Digital Material and Studying
What is efficient studying?
Nobuyasu FUKUI [2711160072-0]
Department of Applied Chemistry,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MC– Final Paper
Project English 2
Fall 2016
Introduction
Today, there are a lot of digital materials such as smart phones, laptop computers, and MP3 players. Most of people have at least one of them. It is easy to carry, make contact with someone, and deal with a lot of data in one device. In a part of school, digital materials are introduced into the classroom. The government also encourages introducing digital materials for classes. The purpose of this Thesis is stating whether introducing digital materials into school is good or not in terms of the advantages and disadvantages from the result of the questionnaire and interview.
1. Advantage of using digital materials for studying
In this chapter, I state advantage of using digital materials. I interviewed two students in Ritsumeikan University and my teacher in high school to ask what advantage of using digital materials are. They said that the advantages are being able to use digital black board, sharing each other’s ideas easily, gathering information quickly, and multiple methods of learning. From the result of these interviews, I realized that the best advantage on using digital materials is visualization. When students think of questions, how to think of questions and their answers vary from person to person. Then, if
students had their tablet-type devices and there were digital black board in the classroom, it would be easy to gather their answer and students could discuss their idea immediately, seeing their answers. The teacher can also check their answers and can reflect information from the answer in the class immediately. Apart from this, there are other ways of using digital black board. Student can see a problem from many other angles by using digital black board. For example, when students see a chemical formula on textbook, they can see it from only one angle. They cannot understand a chemical reaction system concretely only by seeing it in a textbook. However, if the teacher can show the chemical reaction on the digital black board, students can watch it from many other angles. Students can understand questions easily by seeing from many other angles, watching from different angles would inspire student’s creativity. That is to say, students can deepen their thinking through trial and error as they share and discuss the process with other classmates.
2. Disadvantage of using digital materials for studying
In this chapter I state disadvantage of using digital materials for studying. I asked 77 people about what disadvantages there are of using digital materials for studying. I showed the result of the questionnaire and questionnaire items in Graph 1 and Table 1 below.
Graph 1 The Result Of Questionnaire
Table 1 Questionnaire Items
7 Getting involved in Internet trouble
6 Health problem
5 Not efficiency
4 Printed textbook is better than e-textbook
3 Cost problem
2 The breakdown of digital materials
1 Other
As is shown in Graph 1 and Table 1, getting involved in Internet trouble and health problem are the main disadvantages. Internet trouble includes bullying by using SNS, Internet addiction disorder. As the more students have digital materials and use SNS, and bullying by using SNS has been increasing. Saying bad things about a particular student could be written on SNS. Because of being said bad things, the student may be hurt and may not want to go to the school. These days, I often watch the news about such students committing suicide. In addition, some Internet addiction disorder of people always want to use the Internet and stay up late surfing the Internet. Because of this dependence on the Internet, they often keep unusual hours. These problems are what we cannot avoid with using digital materials. In addition to this Internet trouble, health problem is also what we should think about on using digital materials. If people use digital materials for hours, the blue light given off from the devices damages user’s eyes. The blue light makes user’s eyes tired, and this fatigue results in gradual loss of eyesight. What is more, exposing the blue light cause sleep problem, if people use digital materials at night, they cannot sleep well.
Conclusion
From the result of the research, using digital materials for classes has many advantages, but also has some disadvantages. So, whether using digital materials for classes is good or not depends on how it is used. Teachers should take precaution for students not to get involved in Internet troubles.
References
Shunsuke MURAI. (2015). The Japan Times. E-textbooks to open digital can of worms, Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/01/reference/e-textbooks-open- digital-can-worms/#.WHTf-4VOK3B
Pharmacists and Medicines All over the World
Suzuho NODA [2811160075-0]
Department of Pharmacy,
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class YD – Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
I did a questionnaire and an interview about working as a pharmacist. According to my questionnaire, almost 90% answered that we could get a lot of money in other countries more than in Japan. Also, in my interview, some answered that if we were in other countries, we could learn many thing that we could not learn in Japan. From these results, I thought there were many good points to work in other countries. However, developed countries and developing countries are different. Then, I decided to research the situations of developed countries and developing countries. Moreover, I noticed that medicines are related to these situations, so I researched about them, too.
Table 1: The result of my questionnaire: Which do you think can we get a lot of money?
1. The actual condition in developed countries
In developed countries, there are a lot of pharmacists work and many pharmaceutical companies. Because of that, the technologies of healthcare in developed countries have progressed rapidly. I will show an example of one developed country.
In the U.S., pharmacists can get a big salary. It is said that they can get ten million per year. There is one big reason. It is that many people trust pharmacists. It costs a lot to take out a medical insurance in the U.S.. That means people in the U.S. need a lot of money when they have diseases and when they see a doctor. So, they try to protect themselves from diseases without going hospitals. In order to do so, they ask pharmacists for some advices to keep their health. That’s why pharmacists in the U.S. can get a good status and get a lot of money!
As I explained this example to you, it seems like great condition in developed countries. However, there is a complicated problem. These days, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. make the cost of medicines become higher. Because of that, many developing countries cannot buy those
87.5
12.5
in other countries
in Japan
medicines and that leads them to suffer from diseases and illnesses. Why can they do so? First, their opportunities to sell their medicines are increased because the system to help old people is improved and it needs a variety of medicines. Second, pharmaceutical companies can decide the cost of medicines without any limits.
Because of these things, many developing countries cannot buy necessary medicines and drugs from developed countries. Next, let’s look at the situation in developing countries.
2. The actual condition in developing countries
In many developing countries, poor people cannot buy essential medicines. Many medicines are imported, but they are so expensive for them. Moreover, they sometimes take harmful medicines without knowing.
According to one data, 60% of essential medicines are not accessible to people in developing countries. I will tell you why they are not accessible. There are two reasons. First, most of the medicines to cure life-threatening diseases like HIV and AIDS are not manufactured in developing countries. Most of them are imported from developed countries and that means they are very expensive for them. Second, the system to supply medicines tends to be poor and that leads to the shortages and qualities of them are low. For example, vaccines are stored in the too hot or too cold environment. That is dangerous and may lose their effects to cure diseases.
In order to overcome the bad conditions, generic drugs play an important role in helping poor people. Let us check what the generic drugs and how they work in developing countries.
3. To improve those situations
To improve these situations in developing countries, generic drugs help a lot of poor people. Generic drugs are almost the same as brand medicines. However, they are cheaper than those brand medicines. Therefore poor people can buy them easily and cure themselves without any mistakes for
choosing false and wrong drugs. To supply these medicines to people in developing countries, Doctors without Borders (MSF) works very hard.
