Statement for Minnesota and Friends

　How's it going this week end, everyone? Mine's just the same as usual but I almost have felt the beginning of spring vacation. (Actually, this break will be pretty busy in order to studying for TOEFL, TOEIC, and the other exams)

　I handed in applications for studying abroad in Minnesota through exchange program of university. One paper of them, is the statement about "Why I apply for this program" and "What I'd like to do at that university", and I had to write it around 500 words without someone's helps. When i wrote my essay for Writing class of this semester, I used to ask some Chat Lounge partners to modify it so that I was affraid of if I made a mistake in my statement. However, I did go over many times not to do so. At that time, I realized that I ought to review how to write essays with books....

I've done to write it so that I'd like to get down it on my blog. :D

"Statement for Studying Abroad"

　There are three factors which I determined to study abroad in Minnesota as an exchange student. I took long time to make a final decision because it wasn’t easy for me to clarify my intention to try something I haven’t experienced. However, thanks to these factors, I could decide at last to apply for this program for myself.

　First, it was exchange students from Minnesota. They have taught me a lot of things which I have never known before during their stay in Japan, so spending time with them is one of the great experiences in my school life. By the way of example, I had some opportunities to teach Japanese to exchange students, and then I found it that teaching Japanese in English isn’t easy for me even though my mother tongue is Japanese. Therefore I felt chagrined at the fact I couldn’t explain what they asked me, so I pushed myself to the max with their helps to make teaching Japanese in English better. Consequently, I just realized that I did enjoy studying fully. Of course, this is not equivalent that I can use English entirely, but I think it was a great improvement. The time of studying Japanese and English with exchange students gave me a new viewpoint about learning difficult things. At that time, I thought it would be inquired to work hard if I study in unknown surrounding, but I’m pretty sure that it must be very fruitful as well as this experience.
　Secondly, I have interests about not only American society and culture but also people and their lifestyle since I started to take some classes of learning America. There are many differences and similarities between America and Japan. As a small sample of this, Japanese people generally bow as greeting behavior when meeting someone. On the other hand, American people never do this like Japanese because they don’t practice the custom of bowing. The origin of this is possible-associated with traditional rules each country. But Japan and America are the same at the particular point, which have the attitude of respect for people. As just described, I think that the comparison of two things and discovery of differences and similarities are basic method for understanding each other. While I’m studying America in classes and comparing with the other countries including Japan, America became an object of theme of my graduation thesis. This is one reason that I’m interested in America and I’d like to go abroad to study in the field.
　The most decisive reason of all is to broaden my knowledge, and also I’d like to take on challenge whatever I want to do. Sadly, I have never been to foreign country so that I have only learned overseas including America on the indirect ways. If I can get the acceptance of this program, I’ll have no doubt that the school life is going to be pretty hard beyond my imagination. Even so, I’m willing to be strict with myself not to give up because best results certainly arise from the hard effort.

　I think there are any mistakes I didn't notice, but it shows how I need to practice writing what I want to argue on the essay. If I can get its acceptance, there will be only ４ months left till I go to Minnesota. I think this length isn't long for preparation. I don't know whether I can study abroad in Minnesota from summer, but I'm sure that I do work hard. I appriciated that I could be their friends, who always have encouraged me.

Causes and Effects of Smoking.

The Table of Cause and Effect
---Cause---
・Smoking
・Tobacco

---Effects---
・Smoking makes it easier to get diseases particularly affecting hearts and lungs.
・our feeling great temporally during smoking.
・ourselves being addicted to nicotine
・the risk of cancer rising
・teeth color yellow, not white
・the function of the respiratory system declined
・body odor and clothes’ smell bad
・spend a lot of money to purchase tobacco
・us getting tired easily
・children’s health getting worse
・affect non-smokers badly

