2011年4月23日 星期六

Problems of Hong Kong education system

This time I would like to talk about the education system in Hong Kong.As we all know, Hong Kong is one of the cities having the highest educational level in the world. In this small city, there are 3 universities which get in the first 50 universities ranking in the world. There are also 6 universities getting in the first 50 universities ranking in Asia. It seems that Hong Kong have a well education system in the world. However, as a Hong Kong student, I saw many problems in the Hong Kong education system.

The first problem is that the education system focus too much on the academic result and public examination. Since capacities of the universities is too small, there are only about 30% of students can get in universities. It is even harder to get in the top 3 universities in Hong Kong - The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Students and their parents put all their efforts on the public examination in order to get a better result to gain a place at University. Therefore, students only have little time to learn other things rather than the knowledge from text book such as social skills and sports. They get nothing but knowledge from text book. They do not know how to get contact with others. This gives a bad effect on their growth and is harmful to students' future and their career.

Focusing too much on the academic result also gives another problem. It makes the learning at primary and secondary school too boring. For the sake of getting a great result, students only need to remember the words from text book and learn the techniques for answering the examination papers. It makes the learning process boring. Students are not likely to be interested in learning and not learn other things by themselves. This lets them hard to learn working skills and accommodate the working environment and the society in the future. In addition, the learning process like this would let them lose critically thinking since they only try to familiarize the content of the text book.

Compared with Japan, the situation of education system is the same as Hong Kong. Although Japan have much more university places than Hong Kong, Japanese students need to put all their efforts on the public examination to get in the top universities in Japan. They even need to study at tutorial school for 5 to 6 hours after school. It is much similar as Hong Kong. This kind of living style make them hard to learn from schools and see the world from different views. It totally destorys students' lives.

I hope that Hong Kong and Japan Government can do more to improve their education systems to give a better quality of life to students. However, I believe that the most important is that parents and employers should change their minds. They should not only focus too much on academic result but also other skills and ability such as hobbies and sports. Only changing their minds can get aid with the problems of Hong Kong and Japan education system.

2011年4月12日 星期二

Reflection of survey project

皆さん、こんにちは。まだ会いますよね~~


This time I would like to share about what I have learned from our own survey project and also other groups' project.


The topic of our project is Japanese people's daily life. We asked 10 questions which are about their eating habit, daily habit, and what they would do every year.


I have found in the project that the expectation from me, my groupmates and my classmates is so different from the result of our survey. Some of the activities we though that they would always do. In fact, the result shows that they do not always do such as having baths, having hot spring and having ohanami (お花見).


In this project, I learned that the nowadays Japanese people's living habits. Before this project, I thought that Japanese people love to drink miso soup since I heard that many restaurant in Japan give miso soup for free. However, from 織さんの research, I found that restaurant in Japan no longer to provide miso soup. Japanese people tend to eat western style. In the project result, I also found that Japanese people are not like having meal with their friends. I thought that they like to do so since I watched many Japanese drama that the characters love gathering with their friends. They love having dinner with their friends and colleagues.


From sensei's feedback, I also learned that some of his friends do not go to shrine. I assumed that Japanese would go to shrine at least once a year. Therefore, I have not set the option of "0 times" in the final question. I think that it is Japanese traditional culture like Chinese people would go to temple every year for fortune or go to shrine for visiting their relatives who passed away as Chinese people would go to visit relatives who passed away. However, the result and sensei's feedback show me that it is not the fact. Not setting the option of "0 times" in the survey also is one of the problems in our project.


Another problem, as sensei said in the lesson, is that we used a wrong tone in the questions. For example, we should ask "Are you relax when sitting on tatami mattress?" instead of "Are you tired when sitting on tatami mattress?". It is because it seem to be offensive when we ask in this way. It gives Japanese people an impression that we treat their culture of sitting on tatami mattress as a bad thing.


From the others' presentation, I also learned something about Japanese people's attitudes towaord different topics. I think the most interesting one is the fourth presentation which is about Japanese people's attitudes toward wedding. It is very interesting to investigating which countries' people do Japanese like to marry with. I heard that Japanese nowadays love western culture. I think that they love people from western countries. I also find that many singers and idols from Korea such as "少女時代", "KARA" are hit in Japan now. Therefore, I think that they would love Korean too. Another group presentation is also very interesting which is about Japanese people's travelling habit.


