Response

Today's response is about the article, "Four marines investigated for rape". This article is about four marines from the U.S. who gang raped a woman in Hiroshima. They met the woman in a bar, and took her into a parked car. The U.S. air station admits their guilt, and said they will follow the judgment. Now, police is thinking of transfer them into custody.


Manuel Sandoval, who is living California wrote a response, "Don't judge marines too fast" to the article above. In his insistence, he said that it's not all these four marines' fault, but that woman also has responsibility. If she left the bar with four men, she must have expected what will happen. She should be more careful, and should know what men are expecting for women working in the bar. It is even said that "you can take the girl out of the bar, but you can't take the bat out of the girl". Because of those reason, he said not to hurry the judgment.

After this insistence, he also imply about military thing. It is marines like those four, who are protecting Japan from China and North Korea. Japanese judge those people because they don't aware how important military from U.S. are. He also suggests to removing military and making them notice the importance.


Kevin Egan wrote a response, "Disgusting outlook on women" to the response of Manuel Sandoval. He said that even if Japanese respect militaries, they should not commute. There is no regulation that military can do whatever they want. U.S. didn't put military bases all around the world in order to have their own way. Also, he said that investigation has no reason to change because of the woman's workplace is the bar.


Writing response about these article and responses, it was America, who said not to have military in Japan in order to protect. However, even if it was U.S. idea, Japan should appreciate to military protecting Japan. Because of them, there is peaceful country such as Japan. However, in Manuel's response, he said "we" instead of "them". (In the sentence "Maybe then everyone would see just how important we really are.") Japanese may appreciate for "soldier" to protect Japan, but why should they have to appreciate to "him"? Also, they just appreciate for protecting, not for rampage in their country. He is just looking down Japan because of he is American.

Why I am in IES

I didn't think I could be take part in IES program. Moreover, I was in IESa class now.

First, I would like to talk why I came to Kansai Gaidai. I have lived abroad for more than two years but since I was small, I rarely remember much of it, and moreover, I was able to feel decline of my English ability, which was the only thing I used to be good at. So, I started to think of studying abroad and choose the school, which has much school to association with. That was Kansai Gaidai.

I was able to pass the exam and started to think about the TOEFL test. I was interested in IES program, because I can get classes in English while I am in Japan, so I studied pretty hard.

At the orientation, which held before the TOEFL test, I knew that that program is for two years. I was shocked to hear that, because I was thinking of going abroad in sophomore. Anyway, I checked for the IES program, because I was said I am not enough to pass that program by others and also, it was my first time to take TOEFL test, so I did not have confidence. It was like trying my luck that time.

On the day of entrance ceremony, I knew I could take part in this class, surprisingly. First, I thought of my will to study abroad, but now, I think it is good program for me to prepare for studying abroad. Also, I enjoy hanging out with my friends. The activities of the class and the assignments make to have hard time, though.

mixi

How many of you enjoyning mixi? I started to enjoy this since Feburuary, introduced by my friend from high school. I wasn't doing so much of it compared to what I used to be. However, I foud it interesting again recently, because an old friends who didn't hear of about 7 years contact me the last day! I even can't remember her face clearly, but I was so excited about that. Moreover, there were other friends who used to be in the same school were in her mixi, and we were able to have contact again! They are planning to gather the class member during the vacation, so I am looking forward to see them again.

Sunday

Last Sunday, Mari and I went to Umeda for shopping. It was my first time to go Umeda so I was very impressed of the number of people in there. Moreover, there were much more people swarmed in the building! I don't like the place where is too many people, so I was very exhausted at a glance of it.

After a while, because we both wearing uncomfortable shoes, we were so exhausted, so we decided to ride a Ferris wheel to rest legs. People riding that were all family or couples. There was no one who rides with friends. However, once I ride it, I could look over Osaka, and I was so excited.

Resting enough, we went for shopping again. In the way home, we are both exhausted that we both fell asleep in the train. We were planning to meet again at night, but I was not able to. Also, I can't get out from the house on Monday too, so I said no to my friend that asked me to Kuzuha mall. I really wanted to go, but Umeda took my all energy I earned... I like going shopping, but not Umeda for now. It will take me more time to be used to urban, I think.

A language in a state of flux

Today, I want to write response to the article written by Tomoko Otake.

In this article, she pointed out the problem of loanwords, which is known as gairaigo in Japanese. By historical background, we know that we borrow letters from Chinese, or words from English. I heard that Japanese are good at adapting or be used to new things. I think that is right. We use kanji or gairaigo as part of Japanese. By this reason, Japanese were able to communicate with other countries. However, it is considered to be borrowing too much recently. According to he survey, most Japanese really know the meaning of the words. Pronunciation changed, so it is even hard for foreigners to guess the meaning too. Moreover, there are some words that have different meaning to the original meaning.

In this article, there were examples of otaku and politicians. I don’t think there is any problem about otaku using jargon. I think they are not using them because of showing off their knowledge, but they just creating their own world. However, when I talk about politicians, there is no problem using jargon at congress, but I think they should use words when they are talking in TV so that every citizen can understand what they want to do for country. Well, though politics are usually sound difficult for common citizen, why do they make the story more difficult to understand? It just increases the number of people who don’t have interest to politics, like me.