Is Japan's Future in Jeopardy? Some ideas from K. Omae

Some interesting ideas from Kenichi Omae to discuss when my class enters our "Visions of the Future" unit. What kind of society is Japan aiming to build? What are its goals and definitions of "development" and "progress"? Where is the balance between a social environment of competition and safety nets for the weak?

人も国も劣化！無能政権による「最小不幸社会」

大前研一の日本のカラクリ

プレジデント 2011年1.3号

日本社会の構造変化はさまざまあるものの、先行きが本当に懸念されるのは若い世代の覇気の低下、気合のなさである。

http://president.jp.reuters.com/article/2010/12/20/D014D3A0-08F3-11E0-A6B2-03D23E99CD51.php?rpc=187

「世界第2位の経済大国に上りつめたのは、多くの国民が大なり小なり夢や志を持っていたからだ。

アンビションのなさと、ゆとり教育のおかげでしゃかりきに勉強しなくなった弊害は、今後重くのしかかってくるだろう。韓国も中国も台湾も近隣のアジ ア諸国は落伍者を生み出しながら、それでも際立った人材を輩出するシステムで世界的な競争に挑んでいる。にもかかわらず、わが日本国だけは「最小不幸社 会」などと意味不明なスローガンを掲げて、内定がもらえない大卒者を税金で助けてまで落伍者の出ない夢のような共産主義社会をつくろうとしている。

累積債務が日本よりはるかに少ないイギリスが50万人の公務員の首を切り、警察官を25％削減するというのに、日本はこの期に及んで4兆円を超える 補正予算を組むのだから、これ以上のぬるま湯はない。稼ぐ力を失っているのに、考えるのは使うことだけ。日本人の蓄えも急速になくなっている。貯蓄性向も 今では2％に減って、アメリカの6％に遠く及ばない。政府の無駄遣いをありがたく見ている場合ではないのだ。今の状況では制度から見ても、人材から見ても 世界的な競争を生き残れるはずがない。
「政治主導」の「最小不幸社会」は、日本人の草食化を致命的なレベルまで進行させるだろう。」

Morioka Article Parts 3-4 Reading Reactions

Main Points

Part 3: The brain death controversy and cultural factors

Morioka introduces several ideas of Japanese researchers regarding the relationship between perceptions of brain death (and organ transplantation) and Japanese culture.

Yonemoto (1987) suggests that the Japanese view of the dead body may be completely different from Western views in that "every part of a deceased person's body" has "a fragment of the deceased's mind and spirit."

Namihira (1988) explains, based on research of the beliefs of the 1985 JAL crash victims' families, that Japanese people do not want to injure a dead body because the soul will come back, and the dead soul may be unhappy if its body is not perfect.

Kaji (1990) points out this Japanese belief is "proto-Confucian" Asian shamanism and common in the East Asian region.

Umehara (1990) rejects the dualistic, Cartesian view of body/soul separation as a Western concept. If the body is warm, he asserts, it is still "alive".

Part 4: Where should Japanese bioethics go?

Phenomena (=reality/truth) vs. Discourse (=how it is talked about in the media, society etc.)

Phenomena:

• Doctors are changing, but still feel that patients should leave decision making to "intimate others".
• Japanese society as a whole is becoming more individualistic like the West, but will not, as whole, become American style. (Mark: Obviously?)
• Opposition to brain-dead donors is strong.
• But the majority feel brain death is death (survey data)
• Morioka feels ordinary surveys may not be effective. (Mark: Why?)
• So, why do people oppose brain-death donor transplants? Morioka feels "closed door medicine" needs to be destroyed first.(Mark: Is that really the main factor?? Help!)
• Japan will be similar to South or East European countries (Mark: ?? In what way? What's the different between EU and American civil societies--HELP!)
  

Discourse Level:

• Is Japan's view really unique as Yonemoto, Namihira, Kaji, Umehara say? Needs "painstaking" research. (I agree)
• "having power of discourse" vs. "whether ordinary people believe them"....different? How? (Unclear)
  
• Modernization of ethics such as informed consent came from outside--"raped by the West" and that causes culture arguments of "sacred cultural units" due to national identity needs. (perhaps so...)
• Sakamoto (1995) is one example: "East Asian" bioethics should be based on East Asian culture and different from Euro-American ones." But Morioka criticizes the notion of East Asia vs. West saying it is not "fruitful". (I agree--East Asia is diverse)
  
• Hardacre: Japan / West distinction is not generalizable. Stereotypes such as "everyone in the West is individualistic" are not true.
• Morioka used to believe in "our bioethics" movement, but now refuses it because 1) nationalism is dangerous, and 2) it "conceals diversity" inside our culture and inside our own minds. (I agree with this.)
  
  
• But cultural factor arguments are not senseless. Seeing the essence of human being resides in not just the brain but the whole body has benefits. Better than seing humans as reasoning, calculating machines?
• Exchanging body parts like "cogwheels inside a clock" may lead to a society treating humans just like machine parts.
• Using brain dead bodies for experiments happened in the 80s in the West -- "This is a logical result from the idea brain-death equals human death." So...let's imagine what will happen down the road...Jonas? (not explained)...reconsider mainsteam biomedicine...
• Conclusion...Main Point...? seems to be: Cultural factor arguments (like Japanese beliefs of the body are different from the West) are valuable for questioning Western imported values such as "the mind and body are separate and brain death is death" which may be dangerous values. (Mark: Interesting view. Not completely explained, but true to some extent.)
  
• Bioethics should consider the future of society...(Yes...obviously...)
  

So...in short, how has Japan responded to imported ideas of bioethics? It has responded with acceptance (with a desire to become more Western?) to some extent of ideas such as informed consent or brain death, but many people have also responded with rejection, saying "Japan is Japan" and Japanese ethics should be different--the soul is not separate from the body. Morioka feels the cultural arguments that Japan (or East Asia) is different from the West have dangers (and rejects them), but also believes they have some value for helping us critique possible problems of Western views such as using human bodies like machine parts.

Something like that? So...everyone, what is your reaction to Morioka's views? The article is not as focused on the main question and organized as an argument as I would prefer, and has too many unexplained ideas that are just thrown in without integration, but is obviously very valuable. It provides very useful insights into the process of how Japanese society and EACH OF YOU as Japanese individuals will make bioethical decisions in the future!

