Intro How do would you feel if your brother and you do did same bad thing but only you will bewere punished? If only your brother is allowed to do things which you are not allowed to, what would you say? You will would probably say, ‘why only me? How come he doesn’t get punished? Why I cannotWhy can I not do this? It’s not fair!’ ‘People are equal,’ you say, but even though we know we should be, it still is not easy to treat people equally in reality.
Thesis whaling is one of the biggest international debates. Norway, Iceland, and Japan are famous for being pro-whaling countrycountries. Japan, however, is the only target of the thundering criticism, while International Whaling Commission (IWC) officially allows Japan to do whaling for research. The criticism which anti-whaling countries such as America argue offer sounds very racial and political. racially and politically.(You either need nouns here, like “racial and political”, or you could say “racially and politically motivated”). Thus Japan does not have to stop whaling, as Japan follows the necessary procedures.
History Whaling for subsistence dates to prehistoric times. The early people of Norway began whaling at least 4,000 years ago. Various peoples of the north western North American coast and the Arctic have a long tradition of whaling. Whaling, done from canoes or skin boats, often when migrating pods of whales passed nearby, was a very dangerous undertaking.
Norway The hunting of whales is thought to have been pursued by the Basques from land as early as the 10th century and in Newfoundland waters by the 14th century. It is not until the middle of the 16th century, however, that the appearance of Basques in those waters is established by record. Whaling on a large scale was first organized at Spitsbergen at the beginning of the 17th century, largely by the Dutch who, with the Basques, apparently developed methods of flensing and boiling. The Dutch were at first in competition with the English Muscovy Company of London and they established the port of Smeerenberg. Large profits continued only until 1640, when the scarcity of whales forced the Dutch farther out into the northern waters in search of them. (Excellent, Take)
America By the middle of the 17th century whaling from the land was established in America. The earliest type, called drift whaling, consisted of harvesting whales that had washed up on the shore, mainly after storms. Drift whaling became economically important in Colonial America, and the first laws regarding it were written at Southampton, Long Island, in the 1640s. This practice was followed by shore whaling, in which whales swimming close to shore were hunted. With the capture of a sperm whale by a Nantucket whaler, the superior qualities of sperm oil were discovered, and American whalers began fishing farther south in search of the sperm whale, which superseded the right whale in value.
American fisheries were set back by the American Revolution, but in 1791 the first Americans rounded Cape Horn to hunt in the S Pacific. Another, but temporary, temporary setback occurred in the War of 1812, but the outcome spelled the complete defeat of British whaling. From 1815 until shortly before the Civil War, the period widely known as the golden age of U.S. whaling, Americans sailed the Pacific from south to north, on voyages often lasting as long as three or four years, in search of whales. The advent of the Civil War, a decrease in the demand for sperm oil and in the number of whales, and the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania brought on the decline of the industry.
Modern The invention (1856), by the Norwegian Sven Foyn, of a harpoon containing an explosive head may be said to have inaugurated modern whaling. Besides insuring the whale's immediate death this type of harpoon was subsequently modified to shoot compressed air into the whale so that it will not sink before it can be secured. The development of the factory ship, equipped to take on board and completely process whales caught by smaller chaser boats, increased safety and enhanced the ability to catch the larger blue whale. It also allowed for the use of all parts of the whale; formerly only the blubber and head could be procured, and the job of flensing from the side of the ship was a hazardous one.
Attempts at Regulation and Protection
In 1932-33, partly in response to the collapse of the whale-oil market, the first attempts were made to regulate and restrict the catch by international agreement. After World War II the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was formed in Washington, D.C., by 17 nations. The commission, which regulates most of the world's whaling activity, began in the 1960s to limit the number and species of whales that could be hunted.
In the subsequent years, environmental activist groups, notably Greenpeace, became extremely involved in the attempt to stop whaling, and in 1982 the IWC voted a moratorium on commercial whaling. Exceptions to the moratorium generally have been made for native peoples, such as the Makah, who traditionally had hunted whales and used their meat as a major part of their diet. These regulations are not adhered to by all nations, including some members of the commission, and whales continue to be hunted by Norway and Iceland and, for research purposes, by Japan. (The killing of whales for research, while permitted under IWC regulations, is opposed by many as unnecessary, and opponents of whaling believe it has been abused and should be abolished.)
Anti-whaling As whales should be protected from extinction, there are also several reasons that anti-whaling countries support. They believe that no animal should suffer and die for the benefit of humans and also that the hunting and the killing animals likely sharing many social and intellectual abilities with humans are immoral. Whales are so special; they are exceptionally intelligent and social beings, able to communicate fluently with each other. In addition, they insist that whaling is inherently cruel. Before the whale is harpooned, it is usually exhausted by a long and stressful chase. Because whales are moving targets, a makrsman can achieve a direct hit only with great difficulty. The explosive-tipped harpoon wounds many whales, who often survive for some time before finally being killed by rifle shots or by additional harpoons. Even when a direct hit is scored, the explosive often fails to detonate.
Counterargument in general whaling
Though these claims, morally and emotionally, make us feel whaling should be banned, these claims do not have strong evidences to convince pro-whaling countries effectively. First of all, though whales have a special intelligence compared to other animal, whales also should be treated in the same way as other animals, as a resource to be used for food and other products. In addition, scientific research revealed the intelligence of dolphin, not whales; these studies, however, cannot measure intelligence in any useful way. Also considering chicken, pork, cow, lamb and other animals we eat, the anti-whaling countries, mainly western countries, cannot say that no animal should suffer and die for the benefit of humans. If their claim is true, those animals which we eat in our daily life also should not be sold as a food.
Killing whales certainly takes a long time and seems to be cruel. Other animals, however, are treated much more cruelly. Whales will be hunted after they live freely in the ocean, on the other hand, other animals are not allowed to live like whales; they born and live to be a ‘good’ meat from the beginning and spend their whole life in a cage. The process of killing whales might take longer than other animals because of its size, but the process of killing other animals is not different from killing whales. People do not know how other animals are killed to be a meat, while they know how whales are killed because mass media put so much emphasis on whaling.
Whales should not be hunted to extinction, but if their numbers are healthy, then hunting them should be permitted. Whale populations are healthy, particularly those of minke whales, which now number over a million. A resumption of hunting under regulation will not adversely affect their survival. The IWC did not impose the ban on whaling for moral reasons but to prevent extinction. Numbers have now greatly increased; the ban has served its original purpose. This, however, causes another problem. Whales damage the fish stocks on which many people depend for their food and livelihood. Culling whales will reduce the decline in fish stocks. That might not affect most of western countries, but countries such as Japan where people enjoy eating fish daily are affected.
Anti-whaling countries support their moral reasons toward whaling, but those moral reasons will hardly affect pro-whaling countries because of its necessity in whaling culture.
As we have looked through debates in general, Japan is the only country which has been strongly criticized on their whaling for research purpose while Norway and Iceland are allowed to do whaling for commercial because of their tradition. There are thousands of articles or images against Japan, while only a few of them against Norway and Iceland. Why do these anti-whaling countries attack only Japan? This might have something with race. How do anti-whaling countries with moral reasons blame Japan racially?
In fact, whaling in Japan has a long history; it started at least 3 century BC (3rd century AD? 3rd Century BC? 3 Centuries ago?). Whale meat were was eaten or used as a special gift through centuries, not only using whale oil. A number of recipes or traditional souvenirs using whale in Japan describes how important whaling is in Japan. Japan used a traditional way of whaling until America came to Japan and introduced modern whaling in late 19th century. Interestingly, the important reason America first visited Japan relates to whaling. America wanted to use Japan as a relay point of for their whaling in order to get good quality of whale oil. Whale oil was relatively important before it was substituted for oil or vegetable oil. In addition, America strongly supported whaling or and Japanese eating whalesthe consumption of whales by the Japanese after world war two because of its high protein to improve Japanese food situationwhales are high in protein and could improve Japan’s food situation. Thus whaling is strongly related Japanese culture as well as Norway.
Japan does not have any permission of whaling for commercialfor commercial whaling, although IWC accepts whaling for commercial for those countries where whaling is their tradition. Japanese food culture or and traditional souvenirs are certainly damaged by the ban of whaling. Thus ban on whaling Therefore, while the ban on whaling protects whales, but at the same time it also declines destroys one part of Japanese culture. Even though we have seen how important whaling is in Japan, it will be very difficult for Japan to have permission for commercial whaling.
Not only does anti-whaling affects Japanese food culture or and tradition, non government organization or and anti whaling groups such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd also physically attack Japanese boats and prevent whaling radically. For example, Sea the shipShepherd’s ship crews (which ship??) pursued and delivered 10 bottles of rotten butter and 15 bottles of a methyl cellulose and indelible dye mixture to Japanese ship on February, 2008.(who was it delivered to?). They also crashed Japanese research ships several times to interrupt whaling, even though there was no serious damage to either ship. In addition, two Sea Shepherd activists boarded a Japanese whaling vessel without permission. These pirate actions terrify Japanese fishermen and researchers. On TV Yyou may see sometimes on TVsometimes see Japanese ships flashing splashing water toward these activists, but it results in protectingthis is to protect themselves from these pirate actions. and massMass media only shows the this part to support anti-whaling. These Japanese ships always cannotcan never finish their missions without having any damage or threat. Humans should not be harmed with for any reason to protect whales. If these activity would be acceptedIf you claimed that this was acceptable, you would have to doubt what is morally wrong; to harm human beings in order to keep whaling or to killing whales to use as a resource for human beings.
Notably, any other whaling countries do not likelyno other whaling countries get interrupted like Japan does, while their Japan’s commercial whaling is for commercial which havehas been prohibited. Even though Japan also has a whaling history, as it has been mentioned earlier, IWC has not permitted Japanese traditional whaling. Also Japanese whaling is under scientific research with IWC permission, but the criticism is bigger than that against Norway started commercial whaling in 1993 and Iceland did commercial whaling in 2007.
Whaling is not a simple issue. Considering these unfair treatments, this has something related to nation or politicsto do with specific nations and politics. One of the anti-whaling countries, Britain, cannot take a serious action to Norway, which who is their important business countryan important trading partner. Also America is against whalingAmerica is also against whaling, even though America is one of the whaling countriesstill practices whaling. Since Japan depends on imported food, Japan imports a lot of meat from America. While America supported whaling middle 19th century to improve Japanese food situation, if it happened now, Japan might be able to get whale meat to increase their self-sufficiency and the rate of dependency of imported food might drop off as a result. Then it would have an influence on trade market between America and Japan. In addition, there are several countries which have never done whaling in IWC. Those countries participate in IWC to raise the number of anti-whaling countries so that they can take part a majority in IWC.
Conclusion
Norway and Iceland is the countryare places where people kill whales inherently, and so doesthe same as Japan. These countries are allowed to kill whales under because of their tradition. Then why Japanese cannotcan Japanese not kill whales to preserve their food and traditional cultures as well as they do?. Those who think whaling is morally wrong prevent whaling with through immoral waymeans, as we saw in this paper. Thus Japan can continue their whaling for scientific research without being criticized and having any interruption.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/03/2131274.htm 1st pic
"whaling." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 28 Feb. 2009 .
http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=7516&pst=958791　canon
http://www.hhcc.com/?cat=32 chicken

