7 am Monday morning

It's hot in summer, but things are beautiful.

Bag

Secondhand bag from my mother:)

90210

These days I watch an American TV drama, 90210. It is about a family who moved in Beverly Hills from Kansas and started a new life there. Harry, the father, became president in Beverly Hills high school and his children, Anny and Dickson entered that high school. Many of the students are celebrity and they have such complicated relationships.

The story line is nice and I can related to the feelings of each charactor. I sometimes replay it again and again until I catch the phrases that I don't understand and it makes me learn when I finally get what they mean.

Tokyo

On this coming Wednesday I'm going to Tokyo to attend the lecture for microbial detection in food. One of my friends is now living there to do her research so we are planning to meet up with her husband, and our mutual friend, now working in Tokyo also. She was one of the delegates of summer programme in my university in 2008. She helped me a lot to find accomodation when I was going to Seattle last summer. I'm so excited to see her for the first time in two years.

Our mutual friend was also a tutor of one of the interenational students at that time. He and I have been friends for more than four years and we still contact each other. It is so nice to have such friendship that lasts long even after we left Fukuoka.

I'm also desperate to going to a big city. The lively atomosphere, convenient transportation attract me much. The best thing is; I'm not paying anything because it is a business trip!!

On Thursday night I'm going to meet my friend I met in Seattle. She is a senior student in Tokyo and we are in good terms for almost a year. I'm glad that she was happy to hear that I'm visiting Tokyo. I cannot wait seeing my friends.

busy days

many things come up in my mind but I have no time to jot it down every time. Good thing that I always carry a note so that I can record my thought. how can I cope with shortage of time? I have only 4 hours to get everything done after coming home until I go to bed. I think I sleep for too long. maybe.

It's my source of energy

many people asked me why I study English but I have not found a good answer. I just love it!

Soup

Cooked chicken corn cream soup and Chinese radish. I cooked so much that I will be able to survive this week...

Intriguing linguistics

日本では、親しき仲にも礼儀あり、挨拶はきちんとしましょう、と教えられる。（今の小学生もそうだと思うんだけど）だから「ありがとう」と言ったり「ちょっとペン貸して」とか「これ全部食べていい？」（料理があと一口分残っているとき）と聞くのは私にとって当たり前…と思っていた。

でも、励ましてもらったときや"I hope you have a good night rest."と言ってもらったとき"Thank you."と言っていたら、バングラデシュの友達に言われた。"Friends don't say thank you so often."　丁寧なのはとてもいいことなんだけど、ちょっと丁寧すぎかも。と。ふつーだと思っていたことが実は日本文化だったのか！と気づかされることがとてもたくさんある。

"Can I drink this?"と聞くと、"Why do you ask my permission every time? You don't have to."と言われたり。"It feels like you are far away from me." これは親密度にもよると思うけど。

考えてみれば、古文に見られるように日本語は身分の階層を絶対化するために非常に大きな役割を果たしていると思う。左大臣と従者が「タメ口」をきいては、身分制度は成り立たない。敬語は話者たちの間に距離を置き、同じレヴェルに立たせないように設計されている。つまり壁というか段差をつくる言語なのかも。言葉は変われどそれがずーっと保存されているのでは？　と考えた。言語と文化は密接に関わりあっているなあ。そういうことも学んでみたい。教育プログラムで、Language and Culture Courseというのはざらにある名前だけど、実に深い意味がある。

留学生と話すのはいろいろ気づかされて本当に面白い。

LIFE

I want to use English in my work. Being away from environment where I speak English very often, I now realized that my joy is in English.

Working means that you dedicate yourself in providing something to earn money and so the time you are involved in work is inevitably long. If you do not like what you are doing as a job, it will be unbearable unless you can convince yourself that the work is a means to make your living. If you like what you do as a job, you do not mind how long it takes you to finish it.

Indeed we cannot live without making money but it is not the sole purpose of working. If I can use English in my work, I would love to work overtime and seek perfection to provide something of better quality because using English itself is a delight to me. Even a volunteer work will do but there are too few opportunities to use English here! Away from everything I love, I'm still trying to adjust myself.

Kumamoto

熊本行ってきました！　GWの話ですが……。。会社の旅行も熊本らしく、何たる偶然。

No border-Asian students team

Some laboratory members, two guys in another lab and four Myanmarese got together to play in a soccer tournament. I took pictures and cheered them up. Unfortunately we lost but still enjoyed the game. There were so many students of various nationalities that the soccer game was like a mini-World Cup.

We had a very energetic manager, who is also in our lab and he kindly organized everything and encouraged everyone. It is hard to organize the team and pull the teammates so I appreciate his effort. He was also performing well in the game.

Even though the game was for fun and friendship, some guys were complaining about their referees and got too excited. They wanted to withdraw from the tournament because the referees did not judge properly. Soccer players who practice regularly tended to be too serious... it cannot be helped. So it was also a good opportunity to observe many people from different countries. They have their own way of playing and behaving, which is, greatly influenced by their culture.

I had a really good time with my friends in the lab. It makes me regret not proceeding to the masters more and more.

OJT

Every two weeks I have different jobs these days. My colleagues teach me how to do the assigned works so I had opportunities to have a lot of advisers. I can see that the way to teach differs from person to person. One always watches over me so that I won't make mistakes while another one let me do first and checks it after I get the result.

I don't have any complaint but I feel more relaxed when my adviser just let me do it on my own and tells me if I make mistakes. I feel uneasy and nervous when someone is always watching me checking if I do right, even though they have the right to do so and sometimes it is their duty.

It's been my idea for a long time that teaching is not something that everybody can do. I now know that it is really true. Teaching is not just that you let someone know how to do something, but that you make him/her think and give support when necessary.

Education involves questions about how to let students try their best with a sense of responsibility. And even if they fail, the teachers should accept their effort and tell them that what they did will be a big step forward. Teaching seems easy, but there are so many things to consider.

Soccer game

I'm going to Fukuoka tomorrow to watch my bf and other friends playing soccer! I want to cheer them and try my luck on this tournament. I hope it won't rain...

New themes!

Got a very nice new themes on google bloggers. I was just thinking of changing the bloggers because there are not many pattern variations on google but it now has a lot of templates and you can customize everything like background pictures and colors, font colors and layouts of the contents.

つゆ

Leche flan

Yummy!