Thanks Dr. Morioka (Just in case you see this online)

Related links:

2008 government survey results
http://www.jotnw.or.jp/studying/29.html



http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/entertainment/celebrity/431503/
　だが、厚生労働省研究班が平成１９年に全国約１５００の病院に行った調査によると、がん患者への病名告知率は６５．７％。１００％近い告知がされているという米国などに比べると差は大きい。

Good Typing Game

When should I teach my son to start typing....maybe after he has good enough handwriting?

He'll love this game.

http://www.freetypinggame.net/play14.asp

Mark

七五三Photo of my kids

I haven't posted any kids pictures for a while, so here's a formal one we took this month for Mei's 3 year old rite of passage celebration called Shichi-Go-San (seven five three) in Japan.

For the record, because kids grow up before you know it...

Michael is seven now, a first grader at Mitaka 2nd Primary School. He loves soccer, baseball, all types of games, and anything he can "win" in. He plays soccer for a local team called the Kickers and watches videos of his own games over and over. He's quick with math and a good reader and writer in both English and Japanese. In English, he's currently reading The Kid Who Only Hit Homers and book No.22 of The Magic Treehouse Series at a rate of about a chapter per day. He's also into kanji (Chinese characters) and loves to write difficult kanji. He gets excited by seeing kanji like these.

Mei, three, currently goes to BKI, an English language pre-school near Musashi-Sakai. Very nice school. She loves princesses, animals and dancing and being silly with her brother. They get in noisy fights, but they mostly take care of each other very well. This March, I was getting a little worried about her English ability, but after she started going to BKI, she's become very talkative in both languages. She's a very social, outgoing caring type and is always trying to take care of me like a mother or doctor or something, bringing me food, drink, medicine, clothes etc. It can get annoying when she carries it too far, but is adorable. She's doing well with her phonics and is getting ready to start simple books. She's a good singer and dancer, so we hope to get her enrolled in something musical soon.

More than anything, I'm very happy they are both healthy. It's challenging but fun to be helping them grow up and learn to think about things and be considerate to others. For example, we had a little episode the other day. Michael got mad with me during a game and expressed his anger physically by kicking me, which was a shock to me because it had not happened for a long time since he was very little. So...we had to go through a process of helping him learn to solve problems and express feelings with words, not violence...he had to forfeit his TV and computer game privileges for a while and write "I will talk about my problems and not hurt people." 50 times in his notebook. He apologized and he has been on very good behavior for the week since then.

For Christmas, he wants Wii. Not sure if Santa is going to deliver that.
Mei wants a big pink teddy bear. Probably no problem.

Morioka Article, Parts 1-2 Reading Reactions

Here is the online version of this article and an interesting reaction by another scholar.
http://www.eubios.info/EJ54/EJ54E.htm
http://www.eubios.info/EJ55/EJ55D.htm

Also, here is a biography of Dr. Morioka.
http://www.lifestudies.org/profile.html










Main Points:

Morioka's main purpose for writing this 1995 paper is defined as to "illustrate how the Japanese have responded to newly imported bioethical ideas by examining their discourse on brain death and patient's rights. Basically, he seems to be using organ transplants from brain dead patients as a case study to show how bioethics concepts such as patients' rights that came from the West have been accepted or rejected by Japanese doctors, philosophers and citizens.

In part 1, he mainly gives a history of brain death and transplants and shows that there are many factors such as distrust of doctors that led to reluctance to accept transplants from brain dead persons.

In part 2, he shows how "bioethics" is defined in Japan as a human rights movement, and how the brain death transplantation Wada case was symbolic of patients' distrust of paternalistic doctors who practiced "closed door medicine" with very little informed consent and self-determination.

It looks like the patients' rights movement was just beginning in the 1990s when wrote this article.

Reactions

1. One main reaction I had was that this information is quite old. I wanted to know what the situation is now in 2010. For example, do doctors in Japan practice "open medicine"? Can people learn about their terminal cancer? Do people accept brain death as death?

2. Another reaction I had was that his content needs a little more objectivity and organization. He does not give a preview of what he is going to argue as Japan's respond to bioethics. We need to wait and see what he says later, I guess. Also, several points such as "one of the STRONGEST factors preventing transplantation was DISTRUST of doctors." seem to need more support.

3. What are "Asian ethics"? Can such as regional generalization be made?

There are many interesting points in this article, so I will look forward to reading the remaining parts in more detail.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you distrust doctors in Japan? Do you feel you can ask them questions about your own or your family members' illness or reasons for their decision of treatment?

2. Should ethics in Japan and ethics in other Asian or European countries be the same? Or is it OK for different cultures to have different ethics? Should patients rights be universal or local??

What do you think? Feel free to leave me a comment.

2010 PISA Results - A need for promoting the joy of reading

My feeling about the recenty released PISA results for Japan was reflected in a Japan Times editorial today.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20101211a1.html

"Japanese students are poor at finding subjects of interest and studying them. PISA found that 44.2 percent of them do not have the habit of reading books for enjoyment, considerably higher than the OECD's average of 37.4 percent.

Japan's new study courses are designed to cram knowledge into students. The education ministry should rethink its approach and lessen the burden of individual teachers so they can help students develop interests and learn the joy of thinking and studying."

At ICU, I think most of my students have no problem with motivation to read and think about issues they are interested in, but a few do have that difficulty. However, ICU attracts a very small number (600 per year) of some of the most motivated and talented learners in Japan. On a national scale in Japan, I can see that the education system is not promoting an enjoyment of reading, especially in the college entrance exam oriented curriculums of junior and senior high school. My students confirm this when they tell me about their secondary education.

It is a tragedy that is must be rectified.

Bioethics News Article / Issue: Human Cloning

Hi everyone,

This is the news article that I found.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/22/earlyshow/main4961152.shtml

Right now, the technology for making a human clone safely does not seem to exist (at least officially), but in the future, it will probably emerge. Cows and sheep are already cloned successfully, so doing it with human embryos is a matter of time.

So, if this technology becomes advanced enough to be safe, should it be allowed??
This would be a good essay topic.

Mark

ARW: What is my "theory or approach to ethics?"

If I have to make an ethical choice of what is right or wrong, how will I decide?

Thomas A. Shannon's Introduction to Bioethics describes four approaches to ethical decision making, and here are their definitions and major benefits and problems. Examples can be very useful, too.

1. Consequentialism: "Outcomes"
Definition: An approach where we think: What will bring the greatest positive result/outcome to the greatest number of people?
Benefit: Flexible and sensitive. Looks at the impact of the decision and asks how people will be affected by it
Problem: No standard to measure one outcome against another.
Example: If I am starving in the desert, and I happen to find a dead human body, will I eat it? If I eat it, the outcome will be that I live and become a "cannibal". Which outcome is worse?