“I wish it were a diamond.”
Rareness is a big deal to human beings. People, especially women, love jewelry such as diamond rings because they are beautiful and rare (few people can afford to buy them). If a woman wears a glass ring, few will feel jealous of her. Even though a glass ring was once seen as valuable, no one cares much about such rings these days. The reason for this is pretty simple -- glass is no longer rare. When you lose your glass ring, you can easily get a new one. People will not likely pay much attention to things that are painlessly replaced.
The most famous coffee chain shop in the world, Starbucks, is well-known for aggressive growth, opening some stores only a few city blocks away from others. People like to go to Starbucks because of its brand value even though their products cost more than other coffee stores. Having a cup of coffee at Starbucks gives is sort of like wearing a diamond ring. However, as a result of their aggressive growth, Starbucks is becoming more accessible. Sometimes someone can even be sitting in a Starbucks and see another across the street. As the diamond ring changes into a glass ring, Starbucks will lose its value.
This cartoon drawn by Jeff Darcy on July 2nd 2008 shows that people do not care about Starbucks closing stores in the same way that people do not care about losing a glass ring. The cartoon describes Starbucks in a weird place, Mars, and shows WALL-E, a garbage-collecting robot cleaning up the store.
On the left of this cartoon, Starbucks is described on Mars, which cannot be possible at all in reality. This typical Starbucks store hangs a sign board on their window which says “this store closing” in a dark back ground. Looking at the Starbucks symbol mark on top, you will recognize the symbol is different from what you see every day; she looks very miserable. Nearby the Starbucks WALL-E is activated (You see his path) to complete his work of collecting and compressing garbage, saying “WELL THEY DID OVER EXPAND” in the center of this cartoon. Great, Take. すごい。。高校生のように書いたぜ
By describing a Starbucks store on Mars, Jeff suggests that Starbucks opens too many stores, especially in weird places. No one can go and get a cup of coffee at Starbucks on Mars. It is completely useless. This cartoon also implies something about their aggressive growth on Earth— too many stores on Earth in too many ridiculous places. Though Starbucks spread its business to Mars in the hope of attracting new customers, the operation did not go well and led in the end to store closure. The sign board gives us a clear reason why the symbol looks so miserable. After all, the store becomes part of WALL-E’s garbage because of Starbucks’ careless growth.
WALL-E, a robot from a famous Disney movie, plays an important role to emphasize their poor operation by saying “WELL THEY DID OVER EXPAND.” In the movie, WALL-E is a main character and is designed to clean up a polluted Earth far in the future as a result of people throwing away too much garbage. Considering this, Starbucks on Mars is clearly defined as garbage and undoubtedly emphasizes the uselessness of the store. Also, ‘WELL THEY DID OVER EXPAND’ briefly explains the reason why Starbucks is forced to close the store. Starbucks opening too many stores to manage well, some of them are in unreasonable places, led to its store closings. Drawing WALL-E in this cartoon emphasizes that store closings are the fault of Starbucks’ poor business plan.
Analyzing the context of this cartoon, one can (avoid using I, we, our, me, my, etc. in papers) notice that it puts much more emphasis on Starbucks’ over expansion than on its closing stores. While closing stores typically draws the most attention, here the focus is the reason behind these closings. First this cartoon uses logos to illustrate why closing the store is Starbucks’ fault. Starbucks on Mars emphasizes Starbucks’ aggressive and careless growth. Another logos is the relation between the location on Mars and the sign board. People cannot exist on Mars so that the store should not be opened for business.
We can also see another rhetorical appeal, pathos. The sign board and the symbol mark cause us to feel pity for the closing store. WALL-E and his comment, however, contradict the feeling of pity and make us feel more strongly that closing stores is Starbucks’s own fault.
Most importantly, Jeff uses ethos to illustrate peoples’ lack of concern through this cartoon. He intentionally chooses Mars which is far from Earth and WALL-E who is an animated character. In addition, Jeff does not draw any human being or other real thing besides Starbucks. Therefore, this cartoon expresses that this event, like watching animation, has no actual impact on customers.
Does Starbucks’ closing stores cause any larger social problems? Considering only customers, the answer is ‘No’. In fact, customers will not be affected so badly; most will hardly pay attention to the fact. Some of them might need to walk or drive a longer distance to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but they still can get it. Others may not even notice that one Starbucks on their block is closed.
By looking at this cartoon, one can realize how badly Starbucks overexpanded their business. What could Starbucks have done instead of store closure? Starbucks has to find ideal locations with more careful planning. They should put their stores at least 10 miles distance each other so that one store in that area will be more valuable.
Starbucks’ products have a great brand value, but they may lose their value because of overly aggressive growth. While Starbucks expands its business, it must be careful to maintain its value and not become like a glass ring.
Darcy, Jeff. "So Long Starbucks." Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index. 3 Feb. 2009 .