Their work is mainly to help people who are suffering from diseases. So they send a lot of volunteers, such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses and so on. They also provide medicines to cure them. Also, they ask for donations. Therefore we can donate to them and help many people around the world.
Conclusion
I will summarize what I said today. First, in developed countries, there are a lot of pharmacists and look great for people there. But pharmaceutical companies make the costs of medicines become higher. That is a big problem. Because of that, in developing countries, many poor people cannot buy expensive medicines and many people are suffering from diseases. To help them, “Doctors without Borders” and “WHO” provide generic drugs. Not only them, but also we can help them to donate money.
As I researched about those conditions in the world, I noticed one possibility. If we become a pharmacist and go abroad, we can help a lot of people with our hands. Or if we become a pharmaceutical researcher, we may develop excellent medicines and drugs for people who are suffering from diseases. So we should study hard now! And we should help a lot of people around the world!
References
Sheila Mysorekar. (2013). Silent Murder, Retrieved March 14, 2013, from
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/medicines-are-too-expensive-poor-people-developing-countries-local-production-could-make
Mari OKAZAKI. (2017). Teaching of Pharmacist, from
http://www.want-tobedruggist.com/about-an-annual-income/amerika-nenshu/
Mutsuko ONISHI. (2017). THE HUFFINGTON POST, Retrieved January 29, 2016, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/foresight/cost-of-medicine-in-america_b_9066030.html
Bioremediation
Taichi KOGURA [2712160040-0]
Department of Biotechnology,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MF– Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
I sent out my questionnaire about whether we can live together with the Earth in the future for 33 Japanese freshmen using Google forms. Through my survey, I could find out that 70% of all respondents think that our planet will be in danger in the near future. Various kinds of environmental problems were caught as the main cause. In this paper, I focused on issues related to our life and would like to introduce one of the promising solutions.
1. The Effects Of Soils And Water Pollution On Human Body
Soils and water are deeply connected with human life. Most vegetables which we buy and eat are produced in soil outside. Tap water and water for cultivation of crops and plants come from rivers or lakes. Besides, groundwater and natural water is utilized as a daily life water in some area. Therefore, rivers, lakes and soils which are polluted, not only our health but also our environment are affected at last.
Crops and plants grown on polluted soil absorb water with much of the pollution and then pass these on to us. Long term exposure to polluted soil can affect the genetic make-up of the body, causing congenital illnesses and chronic health problems that cannot heal easily. In fact, it can sicken
the livestock to a considerable extent and cause food poisoning over a long period of time.
In addition, most plants are not in a position to adapt when the chemistry of the soil and water changes so radically in a short period of time. The fertility slowly diminishes, making land unsuitable for agriculture and any local vegetation to survive. This can lead to widespread famines if the plants are not in a position to grow in it.
In this way, soils and water pollution affect us both directly and indirectly.
2. What Is Bioremediation?
Bioremediation contains 2 words, “bio” and “remediation”. “bio” means biology and
“remediation” is to heal and cure. Therefore, bioremediation is a technology to decompose and take away pollutants using living things especially bacteria. Bacteria cannot decompose all pollutants, but they can be effective in most case, except for special cases such as heavy metals. The most important feature of this technology is utilizing natural materials, bacteria. It does not need any chemicals. Only special materials such as nutrients for bacteria are needed. This technology was invented more than 20 years ago, but bioremediation has not been famous. However, it has been remarked these days.
3. Three Advantages Of Bioremediation
I. Specialize In Oils
Some bacteria, such as Alcanivorax borkumensis in figure 1 below, can decompose oils. In bioremediation, those Bacteria are increased at the maximum and then, they are scattered into polluted water. They change harmful oils into harmless carbon dioxide in the end.
Figure 1 Alcanivorax borkumensis
According to Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, it is said that 80% of water quality problems in Japanese rivers are from oil spill. Figure 2 shows the number of water quality accidents happened in 2015.
Figure 2 The number of water quality accidents
II. Eco-friendly
In the case of purification by chemicals, animals and plants will be affected in the purified area. They will lose their territories too. Purification using chemicals or physical work produces a lot of wastes and ecosystems are destroyed.
Oils
80%
Chemicals 5%
Others 15%
The number of water quality accidents
However, Bioremediation can purify without making any wastes. Besides, bacteria disappear naturally after disposal so, there is little damage to ecosystems.
III. Cost-Effectiveness
In bioremediation, all we need is just to put the nutrients made for beneficial bacteria into polluted soils and into water directly. For that reason, we do not need large-scale facilities or machines, and can keep the cost low. Please look at Table 1. This table shows costs of each purifying way. As you can see, bioremediation is quite cheap.
Table 1 The comparison of the costs of each purification way
Bioremediation Phytoremediation Oxidation decomposition
treatment
Reduction decomposition
treatment
¥5,000~20,000 ¥10,000 ¥10,000~30,000 ¥20,000~40,000
Conclusion
Bioremediation represents breakthrough technology for specializing in oils, is eco- friendly, and its cost-effectiveness. Bioremediation was invented more than 20 years ago, but it has not been popular yet. I hope people to know and think more about bioremediation.
The 21st centuries be called “the age of biology”. This field will dramatically change and develop our life. I think that bioremediation will be a beginning development. Now, it’s time to lend biological power to keep the Earth beautiful. I hope bioremediation to enable
References
BioRangers, Inc. (n.d.). Bioremediation to wa?,Retrieved January 7, 2017, from
http://www.chugai-tec.co.jp/kankyo/ National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (n.d.). Donna biseibutu ga sekiyu wo bunkai suruka?,
Retrieved January 7, 2017,from http://www.nite.go.jp/nbrc/industry/bioreme2009/knowledge/bacteria/bacteria_1.html
Chugai Technos (n.d.). Chugai Technos Kankyo Jigyo, Retrieved January 7, 2017, from http://www.chugai- tec.co.jp/kankyo/
What Impressions Do You Have about Foreigners?
Shin YOSHIMOTO [27121600957]
Department of Biotechnology,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
MH – Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
These days, about 19 million foreigners come to Japan, and about 16 million Japanese go abroad per a year. Many people come to Japan and go abroad because this world is going global; therefore, if we know how foreigners think about us and how we think about them, we can communicate with them smoothly; thus, this study’s research questions are “Do people have different impressions between people who live in our own country and foreigners and what impressions do people have about foreigners?” In this presentation, I focus the impression of Japanese and Americans.