For the suggestion of the project, I think that it is hard to get a larger sampling size from the websites which sensei provided. Because I saw that most of our classmates including us only get about 15 to 35 samples from the survey websites. (it is including sensei's friends and ishiyama sensei...) Therefore, I think we should get more samples from other ways rather than just making survey in the websites.


If you ask me for other project activities, I would suggest matsuri. (お祭り) I love Japanese matsuri very much. I also would like to organise one of the stalls in school matsuri (学園祭) by myself. I think that we can organise a small matsuri for year 1 and year 2 of Japanese studies students or even for the whole school. We can meet the students from year 2. If it is for the whole school, we also can let more students in SPACE know more about Japanese culture. We can have a presentation or reflection of the experience of matsuri. (better to have one only...) In the process of organising the matsuri, we also can learn more about Japanese culture. I am looking forward having matsuri next year!!!

2011年4月5日 星期二

Learning from the first 3 groups' presentation

This time I would like to share about what I have learned in the first 3 groups of presentation.


The first group presentation is about Japanese animations & comics. In the presentation, they talked about the impression of Japanese animations & comics among Japanese people. I think this topic is very inetresting since foreigners love Japanese animations very much but Japanese comics seem not to be very popular in Japan. After the presentation, I found that it is true. Japanese people do not like to buy Japanese comics, animations and games. Japanese people seem not to be influenced by comics and animations. However, it may like what seo sensei said. His friends are too old so they do not like animations...=.=


The next presentation is about Japanese attitude towards the relation between Japanese comics and teenager development. It is a complicated essay in Japanese society even in Hong Kong society. Comics and animations are considered as bad things for teenagers since it let teenagers get contact with different immoral values such as violence and sexual behavior. Thought the project about Japanese towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths, I can see that some of the Japanese think that some of the comics and animations is harmful to teenagers. However, they think that this ordinance cannot restrict teenagers read these comics. The view towards this problem is seem to be the same in Hong Kong. The parents in Hong Kong also think that ordinances are useless when it comes to dealing with the problems since teenagers can read the comics and the animations from internet.


The third presentation is about the impression of Hong Kong among Japanese people. We all know that Hong Kong peole love Japan very much in our daily life. However, we just learned little about how Japanese see Hong Kong. I only know that Japanese people love Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan very much. I learned that Japanese love to watch Hong Kong's "古惑仔" movies. I also heard that there is a "Little Hong Kong Museum" in  お台場 in Tokyo. But I do not know how exactly Japanese people think of Hong Kong. Therefore, I think that this topic is very interesting. In the presentation, I found that many Japanese people think that Hong Kong people are rude......=.= There may be some misunderstanding between Hong Kong people and Japanese people. There may be cultural differences so that some of our behavours would be considered as impolite and rude. We may have more communication with Japanese people to explain our culture and behavour.


That is all for my observation of the first 3 groups' presentation. I am looking forward the next 3 presentation including my presentation~~

2011年3月18日 星期五

池の水が鏡みたいに空の蒼の色を真似てる
公園に住む水鳥がそれに命を与える
光と影と表と裏
矛盾も無く寄り添ってるよ
私達がこんな風であれたら...

愛 愛 本当の意味は分からないけど

誰かを通して 何かを通して 想いは繋がっていくのでしょう
遠くにいるあなたに 今言えるのはそれだけ
悲しい昨日が 涙の向こうで いつか微笑みに変わったら
人を好きに もっと好きになれるから
頑張らなくてもいいよ

瓦礫の街のきれいな花 健気に咲くその一輪を
「枯らす事なく育てていける」と誰が言い切れる?
それでもこの小さな祈りを 空に向けて放ってみようよ
風船のように 色とりどりの祈り

愛 愛 それは強くて だけど脆くて

また争いが 自然の猛威が 安らげる場所を奪って
眠れずにいるあなたに 言葉などただ虚しく
沈んだ希望が 崩れた夢が いつの日か過去に変わったら
今を好きに もっと好きになれるから
あわてなくてもいいよ