Take, great paper. If I’m the first person to edit this, then I’m really amazed at your English skills. Make sure to double space your citation at the bottom here. Put it on a Separate page, with the title of the page being “Works Cited”.

If you have any questions about the changes I made feel free to give me a call or email Sorry about rock climbing Friday, I just did not want to throw up on the climbing wall.

Next time we do conversation table I can try to explain the difference between , and ;

If you can’t think of anything else to say to get to 1500 words, look up some more sources about starbucks itself. Find out how they got to be so big. Where did they originate from? Give some company history.

Jya ne.

About conference

As for our graphic aids, our group considered what we have learned from “Visual Display.” We tried to make the graphic aids simple like our pie chart. Also we tried not to put too much information on our slides. We decided to show the whole list of Amethyst initiative to impress others with its numbers. Each time we created Power Point Slides, we discussed how we could impress audience or how the slide would look as we had to apply the theory we learned.
We also talked about how we deliver our speech. We decided to start from general idea, what is Amethyst initiative. As we discussed, we talked about our purpose to get audience in our discussion.
In our conference, Ben made a competition letter and flyer but I liked how we discussed these. We talked about the alignment, letter size and the contents. We used the grand style to make our letter more formal.

What is your method of note taking?

First, I start from headings and write details as a professor talk. I leave a line when I write so that I can add things or thought what I have later. If a professor emphasizes phrases or I think it will be important, I will underline or put a star in front of the sentence. I also write what it is similar to or familiar with, and what I think and feel about so that I remember more than just writing the sentences. Actually, I do not read my note again later so that I have to think really clear when I first write my note in order to put these ideas in my brain for a long. I am not a good drawer, but if I need I will draw a picture. It is very important to put visual images which I imagine. It makes my thought more clear.
The way I take notes like this is I like organize things. Some people can take notes like really artistic and it looks very beautiful, but for me, it is very important organize my thought in my note and clearly see what I was or am thinking.

