Time flies.

I came to Vancouver almost 1 year ago.  I have taken 3 sessions in the ELI, so this session is my third session.  I'm glad to finish my school life, but I'm also sad at the same time because I have to leave here as soon as I finish this session.

When I just came to the ELI, my writing level was just 300 levels in writing. Those days, I had been really struggling to write even one paragraph.  I haven't realized I could improve my writing skill even after I moved up to 400 levels, but now I finally figured out that my writing skill got better, compared to the first session.  In this writing class, I have learned a lot of important and interesting things.  Although I don't know whether I deserve 600 levels or not, I really enjoyed this class, and I got many things.

In addition, I'm happy to have seen my awesome classmates and teacher.  What Nathan gave us was always interesting, and he always helped us. (Some articles were little bit too difficult for me though.) Also, I really like my classmates.  They always have stimulated me, and I have learned a lot from them.

What I learned in this class is not only English, but history, Christianity, science, society, and lots of other things. I really appreciate it.

I'm sorry to be late very often...(but compared to last session, I got better!)

Thank you everyone!!

Let's stay in touch!

I'm gonna post my blog sometimes!

A Summary of "The riddle of experience vs. memory"

Nowadays, a lot of people think about happiness.  Everybody tries to make people as happy as possible; however, in spite of many efforts, sometimes it's really hard. That's because of traps.    There are three main cognitive traps: a reluctance to admit complexity, a confusion between experience and memory, and the focusing illusion.  When people think about happiness, people don't refer to their experience but memory.  Even if a person had good time for long time, if he/she had bad feeling in the end, the whole memory changes to bad memory; eventually he/she can't feel happy.  We have both experiencing self and remembering self. The biggest difference is how to handle time.  As some examples show us, remembering self is much more important than experiencing self.  People shouldn't think about happiness as a substitute of well-being; because those ideas are completely different.

2001 A Space Odyssay

I have watched this movie before I watched it in a class.  When I watched it for the first time, I couldn't understand what happened in this movie at all.  Even now, the movie is still difficult for me; however, I try to interpret the movie.  Definitely, the monolith has a certain purpose.  First of all, the monolith gave human a technology which is enough for them to go to the moon.  After long time, finally people got to the moon and found the second monolith.  The purpose of second monolith is to lead people to the Jupiter.  After eight months, people got the technology enough to go there. And a person got to the Jupiter where is transcending time and space.  He traveled time; after that, I guess he was the only creature in the space.  He was chosen by monolith.  When he was about to die, he saw the last monolith and was reborn as a new human.  The will of monolith is the will of space, and the final purpose is to create new kind of life.  In addition, HAL is a symbol of the technology people achieved to get. I think the scene shows us the fact that technology would attack human if it were developed too much.

2001 A Space Odyssey

Actually I have watched this movie at least three times, but I've fogotten the detail of story.  What I remember about this movie is that the movie is one of the difficult movie to figure out a message.  This movie is profound, meaningful, and artistic.  People in this movie don't speak so much, and Kubric is using some beautiful classic music in some scene where we don't expect that kind of music is used.  I especially like the beginning of this movie, which is called "The dawn of man".  At the moment human beings achieved the innovative evolution, the movie impressed me with beautiful music.

An Optical Illusion

Do you trust your eyes? If so, how can you trust your eyes?  The picture is famous for optical illusion.  Can you believe the square marked A and the one marked B are exactly same colour?  You may say "A is much darker than B"; however, they are same.  This is called an optical illusion (or visual illusion), which is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality.  There are three main types: literal optical illusions, physiological optical illusions, and cognitive optical illusions.


Initially, literal optical illusions create images that are different from the objects that make them.  For example, the lines in following picture are actually parallel, but we somehow feel they have angles.
Zollner, who were Geman, found this optical illusion.  I don't know why our eyes are deceived in this case.  According to Zollner, oblique lines in each parallel lines influence our brain, and the bigger the angle of oblique line is, the more effective it is.  I have a lot of examples about this kind of simple optical illusion, so if you  guys want me to introduce them, let me know!



The second type of optical illusions is physiological one.  This one is the effects on the eyes and brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type such as brightness, colour, size, position, tilt, or  movement. For example, look at the left picture.  Although there are only white dots on the cross, we can see black dots there.  The theory is that a stimulus follows its individual dedicated neural path in the early stages of visual processing, and that intense or repetitive activity in that or interaction with active adjoining channels cause a physiological imbalance that changes perception, according to the literature on this subject.