Method
The participants were 66 Japanese, 17 Americans, and 14 Filipinos. All Japanese and Filipino were freshmen, and the age of Americans were from 19 to 63.
Results & Discussion
First question was “What do you think about Japanese?” the blue columns of Figure 1 show the top 5 impressions which Japanese chose. About 70% Japanese chose they were polite and careful, and 65% of them chose like group action, and about 55% of them chose hard worker and poor at self-
assertion. However, if you look at yellow columns. In case of none-Japanese, the percentage of polite and careful is similar between Japanese and foreigners. However, the percentage of like group action, hard worker, and poor at self-assertion are different between them. Especially, there are 37.7% differences in the percentage of poor at self-assertion between Japanese and others; therefor, many foreigners think Japanese are good at self-assertion but Japanese do not think so.
Second question was “What do you think about Americans?” Figure 2 of yellow columns show the top 5 impressions of Americans chose. 85% Americans answered they are talkative, about 60 percent of them answered good at self-assertion, hard worker and like group action, and 40% of them chose selfishness. But non-Americans’ impressions are not the same. Look at the blue columns. The percentages of talkative, good at self-assertion, and selfishness are similar. But the percentages of hard worker and like group action are not the same. Non-Americans think that Americans don’t like group action and like doing something by themselves.
Finally, the question was “How did you come to have this impressions for Americans?” Figure 3 shows the result of this survey. 63% of them chose that the impression came from watching TV, and 21% of them answered they have been there and they know about them, and 11% of them chose that the impression came from seeing tourists, and 5% of them answered others. 72 % of Japanese chose American impressions without going to the U.S. In the case of people who chose “like group action”, look at Figure 4. people who have been to America name group A and the other name group B. The percentage of Americans and group A are similar compared with the differences between Americans and group B. Therefor people of group A know about American more than group B. The one person of group A said I can understand and know about American culture, lifestyle, and personality by traveling. That is why the graphs of American and group A are similar; therefore, we can say that we can know were deeply about them by traveling.
Figure 1. the impressions of Japanese
Figure 2. the impressions of Americans
Figure 3. How did you come to have the impression for Americans? 0.00%
10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00%
polite careful like group action
hard worker poor at self- assertion
percentage
Japanese Foreigners
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00%
talkative good at self- assertion
hard worker like group action
selfishness
percentage
Americans anothers
63% 21%
11% 5%
from TV from traveling from tourists Others
Figure 4. the case of like group action
Conclusion
The research questions of this study are “Do people have different impressions between people who live in your own country and foreigners and what impressions do people have about foreigners?”
The results of this study, the impressions of foreigners have many differences. On the other hand, the result of the question which is “How did you come to have this impressions of Americans?” is that we do not usually communicate with foreigners deeply; therefor, most of our impressions come from TV or tourists. But people which appear on TV or are tourists are just part of Americans. Therefor we have many differences.
Before concluding, several limitations should be addressed. The foreigners sample size of this study (N=31) was small compared the Japanese sample size(N=66); thus, the results must be confirmed with larger sample.
Despite this limitation, the present study clarified the difference impressions of foreigners.
References
Japan National Tourism Organization. (n.d.). marketing data, Retrieved November 22, 2016, from http://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/statistics/marketingdata_outbound.pdf
62%
43%
3%
like group action
p e rc e n ta g e
American
people who have been to America people who haven't been to America
The Balance Challenge
Piling up tennis balls
Akihiro IKAWA [2713160006-8]
Department of Bioinformatics,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MI – Final Paper
Fall, 2016
Introduction
I had never been interested in art until I found one thing. There is an art called rock balancing art. This is basically a work that humans pile up some rocks or stones. According to the GRAVITY GLUE (2016), which is website that there are a lot of work of rock balancing art Michael Grab who has created rock balancing art professionally made. Michael Grab said “gravity is the only
“Glue” that holds these structures in equilibrium”. This word is for not only rock but for tennis balls.
In this project, briefly, what I tried to do is pile up three tennis balls. I tentatively call this the balance challenge. Probably, some of you think that it is easy and very simple, but I think that it is quite a difficult. The goal of this challenge is to pile up three tennis balls quickly and keep it for 10 seconds after releasing my hands from the balls. I will show you how I was practicing and the result of this challenge, whether I succeeded in this challenge or not. And finally, I will show you what I am going to do from here.
1. Method
This chapter is separated two sections. First of all, I will show you why I am interested in
this challenge and why I chose this challenge. Second, I will show you how I practiced for this challenge and what my challenge schedule was.
I tried to do this challenge when I was a junior high school student but I could not succeed in that. So, I was trying to do it again. And I have another reason. I saw some pictures like Figure 1 and Figure 2 of below a few months ago. His name is Michael Grab. He is a rock balance artist. I was not able to believe this and I was wondering if he uses a strong glue. But, this is real work he made with his hands. At that time, I thought that I wanted to do this. However, I could not do this because the rock is so big and heavy. That is why I decided to try to pile up tennis balls which were in my home.
Figure 1 : The rock balance artist
Figure 2 : The rock balancing art
I steadily tried to do this challenge successful every day. I basically practiced in my home
or sometimes on the tennis court. I practiced piling up three balls alone because there are a few people that would be interested in this challenge. And I recently interviewed 10 tennis-related friends, but no one could pile up three tennis balls in my friends. That is how it's so difficult. Figure 3 of below is my schedule for this challenge. First, I started piling up two tennis balls quickly. After I had been able to pile up two tennis balls within 10 seconds, I tried to pile up three tennis balls. I practiced and took video every day in case I succeeded.
Figure 3 : My schedule for this challenge
2. Result
In this chapter, I will show you the result of my challenge. Especially, I will talk about what the result was finally.
The goal of my challenge is to pile up three tennis balls and keep that state when I release my hands from the three balls for ten seconds. If not, I failed. This challenge did not proceed as planned. I was able to pile up two tennis balls in as little as 5 seconds until November 16th of the deadline I decided. But, what I struggled most was to keep concentrated force for many minutes and to pile up three tennis balls quickly and keep 10 second with releasing my hands from the balls. But as a result of
practicing every days, I succeeded in doing this challenge on December 6th, just before the deadline. I was exactly able to pile up three tennis balls. Figure 4 is a picture when I was able to pile up three tennis balls for the first time.
