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

Daring Fireball

I couldn’t decide between a “Did you know Vox is still around?” joke or a “Did you know Six Apart is still around?” joke.

The Usborne Young Reading series is a very popular one among students; recently, the Usborne First Reading series, designed for readers for whom Usborne Young Reading is a bit too difficult, has become even more popular.

"May I go to the Ball as well?" [Cinderella] asked, in a scared whisper.

"You? Go to the Ball?" said her stepmother. "You must be joking."

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella. In fact, there are hundreds of versions of this story told throughout the world. This version is in the Usborne Young Reading series. The pictures are very cute, and the Fairy Godmother is very interesting. I recommend this book.

Cinderella, UYR1, a traditional story retold by Susanna Davidson. YL:1.5 Words: 1600

Babe is a clever, polite little pig, but can Fly, the sheepdog, teach Babe his sheep-pig lessons?

Do you know the movie Babe? It was very popular more than 10 years ago. It's about a pig who is very clever and wants to be like a sheepdog, guiding the sheep on his farm. He succeeds because he respects the sheep and learns to speak their language. 

This book is very nice; I recommend it and its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.

The series is Penguin Readers, YL is 2.4, words 8100. 

April 18, 2008: 188 words
December , 2008: 199 words

First Juppun ha Juubun in April 2008: 195 words

Recent Juppun ha Juubun post in December 2008: 199 words

As usual, I went to Amakusa for the winter holiday. Because we bought a dog last summer, this year for the first time we had to think about her when making our plans. We didn't actually do anything very special this year, just eating and sleeping and reading and watching Premier League football and the Emperor's Cup. I almost finished reading Peter Hamilton's Judas Unchained, which is about 900 pages long. It was nice but over all too quickly. Now I'm looking forward to the Japan national team's match against Yemen at KK Wing on Janary 20th. And of course I'm looking forward to seeing Quantum of Solace, the new 007 movie, when it comes out sometime this month.

How was your New Year holiday? I'm looking forward to reading your news.

Remember:

1. You need to have written at least 60 posts before the day of the exam;
2. Those posts should include 12 book reviews, with cited passages clearly marked, and those cited passages constituting 49% or less of the post;
3. You should count your total words, number of posts for each month, and number of book reviews before the exam, so that you are ready to provide those data in the exam. (If possible, prepare these data before January 9th.)
   

In answer to these questions...

1. Olive oil; ryzogalo creamy rice pudding; moussaka (layers of aubergine, tomato, and minced lamb, baked in the oven, and seasoned with oregano, bay leaf, thyme, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper); tzatziki (a combination of yoghurt, cucumber, and garlic).

2. Athens, population 745,000

3. 132,000 square kilometers (about one third of Japan)

4. Food products such as olive oil

5. Sports, cinema, etc. (Don't know)

Grammar is the field of....

morphology: 形態論
syntax: 語法
phonetics: 音声学
phonology: 音韻論
semantics: 意味論
pragmatics: 語用論

For the country that you are writing about for your final essay, please answer the following questions. Please link to this post in your answer.

5. ¿ǝɯıʇ ǝǝɹɟ ɹıǝɥʇ uı op ǝldoǝd op ʇɐɥʍ
4. ¿sʇɹodxǝ snoɯɐɟ ǝɯos ǝɹɐ ʇɐɥʍ
3. ¿(uɐdɐɾ oʇ uoıʇɐlǝɹ uı ؛sɹǝʇǝɯolıʞ ǝɹɐnbs ˙ƃ˙ǝ) ʎɹʇunoɔ ǝɥʇ sı ƃıq ʍoɥ
2. ¿ʎʇıɔ ʇɐɥʇ ɟo uoıʇɐlndod ǝɥʇ sı ʇɐɥʍ puɐ 'ʎʇıɔ lɐʇıdɐɔ ǝɥʇ sı ʇɐɥʍ
1. ¿spooɟ ǝʌıʇɐʇuǝsǝɹdǝɹ ɹo snoɯɐɟ ǝǝɹɥʇ ǝɹɐ ʇɐɥʍ