The third type is cognitive optical illusion.  This type is  called "unconscious inferences". This idea was suggested in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz.  For example, look at the right picture.  What do you think this picture looks like?  Some people might say this is two faces which gaze at each other.  The other people might say this is vase.  If we change the way to see it, we can find other shape in a same picture.


What are optical illusions teaching us?  What I wanted to say with using those example is a very simple but important thing. That is, nobody can say "what I see is absolutely correct".  People usually believe only what they can see; however, sometimes truth is hidden.  If we change the way to see, we may be able to see what we haven't seen or what other people usually see.


P.S.
I put the picture which clearly explains the first picture because some of you may be still doubtful.

The Summary of "A Darwinian theory of beauty"

What is beauty?  We can find beauty in many different things like music, art, sports, plays, and so on.  When we think about this topic, we are likely to think beauty is determined by personal sense of value or culture.  However, Denis Dutton illustrates that there are universal beauty that has never changed since human existed, with Darwin's theory.  In nature, there are natural selection and sexual selection.  These selections mean that beautiful things naturally win and remain and what lost in competition disappears. This phenomenon is not dependent on culture but everywhere.  There are beautiful landscape which everybody loves regardless of culture or nationality.  Also people can feel beauty in something done well.  These example shows us that we have aesthetics not in our eyes but in our deep mind.  We have taken it over historically and we also give it to offspring as long as human exist.

Personal Reaction about Bill Reid Gallery

Before I came to Vancouver, I hadn't been curious about the First Nations' culture in Canada.  However, once I knew the history, the culture, and the totem poles, I became interested in the First Nations.  Although the Bill Reid Gallery was smaller than I expected, it was interesting.  In particular, what I found interesting is tongues which most faces have.  The thrusting tongues looks humorous, but actually it doesn't mean it.  The tongue-thrusting is serious, and I heard that it shows that the creature is giving "knowledge" or "power" to the creatures to whom it is thrusting its tongue.  Totem poles are not symbol of religion but symbol of the history.  I felt the First Nations had found their history or origin very significant when I went to the gallery.

Common Cuckoo

  I have already introduced a insect, a plant as a interesting specie although I was not sure if you guys were interested in them or not.  Anyway, because I want to share something interesting or mysterious with you guys, I'm going to write about that kind of thing again.  Today's theme is "Common Cuckoo"(Cuculus Canorus), which is a kind of birds.


  The cuckoo is seen in Eurasian Continent and Africa Continent.  Sometimes we can see it in Japan in May.  This bird is known for peaceful birds because their songs sound humorous, amiable, and cute.  However, as a matter of fact, they have a horrible custom.  The common cuckoo is a brood parasite, which lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species.  It means they make other birds bring up their child!!  The victims are mostly the Reed Warblers, which is also kind of birds, and much smaller than Cuckoo.  When the hen cuckoo flies down to the Reed Warblers' nest, she pushes one Reed Warbler egg out of the nest, and lays an egg and flies off.  The whole process takes only about 10 seconds.  She kills a Reed Warbler egg in order to make Reed Warbler bring up only her child.  Sometimes, the hen cuckoo fails to kill other eggs, and then the eggs safely hatch; however, when Cuckoo's egg hatches, the Cuckoo chick pushes other eggs out of the nest.  Eventually, if birds are invaded by Cuckoo, their own eggs can never survive.  At 14 days old, the Cuckoo chicks are about three times the size of the adult Reed Warblers.

  We wonder why Reed Warblers don't notice the fact the chick is actually a wrong bird.  The size of Cuckoo chicks is totally different from Reed Warblers' chicks. It's obvious!!  But, in fact, they know they are raising other birds' chicks.  They have known it since their own children are killed by the chick.  Even if Reed Warblers know the truth, they can't help raising the Cuckoo chick, which is only child remained in their nest.  This is kind of an instinct that animals have.  Although they are aware of something wrong, they keep feeding the chick until the chick is grown up and leaves the nest.