Figure 4 : The picture of success
3. Discussion
In this chapter, I will indicate my opinion through this challenge. I have been thinking about what I should do if this is successful. That is to make balance art using various things. There is a rock balancing art in the balance art as I explained. According to REUTERS Video (Sep/8/2011), this Website says “There is no magic trick, glue, nor other adhesive to the art of rock balancing”. It is only gravity to support this. These are the features of rock balancing art. Besides this, there are various kinds of balance art. The other day, I saw a video on a site of THE GOOD MEN PROJECT (Nov/18/2015) that a man is making balance art by using various items. Such as a wood like Figure 5 of below, a motorcycle and a computer. Every object has a center of gravity. But, he can find them all.
Figure 5 : Some balance art
I want to challenge such things. In the tennis ball I challenged in this time, the lower side is not stable because the ball is round. However, I think that it's easy to pile up some stones than tennis balls because the lower side of a stone is stabilized depending on the shape. As might be expected, a computer, a motorcycle and wood are near impossible for me now. So, I would like to try to do by using the rocks and stones as my hobbies.
Conclusion
Here I will talk about the summary that I have talked about so far. First of all, I decided to try to pile up three tennis balls. I was able to succeed in this challenge by examining a lot of balance art and interviewing my tennis-rerated friends, and practicing every day. Furthermore, I found that there are various balance arts in doing this challenge. So, I think that I want to pile up various items like stones and rocks as well as balls. Eventually, I got a new hobby through trying to do this challenge.
References
THE GOOD MEN PROJECT. (Nov/18/2015). Seoul Man Finds His Center: Outrageous Acts of Science, Retrieved December 17, 2016, from https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/seoul-man- finds-his-center-outrageous-acts-of-science-wcz/
REUTERS Video. (Sep/8/2011). Rock balancing is both art and advocacy for Filipino environmentalists, Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/09/08/rock-balancing-
is-both-art-and-advocacy?videoId=221358591
GRAVITY GLUE. (2016). ABOUT, Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://gravityglue.com/about/
From Seeds to Vegetables
To grow vegetables
Keisuke IKEMORI [2713160007-6]
Department of Bioinformatics,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MI– Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
My challenge is to grow vegetables from seeds. I did not know that vegetables could be grown from seeds in winter in one month to two months. There are two reasons for choosing this topic. The first one is my grandfather liked growing vegetables and I was interested from a long time ago. The second one is I do not like vegetables and I want to overcome this dislike by eating vegetables that I grew myself. My challenge project's goal is to harvest my vegetables and I eat them. In this paragraph I explain how I choose the seeds, what I did to grow vegetables, the results, and how I felt all about my challenge.
1. Choose vegetable seeds
In this chapter I explain how I choose vegetable seeds. I did not know about vegetable seeds. So I interviewed clerks on two points. First one is beginners can grow. Second one is being grown even in winter in one month to two months. According to the result of the interview I decided to grow five types of vegetables in the エラー! 参照元 見つ りません。. These were white radish, red radish, komatsuna, radish sprout, and coriander.
Figure 1 Picture of the choosed seeds
2. My Challenge method
In this chapter I explain what I did to grow vegetables. I grew vegetables based on literature of Royal Horticulture Society and Gardening Tips and Advice. This literature contained how to grow vegetables for each. At first I explain how to grow radish sprouts. Radish sprouts can grow in the house. I prepared a container of a suitable size. The foundation is paper that can absorb water like kitchen paper. Next equally arrange the seeds on the foundation. Finally include an appropriate amount of water on the foundation. This is the end of preparation for grow radish sprouts, which is shown in this preparation is Figure 2. I put a newspaper over it in the shade because it should not hit the light until it buds. When buds emerge, I move them to a sunny place and include water so that the foundation would not dry out. Figure 3 is the state after four days since I started growing. Bud budding occurred. Figure 4 is the state after ten days growth little by little. Figure 5 is the state after seventeen days have passed since. Harvested because it was grown to a sufficient size.
Figure 2 Picture of the arranged seeds
Figure 3 Picture of the growth after four days
Figure 4 Picture of the growth after ten days
Figure 5 Picture of the growth after seventeen days
Next I explain what I did to grow radish, komatsuna, and coriander. These are vegetables grown outside. So I decide to grow them in the garden. The soil in the garden was not suitable for growing vegetables. So I added fertilizer to the soil. I divided each vegetables, arranged the seeds equally on the soil and covered it with soil to such an extent that seeds were hidden. The state that finishes this preparation is Figure 6. From here it is important to remember to give water. So I gave water every morning except for rainy days. Particularly good growth of komatsuna. So I highlighted the growth of komatsuna. Figure 7 is the state after nine days. Budding occurred.
Figure 8 is the state after one month growth little by little. Figure 9 is the state after two month have passed since. Harvested because it was grown to a sufficient size.
Figure 6 Picture of the finished preparation state
Figure 7 Picture of the growth after nine days
Figure 8 Picture of the growth after one month
Figure 9 Picture of the growth after two months
3. My challenge result
In this chapter I explain my challenge result. Radish sprout grew well. It was relatively easy to grow radish sprout. It can be harvested in two weeks to three weeks. Figure 10 is salad I
made. Radish sprout that I grew is on tomatoes. My radish sprout was slightly bitter and delicious.
Figure 11 is white and red radish. As you can see, it was too small to eat. I think growth was delayed due to the cold. I grew the radish for two months. It might be two months is not enough. Figure 12 is boiled komatsuna. The leaves were small, but the taste was as good as the komatsuna sold at the store. Figure 13 is coriander. I ate coriander for the first time. It was a very strange taste for me. I felt it was a taste likes and dislikes.
Figure 10 Picture of radish sprout salad
Figure 11 Picture of white and red radish
Figure 12 Picture of boiled komatsuna
Figure 13 Picture of coriander
Conclusion
In this chapter I explain how I felt all about my challenge. I could not grow all the vegetables well, but I was able to learn the joy of growing vegetables. I learned the difficulties of growing vegetables. Until now I disliked vegetables but I could like them a bit through this challenge project. This time I challenged growing vegetables in winter, so there were few kinds of vegetables that could be grown. Next time I want to grow vegetables in the summer by taking advantage of this improvement point.
References
Three reasons to grow vegetables (2017) Retrieved January 5, 2017, from http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/reasons-to-grow-your-own-vegetables
Royal Horticultural Society. (2016) Grow your own, Retrieved January 6, 2017, from https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-
own/vegetables?sortReverse=false&sort=_score&facets=9;veg&facets=0;gyo
Vegetables (2016) Gardening Tips and Advice, Retrieved January 8, 2017, from https://www.lovethegarden.com/plant-category/vegetables
Wait Until I Wake Up
Find the best alarm sound to wake everyone up
Shoichiro KIDA [2713160019-0]
Department of Bioinformatics,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MI – Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
In human history, there is the worst enemy for everyone that has distressed humans for a long time. This enemy prevented many people to meet lovers, or to attend an important meeting many times. The name of this enemy is “oversleeping”. It is usually caused by the lack of sleep. To resist sleepiness, an alarm clock was developed.