----Cause and Effect of Smoking----
　It is said that smoking tobacco is one of the cause of serious diseases. In fact, according to the research of WHO (World Health Organization) in 2008, about five million patients died because of smoking. This number is larger than the one of the cause of patients’ death including tuberculosis, HIV (AID), and malaria. It can be possible to decrease your lifespan shorter due to several effects from tobacco.
First, there are physical problems. As you know, smoking is the same action to provide unhealthy chemical smoke into our body. These smokes from tobacco made from 4000 kinds of chemical substances, and mainly contain nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide. Nicotine is the drug which let smokers smoke chronically and becomes load of heart actions. Tar destroy the function of the respiratory declined, and also change a lung to dusty. Moreover carbon monoxide disturbs the transportation of oxygen in blood so that our body gets tired easier. Those toxic materials affect our body unhealthily.
　Second, the physical effects connect to the mental ones. Smokers can feel comfortable temporally during receiving benefits from nicotine as well as drugs such as cocaine. However it means that smokers can’t be relaxed without smoking because they can compose themselves thanks to nicotine. When the body is lack of nicotine, their attitude tends to be short-tempered, lazy, and inactive. Smoking disproves not only physical health but also mental health.
　Finally, the bad effects to smoke are not only problem for smokers. In the other words, people are affected by smoking even if they have never smoked. The gases from tobacco are widespread into the air, and then people may breathe them before they notice it. This action is the same as smoking even though you don’t breathe smoke directly. The younger people who breathe smoke are, the riskier you approach to dead. So, for example, it is more dangerous for from 0 to 19 year-old body to stay in environments spread toxic smoke.
　Nowadays, people who have smoked for a long time seem to try to quit smoking because they realized that it causes only their health unfriendly. In addition, the price of tobacco has risen in recent. It is one of the reasons that people quit smoking. It is accepted that smoking is permissible under the Constitution in many countries, but there is not any good effects for us, so I think it should be banned in the near future.

The second draft of "Causes and Effects" -----------------------
　It is said that smoking is one of the causes of serious diseases. In fact, according to the research of WHO (World Health Organization) in 2008, about 500 million patients worldwide died because of smoking. This number is larger than the one of the cause of patients’ death including tuberculosis, HIV (AID), and malaria. Smoking makes our health worse.
　First, there are physical problems. As you may know, smoking is the same action to provide unhealthy chemical smoke into our body. This smoke from tobacco made from 4000 kinds of chemical substances, and mainly contains nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide. Nicotine is an addictive drug which forces smokers smoke chronically and becomes stress on the heart. Tar destroys the function of the respiratory systems, and also contaminates the lungs of smokers. Moreover, carbon monoxide disturbs the transportation of oxygen in the blood so that our body gets tired easier. Those toxic materials affect our body unhealthily.
　Second, the physical effects connect to the mental ones. Smokers can feel temporarily comfortable while enjoying nicotine as well as drugs such as cocaine. However, it means that smokers can’t be relaxed without smoking because they can only compose themselves thanks to nicotine. When the body lacks nicotine, their attitude tends to be short-tempered, lazy, and inactive. Smoking is danger of not only physical health but also mental health.
　Finally, the bad effects of smoke are not only problems for smokers. In other words, people are affected by smoking even if they have never smoked. The gases from tobacco are spread widely though the air and then people may breathe them before they notice it. This action is the same as smoking even though you don’t breathe smoke directly. The younger people who breathe smoke are, the riskier it is. Therefore, for example, it is more dangerous for from 0 to 19 year-old body to stay in environments which have spread toxic smoke.
　Nowadays, people who have smoked for a long time seem to try to quit smoking because they realized that it causes only their health unfriendly. In addition, the price of tobacco has risen in recent. It is one of the reasons that people quit smoking. It is accepted that smoking is permissible under the Constitution in many countries. However, in fact, there is not any good effects for us.

The Chat Lounge Report #2

Chat Lounge Report #2
Partner : Alex
Date : ?

On that day, I was so hungry because of skipping the lunch, and then Alex was too. We began to talk about Japanese and American foods without notice. I have never been to foreign country so that I'm not sure what kind of foods in America is popular for daily meals (=breakfast, lunch, and dinner). According to Alex, it is common for American breakfast to eat toasts, salads, fruits, and sausages with scramble eggs. Especially, coffee is indispensible for American people to begin a day smoothly. (In fact, some of movies I have seen ever have one scene which people drink coffee in the morning at least.) Alex said he could work well if he didn't drink it in the morning too. In my case, drinking coffee regularly isn't my habit so that I don't know how important it is. (When I told him my idea, he seemed to feel strange.)

Recently, it is said that Japanese foods' habits has been similar to American. 50 years ago, after WWW2, Japan was colonized by American because we lost WWW2. And then the American climates changed Japanese ones. For example, those are clothes, household appliances, transportations, and products. Japanese people who used to wear Kimono tried to wear western clothes, and stated to use electronic devices such as TVs. (This industrial revolution in Japan has developed our life conveniently. It happened remarkably from around 1960 to 2000.) At that time, it was sure that Japanese were very interested in new things from foreign country. Therefore our scientific technology can have improved until today. Those effects from historical facts have occurred the change of Japan. It affects our daily lives, for example, it's eating a slice of toast and drinking a cup of coffee in the morning as breakfasts as well as American.

Just talking foods, there are many things we don't know why. However, I realized I ought to talk about foods when I am full. Why not? Because foods' topic made me and Alex very hungry.

