short

Your own voice

Learning English is very important in the Japanese university system.

But you know,  in a large class it is difficult.  

So,  What is the goal?  Why does Japanese society feel it is so important?   Is it important to you?  This is a discussion question.   There are so many different answers to consider.
Each answer is important.  

Of course  reading is enough for most people.   And you can have an opinion about what you read.

But what about discussion?
Discussion is not the same as a short conversation. It is not reading.  

Discussion is finding your opinion and checking what other people think.   This gives your own opinion balance.  

Discussion in any situation means you have a  live  voice.  Not your teacher's voice,  your own personal opinion.

In Japan,  the style of discussion is different.   People listen,  agree,  try to keep harmony.   They want to follow the leader.   There are important social rules.  

But learn ing a different style of communication can only make you  a more flexible person.    No one style is best.   Just different.  

In Japan Social change is not so important so discussion is not highly valued.

Gossip questions

Gossip questions

1.  What word means 'having conversations about other people's private lives?

2.  How old are "pre-teens'?

3.  How much of pre-teens conversation was gossip?

4.  What did girl's mainly gossip about?

5.  Who did boys most often gossip with?

6. In general, when you were in junior high and high school,  what types of things did you talk about with your friends?

7, Nowadays,  what types of things do you talk about with your friends?

gossip

Gossiping

Gossiping - student A


This article is about gossiping. Do you understand what "gossip" means? In conversations, when people sometimes talk about other people's private lives, it is called gossiping. We often imagine older women telling gossip to each other; in other words, they tell personal information about other people. 

Gossiping - student B
 

Researchers analyzed girls and boys between the ages of 9 and 12 in order to learn if they gossip and what they gossip about. By the way, children between 9 and 12 are called 'pre-teens.' The researchers found that pre-teens spend 50% of the conversation time gossiping.

Gossiping - student C



Girls often talk about boys that they were in love with. They also talked about boys other girls loved. Boys, other the other hand, rarely talked about girls that they loved. But they did talk about girls in general.

Gossiping - part D


There was some interesting information about pre-teens. Pairs of boys who were good friends gossiped less than boys who were not close friends. In other words, boys used gossip to become friends with someone new. Girls, on the other hand, used gossip mostly with their friends. Girls spent much more time gossiping with close friends than with girls who were just acquaintances.

It's about time!

about the story


a. What does "It's about time!" mean?

b.  What does Vittoria say to Sebastian when he asks her to marry him?

c.  What do you think of Vittoria’s decision?

d  How long does it take for the couple to tie the knot?

e  How do the newly weds feel?

about you

a.  Have you ever bought anything that cost an arm and a leg?

b.  Are you single?   Do you want to get married someday?

c. How would you deal  with a situation where your parents didn't want you to marry?

d. Are you saving up to buy anything?  What?  

e.  Tell about a time when you finally got something you wanted after a long wait.

Get rid of

Dictation - read carefully to your partner

When Barbara turns on her heater, there's a terrible smell.  It is getting worse and worse.  She can't stand it!  She goes to the repair shop.  "What's the matter with my car?"  She asks.  Please get rid of that smell. When the mechanic takes a look at th heating system, he pulls out a big dead Python.  Barbara loses it.

Questions - ask your partner

1.  Why does Barbbara turn on the heater?
2. What happens when she turns on the heater?
3. Does she like the smell?
4.  Why do you think the snake was in the heater?

test

test sample

Songs from the Soul:

Stories from Around the World

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

1   In which story can you find these things? Complicity, The Luck of Four, Chinna and Muthu, The Deceivers, Treason.

a  A yellow butterfly. ………………

b  A little goat. ………………

c  A fat chicken. ………………

d  A lottery ticket. ………………

e  A computer. ………………

Setting

Choose the best answer.

1   In The Evening Train, Keshto lives _____.

a [  ] on a large farm b [  ] in a noisy city c [  ] in a small town d [  ] in a quiet village

2   Keshto makes and cooks delicious _____ cakes.

a [  ] rice b [  ] potato c [  ] tea d [  ] chocolate

3   Emma and Jimmy in Complicity visit a _____ with their mother.

a [  ] farm b [  ] shop c [  ] mine d [  ] house

4   In The Luck of Four, Chai goes into Samy’s _____ shop.

a [  ] book b [  ] clothes c [  ] coffee d [  ] cake

5   In Chinna and Muthu, there has been no _____ in the village for a long time.

a [  ] rain b [  ] work c [  ] milk d [  ] hot weather

Changing their Skies: Stories from Africa

Retold by Jennifer Bassett

1   Which story do these sentences come from? The Rubbish Dump, Cardboard Mansions, Leaving.

a  She began to think again about Stanger, and the past, and her friend Ratnadevi. ……….

b  He saw Mazambezi sitting by the side of the pit looking down into it. ……….

c  There were no fruit trees, no birds calling and   flying in and out of the trees. ……….

d  Some weeks later answers to the letters began arriving with big shiny prospectuses. ……….

e  Near the house he stopped and hid the plane under his shirt. ……….

f   That was the first time I saw her as a person, and not just as our mother. ……….

g  All through the journey he stood by the window, with his nose against the glass. ……….

h  It was a hard life, with five children and no husband. ……….

i   Why did people vomit when they were flying in a plane? ……….

j   She waited for the boy, pulling the end of her old green cotton sari over her head. ……….