Visual mapping

When I first came up with the idea, whaling, I did not have many ideas to write about. I put whaling center and wrote ideas what I think about as Japanese. I know other countries are against whaling and I wrote the reasons why they are against. Then I thought about why Japan is a pro-whaling country. I found out the history of whaling in Japan and food culture. When I focused on the history, I found out that other countries also have whaling tradition. I have got a question; why is only Japan criticized? Also I looked for other ideas from food culture such as Japanese food situation.

At a Glance
1. Am I interested in this topic?
I am the one who use cell phone a lot, I am interested in finding facts to surprise those who are addicted to cell phone. Finding these facts, I want to warn people the disadvantages of using high technology.
2. Can I argue position on this topic?
First, summarize benefits of using cell phone. Communication problems, accidents triggered by cell phone, and biological problems will be raised. Then talk about how bad using cell phone is on human body.
3. Will I be able to find enough research material on this topic?
Paper that argues cell phone usage / Article and Journal/ Statistics (accidents) /
4. Does this sort of research appeal to me?

Topic: Cell phone

Audience questions:
Everyone uses a cell phone. Tons of new versions come out with new features every day. You can browse web pages, download music and take a picture. Lots of car accidents are happened because of using cell phone during driving. The style of communication is also changing. Manner and morals of using cell phone becomes a big problem.

Purpose questions:
I can bring new perspectives of using cell phone to the audience or inform a surprising fact to the audience. Some researches show the disadvantages of using cell phone so I can research those resources. This will bring me the new perspective as I am the one who uses cell phone a lot. I will surprise the audience who also owns and uses cell phone a lot by showing incredible fact or case happened by using cell phone and let the audience think again about their use of cell phone.

Context questions:
I may have difficulty with writing if focus on only one feature. I will use several findings and put them together to give great impacts on audience thoughts. Using cell phone has something to do with society, communication, advertisement and so on. Thus this will be complex enough for this assignment. While cell phone gives us high technology, cell phone is changing the style of communication or morals and trigger lots of accidents. Even Barack Obama was blamed on his use of blackberry.

First of all, it was very hard to write ‘Visual Rhetoric Analysis.’ I described and analyzed the cartoon but I did not know how to start this paper. Also I could not withdraw any larger social issue or impact from the cartoon so I could not reach my conclusion. I have to consider the argument in the cartoon very carefully and have to lead to a good conclusion.
I shared my paper and I got a feedback from others, though I did not want to do so. He told me that my description and analysis are clear and good, but also told me that my thesis is little confused. I need a good strong thesis to start my argument.
Also I noticed several things after I read others’ work. One student mentioned about colors and shapes which I had not think of. Now I can describe why the cartoonist uses that color and how it affects the cartoons. I, however, have to think of the hidden intention more cautiously as others touched in their work.
In addition to this, I want to learn how to get attention with good introduction. Others wrote ‘to see visual images are stronger than to read actual fact.’ I agree that point but I want to start a sentence in a different way to draw attention.
I will start observing the cartoon more and thinking more deeply so that I can get ideas from different ways and I try to write nearly 1500 words.

Writing down your observations.
As we have watched a movie, ‘WALL-E’, this robot collects garbage which expanded in land and makes it small. Now the robot tries to press the Starbucks, which did over expand. To support the over expanding, the Starbucks is described on the Mars. This means the Starbucks has no place to open new store in the earth. This also explains that the Starbucks expand their business where no one comes.

A preliminary thesis statement
This cartoon focuses on the fact that the Starbucks expanded and now forces to close some of their branches.

Refining argument
How? Describing the Starbucks on the Mars
To what effect? Describing the garbage-collecting robot/ The Mars where the Starbucks find new place to open a store because of too many shops in the Earth and where no human being exists

Revising the preliminary thesis
The cartoon focuses on the reduction of the Starbucks by showing it on the Mars by using WALL-E, the garbage-collecting robot, which shows us that there are too many Starbucks in the Earth and also their poor business plan which opening a store at the place where nobody comes.

Further Polishing thesis
What do you find interesting about this observation?
Closing stores describes a poor business plan.
How does it tap into larger or social cultural issued?
Closing stores should have a big impact to consumers but this shows us that the over expending seems to be obvious and also seems to be so natural to close stores.

So what?
This cartoon shows Starbucks poor business plan by showing a store on the Mars which imply not only there are too many stores on the Earth but also Starbucks opens stores where no customer comes, by using WALL-E, the garbage-collecting robot, to emphasize the fact that they are forced to close stores.

17/12/05

It was a terrible night last night. I fell asleep before 10:00. Suddenly someone came into my house. I didn’t know about these visitors, I woke up and went to check them. They were my host father’s parents. After I knew that they would stay here the night, I fell asleep again. It was midnight. I was frightened at the sound of someone was hitting window. The sound gradually became loudly. I asked my host grandparents to help. My host grandfather opened the door with chain lock. My host brother who is a Saudi was standing there. How terrible it was. This caused by my host grand father. He didn’t think that there was new lodge except me and locked a chain. The Saudi had a door key but he couldn’t unlock a chain. Last night I was woken twice! I couldn’t sleep well, especially after the Saudi hit my window.

I got up at 6:00. I overslept. I hurried and left my house on time. I got to my friend’s house 15 minutes later than our plan. I apologized to all friends for being late. To make maters worse we got lost. I had a road map to Taupo and it showed the quickest way using Route3. However, we seemed to miss to turn left on the correct corner. I drove looking for sign post but there was no sign post to Taupo. I couldn’t do anything except to ask a driver. I asked him how to get there. He told me to follow him. He led me to Route1. We were grateful to him for his service. On our way my friend phoned the company to tell them that we would be late and to know whether we could do skydiving in such bad weather. We hoped the weather would be better.

We got there half an hour later than planned. The weather hadn’t changed. We really wanted to do skydiving but all we could do was take some photos with a plane. I didn’t have to hurry in this bad weather. We went shopping to kill the time until two of my friends would meet their friends in transport center. I knew that they would go to Rotorua after they would do a huka jet which is one of the exciting activities in Taupo I and other friends had nothing to do so we decided to follow them and to do the huka jet. Before we went to the hika jet, we visited Huka Falls which is one of the famouse places in Taupo. It is very beautiful river, I think if I fell down into the river, I couldn’t live.

