Pukman @ WinK: the community that time didn't forget

Please check out my catalogue on LibraryThing of Usborne readers. If you are a member of LibraryThing, it's very easy for you to copy books that you have read from my catalogue to your own. Just click on the book once, then choose the "Add..." option.

If you are not yet a member of LibraryThing, I recommend that you join. It is very simple: just type a username and password into the login form, and you can start using LibraryThing immediately. If you use your Gmail/Blogger/Google username and password, it will be very easy to remember.

I am gradually adding books and their cover images to my collection but it takes time. Remember you can add a book to your own collection if you find it anywhere in LibraryThing. If you use the Add to LibraryThing bookmarklet, you can also add books directly from Amazon.

1. Typing 9:03-9:08 (10:43-10:48)
   
2. Attendance email: finish by 9:15 (10:53)
3. Continue writing 5-paragraph essay about Kumamoto.

Other Notes

By the next class (1st class in June), you should have

1. a total of at least 40 posts on your blog (including essays, book reviews, etc.).
2. at least 8 book reviews.
3. a 5-paragraph essay about Kumamoto.

Today's typing topic: A shop I like
Next time's typing topic: A movie I like

The area around the Prefectural University of Kumamoto is quite a nice one for shops and eating places. Here are a few, in order of distance from PUK.

Just across from the west gate of PUK is a small restaurant called Little Kitchen. It serves many kinds of food, though Mediterranean is perhaps the main type. It has a lunch set at 740 yen. It's a little expensive, but it includes soup, salad, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink. Drinks you can choose from include not only tea and coffee but also homemade ginger ale, which is very good. The best thing about Little Kitchen, though, is the drinks menu. It has about 20 kinds of foreign beer, including many English beers. This is very unusual in Japan.

One of my favorite coffee shops is Karan, on the opposite side of PUK from Little Kitchen. It is in Nagamine, near Hello Green and the Yamaha music shop. They sell coffee beans as well as serving coffee in the shop. I like their cappucino best.

Mos Burger is a little expensive for a meal, but I like the cafe latte, which is quite cheap. Also, Mos Burger has a nice, quiet atmosphere outside of meal times. Sometimes, I go there in the late afternoon when I'm doing research but feeling a little sleepy.

One of my favorite shops is called Premier Cru. It is in the Takuma area, a little further from PUK than the other places. Its original name was Moshi Moshi Kameya, then it became Good One. A couple of years ago, it closed for about a year, and then returned as Premier Cru. Premier Cru is famous for imported food and drink.

Mos Burger is a little expensive for a meal, but I like the cafe latte, which is quite cheap. Also, Mos Burger has a nice, quiet atmosphere outside of meal times. Sometimes, I go there in the late afternoon when I'm doing research but feeling a little sleepy.

One of my favorite coffee shops is Karan. It is in Nagamine, near Hello Green and the Yamaha music shop. They sell coffee beans as well as serving coffee in the shop. I like their cappucino best.

Just across from the west gate of PUK is a small restaurant called Little Kitchen. It serves many kinds of food, though Mediterranean is perhaps the main type. It has a lunch set at 740 yen. It's a little expensive, but it includes soup, salad, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink. Drinks you can choose from include not only tea and coffee but also homemade ginger ale, which is very good. The best thing about Little Kitchen, though, is the drinks menu. It has about 20 kinds of foreign beer, including many English beers. This is very unusual in Japan.

One of my favorite shops is called Premier Cru. It is in the Takuma area. Its original name was Moshi Moshi Kameya, then it became Good One. A couple of years ago, it closed for about a year, and then returned as Premier Cru. (44)

Remember that 10 minutes is often enough for one post. So today I'd like you to write 3 posts, finishing each one within 10 minutes:

1. Last weekend or this coming weekend or something you did this week
2. Some vocabulary from your biology or ecosystems translations
3. A difficult sentence from your biology or ecosystems translations: in Japanese and English.

When I was a child, my favorite books were the Middleearth books by JRR Tolkien. The first one I read was the Hobbit, then after that I read the Lord of the Rings. Finally I read the Silmarillion. (38 words)

TODAY'S TYPING TOPIC: My favorite book
NEXT WEEK'S TYPING TOPIC: A shop I like

Today's main activities:

1. Talking about reading
   
2. Starting Essay 1 (Kumamoto)

Look at my dog! It's an Airish terrier!

1. Today, please comment on 3-5 friends' posts in the class.
2. Most of you need to write much more. The minimum number of posts by next week's class (May 18th) is 15; and by May 25th the minimum is 22. Short posts are OK, but you must write them yourself (i.e. don't use computer translation).

Please note 3 useful grammar rules:
1. Be careful of singular nouns. Usually they need "the" or "a/an" or a similar word. So, for example, "Yesterday, I went to see movie" is incorrect.
2. There should always be ONE space (hankaku only) AFTER a period or comma (not before).
3. Don't use RETURN (kaigyou) without a reason, for example a new paragraph. A new sentence is NOT a reason for a RETURN.