  Do you think Cuckoo is cruel?  Yes, for victims such as Reed Warblers, this custom is fairly terrible.  But why do Cuckoos do this?  Why don't they bring up their children by themselves?  Are they just lazy?  Actually, not.  They have a reason that they have to do that.  The reason is their body temperature is not enough high to warm eggs up.  Their body temperature is easy to change, so they can't warm their eggs up by themselves.  I think Cuckoos were thinking over about this serious problem, and they came up with being a brood parasite in order to survive.  When they get pregnant, they always have to find a suitable nest.  Even if they can find it, they have to say good bye to their eggs.  Their child can never see the true parent.  The chick thinks the bird who feed him is a parent, and the hen Cuckoo realize it.  Although she loves her child, she can't meet her child as a parent.  This is a tragedy not only for Reed Warblers, but also Cuckoos.

Cheer for Argentina!!

  Today, I'm going to writing about soccer, especailly Argentina national team.  I'm really crazy about watching soccer games though I don't like playing it.  Soccer players always attract me, and I"m so excited when teams I cheer win.  I have many teams I love to cheer for, such as Barcelona FC in Spain, Manchester United in England and Inter Milan in Italy, but the team I love the most is Argentina national team.  In spite of the fact that I have nothing related to Argentina, I have been a big fun of Argentina. The first time I watched the game of Argentina is 13 years ago.  Then, I had watched 1998 World Cup, which was held in France, and I was so attracted to Argentina although they couldn't be a champion.  Their soccer was really fantastic, artistic, mervelous, and definitely outstanding compared to other thems.  Since then, I have loved Argentina national team.
  As a matter of fact, I would cheer for Argentina rather than Japan or Korea if they matched.  I think most people naturally cheer for their own countries.  However, I can't naturally think either Japan or Korea is my own country.  Of course, I have many favorite players in Japanese team and Korean team, and I love both.  But it is not based on my patriot.  When 2002 World Cup was held in Korea and Japan, everybody in Japan had cheered for Japan.  While most of my friends worn Japan Uniforms, and some of my Korean Japanese friends worn Korean Uniforms, I worn Argentina Uniform.  (However, then Argentina had to go home much more earlily than supporters expected...)
  Now, 2011 Copa America, which is the biggest soccer event in South America, is going on in Argentina.  Although Argentina has so many great players such as Messi, who is the best player in the world, and Argentina is a host country, they couldn't win at the last two games!! Both were draw games.  I was really disappointed. Actually I can't figre out what's going on.  That's why I came up with posting this topic.  Argentina still has a chance to go up to the tournament if they win at the next game; however, if they lost or drew again, I would be terribely shocked, even might get sick.  So please cheer and pray for Argentina to win!

Similarities between Genesis and "Prometheus Bound"

  I'm going to write about similarities between Genesis and "Prometheus Bound".  We can find some similarities in both stories even though they are based on different philosophies.
  First of all, both stories have absolute existences. It is God in Genesis, and it is Zeus in "Prometheus Bound".  They have a strong power which others can't rebel against at all.  Also, both seem to think that they don't want to share their knowledge, technology with people, and gave punishment to serpent, and Prometheus.  Actually there is a difference here.  I guess the reason of the punishment Zeus gave is because he was afraid that people got power to assert against Gods including him; however, God in the Bible just got angry against breaking a rule.  Although reasons seem different, both situations are quite similar.
  Secondly, both stories have victims of unreasonable punishment, and both victims tried to help people.  In Genesis, serpent got punishment because he encouraged Eve to eat the fruit.  I can say it's little bit controversial because serpent might just try to confuse people and tempt Eve.  In this theory, God put the tree because he respected people's will or loyalty.  So I can't say if the serpent was really good or not.  Meanwhile, Prometheus was definitely a victim.  He helped people to gain vital knowledge and skills. He thought it was absolutely necessary for people, but Zeus didn't like it.  Although I can't say both victims are completely same, they got punishment which most people might think was unreasonably terrible.