˙pǝsn ǝq oʇ sı ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ɐ ʍoɥ ɟo sǝlnɹ ƃuıuɹǝʌoƃ ǝɥʇ ǝɔɹoɟuǝ oʇ sǝıɹʇ ɥɔıɥʍ 'uoıʇdıɹɔsǝɹd ɔıʇsınƃuıl oʇ pǝsoddo sɐ 'ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ǝʌıʇdıɹɔsǝp ɐ pǝllɐɔ sı ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ɐ ɟo suoıʇɔnɹʇsuoɔ lɐɔıʇɐɯɯɐɹƃ ǝɥʇ ƃuıqıɹɔsǝp ʎlǝʌıʇsnɐɥxǝ ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ʇıɔıldxǝ ʎllnɟ ɐ

˙"ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ɐ" ʎldɯıs ɹo "ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ǝɔuǝɹǝɟǝɹ" ɐ pǝllɐɔ sı ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ɐ ɟo ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ǝɥʇ ƃuıqıɹɔsǝp ʞooq ǝɔuǝɹǝɟǝɹ ɐ ˙sǝlnɹ ǝsǝɥʇ ɟo sısʎlɐuɐ ɹo ʎpnʇs ɔıɟıɔǝds ɐ sı "ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ɥsılƃuǝ uɐ" ˙ɟlǝsʇı ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ɥsılƃuǝ ǝɥʇ ɟo sǝlnɹ ɟo ʇǝs ǝɥʇ sı "ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ɥsılƃuǝ" ˙ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ ʇɔuıʇsıp uʍo sʇı sɐɥ ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ɥɔɐǝ

˙sɔıʇɐɯƃɐɹd puɐ 'sɔıʇuɐɯǝs 'ʎƃolouoɥd 'sɔıʇǝuoɥd ʎq pǝʇuǝɯǝldɯoɔ uǝʇɟo 'xɐʇuʎs puɐ ʎƃoloɥdɹoɯ sǝpnlɔuı ʇı ˙ǝƃɐnƃuɐl lɐɹnʇɐu uǝʌıƃ ʎuɐ ɟo ǝsn ǝɥʇ ƃuıuɹǝʌoƃ suoıʇuǝʌuoɔ ǝɥʇ sɹǝʌoɔ ʇɐɥʇ sɔıʇsınƃuıl ɟo plǝıɟ ǝɥʇ sı ɹɐɯɯɐɹƃ

France, Italy, and Greece are some of the countries mentioned in connection with the Mediterranean diet, which is praised by many doctors and medical researchers as the main reason for the low rates of heart disease in these countries.

The Greek diet includes lots of olive oil, some in almost every dish. Greek people often eat beans, olives, cheese, and fish. Their most famous kind of cheese is feta cheese. This is a kind of brined cheese, which means that it is made in salt water. It usually contains a mixture of cow's milk and goat's milk. I have seen it on sale in Hello Green and other supermarkets; unfortunately, it's rather expensive. The picture shows Greek salad made with feta cheese.

Did you watch the final matches of the J1 season last weekend? Kashima Antlers won their match, so they won their second consecutive J-League championship. Kawasaki Frontale and Nagoya Grampus came second and third, respectively. What made the ending exciting was that Frontale could have come first if the Antlers hadn't won their final match. Frontale scored lots of goals towards the end of the season and made the finish very exciting. Maybe Antlers will make a real challenge for the Champions League next year?

You can find out all about sushi here!

I've decided to write about Greece. Here is a map. Greece is in Europe but very close to Africa and Asia. Maybe that is why it developed such a rich culture.

Some more info.

I'm trying to decide what country to write about. Two ideas I had are Uganda and Greece. I thought of Uganda because I enjoyed the movie Last King of Scotland (which was about Uganda), and Greece because I have always wanted to go to the Greek islands and also because Greece is such an important country in the history of Europe and the basis of much of our culture. Another one I was thinking about is Finland, because my brother used to live there, and there are many beautiful lakes and forests. Finland is a large country in area but its population is only about 5 million!

