※KAPLANと国際人道支援組織JPFは、連携プロジェクトとして日本の情報発信力UP！「国際人道支援における英語力強化プロジェクト」 を行っております。
ジャパン・プラットフォーム（JPF）の田口でございます。

9月30日にインドネシア・スマトラ島西部パダン沖でマグニチュード7.6（インドネシア気象地理物理庁の発表では同7.9）の大地震が発生してから1ヶ月が経過いたしました。地震1ヶ月後の支援活動の進捗をご報告申し上げます。

皆さまからＪＰＦへ様々なサポートをお寄せいただき、ＪＰＦ参加NGOは支援活動を展開することが出来ております。 私自身がインドネシアへ出張した際に、皆さまに代わりまして、現地で被災者の方から感謝の言葉を沢山いただきました。

「被災者の声」として記してございます。
被災者の方から直接お預かりした皆さまへのメッセージです。

▼下記の画像をクリックしてください。
被災者の声(PDF)へとびます。

下記は被災地訪問の写真です。
被災者の笑顔を逃さずに写真に捉えたいと必死にシャッターを押しておりました。
幅広いサポートをJPFへお寄せいただき、現地で支援活動を展開できているからこそ出会えた被災者の方の笑顔だと考えております。

▼画像をクリックしてください。被災地訪問写真(PDF)へとびます。

フィリピン地震の進歩報告はこちらです。
▼画像をクリックしてください。
支援者支援の進歩報告(PDF)へとびます。

▼▽▼▼【受講生】田口さんのバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【世界各地で大規模災害。あなたにも出来ること】2009.10.05 (Mon)

As many of you know, my dad spent the last week in Tokyo with me. Some of you even got to meet him when he came to Omotesando! This was his second visit to Japan, and I think this trip was just as good as the last one. Here's a little of what we did: #1. My dad is really interested in cars, so of course we made a point of going to the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari. On another day, we also took time to stop by the Toyota Showroom in Ikebukuro. Personally, I'm not really that into cars, but as you can see, I managed to enjoy myself!

#2. This time, we made sure to visit a couple of places that he didn't see the last time he was here, including the Sumida River cruise. We enjoyed such nice weather; it was a really great way for my dad to see a lot of the city.

#3. And finally, no trip to Tokyo is complete without stopping by some of the most famous tourist attractions. Do you recognize any of these? :)

My dad returned to America this week, and I was sad to see him go. But I have certainly missed seeing all of you, too, and so I'm willing to "retire" from my temporary job as tour guide this week so that I can return to all of our classes together. Hope to see you soon!


▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Difference Between Truth and Fact in Fiction】2009.10.09 (Fri)

So in my last blog I talked about speed reading and said that in the next (this one) I'd talk about skimming. First, I'd like to note that sometimes when native speakers talk about skimming, it's the same thing as speed reading which was described in my last blog. The only difference is that speed reading sounds fast and exciting and that's why you don't read every word, while skimming sounds like you don't care too much about the material and that's why you don't read every word. Even then though, these words could hold different meanings to different people depending on their style of reading. So I guess I just want to say that there's no hard definition and you should be flexible with their use.



Ok, so now skimming. Skimming is the word most used for non-native speakers. If a student came up to me and said, "Teach me how to speed read," I'd say, "Give it up." Well, I'd put it nicer but that's what I'd mean. But skimming, skimming is something that can be done.



Skimming for non-native English speakers means reading the first sentence of each paragraph.



The first sentence of each paragraph is generally a special sentence that we like to call the "Topic Sentence" because... drum roll... it's the topic of the paragraph. Pretty simple. And pretty useful. So if you just read the first sentences you can get the topics of each paragraph and therefore the basic main idea of the passage.



To illustrate, I'll use a sample (short) passage from our TOEFL Strategies book (pg. 238 if you have it.) There are four paragraphs in this passage, so I will only read four sentences (the first of each paragraph).



1st: Fermentation is the key to winemaking, and is a process that occurs naturally within grapes, as long as the skin of the grapes has been broken.
2nd: Unfortunately, alcohol is not the only by-product of fermentation.
3rd: One way a winemaker can control the fermentation process is by regulating temperature.
4th: Adding sugar is another method of changing the outcome of a wine.



So from these sentences I can see that the passage is about the fermentation (the definition of which was given in the first sentence) of grapes for wine. It's about the by-products of fermentation and how winemakers can control the process, particularly through regulating temperature and adding sugar.



And after reading the whole passage I can see that I'm right. This is a pretty simple example because the passage is only four paragraphs long, but it really works for longer passages too. Really.



So if you're on a test and need to get the main idea of a passage very quickly, this is the way to do it. I've never only read the first sentences of each paragraph of a passage and not been able to accurately determine the main idea of the passage. So I think students just have to trust that it's enough information. Let go of wanting to know and understand EVERYTHING. It's just not necessary.



Now, of course if you're answering questions about details this wont help very much, but it's very effective in just getting the overall main idea and tone of a passage. If you're taking a test with a read section where the reading is quite long, say six or more paragraphs, this is an excellent way to begin the reading. Then for each specific question you can go back to the passage and look for specific information. And say, for example, that I get a question about hydrogen sulfide being created by fermentation (which is actually in the original passage). I would know immediately to look in the second paragraph for it because the second paragraph is about by-products. Or if a question asks about sweet wine, I'll look in the last paragraph because the last paragraph is about sugar. Easy, right?



Ok, so this is skimming. Next time will be my last "reading" blog and I'll talk about snacking. I mean scanning.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Reading 1: Speed Reading】2009.10.07 (Wed)

※KAPLANと国際人道支援組織JPFは、連携プロジェクトとして日本の情報発信力UP！「国際人道支援における英語力強化プロジェクト」 を行っております。


こんにちは。
もう何回目の投稿になるのか、段々と持ちネタがなくなってきたように思います。
私が英語力の向上ともうひとつ、最近目指していることが、石渡先生のブログに私達が投稿している'カプランゲージ'が、ランキングで追い越すことです。
これはなかなか難しいことのようです。最近は2位まで追いついてきましたが、そうこうしている間に、また離されてしまいました。


さて、本題にはいりますと、世界で起こっているテロ事件や災害についてです。
先月末に発生したフィリピン水害とスマトラ地震２つの自然災害は記憶に新しいと思います。 スーダンの人道支援の担当としては、自然災害だけでなく、紛争にも皆さんの関心が集まればいいなぁと思うところです。


ここ最近　イラン、イラクでテロが多発し、戦後の復興支援をＪＰＦとしてもこれまで支援しており、このようなニュースを見聞きするのは非常に辛いことです。また、心配な内容として「東アフリカで発生している干ばつ」もあります。
被害もじわりじわりと明らかになります。そして、干ばつの被害を受けるのは、農業や牧畜の生業を主としている人々です。そして、難民化して支援なしでは生活が成り立たない人々がでます。


と、いろいろ世界の人々の安全で平和な暮らしについて思いにふけることもたびたび。 一方で、近くの東京ミッドタウンの公園の芝生では、みんなでヨガをしようという企画が先週あり、それを囲むように全国各地からの持ち寄られた農産物のマーケットが開かれ、生産者やＪＡが品種改良されたものや心を込めて作られた採れたばかりの野菜や果物を売っておりました。
それぞれの生産者の努力とその成果がとてもまぶしく感じられました。


植えられた場所で咲くのだ　　と友人がよく口にします。 改めて、どんな環境・境遇にあっても　自己を見失わず、真摯に生きていきたい　みんなもそうであってほしいと　思いました。

▼▽▼▼【受講生】板倉さんのバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【偶然と必然】2009.09.28 (Mon)