It's starting to feel a little more like spring, which has lately put me in the mood to do some cleaning and organizing. In the past couple of years, in fact, I've noticed that I have come to enjoy the arrival of spring much more than I used to, and I think that cleaning is one of the reasons I look forward to it. There aren't many things that compare to that feeling when it starts to get a little warmer, being able to wear a t-shirt instead of a coat, the anticipation of cherry blossom season...and it's that time of renewal and freshness, I suppose, that really drives me to get started with my "spring cleaning."


Furthermore, spring in Japan also a time for change. Yet in (sharp) contrast to my eagerness for "spring cleaning," though, is my chronic resistance to change. This year, there have been and still will be a few changes in my life, some of them personal changes--like looking for a new house--and others less personal. But I have never really been the kind of person to welcome this type of "newness." The irony of this situation, however, is that these changes can sometimes be equally as rejuvenating as a thorough clear-out, although maybe in a different way. It has been some of these recent, and in some cases unexpected, adjustments that has prompted me to think about other times in my life when things have been shuffled around or modified, or even when I have tried something completely new. What I have realized is that it actually isn't so hard for me to think of ways that these changes have been more positive than not, and consequently, has helped me to feel a little more at ease about things still to come.


One of the situations that comes to mind was the class I took for my senior thesis assignment, as part of a requirement for the completion of my Bachelor's degree in History. Every graduating student had to take it, but the topics for courses would change each term. The term I decided to take the class, there wasn't anything I was exceedingly interested in, which meant I had a hard time being enthusiastic about my research. I ended up taking a class centered on autobiographies written in Early Modern Europe. Sounds stimulating, right? But as the course went on, one of the most important things I noticed is that our studies went so much deeper than that. We had discussions about education, poverty, family relationships, personal motivations...even fashion. In fact, some of the areas of my subsequent history studies (and general interests) have evolved as a result of that course. The lesson? Trying something new can be good for us because it can open our eyes to new pursuits.


Another type of change I have experienced is one that involved a lot of frustration. There was a time in my life not so long ago that I unexpectedly lost both my job and my apartment at the same time. (The company that I was working for went bankrupt, and my apartment was part of the company's housing.) This was a totally different form of change. It was the first time in my adulthood that I experienced something so life-altering, and for me it was a very dark time. Yet in spite of the anxiety and emotional stress that followed, when I look back on this time I can see the growth that I experienced, in addition to so many other blessings. I was able to experience the kindness of friends who offered me a place to stay, I became closer to my family, and I grew spiritually as well. Even though I wouldn't necessarily recommend this experience to everyone looking for a change, it definitely taught me to appreciate what I have and to not take things for granted. The lesson here is that even unexpected, undesired and unpleasant changes in circumstance can still produce some good in our lives.


No matter what sort of things change in your life--your job, your home, your favorite television program--I'd like to encourage you to try to make the most of it. While it may not be something we always enjoy or even expect, I think change becomes a much easier pill to swallow when we try to stay focused on the good things that can come from it. (And in the mean time, don't forget to clear out your closets...that feels good, too!)
▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Ticket That Changed My Life】2010.01.29 (Fri)

 I find myself thinking about the difference between digital and analog information, from time to time. Most of us think of music when we think of the two. A lot of my friends still listen to analog media like records, but we are the minority (live music aside.) Almost everyone seems to own a digital music/media player these days, and are satisfied with the sound quality.

Perhaps one of the reasons I still enjoy listening to records is the quality. The word 'quality' itself is usually used in conjunction with the idea of high or low. But quality is closer in meaning to the word 'character.' Records and tapes have a different character than digital music.

First off, no two records are alike! This was of recent concern for Richard D. James. His record company wanted to release his AFX 'Analords' Series on CD format (cramping the whole title of the series itself.) At first only the vinyls were released because he wanted the uniqueness of each record being pressed from hot plastic, cooling and taking on certain imperfections; an attribute that most musicians and artists wouldn't be without.

