ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Hello!

Continuing from last post, I want to talk a little about the need for a second type of responsibility beyond personal. The need for social responsibility, and how those two types mesh together so often.

To recap slightly, personal responsibility is the tool that us as individuals use in order to fit into a given society or culture. Cultural responsibility, on the other hand, is the tool that we use as a society to educate and function in a bigger community sense. This can be anything from different ethnic backgrounds working together, to how countries interact with each other in an international setting.

As a quick clarifying example, think back to my soccer playing example from last time. I wrote that if a player ignores the rules, picks up the ball with his hands and runs to the goal, then the game is not fun for anyone. However, what if this player didn’t actually know the rules? Maybe he just saw people playing a game, and wanted to join in? Then, it’s not a person ruining a game for everyone, it’s someone doing their best without the information they need, and it’s the other players’ responsibilities to teach this new person the rules of the game. I think we can all think of a time in our lives where we weren’t clear on what we were doing, but wanted (or needed) to do it anyway! Every time I start a new job, I feel totally lost until I understand how to perform that job well. But, I don’t just learn that job by myself, or accidentally, I have people around me who can show me how to do things properly, and correct any mistakes that I might make. The people I work with teach me, so that I can improve. This is the meaning of cultural or global responsibility, the need to share with others (in a positive way) the things they need to know in order to function better in a society.

To be clear, the point of cultural responsibility is not only to share the beliefs and ideas of what your culture holds true, but it’s also understood that cultural responsibility is how you show those beliefs and ideas to other people who might not share, or might not know about, differences in culture. As a foreigner living in Japan, I am more often than not totally lost when it comes to things that are culturally or societally normal here, and I am forever grateful to the people who have tried to explain it to me. The same would be true if I were back in Canada hosting someone from Japan. No one can deny that Canadian and Japanese cultures are very different in a lot of ways, but the reasons for that can be unclear, so being a representative of that culture, especially when you are the visitor, can be very important. If I am the only Canadian that some one will ever meet in their lives, then I hope I give them the clearest, if not the best, idea of what being a Canadian is like. It is my personal responsibility, informed by my cultural responsibility, that compels me to explore the world, and show other people about my own culture while learning about theirs.

How about you? Have you ever had a situation where you weren’t sure what you were doing, but someone helped you? Have you ever had to explain why something in your culture is the way it is? I’d love to read about it!
  

As many of you may know my hair used to be really, really long.
Like, REALLY long.


I've kind of been missing my long hair recently, since I can't really do the historical hair styles that I used to have so much fun with. I don't regret cutting my hair, but I really do enjoy growing my hair long (it grows quickly, so I'm quite lucky).
Recently one of my favorite youtubers (a youtuber is a person who posts videos on youtube) uploaded a new video, and now I miss my long hair even more!
My degree in university was Greek and Roman studies, so this youtube channel has a special place in my heart, check it out!



She uses historically accurate methods and recreates all kinds of hairstyles!
I really love things that combine history and fashion together!  

  

Hello, all!

I may have mentioned in a past post that I like to exercise. I don't want to be super-strong or to look like Jason Statham

although to be honest, I really wouldn't mind looking like Jason Statham...
but I do want to stay healthy and sane. Exercise improves my mood and helps me think much more clearly.

My favorite form of exercise is cycling, but I also work out at home. It's really efficient! I have some small weights, an exercise bike, and a standing desk. I can watch movies while lifting weights, and I can write or work while I'm on the exercise bike. In fact, I'm riding my exercise bike right now! I've gotten a very good feel for how much exercise I've done in one day.

That brings me to my second point: recently I got a Fitbit. (Thank you, Gem School!) Fitbits track your exercise and record it, and mine has a heart monitor so it can see how many calories I'm burning. Unfortunately, Fitbits are really designed for runners. (I am not a runner. My doctor told me that if I ever tried running, "your kneecaps will shoot out the front of your knees and put somebody's eye out.") Even with the heart monitor, Fitbits don't quite understand strength training or light cardio, and they get very confused by cycling!

When I do my usual exercise routine, the Fitbit barely notices—it usually underestimates my exercise time by about 70%! However, I took a short bike ride yesterday afternoon. I only rode to Niihama and back to get a haircut and do some shopping at the mall. But when I got back, my Fitbit said...