The differences between 1st account and 2nd account

  As most of my friends know, I'm a Christian, so I have been to Church every Sunday.  However, I have never tried to compare each account of Genesis. It may be theologically a good idea.  I always realize how deep the Bible is when I read it.  Roughly speaking, there are three differences between 1st account and 2nd account.  These are 1)how to call God, 2)length of the creation, and 3)the sequence of events.
  First of all, while God is called just "God" in 1st account, he is called "the Lord God" in 2nd account.  Why is it different?  I guess that's because God has been the only existence which can think about other things until he created others.  Then, nobody has been able to recognize God.  However, after he created some things which could recognize themselves and others, it became possible that God was called "the Lord".  At the moment he created us, he became the Lord.  I think the author has tried to show us the moment God became OUR God.
  In addition, the lengths of the creation are different.  God took 6days to create the base of the world such as ocean, land, and stars.  On the other hand, he has created creatures including human beings for only one day.  Some people believe that it may be easier to create creatures than the world.  Meanwhile, some number theorists who try to connect mathematics with the Bible pay attention to numbers themselves like "6" and "1".  "6" is called "perfect number" because "1+2+3"(they are factors of 6) is 6 and "1*2*3" is also 6.  The number "6" shows us that God is perfect.  In the mean time, the number "1" is the basic number of everything. "1" never rejects anything, and can accept everything.  So the number "1" is regarded as a symbol of coexistence.  Although I don't know the meaning of differences of these lengths, I think that a day is different from a day we imagine.  A day in the Genesis could be a thousand years.  Because God also create time, he can control the length of time.
  Finally, the sequence of events is different.  In 1st account, God created vegetation, and then created human.  However, in 2nd account, it's opposite.  He created a man at first, and then others.  If I can say something from Christian's point of view, it may show that people are very special for God.  All of other things were created for people.  Ocean, land, sky, Sun, Moon, etc are necessary for people before human was created.  Animals, vegetation, cattle, and partnership are necessary for them after human was created.  Of course, it doesn't mean people can do anything to other creatures.  When people get a power to control them, people get also responsibility to deal with them other creatures well.
  Although Genesis is controversial part and some people may misunderstand what is actually written, I like Genesis.  I don't believe that kind of things actually historically happened.  But I believe that God created this world no matter how long he took for it.  Anyway, most Christians don't believe that men are superior to women because of what is written in Genesis.  Only few people who are very conservative believe that.  It's actually absurd.  Don't misunderstand it!!

Voynich Manuscript

  Today, I'm going to write about Voynich Manuscript, instead of my usual weekend.  Have you ever heard Voynich Manuscript?  It's one of the most interesting mystery in the world.  As you guys know, I have a lot of interests; especially, I'm really curious about something mysterious.  Voynich Manuscript always catches my heart and holds it.  It's special in numerous mysteries I have ever known.

  Voynich manuscript was found by Wilfrid Michael Voynich(1865-1930, Polish)  in Italy
 in 1912.  What is interesting about this manuscript is the fact that this manuscript is written in unknown language.  Voynich had tried to understand this language with many language experts; however, he couldn't succeed.  What he found out is only the fact that this manuscript was written in 15 centuries.  The language seems similar to European language, but it's definitely different from any other languages.  Some researchers claims that this language is kind of fake because this language hadn't been found in any other written materials.  In other words, this language is used in only Voynic manuscript.  So, some researchers believe that a genius created this language to confuse people.  It is still one of possible hypotheses.  However, most of linguists denied this hypothesis because the language seems like a language that some people actually had used in certain ages.  The linguists claims that they can figure out that the language is not fake by means of investigating how often same patterns show up in sentence, or sentence structures.
  What's more bizarre is the illustrations in the manuscript.  There are some familiar plants in those illustrations; however, most of them are something nobody knows.  Most of illustrations seem like plants, and some of them seem like animals, people, or space.   In particular, the illustrations which seem like space are really similar to galaxy, or Andromeda Nebula.  How come the author could draw the pictures of galaxy without astronomical telescopes?  It is obvious that people in 15 centuries didn't have astronomical telescope.  Therefore, some people claims that aliens wrote this manuscript. According to those people, the language and unfamiliar plants in illustrations are not something which had existed on earth.  This idea sounds absurd, but I like it.
  So many people, including many researchers, scholars, doctors, professional and amateur cryptographers, and American and British code-breakers from World War, have tried to decipher it, but nobody haven't succeeded yet.  Because it is open for everybody, we can see the whole pages of this manuscript through the internet.  If you succeed to decipher it, you may be able to get more than I million dollars!  Let's try to do it!!