After we ate lunch at Burger King, we did the huka jet, which was very exciting. We wore a special suit and life jacket. The driver was very funny. He drove a jet boat very fast along the river side and spun 360°many times. I took a photo in front of Huka falls during his introduction. We bought an album in memory.

I was exhausted when I arrived home after driving all alone. I could sleep until next evening. Next time I hope I can do skydiving!

16/12/05

I did last speaking test better than before. I kept talking about my topic whether my talking was correct or not. At the previous speaking test, I couldn’t keep talking and I felt very nervous about my result so that I cried. It was terrible. After about that I tried to talk as much as I can. As the result I didn’t feel nervous and took the speaking test easily.

Well, I’ll go to Taupo to do skydiving tomorrow. I have to get up before 6:00 to pick up all of my friends and to get there by 9:20. Today my host family has gone to Auckland so I cooked my dinner. At the same time I cooked, I made two kinds of sandwiches for tomorrow’s breakfast to eat in the car. One of my friends asked me to do this, because I was lost at the pool in this evening. Firstly I didn’t want to make lunch, but I like cooking. The two kinds of sandwiches contained chicken cutlet and ham with tomato and lettuce, which was prepared for my dinner during this weekend. I’ll sleep early to enjoy tomorrow.

15/12/05

Today was a very long time. It was also wonderful time I had ever met since I came here. I and friends made Japanese curry and rice for my friend’s host family and for our friend, Trevor, who we met at church and taught us the Christ.

We went to New Save to buy a curry roux. As my friend’s host mother had prepared vegetables, we didn’t have to anything else. My friend couldn’t find a knife, a paring knife and other important tools for cooking. I found them in a dish washer when we were trying to cut vegetables with a batter knife. 10minutes later Trevor came there. He likes Japanese food. When he saw curry being made then, he looked exited. We were waiting for it was finished feeling excited and uneasy about if we could make it well. At the same time my friend’s host father came home, the curry was just finished. We couldn’t wait for eating, though her other host hadn’t came home. We ate all at once. It was delicious! We succeeded to make carry very well. We were very happy. After we finished eating, her host mother and children came back. All of them said ‘yummy!’ to us. We were very glad to hear that.

When I feel relaxed in her host house, I found baseball shin guards. I was surprised and asked her. She told me that her youngest host brother played softball. Since I came here I had really wanted to play baseball. I asked her host brother to play catch. Firstly I couldn’t throw well because of a blank and of the differences of ball size. My touch was coming back gradually. I really enjoyed playing catch. Her host father told me that they will play soft ball every Saturday. I offered to be a coach. I’m really looking forward to playing softball next year.

Her host father asked s to go skating. I’ve been to there twice. we could enjoy skating in the park near her house. While we were skating, sometimes the game started. A DJ introduced the game. I and my Japanese friends couldn’t understand all the game, so Trevor told us the rules. This became a good experience because in Japan we can’t met such a great game which we enjoy with people in the same place. Her host family went home before 9:00 but they suggested to us to play until the park closed at 9:00. We want to go there again, though my Japanese friends will go back one week later.

After skating, we went to the temple which is decollated for Christmas. It was so beautiful. I haven’t seen such a great Christmas lights. I also looked at the illumination of houses around the temple. I think if this was in Japan and snow, it would be more beautiful. We met many of Trevor’s friends. We stay there talking with the new friends until the Christmas lights were turned off.

We had a great time that we will never forget. We will separate after another week. However, we’ll meet again in Japan because Trevor wants to work in Japan. Today was the last time to meet in NZ, but we’ll never forget each other. The photo we took together the end of today will be a my great treasure.

14/12/05

After school, I and Yukako went to the WAREHOUSE to buy a soft ball. She was a soft ball player when she was a high school student. She’s been staying at Hamilton nearly 6months, though she’ll go back Japan soon. She told me how boring Hamilton is on our way to the WAREHOUSE. I agreed with her about some points. We have to spend a lot of money whatever we do, especially entertainment. When we were looking for the ball, we were surprised that some tennis balls or squash balls, which had been packed were stolen. If I saw the scene when someone stole the ball, I would call a shop assistant. I can’t believe that people take a product from a shop without paying money. Finally we didn’t buy anything after enjoying window shopping.

At the same time I was back of school, my friends were planning to do skydiving in Taupo on Saturday. I told them that I would go and give them a ride. Firstly we planned to go there with 4people including me, but one of my friends wanted to ask his friend out. I was not sure how many people can ride in my car. It looks smaller than other cars. Daven told me that people could ride in my car as same as the number of the seatbelts. When I counted the seatbelts, it was five. I didn’t think five people can ride so that I had refused to go to skydiving with 5. Fortunately, we can go including my friend’s girl friend, though she isn’t real girl friend of him.

I wonder that I can drive alone. I have to get up before 6:00 to pick them up. Our skydiving will start at 10:30. Perhaps it takes for 2hours or more to get there. Only I can drive a car. I’ll go to bed very early not to fall asleep during driving.

13/12/05

Today a Saudi student started home stay at my house. He lives in my host bother’s room who has gone to Australia, and his room is larger than my room. After I came home from the gym, he came to my room. He asked something about my home stay and me. I told him my host stay was nice. He showed me his photos with his nice modern mobile. He introduced his brothers, nephew and friends. I was surprised that he took a photo with a very famous American, though I couldn’t remember. Maybe he was the United Nations Secretary General.

Before talking, my host family took care of him very much at dinner. The dinner was chicken, potato and salad, but he ate only chicken. My host father asked him why he hadn’t eaten other dishes. The Saudi student is fussy so he only ate food he likes. My host father was chef and he wanted to eat every food he made. He was annoyed about the Saudi’s behavior. However, my host father asked the Saudi to write down what he would want to eat and my host father told the Saudi that he would try to make food he could eat. He’s staying at my house for only three weeks but I want to talk a lot.

