ENG102: 3月 2007

2007年3月27日火曜日

concerning?

Researching takes a lot of time. Seems like there are not enough time for research, but I am trying to get information as much as I can and I will chose the best resources for the essay. The hardest part of this process is finding the specific information I want!!!

2007年3月24日土曜日

game

I really enjoyed the game we had for the finding how to write bibilography.
It was exciting and i could learn how to write bibilography at the same time!
and we won! yeah. i think that was the best time ever in the ENG102 class!!!

Starting Reaserch Paper!!

It took me a long time to write the research paper!!! I was so frustrated when i was looking for resorces... but once i started writing the essay, i started to enjoy writing. It was fun to organize the essay and write about Nova(The biggest English company in Japan). Oh another thing, I never wrote the bibliography so i had to go to the Learning Center few times. The learning center is really helpful!

2007年3月21日水曜日

ENG102

To be honest, I am scared of English 102. I love the English language but not English reading or writing. I am still learning English but I will try my best for my satisfaction. The instructor is funny and friendly so I like the class.

2007年3月20日火曜日

My Reflection and letter

February 6, 2007

7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108-0605　

Dear USA TODAY

I strongly agree that we are exposed to too many hours of TV, video games, computers and other media each day. It is effecting children such as their growth, weight and grades.

They have the expectation to be constantly entertained and, if the children are not entertained, they quickly lose interest. I remember when I was a child, the classes were boring for me and didn’t want to learn anything unless the class was entertaining.

In today’s society, it is a fact that television is highly desired in the life of most children and adults. Many people acquire information from television in real time and we should use this important media after examining the good points and bad points of television.

Sincerely,

My Reflection

When I first came to the United States, I was surprised to see how many TV channels were on television in the United States. In my country, we have 12 or fewer channels of television. You can get cable TV in my country but it is not as common. I was wondering why TV is so popular in this country and why there are so many channels to watch. I think there are far too many personally. I want to research how television and other media are effecting people in the United States, especially children, since my learning is focused in the filed of childhood education. I included ethos, logos, pathos, context, purpose and audience in my essay as I wrote.

I have researched this subject for a while on the internet, at school and by going to the library; I found that television is not the only media that effecting to children. Video games, computers and other media also appear to greatly effect children. In fact, it has become harder over the last ten years to keep children’s attention. The children’s expectation is to be constantly entertained and, if they are not entertained, they quickly lose interest. I remember when I was a child, I was not interested in anything. Classes were boring for me and I did not want to learn anything unless the class was entertaining. I am almost 24 years old and I am talking about quite a while ago. What do you think about the children now? I do not think children have changed; or if they have, they have become worse.

There were not many types of media in the old days. Children were playing outside instead of watching TV or they were playing games inside. From the research I looked at, computer use and watching television did not seem to affect grades, but more time playing video games and less time reading were linked to poorer grades. In the USA TODAY, it stated that “half of children have a video game player in their rooms; more than two-thirds have TV sets.” It is easy for them to play games which they are interested in and use their concentration there instead of studying. Interestingly, scores on intelligence tests have been steadily rising since the 1940s. These tests measure a child’s ability to shift and divide attention, but they also cover problem-solving and comprehension skills. They are smarter than their elders. I see a lot of children who instant-messaging, plugged into an iPod and doing homework at the same time. Some evidence suggests that these children’s brains might be changing so they juggle and concentrate better than their elders.

It is sad that children are this way because of the media we have now. They could be doing better if we had less media since they are more capable than before.　　　Sadly, Children are influenced easily by media and TV has had the most influence on them. Television effects their behavior and it may give them the wrong information about real life. “The Simpson” is the good example. It is a cartoon that has be on for years now. What if children believe that what they do is ok? I think that what they do is sometimes mean and very wrong and is made more for adult to watch and it is suppose to be funny to adults. In addition, violent video games and TV have been shown to encourage aggressive behavior. I have strong feelings against violent video games. Some of them are so real and these events could happen in the actual real life. I see a lot of news where people are killing people. The murderers are mostly individuals who really into violent video games and their reasons for killing are usually because they want to feel or see what it is like to kill a real person not only the people on the computer in violent video games. It makes me mad when I see some children pretending to shoot people and then laughing about it. I think it is awful.

