic Games, between Japan and Kuwait. Japan played very well and won 3–1.

Wizard of Oz

I've just finished my first podcast episode, about the Wizard of Oz. Please check it out!

Black Swan

Have you seen the movie Black Swan? I finally got to see it last weekend. I had been looking forward to it for a long time, and I bought a discount ticket at a convenience store a few months ago. As you probably know, Natalie Portman is the star of the movie, and she won an Oscar for her performance as a young ballet dancer who is chosen as the Swan Queen in the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake.

The movie was interesting, especially the performance of Mila Kunis as Lily, another dancer in the ballet company. Unfortunately, I didn't think the performances of Vincent Cassel and Natalie Portman were particularly good. But the movie is pretty interesting and well worth seeing.

Detective Dinosaur

Detective Dinosaur's a great book. Check out my podcast episode about it!

Premier League

The 2010-11 Premier League season has finished, as you probably know. The 2011-12 season will begin in late August, I think, but some teams will be back in action as soon as June 30th. Those teams include Fulham, who have qualified for Europa League qualifiers through fair play over the 2010-11 season.

As happens every season, some managers have been sacked, and others have quit their jobs. Fulham manager Mark Hughes resigned last week, and Fulham announced just a few days later that they had hired Martin Jol, a former Spurs and Ajax manager, to take over. Aston Villa's Gerard Houllier, who was hospitalized for heart problems during the season, left his post, and Aston Villa are still looking for a replacement. Wigan's Roberto Martinez was invited to take over the job, but he chose to remain with Wigan.  The biggest vacancy is at Chelsea, where Carlo Ancelotti was fired after coming second in the league and being knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Soccer, continued

In my last post, I talked about soccer, so I'd like to continue with that topic. I mentioned that Manchester United lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final, and that Manchester United hadn't really found a way to fight against Barcelona convincingly. One interesting aspect of the match is that Manchester United kept Barcelona pegged back for a short time at the beginning of the match, and that at one point the manager, Alex Ferguson, got angry with Wayne Rooney. One theory is that Rooney's main job was to mark Busquets and thus to stop Barcelona's attacks from the beginning, but that he was more interested in attacking so Busquets had too much freedom to play. Thus, the manager was angry with him for neglecting his defensive duties. Interestingly, Manchester's play seemed to get worse after the altercation, so some think that Rooney became angry with the manager and ignored his instructions.

Another recent match was England against Switzerland. England conceded 2 early goals but came back to draw.

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy walked briskly along the yellow road, her silver shoes tinkling on the bricks.

In the first episode of my podcast, I introduce the wonderful story, The Wizard of Oz.

Soccer

Although the soccer season in Europe is over, there have been some matches to watch on TV. The first of these was the UEFA Champions League final, featuring Manchester United from the U.K. against Barcelona from Spain. Barcelona was the favorite, but in the days before the match many people were saying that Barcelona's travel plans and their lack of matches before the big match would make them less sharp.

The final two years before had featured the same two teams, and in that match Barcelona won. Many people said that Manchester United's tactics had been at fault, so everyone was looking forward to seeing Manchester's tactical plan this time.

For the first ten minutes, Manchester looked impressive, but after that Barcelona dominated possession, and my impression was that Barcelona had improved a lot since two years ago, while Manchester had failed to learn any tactical lessons. The match ended 3-1 to Barcelona.

In Japan, the Kirin Cup is taking place now. Japan's first match against Peru was not a good one, but it will be intereresting to see how they play against the Czech Republic tomorrow.

WWTC 2011 continued

The World Table Tennis Championships are important not only in themselves but also because they affect the members to be chosen for the 2012 Olympics. There is speculation that Ma Long, having lost in the semi-finals, will not get a place in the Olympics. The two places that are decided are Wang Hao and Zhang Jike, who are ranked 1 and 3 and were also runner-up and champion, respectively, in the WTTC. The third would usually go to the highest ranked remaining player, who is Ma Lin.

Although I like Ma Lin, he is getting old, and I think Ma Long would be a much stronger competitor next year.

WTTC 2011

The World Table Tennis Championships finished last week. As I mentioned before, they were held in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. The men's champion from last time, Wang Hao, got to the final, but he lost in 6 sets to the new champion, Zhang Jike. Zhang Jike moved up into the top ten in the world rankings only comparatively recently, so he is much less well-known than players like Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, and Ma Lin. But I suspect he will fairly soon be number 1 in the rankings and easily findable on YouTube.

Ma Lin lost in the quarterfinals.

Booklog test

This book is great!

A Death in Oxford Starter/Beginner (Cambridge English Readers)

Richard MacAndrew

Cambridge University Press

発売日：2007-06-14

ブクログでレビューを見る»

Takamori

On Saturday, my wife's parents came to our house to stay, and yesterday we all went out together. We headed for Takamori, to see a "power spot" situated near to Takamori Onsen. The power spot was a mountain. We walked up rather a steep set of stairs to a shrine, and then up an even steeper mountain to the top. The top consists of a kind of arch of rock, with a very nice view on the other side. It is said that going through the arch will take you through to the future or the past, but we didn't experience that yesterday! There is also a kind of shallow cave to the side.

