HI, ladies!!
It is Tuesday, November 04, 2008, today. I imagine you’ve fully enjoyed this beautiful season. As for me, my family and I went to Lake Hamana for the last couple of days. All of us had a wonderful time in Mikkabi and Hamamatsu, eating orange, Hamamatsu-gyoza, and broiled eel. While driving around the lake, warm wind and bright sunshine always so welcomed us that all I did was taking a nap comfortably in the back of the car…
Plum, congratulations for your new grand-child!! You must have had a big surprise and concern in Japan over this unexpected event, but your daughter did a good job in Sydney, didn’t she?!
Azalea, I’m happy to see you again here. Your story always brings me an innocent smile.
So, see you next, bye!!
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Hi, everybody!
Plum, congratulation on another grandbaby! I can't believe that you are a grandmother of three babies. When people see you taking care of a baby, I think surely they think you are the mother of the baby. You can’t wait for seeing him more, can you?
Azalea, it’s so nice to see you here again. Oh, you have been to Guam! You enjoyed playing with fish all day in sea. How fantastic! I envy you.
Well, I went to “Nagoya Players Special Production” yesterday, which was performed in English. One of friends took part in the play, whose title was “The Vagina Monologues”. Don’t you think it was a shocking title? But it was not a pornographic one. Over 200 women in the U.S. were interviewed about their vaginas. Based on these interviews, this play introduced various episodes of women and their bodies. Casters talked about their painful experience of rape, child birth and violence toward women on the stage. They informed us a shocking truth, that is, we have never faced our own bodies seriously so far. The cast were all women. To my surprise, one main actress was PRISCA, who is a singer and a teacher of Nanzan College. I have been to her concert three times. Sunflower knows her very well because she learned Jazz from her. I’ve heard that Jonathan used to put on a joint-live concert with her in Hilton Hotel.
Prisca’s performance as a prostitute was excellent and deeply impressed audience. I enjoyed the exciting play.
Now, I’ll stop this. See you again, ladies. Bye.
Hi, ladies!!!
How are you enjoying this mild weather? We have been so blessed with weather this autumn, haven’t we? But surely winter is approaching, and it is getting much cooler in the morning and evening, and so keep yourself warm, my lovely friends.
Thank you, Azalea, for asking about my recently born grandson, who still does not have a name. The baby is a boy, and so Ulala, my daughter, has two sons. In a way I feel a bit sorry for her, because sons tend to make a lot of trouble to their parents at puberty, although I know a number of boys who seldom cause headache to their fathers or mothers. Nonetheless it is much easier to raise daughters for most mothers, isn’t it?
I would like to show you another speech script, which was written by a middle-aged woman student in my English class, whose written English proficiency is still elementary, unfortunately, as you can see, although she has been in my class for more than three years. (She is very shy and modest typical of traditional Japanese women.)
It took a few months for her to compete writing this 3 page script, but it appeared likely that she quite enjoyed revising it again and again and again. She said that English study had changed her way of thinking, adding that now she was able to think positively. Wow… If you are depressed, study English!!!
Her script reflects her gentle personality and I do love this piece of writing, especially a section on a polar bear drifting away to Iceland, although it is a tragedy and we human beings are blamed for what happened to the bear.
This is a simple style speech script, yet nonetheless it is strong and impressive. I hope you enjoy reading it. (This script was also proofread and improved by my English speaking friend.)
Night, night, my dear friends.
***
Global Warming
Naomi Suzuoki
Introduction:
Good morning to my fellow students, our language teachers at Gakusen University Library, and all the staff at the Library.
My name is Naomi Suzuoki, and I have been learning English in Dr. Aoyama’s class for three and a half years. Learning English is not easy for me, but I have been enjoying studying with the other students in her class.
Today I am very happy that I can talk to you in English. I hope you enjoy my speech.
I love animals and nature.