Wow! That is... completely crazy! ("Crazy" here means, "way, way, way too high.") My favorite part is that I somehow got 18,645 steps just by riding my bicycle. Also, riding Route 13 over the headlands between Shikokuchūō and Niihama (which are not very high) is apparently worth 1,850% of my stair-climbing goal.

I'm not sure if the problem is that my Fitbit keeps slipping to the wrong part of my arm, but for now, I'm going to enjoy using it "with a grain of salt." I'll trust it when I take walks, but not when I ride my bicycle!

Do you do any exercise? How do you keep track of your workouts?

—Matthew  

I occasionally ate ramen or undon in Hokkaido, but my favorite Japanese noodle is soba. Seeing that I am in the land of Udon, I decided to give it a try here. I was surprised that this big bowl of udon with tofu was only 320 yen! I still have to say I like soba better, but I will be eating this udon again!



  

Two of my baby club students in Shikokuchuo graduated to the next level a while back! Riley and Marla are both awesome students, and I'm happy that I still get to teach them in the coming term. Look how cute they are!   

A few years ago in Canada while I was on Youtube, I stumbled across some videos of people making candy with the Kracie Poppin' Cookin' kist yous can find everywhere in Japan. They really intrigued me and have been an item that I buy on occassion. I always get a different kit, because I love trying all the different favours and shapes! There is one candy kit that I have wanted to try for a very long time and I was bound and determined to find it when I arrived. It took me over a year, but I did it!!! My local Max Value finally got them in, and I was so happy! Its a cute little candy kit that has a dropper in the shape of an octopus and you get to make little jelly balls and some fizzy foam to eat! Do you like making candy?


  

The Sims has always been my favorite video game, I have been playing it since I was in elementary school.

Since then, they have made newer games with better graphics and game play. Recently the new version, The Sims 4 came out, and I try to play it as often as I can.

I love being able to create people and control their lives, it's fun!!

What games do you like to play? Have you ever played The Sims before??  

It's time to talk about Ceres, a dwarf planet that isn't so far from Earth. It actually resides in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the strange thing about it is that there is light either coming from it or reflecting off the surface. Scientists haven't figured out what it is exactly. Now this suggests that the dwarf planet may just be much more active inside than scientists originally thought. It's actually pretty interesting.

You know me, I love spacey things.

- James Barbosa  

My favorite fairy tale is called "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." It's about the youngest daughter of a poor family. She goes to live with a white bear who says he will make her family very rich if she does so. She lives in a big, empty castle all alone, but is visited at night by someone who sleeps next to her. She grows lonely after awhile and the bear lets her see her family. Her mother tells her to light a candle to see who comes into her room, and when she does so she sees it is a handsome prince. Wax gets on his shirt and he wakes up. He is the bear, and he says if she had gone one year without looking at him, he would have turned back into a man and married her. Because she looked at him he has to go very far away to a castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and marry a troll. The young girl goes after him. She has to ride on all four winds to reach the castle.
When she's there she meets the troll---but I won't tell you how it ends. That would spoil it.   

Laugh out loud? No, LOL is League of Legends. League of Legends is a computer game I played while living in America. Since coming to Japan I was not able to play due to the high ping. Ping is crucial to any competitive online game. Ping is the delay between your PC and the game server. In order to play League I would have to connect to the American server. It wasn't too bad but I was unable to play ranked matches. Just recently a Japanese server opened up! Riot (the company that owns and runs League) offered a free server transfer to anyone living in Japan! Now I am able to play with an even lower ping than when I was in America. The Japanese server is located in Tokyo and it is currently in open beta. I encourage anyone to come play with me on their free time. We can have lots of fun.

The game has 5 different roles. You can play top, mid, jungler, ADC, or support. Top is mostly a 1 v 1 early on and so is mid. The jungler gets to go around killing monsters through the a jungle and helping the others. ADC is usually a ranged character that does a lot of physical damage. Last but not least is support. Support is all about utility and keeping the ADC as well as the team alive and fighting. I mostly play support and jungler. What roles do you want to play?