Victoria Trip

  I went to Victoria on last weekend.  Although I have been there once, then I couldn't visit Butchart Garden.  That's why I decided to go there with my friends at this time.  When I went to Victoria at the first time (with my girl friend), it was still winter.  I had expected we couldn't see flowers there, so I gave up to go there.
  So I was so excited to go to Butchart Garden. And as I expected before I went, It was so BEAUTIFUL!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes.  Also, it was really interesting for me, because one of my hobbies is to look up to flowers.  I saw plenty of flowers which I had never seen and wanted to see with my eyes!  I really enjoyed walking around there. However, at the same time, I felt little bit sad because I really wanted my girlfriend to see such beautiful flowers.  I hope we will come back to Butchart Garden again.  If you don't know how wonderful it is, I strongly recommend you to go there.    Although the garden costs high, it is worthy!!
  What I enjoyed is not only Butchart Garden but also several famous places in Victoria.  In particular, I love B.C. museum.  Compared to Vancouver museum, it is much more interesting.  As everyone knows, I'm really curious about creatures including those which have already been extinguished.  I was so excited that I took lots of pictures there.  Also, I saw night view in Victoria at the first time.  It was amazingly beautiful.
  I realized that Victoria is one of the most beautiful city in Canada.  Some people say that Victoria is as tedious as Vancouver; however, Victoria is very nice city, at least to visit!!

Amorphophallus titanum

     Today, I want to introduce Amorphophallus titanum (or titan arum). This is the largest flower in the world.  As you guys know, Rafflesia is also very famous for the largest flower. As a matter of fact, titan arum is famous for the largest "inflorescence".  Although people are surprised at the size of titan arum, it has some other unique aspects besides the size.
     First of all, I'm going to give you some basic information about this flower.  Titan arum grows in rain forest in Sumatora.  The big one is about 3.5m tall.  Number of titan arum is really few, so people now are trying to preserve this flower.
     What's interesting about this flower is the fact that titan arums come into flower just once 7 years.  Basically, this plant are just closing inflorescence; that is,it is just a bud.  In addition, even if it comes into flower, it keeps for only 2 days.  Titan arum becomes a flower only 2 days in 7 years!!  Therefore, when titan arums bloom, many people come to Indonesia in order to see this rare flowering.  However, to tell the truth, as you can find it out from the picture, this is not actually beautiful.  In fact, titan arum was chosen as the ugliest flower in the world few years ago.
     Furthermore, when titan arums bloom, they emit terrible smell, which is really similar to smell of dead people.  The reason they emit bad smell is to attract some bugs and make them help pollination.  If titan arums emit bad smell, bugs are supposed to gather on the flower, and they drop into bottom of the flower.  Then, if bugs which has pollen touch stigmas, pollination of titan arums are supposed to succeed.  Titan arums keep emitting terrible smell not to miss rare chance to leave offspring.  Some couples think titan arums are romantic because they can see flowering just once 7 years, and sometimes they really go see it.  But most of them regret seeing it due to deadly smell.  According to some reports, this smell is so intense that nobody can't stand without mask.
     In conclusion, I don't recommend you to go see this bizarre plant, but I want to see it at least once before I die.(Actually once is enough.)  Titan arums make me think over what creature is.  I love this mysterious creatures.  I wonder how the plant come up with emitting horrible smell to gather bugs because they don't have brains.  Or, I also wonder if they have accurate clock in their bodies on not. In other words, how can they count 7 years? (Their flowering is exactly once 7 years.)  That's why creature is interesting!!!!

how to prepare for mid term exam

Hi, guys.

I'm going to introduce proper ways to prepare for mid-term exam.
Because I'm a continuing student, I may know little bit more how mid-term exam is than new students.
Basically, we don't have the best way which everybody can share.  That's because mid-term test is a test which requires our real English abilities.
So, sometimes I don't prepare anything, but it doesn't mean I gave up.
I mean, if you always study by yourself, just do same things as usual.
As Xiaoyue mention in her blog, the most important thing is to have good sleep, to get energy from food, and to have confidence.

If I can add something here, I suggest that we review what we learned in writing class.
For example, we can make sure sentence structure, organization, grammar, and some useful words such as "On the other hand", "To sum up".

You guys can make it!

Argentine ant

  I have so many hobbies, and one of them is investigating weird creatures. I want to introduce Argentine ant, which is the most dangerous creature all over the world. It's actually listed up in "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species".


