kazuya

final audio essay

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In the speech of ‘how school kill creativity’, Ken Robinson says the most important thing for education is to educate children their whole being. As for his opinion, I have both for and against ideas.

First, I against his opinion that we should treat all subjects equal especially arts. Ken Robinson say ‘our education system is predicted on the idea of academic ability. Because there was no public systems of education before 19th century and education system was made in order to meet the needs of industrial society. So we made superiority and inferiority for subjects.While it may be true but I think subjects should be treated differently. Ordinary the people who studied arts enthusiastically were wealthy because arts needs a lot of money.As a citizen, we have to make moneys. And if a person born at poor household, he has less choices than rich people about what he can do. Arts potentially different in that there is people who can’t learn economically so shouldn’t be treated similarly with other subjects. I think practical subjects should be preferred than arts.

Second, I agree with the opinion that we should recognize human’s unlimited creativity make our life affluent and children are the hope for the future. Ken Robinson says ‘creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original. And by the time they got to be adults most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong’. These claim are to the point. It is true that more and more people want their educational backgrounds and want to enter a high level university, but it make their creativity and  diversity loss. For example, there is a typical lifestyle in Japan. A man who is raised by a mother devoted to the education will enter the high level junior high school, high school, and university. At last he enter a large company. This is a typical successful life style in Japan, so many Japanese people think entering high level university means success, all we have to do is to study for an exam. Now Japanese often be said there is no personality, they can only solve examination questions. In order to overcome this state, we have to look again educational system.

Actually I have an against opinion to him but I roughly agree with him. I think we need  more flexible educational system for us.

ryotaro

Rail fares: Minister Patrick McLoughlin defends rises

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Summary

The price of the train ticket increased by up to 2.5% in England and Wales. The government claimed this raise is needed to make the train modern and comfortable. However, trade unions oppose it because the raise of fares keeps going to beat salary growth. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin told good governments has decided to get more money from train passengers by expensive train tickets. If passengers pay more, all the other taxpayers pay less because 95% of English commuters don’t use the train. This action is not comfortable for commuters using trains, but it is necessary, he said.

Reaction

Raising the price of public utility charges is big problem is Japan. For example, the electricity charges was increased as the shutdown of the nuclear power stations. However, many Japanese thinks there is nothing for it but to agree. I think this shows the high qualities of public utility in Japan. The Japanese train services are known for “on schedule” or “not stop running”, so many people can agree with the raise. On the other hand, hiking fares are opposed by many people in England. It is because the service of train is bad and the company of train (Network Rail) increased many times. The price of public utility influences the life of people. If governments decide the raise of this price, they should make an effort to convince them of it.

ryotaro

Audio Essay

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The change of eduction system is very big subject and many countries try it.Then,I watched the video of the idea about the education by Ken Robinson,but I think his idea has some big problems.

First, what is the creativity? He says ‘All kids have tremendous talents.’ in this video. He thinks the creativity is the capacities for innovations and all children have them. However, it is the logic making by talented person. Ken uses the word of Picasso and Picasso thinks all children are born artists. I think all children in this word means a few genius. All children are unconventional because they don’t know the rule. It is rated as ‘the creative’ in a few cases,but it is rated as ’the useless’ in many cases.Then, the talented child or person always says ‘ It is common things. All children/people can do it.’ Could we believe this word if the nameless people said it?

Second, Ken believe the education system take the talent of child. If we change the education system, the talents of children are rated correctly. However,I feel the most big reason of ‘the loss of creativity’ is the gap of the talents. According to the research by The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Japanese elementary school boys want to be a sports player, scholar, motorman and girls want to be a patissier,singer, cartoonist. Though, many high school students or college students understand they can’t take these jobs because they know more talented persons than them.They lost their talent by the resignation.If we want children to keep their talents, the answer is very easy. We should destroy the competition, the settlement of winning or losing,the valuation. We should regard the picture by Picasso in the same light as the graffiti by children. We should increase the fixed number of sports player, scholar,motorman,and so on. If we change the social system like this, the many talented person will be born.That is very nonsense.

