Keizo-Trivia

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Why Do You Skip Classes?

I firmly believe that the ESL program of Ole Miss has improved my English greatly. I am deeply grateful to all the teachers and staffs, and the classmates of the ESL program. And I also believe that all of the students have the same feelings as mine. I love the ESL program of Ole Miss and I strongly hope that the program will develop into the # 1 program in the US. So, it might be impudent of me to do so, but I am not afraid to make some comments about the program, especially about students. I have found two improvements concerning students. First, students should not skip classes. Second, students should not be late for classes.

First of all, students should attend every class, no matter what, except for illness or family reasons. I have four reasons for this. The first one is that attending classes and listening carefully to their teachers’ lectures is the most effective way of learning. The second one is
that teachers have much knowledge and information about the subjects students are learning and they teach them to students. The third one is that attending classes and seeing other classmates studying hard encourages students to study harder. The fourth is that skipping classes is very rude to teachers.
Keizo(Left) Brenda-sensei(Right)

Regarding the effectiveness of learning, teachers have lots of experience about teaching and know how to teach students effectively. So they can explain subjects to students still more clearly than students learn by themselves. In addition, students can ask questions at once if they are present. For example, if a student finds something difficult to understand about grammatical rules, he can ask his teacher immediately and the teacher can answer right away. Therefore, the student can understand at once. On the other hand, if students skip classes, they will not be able to understand the subjects fully, even if they can understand the subjects completely by themselves, they might take much more time to understand. Therefore, it is not efficient to skip classes. My experience shows that those absent don’t study when the other classmates study. Therefore, the more often students are absent, the less they understand the subjects.

Concerning the additional knowledge, teachers have much more knowledge and information about the subjects students are learning than they have, and teachers usually teach students not only the subjects themselves but also these additional knowledge and information. These additional knowledge is sometimes very useful. For example, suppose that students learn about Family. The teacher might speak about some lessons from his experiences about his family: pleasant experiences, sad experiences and so on. These lessons will surely be useful to students. However, if students skip classes, they will miss these useful additional knowledge and information.

About encouragement, attending classes and seeing other classmates studying harder encourages students to study harder. For instance, when I attend a class without preparing my lesson fully, if my classmates prepare their lessons fully, I might feel I have to study much harder. This stimulation is very important for students to continue studying.

The fourth is rudeness to teachers. All the teachers make the best preparations for their lessons. They think about the subject, decide teaching points and ways of teaching, and sometimes make handouts. For example, it was usual for me to take some hours to prepare my lessons when I was a teacher. Teachers do these things every day for their students. Do you know these teachers’ efforts? Teachers are doing these efforts for the purpose of improving their students. Don’t you think it very rude to skip classes? They are working hard for you in order to improve your English.
My ESL classmates at Ole Miss

The second improvement concerning students is that students should not be late for classes. Students should sit in their seats at the exact time classes begin. That is because entering the classroom late interferes with studying and, besides, it results in wasting students’ studying time. Whenever late comers appear at the door, teachers stop lectures. It disturbs studying. Besides, it deprives students of their valuable studying time. For example, I have sometimes seen some students come into the room after the class starting. And every time teachers stopped and repeated the same lectures. Don’t you think it a waste of time? You are disturbing the other students studying and wasting their studying time. You are a disturbance and time robber, aren’t you? If you are a disturbance and time robber to yourself, it is OK because it is about yourself. But being late for classes is related to the other students.

In conclusion, I believe that class attendance is absolutely essential to improve your English efficiently. Even if you don’t finish your homework and are afraid of being scolded, you should attend classes. It’s the best way to make your English progress. Don’t you desire to make remarkable progress in English?

Sunday, December 2, 2007
By the time I am 100, I will have traveled all over the world.
There are a lot of countries in the world. I have never visited most of them. I can only know most of the countries through TV, the Internet, newspapers, or other media. These strange countries attract me very much. So by the time I am 100 years old, I will have traveled all over the world. I have two reasons. The first reason is that I want to become friends with people of those nations and know their thoughts and ways of life. The other is that unknown beautiful scenery of the world is very attractive to me and I want to see it.

