Various matters

This is the final Juppun ha Juubun of the semester. How much can I write? What shall I write about? Maybe I'll talk about some movies. Today we saw Hannah and her Sisters. Hannah was played by Mia Farrow. I think she's a very good actress, but it's interesting that most of her famous roles are in Woody Allen films. The main ones that were not connected to Woody Allen were Rosemary's Baby and The Great Gatsby.

Another actress in Hannah and her Sisters was Dianne Wiest. She has been in lots of movies, one of them being Edward Scissorhands. Another sister, Lee, was played by Barbara Hershey. Her highest rated movie is 11:14, which I haven't seen, but she has been in many, a recent one being Black Swan.

Movies and other matters

Hello, everyone, how are things going? There have been a lot of good movies playing recently. Of course, we saw Grosse Pointe Blank in class, but in the movie theaters now lots of movies are playing: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Creed, American Ultra, Paddington, and so on. I haven't seen Creed yet, but I recommend all the others. Paddington is very cleverly made, with the bear seeming quite natural amongst the human characters. Nicole Kidman has an interesting role in the movie. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is surprisingly similar to the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV: A New Hope) but well made and a lot of fun. American Ultra is very funny but also quite exciting drama.

Have you been following the football in the Premier League? Arsenal lost to Chelsea and have lost the top spot. Manchester United also lost their most recent match, and many fans want to change the manager. I think Leicester are still top.

Avoiding nasty surprises with your score

Introduction

Remember that the final exam is on February 4th. You still have several days to solve any problems with your blog. Read the questions and advice that follow carefully.

Have you written more than 5000~6000 words?

There is no official minimum word count for this course. But the course is designed so that most people (especially A-class students) will easily exceed 5000 words:

• You write a Juppun ha Juubun post every week.
• You write at least one book review every week, and that book review can include quotations (clearly marked and not too long) from books and vocabulary lists.
• Some posts involve copying sentences from handouts and other sources. With compositions (e.g. hometowns), you could make one post for every model if you wished.
• You are encouraged to write diary posts and/or extra book reviews as often as possible.
• When writing about a movie (for example), you are encouraged to write at least two posts: one with basic information, and one review (which can also mention the same information).
• Over a year, everyone making an effort should have become more fluent. Most people will have tried writing longer posts, naturally leading to larger total wordcounts.

Thus, if your word count this semester is less than 5000, you probably haven’t been making a constant effort. Check the other items in this post, and make sure that you haven’t forgotten to do something.

Have you posted and updated your final Blog Stats post?

On the day before the exam, check that your data are up-to-date. This will save you time in the exam, meaning that you can spend nearly all the time writing the essays.

Have you improved your writing over the year in some tangible way?

I have written corrections on everyone’s blog fairly constantly through the year, and you have had plenty of opportunities to ask questions about anything you didn’t understand. What aspect(s) of your writing have you improved?

Hannah and her Sisters info

Hannah and her Sisters

(Director) Woody Allen: Mickey
Michael Caine: Elliot
Mia Farrow: Hannah
Carrie Fisher: April
Barbara Hershey: Lee
Dianne Wiest: Holly
Max von Sydow: Frederick


Woody Allen: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Zelig, Sleepers, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Wimbledon

movie language

Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 movie starring John Cusack and directed by George Armitage. The movie also features John Cusack's sister, Joan Cusack, playing his secretary. The movie centers around a hitman called Martin Blank, who has to go back to his hometown for a job around the same time as a school reunion. Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, and Alan Arkin costar.


Hannah and her Sisters

Woody Allen
Michael Caine

Movie language

Grosse Pointe Blank is a movie starring John Cusack and directed by George Armitage. John Cusack plays a hitman called Martin Blank, who is contracted to kill someone from his hometown. His
secretary is played by Cusack's real sister, Joan Cusack. Blank's ex-girlfriend is played by Minnie Driver.

Zootopia, New Year, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for Zootopia. It will be released in March in the U.S. and in April in Japan. It involves lots of animals, including a police officer.

The last month has seen a lot of football action in the U.K. There have been several Premier League matches as well as F.A. Cup matches. Arsenal and Leicester are still at the top of the table, and Manchester City and Spurs are not far behind.

The Oscar nominations have been decided. In the Best Picture nominations, I think that only Bridge of Spies and Mad Max: Fury Road have already been shown in Japan, so I am anxious to see what Spotlight, The Martian, Room, The Revenant, The Big Short, and Brooklyn are like. I think The Martian, with Matt Damon, is coming soon.
133 words

Hometowns

I like my hometown.

a trip

I enjoyed my trip

Provisional blog report

My blog

Juppun ha Juubun

April 20th: 227
April 27th: 146
May 11th: 156

July 27th: 141
September 28th: 129

December 24th: 133
January 18th: 133
January 25th/26th:

Book Reviews

Number: 5
Audio: 2
Best book review: Wagon Wheels
2nd book review: The Drinking Gourd


Movies:

Diary:

Compositions

Trips: 1
Hometowns: 1

Posts

September: 3
October: 12
November: 7
December: 13
January/February: 4

Words

Total:

New Year

Hello, everyone, long time, no see. How are you doing? Although I haven't been to KGU for a long time, I have been rather busy. Yesterday and on Saturday, we had the Center exams. At New Year, I got two days' holiday only. But I managed to go and see the new Star Wars movie. It was pretty good. I am also hoping to see the new Rocky movie, Creed, soon.

