This blog serves several purposes: Communicating with my students outside of the classroom, publishing my students' work, and it serves as a resource for both students and teachers.
Welcome to Toyo Gakuen University!
In today's lesson you will learn some useful English for travelling.
First, let's do a survey. Survey in Japanese is アンケート. Please click the link: http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/81E3C44DFC8771D0/
Bangladeshi cuisine is delicious. I love Bangladeshi food. Bangladeshi food is similar to Indian food. Many Bangladeshi dishes include curry. I love curry. You can read more about Bangladeshi cuisine. Click this link to read about Bangladeshi cuisine in English.Click here to read about Bangladeshi cuisine in Japanese.
Below is a picture of tiffin boxes. Tiffin means lunch. Tiffin boxes are delivered every day to Bangladeshi business men and school children. Bangladshis like hot meals.
You can see a picture of a typical restaurant in Dhaka below. My new friend Mithu brought us to this restaurant. We went to this restaurant for lunch during our tour of Dhaka. We ate curried chicken, curried mutton, stir-fried vegetables, and plain rice. Mitsu paid the bill on behalf of BELTA. We were very grateful to BELTA for this delicious lunch.
Our first dinner in Dhaka was also provided to us by BELTA. We had take-out from a restaurant in Dhaka called Boomers' Cafe. Boomers' Cafe is very popular with university students in Dhaka. You can see pictures of our meal below.
We ate delicious food at the BELTA/AIUB/THT Seminars too. For snacks we had samozas. Samozas are one of my favourite snacks. You can see a picture of some samozas below.
Here's a picture of the lunch we had during the seminars. It's like a Bangladeshi bento.
BELTA also treated us to a lovely meal at the Casablanca Restaurant in Dhaka. The meal was buffet style. You can see a picture of the buffet and some of the food we ate in the pictures below.
We went out to the country side. We went to American International University Bangladesh's resort. The resort is beautiful. We had a delicious lunch there. All the food we ate came from the resort. Many fruits and vegetables are grown at the resort, and some animals are raised for food too, including chickens and sheep. You can see some pictures of our lunch at the resort below.
We ate a delicious fruit called Jackfruit. Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh. You can see a picture of a Jackfruit tree below.
Here are some pictures of a Jackfruit that was opened up. It has a mild taste. It is delicious. Jackfruit is used for many kinds of food in Bangladesh. The seeds are roasted. The skin is given to sheep. The sheep love the Jackfruit skin.
We also had some delicious Bangladeshi sweets and some yoghurt.
The last night I was in Bangladesh I went for dinner at the home of Dr. Faheem Hasan Shahed. We had a wonderful home cooked meal. It was delicious.
What do you think? Have you ever tried Bangladshi cuisine? Please leave a comment.
Dhaka is one of the most interesting cities that I have ever visited. Dhaka has so many sights, sounds, and smells. Dhaka is always on the move. Sometimes it seems rather chaotic (てんやわんやの). Dhaka is very crowded. There are many traffic jams in Dhaka. It often takes a very long time to go just a short distance.
One of Dhaka's nicknames is the City of Rickshaws. You can see a picture of some cycle rickshaws below. According to Wikipedia, about 400,000 rickshaws run in Dhaka every day.
The green taxi in the photo below is known as a "CNG" in Dhaka. "CNG" stands for compressed natural gas. CNGs are more environmentally friendly than vehicles using gasoline. I took a ride in a CNG. They are very small. I'm too big for CNGs. It wsn't comfortable, but it was a good experience.
There are many kinds of vehicles on the streets of Dhaka. As well as rickshaws and CNGs, there are cars, trucks, wooden carts, and so on. Sometimes these vehicles are people powered, like cycle rickshaws, and wooden carts.
Another important mode of transportation in Dhaka is the boat. There are many boats on the Buriganga River.
Next time, I'll write about the food in Bangladesh.
I went to Bangladesh. I went to Bangladesh with a group called Teachers Helping Teachers. This was my third trip with Teachers Helping Teachers. I have been to Teachers Helping Teachers seminars in Laos and the Philippines. You can see Bangladesh on the map below.
Bangladesh is surrounded by India. It shares a small border with Myanmar too. I stayed in the capital city of Bangladesh. The capital city of bangladesh is called Dhaka. You can see Dhaka on the map below.
I arrived in Dhaka very late. I arrived in Dhaka after one in the morning. I got through customs and immigration easily. I was met by Dr. Patrick Dougherty, the President of Teachers Helping Teachers, and a member of the Aristocrat Inn's staff. You can see a picture of the Aristocrat Inn below.