On the way to the "power spot", we stopped at a strawberry picking place. They had 4 kinds of strawberries, and we each ate about 40 to 60 strawberries. On the way back, we played tennis in a park, so it was a very full day!

Work for week of May 16-May 22

Please write Essay 2, which should be about something related to Kumamoto.

• Please include links
• Please include pictures
• Please write 4 or 5 paragraphs. Remember NOT to put line returns within paragraphs.

Booklog Test

I like this book!

Dirty Money Starter/Beginner (Cambridge English Readers)

Sue Leather

Cambridge University Press

発売日：2006-06-15

ブクログでレビューを見る»

Spider-Man: Heroes & Villains

This book is great!

Spider-Man 3: Meet The Heroes and Villains (I Can Read. Level 2)

HarperCollins

発売日：2007-04

ブクログでレビューを見る»

WTTC: new world champion

The World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam in Holland have finished, I think. The men's singles final took place yesterday, between Wang Hao, the world no. 1 and the champion in the previous world championships in 2009 (held in Yokohama), and Zhang Jike, a 23-year-old player who has been rising quickly up the world rankings over the last year.

The match was a contrast of styles. Wang Hao plays penhand style, and his powerful backhand distinguishes him from most penhold players, while Zhang Jike plays with a shakehand grip. Wang Hao is 27, and, unless Zhang Jike has an injury, it's difficult to imagine Zhang not taking the world number 1 ranking away from him.

Kenta Matsudaira

Kenta Matsudaira is a Japanese male table tennis player. At present, he's ranked 32 in the world. He is 20 years old. He became famous in the world table tennis championships in 2009, when he played the world number 4 Ma Lin in the quarter-finals and nearly won the match, getting to 4-1 ahead in the final set before finally losing.

He hasn't really done anything terribly exciting since then, but that performance was enough to launch him into the twenties and thirties in the world rankings, from the fifties and sixties though most of the previous year.

Mashiki Culture Center

Mashiki Culture Center, although it's outside the main city of Kumamoto, may well be the best place for musical performances, and it often hosts major international artists.

Prefectural Theater

Kumamoto Prefectural Theater is probably the best-known concert venue in Kumamoto.

Onnojo Park

Onnojo Park is in Itsuwa, near Amakusa Airport, and very near the border with Hondo.

Nishinokubo Park

Nishinokubo Park is in Hondo in Amakusa, near the border with Itsuwa.

Ai Fukuhara

Ai Fukuhara has been a darling of the Japanese table tennis scene for a long time now, though recently she has been eclipsed by the younger Kasumi Ishikawa. Fukuhara has a long and varied experience with table tennis, including about a year (?) playing Chinese league table tennis for a provincial team. That is no doubt one of the main reasons for her high world ranking, which is at present 7.

That ranking is a bit of a surprise, because in Japan she generally loses out to Ishikawa (number 10) and Sayaka Hirano (number 11), and as far as I know she has never won the national championships in Japan.

Shrek the Third: A Good King is Hard to Find

"You'll love being king," Shrek tells Artie…"Poison? Bodyguards? Stop the boat!" yells Artie.

This is one of the books written to support the release of the movie Shrek the Third. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with the characters after or before watching the movie.

Hapka, C. (2007). Shrek the Third: A good king is hard to find. New York: HarperCollins.

Series: ICR2

Vocabulary: mayor 市長、町長

(61 words)

Champions League

Both Champions League semi-final matches last week ended with the away team winning the first leg convincingly, which means that it will be quite difficult for the losing team to come back to victory. So it looks like Manchester United will play Barcelona in the final, although of course we can never know whether there will be a comeback.

Manchester United's semi-final opponent is Schalke from Germany, while Barcelona's is Real Madrid. The final will be played in Real Madrid's stadium called the Bernabeu, so Real Madrid would badly like to come back in the second leg and appear in the final.

BR1-04: Spider-Man 3: Meet the Heroes & Villains

I sometimes change from Peter Parker into someone else…Spider-Man.

This book is part of the set of books written to support the release of the Spider-Man 3 movie. To tell you the truth, the book itself isn't particularly interesting, but I think it's useful to read before watching the movie, because it introduces the characters in the movie, including Peter Parker, his boss, his girlfriend (played by Kirsten Dunst!), and the villains, including the New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom. You can read about some of those villains individually in other books in the series. If you haven't seen the movies, I recommend them highly, because, in addition to interesting action, the relationships in the movie are very interesting.

Lime, H. (2007). Spider-Man 3: Meet the heroes and villains. New York: HarperCollins.

Series: ICR2

Vocabulary: villain 悪役

(132 words)

Premier League revisited

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Arsenal in the English Premier League (EPL). At that time, they were losing and drawing matches and seemed to have given up any hope of winning the league. Their worst result was a loss to Bolton Wanderers.