The Chat Lounge Report #1

Chat Lounge Report #1
Partner : David
Date : November 27

I have two of my friends who have been to MN as exchange students now, and one of them, who is the 3rd year student in Bunkyo University. Before she had gone to America, she used to come to chat lounge to talk with native speakers regularly. Therefore she'd like to have a chatting with us in Japan through Skype. I wanted to know what her staying in different country as a foreigner to study abroad, and how hard the life in MN is.

As you know, it's said that studying abroad is not easy thing for us who has learned language. There are some reason I think so. First, everything of foreign country is new so we may feel culture-shocks. If it's difficult to adapt yourself to new life in overseas, we can feel stress about it. Second, we have to do housework by ourself. Its means we have to do everthing we need such as houseworks. Students who have never had experiences to do this, it will be hard for them. The most difficult things staying in non-native county should be language. That's why students go to study abroad in most of cases, but it becomes an obstacle for us even though we have confidence to speak in non-mother toungue. I mean speaking English fluenly isn't enough to make conversations smooth. American jokes are one of the good examples. Some of American jokes request to know historical facts to make an ironical remark about them in jokes. You can get the meaning even if you can understand grammatically. Actually, we need to understand society and history of country. I think that to know background is helpful when studying languages. A chat lounge partner, whose name is David, he taught me the similar ideas when I asked the difficulty of American jokes.

Finally, I could know that her staying has been great and hear about studying abroad. (This means I could know how hard studying abroad but it's really good for learners.) Nowadays I have being thought going abroad to study like my friends. On the other hands, I can't determind it because I'm worried if I won't let my stay in foreign country fruitful.

"He who gives to the poor, lends to the Lord."

If you don't have an umbrella when catching the sudden rain, what will you do to prevent yourself from the rain? Looking for an broken umbrella which somebody left on the street, or perchasing a new one by 300yen? If you don't have heavy rain, you try to pitch yourself into the rain?

In my case of yesterday, I didn't have my umbrella when I was on the way to go home. (Because I just thought it wouldn't be rainy till I arriveed at home.) Therefor there was no help without getting wet with rain, so I put one sheet of A4 paper on my head as an umbrella and started walking. During my journey to Nezu station, a man I don't know approached behind me. Actually, I didn't have any idea why he came closer but I continued to walk with wondering why. Unfotunately, I dropped my A4 paper backward because it was too wet with rain to grasp them, then I and a man caught each eyes. After two or three seconds, he spoke to me "Are you alright? I have two umbrella. So...here you are, please use it. It is too cold to walk without it." I was surprised at the unpredictable thing, I had never had such as benefits from unknown person on the street. (Absolutely, my face became :0) Finally, he left his umbrella and me on the roadside.

Coincidentally, I just learned this word "He who gives to the poor, lends to the Lord." in the class.

What Dish is real Cuisine in Tokyo?

I have never eaten genuine(real) Italian, Spanish, American, Chinese foods in the restaurants in Tokyo. I can have seen/tried similar ones like the places which we can eat delicious foods easily, e.g. 100yen Sushi and fastfoods restaurants. (It doesn't mean cheap dishes are third-classes) When I imagine our how to connect foods in recently, I felt We have changed our food style with being affected by foods' trend. Just 50 years ago, Japanese people used to eat rice, vegetables, and fish. Most of the Japanese dishes are good for health in the nutrition. In contrast, in the period including our generation, really like instants, frozen food, and deli. According to the investigation about food behavior in Japan, it shows our food style really are different from previous one. When we walk along the street, it is very much easy to find fastfood restaurants and convenience stores within 5 minute.

(I totally didin't talk about this article...)finally, I'd like to say the best cuisine for me is home-made dishes by my mother!

News and information from the article : "Tokyo 'world's best place to eat'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8364051.stm

The Giant Jellyfish Become a Giant Problem

Have you ever been touched any venomous(poison) tentacle(feeler) of jellyfish in the sea? This article will give us some serious facts about them.

I guess everyone knows that global warming is one of the representive issues in the world now. And it has caused a lot of environmental problems and pollutions for nature and wildlives. We could used to have the number of animals and plants, which are regard as endanger species in recent. On the other hand, some species which are harmful to native ones and human beings have bred increasingly. This jellyfish is also that one. They usually don't invate the place because of the sustanable cosystem as well as the others, but according to the damages occued by people, it has changed so that we have faced to the crisis of species. I just watched "The Inconvenient Fact" during reading class, and then I thought these problems could be more serious than present even if all over the world made an effort to save us.

I'm only able to say "As you sow, so you reap." That's why we have responsibility to do action to save the all. If we don't do anything, we including all species will be dead.

News and information from the article "Giant jellyfish swarm north in warming world"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33959849/ns/world_news-world_environment/