12/12/05

I and Japanese friend decided when we would make a Japanese dinner for her host family and our friend. When she asked her host mother which day would be best to invite me and my friend, her host parents told her that they would go to Rotorua on the Thursday. After they come home, they might be tired and they want her to make dinner. She told me this on the phone. After a while I told my friend who we met at church that we want to take photos with him at her last time. I’ve known that he’ll be free on Wednesday, because I phoned him last night. However, he told me that he was not sure that he would go if it would be on Thursday. He perhaps come and see us. I hope nothing happens to him on Thursday.

We haven’t decided yet what kind of food we’ll make. There are many famous Japanese food, but we couldn’t make them very well even we were in Japan. We don’t want her host and my friend to be disappointed. We have only a day to prepare our plan. We’ll do our best.

I was about to forget to write that we took photos with my class mates during the break which was much longer than usual. When a classmate asked us to take photos, most of classmates, took their own camera. Luckily I had my camera today. We took many photos with many situations. Some classmates will continue their courses, others will go back to their country. We couldn’t meet each other after this block, but we can keep in touch in many ways; letters, phones and Internet. We’ve studied English for each goal. Only 8days left until I finish this course. I want to enjoy studying with them as much as I can.

11/12/05

My host parents went to Auckland to pick up my host brother. My host brother’s gone to Australia. My host parents came back home in the afternoon. That’s why I didn’t go to church. I and my friend are going to make dinner for a friend who we met at church. Though I had to make an appointment, I couldn’t meet him on Sunday so I’ll call him. We are going to make Japanese food. My friend will go back to Japan soon. She won’t go to church ever. She’ll enjoy her last time to go somewhere with her friends. She has to have a party to meet him.

Well, I knew the sad news that I can’t go to Christmas party in Auckland next week. My host parents visit the motel which they will spend n their way home. It’s not big enough to stay with 6people. So they decided that they stay the motel with their daughters. However, my host mother feels sorry for me and they’ll have a big dinner on Christmas. Though I want to go to Auckland, I can’t do anything.

In 2weeks the last test will start. I have to study harder and get a higher mark than before.

10/12/05

After I got up from a long sleep, I went to school to check my essays. It was rally hard work. I made a lot of mistakes about articles. I have to be careful. In the afternoon my Korean friends shared their lunch. I and my Japanese friend ate it and talked a lot.

After a while I and my friend went to the university to play tennis. Getting there, looking for my friends, we were caught in a shower of rain. We couldn’t find my friends. After I met them at the city center, they finished playing tennis at that time. It was a waste of time.

While I could meet them, I went to the library and went to WARE HOUSE to buy a CD. I like English songs and I want to buy songs which are on the air on radio. It’s difficult to know what the song is from radio, because the speaking is too fast to hear the name. I managed to find a CD which is one of my favorite songs. Unfortunately I’ve known only that song title. I listened to it again and again.

When I went home, my host mother was watching TV. I asked her if she got some tickets to Australia. My host sister told me what they were doing yesterday at the city center. People who wear all yellow color clothes can get a free ticket to Australia. When I asked my host mother, I found two yellow tickets she told me that this two were the tickets they wanted. They spent a night in their tent to get them. They looked exhausted. Moreover, my host parents have to get up at 3:00 to take my host brother to Auckland Airport. My host brother will stay at his aunt’s house during his holiday. I hope he enjoy his stay.

Before I took a shower, I changed my hair style by myself. I bought a pair of hair scissors the day before. This was my first time to cut my hair by myself. It was thrilled because I had to cut the back of my hair relying on only my touch. I cut my hair very carefully so that I didn’t cut a wrong side. It took about for an hour. My hair became much shorter than before. When my host mother noticed my change, she was surprised and laughed. This didn’t mean that my hair style was strange. It was very interesting for her that I cut my hair by myself. Owing to this try, I can save money by not going to a barber.

9/12/05

Today I promised that I would eat lunch outside with my friend. He watched the movie, ‘Narnia’ in his class and we met in front of the cinema we went to the Masala club which is an Indian shop. We’ve been there once. We can eat curry and rice. It’s very tasty. We enjoyed eating and drinking, even tough it was still afternoon. We talked abot our studying. He wants to work at a bank. Now he is in 3rd grade at his university so he has to look for his job as soon as he goes back to Japan. Furthermore, he wants to go to university to study business management. I think he’ll be a good banker. Anyway, he was drunk by only a glass of beer! He has to be strong about alcohol.

After he went back to home, I talked with other friends. Though I wanted to go home, I noticed that I have to eat dinner outside, because my host went out to get a ticket to Australia. I don’t know what this means. During talking with friends at the bus center, a man talked to my friend. My friend can’t speak English very well, so he asked me to help. He told me that the man wanted to change the language of his Japanese camera to English. I’m good at mechanics and I told him. After I translated Japanese to English, I talked with him. He was an elder in Japan. He decided to ask us because we talked Japanese. He asked me what I’m doing here, how New Zealand life is and where my home stay is. I answered his questions. To our surprise he knows an American man who I met at the church and they’re friend! How small world is! We talked a lot. He had been waiting the bus to Auckland to meet his friends. when the bus came, we said good bye but it was the wrong bus. His bus came another five minutes later. We can’t meet another time from next Thursday because he’ll go to Australia to work. We made an appointment to meet the next week day.

I and my friends went to Minzoku-cyon which is one of Korean restaurants. It was too hot to eat. I drank a lot of water. After we left there, we went to drink. However, the bar we went first didn’t allow us to drink alcohol. Nobody had a passport. We looked for another bar where we could drink without a passport. As soon as we entered the shop we found, I asked a barman whether we can drink without ID or not. He admitted us to drink in return for become a member. We enjoyed drinking there because it was cheaper than any other bars because of membership. While we were enjoying drinking, NZ people came there and talked to us. One of them was very funny. He made me us laugh. We went out the bar to take a last bus.

When we were walking towards to bus station, I met my host staying in a tent! I and my host was surprised each other because we didn’t think we would meet there. There was a long queue there. I want to ask what happened tomorrow.

