blog 11: English outside of class

Today, we finished our class in 2006! Christmas and New year are coming soon!! Amazing!!
This semester is super busy for me because I take 3 English classes and one extra class with foreign exchange students. I have to use English EVERYDAY!
I hope it helps my English skills... but now I am afraid of forgetting EVERYTHING during vacation!

Then, I will talk about this question,
"What are some good ways to use English outside of the classroom?"

My answer is to put ourselves into English. It is a good idea to make friends with English speaker, and listen to English songs, and watch movies without subtitles! and so on. The best way is to make friends. Communication is good for our listening and speaking.

As I wrote before, becoming Japanese conversation partner is one of the way to make friends with non-Japanese people. Also, KGU has a lot of program connected with overseas. We can use them!

#10: Animal Therapy

Do you like a cat?
I have a cat in my house. She is super pretty!
She makes me happy, too!
So, I think animal therapy is really effective.

Shungo and Yuka gave us very good information about robot animal. I was surprised because I only knew the robot animal, 'Aibo.'

They asked us the discussion question, "Does Robot therapy have the same effect as animal therapy?" My answer is ...it depends.

Actually, Paro seems to be a real animal. It is so cute. Some people may feel better, and they may not feel lonely. It is ture, but I think it is still different from real animals. We can easily expect its actions. And it is kind of same as stuffed animals, because it has no body temparature.

When people who have Paro or robot animal become tired of them, perhaps people will just throw them away. It is sometimes good because we don't have to see the death of our pet. However, I think we are selfish.

To have a robot animal is NOT spenting time with it, but just using it. Then, I think there are some differences, so it is hard for me to robot therapy has the same effect.

My Hometown

December 10th- I walked around my hometown with my mother.
I live in Minato-ku, in Osaka city. As you know, 'Minato' means a port.
Actually, we have a port which is called 'Osaka-ko.'(means Osaka harbor)
Osaka-ko is usually called 'TEMPO-ZAN.'
Tempo-zan is the lowest mountain in Japan. It is only 4-5 meters above sea level! We can't find where the mountain is! Amazing!
And there is a famous aquarium called 'Kaiyu-kan.' If you have free time, please visit here and me! -Indeed, I live near Tempo-zan, and it takes 10 minues to get there by bicycle.


This picture is the scean that the ship put out to sea from Tempo-zan.

#9: Food in Japan and Turkey

As I wrote about Turkey in last blog, I have also tried Turkish food!
They are basically oily, but it doesn't taste bad.

I tried rice and pizza in Turkey.
This is pizza in Turkey.
It is called 'Pide.'
Ingredients are minced meat, cheese, etc...
It is a little bit spicy, but yummy!





This meat is kebabu, and rice is pilaf.
These are my favorite dish in Turkey.
Rice is a little bit different from Japanese one, but I like it very much! Yummy!



I could eat Turkish food, and it was good! However, I thought Japanese dishes are the most delicious in all over the world! I am really Japanese! hehe.

Travel To Turkey

Merhaba! -It means "Hello" in Turkish.
From Nov. 17th to 25th, I had been in Turkey! It was a super nice country! Lots of places to visit, yummy foods, and good-looking people!!
This is Troy. As you know, this picture is the Trojan horse used in the war of Troy. (If you don't know, please watch the movie "TROY") This horse is under repair, so I couldn't go inside this horse...





Here is Pamukkale. The ground is made from limestone. Beautiful!! Also, there is a hot spring. Hot water always flow! One bad thing is that ground is slippery. I almost fell down to the ground!





This is Cappadoccia. Here is famous for stones whose shapes are strange. This picture is most famous one. The shapes of these stones are like mushrooms! Very strange!






This is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Outside is of course amazing, but inside is more interesting! The atomosphere is very unique. I could feel Islamic mood.

Istanbul is VERY interesting city! (Of course sometimes dangerous, so please be careful of pickpocket!) It has both European side and Asian side. Also, there are a lot of buildings to see! I couldn't have enough time to walk around Istanbul. This is my only regrettable thing in sightseeing.

And one more thing, I didn't have chance to speak English so much because Turkish people speak Japanese very well!

Anyway, Turkey is worthwhile visiting! If you have chance to go, I definitely recommend you to visit there!