Originally uploaded by doc18.

2007 is the year of the fire pig. Fire is the element of passion, adventure, and restless energy. People born in the year of the pig are said to have honest, trustworthy, and straightforward characters. May this New Year inspire us to make bold, dynamic changes grounded in honesty and inner strength.

I’ve started by subscribing to an excellent Japanese language podcast called Nippon Voice Blog, which publishes bi-monthy segments on topics relevant to what’s happening culturally at the time. For example, I just finished listening to the latest one, Osechi Ryouri (traditional New Years food), which taught me vocabulary that I was able to put into immediate use in conversation with friends and family. In the process, I constructed a glossary for that podcast which I made available to other users for download by posting the URL in the comments section.

Next, I started a blog at Drecom, a Japanese provider, where I plan to write on a consistent basis and, hopefully, put the social networking services to work there to meet other people and converse in Japanese. I need this type of authentic, text-based interaction to push me to learn new kanji and patterns of language use. I find it too difficult to sustain attention on dry, grammar based texts.

The big question is, can I stick to it amidst all the other activities in my life right now?

Update:  I switched back to Wordpress for the Japanese blog because it’s such a better blogging tool.  It’s called Senmandanoyume.   And no, I haven’t made much time for it recently.

Happy New Year to All! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with me.

今年もよろしくお願いします。

One would think that any educational institution naming itself after such profound, meaningful terms would be committed to seeing that its students are on the path toward achieving these mental and spiritual qualities. Thus, I am shocked to read (and hear) about the way certain officials at Thammasat University are treating AJ Hoge and his students. Although they might have their own reasons for firing AJ, their harrassment of the students, as AJ describes it, is nothing short of immoral.

You should have seen how happy our students here in Kyoto were to have been getting to know their Thai counterparts in AJ’s classroom. They read their blogs, exchanged messages, and even recorded video greetings. They were just starting to get warmed up to one another and were going to carry out collaborative webpublishing projects, possibly in the form of podcasts. For Thammasat to use scare tactics, to make threats, and to interrogate students is wrong. And to prevent students from continuing to interact with mine and to discourage them from exercising their right to free speech is a sick abuse of power.

Having spent close to a year of my life in Thailand, I can say with passion that I love its culture and its people. I have also benefitted greatly on a personal level from the teachings of Thai people on the subjects of Vipassana, Buddhism, and Traditional Thai Massage. I thought that Thammasat was really cool place, too, especially for hiring a dynamic educator like AJ who cares deeply about his students and their learning. To read about the way certain people at Thammasat are treating AJ and his students makes me wonder whether the university is has lost its ’sati’ (awareness, mindfulness) and has allowed ‘moha’ (delusion, ignorance) to infiltrate its collective consciousness.

I’m left confused and disappointed about these events as I understand them. I feel sorry for the Thai students as well. Please, would someone at the BAS tell me I’m wrong? Assure me that your students are indeed encouraged to use the English language they are learning to communicate openly with foreign people, to share their ideas cross-culturally, and to engage in meaningful conversation with others using internet technology?

http://e-poche.net/?feed=rss2
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Does anyone know of a good free RSS reader for Macintosh? My OPML files are sitting dormant. I’m so thankful that I transferred them all to Bloglines just a day before the disaster.

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