Response to "Don't judge marines too fast"

Regarding the article" Don't judge marines too fast", Sandoval mentions that the occurrence is the woman's fault and she should have be more careful about going with the four marines by showing his experience when he was assigned to Tachikawa Air Base. He also says that women who work in a bar have to count a bad situation such a rape as their works. This idea looks down women who work in a bar and shows the readers that he has a thoughtless notion about women. Being raped is not a work of women who work in bar at all and the woman who raped by the marines is a victim even though she might behave a bit carelessly like that she went out with men who she just has met. He must take women's feeling into account.

Furthermore, there are some military bases of U.S. in Japan now, however, it is not saying that soldiers have a right to do whatever they want to, as Kevin Egan, the writer of " Disgusting outlook on women", says. Sandoval is stating his opinion regarding U.S. as a center and does not care about others at all. His opinion is self-centered, so it may be unaccepted by Japanese.

Why ?

Today, I will talk about why I am in IES.
I have never been exposed to English before I entered Kansai gaidai and IES, because I had not studied abroad and stayed long time in foreign country. Also I had not an opportunity to meet foreigners in my hometown. So when I was in a high school, I always became quiet and nervous when I was spoken by in English and I could not express my thought in English.

I knew IES program when I came to Kansai gaidai to participate in an open campus in August. IES was attractive for me because all professors are native speakers and I can learn English in English. I thought the program would help me to overcome my shyness about English and I can communicate with a lot of people in English, so I chose IES. However, little did I dreaming of that I could be IES-a because my TOEFL score was not good. So, I was really surprised at that.

Now, as you know, we have a lot of assignments everyday and we have to expend much time on doing them. The campus life I had thought before I entered Kansai gaidai is different from now. I do not have enough free time to do what I want to do. However I think I am not nervous now compared to when I was in a high school. I can more express what I want to say in English now than before. Assignments are a lot and really hard, but I think they are useful for me. I want to stay IES and develop my English skill !

Kafka

Hello. It is getting colder today. The season of flu will come soon, so be careful not to catch a cold!




I will introduce my favorite novel today.It is " Kafka on the shore" which was written by Haruki Murakami and I was recommended this novel by my friend.
I read this novel in the train bound for my hometown in a summer holidays. It takes 4 hours to go to my hometown, so I thought it must have been boring. However the time was gone in a flash because I was absorbed in reading this novel.





This novel was written from 2 angles, a boy called Kafka and an old man called Nakata san. These two stories from different angles have nothing to do with each at a glance, but gradually I can see that these two stories are mixing.
This is a mysterious novel , so I can not sum up its main points. However, try it :D

I want to read " Norwegian wood" next time.

Joan's soda

Hi.

I saw the news that Joan's soda sold sodas with a flavor of sweat and grass. Can you imagine the flavors? I do not want to imagine...(^^;)

These sodas were sold for the fan of Seahawks which is one team of NFL( National Fooball League ) , so the flavors are related to American football such sweat the players perspire.

Joan's soda sold soft drinks with a flavor of turkey and mashed potatoes. This is a photo of them. The appearance is very normal, but I do not want to drink them......

I do not know whether the drinks of the company are sold in Japan.

If you found it, ..........try it!

A language in a state of flux

I think we do not need being so pessimistic about a flux of katakana words and loanwords between everyday conversation and advertisements. It is a kind of a Japanese culture the present generation made and we communicate with others more or less using them. Especially in the case of advertising, we sometimes can feel more clearly what an advertisement wants to say from the atmosphere of katakana or loanwords using in the advertisement. Japanese, kanji, hiragana and katakana, is a language that we can create innumerable expressions if we use them mixed. However there are Japanese that it is difficult to express in foreign languages and there are foreign languages that Japanese can not express. So, I think it is not bad thing to make up for it using each languages because we can do more extensive expressions.

However it, insistently, is only the case of conversation and advertisement. I do not think so in the case of news and politics. I often think, “why does this politician use a lot of gairaigo?” when I watch TV news. I can not understand what he wants to say because of a flood of loanwords. Too much use of katakana and loanwords causes a confusion and I can not understand what he says rather than he thinks (some maybe think so, too). Also, I sometimes wonder politicians really understand the meaning of loanwords they are using. I think they have to forbear using a lot of katakana words and loanwords in public.