My Opinion: This seems quite reasonable to me. I think it might be most reasonable to decide things case by case by the greatest foreseeable benefit.

2. Deontologism: "Duties"
Definition: An approach where we think: What is my duty? and base our idea of duty on some principal such as Kant's "Categorical Imperative" Moses' 10 Commandments.
Benefit: Simple and clear. Just follow the rules.
Problem: Who made the rules? And what if they are unreasonable?
Example: If I have an ethical duty (as the 10 commandments say) to never kill anyone, what will I do when a maniac is trying to kill my son or daughter and I have no way to stop him except to kill him?

My Opinion: Deontologism seems a little bit too dogmatic for me. In my university Philosophy course, many years ago, I remember feeling impressed by the Categorical Imperative "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." I felt that we should try to aim for something universal in what we do, not situational or relative. However, now that I am older, I feel that it may be more realistic to allow flexibility.

3. Rights Ethics: "Rights"
Definition: An approach where we think: "What are the rights of the individual persons (or animals) involved?" What is the hierarchy of rights? Example: Abortion
Benefit: Highlights the importance of the individual person (over society or some higher institution such as a religion or political body).
Problem: What happens when two persons' rights come into conflict?
Example: In abortion, the rights of the unborn child are in conflict with the right of the mother to choose to abort.

My Opinion: Rights ethics...where do "rights" come from? I think it was Kant who argued that all humans have a right to be treated with respect and dignity because they have the ability to "reason". Personally, I think we like to respect human rights simply because we hope that our own personal rights will be respected in reciprocation. The Golden Rule.

4. Intuitionalism
Definition: An approach where we think: "What feels right?"
Benefit: Feels right.
Problem: It may feel right for you, but not for others. In that case, reaching social agreement by convincing others may be difficult.
Example: I may feel that making a human clone of myself (a mini-Mark) is completely reasonable, but society may not agree. Laws for cloning may not be passed because I do not have any way to articulate my reasons for why cloning is beneficial or at least not harmful to society.

My Opinion: As Shannon argues, intuition may not be enough in some cases. However, can it be said that it IS enough in many cases? For example, if we want to vote to allow medical marijuana or ban the death penalty in Japan, isn't it enough that people just follow their gut instinct?

So...I would say that I am a intuitive consequentialist. How about you?

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, a short story about "equality"

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7602981/Harrison-Bergeron-by-Kurt-Vonnegut

This would be a good short story to introduce when we talk about Wagar's "Three Futures" article.

Is true equality really an ideal? How would it work?

I found this short story through one of the chapters in Sandel's book Justice.

NYT: Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a23&pagewanted=all

It sounds like Bill Gates is putting a lot of money behind an effort to determine why some teachers are more effective than others, and how all teachers can become more effective in their teaching.

The most interesting part of the research project he is funding is the use of digital video of classrooms. The project plans to take 24,000 hours of videos, or something like that, to analyze effectiveness of teaching. Experts will watch the videos and a system for evaluating teachers' effectiveness will be created.

As the article mentions, the main difficulties will be: Are video analyzes as good as a human observation of a classroom? Also, is the privacy of the teacher violated when a video is distributed to "experts"? Who will be responsible for managing these videos?

The project is promising, but needs to proceed very cautiously.

Marcel Dicke: Why not eat insects? | Video on TED.com

Marcel Dicke: Why not eat insects? | Video on TED.com



One of my students did a group presentation on a very similar concept, and brought several real food samples!
That was the first time I ate Zazamushi...a promising concept?

Top 10 Gandhi Quotes

I have been coming across the Gandhi quote:

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

a lot and wanted to get some resources on more Gandhi quotes.



Top 10 Gandhi Quotes
By Simran Khurana, About.com Guide

The name "Gandhi" is synonymous with peace and non-violence. His epic struggle to bring together the people of India in their search for sovereignty is unparalleled. This great man's wisdom and foresight are compelling. On this page, you will find ten of the most powerful Gandhi quotes.

1. Strength
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

2. Government
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

3. Self-Help
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

4. Government
It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.

5. God
As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.

6. Life
There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.

7. Change
We must be the change we wish to see.

8. Self-Help
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

9. Truth

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

10. Wisdom

Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy.

TED: W. Ury on Changing No to Yes

I remember reading William Ury's bestseller "Getting to Yes" several years ago when I was preparing to teach a business English communication class which included a unit on negotiation skills.

This TED talk focuses on how conflicts such as those in the Middle East can be solved and is highly relevant to the discussions we will have in Visions of the Future in the Winter ARW course at ICU.

Very impressive speaking skills, too. Nice anecdotes such as the story of the man who left 17 camels to his three sons, half for the first son, one third for the second son, and one-ninth for the third son. They couldn't figure out how to divide them until they asked a wise woman who lent them her camel. Suddenly, it was easy. 9, 6, 2, and one camel to give back to the woman. Interesting Pygmie? example of conflict resolution, too. Conflict resolutions studies in anthropology and cross-cultural communication must be fascinating to research.

Some key points are:

1) The third side is the key. The two conflicting parties need a mediator to help them go to the balcony and see the whole picture, to not lose sight of the mutual benefits of solving the conflict.

2) The Abraham Walk concept. To solve the ME conflict, the key is to focus on the common identity of Abraham. Hospitality toward strangers is a fundamental concept that children of Abraham, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, all share. Tourism that walks the international route of Abraham can help promote exchanges and economic development and lessen hostility.

Design for Change: Kiran Bir Sethi teaches students to take charge

A blog post by Michael Stout led me to the movement started by Kiran Bir Sethi, who was at the JALT conference I just attended in Nagoya.

I think my college students should be doing what her primary school kids are doing: Moving their communities to change as part of their process of education. Get outside of the classroom and actually do things. Learning the attitude of "I can" and "being the change" (Ghandi) are both activities that I want to incorporate in my classroom.

The first step will be to show this TED video in my classes and also the Design for Change website.

Then...start brainstorming what change needs to come about and what we can do? Will this work with Japanese college students in an English class? Making a video and posting on the Design for Change website seems to be a very meaningful project.

NY Times: Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html


Two interesting quotes from this article expressing parent and teacher concerns that the new generation of students may have difficulty concentrating on a long text or task at hand...

Quote by high school student:

“I’m doing Facebook, YouTube, having a conversation or two with a friend, listening to music at the same time. I’m doing a million things at once, like a lot of people my age,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll say: I need to stop this and do my schoolwork, but I can’t.” “If it weren’t for the Internet, I’d focus more on school and be doing better academically,” he says. But thanks to the Internet, he says, he has discovered and pursued his passion: filmmaking. Without the Internet, “I also wouldn’t know what I want to do with my life.”

