2015年6月17日水曜日

Today is the last day of this term. Through the freshman ELA classes and this RW class, I think I became able to do many things, not only writing an English paper, but also expressing my opinion in a discussion, doing a group work with others, finding massive information on the Internet, and analyzing a writing, in English.

But I think those things should not be the goal of the ELA classes, but I'd like to regard them as the basis for further learning and other classes from now on. I have much things to do and sometimes can't afford to concentrate on studying, but I want to make efforts to utilize and expand the potential of learning. 

2015年6月12日金曜日

In the last RW class, we had presentation and discussion about the contents of each essay.
And I'd like to give some good points and bad points in presentations of my group.

Kosuke
Good points : Visual images are used effectively, and whole flow was well-structured, and easy to understand.  

Points to be improved : This is my comment, but I think CD will remain on music industry in the future though the streaming system will be powerful, because fans of certain music artists would want to buy and keep something which will remain as forms.

Haruka
: Your topic was really unique, and experiments were interesting and supportive.

: I think your claim can be more strong if you can explain the reason why these facts are caused.

Kohei
: It was good that you dealt with the topic from many aspect.

: I think you should organize the perspective in the structure, because the international aspects and internal ones are mixed up.

Shion
: The images were so impressive, and your topic is really important in today's society.

: Your contents can be more objective if you can include social or public perspectives.
I think you should make your suggestion clear. 

2015年6月10日水曜日

From the last week, we have concentrated on writing each essay and preparing its presentation.
Today I'm going to have the presentation and discussion about my essay, museums in Japan and UK, and I'm looking forward to getting comments about the content.

As I research the museums in Japan and UK, I discovered many interesting differences and similarities, and its background, which I didn't expected when I decided my topic.
For example, I focus on the entrance fee of national museums in each country, but I realized that the structure and main focus of exhibitions are quite different between two country. In the UK, most of the national museums have own massive collections for permanent exhibitions, and many visitors go to the museums for appreciating them, so the entrance fee is free, and get extra charge for special exhibitions, focusing on more narrowed visitors. However in Japan, many museums mainly focus on special exhibitions, and they attract many visitors by those short-term exhibitions. The entrance fee for those exhibitions is not cheap, but not too expensive like some special exhibitions in UK national museums, and visitors can enter the permanent exhibitions for free with the same tickets, like the free bonus. So the structure is quite different, and I think this has historical background in the difference of the national collection, especially of royal families' or aristocrats' collection in UK and Japan.
Like these facts, I found and learned many interesting thing from my research, and it was really great opportunity.
And as I search the home pages of museums, I found museums' digital databases are pretty great and useful. You can see the massive collections of national museums like the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, or the Tokyo National Museum, and also download and use the contents with following each terms of use. 

2015年6月1日月曜日

In the last class, we learned a few concept in writing essay, and proceeded each research and writing.
And we got an idea of creativeness as we create/write own works, by watching some YouTube videos.
As I acknowledged the importance of creativity, I remembered a building, or an artwork, which I visited recently.

Have you ever heard Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka (三鷹天命反転住宅) ?
It is an apartment house, which was built by architects/artists Shusaku Arakawa, and Madeline Gins, with the concept of "the house to not to die."
This is actually used for apartment, but the outlook and interior is really unique and innovative.
The whole room is painted in so many colors and composed by many shapes, the floor is not flat, and there are many hooks on the ceiling and you can hang baggage or what ever you like from them.
This building was really stimulating for me, and I felt as if it asks me "Who decided a room have to be square and angular, or a floor must be flat?"
I think the concept is really unique and creative, and I felt like visiting the different dimension, though this site is very close to the ICU campus.