A few years ago I had to work long hours, and I do not have time to read. This situation really annoyed me. So I started to look for new ways to gain knowledge. After a few months, I read an article which explained audio books. I was thrilled by the article. If I listened to audio books, I could change my commuting time into learning time, so I started buying some audio books.
At that time (2005) Japanese language audio books were quite rare and very expensive( more than \5000 for a 60 minute book). However English language audio books were less expensive, and there was a much bigger range. I realized that if I could understand English, I could access many of these works.
Even now there is not much change from the situation in 2005. Some companies produce Japanese language audio books, but there are relatively few Japanese audio books, as they are too new to be accepted by many Japanese people.
When I graduated from university I did not have to study English, because I did not use English at work. I stopped studying English. But I resumed studying English because I wanted to listen to many audio books. Audio books were the biggest reason why I started studying English again.
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3/02/2009
(04)PDCA in learning foreign languages at language schools
PDCA is an iterative four-step problem-solving process. This process is useful not only in business process improvement but also in learning foreign language. Because of this, you should follow this process while learning a foreign language at a language schools.
Because PDCA is an acronym, I will explain what each letter means. 'P' is 'preparation'. Before you go to the school, you have to study the school text as much as you can. And you should also 'plan' which topic you are going to make remarks about. If you do not bother to do these things, you may waste your money.D is 'do'. You actually have to make remarks about what you learned in preparation. If you practice the words you learned beforehand, you can much understand the words and use them well. And if you have questions, you should ask. Even if you do not have a major question, you should ask a trivial question. Your teacher may teach you something important which you did not notice.C is 'Check'. you should brush up on what you learned in school text and lessons. If you review your lesson, you can retain the knowledge longer. Many people do not carry out this part of the process because they regard review as messy things. But you must not forget to review.A is 'Action'. After the lesson, you should practice what you learned in lesson. Not using what you learned is wasteful.
At last, I add one important concept. Have a fun in learning foreign language. This concept acts like grease to your PDCA process.
090227
Because PDCA is an acronym, I will explain what each letter means. 'P' is 'preparation'. Before you go to the school, you have to study the school text as much as you can. And you should also 'plan' which topic you are going to make remarks about. If you do not bother to do these things, you may waste your money.D is 'do'. You actually have to make remarks about what you learned in preparation. If you practice the words you learned beforehand, you can much understand the words and use them well. And if you have questions, you should ask. Even if you do not have a major question, you should ask a trivial question. Your teacher may teach you something important which you did not notice.C is 'Check'. you should brush up on what you learned in school text and lessons. If you review your lesson, you can retain the knowledge longer. Many people do not carry out this part of the process because they regard review as messy things. But you must not forget to review.A is 'Action'. After the lesson, you should practice what you learned in lesson. Not using what you learned is wasteful.
At last, I add one important concept. Have a fun in learning foreign language. This concept acts like grease to your PDCA process.
090227
(03) How to set up a new project
When you start a new project, there are two things you have to think about.
One thing is finding people who are eager to start a new project. It is easy to propose something new, while on the other hand, to realize something new is difficult and a lot of work. Because of this people usually only talk about something new, for example “If this idea realized, we would be happy. ”. but few people actually carry out their new idea. so if you start something new, firstly you have to be willing to carry out many hard jobs.
The other important point is having the wisdom to know the demand of a new project. If many people want something to happen or are truly eager(maybe without a thought), and new project correspond the demand, the project will succeed. One aspect to look at is whether your project is gathering people. If the project is attractive, it is easy to gather people. On the other hand, if there is no demand, people will not be interested, even the greatest idea could not succeed,
Finally, if you want to start a new project, first you should become a hard worker, and then you have to do the proper research to know whether a new project will be accepted or not.
20090226
One thing is finding people who are eager to start a new project. It is easy to propose something new, while on the other hand, to realize something new is difficult and a lot of work. Because of this people usually only talk about something new, for example “If this idea realized, we would be happy. ”. but few people actually carry out their new idea. so if you start something new, firstly you have to be willing to carry out many hard jobs.
The other important point is having the wisdom to know the demand of a new project. If many people want something to happen or are truly eager(maybe without a thought), and new project correspond the demand, the project will succeed. One aspect to look at is whether your project is gathering people. If the project is attractive, it is easy to gather people. On the other hand, if there is no demand, people will not be interested, even the greatest idea could not succeed,
Finally, if you want to start a new project, first you should become a hard worker, and then you have to do the proper research to know whether a new project will be accepted or not.
20090226
(02)Don't forget the aim of discussion
While having a discussion at the office or at home, you should not forget the aim of the discussion. In many cases people forget this aim, and they only focus on the winning which makes other person feel defeated. The person who was defeated in a discussion almost always become hostile to the winner of discussion and they will not cooperate with the winner. After the discussion we have to go back to work, so we should cooperate with the discussion's opponent, who is a team member at office or your family. To cooperate with the other members is the aim of discussion. So you should not attack the opponent.
And I propose some words of wisdom to remember the aim. They are "If You Want To Gather Honey, Don't Kick Over The Beehive" (If you want to persuade a person, you should not blame or attack a person.). This phrase was written in Dale Carnegie's masterpiece, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. So when you discuss someone, 'Don't criticize, complain, or condemn! (these words of wisdom also written in Carnegie's masterpiece.)
20090225
And I propose some words of wisdom to remember the aim. They are "If You Want To Gather Honey, Don't Kick Over The Beehive" (If you want to persuade a person, you should not blame or attack a person.). This phrase was written in Dale Carnegie's masterpiece, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. So when you discuss someone, 'Don't criticize, complain, or condemn! (these words of wisdom also written in Carnegie's masterpiece.)
20090225
(01) Science Fiction is useful to the advance of our sciences.
Jules Verne, French author wrote 'The Earth to Moon' in 1865. When our ancestors read this book, they could imagine that we could go to the moon. In that time, to go to moon was an illusion. But after reading this book some people started trying to make rockets and spacecraft which could go to the moon. About 100 years passed, we could go to the moon. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 16, 1969. Verne's dream come true.
Japan also has some similar Science-Fiction stories which helped develop our technology. Japanese love robots more than other people. The reason why we Japanese love robots is that there are some major Sci-Fi characters that were created in Japan. I think Astro Boy, Doraemon, Gundam, these very popular robots attracted Japanese strongly. Because Japanese love robots and many Japanese major in Robotics. So in Japan there is research that's at the cutting edge of robotics. Machine tools(Factory Automation), nurse robots, entertainment robots(AIBO, ASIMO) are some examples.I think Science Fiction is useful to the advance of our sciences.
20090224
Japan also has some similar Science-Fiction stories which helped develop our technology. Japanese love robots more than other people. The reason why we Japanese love robots is that there are some major Sci-Fi characters that were created in Japan. I think Astro Boy, Doraemon, Gundam, these very popular robots attracted Japanese strongly. Because Japanese love robots and many Japanese major in Robotics. So in Japan there is research that's at the cutting edge of robotics. Machine tools(Factory Automation), nurse robots, entertainment robots(AIBO, ASIMO) are some examples.I think Science Fiction is useful to the advance of our sciences.
20090224
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