podspress.com

 Saturday and Sunday aren’t holidays for me. I have a part time job. I serve asa a clerk in a shop. I work the days to morning until evening. So, my holidays are very special days. It is not work, and not classes. I think it is one or two days in a month. I spend the days cleaning.

 My room is dirty. There are empty cans of beer and plastic cases of food on the floor, and There is dust and hairs on the floor.

 First, I sweep my room with a duster. I don’t have a cleaner. My room is small. So a duster is more convenient than cleaners.

 Second, I wipe the floor with a wet floor cloth. I wipe along the grain of floor woods. Maybe, after that, I rest a few times.

 Third, I clean the bath. I hear the drain of the bathroom say ‘help’. It is full of hair. I clean it. And I clean with abath sponge.

 Last, I clean the toilet. I clean it with brush. Then I feel my heart is cleaned.

 But my room is dirty. I want to get a room. That isn’t a dirt room. 

Bowing is a Japanese traditional custom. I really like it because it is useful and pleasant when someone bows to me. I think bow has many meaning in each situation. For example, when we are greeting, it means “nice to meet you”, when we bow for boss or elder people, it means “respect” and in sports, we also often bow, we bow for “acclaim” each other. I like this way the most. In soccer game we bow each other before and after the game, before the game, bow means “nice to meet you and has a good game” and after the game, it means “good game and thank you”. Some team players often bow for field too, before they go in to the field, it means “please keep an eye on our game”. Bow is really casual custom but really polite. I feel pride about it.

 Have you ever joined japanese festival ? I have joined it many times ,festival is very fun .

 japanese festival has many kind of type. But I think japanese festival can divide two type .Japanese fesival has two type, so “mikoshi” and “dashi”. Mikoshi means carry on The Buddha’s house by many people. Dashi means pushing big a wheel in  many kind of musician by many people.

 My festival type is dashi. I weared speciai costume . For example ,tabi is old type footwear and obi means your waist to hold up your clothes and decoration .

 And I show special dance for people. Then people give moneys for showers. This money is management money or we use drinking and eating.

In Laos, there are many festivals every year. The biggest festival, and everybody is waitting for, is called SONG KARN (water festival).
The festival lasts three days. The first of the three days is the last day of the old year. Houses and villages are  cleaned properly on the first day. Perfume, water and flowers are also prepared for the Lao New Year. Water is used for washing homes, Buddha images, monks, and soaking friends and passers by. Students first repectfully pour water on their elders, teachers, then monks for their blessings for peace long life, and last of all they throw water to each other. The water is perfumed with flowers or natural perfumes. Some people prefer flowers in the water to give a pleasant smell, as well as adding perfume. Many people enjoy soaking water on Buddha images at the temple. Parents prepare traditional food such as: fried chicken, bamboo soup, green papaya salad and beer (beer lao). So most people in Laos enjoy having the traditional food, beer, soaking each other and passers by with water.

Today we decided that teams should have four weeks to complete their podcast shows. The shows should be:

• 8~10 minutes long
• be interesting for students
• be connected to Oberlin
• be varied and contain 3 elements (interview, survey etc)
• have a worksheet to teach new words and give listening practice for classmates
• have jingles and an Intro / Line-up and Goodbye

The second mini-task was to write a 100~150 word blog post on podpress.com on ‘My Culture’. This is homework and should be finished before next week’s lesson.

Have fun and work hard!

Yuuta is kept waiting when Naoki has a problem with the bus…

On this show, we hear about an International Camp in Kanagawa and discuss wishes and dreams in the opening interview.

Our two presenters talk about part-time work and have some interesting news about Oberlin Club in Izu.

On the show, Aya and Mio talk about breakfast and why it’s important.

In lesson four, we continued to build our podcasts adding a Campus News section. We had discussions, ‘concrete facts’, humour and lots of interesting news. Next week We’ll add these audio tracks to our interviews to make a longer podcast.

This week’s podcast features Naoki Z and Yuuta’s Campus News added to week 2’s podcast.

Enjoy the weekend!