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Three posts from this page will be included in my final assignments as informal assignments.
Found poetry is a type of poetry in which words are picked from a source/sources. There are four forms of found poetry; erasure, free-form excerpting and remixing, centro, and cut-up. And I used erasure to compose my found poetries from my latest Hiraeth Assignment draft. Erasure is a method that the writer select a source and erase most of the text and leave the certain words/phrases that make a poetry.
Poem 1 [Tenugui] Kendo club, my best friends We have become stronger together We have spent a lot of time “Thank you so much I will never forget the days here.” “This is a present for you.” She gave me tenugui filled with their message “Thank you guys.” Stains on the cloth with tears I knew it would travel with me to America Poem 2 [Dream] My dream had been to study abroad I decided to come to the United States 7000 miles away from my country. Until August, I joined the kendo club Every day in the practice The days were so fun that my decision wavered Going to America meant not only not being able to meet them every day but also not being able to be their teammate anymore “I wish I could be here longer, but this has been my dream since I was little.” I left the dojo. There was a broad sky with various shapes of clouds.
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Three and a half months have passed since I came to America. For the first few weeks, I was full of dream and energy. Big houses, school buses, squirrels, the election flags… Everything I saw was new and interesting. Also, classes were exciting. Most people are awake. Many students ask questions or leave comments. The lecture styles are much different from the ones in Japan. The contents itself are interesting, too. I used to study more than eight hours a day, but enjoyed it. However, now I’m not as enthusiastic as I was. I am homesick. I miss Japan. My home. I like that the people here are friendly and even the people I don’t know say “hi” or “how are you doing?” to me. I can learn the things that I have wanted to learn here better than in Japan. There are a variety of kinds of people so that I can learn many other perspectives. There are a lot of things I like about this country, but I miss my country badly. One of the biggest part of the reason is obviously language. I can’t understand what people are saying. I can’t fully express what I want to say. I can’t have a conversation in a comfortable tempo. In addition to those, I can’t understand the people’s point of laughing. I miss the world that I can fully communicate my thoughts with people with a shared sense in a comfortable rhythm. Another big reason is that my family and friends are getting used to the life without me while I am not used to the new life yet. Every time I see the picture of the friends that I was close, I feel lonely. I know I can’t be like this. I am allowed to pursue my dream so I have to appreciate it. But I feel like I am getting lost. I am losing my goal.
,,, I hope to laugh when I read this post a year later. This Thursday, I experienced my first Thanksgiving Day. I went to my host family’s friend’s house and had dinner with them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures, but I would like to write about this interesting experience.
At the table, there were a lot of food; turkey, green beans casserole, mashed potatoes, and so on. I was interested in a piece of butter in the shape of chicken (or maybe turkey?). Before we started eating, people hold the hands each other and started saying something. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but my host mother told me it was words of Judaism and Christianity. (There were Jewish and Christians so they did for both.) It is very interesting for me that religion is a big and important aspect for the people in this country. Everyone started eating, and I tried the turkey first. It was the first time for me to eat turkey since turkey is not common in Japan. I didn’t dislike it, but I preferred chicken to turkey. After eating them, the people in the house brought some deserts from kitchen. It was interesting that they had three kinds of pies and a cake. I liked the pecan pie, which I ate for the first time. During the time they eat and after eating, they all talk a lot and seemed like they were having a great time with the important people. There were a lot of laugh. I like the tradition that most people go back to their home and spend time with their family. Even if you just do nothing and sleep in the house, or use the holiday to travel to somewhere, I think it is good that you can get a chance to go back to your home and spend time with the people you love. I will continue the topic that I wrote on the last post.