The name of the first alarm clock in the world used one of a kind of clock “clepsydra”. Figure 1 shows clepsydra. It uses the flows of water. The principle is like an hourglass. And Plato, is an ancient Greek philosopher, developed the first alarm clock in 500 BC from the theory by Hellemans, Alexander (2004).
Figure 1 The First Alarm Clock in the World “Clepsydra”
The familiar alarm clock for us was developed in the 19th century in Japan. Figure 2 shows the first mechanical alarm clock. According to Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology, Japanese company Seiko developed it.
Figure 2 The First Alarm Clock in Japan
After that, an alarm clock was developed. And now, many people usually use an alarm to
wake up in the morning. Especially using smartphones are popular. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan (2016), the rate of spread of smartphone reached to 72.0 % in 2015. Now, many people set alarm on smartphone. People must have overcome oversleeping.
However, there are some people who feel it is difficult to wake up in the morning in spite of setting their alarm. They say “I can’t wake up whatever sound for alarm sound”, In this paper, I state the reason why they cannot wake up and the effect of changing alarm sound.
In the first chapter, I will state my challenge. In the second chapter, I will state the way of doing my challenge. In the third chapter, I will state the result of my challenge. And finally, I will state my conclusion.
1. Current Situation and My Challenge
The reason we cannot wake up is because our brain and body are still sleeping. It is caused because the effect of alarm sound is not perfect. According to Ono, M (2004), the effect of alarm sound continues only 1 minute. Getting up in 1 minute is important. However, we cannot do it. It causes oversleeping and nervous feeling. So, I decided to solve this problem.
How do our brains get up? Of course, it relates to the sound of the alarm. The loudness of sound, the discomfort of sound, the easiness to notice as alarm relate to easiness to wake our brain up. This time, I focused the easiness to notice the alarm. It varies from sound to sound. There are many kind of sounds for alarm in our smartphones or alarm clock or alarm application. Studying the difference of sound, I can find the effect of sound.
So, my challenge is to find the best alarm sound to wake everyone up.
Then I write the way of my challenge. In the first, I set my alarm in testing sound. I change sound once a week for 8 weeks. In the second, I checked my physical condition before sleeping and after waking up and recorded it. And finally, I did an easy puzzle game and check whether my brain
woke up or not. On each stage, I evaluated the result and added a point.
There are many kinds of sounds. High pitch sound, low pitch sound, comfortable sound, or not comfortable sound. I did a questionnaire for 51 people and 23 people of them answered that they wanted alarm sounds be easy to notice as alarm sound. So, in many kind of sound, I can find the best kind of sound easy to notice as alarm.
2. The Result of my Challenge and Consideration
Table 1 shows the result of my challenge. The sound is evaluated in 5 stages. Then I chose the best sound and the second one, sound 3 and sound 5. These two sounds can be said to be the effective sound.
Table 1 The Score of 8 Sounds Sound
1
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4
Sound 5
Sound 6
Sound 7
Sound 8 Physical
condition
4 3 5 3 4 3 3 2
Puzzle 1 2 4 3 4 2 3 5
Entirety 2.5 2.5 4.5 3.0 4.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
I considered that these two are familiar to me. I used Sound 3 for alarm sound and I recorded Sound 5 in my room. So, it can be said that the sound familiar to us is good for alarm sound.
In addition, it can be said that feeling danger also relates to effectiveness of alarm sound. Sound 3 relates to the danger that oversleep may have for an appointment. And Sound 5 knocking on the door relates to the danger that the room may be invaded to the room.
So, it can be said that there are important points to choose alarm sounds, for example, be familiar or feeling of danger. However, they are different from person to person because it differs what feels familiar or feels danger.
Before doing this challenge, I thought that characteristics of the sound itself are related to the ease to notice the alarm sound. However, they did not relate so much in spite of its characteristics. I found that it is important to feel danger than to notice sounds.
Conclusion
Then I found my result of my challenge. My challenge failed because my challenge was
“to find the best alarm sound for everyone to wake up”. One of the biggest reason was that I did not think that there is no relationship between the pitch of sound and ease to wake up. I could find one of the reasons for ease to wake up. However, I think there are other kind of sounds easy to notice and wake our brain up. So, in the next time, I will try the different kind of sound. I found a way to find the best alarm sound for an individual. It relates to feeling to be familiar and feeling of danger. Of course, their effect must decrease with each use. And there may be a sound that everyone feel it familiar and danger. So, I will never give up doing my challenge until I find the best alarm sound for everyone someday.
What I thought in my challenge is to compare with many results is very difficult for me to find the best one. However, it can be said that there is certain the best sound for alarm to wake everyone up. I want to describe my opinion someday but this time, my challenge project for P2 failed.
References
Hellemans, Alexander; Bunch, Bryan H. (2004). The History of Science and Technology: A Browser's Guide to the Great Discoveries, Inventions, and the People Who Made Them, From the Dawn of Time to Today. Boston: en:Houghton Mifflin. pp. p. 65.
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2016). Information and communication white paper fiscal
2016, retrieved November 29, 2016, from
http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/h28/html/nc252110.html
Ono, M. (2004). Mezamashi dokei shigeki ni yoru shinkekkannkei hannnou{Cardiovascular response by Stimulation of alarm}, J-STAGE electro-cardiogram Vol. 24 (2004) No. 3 P 143-148 http://doi.org/10.5105/jse.24.143
Make One from Zero
Creation of the original game with Scratch
Tatsuya KAGEYAMA [2713160015-7]
Department of Bioinformatics,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MI– Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
In the world, a lot of people are playing the game. For example, "League of Legends" is a popular online game in the world. According to Sports Graphic Number Web (2014), in 2014, the population of this game is about 70 million people in the world. And according to World Baseball Softball Confederation (2011), the population of baseball players is about 35 million people in the world. In the world, the population of this game is more than the population of baseball players. So, you can realize that a lot of people playing League of Legends, and there are many people who know how to play games, but there are few people who know how to create games.
So, in this challenge project, I decided to try to make my original game. I tried to make a game with Scratch. That is why my challenge is to make a game with Scratch.
Scratch is a project of Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge. Figure 1 is the website of Scratch.
Figure 1 website of Scratch
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations. And, you can share your creations with other people in the online community.