With my own 7-year-old son rapidly becoming an online game maniac addict (with every moment he can get on our home computer-scary), I want to know the line between "too much networking" and "just right to pick up the digital skills needed to be a successful professional" in the next 20 years. It sounds like this student is finding his calling in film-making...Will my son find a fulfilling career and human relationships by becoming constantly networked like it seems that many people will be in the near future.

As a parent, what boundaries can and should I set? Right now we are trying to restrict computer time and are refusing to buy Playstation and other games...how long can we hold out?

According to Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of “The Global Achievement Gap,”

There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate."

The list of 3 key skills is good for self-analysis of our program at ICU:
-critical thinking/problem solving
-effective communication
-effective collaboration

Are these really the most important?
Are we really helping students develop competence in these skills?
I think we might be weakest in the area of collaboration...students collaborate on a variety of projects and gain experience to some extent, but we do not "teach" how to be good collaborators. That may be an area to improve in.

Looking Back on ARW Autumn 2010

This was another very good term with two wonderful ARW sections, BB and BH.
Thanks students!

Below are my reflections and some pondering of issues for future courses...

Reading Skills: I required submission of reading notes (summmary, critical reactions, and discussion questions) for every text we read, and almost all students kept up with submission. Ideally, this should be done on a class blog so that all students can see each other's ideas, but I did not require that because I wanted students to bring their ideas to every class and have the ease of just writing their ideas anywhere without having to go to a computer. Last Winter term, I did blogs, and students kept up with them, but complained about inconvenience for having to go to a computer...

So, what is the best balance? A paperless system (at least in terms of not having to collect notebooks) would be ideal...perhaps with annotation in the textbook to prepare ideas for discussion followed by a blog update on what was learned in the discussion? Also, should I designate some students as being in charge of preparing summary/reactions/discussion questions in advance of class? That would ensure that at least some students are well-prepared for discussion while for other students it will be up to them to prepare.

Another issue in reading is that "understanding the text" is taking too long in our discussion time, both as a small group and as a whole group. I want to spend more time on critical reactions and open discussion of opinions and related issues, but...it seems that students' grasp of the main ideas (or at least their ability to summarize them orally) is not at a high enough level to do a coherent critical discussion. The solution? Cut the number of required reading pages (as a whole ELP decision) or use texts that can be more easily grasped by our students.

As an example for readers who are not familiar with ICU's ELP, "RACE WITHOUT COLOR" is a text our high intermediate (TOEFL 450 to 500ish) Japanese 1st year college EFL students at ICU would be required to read for homework over 4 to 5 days and discuss in one or two class periods of 70 minutes. In their notebooks, they would need to summarize and react and prepare for discussion as follows:

1) What is Diamond's thesis and supporting evidence?
2) What are the weaknesses of his argument? How could it be stronger?
3) What ideas of the text do you want to discuss? Prepare two stimulating discussion questions for your classmates.

Not an easy task. The idea is to make sure our students are ready to take college level classes in English, and this level of work will surely be required by non-Japanese professors who they take courses from at ICU or overseas schools...but are they really thriving on this type/level of assignment and class content? More examination seems needed. Perhaps a Focus Group interview would be enlightening.

Essay Writing Skills: Students wrote two research documented essays of 800-1000 words on any issue broadly related to "communication, culture, ethnicity, or race," with many students going over into 1200 or 1400 words. Most students made very tangible progress from Essay No.1 to No.2, so I was very happy to see that. I think almost all got a pretty good idea of the process of selecting a key word of interest, developing a meaningful research question such as "Why has Christianity failed to become popular in Japan compared to Korea?" and research and organize ideas into an introduction, thesis and supporting paragraphs.

Some students had difficulty, but my feeling was that those were the students who underestimated(perhaps?) the time they would need to spend in the library to find sources and develop a supportable thesis on the topic. Students who started early were able to visit me, get advice in tutorials (one-on-one conferences), and develop their paper further. Students who started late often had very little to show me or discuss with me when we met for conferences.

So...what is the solution for helping the students who had difficulty? More examples of how an essay develops? More warning that research takes time and creativity and endurance?

In any case, I hope all of my students can say they developed their confidence as a reader/writer of academic materials and their ability to research, react to, and discuss critical issues. Is my hope real? Students did student evals, but I wonder if those will really show how they feel.

Need to do a focus group interviews!

Falling behind in posting -- Why does blog writer's block happen?

I'm resuming my blog after almost two months with a reflection on "Writer's Block."

Why did I stop blogging? There wasn't any outside interference--I wasn't running away from any cyber stalkers or anything. All along, I had several things that I wanted to write about, so it wasn't a lack of topics either.

I just couldn't get myself to the key board for any more than basic work emails and documents.

Frankly, I really can't pinpoint any particular reason! Let's blame in fatigue of Autumn term, which really was a very busy term starting from the JACET Conference in Sendai and RW/WW Conference at ICU and also an LRB paper submission in October. November stayed busy with preparation for two presentations at JALT in Nagoya, which just finished this week.

Note: The following slide show has very little connection to my personal version of blog writer's block, but it has good music.

Anyway, I hope I can keep up my goal of 100 articles per year! Today is a catch up day and I'm going to stick a bunch of articles in October and November to hide my slacking...

Overcome Blog Writers Block - For more funny movies, click here

A 4th Tokyo Marathon!! なんと繰り上げ当選！

Dear Mr. Mark Christianson
ID No : 03878-000

We would like to announce that an additional selection has been done in mid-November to choose extra qualifiers for Tokyo Marathon 2011.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a runner for Tokyo Marathon 2011.

ーーーーーーーーーーーー

落選のメールが１０月に来ていたので諦めて他の春のマラソンを探していたところ、なななななな、なんと繰上げ当選のメールが今日来信！

来年２月２７日、もちろん走ります。

目指すは５キロ減量、そして念願のSub-4hタイム！

Karuizawa Half-Marathon 1hr 46 min - Not bad!

http://www.sanspo-jigyo.com/karuizawa/about.html

A very half-marathon race running through the autumn colors of Karuizawa! Excellent weather.

Staying at Megumi Chalet the night before (4000yen including a nice breakfast) was a good choice.

Time: 1:46:20

The best part was that Megumi, my kids Michael and Mei, and my Mom all came to cheer me on at the 12km point! Thanks cheerleaders!

No photos with me now. Need to get them off my home computer.