I used to think kendo is a kind of sports. I just wanted to be stronger and win at the tournaments. Many children are like that. They just enjoy it as a sport. However, they learn the spirit as they grow up, sometimes unconsciously though. And the mysterious and interesting thing is that anyone cannot be stronger until they learn the spirit. You can see them in the rules or manners in kendo. For example, you must bow each other before a practice or a match starts and after it ends. You mustn’t hit the opponent from his/her behind. You mustn’t express your joy or depression to others. These came from samurai spirit of respecting. Samurai would show their respect to the opponent, who are going to kill them. And the audience must be silent. That is because they respect the ones who play the role in the arts at that time. Also, respect to the people who are older than you, including your teacher, is really important. You must use honorific expressions to the people who is older than you even one year, and you mustn’t call them without Mr. or Ms. Although I wrote that the respect to older people is important, the respect to younger people is important as well. No matter if they are older or younger, stronger or weaker, you can always learn from them, so you must respect them. In addition to the respect to people, we have to respect objects. For example, we bow when we get into and get off from the place where we practice. And we clean up the place all by ourselves. These show the respect to the place. Kendo, is a modern Japanese material art, which descended from swordsmanship and uses bamboo swords and protective armor. (Wikipedia)
Kendo is not a sport. It’s a way of “developing”. Through kendo, we are trying to be a better person. Yes, we fight each other. There are tournaments. However, they are not all about kendo. The spirit of samurai is still alive. Actually this spirit is not only for samurai. It is a traditional beautiful Japanese spirit, which is being lost gradually. This spirit is based on the seven concepts; “仁(jin)”, “義(gi)”, ”礼(rei)”, “智(chi)”, “信(shin)”, “忠(chu)”, “誠(makoto)”. “仁” (literary means consideration to others) means that you have to be merciful to others. “義” (literary means the right way) means that you have to follow your justice, mustn’t cheat on anything. “礼” (literary means the manner) means that you have to show your respect to others by right behavior. “智” (literary means wisdom) means you have to have the knowledge to achieve your goal. “信” (literary means to believe) means that you have to have the strength to believe others. “忠” (literary means dedication) means that you have to be loyal. “誠” (literary means true) things means that you have to you have to be sincere. I will post the last half on another blog post. Donald Trump became the new president of the United States. This election was probably one of the most heated-up elections in these few decades. A lot of people are concerned about the election and voted. And I have hated to talk about this election because everyone heats up too much and I feel uncomfortable. Because I am not a citizen, I didn't have to choose and I didn't support both of them, but I didn’t expect that Trump would win the election because more people around me supported Clinton. However, the result is, even though it was very competitive, Donald Trump won and became a president. Yes, I was surprised when I learned that he had won the election. I was even a little confused since he has said something discriminatory about non-American people including Japanese, and as an international student in America, I thought I might be kicked out or something disadvantageous might happen. However, I calmed down as I saw people protesting against him. My response to this result is “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls, and others build windmills,” and I would rather build windmills.
As I write above, I don’t like him, and I don’t think he is trustable. Thus, I won’t say they shouldn’t protest. However, I think some of the people who is protesting against him are very rude and that is as bad as being “racists.” That made me think this protesting generates nothing. I know sometimes protesting is important to change the world, but I think it isn’t the time. We don’t know if Trump is really a bad president or a good. We haven’t see him as a president yet. Thus I think we have to see at first. The good thing is he is not going to get money of working as a president. What this mean is that he became a president because he wanted to change this country, the world. This is to be praised. Also, it was good that the result was very close. Trump has said a lot of extreme things such as kicking out Muslims, but he can’t easily do them because if he did, he would be against the half of the citizens. Even him cannot ignore them. America, and the world, is going to change a lot. It might be in a good way or a bad way. However, it’s up to the people. How people “use” Donald Trump. This is democracy, so you can’t change the result. Let’s stop sticking with the results and think about the ways that make Trump a good president. For this three months, I have used my second language, English. I have studied it for long, but when it comes to using it in real situations, it is much more difficult to understand other people and to tell what I want to say. Thus, to improve my English skill, I have tried to think in English while I use it. For example, when I write in English, I use English to think about the topic, and when I read in English, I try to understand it without translating it into Japanese. While struggling with it, I noticed the relationship between language and culture.
The first thing I realized is that I feel or think in a little different way when I use English. For example, I am more confident when I use English than when I use Japanese. That might be because English is more direct when you tell something. The way you tell something in Japanese is more euphemistic. It might be able to be said that language have effect on your identity or characteristic. Also, I noticed another thing. People cannot understand a concept because there is no way to explain it in their language. On Hiraeth Assignment, I wrote about kendo, which is affected a lot by Japanese traditional cultures. When I wrote the drafts, I struggled with explaining the concepts that cannot be translated in English. There was no word that can explain it, so I tried to explain it in some sentences, but no one could understand it. Thinking it was because of my English skill, I asked my friend, who has an American mother and a Japanese father and can speak both English and Japanese well, for his help. However, he couldn’t explain it as well. Thus, I might be able to say people think differently because their language limits their perception. I used to think it was a one-way process that only culture affects language, and I still think culture forms language. Words emerge based on the users’ way of thinking or categorizing things. However, because of these realizations, I came to think it is like an interactive process, and language forms people’s way as well. I have written some drafts of the Hiraeth Assignment, but I am still working on it. I struggle with “showing” the story and how to put “longing” in the story. The Tuesday’s class about how we organize the essay, for example, using some symbols or conflict was a big help for me. And the Thursday’s presentation of the Hiraeth Assignment also worked for me. I could get feedbacks from the people who don’t know the scene and the topic at all. The thing I asked them was if I was showing enough or not yet.
