Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
by Abraham Lincoln
(物事は、待っている人のところにやってくるかもしれないが、それは積極的に行動した人の残りものだけだ。)
2011年3月18日金曜日
2011年3月16日水曜日
探し物
最近、「glee」という海外ドラマにはまっている。歌って踊る青春ドラマだ。彼らが歌っているのを見ているととてもうらやましいく思う。あんな風に歌えたらとつくづく思う。
僕は音楽に関して全くと言っていいほど才能がない。もちろん、自分が好きな音楽がどんなものかというのはなんとなくわかっているつもりでいるが、歌えないし、演奏もだめだ。歌で自分の感情を表現できたら、どんなにドラマチックだろうか、思ってしまう。
そんなことを考えていると、自分に何も取り柄がないような気がしてならない。これといった趣味もないし、他人と共有するものもないし、異なるものもない。なんだか自分のアイデンティティーがどこにあるのか分からなくなってしまいそうだ。いや、むしろ、もう見失っているかも。。。。
2011年2月21日月曜日
2011年2月13日日曜日
謙虚
今年で21歳になりました。まだまだ、と思いながらも、「もう21歳かぁ。」と年齢が気になるようになってきてしまいました。
毎年その年のテーマを勝手に設定しているのですが、今年のテーマはズバリ「謙虚」です。ちなみに去年は「尊厳」でした。（毎年といいなんがら、始めたのは昨年からなので、まだ2回目です。）昨年は、「好きなようにやらせてくれ!!」という感じでいけいけでやってきましたが、まぁそんな感じだったので、いろいろと亀裂が生じ、今年はその後始末といった感じでしょうか。傲慢にならず、謙虚に今年は勤めようと思います。しかしながら、ときには勢いよく物事を推し進めなくてはなりません。ただへりくだって他人に合わせるのと謙虚とは違うと思っています。建て前と本音。そのバランスを心がけようと思います。
最近youtubeで見つけたのですが、amazarashi の「つじつま合わせに生まれた僕等」を聞いているととれも謙虚な気持ちになれます。写真はちょっと怖いですが、心にしみてく詩です。
今年1年もまた頑張ろうと思います。
毎年その年のテーマを勝手に設定しているのですが、今年のテーマはズバリ「謙虚」です。ちなみに去年は「尊厳」でした。（毎年といいなんがら、始めたのは昨年からなので、まだ2回目です。）昨年は、「好きなようにやらせてくれ!!」という感じでいけいけでやってきましたが、まぁそんな感じだったので、いろいろと亀裂が生じ、今年はその後始末といった感じでしょうか。傲慢にならず、謙虚に今年は勤めようと思います。しかしながら、ときには勢いよく物事を推し進めなくてはなりません。ただへりくだって他人に合わせるのと謙虚とは違うと思っています。建て前と本音。そのバランスを心がけようと思います。
最近youtubeで見つけたのですが、amazarashi の「つじつま合わせに生まれた僕等」を聞いているととれも謙虚な気持ちになれます。写真はちょっと怖いですが、心にしみてく詩です。
今年1年もまた頑張ろうと思います。
2011年2月11日金曜日
International marriage
Anyway, as one person who would like to get married with a foreign, this topic is very interesting. However, I don't want to ever be involved with this issue in my life: I don't want to divorce.
*The Hague convention bans parents in failed international marriages from taking children out of the country without the consent of their former partners.
It also calls on signatory governments to help children get home if either parent abducts them to another country.More than 80 countries have signed up.
resource:http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/e-news/news/index.cgi?ymd=20110209
2011年2月7日月曜日
誕生日
1月30日。
21年前の今日私は生まれた。地方の大学に入ってから、家族と一緒に誕生日を過ごすということはなかった。
一人でいたということもあって、「誕生日」というものがただのイベントになり下がっていた。時折街で見かれるタイムセールのように、あったらのぞくがなくても別にどうってことなどない。
TOEICテストが実家の近くで行われるために実家に帰ることにした。
テストが行われるのは1月30日である。
久々に帰った街は何も変わっていなかった。受験勉強で使った部屋から眺める街の景色は時間が止まっていたかのように、そのままだった。
テストが明日に迫ってきても、特別なやる気がわいてこなかった。ただらだらと1日を過ごした。
母が会場まで送ってくれることになった。
その車の中で私はふと、母に聞いてみた。私は今日のいつ頃生まれたのかと。
「今頃ちゃうかなぁ。」
あいまいな返事をしながら、母は時計を見た。針は9時半を指していた。
1週間も予定日より早く陣痛が始まったらしい。病院側も予想していなかったので、夜勤明けの看護師を何人か捕まえて、出産の準備に取り掛かった。さらに私が双子ということもあり、私が母のお腹から出るとすぐに、みんな弟に取り掛かった。そんなあわただしさの中で私は生まれた。訳も分からず生まれた。
それから21年。私はそんな母の話をイヤホン越しに聞く人間になっていた。
ただ鼻がむずむずしていた。
冷たい冬の風の中に微かに春のにおいを感じる。
ずっしりとした重みを感じながら、しかし、心はどこか晴れていた。
今日は何かいいことがありそうだ。
2010年10月3日日曜日
To Struggle Against Stress!!
