HI, ladies!
It is Friday, September 26, 2008, today, and was cool and nice weather the whole day. But at midnight it will be rather chilly. Please take care, Plum…
The other day, I read an interesting article about the forthcoming election in a newspaper by a famous novelist. He introduces his pupil’s (he is teaching at a university, perhaps) comment after he asked whether the student would vote next. The student replied that he didn’t hold out much hope about it and so wouldn’t vote. The novelist agrees with his idea and puts a question: why didn’t all the candidates of the LDP apologize to us for their rudeness, while they were really wasting our money?
At the same time, he says a sad feeling when he talked with a politician at another time. He couldn’t understand the politician’s words at all, because that man just talked to, but didn’t hear at all. Politician’s word is so poor, he asserts.
A fair argument, isn’t it?
So, see you tomorrow. Good night.
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3 comments:
Hello Cherry and my friends.
Plum, it’s nice to hear from you. I’m glad that Ms. Kyu had a very positive attitude to ask natives speakers to come to help our discussion group. It would be wonderful for us to have a discussion leader who belongs to almost the same generation as my son’s. What I concern most is whether he has the spirit of volunteer just like Jonathan did. I hope our essay will help him to understand what kind of group we are and make him interested in what we've been studying.
It’s getting cooler. Please take care of yourself, my precious friends.
Hi, ladies!!!
It is Saturday, September 27, 2008, today, and it has been rather nice and cool all day, hasn’t it?
I would like to let you know a little interesting experience I went through in Kumamoto. Two of my friends, a male and a female, with whom I went to the same elementary school (we are actually former class mates) came to listen to me at the conference, and the next day the male friend came to pick up me and the other friend, who lives in Yokohama and came all the way to the conference. He was supposed to drive us to the airport, since we were going to depart in the evening, my female friend for Yokohama and me for Nagoya.
On the way to the airport, he made a suggestion that we should stop by his shrine (he is a Shinto priest), and we got to Kengun Shrine, which is next to Jiaien, a Lutheran Church welfare facility (Sunflower, Cosmos and I visited the place two and a half years ago and we saw a funny donkey standing still in the stable).
No sooner had we arrived at the main hall of the shrine than my female friend, who is a faithful baptized Lutheran Christian and is registered at a certain church in Yokohama, told me to pray together. Being stunned by her remark, I just followed her to the shrine stairs and prayed together as she told me.
Then, we were introduced to the head priest of the shrine, who is a younger brother of my male friend. He went to school for boys established by Lutheran missionaries and, saying that he liked hymns he had learned at school, he started to sing some hymns. Oh, he is so hilarious. He uttered that he always sang hymns, because the words and melodies came out so naturally.
This is Japan. This is the way it is in Japan. Isn’t it fantastic? The Japanese are so good at fusing everything into one. They value harmony to this degree.
Being seen off by them (my flight was to leave earlier than my friend’s) at the airport, I went through a metal detector gate.
I hope you enjoyed reading this unimportant episode of mine. Goodnight, my lovely friends. Sleep well…
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello.
Plum, I'm glad to hear you have returned safely. Thank you for sharing your exciting experiences in Kumamoto and your future research plan. As for the academic conference in Christianity, please ask us again next year. Looking at my progress, I feel it doesn't seem a good investment for me.
However, thanks to your leadership, we are able to learn a lot.
Yesterday was the second TOEIC class at Open College. Before starting the class, I was asked not to call students' names to get their answers. Some people are too shy to speak out in the class and prefer the class of lecture style. I found they chose this class not to speak but to listen to. Several confident students don't hesitate to speak out. So I decided to encourage them to enliven the atmosphere of the class. Confidence is not irrelevant to skill or knowledge. Some students are not afraid of asking questions. I appreciate such attitude.
Now, I will write about the book I'm reading.
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Dyhouse's No distinction of sex?: Women in British universities 1870-1939
Chapter One overviews the patterns in which universities and colleges admitted women to their degrees. In the late nineteenth century, some universities began to open classed to women and to offer special degrees to women students. The Ladies' Educational Associations founded in the 1860s and 1870s facilitated women's access to the universities. How many women were accepted by universities?
The number of women students who received their degrees were only a few in the beginning.
Year School / Number
1880 The University of London in England / 4 (BA)
1887 in Manchester / 4
1894 Queen Margaret College in Glasgow, Scotland / 4 (medicine)
1895 Queen Margaret College in Glasgow, Scotland / 2 (arts)
1898 in Aberdeen, Scotland / 4
The following table shows the proportion of women students in the early twentieth century.
In Great Britain
Year Proportion
1900 10%
1920 24%
1930 27%
1939 23%
In Scotland in 1907-8
Place Proportion
St. Andrews 40%
Aberdeen 31%
Glasgow 24%
Edinburgh 18%
Improving the education of women teachers was demanded. The “day training colleges” were the ancestors of the modern university departments of education.
Female students were carefully separated form the rest of the student body. They were provided small rooms and separate entrances.
It also writes about money. Average tuition per year was between £10 and £20. The cost of residence per year was between £32 and £60. After 1885, some of the older scholarships and prizes were opened to women. (p. 29) Not only men but also women benefactors supported women students.
Women's benefactions were not necessarily provided “on the same scale,” both organizational and individual contributions from women “were still important in the developing network for higher eduction.” (p. 37)
Some benefactors' intention failed to materialize because it sometimes conflicted with the opinions of school councils.
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I have to go back to work.
I'll come back later.
Have a good day.
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