JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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Confrontation
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Ossan wrote:
I'd like to think the judges see it that way, but in the Japanese court of public opinion, appearance counts very highly in the scoring.
Miki Ando looks great. She has blossomed into a very attractive young woman. I bet she picks up a medal. My money is on the bronze for her.
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The slightest bit of research confirms the Reeds to be born-and-bred Americans-the dual citizenship technicalities notwithstanding.
You'd think with it being 2010 and all that, instead of the constant speculation, some posters above would at least check out their Wikipedia entry to get a little info, and then maybe do a little more detailed Internet search.
Special exceptions are made for "special" people.
Supposedly, Georgia's leader railroaded Alison's citizenship through the bureaucracy so she could compete, for example.
kaminarihito et al: If you want to know more about the naturalization process and many other legal issues for foreigners, I suggest you go to William Wetherall's site. I don't necessarily agree with his interpretations of the accumulated material he has put together, but it is an impressive bunch of stuff.
And, by the way, congratulations to all the Reeds for pursuing your dreams and competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
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There's always controversy surrounding the scoring of top figure skating events. People need to get over it. It will never change.
Posted in: Lysacek upsets Plushenko for figure skating gold; Takahashi takes bronze
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I've seen her mother on many a travel show, especially the "Dreamy Trip" type to various onsen, usually with husband in tow. The mother's life story in Japan and how hard she worked to learn the language and raise a family is actually a pretty good story.
Posted in: Anna Umemiya's relationship with footballer over
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Good on Kazuhiro Kokubo and the other members of the Seven Samurai snowboarders for trying to assert their rights as individual human beings, and not submitting to the pressure to conform as clones in the collective mass of the Japanese.
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Narita ranked third in airport quality survey
This sounds about right to me. I'd rather go through an international airport like Narita anytime than be subjected to the hassles of most of the ones I've been to in the U.S. and Europe.
Posted in: Narita ranked third in airport quality survey
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Five paragraphs in and we get "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey famously says.
Posted in: Anna Umemiya's relationship with footballer over
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yabits is correct-there has been a lot lately in publications like The Wall Street Journal and Time about the debt-to-GDP ratio comparing the Great Depression years, WW II and its aftermath, and this decade heading forward.
It's almost guaranteed with the projected deficits the next several years that the U.S. national debt will reach 90-100% of GDP, which will make a shaky economic future for the U.S. even worse. Japan's situation seems worse when you look at the approaching 200% debt-to-GDP ratio, but, to some extent, Japan can breathe a little easier because around 95% of its debt is funded domestically, while the U.S. has about half of its controlled by foreigners.
One way or the other, the U.S. has a lot of work to get its debt back to manageable levels, as does Japan.
And it's impossible to say right now, unless you're Obama or one of his supporters, that he has saved the U.S. economy.
Posted in: Obama says stimulus bill saved U.S. economy
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I'd say measures taken by the Bush administration in 2008 staved off a complete implosion of the U.S. economy.
The jury is still out on the massive debt Obama has piled up through his stimulus packages.
There's still another round of housing foreclosures to deal with this year. Most states have intractable debt problems that seemingly will still get worse. The lifeline of continually extending social welfare benefits has to be cut off at some point.
Where these issues stand a year from now-after the Democrats very probably take a terrible beating in November's mid-term elections-will have a lot to say about whether Obama is a one or two-term president.
Posted in: Obama says stimulus bill saved U.S. economy
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It's about time France took care of its past debts to Haiti.
Posted in: Sarkozy announces big French aid plan for Haiti
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sarge wrote:
"the dangerous, spiraling Double McTwist 1260 Why would the IOC sanction a dangerous event?"
Because they know that snowboarding events help their ratings and profits spiral to the stratosphere, and the more daring, the more dough in their pockets and those of the TV networks.
Posted in: American White wins halfpipe gold; Kokubo, Aono finish 8th, 9th
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Chiaki Kuriyama is pretty nice, but I still prefer Kazue Fukiishi's UNIQLO commercials.
Posted in: From 'Kill Bill' to Uniqlo, Chiaki Kuriyama shows her killer style
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space monkey wrote:
Very true.
Spot on.
Posted in: Managing gaijin teachers
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The Whites and Lindsey Vonn lead the way for the U.S. back atop the medal standings!
Posted in: American White wins halfpipe gold; Kokubo, Aono finish 8th, 9th
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Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso give the U.S. a gold-silver finish!
Posted in: After all the delays, Vonn shines light on Alpine skiing with gold performance
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It wouldn't take much other than some colored make-up to put the third one from the left into the cast of Avatar.
Posted in: Jeans please
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Too sad.
Posted in: 4-year-old girl dies after fall from 9th-floor balcony in Osaka town
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Dean Morgan has the Hummingbird pronunciation schools as one part of their business.
Hummingbird was a small school chain with its main school in Shibuya for several years til about 2008. The selling point for the students was a textbook using the IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet) and some DVD materials based on the idea that repetition of sounds utilizing "correct" mouth and tongue positions will help the Japanese speak English with better pronunciation and improve their confidence using the language.
My honest opinion after working for them for a couple of years is that most of what they do can be done at home by students using study materials available at any decent-sized bookstore. The Japanese teachers I worked with did their best, but it's not a system that really promotes improvement in the overall English ability of its customers.
They sell a package of lessons that convinces students they will progress in the book if they are diligent, ultimately reaching the goal of speaking "beautiful English"!
I wish the people still working for them the best of luck, but, unless some dramatic improvements have been made in materials and methodology, it isn't worth the time and money they say it is.
Posted in: Managing gaijin teachers
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Hummingbird was a small school chain with its main school in Shibuya for several years til about 2008. The selling point for the students was a textbook using the IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet) and some DVD materials based on the idea that repetition of sounds utilizing "correct" mouth and tongue positions will help the Japanese speak English with better pronunciation and improve their confidence using the language.
My honest opinion after working for them for a couple of years is that most of what they do can be done at home by students using study materials available at any decent-sized bookstore. The Japanese teachers I worked with did their best, but it's not a system that really promotes improvement in the overall English ability of its customers.
The person who patented the material had a school in LA which didn't do much of anything for the foreign students there, as I recall. The ESP company that you can see from the platform of Takadanobaba Station had control of it in Japan, but it didn't do well at all financially for them, and expansion in Shinjuku, as well as regional schools in places like Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo created more financial woes.
I wish the people still working for them the best of luck, but, unless some dramatic improvements have been made in materials and methodology, it isn't worth the time and money they say it is.
Posted in: Teaching Japan a lesson
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Mieko Harada has been popular for her acting skills and beauty since the mid 1970s. Here is an old YouTube clip of her at the start of her career:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58PCzdqEEeE
Posted in: Mieko Harada to play widow in sarin subway attack drama