It's almost Chinese New Year. And Setsu Bun, one of my favorites! Despite my age, I'm still managing to learn new things, and I want to share some with you. First new thing is the kanji chosen by the government for 2010. It's '新' meaning new! Second new thing I learned is the lucky direction for this year. As a bonus, I'd also like to talk about Setsu Bun, which is not so new for me, but I love it, it coincides with the publishing of this article, and it's lucky!



Since there's not much to mention about this year's kanji, I'll first write about E-Hou which is the lucky direction for this year. It is West-South-West (WSW) which is halfway between West and South-West. To look in this direction prior to your Toefl test, your wedding, or your job interview is guaranteed to boost your score/longevity/chances, whether by lucky gods recognizing you, or just some classic placebo giving you confidence. Even better, you could head down to the 7-11, buy some E-Hou maki, and eat it in some high place, maybe a rooftop, while looking and contemplating in the WSW direction.



Growing up with fairy tales, I know that magical beans are way more lucky than a direction will ever be. The magical beans in season are the setsu beans. Japanese people and some foreigners living in Japan will consume their age in setsu beans on this auspicious day. With the remaining beans, we pelt the 'Oni'¹ while chanting 'Oni wa soto/Fuku wa uchi' meaning the Oni better go outside (or we will keep throwing beans at him) while luck is (coming) inside. Sure, the beans end up all over your apartment, but if you have a pet dog, no worries.



And as far as setsu beans go, I think they're pretty tasty. Oni has his own brand of sake, called Oni Goroshi, which complements the beans quite well. Check it out, 7-11 has this too. Just look for Oni's red face with horns on a white box. Oni himself must be pretty lucky with sales, considering convenies only really sell the most popular stuff. You should be able to pick up the beans there and, if you've got the Oni's own luck, a cardboard mask of Oni! Now you too can be Oni! Terrorize children! Rob 7-11's with your identity disguised! Just don't forget to celebrate...Happy Setsu Bun!!
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1. Your father wearing an Oni mask.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【No Tray】2009.12.23 (Wed)

水曜日更新担当の講師チーム"Zen and the Art of Aptitude"から
今日は講師・Kurt先生の更新です！
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The other day I was talking with one of the guys at Kaplan about books. He was reading a Japanese novel, and asked me if I had ever read anything by that author. Sadly, I had to reply in the negative because while I read a lot of novels, I tend to do so just for entertainment. I'm not all that interested in stories which concern themselves with deep, complex or unusual relationships between individuals, or which have a simplistic philosophical theme the author wants to present. Fiction is just a way to pass the time on the train, so I rarely read anything that passes as "literature" these days.

With the advent of the Internet, there is so much information available that we have to filter out what we think is meaningful and put our attention on it, while ignoring a lot of things that other people think is important. Luckily, there's always something out there, no matter where our interests lie. The important thing is to keep reading!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Classic Movies and TV】2009.11.18 (Wed)

In my last post, I talked a little about the importance of trying new tactics and techniques as you study, not only to break up the monotony, but also to find out whether there's some particular method that makes your test seem easier and more manageable. If you're stuck in a rut with your studies, and don't seem to be able to break out of your current score level, try a few of these to get your mind working and improve your test-management skills. These tips are mainly for takers of the LSAT and SAT, since those tests are on paper and allow students to skip around within the current section, but even GRE and GMAT takers can benefit by prioritizing questions during study, since anything that keeps study (relatively) interesting is good for your disposition.



Work by Question Type.
For most students, I recommend working whatever question type you find easiest first. This gets you warmed up, and allows you to quickly plow through a bunch of problems, so that you can then allocate your remaining time more precicely. For instance, if you're great at Geometry, just look for geometric figures in your test section, and get those questions out of the way. While you're glancing around, you'll also be able to glean which other problems might go quickly for you, and which might require more time. Remember, on the LSAT and SAT, all of the problems are worth the same number of points, so there's no reason to sacrifice two or three easy questions to get one hard one right!



Start with the Medium Questions.
On the SAT's math and writing sections and the LSAT's logical reasoning section, the questions basically go from easiest to most difficult. Remember that most of the questions that you see will be medium difficulty, and that one of the things that makes easy questions easy is that they have fewer trap answer choices. If you start with the medium questions, and then go back to the easier ones, you'll be more apt to allocate your time wisely, rather than wasting time mulling over easy questions. If you're going to run low on time at the end of the section, and have to answer a few questions hastily, you're more likely to be able to tackle an easy question quickly than a hard one.