I found some good links to help decide:

• A list of countries, on Wikipedia
• A world map
• World Navigator
  

The World Club Championship began yesterday in Tokyo (I think; maybe it was Yokohama). Unfortunately, I didn't get home from work until rather late last night so I wasn't able to watch the match, even though I had recorded it. Maybe I'll watch it tonight! Many people are looking forward to seeing Manchester United, especially Christiano Ronaldo, but to be honest I'm not expecting much. I'm not sure if Ronaldo will be coming, actually, as I heard he had some kind of injury recently. In any case, I think the players will be rather tired after their matches in the Premiership and Champions League. This year, Manchester United aren't doing so well in the Premier League, so probably they want to save their best players for that. And traditionally, English teams don't give much priority to the World Club Championship (formerly the Toyota Cup).

I haven't checked the match schedule recently, but I think there's a match every other day, at least at the begining of the tournament, so I'm looing forward to Saturday. That's also the day, I believe, when Jubilo Iwata will play to decide whether they will be relegated to J2 next year, or remain in J1.

Hi everyone, the final essay topic for this semester is to introduce a country that you think is interesting or that you like very much. If you have written about a country in a previous essay this year, please choose a different one. This is a good chance to find out about a country you don't know much about.

The last class this calendar year is December 19th. Then we meet January 9th. The test is provisionally scheduled for January 28th.

Since I seem to have a recent theme of CUP books, let me remind you of the Cambridge English Readers series. I recommend that you read all the books at Starter level (my favorite is Dirty Money) and at Level 1 (my favorite is Inspector Logan) to start with, building up your fluency and confidence. A classic at level 2 is Jojo's Story.

Try QWERTY Warriors!

I first played table tennis regularly when I was an exchange student in Shanghai. Since I was in China I decided to imitate the Chinese students around me, who all used the penhold grip. When I went back to England I didn't play table tennis regularly, and soon forgot most of what I had learned, but when I started playing table tennis again recently, I naturally stayed with the penhold grip. In Japan, penhold players always play with a special racquette that makes it very easy to wrap your finger around the handle. I got so used to this kind of penhold racquette that I forgot what Chinese penhold players used.

A few days ago, however, I was given a Chinese penhold racquette by a colleague who bought the racquette in China but didn't like it so much. It's actually very similar to a shakehand racquette, but slightly easier to grip. The bonus is that it's symmetric and therefore easy to flip around, so we can put different kinds of rubber on each side.

Talking of self-study, if you want to improve your vocabulary you may want to check out the Vocabulary in Use books. Like the Grammar in Use series these are from CUP. The book pictured is the Elementary book. They also have Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, and Advanced levels.

If you want to brush up your grammar, you may want to buy books in the Grammar in Use series. They're a bit expensive but they have many exercises and are very thorough. The book pictured is at intermediate level; there is also a book in the same series for beginners.

The FIFA Club World Cup will be held as usual in Japan this year. I believe it's starting very soon. The participants in the competition are the champions of the Champions League in Europe, the Copa Libertadores in South America, the AFC Champions League in Asia, and other continental competitions. I am looking forward especially to seeing Gamba Osaka (who recently won the AFC Champions League) and Manchester United, who won the UEFA Champions League in May.

The Club World Cup is the successor to the Toyota Cup, which was nearly always held in Japan. Now that it's a bigger competition, it will be held in a different country each year, so maybe this will be our last chance for some time to see it in Japan. I hope that the TV channnels will show many matches! The competition starts on December 11th, and the final is scheduled for December 21st. Gambaranba, Gamba!

Today, let's talk about some ways to join sentences together to make longer sentences. The 3 key words you need to know to understand the explanations are:

1. conjunction
2. compound sentence
3. complex sentence

Complex sentences don't just divide into neat, complete, simple sentences if you take out the conjunctions. In complex sentences the conjunction is used to join together clauses. A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. Some of these clauses might be complete short sentences, but in a complex sentence at least one of them will depend on the conjunction for its meaning.
In other words, if you take the conjunction away, the sentence won't divide into complete units that make sense by themselves.

e.g. 'The dinner was burned because she had forgotten it.'
= 'The dinner was burned' + 'because' + 'she had forgotten it.'