Powerfully told tragedy of our rape of the Lakota Indians

http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey.html

Assuming it is true, and it seems credible enough, this is a story that every American should not only know, but be moved to action by.

As unpatriotic it may be to give away USA land to another nation, it seems the just thing to to do to respect the original treaty and allow an autonomous Lakota/Sioux tribe to own the Black Hills once more.

Obviously, the difficulty would be what to do with the individual ownership of the land plots in that area. But responsibility for injustices of the past should not be glossed over by excuses of difficulty and inconvenience.

Got My Soccer Referee License

My son's soccer team needed to get more referees to register for an upcoming tournament, so I enrolled in a one-day workshop to get a Level 4 Referee License from the Japan Football Association.　（JFA Website）

Basically, this entails sitting through 7 hours of boring lectures as an enthusiastic but uninspiring senior referee reads through the Japanese version of The Laws of the Game.

At the end of the day, we had a 25 item true or false written test that everyone passed. The questions were tough and I probably wouldn't have passed it if I hadn't gotten the lecture. The lecturer helped us along by letting us know what would be on the test and what wouldn't.



So...at the end of the day, after sitting and listening (except for some mysterious stretching and janken reflex games suddenly thrown in after lunch), and taking the test and paying my 7000yen (which the team will pay for), I was certified to referee all types of local league amateur games--without ever actually doing any practice of refereeing!! Somehow the concept of "doing" something to learn it has not arrived at JFA yet.

The guy kept on taking about a "skills practice" section of the lecture, but apparently this was the section were he showed us how to raise flags, issue cards etc. We hardly ever got off our chairs.

I almost went up to talk to the lecturer guy about how he needs to improve his sessions, but he didn't seem interested in feedback, so I backed off.

I would strongly, strongly recommend the JFA cut the time for this lecture down from 7 hours to...1~2 hours and provide a hands on skill workshop. The whole thing shouldn't take more than 3 hours. In fact, the whole thing should not be in a lecture hall to begin with. It should be done on a field with real lines, with the participants taking turns flagging off-sides, calling fouls, etc. to get experience controlling the game. Maybe I should email them?

RW/WW Offline Conference, ICU Sept. 19, 2010

I'm part of a group of researchers and teachers exploring how the "Workshop" method of teaching writing and reading can be leveraged in Japan for better language teaching.

The 19th was our third "offline" meeting, giving us a chance to develop new projects that we have been studying and planning for over our online mailing list for the past few years.

One event coming up in November is our interactive 60 minute session at JALT 2010, which will give participants to experience the concept of the Writing Workshop Method, see examples of how it has helped Japanese EFL learners at various levels (junior high to college), and ask questions about it.

After we shared recent teaching practice and planned our JALT workshop, we had a chance to go out for drinks for the first time, finally after studying together for almost three years. The group has some of the most dedicated teachers and researchers I know, and the discussions about fundamental problems with education systems in Japan were very stimulating. We have a lot of work to do to help educators at all levels recognize that education is about learning not teaching.

Yoshida-san, the initiator of the group, has published a number of books that have helped me to reexamine how learning takes place, and how classrooms can be transformed into active communities of learners rather than passive audiences for the teacher.

ASIA TEFL Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam 2010

I haven't had a chance to move my Hanoi photos from my laptop to my desktop yet, so here are some stock photos from the Internet.

This 2010 August Asia TEFL conference got sandwiched in between a trip to the US and obligations back in Japan, so we were in Hanoi for...two nights? It was really in and out. We arrived, slept, presented, met some new and old friends at the conference briefly, crashed from jet lag and exhaustion, and barely got in a few bites of absolutely excellent Vietnamese food and a few cups of aromatic, creamy Vietnamese coffee before boarding a plane back to Narita.

My research partner and Kota presented our paper "Development of Learner Self-Confidence: The Case of a Japanese EAP Program" to a good size group and had some good exchange of ideas with participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and even Uzbekistan.

Next time I need to stay in Hanoi at least a week. I didn't get to tour the bay or the terraced rice fields in the mountains, and the city itself had plenty to do. It felt safe and the people were very friendly. As the motobike scene below shows, the streets of Hanoi look a lot like China. Having lived in Shandong for two years, I felt right at home crossing streets with thousands of mopeds with no stoplights. But everyone is very careful and organically adjusting to traffic even without lanes or lights. Amazing.

JACET 2010 in Sendai

September has been going by so fast that I haven't had time to write up much at all.

JACET 2010 at Miyagi U. in Sendai was a lot of fun:

1. Presented! in Japanese for the first time, my classroom activity report on 「Critical Academic Discussions (CADs): 批判的思考とスピーキング力を伸ばす学生主導タスクの試み」 ("CADs: A student-centered task for developing critical thinking and speaking skills"). This is about the new type of speaking task I tried in the Advanced Academic Speaking class at ICU. Basically, it is a 15 minute mix of argumentative, presentation, debate, and discussion and enhances traditional "present and discuss" activities by building in an element of "critical questions" like debate. My ICU students liked the flow of activity a lot, so I decided to share it with other college teachers in Japan. I showed some video clips and explained how it flows, and what students liked and disliked about it. This academic year, I plan to try it again and gather more data on how students improve their confidence and ability to interact with critical question and answer to dissect arguments and suggest in a constructive, polite and friendly way. The paper is forthcoming...

2. Steered--Did my duty as a member of the Convention Steering Committee for JACET 2010, mainly contributing to the creation of the convention program and other documents like the call for papers along the way. It is nice to be involved in an academic organization committee, working together with people from different universities and exchange ideas with them. The only problem is that this type of volunteer work can tend to snowball...and I hope I can keep the amount of work reasonable by drawing in new recruits to share the work with me. Anyone interested?

3. Picked up some new ideas--My colleague Masuko did a very nice symposium presentation on how her students did critical analysis and reflection on language learning materials, and developed their autonomy as language learners (and future teachers) in the process. I also learned a lot from a workshop by Dr. Asakawa et al on integrating global studies and social activism into language classes. The plenary by Dr. Simon Borg on teacher autonomy was a nice overview of how to examine our own beliefs as teachers, but I personally wished that it had been a workshop style. Met some old and new friends at various parties along the way and am looking forward to seeing them again in Fukuoka September 2011.

4. Enjoyed the city of Sendai--If you are looking for out-of-this-earth beef tongue barbecue, Rikyu is a solid choice for lunch or dinner with stores conveniently located here and there around downtown Sendai. We were already satisfied with Rikyu's "芯たん" which is amazing, but decided to explore the ultimate beef tongue. The true champion, according to rankings on word-of-mouth site TabeLog, and confirmed by my own amateur tasting, was a hideout known as Tsuruno. The flavor defies words. The seafood such as oysters were good too, but the beef tongue, as tataki and as yaki was amazing.


