Hi David,

Thanks for your correction! Yes, your feedback is always helpful for us.

>I'm glad both drivers didn't get serious injury,
(I'm glad neither of the drivers was hurt.)

That's the part I wasn't sure. I didn't think of the expression "neither of". I got it!

As for the venue for the seminar, some people who are coming to the event helped me to look for a cheap place to rent, and we found some, so I'll e-mail you later.

★セミナー参加の皆さんへ★
いろいろ変更があり、ご迷惑をお掛けして申し訳ないのですが、場所が決まり次第、メールにてご連絡致しますのでもうしばらくお待ちください。　よろしくお願いします。

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tomo

•  Tomo
• 2010年3月26日 23:08

Hi David and everyone,

You handed your keys and identity card to Nanzan today? You mean you totally free now!

I am very tired today, so I am going read your new entry carefully again tomorrow.
glad to find that you corrected our comments again.
Thank you.

good night and sweet dreams,

amo

•  amo
• 2010年3月26日 23:22

Hi David,
I received the book today as I emailed you . We can get the book from the online bookstore? That's a good news!

Thanks for your feedback and thanks for choosing my mistakes!
> To be honest, I'm not sure it's interesting or not,
→I often make same mistakes when I wasn't writing carefully.
>Here is my comment I posted on the previous entry:
→This mistake is really tricky ,isn't it? I had read the section"a/the" , but I don't think I can use them casually. I especially feel difficult to distinguish "my" from"the." I'm afraid I need a lot more exercise.

By the way, as for the book" ちょっと幸福論”, I haven't read it. Do you agree with the idea"どんな大学でも、10人のうち2人はいい先生がいます。残りの8人はアホやけど。"?

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2010年3月26日 23:54

Hi David,

Thank you for your feedback! It's always very helpful for me(us). However, I feel a bit down about my carelessness, because I'd proofread the new book only two weeks ago. Anyway, I will keep doing both (a) and (b). Thanks again.:-)

I've heard about the title "ちょっと幸福論" before, but I haven't read it yet. It was maybe written by 遠藤周作, right? "どんな大学でも～" is interesting and it might be true.
Finally you are "自由人" and your new career has just started! Yay!;-)

Hi Everyone,

We will have some snow tomorrow in Hokkaido, according to the weather report. Winter comes again... Probably cherry blossoms are blooming in some area which you live in. いいなぁ~♪
Have a lovely weekend!

Bye for now,

Maki

•  Maki
• 2010年3月26日 23:54

Hi David and everyone,

Thank you for your feedback that was precious for me because I rarely get such feedbacks from native teachers. I'm still not clear about the explanation below, especially the last part: ~because you are definiting~.

>*"my comment" or "the comment I posted," but not "my comment I posted because you are defining the comment in two different ways.

Anyway, my understand is that only the two ways below are OK. If it's wrong, please let me know.

1) Here is the comment posted on the previous entry.
2) Here is my comment on the previous entry.

>どんな大学でも、10人のうち2人はいい先生がいます。残りの8人はアホやけど。What do you think? Was that your experience in university?

Surprisingly, the more I grew, the more I felt like that. When I was in the primary school, 8 of 10 teachers were so nice that I liked them very much. When I was in the secondary school, it decreased to 5 of 10, and when in the high school, until 2 of 10, probably because I was almost dropped out. After that, I felt most of them were nice again, although they were not that close to me.

I want to remember your words below for myself.

>the only way to improve your output in a foreign language is to (a) increase the amount of input, and (b) study it carefully and notice how the language is being used.

Can I ask you whether 'long' has negative meaning or not in the following situation? I wrote "Thank you for your long comment." to somebody who kindly wrote a lot back to me. I meant it positive, but she felt it negative. I want to know how natives feel.

As for a cheaper venue, if you're looking for it in Tokyo and there is someone who lives in Tokyo, you could ask her/him to apply for the meeting room in the public centre like 区民センター because they offer them very cheap. Hope you find it ASAP (Thanks for your effort, Tomo.)