First of all, it will be very beneficial for me to know various kinds of thoughts and ways of life of other countries. For example, I am Japanese and now living in the U.S. To live here and know a lot of people from all over the world is very interesting and instructive. Their thinking and information make my view of life wider than before.

The second reason is that I want to see great scenery all over the world with my eyes. To see some sights directly with my own eyes will give me another impression of the sight different from those of pictures. For instance, before coming to Ole Miss, I had checked the university through the Internet and had known some sights. But the impression of the sights was somewhat different from what I had imagined. The pictures which I had seen on the Internet were more beautiful. That’s why I want to see beautiful scenery directly.
To become acquainted with a lot of people all over world and to view wonderful landscapes of the world are marvelously attractive things to me. So by the time I am 100 years old, I will have visited most of the countries in the world. But I am now 62 years old, will I be alive another forty years?

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Who Is That Old Man on the Squeaking Bike?

His name is Keizo Tadano, an ESL student, from Japan. He came to Ole Miss in August after retiring from teaching in order to study American history, but now he is learning English eagerly in the ESL program.
“I am very happy and enjoying my school life,” he said smiling, “because studying in a US college was my lifelong dream. It has been realized.” “When I was a child,” he continued, “even going abroad was rare. But now more and more Japanese, young and old, are enjoying their trips
abroad. So I made up my mind to study in the US at the time of retiring.” “I am old,” the man, now 62 years of age, said, ”and I will never realize my dream if I miss this opportunity.”
“My wife wasn’t against my plan, or rather agreed favorably with me.” he said, in answering
the reporter’s question whether his wife hadn’t objected to him going abroad to study.
“Because my wife knows that I have had a dream to study abroad, especially in the US since I
was a child. I can’t thank her enough for everything she has done for me.”
He is planning to stay here for two years and wants to get a bachelor’s degree, majoring in
history. He said that he couldn’t stay longer because of financial difficulties.
“Sadly, I can’t express correctly what I am thinking. I can’t respond quickly in everything.
I seldom used English in Japan though I was an English teacher. Now I feel keenly the necessity
of daily practice.” he responded to the question whether he had some difficulty in learning
English, “The teachers of ESL are all very eager about teaching and have fully worked-out
teaching plans. For example, I made a monologue tape, in which I recorded my monologue about
myself, spoke to each other about various topics, and made a presentation by using Power
Point. I’ve never experienced these things in my life. New things are very difficult for me to do
at first, but I believe these practices, experiences and a lot of homework are very helpful for me
to improve my English. Sometimes I am compelled to stay up late completing my homework, but
now I feel I am beginning to realize how to study efficiently.”
He is very interested in studying American history, especially about racial discrimination. He
said that the University of Mississippi is well-known for the James Meredith case. That is one
of the reasons he chose Ole Miss. Besides, he himself wanted to live in the deep South, where
he believes that racial discrimination is the severest. However, he said, it seems that in Oxford
all races are getting along well with each other.
After finishing his studies at Ole Miss, he is planning to go back to Japan and become a new
born English teacher again. May Keizo enjoy his college life fully!
Postscript: both Keizo and the reporter are Keizo. May Keizo be happy!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thanksgiving Break--Monologue

I did not go anywhere over the Thanksgiving holidays. I only wanted to have a relaxing time. I didn't go even outside except when the electricity supply was off and when I visited my friend. All I did were to enjoy surfing the Internet, listen to Japanese music, sometimes watch TV, eat, and sleep. Only a few things I did positively were to clean my room, write my own life record, and play the flute. Please don't ask me why I didn't go out. There was no reason. If I justify my doing nothing during the break with distorted reasoning, November 23 is called Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan, that is to say, the day when we thank our everyday labor. So it could be a terrible behavior that we go on a trip somewhere and get tired!