I've just posted an exciting new podcast episode! Check it out! 39! 銅板島枝手!

Here's the list of all the Biscuit books available! The Jack series looks good, too.

I get regular emails from HarperCollins, a publisher, about children's books. The one that arrived today has an interesting list for the Thanksgiving season. One of the books on the list was Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit. Do you know the Biscuit series? Biscuit is a dog who is very cute and very popular with children overseas (and also with PUK students). I hadn't heard of this title before, so maybe we will get it for the PUK library. You can find out more about the Biscuit series and other books by the same author at her website. Anyway, please take a look at the list and see if there are any titles that interest you.

First of all, please note that this is the last class in November. There will be 3 classes in December (5th, 12th, 19th). After that, there's only one class scheduled in January (9th) and then, unless we do a hokou class, the exams start! So you don't have so long to catch up if you're falling behind! Note that, before the exams start, you need to have written 60 posts for the semester (5 posts a week over 12 weeks). At least 12 of those posts should be book reviews.

In today's class, you need to record your most recent essay ("My favorite...") and post it on podOmatic. Please be sure to write a post on your blog linking to your new podcast episode (and make sure your first podcast episode is also linked to in the same way).

Remember that recording can take longer than you expect. Please DON'T wait until the end of the class. If you're unable to finish during the class, please take the initiative in your free time or in a future class to finish the work. Note that I recommend using GarageBand to record so that you have a file to upload again if there is any problem with podOmatic.

If you need grammar help, please call me. But bear in mind that the priority this week is recording, so there is no guarantee that I will have enough time to help you.

If you have free time during the class, please consider reading one of the books I have brought to class and writing a review of it.

One more thing: at the end of November/beginning of December, please remember to update your weblog report.

I found out that the Japan NT match I was talking about was against Yemen. I was too late to get an advance-release ticket from FamilyMart, and the Ticket Pia website was busy as soon as tickets went on general sale, but fortunately a member of the PUK soccer club had a spare ticket. (She had bought a ticket but was then asked to help out at the match, so she didn't need her ticket any more.) The match is part of the Asian Cup qualifying campaign. So I hope to see you at the ground on January 20th!

It occurs to me that those of you who are younger than me may not know Robert Carlyle and Jon Voight. You might want to check out Robert Carlyle's page on the IMDB. Well-known movies in which he appears include The World is Not Enough (a 007 movie), Trainspotting, Angela's Ashes, and Eragon.

It's been a while since I saw Season 6 of 24. So I was quite excited today to see that there's a new 24 programme, called Redemption.

My wife was reading the paper this morning, and she told me that the Japan national soccer team would be playing in KK Wing early next year. I thought she said January 20th or thereabouts, but Ayami told me today that it was on January 8th. In any case, apparently we can buy tickets at FamilyMart or Hayakawa sports shop. She said the match was almost sold out so I'm going to hurry! I don't even know who the opponent is but after Wednesday's match I want to see the national team play anyone. I hope Matsui plays!

Recently, I've been buying a lot of books. Two of them are about health and are quite interesting. Another was a fantasy work by Katharine Kurtz. It's in the Deryni series, which I remember enjoying very much when I was about 15 or so. At that time, there was just one trilogy, but now there are many, many books. Unfortunately, most are out of print. So I tried Amazon Marketplace for the first time, and bought the book secondhand. It was just as good as I remember the original Deryni books being when I was a teenager.

If you're interested in fantasy, check out the Mythopoeic awards page (in Japanese).

There's another Katharine Kurtz site, created as a wiki so that fans can contribute information.

Did you see this match? It was very late on Wednesday night, so I didn't get to see it until last night, and then I fell asleep so I saw the end this morning. But it was a great match. Japan's play looked so different from their recent peformances. They had lots of energy and movement, and used their imaginations to attack. Two of the three attackers, Tanaka Tatsuya and Tamada, scored a goal. Their midfield and defence also looked more solid than usual. They won 3-0, and it's difficult to find anything to complain about!