The Oscar nominations have been decided. Leonardo DiCaprio's movie, Revenant, has many nominations. But I heard it is terribly violent, so I'm not sure if I will go and see it.

American dialect map, A partridge in a pear tree, and other matters

Today we learnt the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. I can't imagine receiving a partridge for Christmas. What would I do with it? Maybe I would plant the pear tree and it could live there. But would it live peacefully with the French hens, the calling birds, and the turtle doves? These are the big questions of our day!

The American dialect map that I came across the other day is very interesting. Take a look sometime! It tells us about the various influences on American English in different parts of the country, such as (of course) British English on the East Coast, French in the south, German and Norwegian in some places, and Irish and Scottish influences in others.

We're going to watch the second half of Hannah and Her Sisters today. Yeah!
133 words

X-Men: Apocalypse…and other matters

Today we watched the trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse. I have enjoyed the X-Men movies so far, so I am looking forward to this one. I like James McAvoy very much and he think he does a good job following in Patrick Stewart's footsteps as Xavier, and the rest of the cast is also good. It starts on Memorial Day in the U.S. and probably it won't be too far behind in Japan.

In the Premier League, there has been some turmoil. Jose Mourinho has been sacked as the manager of Chelsea, and Guus Hiddink has come in as interim manager. Manchester United has been losing a lot of matches, so their manager is under threat. Liverpool have also been losing a lot of matches. Leicester, the Thai-owned club where Okazaki plays, is at the top of the table. In England, the Christmas and New Year period is ultra-busy, and after that many players are tired or injured, and the situation often changes, but many people hope that Leicester will continue to do well.

Star Trek: Beyond

Today we watched the trailer for Star Trek: Beyond, the latest movie in the Star Trek series, which has now continued for more than 40 years. The atmosphere was very different from other Star Trek movies, perhaps because the director is from the Fast and Furious series.

Probably all of you know about the latest Star Wars movie, which started on Friday. The director of that movie was recruited partly because of his success in rebooting the Star Trek series, when no movie had been made in the series for a long time. The two series are very different. Although Star Wars has a spiritual side (the Force), the stories are basically like westerns, with the Empire fighting against the rebels. By contrast, although Star Trek also features conflict, its general message is about hope and peace. If you get the chance, please check out some of the Star Trek: Next Generation TV series episodes.

Hot Rocks (audio review)

Please check out my audio review of Hot Rocks, a book in the TopReaders series.
Audio recording >>

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows…and other matters

Today we watched the trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which is scheduled to open in June next year. It looked pretty exciting, so I'm looking forward to seeing it, even though it's a long way off. Talking of movies, the James Bond movie Spectre is already playing and the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, is coming this Friday.

The Premier League is exciting as usual. Manchester United, Liverpool, and Tottenham slipped a little at the weekend, which means that Arsenal and probably Leicester City (who are playing tonight) are at the top, with Manchester City and Manchester United not far behind. Manchester United is getting a lot of criticism for playing boring football but also not being strong defensively. The groups for next summer's Euro championships were also decided over the last few days. England and Wales will be in the same group.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows… and other matters

Today, we saw the trailer for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, due to be released in June next year. I enjoyed the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 1990, but I kind of lost track of them. I didn't realize that a new movie came out last year, nor that a sequel was in the works. In Kumamoto, I'm guessing that the movie will come out only in its dubbed version, so I'm not sure whether I'll go and see it. (Sometimes, even on iTunes the dubbed version is the only one that is available.) That's unfortunate, because part of the attraction of the Turtles is the language, which is based on the hippy talk of the 1960s.

Making an audio book review

1. Make sure that your audio file is ready. (Is the English correct? Can we hear clearly what you are saying?)
2. Go to Vocaroo.com
3. Upload your file, then listen to check that it's OK.
4. Click embed, then copy the code. (Be sure to copy the whole code and nothing else.)
5. In Blogger, make a new post.
6. Switch to HTML mode.
7. Write a sentence or two to introduce your audio book review.
8. Press RETURN once or twice after the sentence(s).
9. Paste the code that you just copied.
10. Press RETURN once or twice.
11. Add a picture of the book cover in the usual way. Set the alignment to RIGHT.

Make sure that the code you paste into your blog post is separated from your sentence(s) and the picture.

Use the usual Book Reviews tag for the post.

For the title, use TITLE_OF_THE_BOOK (audio review).

Ireland (audio review)

Hi, everyone, please check out my review of Ireland, an Oxford Bookworms Factfile!
Audio recording >>

Ireland (audio review)

Hi, everyone, please check out my review of the Oxford Bookworms Factfiles book, Ireland!