Politics and International Relations HOMEWORK July 23rd

I really enjoyed the speaker, Susan's husband. I rarely have such a chance that I can actually listen to politicians. Thank you Susan! And of course, thank you very much, Mr. Kazu!!
Since I felt an big interest in election, I went to vote yesterday as an advance voting. Actually it was my first voting!! It was a nice experience, and I realized voting is our duty!!!!

Here's my homework that is if I were working for the UN, whichi job would like to have using my English abilities?
I'm interested in World Heritage Sites. I also have a friend (she is my best friend!!) who studies environment, especially the field of mammal. Now she studies mammal, but at first, Yakushima was the trigger to make her devote the environment. I was very impressed by the story of Yakushima from her, I thought we have to save and maintain our nature and also culture, World Heritage Sites. Then, what can I do for saving culture?? I think, it is important for everyone to know the true figure of nature. I mean, now nature is definitely destroyed by a lot of factors like lumbering, construction and also poaching, and we have to realize that crisis of nature directly means crisis of all life. If I were working for UN, I want to work as a member of culture Sector: CLT of UNESCO, and first, I want to show Itsukushima shrine and Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome telling histories of these World Heritage Sites to foreign people because getting to know is the first above all. Anyway I have to study about them myself!!

Dear Ms. Susan☆
Thank you very much for this semester, too!! Actually this CCC class is my most favorite class. I learned a lots and lots and lots of interesting things cross the culture! Every topic was interesting, and I was especially impressed with every speakers. They all were very attractive, and their speech was so interesting!! I can't find such a fantastic class besides CCC!!!!
Thank you very much, again. I'll try to keep cross culture communication forever.

June 25th HOMEWORK My ideal man

I'll give you 4 characteristics for my ideal man:
personality 40%, responsible 30%, looks20%, sincere behavior toward me 10%

I give man's personality the highest priority because even if he is only really good-looking, I can't go together with him . For me, having a nice and sincere personality is a must. (However looks is also important ...)
Next, it's important that he is responsible. Actually this point has the same amount of importance as well as his personality. I like tolerant man.
Then, I want my boyfriend to love me very very very much!! Some boys sometimes pretends not to love girls and not to be interested in them very much, but Idon't like such behavior!!
I like the man who can simply express his feeling, he loves me sincerely. (Of course I also show him my affection for him. )

Family Life HOMEWORK

a. When do children usually leave home?
I regarded "leave home" as "an independent from parents" not just "leave for school". Is that correct? By the way, I'd like to talk about this question taking my older sister and I for example. She left home when she enterd unversity in Tokyo, and she started living alone. On the other hand, I live with my parents now because I study at local university, so I'll leave home when I get a job after graduating. Although the time for leaving home depends on person, it seems that there are just about two types in Japan. One example is the time when people enter university in another prefecture like my sister, and another is when they graduate and get a job.

b. How many people live in your home?
There are five in my family, but my sister lives in Tokyo and she works as an accountant, so five, my father, mother, a cat and me live togeter now. When my sister returned home at the end of the year, we had really nice time. After all, I think family is wonderful!!

c. Do you have a head of family?
Yes! My fater is in the position. Although he has been changing a little, he was formaly really obstinate and hardheaded, and he was exact "Kyushu danji". He has become rather soft recently, so I like him now better than the past. Actually, the most important person is of course my mother!! My father will not be able to live without her!!

d. Who does the housework?
My mother does. I sometimes help her but almost all of housework are completely by my mother. I think she is exast the mirror of the housmaker. Although there is ideal person whom I can learn a lot of things from, regrettably I'm not good at cleaning, washing and other wouswork, so I take charge of going supermarket to buy groceries, taking in the laundry from outside, sometimes cooking and so on. As you know, my father can do nothing of housework.

e. Who runs the family?
I have two answers. From the finance aspect, my father runs my family, but in essense, my mother runs. I think maybe both is necessary for running my family!!

f. How many rooms do you have to sleep in?
In my family case, my parents sleep in one room togeter, and I sleep in my room alone. When I was a child, we slept togeter in the same room, but since I got my own private room, I started to sleep separately. I really don't want to sleep with my father in the same room because his snore is very noisy and annoying!! (I'm sorry...)