愛 愛 本当の意味は分からない
愛 愛 だけど強くて

雨の匂いも 風の匂いも あの頃とは違ってるけど
この胸に住むあなたは 今でも教えてくれる
悲しい昨日が 涙の向こうで いつか微笑みに変わったら
人を好きに もっと好きになれるから 頑張らなくてもいいよ
今を好きに もっと好きになれるから あわてなくてもいいよ

(To U - Mr.Children)

日本、ちょうど休んでください。。。
後は僕たちに、世界に任せてください~~
私たちずっと側にいますから。。。

2011年3月10日 星期四

さよならの代わりに - JUJU

これは最近気になった曲です~~是非聞いてください~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtmtqLAQKHE&feature=player_embedded

これは歌詞です~~

http://kashinavi.com/song_view.html?50790

このCDは3月23日リリースします!!!必ずCDを買います!!!

2011年2月22日 星期二

Japanese Personal Pronoun Projects

This time, I would like to discuss about the personal pronoun "you" in Japanese. There are about 5 personal pronouns of you in Japanese. They are あなた(貴方),あんた,きみ(君),おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様). It is very special compared with other languages from all over the world since the majority of languages in the world only have one personal pronoun to represent "you". Although Japanese people are avoiding using "you" in their daily conversation because it is considered as impolite when just calling someone as "you" but not the name, Japanese people also use them in different way according to their identity, occasions, their gender and the relationship between the one who they are talking with.

あなた(貴方)

"あなた" is the politest word of  "you" in Japanese. It is suitable for major situations since it is the politest word of "you". But Japanese people do not use "あなた" for calling someone unfamiliar. They use it to call their friends.

However, there is also another special meaning of  "あなた". Japanese wives would call their husband as  "あなた".  "あなた" is also a lovely name for wife to call their husband.

あんた

"あんた" comes from "あなた". It have similar pronunciation as "あなた". It is just a spoken language and cannot use in writing. It is rarely to use and it is also less polite than "あなた" and "君".

きみ(君)

"君" is the most used word of "you"  in daily conversation. We can heard this pronoun from different way such as movies, dramas and pop songs. It was a pronoun only used by male. However, nowadays, Japanese girls are likely to use "君" in their conversation. Therefore, it is no longer to be the pronoun only used by male.

There is also another special usage of  "君".

Let see the lyrics first.


Love Forever - 加藤ミリヤ x 清水翔太

作詞:Miliyah・Shota Shimizu
作曲:Miliyah・Shota Shimizu


に出会えてよかった
切ないけれどよかった
ひとりの夜もそばにいてくれた
世界にたった一人の
に出会えてよかった
思い出は 夜の空 星になり 輝くよ

ずっと孤独だった 壊れた心のドア
夜に怯えた 部屋でうずくまってた
シーツに顔をあて叫んだ
言葉にならなかった

迷わず何にもかも捨ててきた
こんな私を愛してでった
いつもはそばにいてくれた
さえ いれば それでよかった

に出会えてよかった
切ないけれどよかった
ひとりの夜もそばにいてくれた
世界にたったひとりの
に出会えてよかった
思い出は 夜の空 星になり 輝くよ

深夜0時過ぎの 街にひとりきり
泣きたいのに強がってる
さっきの喧嘩 思い出して
自分に苛立ってる

自分だけの時間が必要だった
少しお互い知りすぎたかな
昔のように向き合えないなら
距離を 置こう そう決めたのに

に出会えてよかった
切ないけれどよかった
ひとりの夜もそばにいてくれた
世界にたったひとりの
に出会えてよかった
思い出は 夜の空 星になり 輝くよ

永遠を
もう逃げないって ここに誓うよ
運命の時に
心が生きてると叫ぶよ
がいなければ何の価値もない
ここに生きる意味もない
世界中でひとりだけを信じてる

に出会えてよかった
切ないけれどよかった
ひとりの夜もそばにいてくれた
世界にたったひとりの
に出会えてよかった
思い出は 夜の空 星になり 輝くよ

あの日がくれた夢の欠片
この手握りしめて離さない
きっとこんなに本気になれた愛
二度とない
と出会えて世界は変わった
心動かす探していた
あの日の二人に戻れなくても
離せないよ

It is one of my favourite love song called "Love forever". This is about a couple which have problems between them but they still love each other and hope to be with each other in their whole life. It is a wonderful and romantic lyric!!!

