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

As we learned in class, it's good to have Comments and a LibraryThing widget in the sidebar. You should also be using labels in your posts.

Next, let's add a Labels item.

Here's a good example.

In Basic English IV, your aim should be:

1. 5 posts a week, including at least 1 book review
2. 3 comments a week on other blogs

You also need to gradually start:

1. adding photos to your posts
   
2. putting links in your posts

I will show you how to do these things in the next week or two. And soon also, I will teach you how to add a LibraryThing widget to your blog.

Remember that you should send me an attendance email each class.

Please check out the Blog Feeds section at WinK Home!

Mr B. has explained how to add a comment feed to your blog. Please check out his post, and try it on your blog. The basic formula you need to add to your feed widget is:

• [YourBlogURL]/feeds/comments/default/?alt=rss

Add a page element at the top of your sidebar, being sure to choose the Feed element.

WAI 2-01: The First Month

Months	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Totals	Multiplier	Adj. Value
Blog posts	1	19	25	17	11	3		76
Book reviews	0	1
Posts w. pics	1	3
Posts w. links	1	9
Words	14	1787	2925

I like Kumamoto because it is a nice city of medium size, not too big like Tokyo, but not too small like Yatsushiro. In Kummaoto there are lots of nice shops including lots of good bakeries. One of my favorite bakeries is Bon Gout which is in Obiyama Joshidai-doori, and also has a shop in Aso, in Uchinomaki. Another good bakery in Aso is Merukoro, which is in the Chouyou area. Their best breads are cranberry bread and rye bread. Rye bread is also good in the German bakery whose name I’ve forgot in (94 words)

WAI 2-01: The First Month

Months	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Totals	Mult.	Adj.
Book reviews	0	1
Blog posts	1	19
Words	14	1762
Posts w. pics	0	3
Posts w. links	1	10

Last weekend I went to Amakusa for the first time since the obon festival in August. This time, I went to take part in the autumn festival in Jougawara. This festival is rather interesting. On the Saturday, the men living in the area parade from the Joukiba shrine to the Uchigoshi Shrine, carrying lots of mikoshi and other sacred items, and chanting. The trip is about 2 kilometers and is very tiring for them. After an hour or so, they arrive at Uchigoshi Shrine, and many people greet them. They bring the sacred items to stay overnight at Uchigoshi. They are greeted with a lion dance, with 2 young boys doing "tama-furi". The following day they do a parade in the opposite direction taking the items back to their permanent home in Joukiba.
In the evening, the men taking part in the festival visit as many houses as possible in the area for eating and drinking. One of the main stops is my wife's ancestral home, and this year I was the main host. I had to stay up very late and drink a lot so I was very tired the next day, and the drive back to Kumamoto was very hard.

I like Kumamoto very much. I think it's a nice size for a xcity. Not so big like Tokyo but not too small like Yatsushiro! Because the city is fairly big, there is a wide variety of food shops. I'd like to talk about bakeries. Here are some of my favorites. Bon Gout on Obiyama Joshidaidoori (and recently also in Uchinomaki in Aso) has a wide range of “kashi pan”, which I don't like so much but also 2 masterpieces: a heavy rye fruit bread loaf and a wholewheat loaf. The latter is only baked once a week. In Aso, there is a very famous bakery called Merukoro. This has been in business for 10 years or so. When it started it was just one shop on the side oif the road in a fairly deserted area. Now, it is the centre of a big cluster of shops and restaurants. Another favorite is (153 words)

We've been blogging for a month this semester, and even students who didn't take Writing III this year will by now have understood how to blog and the basic aims and requirements of the course. Here is some very important information that may affect your success in this course. I'll be reviewing all your blogs before the class on November 7th.

1. Number of posts. As you remember the target is 7 posts a week. Allowing for 1 post in the first week, that means that you will need to have posted 1 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 = 36 posts. Remember that figure INCLUDES typing, book reviews, juppun ha juubun, and every other post on your blog starting in August 2007. It does not include comments.

2. Number of book reviews: at least 6. Remember that this figure is included in the figure for number of posts.

3. You need to have posted your first WAI table. Make sure that it is up-to-date before the class on November 7th.

4. Check the blog list at http://winkhome.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=lists:writing3b1 or http://winkhome.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=lists:writing3b2 ; if there's an annotation next to your name, do something about it! Email me if there's a mistake; work harder if there isn't. One thing to be careful of is blogging on only 1 day a week: I expect to see posts between classes, too!

And, if at all possible,

5. You need to have finished your first Keynote/PowerPoint presentation, and emailed it to me at my Gmail address. Remember that you can work on the computers near the Help Desk in the Computing Center. Remember also that a flash memory drive is very convenient for keeping files safe.

Let's work hard for the next couple of weeks so that we can enjoy a range of activities in the second half of the semester! Remember that a major theme of the course is fluency; we don't worry too much about grammar, but instead we spend our energy on writing often!

You can download the code for this table from the WinK Home site. Go to the WAI section. Copy the code, then paste it into a Blogger post, with HTML の編集 selected.

Months	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Totals	Multiplier	Adj. Value
Book reviews
Blog posts
Words
Posts w. pics
Posts w. links

Before you save your post, please add the label WAI to it.