I know that media is part of our lives now. The greatest charm of television is the synchronism of news. Thanks to television, news of a case that happened in a very far off country reaches instantly all over the world and the situation in that country comes to be seen by all of us through television. In addition, television spreads the standard language of a certain country, and it is advantageous in that it opens cultural knowledge. Unfortunately, I also found that television effects our health. People now have worse posture than they used to. This is from watching TV a lot, stresses from watching TV all day, and not having enough exercise. This leads to getting a stiff back, headaches, and backaches. This is not an issue for just an adult. This is an issue for children as well. In addition, people who watch TV more than two hours a day have a 23% risk of being overweight and also a 14% higher risk of getting diabetes compared to people who do not watch TV. These risks double as time watching TV doubles. If you watch TV four hours a day, you have a 46% risk of being overweight. People who watch TV are more likely to eat something while doing so, and they do not exercise as much. For children, it is possible that this may affect a child’s growth before they reach adulthood. Because of the lack of exercise, children develop muscles and sense of balance more slowly. In addition, it could lead to failure of their eyesight from watching a big screen for a long time. Eyes need to be relaxed once in a while, but watching TV for a long time makes the eyes tired.

My purpose of writing this letter is that I wanted to people to realize how much media we use each day and how bad it really is for us. Also, I wanted to tell people that media is not always bad but when we use media, we should know why we are using the media; purpose, is very important. We know that it is not good to watch television for a long time and it will effect your behavior, thoughts, lifestyles and health. In today’s society, it is a fact that television is highly desired in the life of children and adults. Many people acquire information from television in real time. We should use this important media with an understanding of the good points and bad points of television.

When I wrote my letter, I was thinking about my actual audience: instructor and blog readers. The ideal audience would be an editor，parents who have children and students themselves. I would deeply to get the attention from them so I tried to write with simple sentences and easy vocabulary. Also I needed to be careful with the words I use. I can not use words which might make them uncomfortable to read or not be able to understand. My sentences have to be clear and I must make sure that they understand what I mean.

On the whole, it was difficult to write in this letter everything I wanted to say and convey everything I wanted readers to understand. I hope that I can give them an opportunity to get interested in and think about it. I hope this may change their behavior and everyday lives.

2007年3月19日月曜日

research essay

Nova

According to Wikipidia and Nova company, Nova is the biggest private English school in Japan with over 640 branch locations and approximately 50% of the total market share. Nova established its first small office in 1981 in Osaka (“Nova: company”). Everyone who lives in Japan knows Nova. Nova schools are everywhere and they are constantly advertising themselves on television. I have met many Nova teachers or ex-Nova teachers in Japan. Based on my experiences, 99% of employees are not happy with the company and many of these individuals complain openly about Nova. In addition, I have Japanese friends who currently attend a Nova school. I do not see them learning English. I believe that Nova is a bad English company for three reasons: focusing on only getting students, having bad management and treating their employees badly.

First, Nova’s focus is getting students to attend, rather than on teaching them. They understand the Japanese culture well and use it to their advantage. In Japan, education is very important. “Japan is probably the country with the largest number of preparatory schools in the world” said Namiko Abe. Most elementary, junior high and high school students go to cram school after public school. Cram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities. The standard education received at school alone is not enough to survive examination war in Japan (Abe). English is part of the cram school curriculum. English has become a big part of Japanese society. We believe that English is necessary for us to learn. Most schools teach English from junior high through high school; some of them begin instruction in elementary school now. English is a required subject. In public schools, they focus on the skills of reading and writing. Many students cannot speak or comprehend English properly (Abe). Nova focuses on a student’s speaking and listening skills. They advertise that they have only native English speaking teachers. Most Japanese believe that native English speaking teachers are the best to learn English from. Nova doesn’t really care who they are which I do not agree with. I believe that learning English from native English speakers is better than learning English from Japanese instructors who speak English. I know there are a lot of Japanese English teachers that speak English with a Japanese accent. However, Japanese explanations are sometimes necessary, especially for beginners who just start learning English. For example, if beginner adult students cannot speak English at all, they have no idea what is going on or what the teachers are talking about in English. How can they learn English if they do not know any English, without any Japanese explanation? It is better for Japanese teachers in these cases to teach English with Japanese explanations.