We can see in the lyric that many "君" is used. We also can see that the couple use "君" to call each other. That is another usage of  "君". It is a name for couples to call their lovers and calling someone who are close to them.

Let see another lyric.

love the world - Perfume

作詞:中田ヤスタカ
作曲:中田ヤスタカ


こっそり秘密をあげるわ
ずっと好きにしていいのよ
きっとキミも気に入るよ
二人だけの特等席


ちょっぴり运命みたいな
キャラにもないようなことも
感じたっていいじゃないの
誰か書いたシナリオ?


まだ この先が見えない
一番星さがす 手が震えても


あきらめないで 大切な
すこしの意地と キミよダーリン
刺激的 ほらステキ
見える世界がきらめくわ
手探りのあたしにも
すこしわかる気がしてるんだ
やわらかな キミのタイミング
ずるいでしょ チュチュチュ
love love the world


やっぱりチャンスをあげるわ
やっと見えたキミの隙間
きっと一人で悩んで
教えてくれていいんだよ
ちょっぴり反省みたいな
キャラにもないようなことも
たまにはいいじゃないの
誰か書いたシナリオ?


まだ この先が見えない
一番星さがす 手が震えても


あきらめないで 大切な
すこしの意地と キミよダーリン
刺激的 ほらステキ
見える世界がきらめくわ
手探りのあたしにも
すこしわかる気がしてるんだ
やわらかな キミのタイミング
ずるいでしょ チュチュチュ
love love the world


have a nice day!
be in a good mood yeah!
in all the world


喜びの中 まだ この先が見えない
一番星さがす 手が震えても


あきらめないで 大切な
すこしの意地と キミよダーリン
刺激的 ほらステキ
見える世界がきらめくわ
手探りのあたしにも
すこしわかる気がしてるんだ
やわらかな キミのタイミング
ずるいでしょ チュチュチュ
love love the world


have a nice day!
be in a good mood yeah!
in all the world


love the world

This is a song from my favourite idol -- Perfume. It is about the exciting feeling of a girl who love a boy. We can find that although the main character in this song is girl, she also use "君" to call the boy she love. Therefore, we can know that there is no restriction for female when using "君" to call lovers or we can say that it is a example that Japanese girls today like to use "君" as male to call their lovers.

おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様)

おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様) are rarely used by Japanese people. It is also only used by men. They use it to call someone who have close relationship with them such as best friends or punish others. Nowadays, Japanese people avoid using these 2 words in their daily life since it make others think that it is rude to others. However, they were used to call someone who is mighty. It was a pronoun to praise for someone in the past. We can see in mangas and anime these day for expressing the exciting feeling of characters.

Here is the example of using おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様) in anime.

http://www.tudou.com/l/a9FhSIAvk90


This is the vol.487 of One Piece. At the 10:43, one of the marine general "サカズキ(赤犬)" shout at his enemies by using "お前ら". ("お前ら" is the plural form of "お前")

赤犬 (本名:サカズキ)
Omaera
Age: around 40 years old
Character: 強い(strong), 男前(tough)

To conclude, although Japanese people do not like to call others as "you" rather than the name of others since it seem to be impolite. However, they also use "you" to call the one they love by using "君" and express their anger by using おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様). We also can see that the usage of pronoun "you" is changing as girls starting to call their lovers "君" and the changes of the usage of おまえ(お前) and きさま(貴様) in the past.

I hope I can have a girl who call me "君" just like the song "love the world" before long......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/
http://kashinavi.com/index.html
http://www.perfumesound.com/forum.php


2011年2月14日 星期一

本当に楽しい~~


僕の日本語能力試験合格されました~~

聴解は満点だし、文字・語彙と文法と文法もAです!!!すごく嬉しい!!!

ただし、言語知識(文字・語彙・文法)・読解の点数がちょっと悪いですね。。。もっと頑張ろうと思います。。。