Maki, I haven't visit any nice spots for cherry blossoms yet. 近所の桜は咲いてたり、散ってたり、いまひとつパッとしてません。

•  tsuneko
• 2010年3月27日 09:01

>I haven't visit ~

I haven't visited ~. ;p つ

•  匿名
• 2010年3月27日 09:16

Hi Tsuneko,

Your understanding of "my comment" and "the comment" is correct.

You can say, for example, "my car" or the "the car that I bought last week," but you can't say "my car that I bought last week." "My car" is already a specific car, so you can't add a relative clause to specify it in a different way.

If you wrote "thank you for your long comment," I think the way the person interprets it would depend on whether they thought you were being sarcastic or not. In your case, I certainly wouldn't read it as a negative comment.

Hope that helps.

By the way, you mentioned the other day that you were talking to Fusae on the phone. How is she? Please say "hello" from me.

David

•  David
• 2010年3月27日 09:28

PPS

I agree with the writer's comment about university teachers, but I think that 80% is probably a bit high. Maybe more like about 70%... :-)

Japanese people are usually impressed when you say that you are a university teacher, but actually, it is not very impressive at all. Many people end up being university teachers because they couldn't get real jobs. They went to 大学院 because it was easier than 就職, and then they got a job at a university through the connections of their zemi teacher. After they become university teachers, people are usually promoted to 准教授 and 教授 just because they have been at the university for a long time. Many of the teachers only write academic papers for the journals at their own university, which are not refereed. That means nobody checks them, and anything you write gets published. Many of them are absolute rubbish. When you look at most teachers' 研究業績, many of them do not have any real publications (like publications in international refereed journals) at all. If you don't believe me, you can check for yourself. Just go to the library of any university and ask to read their journal.

Of course, there are some very smart people working at universities too, but just being a university teacher does not mean that you are smart. Actually, I was talking about this with my PhD supervisor, and he said that the situation in Britain is exactly the same, so it is not just a Japanese problem.

An Australian colleague who used to work at Nanzan often said that everyone should follow the American system. She said that in the US, teachers do not usually just stay in universities for ever. Apparently, it is common for people to work outside, move back to universities, and then move out again. Particularly in Japan, there are many university teachers who have never had any other job. This means that they are trying to prepare students for something that they know nothing about themselves.

Just my opinion.

•  David
• 2010年3月27日 09:43

Hi David,

Thank you very much for your quick answer and I got it. That helped me very well.

As for Fusae, when I informed her of the seminar at the end of the last year, she replied at once "Yes, I will attend it with you." that made me happy, but this time she hesitated and said "maybe next time."
I wish you could contact her directly, I think she would change her mind. She and her husband finally came back to Japan from K.L. and settled down in Chiba. How can I give you her contact? Have you asked Akiko Sato to attend the seminar? I'm going out now. Bye for now.

•  tsuneko
• 2010年3月27日 09:58

Hi Tsuneko,

My email address is info at mark btbpress.com. If you are in touch with Tomo, she can tell you my telephone number. It would be lovely to meet up with Fusae san again :-)

•  匿名
• 2010年3月27日 17:54

Hi David,

Thank you, but before reading your last comment, I had already sent Fusae's contact to Tomo and asked her to inform you of it. I didn't get Fusae's permission to let you know hers, but I'm sure every teacher is happy to know how their ex students are. 自らセミナーへの参加を説得してみてくださいね。Good luck!

•  tsuneko
• 2010年3月28日 08:25

Hi David and everyone,

Davidのインプットのために（笑）、日本語で書きます。

大学の先生についての内部から見たDavidの視点は興味深かったです。大学の先生は、小中高の先生に比べると、「学生を教える」とか「育てる」という気持ちは薄（うす）いような気がします。自分の学問研究を続けるために、生活の糧（かて）として教えている方もいるでしょう。それでも、嬉々（きき）として熱中して探求（たんきゅう）している姿が見られれば、そしてその研究が自己満足だけでなく社会に生かされるものであれば、学生としては刺激（しげき）も影響（えいきょう）も大いに受けます。手取り足取り教えてもらわなくても、自分に生かせるはずです。ただ、「教える」ことにも「研究する」ことにもどちらも中途半端な方は遠藤周作やDavidが言うようにけっこう大勢いると思いますが、魅力を感じません。社会と繋（つな）がっていない研究はいわゆるivory-toweredで、あまり意味がないと思います。どんどん社会に、そして世界に発信していくべきだと思います。ユニークで貴重な研究をしている方が大勢いるのに英語で発信していないせいで、世界に知られていないこともたくさんあると聞きました。Davidの新しい仕事がこういう方を世界に引っ張っていく手助けになったらいいなと思っています。