My first topic is the result of my questionnaire. This part, I introduce the result of my questionnaire. The second topic is the result of my interview. This part, I introduce the result of my interview. The final topic is the result of my challenge. This part, I introduce what I did in this challenge project and the result of this.
1. The result of my questionnaire
I asked four questions about the game.
71 people answered this questionnaire. We had 37 male and 34 female respondents.
The first question is "Have you ever played the game before?" Figure 2 is the result of this question. All of the people answered yes.
Figure 2 "Have you ever played the game before?"
The second question is "What device do you use when you play the games?" Figure 3 is the result of this question.
Most people answered using smart phone.
Figure 3 "What device do you use when you play the games?"
According to the result of this question most people use smart phone, so they play games on their smart phone.
The third question is "Have you ever made a game before?"
Figure 4 is the result of this question. A few people answered they had made a game before.
Figure 4 "Have you ever made a game before?"
Final question is "Do you know Scratch?" Figure 5 is the result of this question. Only one- eighth of all the respondents answered they know Scratch.
Figure 5 "Do you know Scratch?"
2. The result of my interview and introduce my schedule
I interviewed 10 university students. I received many answers from then and I would like to introduce what I found interesting.
One interviewee’s name is Takuya. Takuya is my friend. He is twenty, and he likes game so much. In addition, he knows Scratch, and he has made a game before. So, I asked him if he could tell me the method to make a game well. And he said that I should imitate good points of other games.
So, at first I decided to try to imitate good game of others.
Next, I introduce my schedule. The goal of my challenge project is to make a game. At first, from October 27 to November 9, I tried to get experience of game of Scratch. So, I played game
in Scratch. From November 10 to 17, I tried to imitate others good game. From November 18 to 22, I tried to make an idea. So, I thought what kind of game to make. From November 23 to December 4, I tried to make a game.
3. The result of my challenge.
In this challenge, I could make a game. I could not make it as planned, but managed to make a game. the name of this game is Run Away.
Figure 6 is the picture of this game title.
Figure 6 picture of this game title
I cited this game sound from DOVA-SYNDROME. DOVA-SYNDROME is free background music download website.
In this game, you are a human and you run away from zombies. How to start this game is push the "start" key. Because zombie pursue you, you run away. You use the arrow key. If you press arrow key, the human in this game will move in that direction. If you get caught by a zombie, your score will be zero.
Also, if your score exceeds the high score, your score will be high score and displayed above. Figure 7 and Figure 8 is part of this game’s components.
Figure 7 the part of this games components
Figure 8 the part of this games components
If you would like to play this game, search for Scratch on the internet and search 06_kage and this game will come out. It is difficult, but it will be easy if you find the good way.
Conclusion
In this challenge project, I did interview, questionnaire, and make a game with Scratch. And I got an experience of making a game.
I could learn how to make a game, and how difficult it is to make a game. And In the world, many people including younger children than me make a game, and I realized that my IT skill is behind the times. So, after this I want to get a skill of IT. Now that the world is an information society, it will be useful to learn to IT skills in the future.
References
Editorial department of Number Web. (2014). Sports Graphic Number Web, Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/821923
International Olympic Committee. (2011). WORLD BASEBALL SOFTBALL CONFEDERATION,
Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.wbsc.org/
MIT Scratch Team. (n.d.). Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share, Retrieved December 22, 2016, from https://scratch.mit.edu/
DOVA-SYNDROME. (2008). CHARGE & ROYALTY FREE BGM DOVA-SYNDROME, Retrieved January 14, 2017, from http://dova-s.jp/
Enrich Your Life by Using Spices
Yuriko FUKUDA [2013160055-6]
Department of Bioinformatics,
College of Life Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
Class MK – Final Paper
Project English 1 (P2)
Fall, 2016
Introduction
Spices are now indispensable to a dining table. We can use it for all food. For
example, we need it for meat, fish, soup, and so on. It is a useful thing and we take it for granted
to use it every day. In the P1 class, I made a presentation about spices. So, in this time, I would
like to develop a better understanding of it. Especially, I would like to focus on its nutritional
benefits.1. Image about Spice
As I mentioned, we use spices for all food and every day. So, I would like to know
what image people have about spices. To know it, I prepared some questions about Spice and
asked people to answered them via the Internet. I used Google Form to make the questionnaire.
This time, 57 people (33 men and 24 women) helped me to do it. I made five questions on it.
First question is “Do you like spices?” Many people answered they like Spice. (Figure 1)
Second question is “What kind of Spice do you like? Hot, sweet, good-smelling, or good-color?”
I thought most of people like hot spice, but it was not true. To my surprise, 52% people
answered they like spice which has a good smell. (Figure 2) Third question is “Speaking of
food which uses spices, what do you come up with?” As I had expected, many people answered
it is Curry. But others answered many kinds of food. (Figure 3) Forth question is “What spices
do you want to use?” People answered many kinds of spices. (Figure 4) Fifth question is “What
Spice do you have in your house?” pepper, ginger, red pepper, wasabi, curry powder, basil,
mustard, yuzu pepper, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, cinnamon, parsley, nutmeg, Japanese
pepper, herb, cardamom, cumin, habanero, laurier, Chinese chili sauce, saffron, sage… people
answered a lot of kinds of spices like this. (Figure 5) By taking the questionnaire, I noticed that
many people know many spices and use a lot.
Figure 1: “Do you like spices?”
Figure 2: “What kinds of spices do you like? Hot, sweet, good-smell, or good-coloring?”
Figure 3: “Speaking of food which uses spices, what do you come up with?”
Figure 4: “What spices do you want to try to use it?”
Figure 5: “What spices do you have in your house?”
2. Utility and Nutritional Benefits
Focusing on the utility and nutritional benefits, I found fantastic powers of spices.
For example, garlics are famous for its utility of increasing our stamina, but its benefit is not
only one. The key is the smell. The smell is composed by
allicin. Antibacterial effect, decreasing blood pressure, increasing metabolism… these are all benefits of garlics. Spice generally has three efficient utilities. First is increasing appetite. Spice gives a good flavor to cooking, and increases the flavor, appetizing. Second is bactericidal effect. Spice helps to protect food from the bacteria which causes food to spoil. Third is coloring food. Spices bond to the cell of the meat and fish, which is contained in food and color the food. Curry containsall of spice’s three benefits. Cumin, one of components of curry, decomposes gas which is
accumulating in our stomach and increases our appetite. It also has the ability of bactericidal
effect. What is more, it prevents cancer. Turmeric which is contained in curry can color food.
