Vol.9 "It's Time To Leave"

I will leave Japan to the Philippines tomorrow because I am attending an academic English training program which starts in March. This is part of a scholarship program for a graduate school where I will study Peacebuilding.

In the two months since returning to Japan from Jordan, I have almost completed my preparations: online English lessons, visa acquisition, authentication of documents, etc. And finally, the time to leave is coming soon.

However, to be honest I feel a little bit nervous even though I will be able to study the subject I wanted, because I am concerned about my current English level, which I do not think is enough. My mind is split 80/20 between anxiety and anticipation now.

So all I have to do first is adapt to the English environment. Then I want to enhance my English level to keep up with the classes.

Vol.8 "Challenge Writing Essay"

My final online English lesson was "Essay Writing". I will study at the graduate school soon. So the essay writing skill is very necessary. Then I wrote my first essay based on a lesson assignment. The topic is "The grave effects of hunger on the economic and political growth of a nation"

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Nowadays, a lot of countries are facing hunger for some reasons in the world. That is not only a humanitarian crisis but also affects the economic and political growth of the nation. How does hunger effect them concretely?

At first, hunger decreases productivity of a nation. James T. Morris, Executive Director of Indianapolis Economic Club states in The Economic Impact of Hunger (9 February 2004, p.2), "Improving the nutritional status of adults has clear economic payoffs. Study after study – in Britain, India, Brazil, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka – has shown a connection between the productivity and wages of adult workers and their nutritional status." Hunger affecting productivity that is related to economics also affects politics in consequence.

The point is that influence of hunger in economics and politics hampers the government's ability to function properly ,and makes nations unstabilized. For this reason, I think that the abolishment of hunger is connected to stabilizing nations. Stabilized nations keep the world peaceful.

Citation:
The Economic Impact of Hunger (9 February 2004)
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp076510.pdf

Vol.7 "Summarizing Articles"

There is a important skill I need other than the skill of expressing my own opinion. That is summarizing, which is the skill that sums up articles in own words and expressions.

It seems easy but actually very difficult for me. Because I have to summarize articles clearly so that anyone can understand the contents, in addition in own words without quotations. So I always struggle on summarizing in every lesson. then, one of my online English coaches showed me some points of summarizing.

First of all, she advised me to pick up information of "5W1H", which means "What", "When", "Where", "Who", "Why", "How", and to summarize article based on them. They are basic and important information in articles.

Actually I haven't practiced summarizing articles much until now. But according to the article that I researched on internet, practice of summarizing also has effect in improving comprehension skill. So I want to try to read a lot of articles and summarize them from today.

入学手続き for ADMU ～フィリピン観光ビザ（9A）取得～

一月頭に帰国して、大学院への入学手続きや英語レッスンに追われていたら、いつの間にか２月に。 ADMU (Ateneo de Manila University) での語学訓練の為、今月末にはいよいよフィリピンに向けて出発なのですが、現地で長期滞在する為にはビザが必須です。そして、その取得に案の定悪戦苦闘。

大学院からの要請で、事前に日本でフィリピン観光ビザ（９A）（５９日間の滞在が認められるビザ）を取得するようにとの指示だったので手続き書類を準備していたのですが、これがまた面倒くさくて大変でした。また困ったことにビザを申請する為にわざわざ大使館や領事館に出向かないといけなくて、一番近くて大阪のフィリピン領事館。そこすら自宅からバスで約５時間の距離。

申請に行ったは良いが書類不備で出直すはめになるのは、もうこりごりなので書類準備にかなり神経を使いました。さらに申請に必要なAPS (Asian Peace builders Scholarship）マニラオフィスからの書類がなかなか来ず、取得が出発日に間に合うかなりひやひやしましたが手続きも無事済み、なんとかなりそうです。

というわけで、今回も自身の備忘録と参考までに手続きについて書いてみました。

Vol.6 "Right to Marriage and Family"

Today's writing topic is "Is the 'right to marriage and family' all encompassing, thus, may be availed of by those with the same sex?" This question is also from the topic about human rights.

In my opinion, I think this right is available for the people with the same sex. Because basically all people have the right to live freely, so should be able to choose own partner freely and be family regardless nationality, religion, race, gender, etc.

On the other hand, there are a lot of countries which have laws prohibiting same-gender partnership. It seems complicated issue but our society should be changing more tolerant for sexual and other minorities.

Vol.5 "Practice Writing Opinion"

Starting today, I would like to practice writing my opinion about some topics in English.

Recently I'm talking about a lot of topics, especially social issues, with online English coaches. So today I will pick up one question from the discussion topics, which was difficult for me to describe.

That is "How shall you reconcile ’the freedom of expression’ and the legal infraction called 'libel' especially on the cyber crime issues?", which is from the topic about human rights.

I think what we should do to reconcile these things is clarification of priority of human rights. At first, we should think of which is more important between "the freedom of expression" and "the right not to be disparaged".

Thinking in that way, "the right not to be disparaged" is more important than "the freedom of expression". Saying in other way, only "the freedom of expression" which doesn't disparage someone should be recognized.

So "libel" which disparages someone should be punished by law.

Vol.4 "Expressing My Own Opinion"

Today I'd like to write about how to express own opinion in English.
In daily online English lessons, I have a lot of opportunities to express my own opinion on the topics through some questions and discussions with my online English coaches.

For example, the topics about environmental pollution, humanitarian crises, discrimination, etc. are very difficult to talk about in not only English but also Japanese. And I'm not sure that I could express what I wanted to say in every lesson.

So I've realized that I have to practice building my own opinions in Japanese on the topics as this is important for translating into English expressions. If I have what I want to say in my mind clearly, I will try to express it in so many ways.

After all, having concrete and clear opinions and thoughts is fundamentally important to express something.

Vol.3 "Motivation Against Learning English"

Recently it's been difficult for me to keep myself motivated to study English. I mentioned before that the advanced online English lessons started taking a few days ago specialize in "Peace Building" and some other social issues. It means that the lesson seem very challenging compared to my current English level.

So I always struggle with the lessons. The worst thing is that there are a lot of words and phrases I don't know that appear in the lesson materials every time. That's why I cannot understand its contents accurately so I have a hard time summarizing them and answering the comprehension questions. And this situation keeps making me gradually more annoyed and exhausted. As a result, I'm finding it difficult to keep my mind positive about learning English.

However there is one thing I've remembered, "There is no one who became to be able to speak foreign language well without any kind of struggles", I forgot whom I heard it from or where I saw it, but It means I have to face these obstacles and over come them in order to make it to the next level.

In conclusion they are unavoidable. So I'm going to turn over a new leaf and learn English again.