Everyday I walk my dog in the neighborhood, and I enjoy seeing the flowers, green fields and mountains while I am strolling with my dog. I always hope this delightful natural environment will remain as it is forever.
Body:
At the moment there are many problems related to global warming in various countries in the world including Japan.
Toward the end of this past summer, there was a heavy downpour of rain and flooding in Okazaki city that is near my town. Many Okazaki citizens experienced serious damage to their property caused by the torrential rain. According to some weather experts, the flooding seems to have occurred due to the increased number of paved road in the city. Paved roads are also well known as a cause of global warming. Air temperature increases with the heat that is absorbed by them.
Recently I heard a sad piece of news. A polar bear could not find ice where he could live. This bear swam and swam, and at last he was able to find some ice. The place where he found ice was Iceland, but he was discovered by a local person and shot to death. Poor polar bear.
Sometimes we watch a surprising piece of news about wild Japanese monkeys inhabiting mountains that come down to villages or towns where people live, searching for food. Apparently global warming has been affecting vegetation and so their living environment is changing, and as a result they do not seem to be able to secure enough food to live on. There are endangered animals around the world and we hear that some animals are almost extinct due to the climate change.
This past summer it was so hot that many people used air conditioners in Japan. When we think about global warming, it is not a good idea to use an air conditioner. However, we are used to our comfortable life-style with an air conditioner and we have difficulty in spending a hot and humid summer day without using an air conditioner.
It seems, in fact, that global warming is making it more difficult for us human beings and wild animals to live on this mother earth. We know very well that our civilization and development have created this global warming problem. It is a vicious circle. I think now is the time to stop and think about how to protect nature. It is very clear that we have to do something to prevent global warming from getting more serious.
Conclusion:
We enjoy a very convenient lifestyle but we should not destroy our precious nature any more. I believe my audience likes animals and nature as much as I do. I do not want to lose them, and I am sure neither do you. I hope that you will think about the graveness of the problem of global warming and that we will do whatever we could do to solve this problem. Thank you.
Hi, ladies!
I spent hectic days without writing any comment in the blog. Sigh!!! Plum, how wonderful to have three grandchildren! When I was reading the part where Uraua-san went through, I was bit surprised and then impressed how calm sh e was.I guess Uraua-san gets a hand by her mother-in-law in taking care of Ujin-kun.
More and more young ladies want to get married with foreing men and raise their kids in foreign countries these days. Chances and excitement seem to be waiting for them.
Yesterday I went to Tsurumai City Hall to attend the meeting held by Rachi Higaisha wo sukuu Nagoya shimin no kai as I was given a ticket. I felt a strong resentment agaist North Korea. Sorrow of Mr. and Mrs.Yokota is so deep that I can hardly imagine. We should not forget the terrors and misdeed caused by a nation. What a life!
I did not pass Step test. My score in composition is especially low. Heaven helps those who helps themseves! I'd like to keep on challenging.
Good night,my precious friends.
Hi Plum and friends,
Plum, congratulations on your new-born grandbaby! What surprising news it was! It is so nice to know both mother and baby are very good after unexpected happening. And Thank you for giving us a chance to read a great speech script which one of your students wrote. I was really impressed and enjoyed.
Today is a very important and historical day for the US. Not only American people but also people all over the world must be watching this Presidential Election with enthusiasm because the result might give a great impact on the world. Almost everything that started in the US has influenced the world society and economy, so who will be chosen as the US President is a big concern for many countries.
This Presidential election is also including the racial problem. It is true that there is still strong racial discrimination against African American in some parts of the US even today. It is one of the key points how much Obama can capture the heats of those people.
Good night, my precious friends,
Reiko
Hello, Cherry and my friends.
It’s so nice to hear that you enjoy this nice autumn season especially for the harvest of fruit.
I envy Alice who lives in Toyohashi who get free persimmons from friends and relatives who grow those trees inside the ground. My family love persimmons, especially my DH so that every time I go shopping to the nearest supermarket, I try not to forget to buy them. Although persimmons are common and popular fruit in fall,it costs approximately 80 yen each if you purchase.