In this way, spices give us good tastes and healthy bodies. (Table 1)Table 1 Spice Utility and Nutritional Benefits
Giving a scent, Deodorization cinnamon, thyme, vanilla, sage, nutmeg,
pepper, clove, rosemary, Laurie, cumin
Giving a hot taste red pepper, pepper, wasabi, ginger
Coloring turmeric, saffron, paprika
・ Increasing appetite, Helping digestion and
absorption, Promoting sweating, Keeping
strong stomach
・ Bactericidal effect, Corrosion prevention,
Antioxidation
pepper, ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg,
turmeric, coriander, fennel, garlic, cumin
Table1; https://housefoods.jp/activity/shokuiku/taiken/spice-work/classification2.html
Conclusion
People know many kinds of spices, and use a lot. But few people know the utility
and use it correctly. So, we should focus on spices more. Spices enrich your life.
References
House Foods. School visit. Spice Utility. Retrieved from
https://housefoods.jp/activity/shokuiku/taiken/spice-world/history.html Mitsuo Takemasa, the Science of Spice (2015)
Nutritional Benefits of Spices - And Recipes to Make Your Own Spice Mixes. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py_XAuqZPW0
Effect of Classical Music
Let’s train the brain
Misaki SHIRAKAWA [2811160054-8]
Department of Pharmacy
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Ritsumeikan University
CLASS YC
Project Based English 2
2016
Introduction
I like classical music, so I often listen to it. If some people are talking about classical music, I cannot help being silent. But a lot of my friends, these days, tend to listen to the music of popular singers and say that they went to the live performance. When I talk about the topic of classical music, I feel they pay no attention to me. So, I guess that most of them are not familiar with classical music. But classical music has many good points. I have heard that we can concentrate on study by listening to classical music. I think university students need to listen to classical music if it is true. Therefore, the purpose of this research is reconfirm of good points and make classical music more popular than before. To solve this topic, I will introduce the charm of classical music by using my research.
1. Results of questionnaires
I conducted a questionnaire on classical music. The respondents were 70 people. Figure 1 and 2 are shown below. Figure 1 is the result of the first question. I asked them “Have you ever been a member of the wind ensemble club or orchestra club?”. About two-thirds of respondents answered “No”. Figure 2 is the result of the second question. I asked them “Do you often listen to classical music?”,
more than half of respondents answered “Yes”. I was surprised at this result because there were a lot of people who listen to classical music than I expected. However, 42.9% respondents do not listen to them.
Figure 1 The first question
Figure 2 The second question
Lastly, I asked “What do you think about classical music?”. The result is shown in Figure 3 below. Respondents who had good impression was 51.4%, who have bad impression was 31.3%. Especially, I was attracted to “sleepy” because it occupied a high percentage.
Figure 3 The last question
I interviewed some people “What classical music do you know?” A lot of music was known, and the most familiar music is “Unmei”, “Beto7” and “Daiku”. Actually, the real names were
“Symphony 5”, “Symphony 7” and “Symphony 9”. These were written by Beethoven, so I guess the most familiar person is Beethoven from my questionnaires. However, the world of the classical music is so wide, and he is only one part.
2. Relation between music and brain
Classical music stimulates the right brain, and it does not make the left brain work. According to Mr. Kurotani, there are a broca’s area in the left brain, so the left brain plays a role of linguistic understanding, utterance, calculation, logical and analyzing thought. On the other hand, the right brain plays a role of the field of the art because of intuitive and overall¹. As a result, we always use only the left brain and when we are tired, we should stimulate the right brain by listening to music and the left brain takes a break. But any music may not be suitable. According to Bihada-Mania, If we listen to music with lyrics, the left brain reacts. That’s why classical music is much suitable. Furthermore, classical music causes alpha waves like natural sounds, for example twitter of little birds, flow of river, wave in the sea and so on². According to Quality Life Express, an alpha wave is one of the brain waves. The range is from 8 hertz to 14 hertz. We can relax by this wave. Table 1 is shown below. That is the kind of brain waves and effects³.
Table 1 The feature of the brain waves
https://www.qle.co.jp/brawav.htm wa ve s 2 β ~ γ 0 Hz R e co g n itio n ,F o re ca st wa ve s 1 4 ~ 3 δ Hz P re ca u tio n ,C o n ce n tra tio n wa ve s δ ~ 1 4 Hz R e la xa tio n ,C re a tio n θwa ve s 4 ~ δ Hz S u b co n scio u sly,M e m o ry
wa ve s 0 .α ~ 4 Hz U n co n scio u s
3. Let’s study with classical music
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce some ways of study with classical music. There are good influences if we study listening to classical music. The music which is suitable for a situation is different from other music. Mr. Nakashima stated about four situations. First topic is about how to excite the purpose. This way is different between men and women. Man’s motive power is pleasure and they can correspond to broad, so the best suitable music is symphony. On the other hand, a woman’s motive power is stability and confidence. It is important for them to be pile up the sympathy, so the music abundant in emotion is good. Second topic is memorization. The memorization efficiency rises by more than one movement and remembering according to the melody. Third topic is concentration. If you want to make concentration continue, you should listen to the music of the fixed tempo and with a little intonation. Last topic is logical thinking. Auditory stimulation tends to reach the brain directly. If we spend a lot of times to listen to classical music and remember the melody, we can enhance the logical thinking skill⁴. I want to recommend some classical music which is suitable for these situations. About the first topic, the music which I recommend to man is “Shostakovich’s Symphonie 5”, and to woman’s is “The last letter from Murdoch”. It has story of Titanic. In the second topic, I recommend “Radetzky March”. The third topic’s suitable music is March of Sousa. I think it is good to memorize with walking around your room. The last is “Tchaikovsky’s symphony 4” and a lot of Tchaikovsky’s music. His music has magnificence, so I recommend his music.
Conclusion
I could know the good influence of classical music. If classical music has a good influence for study, we should use it more. But it may be different from person to person, so some people may not believe about this thing. I want you to try to do it while you are studying. And about some people who answered “sleepy” in my questionnaire, I wanted them to be interested in classical music first, but I found that listening to classical music makes people relax, so I hope that they use classical music to
have a good sleep and rest. However you use it, if classical music has a good influence on people, that is the best. I’ m glad if I could link classical music to people.
References
1. Kurotani, T. (2002). E de wakaru nou no hataraki [The workings of the brain I know with pictures].Tokyo: Koudan sha. 152.
