June 17th

It was our last day of ELA:'(
I appreciate the people in Stream 1 for being so nice and making my first semester in ICU so fantastic! Also special thanks to Rab for teaching us many many things. All the classes and words he gave stimulated me in various ways. It required hard working but I really really enjoyed being in this class.

I will miss this atmosphere and ELA and the people. 

See you guys until June or August when we will all go to Rab's house!

June 7th/10th/11th

June 7th's
This class was done by Paul Wadden on the novel the Old Man and the Sea. The class started out with the words, "put away your computers!" which was very shocking! haha! I'm personally not a big fan of literature and I didn't find the novel very interesting. However, the lecture opened up my view on literature. I was able to look at it from a different angle and appreciate many things. Adding to it, how he gave critical perspectives on the novel was very mind-opening, and I was happy to know that Paul was just not a crazy fan of Hemingway but also examined the book from a critical point of view. However, I don't think that I'm ever going to read that book again...

June 10th
The first presentations this day! And I absolutely had the feeling of going first for this class. Although we ran out of time for the questions and answers, our group overall went well :) However, I thought that with a little more time I could have done better. But that's my fault and I have the responsibility. As for the other presentations, the music group also did a good job! Their delivery of the content was something that I should learn from them.
It was kind of hard to do my presentations in ILC because the controller of the slides was so far away and the projector didn't work out very smoothly. Probably presentations will go much more efficiently with the close access to the controller and a better functioning equipment.

June 11th
Second day for presentations! Such a relief that I'm over with it. Because I've already finished presenting, I was able to listen to other people's presentations without nervousness and fear :) The two groups have done a really good job in their presentations and I especially loved Hitomi's super British accent! The contrast between Megumi's southern accent and Hitomi's British accent was kind of interesting. As for the content, both groups had concrete arguments and rigid facts that would support they point of view.
The rooms were much better than the Mac room in ILC. The presenters were able to carry their presentations according to their own pace, and the equipment was far more better. But the only thing that bugged me was the fact that the distance between the speaker and the audience became a little further. However, overall I think that presentations should be done in the Honkan.

June 4th

Today's LLA lecture was about the future of technology which was done separately from the Stream 2 students.The future vision he gave on technology was quite interesting. The four keywords presented were the following;
Genetic engineering
Robotics
Intelligence
Nanotechnology
Along with these keywords, three people who vision the future from different standpoints was introduced.

I don't think that our techno future will be neither hell nor heaven. From my opinion, people will be able to cope with innovation efficiently throughout time. So iRobots dominating humans in movies is most likely not happening.

Listening to this lecture really made me wonder what Rab would think about future technologies. Rab uses so much technology in education which I believe is a good thing. My work efficiency was surely brought up after learning from Rab. However, it kind of makes me wonder why his personal lifestyle is so far from technology. He lives in a log house with a non-flushing toilet surrounded with goats and other animals instead of robots. His career life looks pretty much pro-tech. On the other hand, his personal life seems to be based on con-tech ideas. Is Rab a techno-optimist or a techno-pessimist? It really made me wonder.

The Corporation 1-3

Chapter one covered how corporation and its shareholders gradually gained their current authority throughout history. The following chapters explained how pursuit of profit is all that matters for corporations and the interference of externalization affecting them. 

One thing he mentioned is that corporations employ mascots and images that would make corporations attractive despite their dark side being profit-centered monsters. Indeed, these mascots do actually help to pose an human face of corporations. Let's see some few examples.

This Peko-chan's(Fujiya's mascot) innocent smile on her face makes us forget about the fact how the corporation intentionally used overdue milk for some products in order to save money.

photo by rumpleteaser

"Yo dude, I sold horse meat calling it beef but who cares! I'm still rich baby!"

photo by Mark Lincoln

He also described how corporations do all sorts of good things in order to hide their inhumaneness. Of course, all those community services are a part of their strategies to bring up the corporation's reputation and profit. However, as I said in my former blog post, corporations contributing for the society itself is not a negative aspect. For example, UNIQLO collects used clothes and give them out to the countries that need them such as Kenya, China, Zambia, Nepal, Georgia and so on. And NTT Docomo has built 10 schools in Thailand. I totally understand that corporations are just compensating their negative image of being profit monsters, and that these philanthropic acts don't spring out from pure hearts which simply hope for world peace. Nevertheless, if you look at the standpoint from people who are being contributed, the outcome of this corporation's reputation manipulation is positive. UNIQLO provided them with warm clothes, and NTT Docomo generated new educational opportunities. Therefore, I'm still pretty convinced that corporations not always do harm to the society but can actually do good.