Finally, I present the example of the Japanese education with breathing space system called yutori education.This education system introduced instead of the cramming education system to recognize and expand children’s individuality and imagination. The system includes a five-day school week, simplification of the curriculum, and more time for independent “general studies” classes. However, many people think this education system makes a decline in academic standards.According to the research of the Mainichi Shimbun,71% of people agree with the change of this education.I can’t say the yutori education is wrong,but many people think academic ability is more important than the imagination.

I don’t want to disagree with the human imagination or creativity, but they are not possessions of all people. This capitalism society screens the talents.If we change the education system,many people oppose it like japan.Ken thinks the creativity as the almighty solution,so his idea is very unrealistic and optimistic. I think the most important purpose of education is teaching basic ability, for example, word, number, and how to communicate with other people. Therefore, present education is not too bad. To improve the talent of children is the role of the outside of education like lessons or club activities.If we want to use the talent of children, we should change the society to be more generous before we change the education.

takahiro, Uncategorized

audio essay

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 He has told us throughout his speech, that the current educational system kills children’s creativity. His opinion was really new and impressed me, but I half agree, and half disagree.

First, he said, “We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it.” It’s true that most people feel the things that we can do are being limited, and our brain are losing creativity, as we get older. But I think nobody knows how to become creative, because it’s not that creativity is what we can be taught from others, or taught at school. I felt what he said was irrelevant to education. I might hit on a great story on the train. I might create a fantastic computer. So I cannot say categorically that we grow out of creativity, because we cannot judge whether we grow into creativity or not, until we die.

Second, he casted a question taking a girl who likes dancing for example, “Why does every education system on earth have the same hierarchy of subjects?” I think that the girl’s good point was hard to be found unless people around her considered it as a good point. As he said in the other part, intelligence is divers, dynamic and wonderfully interactive. So, I think it’s very important to have the same hierarchy of subjects in order to be intelligent.

Third, in his opinion in the last part, we cannot develop children’s originality, or creativity unless we change the whole system of public education around the world, which highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued or was actually stigmatized. It’s great if we can find talented sport players, dancers, musicians, artists, with his way of thinking. But, I don’t think everyone has a talent, everyone can be like famous stars, everyone should be treated like that dancing girl. There are not so many geniuses. One class usually consists of about 80% ordinary students, I think. They don’t have something distinctive, and “that something” cannot be found so easily, so they must find “that something” in the future. Even though he said, “the whole system of public education is a protracted process of university entrance…”, I think it’s the right period for students to find something that will be a strong point for them in the future. It’s a good opportunity to find something in this period, so I think it’s not a protracted process. I believe what we are studying now will have some meaning, even if it’s not useful now.

 

Uncategorized, yuka

‘dislike’ botton on FB

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SUMMERY

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook took it into account to give its users new buttons including expression of “dislike”, while it is not clearly defined to call “dislike” yet. It is also considered to add a heart, a peace sign, a protest fist, a hand holding a bunch of flowers and a glass of Champagne. He said the button expressing negative sentiment would be used for being force for good by the way the Facebook company found.

OPINION

I disagree with the idea that adds ‘dislike’ bottom which expresses negative sentiment.
The reason lies in the fear that the bottom could threaten an essential right to freedom of expression, especially minorities’. Facebook is a communication tool that users can share life events or anything users experienced, chatting with friends and so fouls. At the same time, Facebook is also free space to express ideas, thoughts, beliefs or ideologies. If ‘dislike’ bottom use is allowed, users have to see both positive and negative reaction to their post. It is a big change for users to be added negative reaction because they become to feel that their posts are clearly evaluated as good or bad posts.
It causes problems especially when posts have messages that include controversial issue or themes in gray zone. There are naturally ideas that are sometimes at the target of serious attack, especially ideas by any protected category of people based on their disability, religion, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Then, if the number of ‘dislike’ becomes ‘attack’ on these users, they hold back from posting by fear that they are targeted of critics again. Since it is against the principle of fair and free speech, I’m opposed to ‘dislike’ bottom.