2. Bihada-Mania. (n.d.). The relaxation effect of the classical music is wonderful, Retrieved December 17, 2016, from http://bihada-mania.jp/blog/4401
3. QLE.co.jp. (2016). Brain waves, Retrieved December 19, 2016, from https://www.qle.co.jp/brawav.htm 4. Town work magazine. (2015). Is it effective in a concentration rise and the memorization power improvement? The classical music recommended to study, Retrieved December 17, 2016, from https://townwork.net/magazine/life/18133/
The meaning of Ryugaku.
Why should we go abroad for study?
Yutaro YAMAMOTO [28111601099]
Department of Pharmacy,
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Ritsumeikan University
YF- Final Paper
Project English 2 (P2)
Fall 2016
Introduction
In this essay, I would like to introduce what is the meaning of Ryugaku. Ryugaku means a short period of studying abroad in this paper. When I stayed in Vancouver, I met a lot of people who came from all over the world like Morocco, Colombia, Germany, Thai and so on. I was surprised by the multiculturalism in Vancouver. I thought there was no multiculturalism like this in Japan. However, Japan will become a multicultural society in the future. In 2020, the Olympic games will be held in Tokyo. The government expects 40,000,000 foreign tourists will come to Japan. Japan will accept a lot of foreigners and, it will become multicultural. In the future, we must survive the multicultural and international environment in Japan. You may not know how to survive these circumstances. In my opinion, the experience of Ryugaku helps us to survive, so the best way to do it is by Ryugaku. In this essay, I would like you to introduce why we should have Ryugaku for our future.
1. The multicultural society
First, I would like to mention Japan is becoming a multicultural society. It means that different types of cultures are introduced to Japan. There are two good examples. The first one is that many foreign companies like Nissan, Amazon, Axa-direct support Japanese society. Even though their headquarters are in foreign countries, they operate their business in Japan. Surprisingly, SEIYU which is the famous supermarket here is a foreign company. The Walmart which is the famous American supermarket bought out SEIYU. Foreign companies use English as a common language in Japan. They introduce their cultures in English into Japanese society. The second one is that Japan may accept a lot of iismmigrants. The population is aging and, the birthrate is declining extremely rapidly. It is like a roller coaster. Because of this, Japanese work face is declining. It is the big problem for our society because we cannot maintain our industries. Some people believe that to accept a lot of immigrants is
the better way to solve it. If we accept them, they will introduce different cultures into Japanese society. In this way, Japan is becoming a multicultural society.
2. Two barriers for communication
There are two barriers for communication when we communicate with foreigners. Each person has different opinions toward introducing different cultures. Whether we accept different cultures or not, we must communicate with foreigners. The first barrier is the language barrier. If we cannot speak a foreign language, especially English, we cannot communicate with foreigners. Some Japanese companies try to break this barrier. Rakuten, SoftBank, Takeda pharmaceutical company introduced English as the common language. It is a good way to break the barrier. If we want to improve our English skills, we just go to English cram schools like COCO zyuku. In these kinds of schools, native speakers teach us how to pronounce English words and so on. We can break the language barrier in Japan. It is not the huge barrier for us. The second barrier is the cultural barrier. It causes a lot of problems in the world. Recently, Donald Trump won the election. According to the news article titled
“Donald Trump’s victory followed by wave of hate crime attacks against minorities across Us led by his supporters” in INDEPENDENT (2016, November 11), after his shocking victory, hate crimes happened against minorities like Muslims, Hispanic, Americans, and black people. Numerous attacks happened including death threats and physical assaults. This news suggests that his discriminatory remarks toward minorities reminded people’s sense of discrimination, and his victory caused these hate crimes. This is the one of the examples of the cultural barrier. In fact, there is a similar situation in Japan. It is hate speech. Hate speech is the attack toward minority like Koreans by remarks or acts. Recently, it has spread in Japan more and more. According to the news article titled “U.N. panel urges Japan to regulate hate speech by law” in The Japan Times (2014,August 30), the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Japanese government to regulate the hate speech by law. Also, the U.N. Human rights Committee recommended the same thing in July. This news suggests that the U.N. is worried about the Japanese situation of hate speech. As a result, the Japanese Diet passed Japan’s first ever anti-hate speech low in 2016. This is the one of the examples of the cultural barrier too. These hate crimes and speech are based on discrimination. People who patriciate in these campaigns just discriminate minorities. They do not try to understand cultural differences. In this way, there is the cultural barrier, and a lot of serious problems are caused by this. It is much bigger than the language barrier.
3.The best way to break the cultural barrier.
The best way to break the cultural barrier is Ryugaku because we can learn their cultures directly. I interviewed Ms. Tae Shimizu, who is one of my friends about her experiences in Vancouver.
I met her in my language school. Before visiting Vancouver, she was afraid of Muslim because of Islamic State which causes a lot of terror attacks. When she entered our language school, her buddy was Abdullah who came from Saudi Arabia. At first, she was worried about whether or not she could get along with him. However, she understood that he was very kind. He helped Tae to improve her English skills. Finally, her bias was removed, and she became friends with him. Also, she learned halal food which is a important part of Muslim culture. The definition of halal food from the Internet site “Halal Choices” is that any food that is allowed to be eaten according to Islamic Sharia low which is the religious low of Islam. It means that Muslim can eat only halal food because they must keep Islamic Sharia low. They cannot eat non-halal food like pork. This culture is unfamiliar for most of Japanese. However, she understood one of their cultures in life in Vancouver. From these experiences, she removed the bias toward Muslim. She realized that Muslim is the same human being. Without Ryugaku, she could haven’t understood this fact. She could break the cultural barrier by Ryugaku.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have discussed the meaning of Ryugaku. We can experience about real cultural things in Ryugaku. We can know their cultures and cultural differences deeply. We cannot do the same things in Japan. The experiences will help us to break the cultural barriers like Tae. If we break it, we can communicate with foreign people. This skill will be needed to survive multicultural society. That’s why Ryugaku is the best way to survive it. This is the meaning of Ryugaku. (1113 words)
References
・INDEPENDENT. (2016, November 11). Donald Trump’s victory followed by wave of hate crime attacks against minorities across US-led by his spotters. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-president- supporters-attack-muslims-hijab-hispanics-lgbt-hate-crime-wave-us-election-a7410166.html
・Halal Choices.(n.d.) What is Halal?, Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.halalchoices.com.au/
・The Japan Times. (2014, August 30). U.N.panel urges Japan to regulate hate speech by law. Retrieved November 29,2016, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/30/national/social- issues/u-n-panel-urges-japan-to-regulate-hate-speech-by-law/
