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Monday, July 23rd  “How to write a journal”  

Students often tell me they run out of things to write in their journal.  I can understand how they feel because it’s tough for me to write a journal three times a week too!  I think when you are a beginner, it’s much harder to write anything because you don’t have a lot of vocabulary. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to know a lot of vocabulary to write and speak English.  You just need to know basic ones.  The best way is for you to read something written simply, like my journals or NHK’s Simple English stories.  Please remember you don’t need to know any difficult words to communicate clearly.

Also when you haven’t gotten used to writing journals yet, it’s good to ask 5- Wh and How questions to yourself.  The Wh-questions are what, when where, why, who and How-questions are how, how long, how many, how often.  You have to remember that the 5-Wh questions and How questions are stating only the facts.  Make sure you follow with sentences that tell how you feel.  

Imagine, you write a sentence like this.  “I went shopping on Saturday.”  There’s so much information missing from this like, “Who did you go with?”, “What did you buy?”, “How often do you go to that store?”, “Why do you go to that store?” “How much did you spend?”  “Was that cheap or expensive for you?”  

Answering those questions will make the story longer.  

Here’s what I mean:

I went shopping on Saturday.  Acutally I went there with my sister.  I often go shopping with my sister because she loves clothes just like me.  We both like going to Lachic.  There’s an outdoor clothing store called North Face.  Right now, we are into buying outdoor clothing because we both started hiking.  We go to that store almost everyweek now to find something useful for climbing.  This time we bought waterproof pants.  The outdoor gears are not cheap so we have to buy it one at a time.  It’s really fun to collect these things and try them out outdoors.  I can’t wait to put on the new pants and go hiking!!

If you are a beginner, try to express things as much as you can.  However the important thing is to keep it simple!   Don’t try to use big words.  I always look forward to hearing your stories in class.  Good luck.  

Wednesday, July 26th   “Conan”

Did you know that Nagoya Science Museum often has special events?   Last Sunday I went to an event of detective Conan.  It was better than I expected.  The event was an interactive event.  The participants actually try to solve a crime.  I had fun trying to solve a crime but at the end I got the wrong suspect.  Kids all around me had the right suspect.  I was really embarrassed by this.  I’m glad I did not choose to be an detective for my career.  I would have made a terrible one!  Anyway, if you have time, you should check it out.  

For more info.  http://conan-kagaku.jp

Saturday, July 27th  “Snowden”

Recently I watched a movie on Netflix called “Snowden”.  I was really shocked by this movie.  My impression of Snowden completely changed after I saw this movie.  First, I thought he was a hacker that leaked important information for money or fame.  Everything changed after I saw this movie.  The movie is about how Snowden leaked information to warn people that American government is monitoring everyone.   It also showed American goverment taking out possible terrorists by dropping bombs on them by drones.  Don’t get me wrong, terrorists need to be locked up but I seriously wonder if secretly killing them is the best way.   I feel that everyone needs to see this movie.  If you see it, let me know what you think in class.  

I wonder if the American government is watching me because I wrote about Snowden.  If a die mysteriosly, you now know why.  😬

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