The month went by in a flashy since I came here to La Paz, Mexico. Mexico is an incredibly good place to visit. People are merry and thoughtful. It is worthwhile visiting at least once in your life. Only Spanish is spoken here though.
So I am supposed to enjoy my Mexican life, but actually I'm stressed-out here. I have to go to school everyday frommorning till night, and have lots of assignments to do. Besides when I had a project which I have to work on in a group, we always had an argument to decide on one thing to do. The worst thing is there is no time to hang out with my friends!!
I can't stand any more without blowing off steam. But the problem is I don't know how to handle them....
Do you have any suggestions for me???
anyway, I'd like to post some pictures of Mexico. Enjoy it!!
So I am supposed to enjoy my Mexican life, but actually I'm stressed-out here. I have to go to school everyday frommorning till night, and have lots of assignments to do. Besides when I had a project which I have to work on in a group, we always had an argument to decide on one thing to do. The worst thing is there is no time to hang out with my friends!!
I can't stand any more without blowing off steam. But the problem is I don't know how to handle them....
Do you have any suggestions for me???
anyway, I'd like to post some pictures of Mexico. Enjoy it!!
2010年9月9日木曜日
AFTER AMERICAN LIFE
In a car on my way to my host-family house, I've completely made it a habit to try to catch English from the radio. One month earlier, I thought I hoped I would understand what they were talking about within a month. Now I just realized that it is too short for me to learn English in just one month. However, I've learned a lot of things from this experience. Since I came here to the U.S., I've felt that American values are definitely different from Japanese ones and it gave me a chance to rethink what Japanese are or Japan is. It isn't sometimes easy to understand new values. It reminds me of the story of Thanksgiving, it is known as the biggest event here in the U.S. In the class, one of the professors told us about what it happened, what the origin was.
Heroes in this story are people called "Pilgrims" ,the founder of America. The Pilgrim left Plymouth, England in 1620 because of religious persecution. They wanted to start a new life in the New World (America) and practiced their religion in freedom. Their sea voyage was very difficult and many of the Pilgrims died. Finally they arrived on the north east coast in North America. At the time, that area was wilderness. It was almost winter and they had no homes and little food. The winter was very cold and harsh. Almost half of pilgrims died from starvation and sickness.
However, soon they became friends with the local Native American Indians who showed the pilgrims how to grow food, namely corn, pumpkins and beans. The pilgrims worked hard and the summer harvest of 1621 was excellent. The pilgrims declared a three-day festival to thank God and to celebrate the wonderful harvest with their friends, the Native American Indians, who had helped them so much. This is the origin of Thanksgiving.
So Thanksgiving is a symbol of their strong bond between the Pilgrims and the Indians, many people don't know about that today though. Now, it is not so hard for me to imagine what the pilgrims felt when they met people who were incredibly different from themselves. And also their burden to try to know each other goes beyond my imagination. I'm on that way now. I should keep on trying to take new culture and values. From next month, I am going to start a new life in Mexico and stay there for 3 months. I’m ready to give a try to anything. I hope the day would come when I could thank God for all I would have and all people who I’ve already met and I would meet from now in 3 months, like Thanksgiving.
2010年8月31日火曜日
Japanese values VS American values
In my class I learned about American culture values. I made an essay to compare to Japanese cultural values and American cultural values as a an assignment. I'd like to post it below.
How are your cultural values different from American cultural values?
It is said that three words describe Japanese cultural values; patience, constraint, and endurance. I think they are based on the Japanese tradition called "Shame Culture".
A shame culture is one in which the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining control over adults is the inculcation of shame and the complementary threat of ostracism.