I stayed in a standard room at the Aristocrat Inn. It was twenty-five U.S. dollars per night. You can see a picture of my room below.
My first day in Dhaka I went on a short tour. First I visted Curzon Hall. You can see a picture of Curozn Hall below.
My new friend Mithu is in the picture below. He was my guide on the tour of Dhaka City. He is very knowledgeable. He is a very good guide.
After I visted Curzon Hall, I visited Labagh Fort. You can see a picture of Labagh Fort below.
Then I visited a Hindu Temple.
I saw a beautiful dragonfly at the temple.
The next place we went was the Buriganga River. We took a short boat ride. It was very interesting.
Next, we visited a palace called Ahsan Manzil. We met many friendly Bangladeshis there. All of them wanted to take a picture with us. We felt like stars! In the picture below, I'm with Ann and Cherie. Ann and Cherie are also members of Teachers Helping Teachers. Ann is from New Orleans in the United States. Cherie is from New Zealand.
After our visit to the palace we went shopping. I bought some Bangladeshi crafts for my wife. I bought a bag, a table cloth, some pillow cases, and some lunch mats for her. When we were finished shopping, we went back to the hotel. I was very tired, but I had a great first day in Dhaka.
The next day the BELTA/AIUB/THT Seminars started. The Seminars lasted three days. I led three workshops. The participants were fantastic. They were enthusiastic. They were very active participants. They had great ideas. They were very kind. I think they all must be great teachers. You can see a video clip of the workshop I lead on project-based language learning below. Unfortunately, the quality of the video isn't very good. Enjoy!
The semester is almost over! The final exam for the Saturday class is 18 July 2009 (1st period). The final exam for the Tuesday class is 28 July 2009 (1st period).
Please study Units 6 - 11. Please study carefully pp. 22, 25, 26, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, and 45.
The final exam with have short answer type questions, and long answer type questions. You will have to show that you remember the content of the textbook, and that you understand the content of the textbook.
Here are examples of the kind of question you might see on the exam. These questions WILL NOT be on the exam. They are examples only:
What are the 2 lessons that Gandhi’s philosophy teaches us? (2 points)
List 5 similarities between Nelson Mandala and Gandhi. (5 points)
I recommend that you do the Wrap Up activities for units 6 - 11 on pp. 72.
Good Luck!
Students in the Writing 1A class at Shibaura Institute of Technology have written some great movie reviews. I decided that it would be fun to present their reviews as animated movies. Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, a teacher in Sacramento California, I discovered xtranormal.com. Xtranormal is a web 2.0 application. You can change text to speech using xtranormal. You can make an animated movie with one or two characters. It's fun and easy. So, here are some animated movies of cartoon characters presenting Writing 1A students' movie reviews. Enjoy!
Today is the last class. The next time we meet will be the final exam. The final exam is on the tenth of July. The final exam covers units 2,3,4,5,7,9,12,14,15,16, and 20. Please click here to practice the final exam: Passport Online tests.
Today is Canada Day! Today Canada is one hundred and forty two years old.
Here's a video tour of Dan Beaudoin's interesting house in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The house is decorated in maple leaves. The people in Windsor call it "Canada House".
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You can see some more cool pictures here. Click the link. Happy Canada Day Shared via AddThis
Today we will prepare for your sales presentation. You will give your presentations next class.
First let's look at a video of two American university students giving a presentation. This presentation has many problems. Watch the presentation. Do the following tasks:
1. Make a list of the problems you see.
2. Think of 2 ways this presentation could be improved
Here are some more examples of the writing that SIT students are doing. This time the topic is "My Ideal Partner". Enjoy!
Kazuma's ideal partner
What kind of partner do I want? First, I want a partner who is playful because I’m serious. I think that balance is important. Second, I would like a partner who likes sports because I like playing sports, and watching sports. We should be able to enjoy sports together. Third, I would like a partner who thinks an interesting life is important because I so think that.
Mitzuhiro's ideal partner
What kind of partner do I want? First, I would like a partner who is good at cooking because I like to eat culinary delights. I'd rather eat at home than dine out. Second, I want a partner who is generous because I dislike impatient people. When I fail at something, I'd rather have a partner who is nice to me than one who painfully blames me. If my partner blames me when I am depressed, I don't want to be together. Third, I would like a partner who wears nice clothes. I don't know fashion well, so I want my partner to teach what kind of clothes suit me.