Kumamoto is a very nice prefecture, and Kumamoto City is a nice city, too. Kumamoto is blessed with many good bakeries. The most famous one is Merukoro, in Nishihara village in Aso. It is so famous that some people travel there at weekends from Fukuoka and other places in Kyushu to buy bread. One of their famous breads is Aso Takahara Milk Bread, because the owner is a soccer fan. Sorry, that ws a joke. Actually the bread is called Aso Kougen Milk Bread. Although that one is very famous there are several others that I much prefer. One is their rye bread, which is very chewy. Another is their cranberry bread. And yet another is their fig bread. Good bakeries in the city include Bon Gout on Joshidai-dori. (130)

Last Sunday, I went to the self-defense forces parade in Kengun, which is the biggest base in Kyushu, I hear. Lots of people lined the street called Jieitai-doori in Kengun. Many soldiers paraded by, and they brought tanks and other armored vehicles. The tanks were very big and heavy and I thought perhaps they damage the road. They also brought missile launchers of various kinds. The finale was about 20 jets flying over in formation.

After the parade everyone went into the SDF base, which was open for the day. There were lots of food stalls, and there was a concert, too. The band was very good. I talked to a soldier and he said that he had come from Fukuoka that morning and would be going back that same evening. Other soldiers had come from other places in Kyushu, he said.

I felt rather ill later that day. I was sneezing very heavily and I felt terribly tired, but the next day I was fine. A few students also told me they felt ill on Sunday. I wonder if it was fumes from the jets and tanks and other vehicles all brought together in Kumamoto.

I'll add some photos later.

On today's menu:

1. Typing (Today's topic: Kumamoto)


2. 十分は十分


3. Announcements: Mr Tomei's Computer Office Hour


4. Work on Keynote presentation

Some links:
WinK Home; LibraryThing; Class Blog Lists; WinK book guide

BubbleShare: Share photos - Share your baby pictures


Check out the full library tour.

Reading a book and writing a few paragraphs in English each week is not difficult. But if you are a slow typist, or you are not good at using computers, you may find Writing IV hard at first. If you are having problems, you should try to solve them as quickly as possible. Please consider going to Mr Tomei's computing office hour. He will:

• answer your questions


• teach you how to type faster


• explain how to find information at the WinK Home and other sites


• tell you about the English Reading Garden


• give you other tips for how to study English

Hello, and welcome to the first session of Basic English IV. Sorry that our start was delayed. This class is focused on blogging. You're expected to post an average of 5 posts a week to your blog, and a minimum of 3. These posts should always include 1 book review.
Today we'll start by making a Google account!

Food & drink are at the heart of human culture. I like eating and drinking very much. My favorite kinds of food are French and Chinese. When I cook myself, I usually cook Italian or Chinese. But of course I like British food very much, too. One of my favorites is fish & chips. Fish & chips are battered cod and fried potatoes. They are deep fried in corn oil, and served with salt and vinegar. Many British people have this for Saturday lunch. It tastes great. You can have it at Little Kitchen, near the Prefectural University of Kumamoto. (100 words)

Last Friday, I went to Makuhari in Chiba to attend a conference. The conference site was Kanda University of International Studies. I arrived in the late afternoon on Friday, registered for the conference, and attended the welcome party. The next day, I gave a presentation at the conference with Mr Beaufait (and Mr Tomei). I think it was quite successful, so I was very happy. On Sunday and Monday I attended more presentations. I flew back to Kumamoto on Monday. It was very rainy in Kumamoto when I got back. Yesterday, I was very tired but today I have recovered.

Kanda University of International Studies has a very nice campus. I was especially impressed with the self-access center. The facilities are very good and they have professional student advisers to help students make study plans and choose good materials. If you have a chance to go to Chiba, I recommend that you visit the campus.

I like food and drink very much. Eating and drinking are at the heart of human culture. I come from the UK, and I have lived in China and France and japan, so I have experienced many kinds of food. My favorites are French and Chinese cuisine. (47 words)

On today's schedule:
1. Typing
2. 十分は十分
3. Starting presentations

Important points:
1. You need to practice typing. Look at the list of topics and decide what you want to write!
2. There is no special requirement for 十分は十分. Just write about something that you did recently or that you are planning to do. By writing for exactly 10 minutes each time, you can see your progress over a semester or year.

These last few weeks I haven't had much free time, because I had 2 presentations to prepare for conferences. The first one was 3 weeks ago in Nagoya, and the next one is this coming weekend in Makuhari, in Chiba. Because I've also been preparing for the new semester, I've been working every weekend and also late most evenings. One thing I'm looking forward to is tonight's party! I'm going with my colleagues from the Division of Ecology and Environmental Resources, Faculty of Environmental & Symbiotic Sciences, at PUK. We're going to Little Kitchen, which is a small restaurant with only 3 tables, opposite the west entrance of PUK. They have many different kinds of food, and also about 15 different kinds of foreign drink.

I also watched an interesting DVD last weekend. It was called Human Trafficking. It was about a policewoman, played by Mira Sorvino, fighting a gang, led by Robert Carlyle, who kidnapped girls and sold them as slaves. Donald Sutherland was Mira Sorvino's boss. The story was very moving and the 3 leads were very good.

My name is not Yoko. But maybe she likes food and drink, too. I like food and drink. Tonight, I'm going to Little Kitchen, just opposite the west entrance to PUK (the Prefectural University of Kumamoto), with my colleagues in the Division of Ecology and Environmental Resources, Faculty of Environmental & Symbiotic Sciences. We’re going to have a range of dishes and some English beer. (65 words)

Hi! Today, we'll start in the usual way, with typing. Then we'll do some free writing on the blog, followed by commenting on as many blogs as possible. Then we'll start work on the first assignment. Finally, we'll do a juppun ha juubun post. A few things to check:

Did you write a book review? Don't forget that you need to read an easy English book and write about it on your blog each week.

From this week, you need to write 7 posts a week, including typing, juppun ha juubun, assignment-related posts, book reviews, etc.

You need to come on time each week. Your attendance/typing email (Gmail) needs to reach me by 9:25, or you will be marked late (2 lates=1 absent). After 9:45, you will be counted absent.