June 3rd

We had two classes today! It was like a deja vu seeing everyone in the same clothes at the same room twice in one day :)

About using technology in class. I think that ICU is tolerant in using our phones and computers during classes compared to other Japanese universities. Some friends from Sophia University told me that teachers don't allow students to take out anything but their notebooks and pens during lectures. On the other hand, I see a lot of ICU students using evernote to take notes and searching through the internet for whatever further information they want. However, there are some old-fashioned stubborn professors who like to stick on to custom in ICU. For example, one teacher that currently teaches us right now prohibits students from drinking, eating, and using computers during class. She says that it "distracts" other students. Really? I think that its not that distracting, and that suffering from thirst and hunger, and suspending the access of new information is a bigger distraction for our learning.

Watching videos of people doing risky activities really shortened my life. I will never do such things. I'm a super scared person who can't even go on roller coasters. The furthest that I can get is the Splash Mountain in Disneyland(I will never go on the Tower of Terror. Neeevveeerrrr), so crossing half-damaged roads and climbing a cliff without any lifesavers is never happening to me.

The Young Turks was really good! I'm definitely subscribing that youtube channel.

Don't drink Starbucks at Hong Kong Rab! Watch THIS.

May 31st

In the beginning of class, Rab gave us some feedback on our blogs. When he told us how some students don't know how to write e-mails to professors, it made me kind of scared because I've already done those things to them. For example, starting with the subject "hi".

The Meatrix video really heart moving. Although I thought that the video can do a little better in depicting the cruelty of producing animal meat. As far as I know, the hidden part of meat production is much more darker. Animal meat is made in great mass on assembly line. They are just treated like objects, and not as living organisms. Other than meat, chickens are stuffed into half a size of tissue boxes for their whole lives for them to lay eggs.

I believe that the Meatrix and the upside down mouth video was more successful because the things that they demanded to the readers were a lot more easier. Yes, posting photos and checking websites are things we can do. But writing a letter to the congress... nahhhh too much work.

May 29th

Gosh that room was so hot and smelly :S I don't like that room.

Today we listened to Rab's talks on how we live in such a profit-centered world. He mentioned that no such thing as "good" corporation exists. However, I'm still uncertain about it. It is true how the money making emphasis of corporations do apply for most of them. Thus, those policies have drawn down serious consequences such as the accidents caused by inefficient cars. Nevertheless, I believe that some corporations can do good. I solely believe in this because I myself take part in some volunteer activities under Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC for the corporation's CSR activities. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has been placing effort in doing some community service to support the damage of the Great East Japan Earthquake ever since that catastrophe occurred. Last year, they needed some students who would support doing their reconstruction support so two friends and I organized a group and have been doing community service for the Tohhoku district since then. This corporations has done so many positive things. They helped in establishing the Ofunato Tsunami Museum, organizing a market place to sell food from Tohhoku, holding a message event for the victims and so on. Therefore, my conclusion is that not all corporations are evil. However, it is true how what I'm seeing is just the single side of this corporation, so the internal system of it may be corrupt. Still, my experiences show how some corporations actually have a bright side.

The messages and money that we collected for the victims of the tsunami.

May 28th

This day's LLA lecture about democracy was interesting and shocking at the same time. Most of the "democratic" countries turned out to be fake. The story about overthrowing Chavez due to his citizen-friendly policies was quite hideous. Rab's lecture on Venezuela truly turned around my image on Chavez. Before this day, I had the image of him being the evil communist devil. Because I was educated under an American educational system, Chavez being the opposition of freedom and democracy was imprinted in my mind. When my teacher drew a portrait of Chavez, he was actually portrayed with two horns sticking out of his head with a freaky grin. How can I avoid having a bad image of him if he was represented so malevolent? However, I need to admit that I was simple-minded to easily accept the image that they illustrated despite my deficiency of knowledge of what he had actually done.

The lecture made me question about this country's democracy. Is Japan a democratic country? Japan explains that it has become democratic ever since the defeat of World War II and the control of GHQ. Yes, it does have a democratic constitution. Yes, the Japanese citizens do elect the House of Representatives which points out the prime minister. However, the Japanese people's opinions are hardly reflected in the nation's political policies. For example, the dispute over nuclear energy.  Despite the surpassing number of the people who are opposed over the people who are for, the government still continues to rerun the nuclear power plants. The ongoing protests and voices of objections continues to be neglected.
Well, I don't expect anything good from the present corrupt government anyways...

May 27th

We learned the basic things about Google sites, and had some time playing around with other people's websites. I tried out making a website for my volunteer group using Google sites before but wasn't able to work the whole way through. And I ended up using jimdo, which was much more easier and cooler than Google sites. I personally recommend people to use this one instead of using Google for personal uses.