Do you like PC games? What is your favorite video game?  

I've had a cough for over 4 weeks now. I don't have a fever (but then, I don't tend to get them) and my throat seems okay, but I can't stop clearing my throat. My voice sounded kinda scratchy this past month but of course I couldn't stop singing and teaching. I pity all of my students who have to hear it!

Last week, it took a turn for the worst. I was annoyed with sounding funny and not being able to karaoke. But suddenly I couldn't sleep. I woke up coughing several times a night.

I took to the internet to find some suggestions on cold remedies in Japan. The blogs aimed at foreigners in Japan were wildly unhelpful. Most of them suggested stocking up the next time I'm back in America. Sound advice, but not helping the problem now! Also, a lot of medicine that we're used to having in America is illegal in Japan. So I can't take it with me anyway. Like I stated before, Americans take care of cold themselves and don't go to the hospital or a doctor unless they feel they aren't getting better.

My friend suggested 2 things right away. To stack up my pillows as best as I could and eat some limes. I was perplexed at the latter. Limes? I thought limes were just for flavoring things. Who eats limes? But I bought one and set about to make some limonade. Haven't tried it yet. I drink lots of lemon ginger tea with honey but it hasn't changed anything.

Asking around, I found some cough syrup called BRON. It tasted like root beer, which I thought was funny. Medicine in America usually tastes like cherries. I think it actually helped, along with the pillows thing. I tried decongestants and cough drops too, but they don't seem to do much. The cough drops need some menthol in them, otherwise they just taste like candy.

Here's hoping that I get back to normal. I want to sleep and SING!


  

I used to brag all the time that I "never get sick". Obviously it's not "never", but I really do rarely get sick. The few times that I do, it is relatively short-lived, and I'm nearly dead by the time I get over it. This time seemed like it would be like the former. Okay, my throat hurts. I'm kinda losing my voice, but that's happened before. Oh, my head kinda hurts too...what, I have a fever? How bad is it? 37.4?! Wait, check again...okay, 36.5, that's not too bad...and I'm back up to 37.9. This is new. I don't know if I ever had a fever that fluctuated like that before. It got bad enough that I felt like I had to take off from work on Saturday (one of the busiest and longest days of the week for me, next to Thursdays). It was probably my first time actually calling in sick. The only other time I had to make arrangements to take off work was when I was trying to get my driver's license, and the only available time and day to take it made it impossible to do without taking the day off.
So I took the Saturday off, tried resting as much as I could. Thought I had somewhat recovered on Sunday, only to discover, nope, not at all. Sunday night I slept horribly, tried to rest some more on Monday. Okay, now I am feeling better...wait, nope, still feeling like a sack of trash. But Tuesday I had to work. I thought I could do it, I thought I could survive the day...but then I end up calling in sick again (rather, they suggested I take another day off. They really are so thoughtful. Plus I'm sure they wouldn't want me infecting anyone else, XD).This time I am in bed pretty much the whole day, save for when I had to eat or use the restroom.

Suffice to say, I'm still not 100%. Kind of better, but I don't want to say so, because I don't know if I am suddenly going to get worse. Sigh. Getting sick sucks. I'm glad it doesn't happen all that often to me.  

I have written in the past about how generous people in Japan are, specifically my Landlord. I have been trying to give him some honey from my moms bees back in Texas since January but I could never catch him. This past weekend I finally did! My friend and I saw him and gave him the honey and he gave us Kumquats and Mustard leaves! It was my first time eating Kumquats and I really like them! People here are so generous and giving and I can't help but think, Go Japan!  

Hello!

I wanted to talk a little about something that affects everyone, but can show itself in many different ways. When we live in a culture or society that is based on mutual trust and community, there is a need for some kind of self regulation and checks. This self regulation most commonly is taught in schools as Responsibility. What responsibility means, very generally, as I’ll go into more detail shortly, is that there are certain actions, tasks, even attitudes that we as individuals must adopt and conform to to live in our various societies. This can change from country to country, but we all have a sense of what it is we must do to, if not improve our lives, then at least maintain the way that we were introduced to that society.