In a nutshell the key point of "Shame culture" is the fear of rejection. People tend to act in a group(society), and when someone doesn't act in concordance with society,they are ostracized; society pressures him or her, adding to his or her shame. Due to his or her fear of rejection, he or she to return to conformity. For example, people who don't care much about other's pressure are called K.Y(Kuki Yomenai i Japanese). This word usually used in negative way. To survive in this culture, we must get used to it . As a result, we're specialized sense of patience, constraint and endurance.
On the other hand, American culture is called "Guilt Culture" A guilt culture is defined as one that emphasizes punishment and forgiveness as ways of restoring the moral order.
A simple idea of guilty culture is that society builds a standard to judge whether your behavior is ethically good or not, people follow this system. In fact the border is strongly connected with religion(this goes back to the Pilgrims whose puritan values skill influence society.) That's why American cultural values represent initiative, progress and individualism.
Also high rats of immigration have been contributing to American cultural values as well.
The different ways of thinking from those two cultures affect our ideas and behavior.
In fact, some of my friends told me that the style of participation in class bothers them. They hesitate to say something in class, given that they grew up in Japanese culture as I mentioned. But just in my case, I don't feel anything frustrating to me. Intrinsically Japanese cultural values haven't suited for me. As proving, my tutor called me off that I was lacking of a feeling of concordance and I couldn't survive in Japanese society, when I was in Japan.
How are your cultural values different from American cultural values?
It is said that three words describe Japanese cultural values; patience, constraint, and endurance. I think they are based on the Japanese tradition called "Shame Culture".
A shame culture is one in which the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining control over adults is the inculcation of shame and the complementary threat of ostracism.
In a nutshell the key point of "Shame culture" is the fear of rejection. People tend to act in a group(society), and when someone doesn't act in concordance with society,they are ostracized; society pressures him or her, adding to his or her shame. Due to his or her fear of rejection, he or she to return to conformity. For example, people who don't care much about other's pressure are called K.Y(Kuki Yomenai i Japanese). This word usually used in negative way. To survive in this culture, we must get used to it . As a result, we're specialized sense of patience, constraint and endurance.
On the other hand, American culture is called "Guilt Culture" A guilt culture is defined as one that emphasizes punishment and forgiveness as ways of restoring the moral order.
A simple idea of guilty culture is that society builds a standard to judge whether your behavior is ethically good or not, people follow this system. In fact the border is strongly connected with religion(this goes back to the Pilgrims whose puritan values skill influence society.) That's why American cultural values represent initiative, progress and individualism.
Also high rats of immigration have been contributing to American cultural values as well.
The different ways of thinking from those two cultures affect our ideas and behavior.
In fact, some of my friends told me that the style of participation in class bothers them. They hesitate to say something in class, given that they grew up in Japanese culture as I mentioned. But just in my case, I don't feel anything frustrating to me. Intrinsically Japanese cultural values haven't suited for me. As proving, my tutor called me off that I was lacking of a feeling of concordance and I couldn't survive in Japanese society, when I was in Japan.
2010年8月29日日曜日
Peanuts Incident
I went to Central Park with my host-family 2 weeks ago. There were lots of squirrels in that park. They run around all over place. My mother suggested us to feed them peanuts. So we went to the nearest store and bought a pack of peanuts. My host mother found it and gave me it oddly enough. I had no idea why she gave it to me, because I thought she would buy it for us. She had me stand in a line for a checkout counter without any ideas, and I payed forit.... Holy cow!!!. I was fine about that. It was cheap but it made me disappointed. I tried to forget it. Never mind!!
And then, we walked back to the park. We started to feed peanuts to squirrels for a while. They usually came near to people who fed them. but at that time they seemed like that they didn't want to come near us. Eventually I ended up feeding them and I started eating the peanuts I bought. Seeing me eating peanuts, she started laughing and said "Hereis a big squirrel from Japan!! Why are you eating food for squirrels!!!" That made me pissed off. In mymind,"shut up. You can't talk about that. I'm one who bought them! Who cares!!" I kept on eating them, leaving her out.
And then, we walked back to the park. We started to feed peanuts to squirrels for a while. They usually came near to people who fed them. but at that time they seemed like that they didn't want to come near us. Eventually I ended up feeding them and I started eating the peanuts I bought. Seeing me eating peanuts, she started laughing and said "Hereis a big squirrel from Japan!! Why are you eating food for squirrels!!!" That made me pissed off. In mymind,"shut up. You can't talk about that. I'm one who bought them! Who cares!!" I kept on eating them, leaving her out.
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