Chapter 9 +10

Ugh missed to watch the CL final!!! Congratulations for Bayern Munich! I totally needed to watch that match!! Buuuuuuutttt, good news is that I get see David Beckham's last match next month in Japan! Very very very excited about it.

Anyways, back to the book.

Chapter 9 is about the Vietnam war. Since my American history class needed to cover the whole course in just a single year, I barely knew about it. The chapter explains how the whole process of censorship gets involved in textbooks when it comes to Vietnam war. For example, some photos that symbolize the cruelty of war are omitted from textbooks, including the most famous photo of a naked girl fleeing from a napalm attack in Highway 1. I was familiar with this particular photo because it was included in my history textbook in Japan. So I was surprised to know that most American textbooks eliminate showing this photo. According to Loewen, they do so in order to glorify the nation. In fact, "Not one of twenty-one photos shows any damage the United States inflicted upon Vietnam"(249). Moreover, history textbooks lack in exposing antiwar factors. Warfare is positively shown in textbooks, and is affirmed as a matter of fact. However, these censorship yields some serious consequences on the future generation. One-sided perspective of the war deprives the opportunities for the students to think critically. High schools ought to be a place where students acquire the ability to rationally judge certain affairs. And as part of it, history must serve to prevent repeating the same mistake again. In this case, history textbooks should show the inhumane actions of warfare so as to never let them come again instead of concealing the damage that the United States caused.
I am still not able to answer the questions, "Was the war right?" and "Was it ethical?". This shows that myself is an outcome of the corrupt American history textbooks.

As for Chapter 10, Loewen describes how textbooks treat every historical event as mere facts, considering them to be dead. I believe that this can also be applied to teachers' style of teaching history. My Japanese high school's history class was a complete crap. The class was absolutely passive, not letting any chances for the students to think about each historical event critically. Instead, it was solely aimed for passing university entrance tests, and was solid memorization. I mean, what is the purpose for learning history? For passing exams? Isn't there a much more profound meaning in learning the past events? Obviously,their method of teaching was tedious mainly because they presented history just like fake stories from fairy tales. They simply didn't sound really realistic, and was kind of hard for me to think that all those things actually happened. In one word, history was dead in that classroom. Therefore, it goes without saying that I found nothing appealing from my three years of learning history in my previous school. Other than textbooks' poor presentation of facts, the author also mentions that the most recent events are often skipped in detail. I remember spending so much time and class periods studying about the French Revolution and only a few lines on 9.11. It is totally understandable how some of the information of recent things remain obscure and may bring about dispute for their concealability, so textbooks are opt for avoiding them. However, comprehending the present allows students to attain multiple points of view, and perhaps is the most important thing of studying history. Thus, I believe that textbooks and history classes must put more emphasis on teaching about recent events more than any other thing.

Chapter 5

This chapter's main focus is racism. Loewen describes how American history classes do cover the issue of racism in length and how in fact they are obsessed with it, however fail to observe it in an objective manner. Meaning that textbooks nowadays still affirm the whole act and regard it as a natural matter of history. It is true how the progress of textbooks to explicate the topic in a fair standpoint can be seen throughout time, as Loewen says "In 1959 my high school textbook presented slavery as not such a bad thing"(137). However, they still omit the whites' involvement in the event. Therefore, the notion of white supremacy still continues to exist within our textbooks and is passed on in high school students' minds in present.

The Americans' obsession with the issue of racism can be seen in many pieces of work. For example, the musical "Hairspray"'s main theme is racial discrimination and segregation. I used to do this musical for my club when I was in high school. Another example is the novel "The Help", which was my topic for my book review for this class. The most memorable piece of work of all times has been the TV-miniseries"Roots". I watched this particular film in my American history class in Spain, and it gave me a huge impact leaving enormous footprints in my mind. These are just a few examples of the numerous pieces of entertainment that focuses on racism. I suppose that students should rely more on these as alternative sources to gain rational information other than just high school textbooks.

CC image courtesy of  墨琳 on flickr

May 22nd＋24th

Another class out in the sun at bakayama at the 22nd:)

Rab explained how the idea of the Stream 1 students to observe other classes got rejected by the ELA director. Apparently, our English levels will discourage the lower level students and damage their self-esteem according to her. I mean... really?? That is such a shallow opinion. As Rab said, there isn't any information that would support her idea. Moreover, from my experience, interacting with higher level students always raised my awareness and encouraged me to study more. I was personally looking forward for this plan so I was quite shocked to hear about the rejection.


About the 24th.

We learned how to make our own photo books using iPhoto! It would be nice if we could make a yearbook   just with the Stream 1 students instead of spending 8000 yen on that school yearbook that has so many pictures of people who I'm not acquainted with. As an example of the photo book, Rab brought in one of his with his children dressed for shichigosan. They were soooo cute. I seriously suggest both of them to become child actors:)

Rab then showed us the ways to keep our internet secured, which was a realm I was completely blind of. Of that very intense technological lecture that he gave us, the sole thing I was able to understand was having multiple VPN addresses will be helpful in many ways!! tadaaaa.