I'll be looking forward to going back to Sendai.

Discussion Notes: Barna 7-14

Main Points:

This section has three more stumbling blocks:

Stereotypes and preconceptions such as "all Japanese are inscrutable" or "all Americans are individualistic and outgoing" are a stumbling block because they make it difficult for us to see a person or situation in that culture objectively.

The tendency to evaluate other cultures as "strange" or "abnormal" is also a main stumbling block because it leads to unnecessary conflicts. It is necessary for us to stay open-minded and "look and listen empathically" without judging.

High anxiety or tension, which is often experienced in intercultural communication, is also a stumbling block because stress leads to defense mechanisms such as "skewing of perceptions, withdrawal, or hostility." In other words, when we feel stressed, it is more difficult to stay calm and enjoy cultural differences. As solutions, Barna recommends getting used to differences and to increasing awareness and control of one's physical responses to stress.

Finally, Barna's conclusion recommends an achievement of intercultural communication competence, which is the ability to manage the challenges of intercultural communication such as differences and stress.

My Critical Reactions

1. Overall, I think Barna's "6 stumbling blocks" are useful to be aware of, but why does she stop at six? Aren't there others? For example, why doesn't she include important things such as "apathy toward other cultures" as a stumbling block?
   
   
2. In the Culture Shock section, I think Barna fails to write adequate solutions. She writes that culture shock is "least troublesome to those who learn to accept cultural diversity with interest (p.12)", but what should people who get culture shock DO to overcome it??
   
   
3. In the Stereotype section, Barna states that "stereotypes are psychologically necessary" because they help us avoid ambiguity or a sense of helplessness and give us security. However, I don't agree that we need "overgeneralized, secondhand beliefs" such as "All Japanese are~~" or "All Americans are~~". Some reasonable generalizations such as "Many Japanese tend to be more reserved than Americans" may be useful, but OVERgeneralizations should be avoided completely. They are not useful; they are harmful.

Discussion Questions:

1. Which of the 6 stumbling blocks do you think is the most serious? In other words, which one is the most useful for all intercultural communicators to know? Why?
   
2. If you were to choose a "7th" stumbling block, what would it be?
3. Do you have any stereotypes of people from other cultures? Where did your stereotype come from?
4. Have you ever experienced culture shock overseas or within Japan? What physical or mental reactions do you remember?
   

Discussion Notes Barna 1-7

Summary:
Barna, a professor of intercultural communication, presents six main stumbling blocks in intercultural communication, which is becoming more important as globalization advances:

The first three are:

1. Assumption of Similarities, which basically means that a person from one culture naively assumes that a person from a different culture will have similar beliefs or customs. This type of assumption causes problems because in reality various cultures have differences. (Definition key sentence=p.1, L14-17)

The solutions she suggests are basically to be ready for and sensitive to differences, to understand your own culture and beliefs, and to try to understand another culture deeply from history or literature, not superficially only with second-hand information from guidebooks.

2. Language differences basically means vocabulary, syntax, idioms, slang, dialects differences between languages. In addition to that, Barna says the tenacity which means a person will cling to just one meaning of a word or phrase in the new language regardless of connotation or context is a greater problem. Barna also says there are other problems of language including the different styles of using language. They are such as direct, indirect; expansive, succinct; argumentative, conciliatory; instrumental, harmonizing; and so on.

3. According to Barna, non-verbal misinterpretations occur because different cultures have different nonverbal communication styles in terms of gestures, facial expressions, and other patterns and people cannot understand nonverbal messages they are not familiar with.


3 Critical Reactions:

1. On p.2, Barna says "There seem to be no universals of human nature" to be a basis of automatic mutual understanding, but I wonder whether this is true or not.

2. On p.2, Barna basically says Japanese believe they are distinct from the rest of world and this leads to exclusionary attitudes and passive efforts toward mutual understanding. I wonder what evidence she bases this on.

3. On p.6, Barna quotes Mead's idea that it is important to sensitize people to intercultural variables instead of developing stereotypes. This sounds like a good idea, but how exactly can this be done?

2 Discussion Questions:

1. Have you ever felt frustration with intercultural communication, in Japan or outside Japan?
What happened and why was it so frustrating? Was it A of S? or LD? or NM?

2. Are Japanese people "distinct" from the other cultural group's of the world? What aspects of Japanese culture are "unique"?

ARW Autumn 9/13-14: Intro to Culture, Perception, Communication Unit

After reviewing names, we talked about how we can simply define the terms Culture, Perception, Communication (as a "personal" working definition), why they are important to us, and what issues or problems in relation to them we might consider for essays and discussions.

Here's our definitions.

For issues/problems, for example, we brainstormed (mainly in BB) that some key issues are Intercultural Misunderstandings, War and Conflict between peoples, Discrimination, Extreme Beliefs (based on misperceptions), and Lack of Communication.

As for good key words, for essays, I encouraged students to find articles in the news (like this one about Aso's "One Race" speech) that show some of the main culture/perception/communication related issues.

Two examples of past students essays I showed were about "Causes of Discrimination Against Ainu" and "Is the Veil in Islam Discrimination Against Women?". Both of these were very nicely written based on the students' interest in cultural understanding issues they found on the Internet or other media.


I hope all students have good luck with finding a topic they are interested in! Here are the Essay Guidelines.

Finally, we reviewed how to read a text and prepare notes for discussion.

I introduced the idea of "Top-Down" reading (see graphic) briefly, and then introduced 5 steps I hope all students will do for our reading text (Barna's Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication pp.1-7). See you on Wed!


Source/More Info:

ARW Autumn 9/10 - First Class!

I could not attend the official "first class" on Wed due to my presentation and duties at JACET 2010 in Sendai, so this was the first day to meet my new sections of students, BB and BH.

They helped me learn their names by lining up in ABC order, and then I introduced our course and asked them to do P&Ds (presentation and discussions) on their summer reading books.

I'm very happy that both sections have a friendly, diligent atmosphere and am looking forward to our 10 weeks of learning together. The discussions on their summer reading looked quite lively, and I'm looking forward to reading their reaction journals and Book Reactions on our Moodle site.

