Hi, ladies!!
Cosmos, it would be wonderful if I could go to Tahiti or somewhere beautiful with you, someday…
Plum, thank you for sharing your research about Lutheran male missionaries with us. It is a very practical method to learn deeply. While reading your comment, I tried to imagine what kind of them were. But it’s difficult for me to catch it with reality, because I have so little knowledge about that field. They must have had their own histories with religious motive. I’m looking forward to learning more. But in the first place, I’d like to know what of missionaries has attracted you for a long time, if you don’t mind.
Preparation for STEP:
Are you for or against English education in elementary school?
It is often argued that English education in elementary school is effective in the acquisition of English. However, I believe it is harmful effects on children’s mother tongue and improvement of intellectual ability. (intro)33
Firstly, early education in English can be an additional academic burden on children, because more and more children have involved in some practices after school, and cannot afford to learn more. (1) 31
Secondly, it will hamper the acquisition of their mother tongue. They should be taught English after learning their own language properly. It will be not too late they would start English study at junior high school as at present. (2)39
Finally, it should be thought about shortages of English teachers for elementary school. In order to provide effective and attractive teaching for English beginners, we need more talents and methods available. (3)31
Although we are concerned about prevailing grammar-centered approach at junior high school, it is too early to start English education at elementary school. We should think of other approaches to facilitate children’s English education. (conclu)35/169
It took a long time…
So, it’s time to get back to my housework. Bye, bye, dear friends…
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2 comments:
Hi, ladies!!!
How did you enjoy this afternoon? Did you have a brilliant time?
I was delighted to know that you have started to make preparations for a STEP test, Cherry. You remarked that it took a long time to write your opinion about English education in elementary school, but how long did it take?
It is just a matter of whether you are used to writing something about social issues or not. I would like to encourage you to keep writing on current topics, everyday if possible, and you will get used to it, say, in a month or so. You will get more used to it, perhaps, in two months. Just imagine yourself expressing fluently your thought in English about international or domestic issues of today.
This morning I went to my hairdresser’s shop to get my hair straight-permed. (Do you remember I am going to Kumamoto next week? I have to make myself neat, don’t I?) I came home around 1 pm, and I found the book I ordered online delivered to my house. I was looking forward to reading the book, and so I had scarcely begun to read it when I got into my lounge. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading it, and it was a most delightful afternoon to me. Then, soon after it got dark I made Italian style tomato sauce with aubergines (do you remember aubergines mean eggplants?) and pasta for dinner.
Do you like aubergines, my dear friends? Oh, I love aubergines. When I use the word aubergine, I feel as if I were Delia… Interesting, isn’t it? Bye for now, my lovely friends. Have a gorgeous evening!!!
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello.
From Sunday to Tuesday was a trip to Kinugawa. 30 students attended the seminar.
Since each student gave a 15 to 40 minute presentation, we didn't have time for sightseeing. We went for a walk during half an hour break.
We all had to write some comments for each presenter. Some students gave me a lot of helpful comments.
I found writing Japanese is not that easy if I want to write something meaningful.
A graduate student was from Ochanomizu univ. She is currently writing a doctor's thesis. Her research topic is about DV shelter. I had chance to ask her about the school and its faculty.
Plum, I read 6 books + a few articles so far. I started reading after Aichi summer seminar.
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The seventh book is Jane Rendall's The Origins of Modern Feminism.
When did feminism begin?
If we define it as women's activism and theoretical challenge to obtain their rights equal to men and to achieve the emancipation of women, feminism has been always with us.
As for modern feminism, Rendall chose to start from feminist thoughts in the age of the American and French Revolutions (1775-1783 & 1787-1799).
The 18th century was characterized by the mode of optimism known as the Enlightenment.
The first 2 chapters of the book describe the social context in which French feminists like Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women(1792) appeared.
2 key terminologies are the nature of woman, and republicanism.
What was natural for women was the main point of debate for both feminists and their opponents.
“[S]exual differences in behaviour were biologically determined.” (p.13)
Women were expected to behave as a moralist for social order.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that within a family that was a natural institution, “the authority of men
over women was founded both on women's weakness and of the necessity of guaranteeing paternity, in the interest of society as a whole.” (p.17)
Rousseau further argued that “timidity, chasteness, and modesty” were qualities women had to develop. (p.16)
The idea of the natural woman offered a new rationale for women's subordination.
Agreeing with such demands, some women wrote “the importance of the education of girls for motherhood.” (p.17)
An evolutionary view of society reasoned the development of family. The crucial role women had to play was family management.
Historians compared the early human family with family in their contemporary world and stressed women's refinement of their manners in the more developed world, and thus, women's virtue combined with their domestic labour.
The nature of woman was challenged in the 1780s and 1790s.
However, the ideal of 'republican motherhood' dominated the feminist arguments of that decade.
To argue against the nature of women, women needed a new language which was used among French citizens in the age of the revolution, that is, republican language.
The most famous feminist in those days was Olympe de Gouges whose “works called for the emancipation of women for the grater good of the nation as a whole.” (p.45)
In Great Britain, in spite of the relatively stable political situation, women's challenge for their rights came form France. As a journalist and translator, Mary Wollstonecraft was watching events in France. In 1972, she wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women. “[I]t united her new political awareness of the deprivation of rights ... and her understanding of the conflicting arguments about the nature of women, and their particular, specific claims to anatomy.” (p.56)
Wollstonecraft believed if the rationality of woman was acknowledged, women's autonomous status could be achieved through the exercise of reason and self-discipline. (p.57) She asserted “that there were no 'sexual virtues', no virtues predominantly belonging to one sex or the other. Virtue could have 'only one eternal standard'.” (p.60)
She constantly emphasized not only on a woman's duty to society, but on her duty to herself.” (p.63)
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Cherry, I admire you for your new trial. Your opinion is convincing.
If more English teachers are needed, women's labor participation rate might increase.
Good night.
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