Next came up the ongoing talk of universities' corrupt system. Universities are all about profit, and they are a complete business and not a genuine place that offers educational opportunities for those who wish. Of course ICU is not an exception. In fact, this university is one of the most expensive private schools in Japan. Therefore, the recycling of teachers also takes place here at ICU just like other Japanese universities. I've been thinking that ICU was different from other ordinary university... It's sad but I guess that I need to face the reality.

Keynote was such a useful tool! Again, I cannot use this convenient tool on my computer for being a Windows user. But I'm proud with my computer anyways. HA!

May 20th

Retreat turned out to be so much fun! I was never an all-nighter but I managed to make myself awake for my  first time. Overall, I made whole lots of new friends and especially got to know a little bit more about the stream 1 people:)

Anyways, this day Rab showed us the presentation that he did on the ELA teachers' "Retreat". It's so cool how we get to do things that people from other streams don't get a chance to do. All the creative stuffs that Rab shows us fascinates and motivates me every time! After the presentation, we played around with iMovie. All the effects and functions that it has was awesome! It's such a shame how all the tools he showed us never work on my windows computer...:( One of the moments I hate being a windows user... (still love my windows computer anyways:P)

May 15th

We had class at Bakayama :) It was so nice to have discussions out in the sun!

There were talks about restrictions on clothing with words and on different ages. And there was one conspicuous point that I've noticed; Spain is such a liberal country compared to others! In my international school, there was no control over what we were supposed to wear. Some of the members of my group said that they needed to keep out wearing certain clothes with some images and words in the US, or were simply not allowed. For example, words and images that reminds people on drugs was prohibited. In that sense, we were completely free since we were allowed to wear anything in my school in Spain. The only rule on clothing was not to wear spaghetti straps! Talking of aging restrictions, Spanish laws hardly functioned when I was living there back then. But things seemed to have changed a few years ago when the EU  basically unified the rules. Speaking of the time before that, there wasn't such thing as a smoking/drinking age. Anyone was allowed to smoke or drink at whatever time in their lives. The school even served us champagne in 9th grade during Prom! This goes a little off the track, but the laws on drugs are really interesting. The country regulates the purchase of marijuana, but not the consumption and cultivation. So if you get caught by a police officer by smoking marijuana, say that your dad gave it to you. Then you will never be guilty in Spain! Well, I suggest not to do drugs at the first place though...

May 14th

Our hoodies finally arrived!! We are the Paterson Children!

I was so glad to see Rab surprised :) Thanks Haru for arranging everything.

Rab talked about the segmentation theory and how to keep student's attention during class by trying out multiple methods. The thing he told us about ICU teachers' presentation ability was so true. Some of the teachers I have came into my mind. After that he showed us how to use zotero again and to tell the truth, there we're times when I got totally lost. So I guess I should play around with it at home and see if I can work it out. 

May 13th

We learned how to collect and analyze surveys using Google form. I was familiar with this tool since I used to use it so much for my volunteer activities. I made the participators of my volunteer event to submit a participation form using Google form which I had posted on the Facebook event page. This web-based survey made my life so much easier because the need to type in every person's name was omitted, and all the names automatically came up on a spread sheet very organized. However, I didn't know that Google form also enabled us to modify the responses into graphs. This can become an essential visualized tool for our research paper.

We also made our groups for research writing. I became the member of the Youth Culture group with Moe, Johnny, and Take. Hope we get along :)

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chapter 4

Although, recent textbooks might have succeeded in improving the image of Native Americans, the historical stereotype of them being "primitive" and "savage" is still deeply rooted in the overall American society. It is so ironical how Europeans who are considered to be "civilized" used savage violence in order to conquer "primitive" Indians.

Even today, Native Indians suffer from racism. It is not a racism that involves violence; however, it is a unique type of racism that is all about their disappearance from the modern world. Most people relate racism with black people being discriminated. Frankly speaking, I also thought that way. The reading about Indian slavery was totally a new fact for me. African slavery receives so much attention, and high schools tend to employ materials related to it. I remember spending so many class hours watching the famous TV miniseries "Roots" in history class in high school (Totally heart moving so people should watch it if they haven't), but my classes never mentioned anything about Indians being enslaved. Moreover, last mentions of the Native Americans in textbooks probably comes along with the closing of the frontier and things related to New Deal. No one knows what happened to them after that. The Native Americans are completely gone in this modern world. Therefore, the evil image of them continues to be passed down through history. I strongly believe that a remedy to this problem is needed.

