Hi, ladies!
Plum, I was impressed and encouraged by your uplifting words, which sounds good for me. Keep trying… Yes, I never give up.
From TIME magazine:
French president Sarkozy suggested that countries should factor happiness into their statistics for growth. It is an interesting argument, isn’t it? So, I’ll try to think about happiness…
Japan’s GDP has ranked second in the world, and its people have believed for a long time that Japan can enjoy its power in its economy. But now, in this long recession, many feel doubts about what is true happiness. Even though people work hard as long as possible, at the cost of family ties, they cannot feel easy.
First, Japan can make better use of talented person more effectively. Women and foreigners, for example, can develop their ability and share social responsibility.
Second, the speed of aging of Japan’s society is very high. So, this recession might be a good chance to think deeply about it. If we can get out of this crunch, we will find better ways.
Last, some experts warned that a single-minded fixation on growth masked the financial crisis. We have to recognize more comprehensive way of growth.
Now we must think about our frame of reference in economic progress.
…I can’t organize it…
So, I’ll try again next. See you!
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Hi, ladies!!!
It has been warm, extremely warm for November. I went out wearing a jacket this morning, but eventually took it off and got home perspiring in the mid afternoon. I have never perspired like this in November in my life, as far as I can remember. I also got a feeling while walking that the humidity was quite high.
Peach, thank you for letting me know when Lenley is going back to England.
I just came up with an idea that we might hold a talk show in early spring with Lenley as a main guest, while I was reading your message. He seems to be a pretty nice person, and, perhaps, he can enjoy talking about England or London, to say nothing of English culture.
Is he going back in early March? Maybe he must be very busy getting ready for his trip back to London, I wonder. Nevertheless, if he has some interest in talking to us Japanese audience about London, it would be splendid, I believe. He lives in Motoyama, right? He lives in my neighborhood, oh, how wonderful! I wish I could talk to him about it.
By the way, I am going to Sydney in mid December for two months. I will be back in mid February.
Here is a new quiz for you and me.
Arctic warmest in two millennia
Summary
5 October 2009
Temperatures in the Arctic are now the highest they've been for 2,000 years, according to scientists. Researchers in the United States say that it is one of the clearest signs yet that human activity is warming the planet.
Reporter: Richard Black
Report
(1) scientists have produced (2) evidence showing dramatically that (3) current temperature rise there is highly unusual. For most of (4) last two thousand years, (5) Arctic slowly cooled, (6) consequence of (7) variations in the Earth's orbit.
But over the last century, (8) cooling abruptly reversed, and the region is now warmer than at any time in (9) 2,000 year record. Writing in the journal Science, (10) researchers say this shows how quickly (5) Arctic responds to climatic changes.
Richard Black, BBC News
Answers:
1. ---
2. ---
3. the
4. the
5. the
6. a
7. ---
8. the
9. the
10. the
Dear Rose,
Stay young, strong, and healthy.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you?
It was a warm day, indeed.
Today, Sunflower asked me why I haven’t showed up here recently. I made plenty of excuse but this evening I somehow caught up with all the comments and quizzes.
Well, my score is …
Never mind.
I feel I need to keep doing this forever.
By the way, I was surprised at Plum’s 7 stitches and Peach’s son’s 49 degrees for 5 days!
How scary!
Now I’m relieved to hear both of you are fine now.
Plum, thank you for choosing interesting stories. I enjoy reading them. When I found the time stamp of the article about Michael Jackson, I couldn’t believe almost 3 months had passed since his death. Unbelievably fast time flies. It’s kind of you to put time stamps, too.
Cherry, the topics you have been writing about is interesting for me. Especially the ones you wrote about women and happiness. I’m reading about them a lot these days. In fact, it’s about us, isn’t it? Happiness is not measurable and not scientific but how people think about happiness and whether people are unsatisfactory or not are very important political questions; therefore, it’s debatable in social sciences.
It's late.
Good night.
Hi, ladies!!!
The other day, I happened to watch the ending part of the talk program HARD TALK on BBC with Noam Chomsky as the guest. At Auckland University, I was taught his theory universal grammar by an American lecturer who had studied Chomsky linguistics at MIT, most probably, instructed directly by Chomsky. To me, Chomsky’s universal grammar was quite a reasonable, understandable, and straightforward philosophy in linguistics. His analysis of English sentences is mathematical and mechanical. One of Chomsky’s theories called syntax structures can be applied to any human language, according to the lecturer at Auckland University, but I still wonder whether it can be applicable to the Japanese language, which is a highly complicated tongue.