Second, record players and needles aren't perfect. Even the best ones are just as susceptible to dust buildup, and of course degradation of the groove. The result is a kind of static noise that increases with scratching and age. The thing is, it's a rather charming sound.

Digital, on the other hand, is always identical, and either plays back the same every time, or it 'glitches' when data is unreadable. The glitches are not particularly charming, although they've earned a place in electronic hip hop. The playback is identical on every CD because the files are identical. They are based on an analog = continuous wave, but they are actually a relatively accurate discontinuous approximation of that wave. Instead of ramps and slopes for waves, we've got tiny little square steps.

At this point, you may be wondering what the title has to do with anything. I'm getting to that. One point that I always wondered about, regarding digital music, is the playback system. The speakers. Speakers are all analog. Even 'digital sound' is a misnomer. Speakers vibrate (continuously) forwards and backward, vibrating the air in analog waves, and this is the sound that vibrates our organic, analog eardrums. So is there really a difference?

Well, one problem, practically speaking, is that sound is particle-based. The physical universe seems to manifest largely around particles. While we know analog is supposed to be continuous we also know from physics that the universe is not infinite, and that when we get inside an atom, there are discrete (discontinuous) energy bands. Continuity no longer exists, it seems. Everything is small pieces, like digital information.

Let me give an example. What's the difference between gray and silver? The colour, or lack thereof seems to be the same. But silver can be many colours depending on what colours surround the silver object. Imagine a gray sheet of paper. You wouldn't be able to see it (it would look black) if it didn't reflect light. If it reflected light perfectly, like a mirror, it should look silver. What we get with a gray surface is the picture on the left. The surface is not actually smooth. Diffuse reflection occurs, and we have some kind of gray tone.
In a mirror, the surface should be as flat as possible to reflect an image completely, intact.

Interestingly, if we zoom in to the picture above, we should be able to find a small enough space where the surface is acting like a mirror. If we zoom in too close, we reach the atomic level, where the structure is no longer 'flat' and the idea of a mirror no longer makes sense.

Strange though, that every gray surface should have some mirror pieces, if we zoom into the right level. But those pieces no doubt reflect an image too small to be practical. Zoom out of the small mirror pieces, and we're back to gray. Now imagine a seemingly perfect mirror. Isn't it just part of a much larger surface of gray? What if we were building a huge telescope and needed a huge mirror? The larger the mirror, the more likely it is to have some imperfection somewhere, relegating it somewhere near the 'perfect mirror' on a continuum that must look like this:

So basically, if we get too small, things lose meaning and analog doesn't seem to exist (from a particle point of view.) And since the universe is not infinite in size, we can see a similar problem zooming out. We find a similar imperfection with sound waves which travel by vibrating a finite number of molecules. The molecules are discontinuous! It may as well be called 'digital sound' then. This may be seriously troubling for a minority of people, but I believe it adds a certain uniqueness, a nice character to our universe, and it adds meaning to my life to know that perfection exists in the realm of ideals, and not in the physical universe.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Learning Lucky New Things】2010.02.03 (Wed)

Recently my wife and I have been very stressed about our daughter's nursery. My wife had taken maternity leave, but soon she must return to work. We applied for the public nursery for our daughter and this situation caused us a lot of stress. The problem is that there are not enough nurseries for all the children who need to go to one. When you apply, you have to fill in a form giving all sorts of information about yourselves - income, working hours, office location, daily travel time etc. Based on this information, the city government decides who can get in to the nurseries. They assign points for different things - for example, if both parents work, we get points for that; if your office is far away, you also get points for that. The people with the highest points can get their children into the nurseries. I was told that if both parents do not work full time, it is almost impossible to get into a public nursery.

My wife and I will both be working full time, so we had reasonably high points but these points were not enough for us to get in to the nursery that we wanted. There is a new nursery very close to our house - about 3 minutes walk away. We went to see it a while ago and it looked like a lovely place. My daughter seemed to like the atmosphere. Unfortunately, this place is really popular because it is new, and also because it is close to the train station. It was so difficult to get in. In the end, we managed to get in to another nice nursery about fifteen minutes walk away. We were lucky.