The third quote that is introduced in this chapter grabbed my attention and closely depicts their present situation.
"There is no one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears"-Rupert Costo

May 10th

Funky Friday at ILC today! We saw some videos related to the intercultural text of the ELA reader. The sushi tutorial video was reaaalllyy funny. It was quite interesting to see how the Japanese custom worked out from a foreigner's perspective. On the other hand, I found the Whale beer commercial disturbing due to its bizarreness. The blood shedding moment was unnecessary. As for the Rooney's video, I thought it to be very funny. Maybe that was mostly because it was my first time to see Rooney with actual HAIR. He seriously looks 10 years younger than before. Haha. Besides that, the video itself was also hilarious. So I was a little surprised to hear that most girls dislike that video... Or am I just being odd? Anyways,  as for the Japanese endurance comedy video, I just couldn't endure watching it. Frankly speaking, I didn't find any funny essence from those violent scenes. However, I remember one old Japanese TV program similar to the endurance show called Takeshi's Castle being very popular among Spain when I was living there. A whole bunch of rebroadcasts were done in European countries. And this fact shows how one humor from one particular country can transcend time and place, and also become understandable in multiple countries after a few decades. In other words, humor can be universal :) Of course, not always. 

We also learned how to get images legally. I'm going to try some out. I hope I'm doing it right!

cc image courtesy of 99 James Kieran Nguyen on Flickr

May 8th

First time to have class in Bakayama!!! It had been my dream to do so:) I even mentioned it in the interview of the entrance examination.

Anyways, we had a group discussion on things related to yesterday's lecture. One topic that was brought into discussion was on Japanese media. Japanese news programs make me realize how peace this country is. They broadcast the most stupid topics. "Cute Panda Babies in Ueno!""Feature on Shoplifter Catcher!""Cheapest Things You Can Buy in Depa-chika!""Where You Can Have Lunch in 500Yen!" and so on. I mean, what is wrong with the Japanese media! Aren't there more things that are worth showing about the world? News programs spend about 20 minutes on those idiotic topics and few seconds about the tragic situation in Syria. This needs to be changed.

Funky Friday tmrw!!

We want more classes outside!

May 7th

Today's lecture made me conscious of how much things the media hided from us, and the potential that Web 2.0 has. Rab explained about Web 2.0 being as an alternative solution for getting information that is not under the influence of big cooperation. Some of the videos that he showed us were shocking. Especially the one which the police officers violently sprayed chemical gas into the peaceful protesters' eyes. I have always had the image of the police being the symbol of justice. Therefore, it has been a surprise for me to know that those malicious acts of the police had been hidden from me for the past 19 years of my life. 

I think that the Web 2.0 played an important role among many people during the Great East Japan Earthquake. I personally don't think that I could have survived that day without social media such as facebook, mixi, and twitter. They were truly my lifeline. Having been stranded in Shibuya alone without any access for phone calls, all I had was my phone (not my iPhone at this point) and 500 yen. Plus, my phone's battery was running out and had no solution for charging it. After buying bread for snack, there was hardly any money left. Therefore, I couldn't do anything but to wait for my phone to die out:) However, things changed. Fortunately, I was able to contact one of my friends who was also stranded in Shibuya via mixi, then we met up down Hachiko. After that, she provided me with a battery charger and food. Also I was able to contact my parents using her docomo phone (au phones didn't function that day). My dad came to pick me up and we were able to walk back home. This day made me realize how much social media can contribute to one's life.

By the way, I wonder what happened to myspace...

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chapter 3

I didn't really get why everyone who knows about or who is in ICU keeps on saying that the amount of studying ICU students do cannot be compared with other universities. I've always thought that it was the Stream 3,4 students who had to deal with staggering amount of homework .. UNTIL THIS GOLDEN WEEK! Now I completely understand why. I guess I will have to face it since I'm in ICU and this was why I choose to this university...:)

Anyways, back to the book.

When I was in an international school in high school, it was compulsory for all 9th graders to take American history for a year. This class was truly American done by an American teacher based on American textbooks. Let me emphasize one thing, it was an international school consisted with international students. However, the content was purely based on the American perspective that neglected the fact that we were students who come from all different countries of the world with different identities. But this course did succeed to put the American spirit in our minds. And off course, I was not an exception. This whole let's-brainwash-international-students-year glorified my image towards America. Until I read this chapter, I've always thought that Pilgrims were the first ones to settle, and that improved the American society, including that of the Native Americans. Therefore, the things that were suggested in the book were shocking and fresh for me. After all, the Pilgrims were heroified. At the first point, never weren't they the first ones to settle in America nor did they introduce the European culture. Moreover, it was natural for them to had been able to rule over the Native Americans with the epidemics swiping out most of the Indian population. As for the Native Americans, my American history class implied the inferiority of the indigenous people to the whites, though they didn't really mention in actual words. But this seems so ironical now knowing that the Native Americans were the ones who introduced many of the crops and ways to harvest them. Considering all these facts, the whole celebration of Thanksgiving turned out to be nothing more than an occasion to reassure the American citizen's obedience to the country. Well, I guess the turkey part is still good though. Although, Americans can be more attentive and tolerant about Thanksgiving instead of being so ethnocentric if they could know about the truth behind it, just like I did. 