Hiroshi's ideal partner
What kind of partner do I want? First, I want a partner who is talkative because I like to talk with my partner a lot. Second I would like a partner who is good-looking because I like pretty girls. Third I'd like a partner who cares about fashion because I think my partner will look in fashionable clothes.
Today's topic is shopping! This picture is a picture of the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Please click the link: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall
Read the Simple English wikipedia article and answer the questions below.
When was the West Edmonton Mall built?
The West Edmonton Mall is the________ largest mall in the world (a) 1st (b) 2nd (c) 3rd (d) 4th
How many stores and services are in the West Edmonton Mall?
Next, click here to see a clothing and shoes size converter: http://www.onlineconversion.com/clothing_shoes_mens.htm
What's your shoe size in the U.S., U.K. Europe, Australia?
What are your clothing sizes in U.S., U.K. Europe, Australia?
OK, now write a comment. If you could go to the West Edmonton Mall what shops would you like to visit, and what attractions would you like to visit?
Today we are going to read about the lives of teenagers in the U.S.A., Canada, and the U.K. Here are the links for today's lesson: Unit 5 vocabulary and an article about teens in the U.K. - http://fereading.edublogs.org/unit-five/ An article about teens in Canada- What teens really think
How about teens in Japan? Please leave a comment. Tell me about teens in Japan.
Here are some more paragraphs about special places written by Shibaura Institute of Technology students. Enjoy.
Shunsuke's special place
Next to my high school there was a McDonald's. One day when I was a student, my friends and I were hungry and bored after school. We thought that we would buy 100 hamburgers from McDonald's, because we wanted to make a funny story. We paid ten thousand yen and started to eat the hamburgers. Thirty minutes later, many people surrounded us and took pictures. The clerk cheered us on, but finally we could not eat all the hamburgers. I was impossible for only five people to eat a hundred hamburgers.
Shunsuke K.
Katsunori's special place
Near my house, there is a public park. One holiday when I was an elementary school student, some of my friends and I looked for a good place to play baseball. I said to my friends, “There is a park near my house. That is a nice place for baseball.” So we went to that park, and started playing baseball. I was not good at playing baseball then, so I had no hits. When I fielded as an outfielder, one of my friends hit the ball to my position, but I lost sight of the flying ball because the day was a very fine day, and the sun was shining brightly. When I was looking up in the sky, the ball fell and hit me on my head! My friends laughed and said, “You got a different “hit”!”
Kousuke's special place
My special place is my school-road. When I was a high school student, I found four cats. I took them to my house. I wanted to keep them but I could not. One of them had a sickness. I took it to an animal hospital. I consulted the doctor about what I should do. He was very kind. He took care of them. I was very happy but I was sad because I wanted to keep them. They were very cute but I decided to say good-bay. One day, I had a telephone call. They got an owner that would take care of them. I was very happy. I want to see them again.
Kousuke T.
Yuta's special place
There is a small park near a house. I played soccer there with a friend when I was a primary school child. My friend kicked the ball into the rice field next to the park. I told this to the old man in the farmhouse and apologized, I got the ball with a stick from a tall tree. I gradually made friends with the old man after a while. I talked to him. I still meet him in the neighborhood and get along well with the old man
Yuta N.
Kouki's special place
Next to my home was a small hut. One day when I was a high school student, I played with my friend in front of this hut. I wanted to climb on the roof of this hut. When I was able to achieve this goal, I felt supremely satisfied, but I soon noticed a problem. I asked myself, “How do I get down from here.” There weren't any stairs or a ladder. I couldn’t get down from there. The only solution was to jump off the roof. However, this hut was about 2.5 meters tall. I felt fear. Time was getting on, and eventually it was night, and a noisy crowd gathered around the hut. I was impatient about this. I finally took courage, and I jumped off. I hurt my foot at that moment, but I healed soon. This incident became a lesson. I shouldn’t take a thoughtless risk.
Kouki H.
Toyo Gakuen University students have written about their special places too! You can see writing by student's in Sarah Louisa Birchley's class here: English Elective Writing 9A/9B
Please leave a comment.
The Final Exam is Thursday the 9th of July 2009. Yeah!!!
The exam covers Units 4 and 6, pp. 34-40 and pp. 50-56, 58,59 (テストの範囲は ユニト4と6です). The exam will include listening, reading and writing.
* Do Unit 6 on the self-study CD ROM
* Do the iKnow, Dictation and Brain Speed lessons on smart.fm
* Study the writing file on p.130
Good Luck!!!