By the way, I got interested in the following passage below and what Endo Shusaku ended up, because I always didn't get into school, company and partner(LOL) that was my first choice, however, to be surprised, I was content and appreciated the second, third or last choice.　

>The writer was talking about what you should do if you don't get into the university that was your first choice.

Bye for now.

•  tsuneko
• 2010年3月28日 10:34

Hi team,
遠藤周作は全く読んだことがありませんが大学教授のことに触れた作品があるんですね。
もしかして・・・と思ってウィキペディアをちょっと見たんですが・・・
やはり入学で苦労されているようですね。しかも実兄は東大法学部から官僚まで順調に進んでいる・・・考えすぎかな？
あ、留学もしてますね。日本の大学選択で苦い経験のある人がその後留学するというケースもよく見かけます。
う～ん。当てはまってるな。あくまで私の勝手な仮説ですが。

大学の先生だけでなく小中学校の先生たちもどうでしょうか？今何を教えているんでしょう？少なくとも公式の場で国家は起立して歌うことくらいはきちんと教えてほしいですね。

今日、ワシントンDCの桜祭りの開会セレモニーに行ってきました。日米の国家斉唱の場面になったら、それまでガムを噛みながら床にベッタリ座っていたアメリカの若者達もきちんと起立して歌が終わったら拍手してましたよ。

I was really happy when I saw cherry blossoms start blooming in Washington DC.
How about in Japan ? I hope you have a lot of fun.

•  Appoh
• 2010年3月28日 12:30

Hi David and tsuneko,
2割8割のお話はたぶんパレートの法則（Pareto's Principle or Pareto efficiency）のことかもしれませんね。この法則おもしろいと思います。

•  匿名
• 2010年3月28日 12:40

Hi,everyone

I've just searched for informations of seminar room,and found this site.

I looked at the page for the number under 20 including Hotel options.
(２０人以内で、宿泊施設付きで検索した結果のページです)

http://kaigi-navi.com/facility.php

You can change key words as you like,and search others in this site,too.

Excuse me if you have already checked this up.

see you

•  Chiyo
• 2010年3月28日 14:20

【訂正】
end up の使い方をまちがえました。I wanted to say that
I got interested in what Endo Shusaku ended up writing about the topic in the book.

About a national song, a Thai boxer was singing it proudly last night, wasn't he?!

When it comes to economics, I'm always confused, but I checked "Pareto". 80-20 principle is interesting.

Meeting room with acomodation sounds useful!

I'm watching the wemen's figure skating soon.

Bye for now.

tsuneko

•  匿名
• 2010年3月28日 19:45

Hi team,

I just went running for the first time in months! I've been telling myself that I should go for the last few weeks, but I've had so much to do that I never got around to it.

Anyway, I just ran about 8km, and I felt fine. I guess I'm going to be a bit sore tomorrow, though!

•  David
• 2010年3月28日 23:35

Hi David and everyone,

How is the weather where you are? Here in Tokyo, it has been cold since for a couple of days. It seems winter again!!

Speaking of university teachers, I can not answer your question because I have never been to university. As for my teachers, there must have been some good teachers, but I don’t remember at all. I always kept a distance from the teachers. I remember there were some bad teaches when I was in junior high school. For example, I remember a teacher who always smelled like alcohol.

Hi Chiyo,

According to David’s new book, when you want to use “mistake”, the usage is “mistake A for B（AをBと間違える）”. If you want to say 「間違う」in English, you can say “make a mistake”.
“I mistook the spell.” is not correct. You should write “I made a mistake.(間違えた)” or ”I made a typo.(タイプミスをした)”.
Is that right, David?