There are two forms of responsibility that I want to talk briefly about, one in this post, and one for my next, but both are equally important in their own ways. Next time, I’ll be speaking about cultural responsibility, but this week, I’d like to talk about personal responsibility.

As the phrase might imply, personal responsibilities that we conform to that make us as individuals productive and healthy members of our society. They mean adhering to the law, and understanding the rules of business (no matter what business we might find ourselves in), and following the social norms that allow us the ability to meet, talk with, and engage with other people in our society. These seems pretty broad, but personal responsibility also means being aware of, and changing (if necessary), our own attitudes, behaviours, and sometimes beliefs, in order to better fit into the society we live in.

Now don’t get me wrong, because re-reading that last paragraph might make it sound like I’m saying there is no room in society for an individual person’s beliefs, or that being different from what might be considered “normal” is somehow wrong. I am absolutely not saying that, and I understand that each person is their own unique being, and to think that somehow they should completely change based on culture or heritage is a very difficult thing to ask. What I’m saying is that personal responsibility is required so that everyone can find a common ground when interacting with each other in society.

As a closing statement, let me give an example of the need for personal responsibility that allows us all to work together. Imagine a game of soccer, where there are 11 players on Team A on the field. All 11 of those players need to understand the rules of the same and their roles in the game in order to have the game play out so everyone is happy and can have fun. But if one person, who may know the rules and chooses to ignore them, decides to pick up the ball with his hands and run with it, then the game is no fun for anyone. One person ignoring his personal responsibility to play the game according to the agreed upon rules can ruin it for everyone else playing.

What do you think? What are some examples you can think of in your life that you felt compelled follow agreed rules because it makes everything easier?

-Alex
  

We've been very excited around here lately, because GEM has won a very special award for the second year in a row!
It's the Great Place to Work award!
This award is special to us, because it's very true! GEM is a great place to work, and it's exciting for the company to be recognized for it again. I love working for GEM for many reasons, but maybe the biggest reason is that GEM is full of amazing people. My co-workers make every day fun and exciting, and I feel like I'm always surrounded by people who care about me.





I want to congratulate my very special co-workers and our very special company on receiving this very big award! I know we can win it for many years to come!  

  

Hello, all!

Recently I've been planning a visit by two old friends to Japan. One has been here many times before, but the other friend has never before left America! The trip has become a little strange, though: it's full of rabbits!

You see, in Hiroshima my friends and I will stay at a small guest house called "Lappy," which features a leporine logo and a real rabbit mascot. Then, the very next day, we'll stop by Takehara and visit Ōkunoshima, where you can be stampeded by rabbits!

All this reminds me of the pet rabbit another friend had while we both lived in Korea. Named Faraday (after a famous scientist—my friend studied physics), and called "Farah" for short ("Farah" means "joy" in Arabic—my friend grew up in Northern Africa), this rabbit had a very strong personality. Whenever I visited, she would sit in the corner and shoot me dirty looks. She wasn't afraid of me; she just decided she didn't like me. But when I wasn't there, she was apparently crazy. My friends shot a video of her doing some very strange random leaps on the bed. Apparently she did this all the time!

It turns out this behavior is called "binkying," and it means the rabbits are very, very happy and content. (I guess Farah was happy because I wasn't there!) Here's another binkying video, in case you can't get enough adorable bunny contortionist acts:

Actually, I binky, too. Sometimes if I'm very, very happy and no one's watching, I kind of shake my hands very quickly and smile grotesquely. Whenever I sing the "shake, shake your hands" song with my students, I like to pretend I'm binkying!

How do you binky to express your joy?

—Matthew  

I wanted something a little sweet, but not chocolate or cake. I found this little bag of cookies at the grocery story. Coin sized cookies, with an explanation on the back of the bag about what coins they were. A dessert that is also educational!


  

Last weekend I drove around for most of the day on Monday. I found a small ocean side park in Imabari. There, relaxing under a bush, was the cat in the picture above. He wasn't concerned with me getting closer, and as I left he began to follow me. He climbed onto a bench and let me pet him for a minute before I took this picture.

Unfortunately, I'm allergic to cats, so I couldn't take hime home.

Anyway, I spent part of the day practicing some scenic landscape photography. Here are some samples. Please enjoy!