Using the "recommended ELP summer list" as the basis of their choice, several read The Giver by Lowry, and Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby were popular as well. Some others read Girl with the Pearl Earring, Things Fall Apart, 1984, Brave New World, Siddartha, and The Pearl. Some unique choices were The Picture of Dorian Grey, Slaughterhouse Five, Cartels of the Mind, and Razor's Edge.

Below are some quick "First day of school" cartoons off the Internet.

Fatherhood in Japan

I feel this is a very important issue for Japanese society and culture, and I was happy to see that it was the focus of a Japan Times editorial and to find that the Welfare Ministry of Japan has a project to promote the importance of fatherhood.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20100905a1.html

ICU students, this may be a good essay topic if you examine whether the government's plan will work or not for improving a sense of responsibility among fathers who are having difficulty making time for their families!

http://www.ikumen-project.jp/index.html

I declare myself an iku-man!

Japan and the ancient art of shrugging - New York Times op-ed

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22kato.html

>Freshly overtaken by China, Japan now seems to stand at the vanguard of a new downsizing movement, leading the way for countries bound sooner or later to follow in its wake. In a world whose limits are increasingly apparent, Japan and its youths, old beyond their years, may well reveal what it is like to outgrow growth.

Norihiro Kato is a professor of Japanese literature at Waseda University. This article was translated by Michael Emmerich from the Japanese.

Since I teach Japan's new generation in my freshmen and sophomore academic English classes, this issue of Japan's future identity is something that will come up as a running theme in our discussions. Kato makes a good point that Japan, or at least the young people of Japan, can and should develop a comfortable, confident sense of self that does not excessively worry about GDP rankings. Just be yourselves!

Our Century's Greatest Injustic/Half the Sky by Wudunn

Gender discrimination is one of the topics that my students often explore in our Autumn units on "communication, perception, culture" and "race/ethnicity".

This video might be a good starting point for research on the process of improving the position of females in various regions of the world, both in developing and developed countries.

WuDunn's presentation makes seem valuable points about the need for improving security, nutrition, and education for females, especially in developing countries. Although she doesn't validate her evidence with sources, she makes a good case arguing that discrimination against females is the greatest injustice and greatest priority for change in the 21st century. Whether there are other priorities is open to debate, but in any case, I strongly agree with the point she makes with the final anecdote about how privileged we are in developed countries and how important it is to realize our responsibility to help others.

Reflecting on Reflection - A Reflection Taxonomy by Peter Pappas

I stumbled across this link on a Google Reader feed from another teacher's blog and thought it was a very useful framework for understanding reflection in education.


This Prezi presentation, also by Pappas is a very nice introduction to the importance of reflection. Need to learn how to make one of these. I wonder how long something like this takes to make.

The Reflective School by Peter Pappas on Prezi

「武士道」の概念と日本の戦争責任～韓国のある新聞コラムを読んで思うこと

自分は「フレッシュアイ」とうニュース・キーワードサービスに登録していて、「英語教育」　「異文化理解」　「ICU」など自分の興味あるキーワードが入っているネット上のニュースが自動的にメールで配信されるようにしている。興味ある研究分野やニュース分野があるみなさんには是非お薦め。

さて、時々、どうしてこのニュースが配信された？？と不思議に思う記事が来る時もある。以下の「武士道」に関する韓国の中央日報の日本語版の記事が一例だ。特に自分が登録したキーワードは見たらないのだが。。。

しかし内容は興味深い。異文化理解の面から見て、この記事とそれに対する読者コメントが非常に興味深い。日本と韓国の歴史認識の違いの根源を示している部分があるように思えるし、どうしてこのように「武士道」の捉え方が違うのか考えるのは価値があるプロセスだと思う。記事の内容も、読者のコメントも対立する感情にあふれているのだが、その感情の中からどのように歩み寄りや相互理解ができるのか、機会があったら学生と考えてみてもいいなと思った。秋のARWの授業に関連しているので、ちょっと思いを書いてみたくなった。

さて、内容は新聞の意見コラムで、もともと韓国語で書かれ、日本語訳がネットの日本語版に出たらしい。

日本語訳版：　リンク
韓国語原文：　リンク

作者が言いたいことはどうも２つあるようだ。抜粋すると：

１）「武士道は歴史的事実を根拠とする実体ではない。 神話や象徴操作に近い。 ひどく言えば‘はったり’ともいえる。」　（注：記事の中の「武士道」の定義は新渡戸稲造が１８９９年に米国で英語で出版した本『ＢＵＳＨＩＤＯ：Ｔｈｅ　Ｓｏｕｌ　ｏｆ　Ｊａｐａｎ』の中に書かれた精神とのことである。その内容はでっちあげの部分が多いと言いたいらしい。）

２）「武士道を崇敬していた日本軍国主義の蛮行を見れば、武士道が虚構だったことがよく表れている。 今の保守右翼も同じだ。 侵略戦争に対する反省と謝罪を惜しむ人たちのどこに武士道の風貌を見ることができるのか。 元々なかっただけに見えないのだ。」

要するに、侵略戦争の実態やそれに対する謝罪を日本の保守的な政治家が惜しむことを見る限り、日本には所謂「武士道」の「義」　(justice/fair play) の精神が足りない、そして元々日本の伝統文化に武士道の「義」の観念が根付いていたかどうかを疑しい、と言いたいようだ。

これは日本の読者が怒るのは当然。歴史的にどうであろうと、現代の日本人の多くは「武士道」を大切な文化だと思っている。どんな国の人でも、自分の国の伝統文化や道徳観が正義の心を欠いていると示唆されたら気分を悪くする。そういう意味で、言っていることが一部又は全て本当かどうかを差し置いて、まず二国間の関係を前進させる上で建設的な文章とは言えない。

ただ、韓国語で韓国の読者のために書かれたものなので、それを考慮する必要はある。戦争責任の認識について、もしこの内容が韓国の市民が一般的に思っていることを強く代表しているとしたら、そのような感情を日本人が知って、今後の対話の参考にするための上では価値があるかも知れない。

しかし、それにしても、第三者（一応アメリカ人なので）から見て、あまりに強引過ぎる文章と論調であるのは確かだ。日本の保守派が戦争責任の謝罪を渋っていることが気に入らないなら、もってストレートにそれを書くべきであろう。日本の武士道に「義」の精神があったのかどうかという議論を巻き込まなくても良さそうなものだ。

では、事実関係はどうなのか。

先ず、武士道という言葉の根源は？そして歴史的なその実態は？現代における存在感は？
Wikipediaをさっと読んだだけでは理解できなさそうだが、「義」のある武士の精神を新渡戸がでっちあげたというのも正確ではない気がする。
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A6%E5%A3%AB%E9%81%93
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido
『ＢＵＳＨＩＤＯ：Ｔｈｅ　Ｓｏｕｌ　ｏｆ　Ｊａｐａｎ』

