カテゴリー: English

I Forgot to Bring a Face Mask but Went into Supermarket.

I have been just in home and doing online teaching things for so long. The only chance for me to go outside world is to take a walk or go to nearby supermarket. Last Sunday, I wanted to do both, but I forgot a face mask. So I just took a walk and went back to my house without going shopping. Today, too, I wanted to take a walk and go shopping.

Before leaving home, I took photos of green fruits in the garden.

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This is a Silver berry that is one of three hanging. I don’t think this will be good to eat. It will probably be ornamental accessory in the room.

 

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I reduced the number of apple “Kougyoku”. Only three remain hanging on the tree because the tree is too small to grow many apples.

 

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Peaches are becoming bigger and bigger. When it comes to reduce the number, I actually reduced too many for peach trees. But it would be okay because the number is not an issue for gardening in a small places. Anyway I left home for a walk after taking these photos.

 

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Flowers on road side.

 

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While I was taking photos, a farmer lady talked to me, saying I should take a good picture of Mountain Yahiko.

 

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So this is Mountain Yahiko. I would like to erase the utility poles and electric cables.

 

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Flowers just by the asphalt pavement.

 

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This is a kind of ornamental flowers, however, it still looks like a wild plant. Many people don’t think this is ornamental. But actually I like these kind of natural plants rather than plants that got too much improvement.

 

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Many people don’t like them. But they are also doing their best to survive.

Taking pictures by my digital camera, and then I went to a supermarket. I looked at people’s faces. And I realized that I forgot to bring a face mask. I thought I should get out of there. But I wanted to buy some food for my supper. I continued shopping with talking by myself “Sumimasen (I am sorry)”, but in that situation, it would have been better not to speak anything if I don’t put a mask on my face.

Just only for “Posting Everyday”, Pictures taken on May 28

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I taught two classes today. I was so exhausted that I couldn’t go outside for a walk today. I just pulled weeds in the garden a little while after the afternoon class.

These photos were taken yesterday. I think things around here look beautiful probably because this place is where I was born and raised. When I was young I just thought about get out of my hometown. But things and I myself had changed from those years. I live here now because of corona virus pandemic. I cannot go back to my university right now, so I am doing online teaching on the internet. I will leave here for my job when things get better. I don’t know my future, but if it’s possible, I want to come back here when I retire from the job.

Online Teaching for Class 1837 (Composition) on May 29, 2020

Date: May 29th on Friday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 59 slides

Numbers of Students: 25 out of 28

90 minutes attendance: 22 students

Shorter attendances: 76, 18, and one student was recorded as completely absent by the system.

completely absent: 3 students. The system record says that four students didn’t watch the streaming at all. However, one student sent me 5-questions quiz which means he listened to my class. It is possible that someone helps him, but a guy who is likely to help him was completely absent today. Therefore, I guess this student listened to my class and sent 5-question quiz answer by himself.

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

Attendance check: 27. Of the 27, three students were recorded that they didn’t watch the streaming. One student sent me the 5-question quiz answer, while two sent nothing. This is why I think there were 25 students in today’s class.

5-question quiz took a place of quiz by answering on BBS. What I call 5-question quiz is  that I ask the students to write their answers onto a sheet of paper during the class and then, right after the class, the students sent 5 answers to me.

Today too, I did this 5-question quiz. However, I wanted to confirm if the students were really connected or not, I asked the students to input A, B, or C onto BBS in the middle of the class once. A meant “I live in a city”, B meant “I live in a countryside”, and C meant “I live in a remote area”.

Teaching:

Teachings were almost identical to the class for 1836 on Tuesday.

Homework:

Homework assignment was also almost identical to what was assigned for class 1836.

Issues and Problems:

I have got a problem with this composition class for sophomore students. Actually I don’t have enough resource to teach under current circumstance. Even I don’t have the designated textbook. I think I can continue the class with writing a paper for tourism. But other than that, how I continue to teach until the end of semester? This is a quite serious issue.

An Isolated Blog has got a lot of Pictures, May 28

I got clear sky near the end of May in Niigata. I don’t have any online Japanese class on Thursday. No class and fine weather mean that I need to take a walk.

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Two mountains behind are Mt. Yahiko and Mt. Kakuda. Roughly Mt.Yahiko is 600 meter  and Mt.Kakuda is 400 meter in height.

 

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Believe me. I am not a railway geek.

 

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Fill the rice field with fresh water! It makes me feel good to see water is splashing and streaming.

 

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By the way, Niigata is a land of paddy rice. So wheat growing is very rare.

 

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Mt.Sugana-dake, a local train, and black bird. The sharp peak is impressive, but it is not the peak of Mt. Sugana-dake. I guess, not-sharp, a gentle peak in right is the real peak of the mountain.

 

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This is a kind of magic by telephoto lens.

 

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White flowers of clover. This time I didn’t forget to bring a face mask. So I could go to a nearby supermarket to buy some food for my supper.

I have other pictures taken on Sunday, May 24

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Today is May 27, Wednesday. I have done a listening class for the first grade in the morning. Actually, I didn’t sleep on a bed yesterday. Since I had been preparing for the class through the night, I slept on the hard tatami mat just for a several hours. If I felt good during the day, I would like to work in the garden to take a care of vegetables that the neighbor planted for me. But I didn’t feel well today. And it started raining in the afternoon. I wanted to take a walk and go shopping, but because of rain, I decided to stay home. The state of emergency has already been lifted here, so it is no problem to go outside now, but still I need to put a face mask when I go to shopping.

Online Teaching for Class 1836 (Composition) on May 26, 2020

Date: May 26th on Tuesday, 2020 from 15:30 to 17:00 (16:30 – 18:00 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 58 slides

Numbers of Students: 28

25 students participated for whole 90 minutes.