Lesson 6 Names and Addresses HOMEWORK

1. Are feelings, emotioms and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc...?
Yes, I think so, but I have some ideas. I think the facial expressions are almost universal, so generally, we laugh when we are happy, and we cry and be downcast when we are sad, in addition, our faces sometimes might turn red when we are angry or ashamed. However, there are some exceptions, for example, we sometimes hide our feelings by showing the facial expression that is actually opposite to the true feeling, especially "sad" and "ashamed". This case doesn't always happen, of course we often show our feelings directly when we are happy, and even we are angry. One of the reasons why people hide the facial expression of sadness might be not to worry someone our friends and family. Altough it is often said that people say "Don't worry alone!" On the other hand, I think showing our feelings directly is also good and rational. I especially want to show happy feelings when I am happy and I also want to smile even if I am sad, because smiling will be sure to bring a lot of hapiness!!

2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese. And write the English translation.
①嬉しいureshii "happy" ②悲しいkanasii "sad" ③眠いnemui "sleepy" ④楽しいtanoshii "happy" ⑤うきうきするukiukisuru "exhilarate" ⑥がっかりgakkari "disappointed" ⑦待ち遠しいmachidooshii "impatient" ⑧くつろぐkuturogu "relaxed" ⑨不安huan "nervous" ⑩有頂天uchouten "enraptured"
I found that English feeling words have some meanings of Japanese ones, so we can use "happy" for both ① and ④. I think Japanese feeling expressions have many more varieties than that of English.

3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannnot be translated into English?
Yes!! When I stayed in England, it was hard to explain "もったいないmottainai"　feeling!! Japanese people often say "mottainai", but I don't know what is the best English translation, so I used the expression of "You don't have to do that." or another euphemism of "mottainai". There isn't the exact translation of "mottainai" in English, but we can say it in any way by using a lot of another English words!!

Lesson 5 HOMEWORK Names and addresses

1. How do you choose a child's given name in your family?
How to choose the given name for a child is very interesting!! (I like to think about name very much ^ ^) First names of Japanese are well-known for me although there are some rare and interesting names recently. On the other hand, foreign names are attractive for me. Actually when I was a child, I wanted one more neme of Westerner-like!!
By the way, there are five of us in my family. Father, mother, an older sister, a cat and me. My parents gave a common Chinese character which is my mother's favorite one, for our (my sister, my cat and me) names. This way of choosing the given name is common in Japan, and my parents also considered the number of the letter. Many Japanese think it will influence a child's life!

3. Does your given name or your family name mean anything?
I don't know my family name has some meaning, but my given name has. It means "To come true my dream early." This wish is shown in Chinese characters which compose my name. Chinese characters have their particular meanings, so it is also interesting to think and guess the meanings of people's name from their Chinese characters.

7. How do you know if names are boy's names, girls' names, or both?
Our Japanese name is rather easy to know their sex because as I mentioned above, we can guess the sex from Chinese characters as well as we can think about the meaning of people's name from them. In addition, there are some kind of rules which Chinese characters are usually used for boys or girls. However there are some names which are applicable to both, for example my classroom teacher in my 7th grade, I assumed my new classroom teacher to be a man when I knew the name of the teacher's name, but actually it was a woman!! I misconceived her sex because I judged the sex from the Chinese characters and the sound of her name!!
By the way, I really like your children's names, Ms. Meiki♪♪ I was impressed to hear that their names are all related to the earth. It's wonderful!!