May 1st

The explanation that Rab gave us for Academic Writing was very useful. I've already knew some of the parts of his lecture since I learned about it during middle and high school, but most of the things he taught were new for me. 

Then we did a psychology test! This was really fun:) Here are my results for it. I'm looking forward in doing the drawing version of it in next class!

Blue: calm, peaceful, beautiful, natural

Bird: free, cute, smart, adorable, fluffy, soft, emotional

Ocean: fun,salty, beautiful, sparkly, shiny, pretty

White room: peaceful, creepy, spiritual

April 30th

Today's LLA lecture was done by our lovable teacher Rab with the stream 2 students. It was funny how most of the stream 1 students gathered up at the back of the room knowing that Rab will pick on us during class. Anyways, the topic was about propaganda. In his lecture, he mentioned the different types of propaganda that we need to be critical about. First came ownership. The role of the authority plays a great part in the selection of information for the reason that the owner can make decisions based on his/her own preferences. Second was advertising. Since media receives a great amount of money from advertisement, they have the power to persuade them to kill certain stories in order to keep profit. Third was access. The accessibility for upcoming interviews may be limited by any disturbing news about that person. Therefore, media will try to select information in order to protect future opportunities. Forth was flak. Choice of news may also occur as a mean to avoid undesired lawsuits, and negative publicity and threat. The last one he mentioned was ideology. Media will not expose certain information that would worsen a particular person's reputation. The video that he showed of Berlusconi picking and actually eating(Gross!) his nose was really entertaining!How Rab explained each factor along with a Japanese example made me comprehend better because it enabled me feel the topic much more closer.

No one can deny the massive influence that media acts on our daily life. Mass-media such as newspapers, internet, and television programs are so close to us that we cannot avoid getting affected by them. It is the fault of those media sources that block us from accessing accurate information. However, it is impossible to ask them to quit modifying information in this profit-centered society. Censorship is inevitable. Therefore, all the receivers of media should take this propaganda for granted. Instead of blindly taking in whatever information we can get, we must take a closer look into that piece of information and identify it more deeply. We must constantly pose the question "why?".This process of will enable us to acquire multiple viewpoints, and mostly importantly, the ability to think critically.

April 29th

Today's class started off with Rab's feedback on our blogs. He mentioned how biases are not necessarily bad all the time. What we actually have to do is to identify whether that bias is acceptable or not. After knowing this fact, I came to understand how Loewen's biased view on racial minorities was acceptable. Although it may be true how slavery was quite common back then, Columbus' brutal domination over slaves and people from other racial minorities still cannot be justified because ideas that were against slavery also existed at the same time. For example, Las Casas opposed slavery and claimed the unfairness that slaves were undergoing. Therefore, this shows the acceptability of Loewen's suggestion of Columbus' brutality, which makes his biased view on racial minorities agreeable. 

Then we moved on to a discussion on the second chapter of the book. The first question was why do textbooks include the flat earth theory when it is so obvious that it is false? Our group's answer was to make Columbus more heroific and to give a better image of him as an explorer. The drawing that Rab drew on the white board about the theory was really helpful, and at the same time I was surprised of the simplicity and fragility of the theory. Next, the role of Catholic churches was put into discussion. In my interpretation, the catholic authority was used as means to justify domination over the Americas. In other words, conquest was taking place in the name of missionary work. 

Then came the most interesting topic of the day which was about culture. This topic was a familiar one since we all were able to relate to ourselves. For me, I feel that I am strongly influenced by three different cultures, which are American, Spanish, and Japanese. Since I spent my early childhood in the US, my way of talking and acting derives from the American side. Coming back to Japan at the middle of 1st grade, I struggled for a while to figure how the Japanese culture worked out. For example, to clean the classrooms by ourselves bothered me so much. I would always think "why do we need to clean when the school already hires a cleaning lady?!". This weird custom still remains as a mystery for me. However, concerning my family's background, it is inevitable for me to get influenced by this culture. As for my personality, Spain dominates a huge part of it. For instance, Spanish people are mostly loose in time and so am I. Overall, the conclusion is that I don't belong to any particular culture. And all the other members of the group also agreed. Instead, we should have a culture for the people like us so called the "returnee culture". I'm sure that the other returnees will also fit in to this one:)

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chapter 2

This chapter focuses on Christopher Columbus's real history and the Eurocentric ideas that is hidden behind it. Frankly speaking, I didn't really enjoy reading this chapter. I strongly felt that Loewen's specialized studies on racial materials were excessively pushed out in front. However, it is true how the perspective from the racial minority side was completely neglected in many of the textbooks. Therefore, the information that he delivered in this chapter are things that we must know in order to do away with our Eurocentric historical interpretation. 