  Although their bodies are smaller than general ants, they are extremely violent, cruel and numerous.  In general, animals kill other animals in order to eat them (to live), or to defend themselves or children.  However, Argentine ants frequently kill other animals to just kill.  Some of species which got attacked by them are completely extinguished.  They can easily increase, and make huge colonies.  Once they invade a place, many species are bound to disappear there.  Argentine ants kill not only ants or other insects, but also even birds, cows, sheep, or sometimes human babies.  That's why they are regarded as the most dangerous species in the world.  Although many researchers have tried to find the way to completely drive away Argentine ants, it's still unknown.  I really wonder why they are so violent.  One of universal rules which lie on all creatures is that animals must not kill others unless it's for survival.  But Argentine ants don't eat victims, and they don't stop killing until extinguishing victims.  It's scary, isn't it?


  And be careful, because Argentine ants are  a common household pest, often entering buildings in search of food or water (particularly during dry or hot weather), or to escape flooded nests during periods of heavy rainfall. Argentine ant colonies almost invariably have many reproductive queens, as many as eight for every 1,000 workers, so eliminating a single queen does not stop the colony's ability to breed.  It's really scary, isn't it?


  I want to give them calm mind loving peace.  The reason that I'm interested in such a horrible specie is simple. It's because I find them sad.  I hope there is a way that Argentine ants can live together with other species someday....

What I thought about the movie "Being there"

Although I could watch only a half of the whole story (I'm going to watch it), I'm going to write about what I thought about the movie.  First of all, I really like it.  It is basically funny. It made me laugh many times, but I was moved at the same time.  People who are impressed by Chance look comical, but it was moving that people's mind was getting cured with touching Chance's innocence.  I kinda felt this movie was similar to "Forrest Gump", which is one of my favarite movies.  And "Being there" had a lot of impressive scenes such as "a man walking on warter".  This scene left a misterious aftertaste.  I want to think over what the scene mean.

A Comparison of "Hills Like White Elephants" and "The CLOD & the PEBBLE"

Both are about love. Both made me think of what love is. But these two are describing different aspect of love.  "Hills Like White Elephants", which was written by Ernest Hemingway, seems to be based on realism. Although people have ideals about love like what we can see in fairy tails, they actually have to face to a real.  And the real is not necessarily happy nor beautiful. The short story show us real love through realistic problem which we often see in our life.  On the other hand, the poem "The CLOD & the PEBBLE" is describing fundamental form of love.  It shows that love we want to believe is nothing but a fantasy, and actual love has always two sides.  This quality of love is not dependent on situation, age, or people.  It's universal.  Ernest Hemingway cut off a particular scene, and try to show us a possibility when we are involved in love. In addition, although William Blake obviously show his opinion, Ernest Hemingway pretends as if he was just a cameraman and doesn't have opinion about what he wrote.

A personal response to "Hills Like White Elephants"

Although this story was written in 1927, this kind of issue between a man an a woman still happen even today.  What I felt about this story is that the man is a type of man who can't figure out woman's mind.  Women sometimes don't directly say what they really want to say. Then, men have to imagine how they actually feel from their tones, their tension, or their attitude.  However, the man in this story seems not to be good at reading women's feeling.  What I felt was interesting is that Hemingway showed us their emotion without direct descriptions such as "then, the girl got annoyed","the man felt disappointed."  We can catch their feeing from efficient repeats and descriptions of landscape.  I like this kind of literal ways.  I hope they will be able to make a decision without sadness; especially I don't want the girl to be hurt.  Although I'm a man and may not really understand feeling of women who get pregnant nor abortion, I kinda feel women are likely to have more disadvantages than men when it comes to this kind of problems because some men who are irresponsible may regard it as a smaller thing than what is really happening.  All men should consider it as seriously as women do and accept what women want to do even if it is sometimes not logical. That's what I felt about this story.

A Very Short Story written by Ernest Hemingway

To tell the truth, I didn't really find out what Hemingway wanted to say.  This kind of love affairs sometimes happen between men and women in any era.  I don't think Luz should be forgiven.  Because now I have long distanse relationship, I can guess how they have felt.  Needless to say, she shouldn't have done that, even if she felt lonely.  If I were him, I would also get sexsial desease due to the immeasurable shock.(just kidding!)  Long distanse relationship definitely requires trust; once the trust is broken, couples can never keep their relationship anymore although I can say same thing in any kind of relationship.  I hate all kind of betrayal and adultery, so I never do that.  Some people believe that men are more likely to have an affair than women, and it may be true.  But I know there are a lot of honest men in the world who never betray women!!

