未来創造: The Wiki - Recently Updated Pages

Mirai~Sozo : The Future

Hokudai — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:46:27 CDT

This is the wiki for MiraiSozo. 北陸大学未来創造学部のwikiです。Wikiは何ですか？ It's a website Users create. If you want to add a page, become a Writer!

Listen to Hokudai/Cast (In Japanese, English, and Chinese) - A podcast for people involved in language, the future, and culture.

Don't forget to take the poll about Kanazawa indies music!

Contents as of May 9, 2008

Running with B Class

A series of surveys done by the B Class of the First-year students.

Conversational Storytelling
A natural way to have a conversation in English without using questions.

YourVoice

Hokudai — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:42:37 CST

Click To Look at Kanazawa
Click on the link, watch the VoiceThread and add your comments.

Running With B Class

Hokudai — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:11:23 CST

This is Hokuriku University in the spring.

The B Class of 未来創造学部 will introduce you to their research today:

First, Seattle Standard Cafe, an indies band from Kanazawa.

Here is a picture of Seattle Standard Cafe performing somewhere in Japan. We don't know where. They formed about five years ago and play a kind of jazzy rock. Their drummer was a student here at Hokuriku University. They are a very busy band playing all over Japan. Their website is here.

Surveys by B Class

Cake

Dancing and Ice Hockey Clubs

Indies Music in Kanazawa

English Classes at Hokuriku University

Part-time Jobs

Travel During Winter Vacation

Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Shintate-Machi

Ice Skating

PlayStation Portable

Christmas in China

PSP

Hokudai — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:09:01 CST

PSP stands for PlayStation Portable, a video-game console. I researched about PSP and was surprised that most of my classmates don't have a PSP or have never played with one.

I asked about their favorite color for the PSP and 40% replied they liked black, another 40% chose white and the remaining 20% liked blue. I asked about what they did with a PSP and 60% said they played games, 20% said they listened to music and another 20% said they didn't use a PSP. I asked them what they thought of PSP and 80% responded that a PSP was good while 20% said that it doesn't sell well. However, when I asked when they played with a PSP 100% replied that they don't use a PSP.

English Classes

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:18:46 CST

We researched English classes at Hokuriku University for freshman.

We asked “What do you think about freshman English classes at Hokuriku University?” 30% replied that they were bad, 30% replied that they were boring while 30% replied that they were nice and interesting.

We asked “Which do you like high school English classes or university English classes?” 60% replied high school, and 40% replied university.

We asked “Why did you choose to study English at Hokuriku University?” 50% replied that they like English, 30% replied that Hokuriku was near their home, and 20% replied that they didn't know.

We asked “What English classes do you like in Hokuriku University?”

50% replied Stenson’s class, 30% replied Mr. Ogawa’s class, and 20% replied Ms Nagaoka’s class.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:16:02 CST

At the end of every year in Japan, orchestras play Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Its official title is Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral."

We researched about Beethoven’s 9th symphony and learned that many people understood a lot about Beethoven. For example, we asked, “Who wrote Beethoven’s 9th symphony?” Everyone knew Beethoven wrote it, of course. We asked, “Where was Beethoven from?” Again, everyone knew he was from Germany. We asked, “How many times do you listen to Beethoven’s 9th symphony in a year?” Surprisingly, 50% answered never. We asked, “What symphony do you know except for Beethoven’s 9th symphony?” Not surprisingly, 33% answered Beethoven’s 5th symphony. We asked, “When did he die?” Half of the people we asked correctly answered 1827.

Cake

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:13:57 CST

Almost everyone likes cake. It's delicious and gives us a warm feeling when we see a well-made cake. We asked our classmates what kind of cake they ate at Christmas this year and 63% replied "shortcake," 13% replied "tart," and 24% replied "other." When we asked what kind of cake our classmates liked, 50% replied "cheesecake" and 50% replied "shortcake."

Two question about making cake makes us think our classmates don't know how to make a cake. Our first question, "Please tell me how to make a cake?" brought answers such as "burn in an oven" (40%) and "I don't know" (40%) and "heat milk and cream" (20%). Our second question, "What are the ingredients in a cake?" brought answers such as "flour" (20%), "strawberries" (10%), and "other" (70%). Obviously, our classmates don't know how to make a cake.

Finally, we asked about the cost of a cake. Half replied a cake costs ¥2000, 25% said one costs ¥4000 and 25% had different answers.

Ice Skating

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:06:31 CST

Ice skating is a popular outdoor winter sport in some countries. Perhaps it is not so popular in Japan because there are very few lakes or ponds that freeze in the winter outside of Hokkaido and the Tohoku region. However, we asked our classmates about ice skating. Our first question was the easiest because we asked when do people go ice skating. Of course, 100% replied people ice skate in the winter.

Next, we asked, "Who is a champion ice skater in Japan?" Shizuka Arakawa, the 2006 Olympic champion, was chosen by 40% and Mao Asada, the 2007 World Silver medalist, was chosen by 30%.

We next asked about how many times our classmates have gone ice skating and 50% replied that they have never gone ice skating. Another 30% replied they have gone only once. About 50% replied that ice skating is very good but 30% replied that it is difficult to our question, "What do you think about ice skating?"

Finally, we asked, "What country is ice skating popular in?" and 100% replied it was popular in Russia.

Christmas in China

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:56:46 CST

Since Christmas in Japan is a big event for couples in love and business, we decided to ask about Christmas in China. We don't know much about Christmas in China so our questions were easy. For example, we asked "What is different about Christmas in Japan and Christmas in China?" Most of our classmates (75%) said they don't know the difference.

We asked "What do people in China eat at Christmas?" Of our classmates, 60% answered chicken and 40% replied cake. We asked about who people in China like to be with at Christmas and 100% replied friends.