3 students were recorded for their short attendances: two students were with me for 85 minutes, and one students left the shortest record of 1 minute.

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

– Attendance check by reporting his/her-selves: 28.

– 5 Quiz were given to the students during the class. Answers to the 5-quiz were sent to me right after the class. Quiz to be posted on BBS was not given today. 27 students sent the answers to me.

Teaching:

1. Review for the 5-q quiz of the last class.

Use of “-made” that indicates the end of continuity of something.

2. Writing a paper about the sightseeing of a particular prefecture of Japan.

A caution was given to the students. They shall not make an unauthorized reproduction of photograph when writing a paper.

3. Some tips for writing a composition using the textbook.

Intransitive verbs “mieru” and “kikoeru”.

Homework:

Style corrections on their draft and proofreading themselves.

Issues and Problems:

This class starts at 4:30 p.m. in J.S.T. every Tuesday. I started preparing for the class in the morning and tried making enough PPT slide without having a break until 4:30 p.m. I didn’t think of what to teach to the students until the last minutes. As a result, my 58 PPT slides were neither short nor too many. So I could somehow teach 90 minutes composition class with hodge-podge topics. However, this time was surely an embarrassing and regretful experience to me because of my ill-preparedness, not having a good idea for what to teach.

Online Teaching for Class 1837 (Composition) on May 22, 2020

Date: May 22th on Friday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 57 slides

Numbers of Students: 25 out of 28

90 minutes attendance: 16 students

Shorter attendances: 86, 86, 85, 84, 76, 57, 44, 37 and almost 0 minutes.

completely absent: 3 students

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

Attendance check: 25. One student sent the message of his?her attendance, but the system recorded that student as “Completely Absent”. One student came late.

BBS was not used for quiz in this class as class 1836 on Tuesday. A student wrote 5 answers on his/her note or memo whatever, and then he/she was asked to send five answers right after the class.

Teaching:

Teachings were almost identical to the class for 1836 on Tuesday.

1. Review for the 5-q quiz of the last class.

2. Writing a paper about the sightseeing of a particular prefecture of Japan.

3. Some tips for writing a composition using the textbook.

– Differences between particles “-wa” and “-ga”.

– A sentence that could avoid being “Wa-ga construction” for a Na-adjective “Yuumei-na” by particle “-de”.

– Intransitive verbs for perception ;”mieru” and “kikoeru”

Homework:

As mentioned in teaching #2, some tasks for writing a paper were assigned as homework.

– Enhancement for the document style.

– Shading your prefecture on the map of Japan.

– Making a table to introduce your prefecture with basic information

– Pasting these figure and map on the draft.

– Start writing the chapters for the introduction of the prefecture and its tourism.

Issues and Problems:

Perhaps it could be questionable as to what I am doing now. The question is whether or not it would be appropriate to teach how to make document style for a research paper in a composition class. There are two reasons why I do this. One is that I was actually criticized by another teacher for what I have done for composition class in the first semester. In order to avoid duplication or “encroachment on other teacher’s territory”, I chose this task. I don’t think any other teachers teach how to write a research paper. The other reason is that this is the only thing that I can deal with right now. I am less experienced to teach composition, but have some experience of technical writings.

I took a Walk after the two Online Japanese Classes on Friday

I went outside in Friday afternoon when I finished the online Japanese teaching.

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I walked on the road of a river bank.

 

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I was looking for something to take a photo. But there were not much to do so.

 

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I saw onions were thrown by the road. Probably a farmer thought it as useless. Already becoming soft, it didn’t seem edible.

 

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Mountain Sugana-dake was there, behind the paddy field.

 

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Iide Mountains was far from here. Snow remains only on valleys.

 

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On the way back on a bridge, I saw two birds. Flying and floating. Being capable of two things is great.

 

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It was already 5p.m. I have got to get back to my house because I need to cook the supper. I ate a slice of salmon with a bowl of rice in the supper.

Online Teaching for Class 1836 (Composition) on May 19, 2020

Date: May 19th on Tuesday, 2020 from 15:30 to 17:00 (16:30 – 18:00 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 57 slides

Numbers of Students: 28

26 students participated for whole 90 minutes.

2 students were recorded for their short attendances: 84 and 11 minutes

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

– Attendance check by reporting his/her-selves: 27.

– 5 Quiz were given to the students during the class. Answers to the 5-quiz were sent to me right after the class. Quiz to be posted on BBS was not given today. 27 students sent the answers to me.

Teaching:

1. Review for the 5-q quiz of the last class.

Five questions and their answers were explained because many students answered incorrectly for that quiz. 1) the intransitive verb “-naru” uses not the particle “-o” but “-ni”. 2) In “wa-ga construction”, a thing with the particle “-wa” is containing, while a thing with the particle “-ga” is contained. 3) A sentence with “-ga” and “-ni” for an intransitive verb “kuwawaru”. Many students chose the particles “-o” instead of “-ni” because they thought the verb “kuwawaru” was a transitive verb. 4) Issue on the difference between “-made” and “-demo”. “-made” means the end of a period, while “-demo” means that something is still valid. 5) Particle “-de” placed directly after the age functions to indicates he/she did something at the age.

2. Writing a paper about the sightseeing of a particular prefecture of Japan.

Some tasks were given to the students as the homework assignment of this week. They are; corrections of the document style, pasting a figure and a table onto the draft, and start writing about the prefecture and its tourism.

3. Some tips for writing a composition using the textbook.

Homework:

As mentioned in teaching #2, some tasks for writing a paper were assigned as homework.

Issues and Problems:

I prepared and distributed the template to the students so that the document style could be unified. However, so some of them don’t understand why the designated template is used to write a paper and have already started writing onto a document of their own styles.