Congratulations on your third grandchild, Plum. I hear that the second baby is liable to be born earlier than the expected date of confinement. Urara-chan had her baby boy two weeks ahead of time, didn’t she?
Today my daughter also called me at around noon when we just started to eat ‘ Nabeyki-udon’, saying how her father was doing after his operation of abdominal aorta aneurysm. She was anxious to know about his health after getting out of the hospital last Friday.
I said that he would recuperate and soon return to duty.
She also told me she had finished packing and sending half of her
household possessions by ship because her family is planning to come back to Japan from Michigan on December 19.
She is having her second child, a girl baby who is going to be born March 10th in 2009. Then she plans to stay at my house with her two-and-eleven-month-old Manato from the middle of February to the beginning of April next year.
Moreover, Yuko-chan is going to have a boy baby on January 20 in 2009. After her birth,she'll stay at her parents' so my son is planning to have dinner at my house for about that month.
I’m going to become the happiest and busiest grandma to have two grandchildren at intervals of two months.
Cosmos, you must have enjoyed "Nagoya Players Special Production" purformed in English. Due to your concise summary of “The Vagina Monologues, I have a feeling that I could imagine what it was like. How I wished to see Prisca acting her role of prostitute in that stage! She must have had a convincing performance.
On Sunday evening, we had a Sukiyaki party celebrating my husband’s recovery from illness with my son and his wife at my house. I was pleased to see a beautiful relationship between the son and father when my son talked about various kinds of problems he had in his work and my husband gave him good and appropriate opinions through his accumulated business experiences, which seemed to convince my son.
Thank you for reading my tedious story.
Good-night, my precious friends.
November 5, 2008 10:51 PM
November 5, 2008 10:54 PM
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you?
Sunflower, a list of the time stamps you left at the end of your comment looks like a new style of poem. Wow, you will be extremely busy. Please take care of yourself and don’t try to be a perfect grandma.
Yesterday, I went to Tokyo Metropolitan Library near Hiroo. After having a part of some books copied, I went out and found the sun had already set. While walking toward a subway station, I enjoyed looking at a fabulous forest of buildings in Roppongi Hills.
I’m still reading Poovey’s The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer. This book is one of the most difficult books I’ve read since this summer. While reading, I sometimes find myself sleeping. I often have to read the same part that I’ve read twice or three times to understand. I wish to get accustomed to this style of writing soon.
* -------------------------------------------- *
• The French Revolution and the English Response
While the Proper Lady had evolved into the Angel of the House toward the last decade of the eighteenth century, which was characterized by the French Revolution, “the women who grew up” during that time “experienced a particularly intensive version of the contradictions” discussed in the previous section. (p. 30)
A case introduced here is Laetitia Hawkins’s Letters on the Female Mind (1793).
Trying to prove that women’s mind are naturally unsuited to politics, Hawkins reveals her fears of equality disseminated from the effects of the French Revolution: loosened social class and equality between sexes. She simply feared, “incurring the responsibility for making decisions” in politics. (p. 32) Equal rights entail equal responsibilities.
In the shadow of her apprehension was Hannah More’s “calling on women to support the traditional system of English values through” their indirect influence from the home, i.e. their traditionally assigned and limited lot. (p. 33)
While imploring her countrywomen to follow the role set by “providence,” More was aware of virtual impossibility to deny “that talk of natural rights and universal equality has encouraged some women to act on desires that the code of propriety explicitly denied.” (p. 34) In spite of admitting contradictions between “the normative images of what women ought to be and the real facts of what women are,” she concludes that “no matter what ‘ought’ to be, social stability needs sacrifice.” (p. 34)
Thus, women’s appetites were reprimanded repeatedly and any “attempt to explore, develop, or express the female self” was deplored.
* -------------------------------------------- *
Talk to you tomorrow.
Good night!
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