Monday, November 26, 2007
My Sports--Monologue

I am not good at playing sports, especially ball games, but I like to get exercise. I have played many sports, for example, kendo(Japanese fencing), soft tennis, table tennis and swimming. Above all, kendo and swimming are my most favorite sports. Regarding swimming, I was a coach of high school swimming teams and have a license of swimming coach. But as I learned to swim when I was a teacher, I am not a good swimmer. Concerning kendo, I played it in my junior high school days. Since then, I have seldom played kendo because I have never had chances to play it. But kendo is the first sport I chose to play, so I sometimes wish to play.

Since all my high schools I worked for had no indoor swimming pools, we had to take dry land exercise in winter. Among other things, cross-country was one of the most important things. I ran and ran here and there together with my students. However, I had to quit my job as a coach when I retired. So I began mountaineering. There is a small mountain near my house in Japan called Mt. Hongu, which is 789 meters high, it might be more suitable to be called a hill rather than a mountain. It was my habit to climb the mountain twice a week after my retirement.

When I moved to Ole Miss, I started swimming again in Turner Center, which is a sports facility composed of training gym, swimming pool, basketball coats, and so on in Ole Miss. But when classes began, I could not afford to have extra time to swim. Since then I have never swum.

Here in Ole Miss I learned to enjoy football games. I have watched four games. I was very excited at the game against Alabama. But most of the games I saw were boring and lost. I wish Ole Miss were much stronger. I hope our team will be quite another team next season. I hear that basketball season began. I would like to watch basketball games in the near future. And I would like to watch games like volleyball, baseball, soccer, tennis and so on. Besides, I would like to start to get exercise again. I wonder if I will go swimming after the final exams.

Sunday, November 25, 2007
Hi! This is my first post! --The Keizo-Trivia is my utterly private monologue, so never read this blog!! Hey, you! Take your eyes off the screen and click the x-button!!


My name is Keizo Tadano. I am an ESL student at Ole Miss in Mississippi and learning English. I am from Japan and my home town is Toyokawa in Aichi Prefecture. Aichi is among the largest prefectures in Japan. Aichi has two famous cities, which are Nagoya and Toyota. Nagoya is the third largest city in Japan and the leading city in central Japan. Do you drive a Toyota car? Toyota has the head office of Toyota Motors. My hometown, Toyokawa, is near Toyota, so many of my friends work for Toyota Motors and companies related to Toyota Motors. Aichi has three cities which have Toyo in their names: Toyota, Toyohashi and Toyokawa. "Toyo" means "rich, abundant." in Japanese. "ta" means "rice fields," "hashi" means "bridges" and "kawa" "rivers." Therefore, "Toyota" means "rich in rice fields," "Toyohashi" "rich in bridges," and "Toyokawa" "rich in rivers." Do you know Honda cars? Its head office is also in central Japan. "Honda" means "books and rice fields" in Japanese. "da" is only a different pronunciation of "rice fields." So the original Japanese characters "ta" and "da" are the same character "田."

Are you still reading my blog? You are a persistent person, aren't you? Even if you read through this blog, you will never get anything beneficial. Is it all right? Good! Then continue!

Next, I will tell you about myself in detail. Do you wish to know about the meaning of my name? You are surely anxious to know about me more, aren't you? My last name "Tadano" means "free of charge" in Japanese. My first name "Keizo" means "three blessings (gifts)." "Kei" means "blessings, gifts" and "zo" means "three." Therefore, my name "Keizo Tadano" means "I will give everybody three blessings or gifts free of charge. I might be a god!!
I was a high school teacher in Japan. In March this year I retired and came here in August to study American history. After finishing the ESL program I am planning to go to a graduate school in Ole Miss. Studying in the US college has been my long-cherished desire since I began to learn English at the age of 12. I am very happy to realize my dream and I am enjoying my college life.

After all, you have finished reading my blog through. What you knew from this blog are secrets between you and me. Make sure not to let it out to anybody! Are you sure? Good.