Most people who visit the UK go to London, the Cotswolds, the Lake District, Edinburgh, and Loch Ness. These are all nice places, but I suspect one reason is that the first Japanese people to visit the UK and write books about it had visited only those places.

One of the areas that is often forgotten is the south-west of England. The south-western area is a peninsula, so the coast is always near. There are no big mountains but lots of small hills. There is a big national park called Dartmoor, and another called Exmoor. The best-known city is Exeter, which has a big and beautiful cathedral.

You can see the area where I live on this map.

Hey, look at my photo on Chiho's blog.

• books
• movies
• typing
• essays
• kumamoto
• uk
• photos
• other media
• Japanese music
• other
  

HOMEWORK:

1. Make sure your total number of posts is up to at least 25 by next week's class.
2. Make sure that 5 of those are book reviews.
3. Practice adding photos and labels and other basic skills.
4. Remember to come on time for next week's typing practice. The topic will be My favorite book.
   

Today's program (short version):

1. Typing (today's topic: My favorite place; next week's topic: My favorite book)
   
2. Attendance email (as quickly as possible)
3. Introducing labels
4. Class bloglist
5. Revision, Comments, Orange books, Free writing, etc.

NOTE: It is important that you don't just wait when I am helping individual students. Start a new post, or edit an old one. Remember that you can "Save as draft" at any time if you need to stop writing.

Today's program (longer version):

1. Typing. Just as last week, you have 5 minutes to type as much as possible on the prescribed topic. Type in Microsoft Word, and use the word count tool. Type the number of words in ( ) at the end.
   
2. After typing, send me your attendance email in the usual way. Remember that the purposes of this email are to take attendance and to give you regular practice logging in and sending email through Gmail. Please send it as quickly as possible.
3. Labels: Labels are used in Blogger to group together similar posts. Some examples would be "book reviews", "essays", "typing", "movies", etc. After hearing my explanation, please make a new "Labels" post. Then make a Labels section in your sidebar. ( I will show you how to do this.) Then edit your old posts to include labels.
4. Bloglist: Please take a look at the class bloglist. Check that your name is on the list. Click on the link and make sure that it goes to your blog. If your name is not there, or if the link is not correct, you need to email me immediately with your name and the correct blog address (copy and paste it).
5. Revision, comments, free writing, orange books, etc: this is the best time to ask me for help. Please don't waste time!
   

Graduate Reading course: Phase 3



In Phase 1, you learned Global Local Reading, in which the focus was on spending as little time as possible to read longer texts. In Phase 2, you learned about the Academic Word List, and started learning the words in the lower sublists of the list.
In Phase 3, you will continue learning the AWL words, but this time you will learn them in sentences relevant to your specialist field. In order to do this, you will need to make a database of about 5000 words or more, preferably consisting of abstracts taken from a specialist journal in your field. Your database will of course be different from students studying in different fields. If you know a student doing research in the same field, you can work together to create a database. Please keep the database safe, because you will also use it in Phase 4 of the course.
The main tools you will use for Phase 3 are the AWL Highlighter and AWL Gapmaker. They are available at various sites, so please use Google or similar search engine to find them. The other tool is rikai.com , a site that translates words in context. (Try it on this text!)
The best sources for your database are the big academic journal sites. Alternatives are general science magazine sites such as New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/) and Science (http://www.sciencemag.org/), and the science/environment sections of newspapers such as the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/), but you should choose these only if you cannot find a suitable journal.

Major Journal Sites

• http://www.sciencedirect.com
• http://springerlink.com/home/main.mpx
• http://www.ingentaconnect.com/
• http://www.doaj.org/
• http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/

Your Tasks

1. Find a journal or other suitable source.
2. Collect about 5000 words of text in one document. Make sure you keep a backup!
3. Choose short excerpts and make AWL Highlighter documents.
4. Make AWL Gapmaker documents using the same excerpts as in (3).

Look! Everyone enjoys blogging in English!

I guess my favorite movie is Donnie Brasco. This movie stars Johnny Depp and Al Pacino.
(16 words)

Kotone looks very excited! What's she doing?

Look at this great photo!

New startup routine!

1. Open Word and get ready to type.
2. Type with the timer for 5 minutes.
3. Stop with the timer and count your words.
4. Send the attendance email as usual.

We should be able to finish all of this in 10-15 minutes.
If you come early, you could write a quick post on your blog. But make sure you're ready to start typing at the same time as everyone else!

You need to type 100 words in 5 minutes. You cannot pass the course unless you reach this level by the end of the course. If you pass early, you can come to class 5 minutes or so late.

TODAY'S topic is "My favorite movie". Next week's topic will be "My favorite place".