Time Yourself by the Page, Game, or Passage.
Each test has various types of questions at varying levels of difficulty, so keep yourself to a disciplined schedule that will allow you to spend more time on tougher games or reading passages. On the LSAT, you might break up your game schedule as 2 minutes to look over the games and decide what order to tackle them, 7 minutes for the easiest game, 9 minutes for the two medium games, and then 10 minutes for the hardest game. Also, be discipilined about how much time to spend setting up your game. Remember if you spend 5 or 6 minutes setting up an excellent game sketch, you'll be able to answer the questions very quickly, sometimes in as little as 2 minutes for the whole set. This takes practice and discipline, but it works. You can do the same thing on the LSAT for the Critical Reading section, giving yourself less time on the easy passages and more for the tough ones.



As for the reading sections, SAT test takers might quickly look over the whole section, to determine exactly what the question spread is like. For instance, is there one long passage or two, or a set of paired long passages? How many sentence completion questions are there? Do the long and short passages deal with topics you have some familiarity with, and thus might be able to plow through more easily? Experiment with different orders, sometimes working the sentence completions first, and other times starting with the long passages. Allocate time for each task during practice, and be realistic about how long you need to complete each task. The more structured your timing while you study, the less stressed you'll be about time on test day.



Study Alone, with a Partner, and with a Small Group.
Personally, I've always worked best alone, but during law school I realized that spending about 25% of my study time with a small group or a close friend who was near my skill level really helped me to organize my thoughts and to address questions in ways I hadn't considered. Sometimes, the best way to clarify your thoughts and reinforce a new skill is to explain your methods to someone else. That way, you have to think about and articulate what you're doing, and can call on that method later. Also, a good study partner will give you new insignts and share his or her methods openly, as long as you do the same. Even if you still end up spending most of your time studying alone, you can use and adapt the methods you've learned from your study partners.



Remember that studying shouldn't just be a grind; you should feel like you're accomplishing something, and should enjoy yourself as much as the task at hand allows. Mixing things up will keep it interesting, and will free you up to be creative in your study habits!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Douglas先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【How do you Study? Part One】2009.11.11 (Wed)

Happy New Year everyone. I trust you all celebrated well and relaxed much. I had a really great vacation. It was actually the best New Year's vacation of the three that I've had in Japan so far.


I heard something really simple but really good over the vacation. Someone was saying how there's three ways to live life in regards to learning from mistakes. The easy way, the hard way, and the tragic way. The easy way is to learn from others' mistakes; the hard way is to learn from your own, and the tragic way is to not learn from any. This sounds pretty simple because it is pretty simple. And I guess those really are the only three options. I guess you might have a combination of them... Anyway, and this person said that every year you should reflect and think of what your mistakes have been and then for the next year just not make them. Again really simple, but easier said than done.


Well I thought it was a really good idea. And a really good idea that's often overlooked. It's really incredible how many people go through life not learning from mistakes, not learning how to solve their problems, solve problems. There's a proverb I really like: "Like a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." You know how dogs eat their own throw up? If you've never had a dog maybe you don't. Well they do. It's really disgusting. And any sane person would think it's crazy and would never do the same thing. Well the proverb means that fools do the same things with their mistakes. Mistakes are mistakes and not good to be made, especially twice. But fools keep making the same mistakes again and again, and it's just as bad as going back and eating your own throw up, just as crazy.


So I thought about what my main mistake has been this past year and decided it was pride. Pride is an ugly thing that takes many forms and has many consequences. In myself, pride takes the form of reservedness (not a real word) and shyness. That might sound strange, being proud and being shy sound pretty different. But my pride makes me not want to look bad, not want to look stupid. So if I'm in unfamiliar territory, I'll become "shy" so as to shield myself from embarrassing mistakes that I'm too proud to make. Pride holds me back from a lot I think.