8/12/05

This time I want to ask some questions. Could you give me advice?

My dream is to be an English teacher in Japan. English is my favorite subject and it is the most common language all over the world. I ca communicate with foreign people through English. I also think I’m the right person to become a teacher and teach my students a lot of things. That’s why I decided to study abroad to improve my English and have more experience.

Anyway, two month has passed since I started my studying, but I can’t think my English is improving. I have to get at least 6.0 at IELTS to take a teacher training course after my 9months course. I know the teacher training is very difficult to pass even for a native speaker. I must keep my purpose always high to push my self to study hard. My studying here is not long enough to learn English. Others can stay here as long as they want. So I need some advice how to improve my English as much and as quickly as I can.

Everyday I try to write my diary but do you think there is some better practice than writing an essay of IELTS everyday? I like the Reading & Writing class but I also have to improve speaking skill. Can I take extra speaking practice with a teacher after afternoon class? I watch an English DVD almost days. Is it helpful for listening? These are the some examples of my wondering.

Please give me advice!

From my teacher:
・ Talking a lot with host family.
・ Read a lot of books including five vocabularies which you don’t know in a page.
・ Watching a lot of movies is helpful.

7/12/05

Today I had a good time with host family. Eating dinner at 7:00, I and host brother, Mu, played touch like rugby but tackle. He brought a small ball from his room. He told me the rules. All we had to do was walk and touch three times until he touched down. We were moving around from side to side to avoid a touch.

When we were playing, my oldest host sister, Kam, came and joined. I and mu had changed the rule to tackle each other, but we decided that boys didn’t tackle her. Being three, changing team to two to one in rotation, we were enjoying playing. She was the best walker among the three.

After 15minutes later, host father, Pat, came to see what we were doing. While he was watching our match, he was shooting. At the time when I touched down, Kam suggested to play ‘illumination’. I didn’t know how to play it. She told me that after the first person shoot his or her first time, the second person starts shooting. The shooter as to shoot until he r she sinks a shot. When the shooter sinks a shot earlier than the former, the former loses the game. We played with four hardly changing rotation. Mu was not good at this game. Always losing the game, he became a cheat. He obstructed others but this made us funny. We were laughing a lot, during playing it.

After we finished, we were exhausted. I enjoyed wonderful time as a member of his host family.

6/12/05

When I got up, I had a sore throat. Owing to this, it was difficult to eat toasts for breakfast. While I was preparing for school, my host father asked me to give him a ride. Usually he goes to his work about 7:00 with his wife. He seemed to oversleep today. If my host mother had taken him to his office, he would also have been late for her work. His office is very near. I said yes to him. Looking at a traffic jam on my way to school, he was little surprised, because there is no traffic jam when he rives to work. While I was driving, he was talking about my friend who will go back to Japan after this block. He knows that I’ll take my friend to Auckland on December 24th. He asked me how I and friend will get there and where we will stay. After I answered his question, I got to school so I and my host father walked our own destination separately.

At my home when I stopped studying to have a rest, I found a Christmas tree in a living room. My host sisters were decorating the tree with a lot of illumination lights. Only 3weeks left until Christmas. It seems to be very strange to spend Christmas on summer. I can’t imagine a Santa Claus who comes to place where It isn’t snowing.

5/12//2005

Today I and host mother talked about my friend who wanted to change his host family. He lives near my house and I always go to school together.

About one month ago, he told me that he wanted to change his host family. His host family is a young couple and he is the first person to host to their house. They didn’t cook dinner and left my friend alone, even though he was sick. Firstly being angry, he really wanted to change his host as soon as possible. However, he tried to accept his host because these problems might have been caused by his fault. He didn’t talk a lot with his host and he spent a lot of time in his room. I thought his challenge to try to have a good relation with them was really good. Nevertheless, he had a same situation last week. At this time, he decided firmly to leave his host house.

When I told my host mother this story, she also praised his effort. She told me some possible reasons why his host was not good. In her opinion, it’s because they are young and they don’t know much about looking after others. My host mother has four children so she knows how to treat children when they are sick. She also understood why his host didn’t make dinner. It might have been because they tried to save money or they were tired. If they buy too many foods to eat among 2or 3 people, the food can be rotten. They would buy food as much as they really need. That’s why my friend couldn’t be treated as well as me.

Is it better for young children and teenagers to have a working mother or a stay-at- home mother? Give supporting information in your essay.

The number of working mothers has been increasing. This has influences on their children. This essay will describe about advantages of young children and teenagers to have a working mother.

One of the advantages is that children and teenagers can be independent more if they have a working mother. This is because the children have to take care themselves. While their mothers are working, the children have more chance to wash their clothes, cook meals, and clean their rooms. This leads to children doing house work without their mother’s help. Therefore children who have working mothers can be more independent.

The working mothers make their children being patiently. The children force to leave from their mothers because of works. The children might feel lonely. In addition to the loneliness, they have to limit the time spending with mothers. The children have to be more patient. That is why children can have strong feelings to stand being alone.

Children gain a financial benefit from mother’s working. Some mothers must work to earn money because they are poor or they are a single mother. Others might work to get extra money to spend to make their life happier and richer. That is why the working mothers satisfy their children about money.

There are many beneficial effects for children to have a working mother. Independent and patient children will spend their lives happily because they have more skills to live and they do not lose their heart by a small thing.

4/12/05

I go to church with my host family every Sunday. I’m not Christian but going to church may be good experience. It is difficult for me to understand what people are saying so sometimes it’s boring but there is an American man who can speak Japanese because he was an elder in Japan. He always tells me about Christ as he translates English to Japanese. It seems to be hard to teach Christ using two languages. I really want to understand what people saying and what the Christ is without his help.

Today I wore a suit which was sent from Japan. When my host family saw me, they were surprised. They never thought that I wore a suit which to go to church. Some people couldn’t recognize me. When they noticed who I was, they were also surprised. As I wear a suit, I think I can be more handsome.

In the night I watched a DVD, ‘A Beautiful Mind’. My host family likes movies so there are many DVDs. I don’t have to borrow from the shop. This movie is about a person who won the novel prize though he had a mental problem. The scene which he struggled to understand whether it is real or not with his wife’s help was very nice. I cried subconsciously.