武士道の歴史は専門外なので、あまり大きいことは言わないが、最後に言いたいのは、歴史に対する反省は大切であり、中央日報の記事の筆者が指摘しているように「侵略を反省しているのではなく、敗戦を反省している」ような間違った歴史認識を持っている日本人がいるのは事実である。そして日本における侵略の歴史の教育や反省は被害者の韓国や中国から見て（そして私の理解が正しければドイツなどに比べ）足りないのも事実である。親や兄弟を殺された家族のように、被害者にとってはいつまでも、どのように謝罪されても足りない部分もあるのであろうが、加害者の日本はまだ謙虚な努力と持続的な反省が必要であると思う。これはアメリカでもどの国でも同じである。国としての過去の過ちを認めて毎年反省・謝罪することは国際的な平和と協調に貢献する風土を養う上で大切である。

しかし、同時に、韓国や中国側にも平和と協調への責任感は必用である。この記事を見る限り、建設的に日本側の戦争に関する教育や反省を求めようとしているとは思えない。加害者側に反省して謝罪する責任があるのと同時に、被害者側にも建設的に理解を求め、関係を先に進める努力は必要だと思える。この記事はその努力を怠っているのではないだろうか。

4th Tokyo Marathon?

Just submitted my application for the 2011 Tokyo Marathon.

Apparently foreigners (even those living in Tokyo) are exempt from the high stakes lottery with almost 10 to 1 odds that makes it very difficult for Japanese runners to get in. Lucky me. I have Japanese running buddies who have applied every year and haven't been able to get in.

So far, I've run in 2008, 2009, and 2010, so this would be my fourth one. My best time was set this year with 4 hrs 17 min, and I hope I can break the four hour barrier this time. Got some running style analysis and new shoes with custom in-soles molded for me in Seattle and I'm ready to hit the training hard.

Running in the same marathon could get a bit old, but the Tokyo Marathon stays attractive to me just because of the sheer size of the event, with 35,000 runners pounding through the streets of Tokyo, and the sheer convenience of having the starting line less than an hour away in Shinjuku a few stops down the Chuo train line.

I hope I get in! I definitely need the goal to motivate me to do some more consistent running with longer distances...three weeks of hamburgers, pizza, and BBQs in the USA followed by a higher than usual rate of beer drinking on trips to Vietnam and Shizuoka have fattened me up nicely over the summer.

Time to get back in shape!

Taking Michael to Seattle: Success!

So we're back in Japan after three weeks in beautiful, cool, sunny Seattle, and the trip was a great success.

Michael got to know his cousins Colton and Aili well and hang out with American kids at summer adventure and soccer day camps speaking in authentic 7-year-old English. I (Mark) got to hang out with family and friends, experience being a full time house husband for a few days, and enjoy some kayaking, hiking and microbrew tasting. I got a few hours of work in at the UW library, but not much...there was just too many things to do.

Many, many thanks to my sister Jeannette, her husband Derrick, and kids Colton and Aili for putting us up and putting up with us for so many days, and to Ken B. for letting Colton, Michael and I interrupt your peace and stay for the week of Adventure Camp. We hope we didn't overstay our welcome too much. Cousins Michael and Colton were a potent combination, endlessly being silly, finding ways to mess around, outdoing each other, telling on each other and getting in each other's faces. The noise level was high, and I think all parties are a little relieved that they are now separated by the Pacific Ocean once again.

Thanks to the stay, Michael's fluency in American first grade vernacular has been enriched by new invaluable phrases such as, just to list a few frequently recurring ones off the top of my head:
"It's not fair. You always get to go first. It's my turn."
"This is boring. I hate this. I really hate this. Why do I have to do this?"
"(Uncle MaAAAark, Michael punched me! ) Shut up. No I didn't. Dad, he's making it up.
"Stop it. No, YOU stop it. No YOU stop. YOU YOU YOU YOU (endlessly)"


But seriously, it was really great for Michael to have a chance to play, mess around, and be silly in English to his heart's content.

For Michael, International Soccer School (link) week was his best week and he absolutely loved being able to play soccer all day 9am to 4pm, day after day for a week. The practice menu was simple, with kids mostly playing game after game, sometimes mixing Michael with bigger kids up to sixth grade. It really worked out well for him. He was a better player than most kids in his age group of 6-8, and that led to a certain level of admiration and acceptance from the group of American kids in spite of not being much of a conversationalist (like getting picked first for team selection--which was good for him, but a bit cruel for less experienced players like his cousin Colton). I observed the beginning and end of a few practices, and he just played the game quietly and diligently, with just limited spoken interaction such as "(kid) What's the score now? " "(Michael) three nil" or "(kid) Do you want to take the corner kick?" "(Michael) "OK." Quiet and diligent (almost too serious) made him very popular with his coaches and that must have made him feel really good, too. He's excited about going next year (if there is a next year...).

The 20 days flew by!

So, what's the "English immersion" plan for summer next year? Budget and yen/dollar rate permitting, I definitely want to go as a whole family rather than just Michael and I. Also, it would be best to have our own place to stay and our own rental car rather than occupy a family or friend's house....In fact, with the beautiful weather in Seattle in summer, it was tempting to look into buying a place over there, but that's a plan for the long term future since I'm not tenured and we haven't bought a house in Japan yet.

As for summer camps, soccer camp was good, but I kind of hope I can put Michael in a camp that gets a little more verbal development...like a science camp or computer camp kind of thing?

Once again, thanks to all in Seattle for your kindness and hospitality!

Taking Michael to Seattle (7/15-8/4)

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow I take off for Seattle to stay there a few weeks with my son Michael to give him a chance to live in the US and meet my sister's family. He'll go to Summer Adventure Camp and also an International Soccer Camp in Seattle with his cousin Coco, and hopefully he'll have fun and make some friends. I'll be meeting some old friends from my master's program years, enjoying microbrews, doing some shopping (shoes my size!), and spending time working on some research papers. We'll go to a Mariner's game and possibly do some camping or hiking.

Seattle is my favorite place to be in the summer. I can't wait.

Hopefully, Seattle will have dry, cool, sunny summer weather, and hopefully Michael will hit it off with his cousin and chat away in English and want to come again next year. He's been speaking more and more Japanese to me, and I'm hoping a few weeks in the US during the summer will give his English (or at least his desire to keep practicing English) a bit of a boost. We'll see how it goes!