We asked "What do people in China want to get as a Christmas present?" 'Money' was the answer given to us by 20% while 80% replied, "I don't know." Finally, we asked "Where do you think people in China think Santa Claus lives?" Among our classmates, 50% replied Ireland and 25% replied "I don't know."

Shin-Tate-Machi

Hokudai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:43:45 CST

Our topic is Shintatemachi. Shintatemachi is a shopping street in Kanazawa that is near Katamachi. It has many small boutiques and coffee shops. We discovered that it is not popular with our classmates.

To our question, "Where is Shintatemachi?" 50% answered "Next to Katamachi" and 20% answered "in Kanazawa." We asked "How many times have you gone to Shintatemachi?" Surprisingly, 50% answered "never" but 35% answered "many times." We asked "What do you think about Shintatemachi?" About 30% answered "So-so" and 20% answered "Clean." We asked "When did you go to Shintatemachi recently?" Our classmates haven't gone there much as 50% answered "Last year" and "never." We asked "How do you write Shintatemachi in Japanese?" All of our classmates answered "新竪町."

Indies Bands in Kanazawa

Hokudai — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:32:20 CST

We researched indies music in Kanazawa.

We asked "What indies singers do you know in Kanazawa?" About 40% replied Nadare and 60% replied "I don't know any indies bands."

We asked "What indies music do you know in Kanazawa?" About 60% replied "Rock" and 40% replied "I don't know about indies music."

We asked "What do you think about indies music in Kanazawa?" About 60% replied "Good," 30% replied "So-so," and 10% replied "Bad."

We asked "How many live houses do you know in Kanazawa?" 70% replied "4," 10% each replied "0," "5," and "6."

Travel

Hokudai — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:17:43 CST

I researched travel.
I asked "Where will you go in winter vacation?" 100% said they had no plan.

I asked "Where did you go last vacation? About 20% said they went toMie but 80% replied "Nowhere."

I asked "Where have you gone in America?" 20% said they have been to
Guam but 80% replied that they have never been to America.

I asked "When will winter vacation start?" 20％ said December 27th but 80% replied that they weren't sure when vacation started.

Part-Time Jobs

Hokudai — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:11:42 CST

We researched part-time jobs.

We asked “What’s your part-time job?” 60% replied that they didn't have a part-time job.

We asked “What part-time jobs have you done?” 33% replied that they have never had a part-time job. 18% replied that they had worked at a grocery store.

We asked “What part-time jobs do you want to do?” 45% replied that they wanted to work at a restaurant.

We asked “Which do you like: working part-time job or studying?” 66% replied, "I like studying."

Ice Hockey and Dancing at Hokuriku University

Hokudai — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:53:09 CST

We researched the dance club and ice hockey club in Hokuriku University.

We asked "What do you think of Ice Hockey?" 50% answered Hokuriku University's ice hockey club was strong, about 20% answered it was dangerous.

We asked "What ice hockey player do you know in Hokuriku University?" 90% answered don't know, 10% answered Mami.

We asked "What kind of dance do you know?" 30% answered Hip Hop, 30% answered pop.

We asked "What did you think of Hokuriku University dance club
performance at Hokuriku University school festival? 100% answered good.

Conversational Storytelling

Hokudai — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:44:01 CDT

To understand conversational storytelling, first let's look at 'textbook' conversation. A textbook conversation is a series of questions and answers:

"What's your name?"

"My name is Taro. And you?"

"My name is Caraculiambro. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Kanazawa. And you?"

"I'm from Spain."

etc.

Most speakers (of English and, I'm told, Japanese) usually don't have this type of conversation. The most common type of conversation is the storytelling type.

"I went to shopping yesterday with my mother and bought a pair of red boots. The price was right and they are really comfortable. My mother says the boots look good on me. I think I made the right choice."

"I went shopping yesterday, too, but I didn't buy anything. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to buy. After awhile, I went to a movie and ate too much popcorn. I had a stomachache all night. I couldn't sleep at all. I was really stupid."

This conversation between two Hokuriku University students is more common: conversational storytelling. Each person told a small story about their day. The main theme was 'Shopping' but each speaker had something to say about it. Neither asked questions.

Here are a few traits of conversational storytelling:

1. 'I' sentences. People talk about themselves.

2. No questions. Sometimes there are clarification questions (What did you say?) Usually there are not questions.

3. Somehow related. The speakers might have a general theme (shopping, in the above conversation.)

4. Changeable Topic. The original topic (shopping) easily changes to something else. Often within a sentence or two.

5. Endless. Because the topic can change easily - and everyone likes talk about themselves ('I' sentences), conversational storytelling is ENDLESS! You can never stop. And some people never do.

6. No silence. There is no silence in conversational storytelling.

What is a Story? And what is Storytelling?

Stories have a few parts:

1. Opening frame - usually with a time involved.

2. Narrative - what actually happened

3. Closing frame - the end

4. Comment - the speaker's thoughts on the story.

For example:

I went to shopping yesterday with my mother <<Opening frame>>and bought a pair of red boots. The price was right and they are really comfortable. <<Narrative>>My mother says the boots look good on me.<<Closing frame>>I think I made the right choice.<<Comment>>

For example:

I went shopping yesterday, too,<<Opening frame>> but I didn't buy anything. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to buy. After awhile, I went to a movie and ate too much popcorn.<<Narrative>> I had a stomachache all night. I couldn't sleep at all.<<Closing frame>> I was really stupid. <<Comment>>

Be warned: The part of stories that the English learner most frequently deletes is the Comment.

Notice all the 'I' sentences - sentences that start with 'I'. Five in the first conversation and seven in the second.