Compare General Tien to Red Thread Maiden

     I’m going to write about some similarities and differences between General Tien and Red Thread Maiden. First of all, both are respectful. Although General Tien intended to invade General Hsueh Sung’s area, I can realize he is actually a respectful person because if he were not respectful, he would be mad at the incident that Red Thread Maiden stole his golden box and would try to get his injured honor back. But he didn’t attack General Hsueh but recognized how terrific General Hsueh’s power was after he got a letter from General Hsueh. Likewise, Red Thread Maiden didn’t kill any people. She seems to always respect her lord and she is respectful of life. Moreover, both are active. General Tien tried to attack General Hsueh because of uncomfortable weather, which is not a vital problem. Meanwhile, Red Thread Maiden stood for a spy in spite of the fact it was none of her business.
     Although they share some similarities, they have also differences. One of them is a courage. While General Tien was coward, Red Thread Maiden is brave. In other words, while the former needed three thousand to change unstable situation, the latter needed only herself. Secondly, although General Tien seems to be stupid, Red Thread Maiden seems to be smart. Red Thread Maiden had known how she could change the situation although even General Hsueh hadn’t. Meanwhile, General Tien couldn’t do anything but surrendering without fighting after the horrible incident. It may show us how horrible it was for him, but I can’t say he is smart.

The Gold Mountain Coat

In her short story, "The Gold Mountain Coat", Judy Fong-Bates explores the tensions of immigrant life in Canada in the 1950's.  The small town where the narrator was raised had the Chinese restaurant, which was the only one in the town.   Sam Sing, who was the proprietor, and his two children was running it.  He looked stern, daunting, and very stingy.  Although his two children, Ken and John, were kind, and close to the narrator's family, Sam Sing never wanted to have relationship with them.  What the narrator remember most about Ken and John was the story about a single coat they shared.  Although the narrator didn't expect it, John got married and asked the narrator would teach English to John's children.  Sam Sing allowed his sons to close the restaurant for a half-day; it was really rare because the restaurant had never closed for 5 years.  But they realized that they absolutely needed the other coat in a hurry.  They decided to have a negotiation with Sam on a night that they would share a whisky.  Afterwards, they decided that they were going to do on Friday.  That Friday, John claimed that they need a new coat in order to go to the airport.  When Sam's face was about to harden,  Ken blurted out that it was necessary for John's son.  San smiled, and said "Very good".  The brothers felt at ease.

how related reading and writing are

I really love reading. When I was a university student, I read a lot of books. Most of  books I read was about non-fiction, sciense, and history.  When I read books which are little bit difficult to understand, I always take a note in order to make it clearer.  If I do that, I can remember some unfamiliar words without hard work.  In particular, when I meat new notions that authors freaquently use, I have to completely figure out  the meanig of that. Otherwise I can't really understand what authors wanted to say.When I call reading "imput", writing is "output". Absolutely both are necessary for language.

I have read and written a lot of things in English since I came here.  Basically vocabulary I used in my writing is easier than one I learn from reading.  But I always try to use new words I learned in reading class.  In most cases, teachers modify my usage of the words. That's why I try.  I hope I'm gradually improving my vocabulary with repeating reading and writing.

Vocabulary Assignment#1

Hello!

Welcome to my world.
This is not my first blog. I have made my blog several times, but I couldn't keep going.
So this is the only blog I'm keeping now.

I'm going to write about Vancouver.
I have stayed in Vancouver for about 9 months.
When I came here, Summer was about to finish. So I have never experienced the best season in Vaoncouver. I'm looking forward to enjoying Vancouver's summer!
People in Vancouver are very considrate.  When  I got lost on the street, people helped me kindly.
And some people say "Thank you" when they get off the bus.
It hardly happens in Japan.
I really like this livable city.

Now I'm contemplating my future. If I have my money and time, I want to stay here as long as possible.

Come to Vancouver! You can enjoy sunsine, scenery, and great culture.