A couple of examples. I love singing but am horrible at it, so I don't join in karaoke when I really want to. I love dancing but am bad at it, so don't join my friends when they invite me salsa dancing. I'm curious all the time about new things but am afraid I'll do them wrong so I don't do them (like onsen for a long time). Sometimes pride even stops me from helping others, how horrible! Whenever I see homeless people, I really want to give them food. In America, this is a totally acceptable thing, but in Japan, I don't know. So I'm afraid that if I try to give them food, they'll get angry or yell at me because they're embarrassed or crazy, so I don't give them food. And the reason is not because I'm worried about hurting their pride, I'm worried about hurting my own should they yell at me and make me look strange in front of people on the street. But trying, and having the possibility of giving someone food, should be worth the risk of my possible embarrassment. And generally, the more I think this way, the more I think about myself, the less I think of others, the less capable I am to care for others. And a world in which you only live for yourself is a very small world indeed.


So this year I really want to try and stop thinking about myself and how I look all the time. I want to enjoy and care for what's around me, the people around me. Imagine walking in a beautiful paradise but only watching your reflection in the river waters as you pass. (Like many people do with their reflections in building windows in Tokyo.) What a waste! I want to caste my eyes upward and forward, not down at my own feet.


So, over the break I sang karaoke with people who were not my fiancé for the first time ever. I'm going salsa dancing Friday. Something new... I haven't figured that out yet. And this very morning I gave something to a homeless woman that I pass everyday on my way to work.


There's a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt (the wife of a president of America). She said, "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." This is what my friend would call the easy way. I want to encourage you all to at all costs learn from your own mistakes, be really active in trying to find what they are and in fixing them. But you could be even more ahead of the game and learn from those of others. Maybe some of you can even learn from mine.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Reading 3: Skimming】2009.12.02 (Wed)

 

After searching a few supermarkets, I finally found an ice cube tray!! Are these not popular in Japan? Do most people rely on convenies for their ice? I'd feel like a sucker buying ice. Anyway, I now have the means to make ice. Strangely, I don't hardly use ice; especially in winter. My friends, however, do, and it's nice to be able to mix drinks for them on the rocks.

The title, no tray, is a homophone¹ of a trend that's probably already dead in Japan, but was proliferating one and two years ago. Brain training inspired a slew of books, DS games, etc. How do these books and games work? Well, they provide exercises that work different parts of your brain; parts of your brain you might not be using in your everyday life. Spatial relations, speed of response, hand-eye coordination, left/right symmetry in action, the stroop effect², and so on.

Myself, I've found a far superior exercise for left/right symmetry of motor skills and hand-eye coordination. It's proven to work many parts of your brain simultaneously, and it will quickly warm you up when it's cold in your apartment³. It's juggling.



Juggling has a long history, I'm sure, but I'm not going to research it and report. Juggling is just what you imagine: throwing some balls up and catching them continuously in varying patterns. Juggling to music works well. If you're good at music or math, you may learn to juggling much faster than the average bear. It's very rhythmic, calming, and forces your brain to step up its motor skills. Left and right.



This isn't exactly a good medium for juggling instruction, so go to youtube and look up 'juggling stein 3 balls.' He's a great teacher; I learned a lot of tricks from his videos. In university I was able to teach dozens of people how to juggle (and here in Tokyo too!) Most people came to be able to juggle 3 balls within about 30 minutes. The interesting thing about juggling is how fast your brain can adapt. Juggle for 30-60 minutes. Then stop. Start up the next day or a couple days later and you'll notice a vast improvement. While you sleep, your brain is digesting the experience, and soon juggling becomes like a reflex. You'll strengthen skills with your weaker hand/arm. You'll find yourself becoming ambidextrous. Don't worry at first if you think you can't catch. My philosophy is, if you learn to throw well, you won't need any special skill to catch! Throw balls high to practice accuracy, low to practice speed. Start 'passing' with another juggling friend. Juggle in the park! This is a great break from studying and will have a positive effect on everything in your life⁴. Spread the word.



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1. Not a gay telephone. This means it has the same sound.
2. The psychology test wherein a subject is presented with the colour words in coloured fonts that don't match, and in quick succession. E.g. blue, red, yellow

. Subjects must say the colour of the font (above: 'red, green, blue',) not read the word!
3. Which is like always, because let's face it, Japanese housing construction is lousy.
4. Within reason. It may have a negative effect on your relations with people living below you.



▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━

・【Gross National Happiness】2009.11.25 (Wed)