Reaction to Fisher..

The article of Fisher is interesting to read for me. Especially, I was impressed by the example of “Perception Is Inaccurate.”

             In this part, the author gives us the conversation between a babysitter and young black girl. As I wrote in former sentence, the babysitter also thought of the girl “black.” However, it turns out to be inaccurate expression. She describes herself “medium brown,” and to say what she looks like, it is totally true. People usually use “black” to express African-Americans, so the babysitter made assumption that the girl think of herself “black.” I also thought of African-Americans "black," and this is the first time for me to notice their "true color".

              I think perceptions are based on one’s assumption. We think that our common sense is always right, but it is not true. I strongly felt that it is necessary to think calmly of things around us to understand what is really required.

Reaction to Barna...

My reaction to Barna is “interesting.” However, what I really became interested in is the theme, “Intercultural Communication.”

During last class, I had discussion with Ayaka, Saki, and Yoshimi. We had to discuss about "general reactions” to Barna's text, but we could not stop talking about the solution to Six Stumbling Blocks. We discussed from the first block and find out that the solution for all the Six Stumbling Blocks: just try to understand and accept other cultures.

For instance, think of Nonverbal Misinterpretations. I have heard that in one country (I cannot remember which country it was,) nodding a head means “no” and shaking a head means “yes.” If people go to the country without that knowledge, both people from other countries and natives get confused and that confusion may leads to a trouble. It is necessary to know about the foreign cultures and when you get into such confusion, you should ask to people what they meant, not just hesitate and give people “Japanese smile.”

Another interesting thing during the class is the solution to High Anxiety of Kohei’s group. As I wrote in former paragraph, our solution to all Six Stumbling Blocks is trying to understand other cultures, but their solution is completely different. They said that solution for this kind of problems is to be calm. I felt it is good to hear the opinion of others because I might be able to get ideas that cannot be thought only by me.

Maybe it is different from what Mark asks, but are my honest reactions!

Summer Book Report... "The Hobbit"

The Hobbit

     For Summer Book Report, I read "The Hobbit," a fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

     I chose this novel for this assignment because I like "The Lord of the Rings," which is a novel written by Tolkien, and I wanted to enjoy the world made by him more. Another reason is that I heard "The Hobbit" will become movie in 2012. I would like to read the novel version before I watch the movie.

     In this story, growth of the main character, Bilbo

Baggins through tough adventure is mainly written. One morning, Bilbo Baggins, who is a hobbit, meets Gandalf, the wizard, in front of his house. First he rejects the offer of Gandalf, but next day, he changes his mind. After rejecting, Bilbo invites Gandalf to next day's tea party. However, the guest is not only Gandalf. Without saying anything to Bilbo, he comes to the party with 13 dwarves. Bilbo gets confused at first, but when he hears story of dwarves, he decides to go for the adventure to get dwarves' treasures back.

     As it is written in former paragraph, the main character Bilbo is not a man, but hobbit. Hobbit is a short man with cheerful characteristic. Other than hobbit, there are some kinds of characters that are not man. For example, Gandalf is a wizard, who is wise and able to use magic. The companies of Bilbo and Gandalf are dwarves, who are shorter than ordinary man and have long beard. Characters who appear in this story are so unique and attractive. These characters are one of the biggest charms of Tolkien's stories.

     The best scene for me is when Bilbo succeeds to save his companies by killing the Great Spider, which is huge and evil. Before this scene, Bilbo is called by dwarves "burglar," which means thief, with no respect. However, he changes when he kills the Great Spider by himself. He gets confidence and courage by this experience and he successfully saves dwarves. I was impressed by Bilbo's challenge and thought that it is good to attack to hard problem because that experience is connected to the growth of me.

     The scene I do not like is when Thorin, the most important dwarf dies. He dies in the Battle of Five Army, the battle of dwarves, elves (beautiful people who have everlasting life), and men versus goblins and Wargs (the evil wolves). In this battle, Thorin loses his life, but he becomes able to sleep forever with his most important treasure. I was so sad when I read this scene because Thorin succeeds to get back his treasure, but for me, important treasure has its meaning only when a master is alive.

    To say as a conclusion, I want to recommend this novel and novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien to who loves fantasy story because Tolkien is one of the best author of the fantasy story in the world. I hope you will become interested in "The Hobbit" and other stories written by Tolkien!

First posting...My summer and ARW Autumn

<My summer>

     It was fun summer! Especially two training camps (Runners and high school handball club) were impressive.

     Runners' training camp was taken place in Yamanakako, Yamanashi. During camp, we run around Lake Yamanaka twice! I got very tired, but it was good experience. On the last day, we went to hot spring and refleshed.

(←We enjoyed fireworks too! Not just taking picture at night!!!)

     I also went to a training camp of high school handball club, which I used to join. It was five days long, but because of typhoon, we couldn't practice outside last two days... However, we shouldn't waste our time, so we

did muscle training inside.

(With members and coaches of handball club. →)

<ARW Autumn>

     In last semester, I wrote many paragraphs and thought that my vocaburary is not enough to write what I really want to express. I strongly felt that I should try harder than spring to make my writing better. This semester, I want to improve my vocaburary and write articles easy to read.