ikumi

Final Audio Essay

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Ken Robinson believes that we should bring up creativity of children. Then what is creativity? It consists of two thoughts that a divergent and convergent thoughts. The divergent thought is ability to create new ideas by oneself. The convergent thought is the ability that understands many matters and collects them all together.
I agree with his opinion. I believe that we should do education to increase the originality of children for the next generation. I have three reasons.
The first reason is the current society demands originality. Now, many companies need a creative talented person with a rich idea. For example, IT companies. They always demand a new idea and technique, because if they can’t produce new things, consumers get tired. As a result the incomes of companies decrease.
The second reason is to bring up the person who can adapt to the information-oriented society. In the modern society, information increases more and more, and the contents are developed too. We need education to increase the creative thought of children to get a skill that be able to use the enormous information. I think that we cannot adapt to the information-oriented society in future by the present education that only brings up a memory.
The third reason is we have to learn the ability which can adapt a complicated life. New technique and information are produced, and our life becomes convenient. However, the problems that we can’t adapt ourselves increase. So, we need originality which make a new idea to solve these problems.
Then what kinds of education bring up creativity? In some Japanese schools, they educate to increase originality. For example, the elementary school in Osaka uses a computer and the internet in each subject. Teachers let students think about a quiz by oneself and let students make learning software with the photograph which they took. By this education system, opportunities of the creation increase and students can master a modern technique.
The American schools teach using “the Brain Storming method”. Students speak about one problem freely and find a solution by collecting their ideas. The BS method has a rule that not to have to deny every opinions. As a result, students can give many opinions freely without being afraid of mistake. I think that the Japanese schools should perform the class using the BS method.
In conclusion, I believe that we review the present education system, and we should carry out a system that bringing up the creativity of children. If the education system does not change, children can’t change too. So, I strongly believe that we must change the education system as soon as possible.

daiki

About China’s car sales growth

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Summary of the article

According to China Association of Automobile Manufactures (CAAM), the growth at vehicle sales in China halved by 2013 in 2014. Many global carmakers are competing in Chinese market. German carmaker, Volkswagen’s growth of income also decreased by 2013. And Toyota couldn’t accomplish the goal of growth. However, China is the biggest car market in the world still now.

 

Opinion

According to the survey in 2012, there were 81 cars per 1000 people in China. Japanese carmakers are damaged by the deterioration of Japan-China relationship such as territorial issue. Japanese share of cars in China is about 20% now.

Chinese wealthy people tend to buy expensive Japanese car. On the other hand, Japanese cars aren’t popular among young people because they focus on the design and facilities so even now Volkswagen is more popular among young people (Volkswagen is traditionally a popular brand in China because after WWⅡ, Germany sent cars made by Volkswagen for China for recovery from the war). I’m very worried about the trend away from Japanese car in the future. And it’s very disappointing that Japanese share of cars doesn’t increase despite Japanese home appliances are very popular among Chinese people.

There is air pollution in China and one of the biggest causes is the auto emissions. I think if Japanese ecocars such as electric cars and hydrogen cars become popular in China, this problem would be solved more quickly. There would be old and bad mileage cars in China. In addition, yen is weak now so China has a chance to buy lots of Japanese ecocars and sell more reasonably.

When House Foods Corporation which is a Japanese foods company tried to sell curry and rice in China, the company made a curry roux which tastes Tomato because Chinese people love Tomato taste. Japanese carmakers should make some originality to be accepted in China like House Foods Corporation.

makoto

Final audio essay

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    I agree with Ken Robinson’s idea in whole. I believe that creativity is as important as languages and mathematics, as he said.

   When I was a high school student, I often felt dissatisfied with an educational system because my teachers told me to do what they said anyway as if the reason is not necessary . It seemed that there wasn’t discretion of students. In such a school, it seems that the higher their performances of main five subjects in school is , the more excellent students are. Although languages and mathematics are very important and the possibility of using that knowledge in the future will be higher than that of putting to practical use what you learned about ,for example, arts, students have likes and dislikes and they will often decide their job based on that preference. Now, subjects requiring creativity such as arts is not so valued. In fact, in high school I went to, we can’t choose the classes of music and home economics when we were third-year students. Though I didn’t intend to choose such classes of art since I would be a university student majoring in law, students who were interested in arts and planed to be musician or designer was prevented from taking fascinating classes for them.