Inside the text, Loewen explains how current American history textbooks only offer inadequate amount of information so as to appreciate the full context of that period. He says in his chapter, "Our history books ought to discuss seriously what happened and why, instead of supplying vague, nearly circular pronouncements..."(35). For example, talking of Columbus, because textbooks wanted to put more emphasis on the "great discovery" that he accomplished, they failed to mention the descriptive facts about the European history of the time that would possibly give a negative image of Europeans(Americans). This concealment of the context leads to make the what and why connection of his great undertakings invisible. Moreover, Loewen points out that the way of representation of Columbus in textbooks somehow justifies domination. Despite the brutal attitudes and treatments towards the racial minorities (such as Indians, and African Americans) that had taken place during the process of domination, it is regarded as an essential and inevitable tool for the West to expand its power. Which leads to the widespread belief of Eurocentrism and disregard of racial minorities till the present. Furthermore, Loewen mentions many other accomplishments done by various nationalities before Columbus in order to illustrate the intentional selection of facts that are taking place in textbooks. They only designate information that are "important", however, those pieces of information turn out to be "important" for the only reason that they are done by white people. Here comes Eurocentrism again. The suggestion he made about the real definition of the term "discovery" was interesting for me, because this unleashed the fact that Columbus's great "discovery" turned out not to be a "discovery" at all. 

Although most of the points that Loewen made were based on racial materials, these facts were also one of the essential aspects of Columbus. The thing that caught my eyes the most inside this chapter was the countless portrait images of Columbus. I actually searched for his images using Google images (using the ultimate techniques that I acquired in last class! Yeah!), and look what I found! How can all these be one face of a single man?

April 26th

At the beginning of this class, Rab showed us how to use Google Reader and Feedly. We added everyone's blog from Stream 1A to our accounts and them sync them to Feedly. I also installed the Feedly app on my iPhone so that I can check out everybody's blog at anytime. Each time it makes me wonder if Google has any limits for its facilities because every feature that it has is just so overwhelming. The company even needed to make itself less convenient in order to be more profitable. How ironical. Next, he showed us the optical illusion test video of a women spinning. I had the weirdest experience of seeing a sudden change in the women's direction without any control in my head. Adding to it, here's another video that I found on youtube that tests you whether you're a left brain dominant or a right brain dominant, so try it out! After that, we searched through Google images to look for stereo grams, which was like the biggest struggle that I faced in the last few weeks. To tell the truth, I never figured out any of them. Despite Rab and Masamune's huge support, I wasn't able to solve any of them. I guess I'll need some more practice on being more creative, and being able to think in more three-dimensional. Then he showed the Mother of All Funk Chords video and the Angels on the moon thriving ivory video as a metaphor to demonstrate how our writings should be. In order to achieve a good piece of writing, we must choose the first-class information and mash them together and make them smooth, he said. I would like to keep this in mind and reflect it in my upcoming essays.

Rab's classes are always filled with new experience, knowledge and enlightenment. I wonder what will come next!

April 24th

In this day's class, we did a discussion about the first chapter of "Lies My Teacher Told Me". How Rab explained the differences between socialism, communism and capitalism at the beginning  of the class really helped me out since I didn't really get their differences. His explanation made me get a clearer vision of what the topic was all about. It was surprising to know that all three of them equally had both strong and weak points. Knowing that fact, I assume that Loewen's distorted views on socialism stem from his American identity. Although he picks too much on Helen Keller's later life as a radical socialist, he does make a point in that this truth was hidden from us, from the textbooks. The problem with textbooks is the selection of information. They designate and leave out certain information based on the criteria to make students feel proud of their own country, which generates the heroification of historical figures. However, the exposure of the history's truth is essential because truth makes students critical thinkers of their country. Moreover, it will give them an incentive to do more examination on their motherland.

Margaret Thatcher was shown as an example to show the influence of censorship of information on that figure's image in this modern world. Probably this doesn't really has anything to do with this whole topic but I personally related this story to Michael Jackson. Despite all the bizarre and disturbing stories about his personal life and constant criticism about him, he was praised as the "King of Pop" after his death. Well, I guess the example of Michael Jackson is kind of different compared to Thatcher because Michael actually had the exceptional musical talents, when I hardly hear any good stories about her.