Hi Tsuneko,

I am glad to know that you remember my typical phrase ;-)
About “Thank you for your long comment”, if I were the receiver, I would be depressed as your friend. I felt like this “My comment was not good but just long.” After reading your comment, I got a phone call from my sister who lives in the U.S., so I asked her about this and her answer was the same as mine. Also I asked her to ask her husband (he is American) and his answer was the same as mine. I am sorry but it’s difficult for me to explain in English. これは私と妹とその夫の意見ですが、長いコメントと書いてあるとそれ以外印象に残ってないのかと思ってしまうので、もっと違う形容をした方がよかったのではないかなと・・・。分ってもらえますか？
By the way, thank you for mentioning about the figure skating. I almost missed it.

Hi Appoh,

Speaking of Pareto’s principle, it reminds me of ants and bees.
I checked your blog. The pictures of cherry blossoms are nice.

bye for now

•  amo
• 2010年3月28日 23:48

correction

Here in Tokyo, it has been cold since for a couple of days.
→Here in Tokyo, it has been cold for a couple of days.

•  amo
• 2010年3月28日 23:54

Hi amo,

You watched the TV? Every skater performed very well even though they were tired just after the Olympic. By the way, thank you for giving me your opinion and asking both your sister and her husband in the US about 'long'. Actually, on Kazu's blog, we've been discussing about it for a couple week. We are trying to collect other's opinion.

So far,
a) those who feel it negative --- 2(natives including your brother in law) 3(Japanese including both you and your sister)

b) those who doesn't feel it negative --- 2(natives including David)

Good night!

•  tsuneko
• 2010年3月29日 00:08

To Amo

Thank you for the correction!

•  Chiyo
• 2010年3月29日 00:45

Hi Chiyo,
Thank you for your information! I checked the site you mentioned and found some good places for the seminar:)

Hi Tsuneko and Amo,
I watched the World Figure Skating Championships, too. I'm very happy both Takahashi Daisuke and Asada Mao won the gold medal!

H everyone,
Sorry, but I'm too sleepy to write any more. Hope you had a good weekend.

Tomo

PS David, if you are a bit sore "tomorrow", it means you are still young;-)

•  Tomo
• 2010年3月29日 00:46

P.S.

amo, I understand very well what you said about the issue of long, and I'm going to use another expression like 'detailed詳しい' next time. 「長い説明をありがとう」と聞いて、文字通りに取ってくれるか、そこに「長々と」というちょっと皮肉な意味合いを感じ取ってしまうか、Davidが言うように人それぞれではあるけれど、少なくともそう感じる人が半分以上いる（少ない調査ですが）と解った以上、その表現は避けた方がいいというのが結論です。By the way, since you are very sensitive to word usage, so when you notice my mistakes, please let me know.

>we've been discussing about it
=> we've been discussing it
discuss には about は要りませんでした。

>those who doesn't feel
=> those who don't feel
those は複数でした。

Hi Tomo,

Yes, they were fantastic! I was also very happy to see their satisfied smiles. By the way, you must have been very busy looking for better venue. Thank you for your time!

•  匿名
• 2010年3月29日 07:03

I like the helpful information you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently. I am quite sure I will learn a lot of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!

•  Scot Corl
• 2011年5月24日 05:55

Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have, Katie Morgan Free Porn, Adult Cerebral Palsy, Extreme Young Ebony, Plump Nude, Nude Kelly Ripa, Camcord Porn Adult, First Times Sex, Google Earth Nude, Gay Soccer Porn, Interracial Payperview Porn, Black Blow Jobs, Free Asain Sex, Oral Licking, Austin Kincaid Interracial, Nude Teen Pageants, Painful Teen Sex, Adult Porn, Girls From Real World Nude, Nude Blood Elf, Adult Shih Tzu, Circumcision Sex, Matures And Sons, Nude Teen Model Factory, Oral Diseases, Jessica Alba Porn, Ass Lesbians, April Goodwin Nudes, Justine Waddell Nude, Big Black Anal, Isabella Soprano Sucking A Dick,

•  Ginger Honie
• 2011年7月 2日 11:45