Any way, Noam Chomsky is broadly recognized as one of the most important contemporary American intellectuals and is often quoted in academic books, research papers, essays and theses.
I will just post a couple of segments of Wikipedia that refer to universal grammar.
Universal Grammar (Wikipedia)
Children are hypothesized to have an innate knowledge of the basic grammatical structure common to all human languages (i.e., they assume that any language which they encounter is of a certain restricted kind). This innate knowledge is often referred to as universal grammar.
The Chomskyan approach towards syntax, often termed generative grammar, studies grammar as a body of knowledge possessed by language users. Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages.[29] The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed Universal Grammar.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Good evening, how are you?
It’s raining in Toyohashi. How about your place?
Thank you for letting us know Chomsky’s basic idea about grammar, Plum. I happened to watch the latter half of the show. I like the show Hard Talk.
When I saw Chomsky on TV on that evening, he looked very familiar to me although I had not seen the name. In one of the sociology classes I took in Canada, I saw some videos in which Chomsky talked about atrocity in East Timor and Cambodia. He looked older but I could recognize him. I heard that most teachers at the College are leftist and, naturally, I think, Chomsky's books were recommended.
I didn’t know anything about his career as a linguist. Do we have innate abilities to recognize languages because language structures are common? At least, it’s good news for me. Then, in English grammar, rules about articles are completely parochial, aren’t they? Or am I too obstinate?
I’m looking forward to trying the next quiz.
Hello, Cherry and my precious friends.
It was a warm rainy day today.
I had a very good time talking with Plum over the phone last night.
During the conversation, she told that our next project in 2010 would be writing ‘personal essays’ instead of academic ones we’ve been doing for these several years.
She aspires to get us to write essays dealing with personal topics such as Mother. She added that story-telling skills and techniques are desperately needed in order to move non-Japanese readers. What an interesting, worthwhile and challenging project!! She always seems to astonish us with her unique plans.
By the way, US President Barack Obama is going to visit Tokyo on Friday.
His tight schedule does not allow him to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki this time. But it’s good to hear that Mr. Obama said that he would be honored to have the opportunity to visit
two cities during his presidency.
Media often announce that he has his hands full with the war of Afghanistan and health care reform.
His approving rate dropped from 79 percent to around 50 percent.
See you tomorrow, my friends.
Hello, Cherry and my precious friends.
It was a warm rainy day today.
I had a very good time talking with Plum over the phone last night.
During the conversation, she told that our next project in 2010 would be writing ‘personal essays’ instead of academic ones we’ve been doing for these several years.
She aspires to get us to write essays dealing with personal topics such as Mother. She added that story-telling skills and techniques are desperately needed in order to move non-Japanese readers. What an interesting, worthwhile and challenging project!! She always seems to astonish us with her unique plans.
By the way, US President Barack Obama is going to visit Tokyo on Friday.
His tight schedule does not allow him to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki this time. But it’s good to hear that Mr. Obama said that he would be honored to have the opportunity to visit
two cities during his presidency.
Media often announce that he has his hands full with the war of Afghanistan and health care reform.
His approving rate dropped from 79 percent to around 50 percent.
See you tomorrow, my friends.
Hi, Cherry and friends,
It is Nov.11, Wednesday,and it was a little chilly because of the rain. Plum,Lenley is really a nice person and I am sure he is pleased with the idea of listening him talk about London. He knows a lot about traveling as he worked for HIS, London, and he will answer our request as much as possible. I will ask him the exact date of his leaving Japan. And as he lives in Motoyama, the access is very convienient.
As for happiness and aging, it is very difficult to have both and keep balance. One thing I am sure is that when we are aged and have more experiences, we can understand how much we have been loved and allowed by parents, friends or in society.
We cannot think of happiness without the relationships with other people. So as a nation, it is important for Japan to have a good relations with other countries.
For that we should have a firm sense of value or try to have one
so that we can exchange the true feeling. It however is really a Japanese way fo thinking, isn't it?
Alice, it is so nice of you concerning in my son's health.
Everyone, please take a rest whenever you feel tired.
Plum, it must be wonderful and happy to stay with your daughter's family.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Plum, thank you for your kind words for me. I will try to keep young, strong and healthy. I always admire you because you take a forward-looking stance at any time. Your positive upbeat mind encourages me.
Have a nice dream my precious friends.
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