28-11-2007 Assignment

Assignment; Write a short essay describing how college life in the U.S. differs from college life in your home country.

There are some differences in college life between the U.S and Japan where I live. In this short essay, I will describe the differences between them focusing on the teaching method through George Washington University (GWU) life in the U.S. and Tokyo University life in which I studied from 1995 to 2001 in Japan.

First of all, all professors in GWU describe their teaching plan, purpose and goals more clearly in their syllabus than their Japanese counterparts. Thereby, students in the U.S. can more effectively study the topic of class in advance.

Second, many professors in the U.S. place emphasis on a discussion about issues which are the center point of their classes, while many professors in Japan tend to use teacher-fronted approch. Thereby, students in the U.S. can learn negosiation skills, management skill or self-expression skill which might provid advantage to the students when they work at somewhere in the future.

Third, many professors tend to give more assignments than their Japanese counterparts.

Fourth, a class evaluation system by students is established in the U.S. This system is expected to lead to improve teaching method more effectively.

11-21-2007: Assignment ; What If?

If Mr. Mattew Perry, who was Fleet Admiral in the US, had not come to Uraga, a coast area near Yokohama in Japan, in 1853 to force Japanese government to open the market to trade each other, Japanese economy and industry would not have developed like today for the follwing reasons. First, Japanese could not have learned western technology easily, because the Japanese government did not opened its market except to the Netherlands in that era. Second, Japanse would not have placed so much emphasis on its economy and industry like today, because Japan was a hierarhical society in that era and marchants were regarded as the lowest class.

On the other hand, if Perry had not come to Japan and Japan had not opened its market, Japan would not have experienced any Word War and East Asian area would have kept peace still now.

Finally, if Perry had not come to Japan, I would be a farmar now despite I come to the US.

11-14-2007; Assignment

My criteria to evaluate a documentary are the following.

1. It should clearly focus on an issue(s).
2. It should have a theoretical structure.
3. It should consider a counter argument(s).
4. Its conclusion should be supported by various objective evidence.
5. It should suggest a potential solution(s).


Evaluation of "Bowling for Columbine" through these criteria is the following.

First, the documentary implicitly focuses on a problem of school violence but it is relatively vague because it focuses on so much guns or explosions but not explicitly focuses on the Columbine incident.

Second, it dose not seem to have a theoretical structure, but just shows sporadically some interviews regarding the problem of guns or explosions.

Third, it demonstrates some counter arguments such as conflicts and interests of gun control.

Fourth, it dose not have any conclusions and potential solutions to resolve school violence, rather just introduces some opinions and suggests some problems of gun control.

In conclusion, I think that the documentary have good view in that one of the school violence is related to guns or explosions, but it is not convincing because it dose not examine other possibilities such as social rejection and psycological problem.

11-01-2007 : Assignment; About Bowling for Columbine Questions

1. Guns
2. in Michigan
3. NRA (National Rifle Association)
4. Founders of Michigan Militia
5. To defend themselves
6. Plastic bomb
7. He always face dangerous.
8. Yes.
9. Located on south of Denver, middle class hometown
10. The room in down stairs with heavy door.
11....
12. They show that they are a member of community.
13. To deal with anger and frustration to them
14. Local community was bombed by US army / Tragedy of Columbine
15. NRA
16....
17. Many school declare the policy "zero tolerance"
18. Marilyn Manson
19....
20....
21....
22...
23. 1871
24. Fear
25. Two
26. Black
27. Kids in the suburbs
28.
29.
30. One / Zero
31. Canadian does not watch violent movie and game / There is no black in Canada
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39. To stop selling ammunitions
40. There is conflict of interest among people in US.
41.
42. The process of enacting Second Amendment of Rights