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

I LIVE IN KUMAMOTO, a medium-sized city in the central area of Kyushu. It is an interesting place to live, because it is in the center of an area of great natural beauty. To the north is Aso and Kikuchi, to the south Amakusa. Aso is a highland area with a famous volcano boasting the biggest caldera in the world. Kikiuchi is famous for its gorge. Amakusa is an archipelago consisting of well over 100 islands, the most famous of which are Shimoshima and Kamishima. Kamishima is the first island we meet as we go to Amakusa from the Kumamoto mainland. Shimoshima is the most heavily populated one. It has the cities of Hondo and Ushibuka although recently they have changed their names. It also has the famous churches of Oe and Sakitsu which have existed for hundreds of years and came to fame in the “kakure Christian” era. And of course it has the sea and a couple of very nice beaches. (163)

Do you know the Step Into Reading series? I may have mentioned it before but it's worth mentioning again, as there's a wide range of books and levels. Many students at PUK don't notice this series, because of their location in the library. Do you have them at KGU? I recommend the Step 3 books at first, because they are very easy to read. Steps 4 and 5 are also interesting.

Check out these interesting podcasts from students. If your podcast is not on the list, please email the URL to me!

• Toshihiro's podcast
  
• Yuki's podcast
• Shuhei H's podcast
  
• Yui I's podcast
  
• Moe's podcast
  
• Chiemi K's podcast
  
• Ayaka O's podcast
  
• Natsuki T's podcast
  
• SawaCast
  
• Patchwork Elephant's podcast
  
• Nanami's podcast
  
• Monoboo's podcast
• Asaya's podcast
  
• Kayasasu's podcast
  
• Takano's podcast
  
• Gaku's podcast
• Tomoe's podcast
  
• Kuroneko's podcast
  
• Night Sirius's podcast
• Mihoko's podcast
  
• Aimi's Podcast
  
• Megu's podcast
  
• Tom's podcast
• Snow Rabbit's podcast
• Tenjin Diary's Podcast
• Lumi-color's podcast
  
• TikaTika's podcast
• Goodswimer's podcast
• Momoka's podcast
• Asami's podcast
• Ekkachan's podcast
• Chihiro's podcast
• Kiwa's podcast
• Satoko's podcast

In my free time, I like doing many different things, such as watching movies, reading books and magazines, listening to music, or just sitting around at home playing with my children. Today, I’ll talk maninly abour movies and music. I don’t really have a special kind of movie that I like. Any movie that comes to Kumamoto is potentially interesting. Recently, I’ve seem the Brave one, and the Bourne Supremacy. Other movies I have seen on DVD include The Devil Wears Prada. I’ve also been watching the 24 and the ER series. 24 is now on its 6th season. Interestingly, I rewatched episode 1 of the first season a few days ago and I was surprised to find that it was rather slow! I guess that each season the action goes faster and faster. I haven’t been keeping up with ER recently, as there are very few copies of the DVDs available and they’re always rented out when I go to the video shop. (164 words)

As you remember, the blogging guideline for Writing IV is 7 posts a week. That includes typing posts, book reviews, and any other posts that you do. Now 11 weeks have passed since the beginning of the semester. That means that you should have written about 77 posts, with a minimum of about 50.

What can you do if your number of posts is much less than this? A few ideas:

1. Make sure you always paste your typing into your blog.
2. Do a "reading marathon": read 3-5 easy books in a week and write a simple book review for each one. This will help you to read faster and also to write book reviews faster. Remember that you need at least 12 book reviews in your total posts over the semester, but you can increase the number of book reviews if you wish.
   
3. Get used to writing short posts often. You shouldn't need more than 5 minutes to write a short post about something you did recently or some other interesting topic.
4. There are only 2 more classes left after today's. If you have a problem you need to do something very soon. Plan when you are going to write more posts. We calculate 12 weeks in a semester, so the quota for the whole semester is 12 multiplied by 7 = 84 posts
   
5. If you haven't already, write an essay based on the content of your presentation. 5 paragraphs is a good length.
6. If possible, make a podcast. This shows that you are willing to make an effort, and it brings together speaking, writing, and multimedia in one post. Both your essay and podcast can be based on the same material.
7. Don't waste class time. Come on time. Ask questions during the class (not after) if you don't understand something. If you have problems using the computer, don't waste time chatting in Japanese. At the least, you can just write an ordinary post about what you did. For example, for the podcast, just writing your script is a valuable step forward. For the essay, one well-written paragraph is a good post and leaves you less work to do in the next stage.
   

The first three slides in this show summarize how to use Slideshare. The other slides show how to make a podcast using podOmatic. I'll leave a small version of this presentation in my sidebar, to remind you when this post becomes old.

Slideshare/Podcasting Help

Many countries have their own versions of the cinderella story. Check out the Korean, Persian, Egyptian, Caribbean, and Irish versions with these picture books.

Do you know Woofy? Please check him out here!

IN MY FREE TIME, I LIKE reading, watching movies, and listening to music. My favorite kinds of music are rock and modern Japanese music. By that I mean modern koto music. I like reading all kinds of novels, especially fantasy and science fiction. Recently I have been rereading books by Ursula Le Guin, for example the Earthsea series (Ged Senki in Japanese) . About movies, I like all kinds of movies, and whenever possible I go to the theater to see them. However,m these days I am very busy so I often don't have time ti go to the theater. When I go to the theater I like to go to the nearby Starbucks for a café latte made with soy milk. Recent movies I have seen include The Brave One and The Bourne Ultimatum. The Brave One stars Jodie Foster and is about a woman whose fiancé is murdered in front of her and how it changes her life. The Bourne Ultimatum is the third movie in the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, It’s very exciting but I didn't enjoy it as much as the 1st and 2nd ones. (190 words)

In my free time, I like reading, watching movies, and listening to music. My favorite kinds of music are rock and modern Japanese music, i.e. koto. I don't really have a favorite kind of movie but I do prefer to go to the movie theatre whenever possible. I also watch DVDs sometimes, but I guess I try to get to see big action movies and spectacle movies at the theater. (70)

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