I was not sure if people can imagine the scenes since it was about the thing which is not familiar with for most people, so I asked the group about it. The group members told that it was easy to imagine the scene. Thus, I decided to keep using some descriptions that I have used in the draft. Also they told me that I needed to express more “longing” and why I long the “home”. The draft I presented was the one I wrote before Tuesday’s class, so I knew that I didn’t have enough description about it. Then Mr. Mangini came and asked if we could tell what was our home, what was the longing, and why we could not return. Which helped me with think about how to express the longing. I tried to express my longing by using symbols and conflict. I miss my teammates in Japan and I cannot return because I am too far away now and also I am not their teammate anymore. And I am in the United States, where is this far from my home, because I chose to chase my dream, to learn about other cultures and perspectives. Thus I tried to symbolize Japan, my home, by dojo, the place we do kendo, and the world, my dream, by the broad sky. Also I tried to express the comfort and the pressure or the tension by taking off and putting on the shoes. I don’t if it works, so I look forward to get the feedback and revise it. Also, I am going to try multimodal project too by using some photos or the videos. * I revised this post on a new blog post, so please visit the post if you want!
For this three months, I have used my second language, English. I have been studied it for long, but when it comes to using it in the real life, it is much more difficult to understand other people and to tell what I want to say. To develop my English skill, I have tried to think in English while I am using it. For example, when I write in English, I use English to think about the topic, and when I read in English, I try to understand without translating it into Japanese. While struggling with it, I have noticed one thing. Language change how you think or feel. For example, I am more confident when I use English than when I use Japanese. That might be because English is more direct when you telling something. The way of telling something in Japanese is more euphemistic. I have noticed the difference, but I thought the difference between language is because of the difference of the characteristics or cultures of the people who use it. However, since I feel a little differently when I use different language, now I think because of the difference of the language, people’s characteristics or cultures differ. When I wrote the drafts of Hiraeth Assignment, I struggle with writing the concepts that any English words cannot explain. I thought I could explain it by making it into some sentences, but no one could understand. I thought it was because of my English skill, so I asked my friend who has American mother and Japanese father, and can speak both English and Japanese well, but he couldn’t explain it well. He told me that there was no way to explain it except letting them experience the concepts. Since I have spent all my childhood in Japan with Japanese language, the basis of my perspective is always based on Japanese culture. However, the friend of mine, who have experienced the both culture, American and Japanese, uses the perception that is based on the culture of the language he is using at the moment. Therefore, it might be able to be said that language have impact on your understanding of things, especially during the early days. 11/9/2016. Donald Trump was elected as the new president of the United States.
As a non-American, I enjoyed this election. I have heard many people’s opinion, and I did some research by myself as well. The election in this country is not only about America, but also about the world. Thus, the result of this election will have a big impact on the world. First of all, I don’t like the way people who don’t like Mr. Trump are protesting. Of course I won’t say they cannot protest, but they shouldn’t burn the flag or do something rude. They should be calm and make more smart action. This is democracy. They have to accept the result and look forward. I can understand why people are upset about the result. He is not responsible and reliable as a person before as a politician. (I think neither is Mrs. Clinton though.) However, now Mr. Trump was elected, so I want to think how America and the world would be better with “President Trump”. A good thing about this election is the vote was so close. Even though Mr. Trump won, since he cannot ignore the half of the citizen, he cannot really do the extreme things that he had said during the election, otherwise America would lose many of its citizen. One of the biggest fault of President Obama is the problem of Syria and ISIS. “If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.” He tried to solve the both problem and he couldn’t solve either of them. However, Mr. Trump is going to accept President Assad at first to collaborate with Russia and destroy ISIS. I think this could be effective because he is going to focus on one thing first. And it is his strengths that he has been a business man not a politician who is just glossing over. When it comes to the problem about immigrants, he says he is going to kick out those who have committed a crime first. I think it means he is going to give citizenship for those immigrants who is doing good. It is true that you shouldn’t accept illegal immigrants easily since there has been some terrible terrorism by them. Honestly I am worried about the future as well. However, I don’t think it would be better if Mrs. Clinton had been elected and this is the result of democracy. We, both Americans and people around the world, have to think how we can make it better with him. You cannot change anything if you keep looking back. You have to make new strategy. |
Katsuki Iio
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1997. Archives
December 2016
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