Reaction to Fisher

I have mainly two reactions to this text.

Firstly, I thought "Perception Of Self" is much easier to read than Barna or Mcdaniel's text. The examples which were shown in the text are familiar, such as "two-headed vase" one. It was very interesting because at first I can only see a black vase in the middle, and then I gradually started to see two white faces in the on the edge which made me not to see the vase anymore. I learned about the optical illusion in my psychology class, but I didn't know that these perceptions come from not only sensation of eyes but also from brain.(because we can only concentrate one meaning from the object we see, and this work is concerned with our experience as one of the conditions!)

Another reaction is that "Perception Of Self" is also perception. In other word, when we read this text we make ourselves understand it, and try to make it easier by ourselves. There should be many ways of this text's interpretation, which comes from each one's experience, way of selection, and evaluation. There is no right answer in the class discussion, because the writer only knows the intention of this text. Therefore, as I read  it, I thought the class discussion is not for finding the answer or truth, but finding the many-sided ways of interpretation thorough discussing and listening to other section mates' way of thinking.

These two are my reactions. Thank you for reading :)

Reaction to the Barna text

I agree with Barna's point that it is important to understand different culture. We are now living in global world, and have many chances to experience those differences. However, through the class discussion, my mind changed a little. I still think it is good opportunity to learn and accept different culture, but people must select only the cultural behavior or customs that will prosper in their culture. The most difficult part is the balance of keeping their culture’s identity and accepting it of other culture. Recently, the globalization has become increasing, so I think everyone should examine the way to keep their peculiar culture.

Barna’s text made me notice the types of obstacles in having relation with different culture’s people, but also made me think how I should deal with those difficulties individually.

Therefore, in my opinion, her text is good to read and very useful!

Reaction Writing/ The Giver

No true feelings in the world.

No stress in the world.

However

No choice in the world.

Do you want to live in this world?

At the time I was reading the back cover of the book, “The Giver” written by Lois Lowry, my answer was absolutely yes!!!!!!!!

I envied it because I was depressed about my bad score in the report card. I got tired of thinking about my future such as what job I want to get, or what I should do during university life. I thought, through reading this book, I could escape from the reality of my life.

This book’s world is completely opposite from ours in mainly two points.

Firstly, everything in people’s whole life is controlled and ruled by the community, for example the job you will take, or the children you will receive after you’re married. People in this world should obey the rules, and if they broke those rules, they will be punished.

Secondary, they don’t know the true feelings of fear or happiness because they don’t have memory of war or love, which happened before they were born. They are living in present time, not knowing the existence of the past time or the future time.

The community of this world made it like this system to keep the peace, and not to injure people by the painful feelings.

They are like robots in both good and bad sense of the word.

The main character in this book is Jonas, whose age is twelve, living in this controlled world. At the ceremony, he received the assignment called “The Receiver of Memory”. He will receive all the memories from The Giver. This was very honorable job because he could only held the past memory. Why this assignment was necessary? The reason is when people in the world claimed to change their rules, The Receiver of Memory needed to give final decision by using his wisdom of the past memories.

Through the training of this assignment, Jonas gradually felt painful and lonely. He started to think that all the people in his community should know the true feelings and the past memory. Therefore, he tried to change his world.

The interesting part of this book is the meaning of its title. I was wondering why the title is “The Giver” though Jonas’ assignment is “The Receiver of Memory”. At first I thought the title would be more appropriate if it was “The Receiver”. Although, through reading the whole book, I thought that Jonas successfully changed his world by becoming “The Giver of Memory” to all the people in his community.

As you read this book, you will notice that its ending is not clear. This is very interesting because we can imagine it in diverse ways.

As I read this book to the end, I thought even though our world is stressful, I want to be in this situation for my whole life. I sometimes envy Jonas’ world, but I think we can acquire the true happiness when we experienced the true sadness. Both negative and positive feelings are important for people.

Now, my answer to the question, do you want to live in this controlled world? , is no!

I hope this reaction writing helps you to know which part of  this book is interesting!Thank you:)

my summer vacation and now:)

It's first time to write in this blog:)hehehe
As all of my section mate know, I'm really bad at using computer. lol
Therefore I want to get used to my computer through this blog!

anyway, hello Mark, my name is Saki Endo. My nickname is sakiccho:)
now I want to write about my summer vacation and what I'm expecting  in the Autumn term.

First of all, my summer vacation was wonderful!!!!!! I went to Dublin,Ireland for SEA program. I enjoyed the life over there. At first, I was little bit nervous because it was first time for me to leave my house for a long time. Although, I have experienced many valuable things that cannot be experienced in Japan. I made many friends who were from Spain, China, Korea, Italy. I learned not only English, but also Spanish and Korean from them. In addition, Dublin members  from ICU were also great  because we spoke only English even though we are Japanese. I thought I was in wonderful enviornment with wonderful friends. Now I'm still making contact with friends who met in Ireand, and I promised them to go to their country as soon as possible:) (...so I have to make my money from part time job!)

In autumn term, I want to learn the way to improve my writing and reading skills efficiently. It takes too many time for me to finish up my home work, and in spring term, I was always thinking how I could finish my homework faster. I'm very afraid of many homoworks in ARW, but I'll try my best to improve my English skills and also improve myself. I'm expecting to enjoy my autumn term in ICU, living a full life with my study and club activities.

that's all:) thank you for reading:)