The Whistleblower (2010) - A wake up call on human trafficking

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896872/

トゥルース 闇の告発/The Whistleblower

 

One of my students is writing an essay about human trafficking with a focus on female victims and I remembered that I had seen this film a while ago but had not blogged on it. As this article in the Guardian writes, this film needs to act as a wake up call to how members of the UN or other international organizations or corporations can be promoting human trafficking by taking advantage of the services offered, whether they are maids for housekeeping or bar girls enslaved for prostitution.

映画「孔子の教え」と老子の「上善如水」

「孔子の教え」最近DVDで見ました。

大学で中国語を習っていたり中国に住んでいたことがあったので、昔からZhang Yimou監督の作品などの中国映画ファンで、中国語の練習として時々借りてきて観てます。中国の大学で教えていた時住んでいたのは山東省だったので、曲阜にも２〜３度観光で行っているのですが、孔子の生涯についての知識はかなり低く見てみたいなと思いました。

印象としてはまあまあ良かったというところでしょうか。物語も制作も見応えあります。主演のChou Yun Fat、相変わらず貫禄あります。

歴史的にどのぐらい正確かは詳しくないのでなんとも言えませんが、中国、日本、韓国の文化の基礎の一つとなった儒教思想のルーツに興味を持ためには有効な映画ではないのでしょうか。

映画では2500年前の春秋時代に「仁」の思想を広め乱暴な弱肉強食の軍事独裁政治を平和で安定した民衆思いの政治に変えようとした、という物語が展開されます。しかし、結局軍事による権力闘争となり、孔子の教えは反映されず、隠居生活に入って弟子ととても五経を残すことに力をいれる、という感じです。いい話です。

大学時代、現代中国語の授業は実用的でとても好きだったのですが、古典の授業は教授の教え方もひどく退屈なもので、嫌いでした。アレルギー的な気持ちが湧いたのを覚えてます。こういう映画を見ることから始めていればもう少し興味が持てたかな？

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius

それから、恥ずかしながら、この映画を観るまでは「上善如水」の意味を知りませんでした。日本酒の名前としか。この映画に老子が幻想として出てきて水の如しに柔軟で謙虚で強くあるように孔子を励まします。いい言葉です。

以下のブログにいい解説が掲載されていました。
http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/isparenopainsto/diary/201202260000/

中日ドラゴンズ逆転勝ち！

夏の夜の神宮球場ビジター応援

ウチの息子は大の中日ドラゴンズファン。接戦からの勝利でマイキもメイも大興奮。夏のナイター、気持ちいいですね。ビールもおいしい！

The joys and surprises of teaching kids...

This summer, I'm teaching English to kids for a few weeks.

It has been quite a while since I taught English to kids, and it has been fun but full of a few surprises, both good and challenging.

I have two classes 2nd graders and am almost done with the first two week and will be finishing up with a performance for the parents on Friday. By my request, I have the lowest two classes in terms of English learning experience. Some have a bit of English background (in school or conversation classes, I suppose - hope to survey that)  but most could not respond to "What's your name?" or "How old are you?" when they started.


The Good

• Students have had good reactions to most of the songs, games, storybooks and thematic project activities I've tried on them. For most of my ideas, I'm indebted to my sempais in the program, especially my fellow 2nd grade teachers. I learn so much from talking in the teachers' room and observing their preparation and classroom setup. 
• I love the look on the kids' faces when we do storybook time. Their eyes wide and curious and reacting (not all, but most). That is really something.
• The natural communication effort. The program has an all-English policy, and I only use English and don't let on that I speak Japanese. I love the effort that the kids make to understand and communicate. They are confused at times, but it forces them to make use of the natural communication strategies that they have, and they DO it. We do fine in class, and don't worry about the small things. It is amazing how much they pick up when they need to come to me and ask for things they want for their craft project "Mark, may I have a piece of purple paper please??" This is from kids who have basically never studied English ever before. In 10 days, they learn to get what they need with short phrases.
• The openness to try to use English pronunciation as it is, even if they can't do it so well. In songs and in our simple interactions, the use English as they hear it. This is the way all foreign language learners should ought to start to study. They have trouble saying my name, for example, because the /r/ phoneme in /Mark/ eludes them. I get a variety such as Makku, Maku, Maakru, but none of them are Japanese. They are trying to approximate the English sound, and with enough input and practice, I am certain they will internalize it. Along the same line, they struggle with the word "girl", with some saying guru, some gulo. That variation is a beautiful thing because they don't take the short-cut and Japanese it as "ga-ru". I hope to get some of this on audio from their final presentations.

The Challenging...

Of my two classes, one group is a teacher's dream. Very cooperative and eager and work together well. My other group...has issues, mostly due to one single student who is disruptive. I won't go into too many details, but I've had to remove the kid from the classroom and send him to the director. The saddest part of this is that the kids who want to have fun and learn English suffer because everything is interrupted by a need to intervene in trouble happening. The good side of this is that I'm learning how to head off such problems with classroom management and discipline systems such as a yellow/red card.

From next Monday, I'll have two new groups and I'm sure I'll have new discoveries of the wonders of helping kids realize that learning a foreign language can be fun.

My 2nd year teaching "Leadership English" for Global Leadership Studies

Last year's 2011 GLS program was an excellent experience (link), and I was very excited about doing the 2012 program.

Here's the website for this year: http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/gls/

This year was equally good, and perhaps even better in some ways.

First, I want to congratulate the fellows for their dedication and final performance on the group project presentations. It was a pleasure working together with these experienced Japanese business professionals and non-Japanese graduate students to help them present their ideas for reinvigorating a simulated Japanese company by initiating various global expansion projects.

As with last year, the GLS Leadership English module was focused on activating the ability to communicate persuasively regarding critical issues in English. We did discussions, debates, negotiations, and presentations at a pace of about 7 hours per week. It seemed like the participants enjoyed and benefited from the training that we provided.

The two most interesting sessions were when the participants made short speeches and led Q&A regarding the topics:

1) (Week 1) What is one thing you want to change or improve in your current company or department?

and

2) (Week 3) What is the most valuable idea that you picked up from the various lectures, coaching sessions and English sessions?

The ideas such as the need for more global, entrepreneurial initiative in their companies, or the need to reduce the fear of failure and increase the amount of frank opinion exchanges between team members or with superiors was very impressive.

In addition, the improvement from Week 1 to Week 3 in terms of
1) English communication ability,
2) confidence in presenting and supporting ideas, and
3) self-awareness of own strengths and weaknesses and needs for continuing effort in weak areas
was tangible and a encouraging result of the efforts that they had made in the 3 week live-in immersion program.

I wish I had taken videos of the Week 1 and Week 3 speeches so that the participants could see their progress. I will recommend that for next year along with the possibility of creating an online file of comments and feedback for each person, filled in by coaches, English instructors, the person himself or herself as well as peers.

Once again, it was a pleasure everyone!