3/12/05

Today I went to school though there was no class. Most of the students came there to use the computer, to study and to meet some friends. All I can do on Saturday is go to school, meet friends, and go out with them. If I had a lot of money to stay here, I would go traveling every weekend.

I went to a Mongolian food shop with my friends. we could choose our dishes, taking many kinds of meats and vegetables. When we finished eating, we were full but we couldn’t stand eating desserts. It was a pan cake with ice creams. It was delicious. We enjoyed lunch at only $9. We will go there again!

After lunch, we didn’t have any plan and we walked around the city center. We met some friends in front of the cinema. They gave us a discount ticket because they didn’t have enough time to watch the movie. Wondering that we could take a last bus, we decided to watch the horror movie, ‘Exorcism’. However, it wasn’t scary as much as we thought. Furthermore, teenagers were very noisy and naughty during the movie. It was terrible.

2/12/05

Today I went to my host father’s friend’s house to cerebrate moving to a new house with a party. My host father cooked chicken and salad to take the party. He was a chef so when there is something special, he always cooks delicious food. Everyone likes his food.

In the friend’s house I met a boy who was about 3years. He asked me to play with him. We played with his car toys. He often changed his opinion. I had to move around the house from inside to outside many times. Being always at his beck and call, I was exhausted. During dinner, he was very exited so he broke a glass. After he finished drinking a glass of juice, he out it on the edge of a table. At the same time he ran and the glass was dropped from the table. As I sat down near the table, I tried to catch the glass but I couldn’t. Though he was scolded by his mother after he broke the glass, he was still noisy.

On the way to my host house, my host father told me the friend’s house was small, even though they had four children. I think so, too.

1/12/05

Two months has already passed since I came here. I’ve wondered whether my English is improved or not. I think I have to study more…

Today I played soccer at the park near my school. Alex who is Korean student asked me to play soccer. There were about 10 students including Japanese, Korean and Saudi. At the beginning, I could play soccer as I thought. After 15minutes or more passed, I couldn’t run, following a ball. Though I went to the gym yesterday, I haven’t run for such a long time since I stopped playing baseball. No one got out of breath except me. Finally I was too tired to walk around. I managed to go home feeling my muscles were stressed.

During dinner, I talked with my host father and mother about a Japanese lunch. I told them that in Japan my mother made lunch every morning. It is almost same style between Japan and NZ. My host mother prepared desserts, ice cream with strawberries. It was very delicious and helpful to get sugar for my tired body.

30/11/05

After school was over, I went to the gym, the Uni Rec Center, to join up. I filled in the application form. When I got a member ship card, a staff member, who is young, showed me how to use the facilities. He spoke very fast, so I couldn’t understand what he said. I asked him same thing again and again. He answered my questions without a frown. I want to build up my body to play baseball after I go back to Japan as well as to make me relax.
I have been to the gym once in Japan, but I don’t have detailed knowledge of muscle training. I asked him to organize my training. It was difficult to tell him which part I need muscle. Struggling to explain my opinion, I told him. He managed to understand what I wanted to tell and he showed me about 7 trainings. The dumbbell which he chose was a little heavy for me. I really felt my muscle was poor, even though I played baseball until this spring. After I finished training, I felt my muscle were stressed. It was helpful to concentrate on my study.
I’ll go to the gym every other day. I want to be strong, but I have to be careful not to change my body too much so that my family and friends can’t realize me.

29/11/05
Today I had nothing special to do. Taking the class, talking with friends, it was a kind of boring day as well as usual.
It seemed to be hard to do my homework so I went back home early. While I was studying, my host brother asked me to take him to NEW MARKET which is near my house. Though I hadn’t finished my homework, I agreed with him to relax my feel and to help my host. I had wanted to help my host family, because they were so kind. The shopping took only 10minutes or less, but I was happy to be a useful person.
After dinner, I talked with my host mother about an international student who came from China and stayed at her house 10years ago. There were four children in my host family and the Chinese woman hated them. They were very young and very noisy at that age. I could imagine it very easily. She said my host mother that even though they were lovely cute for my host mother, the woman disliked them. Another 10years later, they become old and adult. They had a good influence on me to speak English more. I t was very difficult to understand their fast speaking. However, if I can communicate with them as well as their friend, I will be proud of my English.

28/11/05

I got up early today because I decided to go to the school by my car. There was not enough space to park all the students’ car. I had to get there earlier than the other students to park my car. It took about 15minutes so I left my home at 7:45. When I got there, a few cars had already parked. Those cars could have been my classmates’. When I met them in the cafeteria, they were surprised because I was there so early. I told them the reason. Until the class started I studied grammar in the library. I am poor about articles. In my essay or writing I make a lot of mistakes of articles. Writing is the most difficult part of IELTS. I need at least 6 to take teacher training, which is the main reason of my studying abroad.
I had the second test on Friday and today I got my score. It was worse than before. I made easy mistakes in reading. If I had read the questions carefully, I could have got a higher mark. One of the reasons why my score was low was vocabulary. If I had known much vocabulary, I might have answered the questions very easily. In the listening test I missed listening to the script from number 1 to 5. It led me to get a low score. I was very nervous about the result because I wanted over 80%. Even if some students thought I was better than them, I couldn’t be satisfied with it because some students who didn’t study harder than me got a higher mark. Some one thinks I am mean, but I think it quite natural to think that. I have a last test in the end of December. I’m going to study to get the highest mark. I’ll listen to the CNN or VOA, read the news on the net, and talk more with my host family. I’ll also write the diary and let the teacher check it. After she checks it, I’m going to write it on my blog.
After school I went to the uni rec center which is a facility of the university. I have wanted to do exercises or to play some sports here since I came here. When I asked the trainer how much this gym will cost a month, she gave me an introduction. It cost only $40 per month. It is cheaper than the other gyms or Japanese one. I will join up it on Wednesday. If I don’t some exercises, I will get a fat. If I do exercise, it helps my study because the study makes me stressed.