About Guruguru Japan

2009 September 18

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“Guruguru Japan” is a spin-off information blog from the successful UK-JAPAN.net project website (Nov 2006 – Feb 2009). Guruguru Japan aims to uncover the world of Japan from a deeply analytical perspective; the wonderful, the dark, and the damn-right plain stupid.

You will find that much of the early content (uploaded during Feb 09) on Guruguru Japan has been redistributed from UK-JAPAN.net. This blog will always aim to stimulate the imagination, whilst at the same time being resourceful, informative and provocative for all those with an interest in the land of the rising sun.

This blog is now officially offline (Feb 09 – Sept 09) – there is an abundance of rich content, so please do check it all out!

Guruguru - the state of something moving around or rotating continuously.

Thank you for your visit!

Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.
Japanese Proverb

A Term in School

2009 September 18

A Term in School

Self-Assessment  (September 2008 – March 2009)

Barry Crisp

This self-assessment is entirely composed mainly for the purpose of my own reflection of my teaching experience and development. It is imperative that I catalogue the progress of my teaching in order to improve without forgetting all that which I have done previously. Experiences are best remembered, embraced and learnt from. My experience at my previous school both good and bad had prepared me well for the six and half months spent at XXX Junior High School.

Below you will find my self-assessment broken down into several mini sections for easy reading. I have tried to cover the core bulk of the thoughts circling around in my mind.


10 Reasons to learn a foreign language

Upon introducing myself to students at each class, I presented them with a sheet of paper listing 10 reasons why one should learn a foreign language. I grabbed several of the reasons from the Internet and added a few to the list myself. Knowing that this comprehensive list would be difficult to understand, I had it translated into Japanese by a good friend of mine.  I scanned over the reasons with students, but left the bulk of the content to the pleasure of their own reading.

I felt compelled to write up this list because of my experience at my previous school where by many students seemed to lack purpose or simply not given beneficial reasons as to why they should learn English (or any other foreign language) other than for High School Entrance Examinations. I am delighted to say that my small document received positive feedback from both the students and English teachers.

http://gurugurujapan.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/10-reasons-to-learn-a-foreign-language/

read more…

Japanese Art ~ Rin Nadeshico

2009 September 7
by gurugurujapan
富嶽蛇遊戯図 - Snake, Doll and Female Student

富嶽蛇遊戯図 - Snake, Doll and Female Student

I love art and all the different forms it comes in from street art (Banksy) to advant garde (Henri Matisse) and to Japanese contemporary art with a provocative twist (Tetsuya Ishida). I was delighted to come accidently across an artist by the name of Rin Nadeshico.

According to her ‘about’ page, Rin focuses on women in most of her paintings and illustrations, trying to show the intelligence and resolution of women. The crab is also a symbol for women. Rin successfully blends her modern females with traditional Japanese styles through which she effortlessly captures the ’spirit’ of Japan.

In the early 19th century, Yamato Nadeshiko (大和撫子) is referred to by Japanese as a ideal Japanese woman with loyalty, domestic ability, and wisdom in the male dominated society. Rin Nadeshico 撫子凛 (*Nadeshico spelled with c , not k ) is an up-and-coming Japanese female graphic artist who illustrates a new definition of Yamato Nadeshiko in the 20th century. The girls she draws are independent, with strong personality, and sometimes aggressive with angelic and seductive glares.

Born on 15th Dec 1984 in Chiba prefecture, Japan, Rin Nadeshico’s computer graphic illustrations are montages of Mt. Fuji and other traditional Japanese sceneries, with school girls lounging around with various oversized creatures. School girls and tentacles are two common elements in many modern Japanese art, but Nadeshico doesn’t limit herself to giant beasts with tentacles, but giant beasts of all sorts, mingling with the iconic Japanese schoolgirl like lions to lambs.

To see more of her works, please do visit her website.

Frog

Frogs and games