We have a friend who has a baby around the same age as our daughter who lives in a different town and she could not get in to any public nursery. The whole thing was a terrible situation, it left me feeling exhausted and kind of sad for all those kids. We went to see a private nursery and while it wasn't bad, the kids looked so bored and some of them were kind of sad. It made me feel sad myself to see them. I was relieved when we could get in to this public nursery but I feel a little frustrated that we could not send her to the nursery near our house. It seems kind of strange that we have to travel to another one when there is a nursery so close to our house.

When we went to the city government office to submit our form, the staff members looked like they were under a lot of stress. I can imagine so many parents put a lot of pressure on them. I would have put pressure on them if I thought it would do any good! Anyway, the situation is resolved now. The nursery she will go to is very nice. The staff were all very friendly and the kids seemed happy in there. I also saw another "half chan" in one of the classes with the older kids. I just feel bad for the parents who could not get in to a nursery. It really is a terrible situation. I hear a lot of people talking about how the decreasing birth rate is a problem for Japan. I think if there were more options for childcare, the birth rate would increase.

The nursery we will go to now is 15 minutes walk away but we will buy a car because the road that we would walk down is very narrow and there are a lot of people on bikes. Also, we have to carry a futon there and back on Mondays and Fridays. We went to buy a car recently. We bought a WagonR, a K type car, it is silver. So, people of Japan, this is your official warning - if you see a silver WagonR driving down your street WATCH OUT! Only joking, daijoubu, daijoubu.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Eddie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Christmas in Australia】2010.01.22 (Fri)

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Posted By: Eddie Palmer on February 19, 2010

みなさん、こんにちは。
今日はKAPLAN事務局から2月マスターセミナーのお知らせです。
これから真剣に英語を学習してネイティブにも引けを取らない英語力をつけることを希望する方は是非ご参加ください！

 当セミナーでは、現在のレベルに関係なく誰でも日本人離れした英語力を身につけられるように、石渡誠が体験した『英語で考える』学習法も加えたカプラン学習法を、理論と実践を通して伝授します。カプラン新入生のためのオリエンテーションと訓練も兼ね備えていて、英語学習に大切なエッセンスが学べます。日頃から抱えている「伸び悩み」に関する質疑応答など、英語学習に関すること全てが聞けるセミナーです。カプランでの学習を考えている方には、ご希望で個別カウンセリングも行います。

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▼テスト/セミナー詳細・お申込については日時をクリックしてください！▼
◇日時  ・2/20（土）表参道校　13:30-17:00
　　　　　・2/27（日）表参道校　13:30-17:00

◇受講料　無料

◇セミナー概要

第1部 13:30--14:10
● 日本人の英語力を世界でNo. 1にするには
● 日本人にとって英語は本来やさしい言語
● 英語を難しくしている根本的な原因
● 「英語で考える」VS「英語について考える」

第2部 14:20--15:00
● 「英語で考える」脳の構築に必要な３つのE
● 1日10分で実践できる脳内革命
● 本来の語彙の意味を知り使えるようになる
● 自由に英語で表現できるようになる

第3部 15:10--16:10
● カプラン用語・コース・システム説明
● カプランジャパンのA.L.L.学習法紹介
● 体験！石渡誠によるA.L.L.直接指導
● 「英語で考える」脳の育成と活性法

第4部 16:20--17:00
● 「読み・書き・話す・聞く」4技能習得必須事項
● 高いレベル目標の設定と達成のためのノウハウ
● 質疑応答
● 明日からのアクションプラン

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また、他のセミナー情報も随時更新中です！ セミナーはKAPLAN生はもちろん、一般の方もご参加いただけます。お申込みは上記日程のご希望の日にちをクリックしてフォームから申し込んでいただくか、お電話でも随時受け付けております。 お電話でのお申込みは KAPLAN表参道校　03-5774-6968までお願いします。