   By the way, I know a big man who attended to classes he didn’t take but he was interested in, daring to quit a university. He is Steve Jobs, one of the founder of Apple Inc. He dropped out a university to stop to take classes he was not interested in because he thought costs of classes he took was not enough valuable to spend money his parents earned. And then he started to sneak into classes he was really interested in. He said ” the knowledge I learned at that time is very precious for me, especially about calligraphy because I utilized the knowledge to equip with Mac a lot of font and adjustment of space between words”.

   As you can understand from his case, it is better to do what you want to do than to do what you think of as boring or disinteresting. If you are not concerned about making mistakes and you follow your heart, then you can make your natural capacity improved ; that is creativity.

   In conclusion, it is necessary to change current educational styles so that they could have a chance to select what subjects they focus on.

azusa

Final Audio Essay

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Through the whole, Ken Robinson talked about ‘Education and creativity’. He stressed over and over how much the education is important because it takes us into the future that we can’t grasp. He told, however, now we are running national education system where mistakes are the worst thing we can make. So even though all children have creativity from the nature, the education kills it. In other words, through the education at school, children have become frightened of making mistakes and many of them lose creativity or capacity. He said ‘If you not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.’ I think it is true.

Of course he pointed out the education of the whole world, but to hear his words, I thought it was particulary true of Japanese education system. What I want to say is, in Japan, I feel almost all children are frightned of making mistakes. The reason is very simple. When we make mistakes, Japanese teachers point out very quickly and try to lead us to the right, only, absolute answer somehow. They hardly pay attention to the reason why students failed or how to improuve. There is only ‘one answer’ that we have to arrive. So naturally Japanese students became not to make a remark to avoid a wrong risk. As a result, they became very silent. It looks good because they don’t disturb the class, but at the same time, they lose very important thing. That is creativity.

I also had been studied in the atmosphere like that, but it changed at the high school. There, I leaned English by a native teacher. He always repeated, ‘Don’t be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes, me too. Of course I help you to learn English, but DON’T BELIEVE ME ! ’ I was greatly shocked. In the elementary school and the junior high school, I believed that teachers know everything and always say right things. Thanks to my teacher in my high school, fortunately, I could make many, really many mistakes. He always lent an ear to my wrong English and explained me why it was wrong and how to express in English what I wanted to say. He never pushed us ‘one answer’ as teachers before.

From the mistakes, we can learn many important things, sometimes more than from one right answer. Or rather, we can learn fast when we make many mistakes especially in language. That’s what I learned through the study at the high school. I want many japanese teachers to create the atomosphere which allows the students to make more and more mistakes, to keep creativity inspite of killing it. So I think there are a lot of mistakes in this essay. But Ken also told ‘I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative’, so I’d like to continue the efforts to improve my English skills.

hiroki

My reaction to ”Toyota opens up hydrogen fuel cell patents ”

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Toyota said monday that it’s going to try to boost the market for hydrogen fuel-celj powered cars by opening up its patents to competitors.This is because they believe the potential of
fuel cells to become mainstream technology over the next 100 years, and they try to help accelerate the adoption through the market by having more autmakers and suppliers in on the development of fuel cells. The move comes as toyota, honda and hyundai are introducing new hydrogen models to consumers. However, even though costs of hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars have fallen, they remain costly to build and there remain few stations to refuel them.

This is my summary.
In this article, I feel that these actions of toyota are the right action that companies should take.
Now in the modern society, we can see the actions of companies that have over self interest supremacy doctrine. For example, in the food industry , there have happened a lot of problems such as comtaminations , uses of foods that have passed the day expressing by when we can eat, and so on.These actions indicate that ,even if the action do harm to the society , only self interest is important.
However, I think a companies is what do good to people , and should be.
So I feel that toyota is a great company , and I respect toyota , the company with good socially moral senses.

HIROKI SUZUKI