Nova has also increased the number of students through advertisement. Commercials affect a lot of people. They make unique commercials that are very catchy. They also created a character called “Nova rabbit.” He is funny and cute in the commercial. Many Japanese find that the Nova rabbit is cool. They choose Nova instead of other English schools so that they can get a Nova rabbit doll. You might not believe this because this sounds silly; however, this is happening. Half of my friends who go to Nova have decided to go there just because they think that the rabbit is cool. This rabbit is the center of a big fashion trend now. In addition, my friends who teach at Nova tell me that students decide to go to Nova for this same reason. Most people who decided to go to Nova for this reason do not try to learn English there. Nova also hires people to hand out free tissues and leaflets to students.

Second, management is not good for their students. They have a ticket system. As you buy more tickets, the tickets get cheaper. One normal class needs one ticket. For a one to one class you need three to four tickets. For example, if you buy 25 tickets, one ticket is $35. If you buy 600 tickets, one ticket is only $10. These tickets have expiration dates; when it expires depends on how much you buy. Most students who decided to go to Nova plan to buy just a few tickets; instead they end up buying more than they planned. They tell you that you can get a refund on the tickets that you do not use. Once you decid to get your refund, they do not give you the correct amount of money that you are supposed to get. I found in the news that, “Government authorities have rapped the knuckles of private English school chain Nova Corp. for allegedly shortchanging students on refunds and providing false accounts of its cancellation policy” (“Nova probed”). For the classes you take, students are divided into levels by their abilities in conversational English. From lowest to highest are 7C, 7B, 7A, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 (“Nova: English”). They use the same method in every class and every level from beginning to advanced (Caversham). If Nova truly wants to help students to learn, they should make different methods for each level. The worst part that really frustrates me is that any native English speaker who has a college degree in any subject, it does not matter who they are, can be a teacher at Nova. Most people who cannot get a job anywhere go to Nova (Caversham). They hire anyone if they are a native English speaker. They do not need to know about teaching. I am in the field of teaching and I believe that teachers need to have knowledge of teaching and education. Nova does have three days of training for the teachers (Bruckbauer). How much can you learn in three days? To get a teaching associate degree, a person needs to go to school for at least two years. Most teachers cannot answer properly when students ask questions like “What is the difference between see and look?” or “When do you use to and for?” Moreover, the teachers get no time for preparing lessons. They have a ten minute break between a class and another class. In those ten minutes, they have to write comments on each student, what they learned and what was bad about them; also they have to prepare for the next class (Harmon). What if they have to go to the bathroom? How quickly can they go to the bathroom? I believe preparing for a class is very important and it takes a lot of time. As you can guess, the class is not going to be any better if the preparing time is only ten minutes.

Finally, Nova does not treat employees well. Most of my friends who were working at Nova were trying to find another job. Nobody stays with Nova for a long time. Nova is always looking for teachers and they advertise for teachers every week in the Japan Times which is the most common newspaper in Japan for English speakers (Caversham). Actually pay is not too bad at Nova. English teachers in Japan get about $2,000 to $2,500 per month which you can live comfortably off of in Japan (Bruckbauer). However, English teachers in Japan get paid higher than the average Japanese salary. Nova can be considered to have the worst pay rate out of English schools. Also, Nova stands for “No vacations” to foreigners who teach English in Japan (Harmon). They do not get national holidays. Teachers get 10 paid days off after they work for six months; however, in reality they cannot get holidays because of a lack of teachers. I remember my friends were complaining that if they take their holidays, other coworkers have to work overtime so they could not take vacations. Japanese employees get treated even worse. Japanese employee’s positions are only for management or advertisements. They get paid from $1,800 to $2,000 a month (“Nova: recruitment”). They work from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. They do not get paid overtime, as we call “service overtime work.” They have to deal with managing customer’s complaints and employee’s complaints. They are always pressured to get new students by the headquarters. One of my friends was a manager at Nova and she lost ten pounds in a month because she was miserable working there. Surprisingly, many people apply for that position because they can get the benefit of learning English for free. As you may know now, learning English is expensive in Japan. Nova takes advantage of that and not many people stay for a long time (Harmon).

I do not think that I want to be a student at Nova or even work there. They have been successfully getting more and more students and getting profits. However, they are not focused on how to make student successfully. They are focused on how to get more students and how to make the company bigger. From my perspective, I see them as bad company. I believe they will be better if they change their teaching method, get more Japanese teachers to assist English teachers and treat their employees better.