Class#4 Islam HOMEWORK(May 7)

1. How do you greet people in yourlife? Is it different for different people? Why?

I usually greet people with both words and action, and I greet in the different way for different people. For my family, I greet in the casual way, and I usually say "Ohayou" as soon as I get up, so I sometimes say it to my parents still closing my eyes!! For my friends, I usuallu say "Ohayou" regardless the time, for example, we greet saying "Ohayou" even though it is in the afternoon. I always think it is strange, but I often use this expression. For my teachers and other superiors, I always greet in the polite way aodding and saying "Ohayougozaimasu". I think Japanese people use different expressions to greet for different people, and it is natural in the society. On the other hand, in English, the expressions of greeting is not different very much, of course there are some expressions, for example "Good morning." and "Hi.". I think the difference is that we can say "Hi." to our teacher, but we can't say "Ohayou" to our teacher. It is important to greet in the proper way for people and situations, and smiling is necessary when we greet everyone!!

2. Do you touch people when you talk to them? Why? Or Why not?

I sometimes touch people, but it depends on person. I touch only close friends or boyfriend. Touching people is one of the expressions of communication and love, but I think we Japanese rarely hug people! When I stayed in England, my host mother often hugged me when we greet. I was happy then, and I felt it was natural, but in Japan, I don't hag my mother. I hug my mother when something goes well or her birthday, but it is the case of rare!! I think there are a lot of types of greeting in the world. I think it is interesting to follow the greeting customs unique to the land.

HOMEWORK (April 23) Buddism

1. I thought my daily life isn't affected by Buddism, but actually, I follow some customs of Buddism unconsciously. First of all, I say "Itadakimasu." nodding and joining my hands together when I have meals. It seems to be the custom of Buddism. Next, my mother would often said to me "Don't leave rice." It means God inhabits in rice, so if we leave rice, we lose fortune. I think this saying might come from the traditional Japanese thought"mottainai" which in English, "What a waste!" Therefore I rarely leave rice even if I leave my side dish because I remember my mother's words. (Although I usually completely enjoy both rice and side dishes!)
Finally, I found from the lecture given by Priest Mr. Tsutsui Ebun that we use a lot of words related to Buddism, for example, "Gaman"and "Akirameru", but I was very surprised that these words essentially have different meaning from what I thought.
Almost all Japanese don't have particular religion, but Buddism surely takes root in our daily life.

2. I found an article about Islam from Asahi newspaper on May17, page7. It said that the top of the security organization who is the member of Moderate group's house was attacked by members of the fringe group. The topic about Jerusalem and Palestine, that is to say about the conflict of religion and also the conflict between the thoughts of groups, is too difficult for me, but I found some adjectives used to describe Islam. I think the words "terrorism", "groups (having different thoughts), "conflict", "attack" and "exile", etc. I found that most of the words which express Islam seems to be nagative. I don't well understand these problems yet, so I have to know more.

Hellow, Ms.Meiki, Lolf and everyone!! I'm really looking forward to taking this CCC Class as well as last semester.

HOMEWORK (April 15) What is CCC?
I learned in CCC class last semester that there are so many cultural differences between countries all over the world. They are very interesting!! I found that it is important to understand and admit their own culture, religeon and custom. In addition, it must be interesting to share some of them. Therefore we need to know our own culture well so that we can tell its appeal to the world.

I found an interesting article from Asahi newspaper (May 14, page 7) for this homework. Its headline says "How about soy sause with meat?" The large soy sause company Kikkoman came to 50years since they advanced to the American market. They appealed goodness of soy sause at the event to introduce Japanese food culture held in Washington on May 12. Kikkomanis the pioneer in the field of Japanese manufacturer which provides soy sause for the supermarket in America. Soy sause is gradually taking root, and now 60% of American family keep it in their fridge as well as mayonnaise and mustard. Kikkoman aims to increase the sale more taking this occasion.

I think soy sause and meat are symbolic of Japan and America, and this topic shows the fusion of both countries. It's just the cross culture situation. I think cross culture understanding is actually easy. Both soy sause and meat are familiar to us, so we can get to know , understand and enjoy other culture from these well-known things naturally.