Reaction for Fisher

This text reminded me that there are a lot of things which people do in their mind without being aware of. For example, they make perceptions and sensations at the same time, distinguish what is figure and what is ground when they see some visual image, guess some parts of something which they can not see in their view point, and have tendency to make  positive evaluation for themselves. In addition, what was most impressive for me was that context and discovering some pattern in the interaction is necessary for making interpretation. This is because I could reconfirm that the meaning of a particular behavior or word or phrase is highly dependent on each context. I also thought that what is emphasized as to context is similar to the idea of "Language Differences" in Barna's text, which explained that the persistence to one meaning of a word or phrase might cause the misunderstanding. I thought that it is interesting to find a link between two text, and that finding some links might lead deeper understanding of intercultural or interpersonal communication.

Reaction for Barna

All stumbling blocks were interesting and helpful for me, especially the tendency to evaluate was impressive for me. This was because I have never think about that. I have never tried to evaluate other culture's custom or behavior. I have just thought that it is their culture. However, I thought that I might not consider other cultures well to the degree that I could evaluate them. I have just accepted without considering nothing. Therefore, I thought that I must think over about other cultures in order not to just accept but to understand them deeply, though careless evaluation is very harmful. In addition, After I read whole the text of Barna, I tried to consider which I am likely to have most. I concluded that it is the assumption of similarities. However, I lived in Belgium about 10 to 15 years ago. Also, I have a lot of experience to visit foreign country. Thus, I know the difficulties to communicate with foriegn people and how different the rule of act in foriegn countries well. However, when I live in Japan and think about foreign country or foreign people, I tend to assume that people in all over the world must have some similarities. I wondered why I think so only when I live in Japan. My answer is that maybe when I go to foriegn country, I prepare myself with the thought that everything must be different from Japan before I go to there.However, when I am in Japan, I do not have to prepare myself, so I tend to have the assumption of similarities. I think that the assumption of similarities is a kind of desire which all people tend to have because it is easier to think so than to think all people in the world are different. Therefore, I think that I must overcome this tendency, and become to be able to understand foriegn people empathically.

Summer Reading

The title of the book which I read during my summer vacation is 1984, and the author of this book is George Orwell.

The reason why I chose this book is that the content of this book is deeply related modern history, especially the way of rule of the Nazis and the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. I am very interested in the modern history. Also, the author was British, and he disclosed partly what was done in the country of totalitarianism or socialism in his novel. Thus, I thought that it is useful to know how the author disclosed and thought about totalitarianism and socialism.

In my opinion, the topic of this book is the anti-totalitarian country and the anti-socialistic country. The overview of this story is very fine I think. The main character, his name is Winston Smith, tries to resist the role of the Party secretly. This is because he thinks the way of the role of the Party is mistaken. The leader of the Party is Big Brother, and he hated him in his mind. However, he and his lover Julia are found and arrested by the Thought Police, which is a police like SS of the Nazis version of the Party. They are parted, and Winston is tortured by O’Brien in the prison, though Winston thought that O’Brien was his side. In the end, after he was entered in “Room 101”and released, he brainwashed and became to love Big Brother.

After reading this book, I thought that this novel was written in about later 1940s, which means that this novel was written in the beginning of Cold War. In addition, the author was a British. Thus, I thought that the role of the Party in this novel might be a little exaggerated. However, I also thought that there might be many things, which were done during World War Ⅱ, or Cold War. This was because the novel seemed modeled the Nazis and the Soviet Union. Therefore, I became to want to know the actual state of life of ordinary people under the rule of the Nazis or the Soviet Union. In addition, I knew that it is very vague that human memory and the past exist, and it is very difficult to prove their existence. I mean that if right memory or the right past were regarded as being wrong, it would be wrong or would be considered that it did not exist. It is alike if right and wrong are opposite. Therefore, I thought that we are also living under the control of memory as that of novel in a sense, which is done by teaching history in every school. From this point of view, I thought that we are living the world which is very unstable and liable to break down. In conclusion, this novel was very interesting and impressive for me. I could enjoy reading it.

First posting

I would like to look back on how my summer was. In this summer, I went to a driving school. I tried to get the driver licence during this summer, but I haven't got it yet. So, I must go there again during fall and winter vacation. Anyway, I really enjoyed driving car, though I sometimes felt strange that I was driving. Also, I did a part-time job in this summer for the first time. My job was to teach English to junior high school students in a cram school. It was very hard job because I had to consider both what I wrote in the black board in advance and how to explain to students effectivelly as they could easily understand. However, this job helped me to go over the basics of English. Thus, it was good experience for me, though there were large amount of overtime job. In addition, I traveled to the UK, Belgium, and Switzerland with my parents in the middle of August. it had been a long time since I traveled there, so I was really looking forward this trip. As I had expected, it was great! Above all, it was the most impressive when we visited the house in Belgium where my family had lived about ten years ago. Of course, the UK and Switzerland was also good. In the UK, we enjoyed shopping in London. In Switzerland, we climbed a mountain and ate a lot of cheese! It was delicious. Therefore, I could enjoy my summer vacation very much, though I a little tired because of a tight schedule.
By the way, the fall term has already started. I want to learn the details of how to write an academic paper persuasively and how to choose good materials for essays in the Internet or books in the autumn ARW. In the spring term, I had some vague knowledge, so I want to reduce it. Also, I couldn't quit understand how to make citations.Thus, I want to master it in the fall term. I am going to keep to make efforts in the fall term, though I became a little idle in the end of spring term.