April 23rd

Yesterday's LLA lecture was done separately from the stream 2 students unlike the last one, which made the whole lecture more interactive. Rab showed us how to make our arguments stronger and to perform well in presentations. In enforcing our arguments, he mentioned a number of types of evidence that we could use, including statistics, examples, expert opinions and so on. Each type of evidence was explained along with a concrete example or an actual demonstration of it which made me easy to understand them better. Moreover, Rab gave a few points of how to make our presentations more successful. Everything turned out to be useful for me since I didn't really get a chance to give any speeches or presentations when I was in a Japanese high school. 

Above all, Rab's presentation skills were amazing. I sometimes see him as the Scottish version of Steve Jobs (including his huge obsession with Mac computers). Haha!

April 22nd

In today's class, Rab showed us how to use zotero. I'm glad to know how to use this useful tool because I remember how it was such a pain in the neck to type in every single reference one by one including the numerous dates, authors, and titles when I used to write essays back in Spain. I regret myself for not knowing about zotero until present. I'm sure that my life would have been much more easier. Rab also mentioned that all he showed in class was only about 10% of what zotero can actually do, which made me really worried since I only fully understood about half out of that 10%! I guess I'll need some practice to get used to it.

April 19th

In groups of five, we discussed a few points on College Thinking by Jack W. Meiland. There were few interesting topics brought into it.

First topic was whether this whole College Thinking method of studying can also be applied to Japanese colleges as well or not. In my opinion, I felt that this whole text was written from the premise that all students and colleges had a westernized characteristic. For example, Meiland pointed out how all students must keep on asking questions to teachers and constantly be engaged with them. However, I believe that this is not applicable in Japan considering the peoples’ personalities and the style of teaching in Japanese colleges. In large-scale universities (like Waseda and Keio), most classes are held in about 400 students to 1 single teacher in a passive way. Moreover, if you think over the shy personality of the overall Japanese, it is unrealistic to expect to get the same out of them using his method. In this sense, I consider ICU different compared to other Japanese universities. ICU puts more emphasis on critical thinking and classes are done in small number of people. Unlike other colleges, this atmosphere allows students to be engaged in studying and teachers, and constantly to question the society. These factors probably make ICU more “subversive” in a good way.

Second topic was about belief and religion. Why can Meiland talk about belief based on evidence when he is a Christian? Can he prove with facts that god really exists in this world? This topic really made our group stuck in conversation. After some considerations, we finally reached to a conclusion: belief and religion are two separate things that cannot be mixed together. The former consists of the process of rational thinking when the latter is more spiritual. Religion is more of an inner and instinctive thought compared to belief. I know that I’m lacking in persuasiveness, but we simply needed more time to discuss about this topic more deeply!

I think that this discussion was pretty elaborate and thoughtful. It was also nice to hear multiple opinions from other people which broaden my view on the topic. Moreover, I appreciate my group members for making this text more interesting than how it really is. 

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chapter 1

My first encounter with Helen Keller was when I was in first grade through a comic on her life. Reading comics on lives of historical figures was a trend at that time, and along many of the comics, Keller’s has always been my favorite. As a child, I remember being awed by her strength for survival and her firm convictions. Despite the negative aspects that the author delivers, I still believe that the hardships and endeavors that she faced remains the same and that there are many things that we can get out of her experience even if she became a radical socialist in her later life. However, it is true how the other side of her life remained in dark, when all this should have been taught in history class. At the same time, I was also struck by the author’s offensive attitude towards Socialism. Inside the text, James strongly opposes Keller’s later actions intending to bring about radical change in the American society. From a non-American perspective, I believe that his way of delivery showed excessive hatred towards Socialism. Well, I suppose that this viewpoint is natural for an American citizen.

Next, the chapter discusses about the former American president Woodrow Wilson. I have always related Woodrow Wilson with peace since he devoted in establishing the League of Nations, which led the way in receiving the Noble Peace Prize. However, the historically concealed points that James exposed totally changed the image. Although the author’s suggestions were mostly standpoints of the social minorities (because racial materials were James’ field of study), facts about his diplomatic policy and ideas based on white supremacy were surprising enough to turn down my peaceful picture of him.

Until I started reading this book, I thought that “heroification” of historical figures was not as bad. Good image in the past raises love towards the nation which can contribute to nationalism. Moreover, it also creates an inspiring role model which people can always look up to. On the other hand, the influence that it causes can pose a negative effect on our present. The present world will never improve unless we learn from the past because the relationship between past and present equals to the cause and effect relationship. In this sense, text books aren't doing a great job in providing students with the truth. If we want a better future, I guess we have to get started with giving out this book to every single student to spread the reality of history, instead of attending crappy history classes filled with made-up stories.