keep blogging

I could not keep writing this blog. I wrote for one and a half month, but since then I have never written any post for the blog. For this occasion of resuming blogging, I would like to consider how to keep blogging. 

Windmills in Nederland

I believe it is most important to make it a regular habit. For example, I made it a rule to write blog posts about every day. A device here is that it is not "write every day." This helps me to keep the rule, for it is easier than "write every day." 

But a problem is that it was not declared when to post. This means when to write is not clear, either, and writing could not be a habit. So this time, I clarify the posting time: Wednesday nights. (And for the Japanese blog: Monday and Friday night)

One more device I want to add is to keep a stock of posts of a certain number. For this blog, I will keep 3 posts in stock. This allows me to fail to write for 3 weeks, and will make it easier keep the rule. (For the Japanese blog: 7 posts)

Alright, that's it for today. I will make the stocks this week, IF possible... 

French blog?? Je ne le sais paaaas. On va voir...

20100505

2010.05.05 Wed

I and Yuto repaired the congested sink in the kitchen of the school, through which I found Yuto is a man of action.

The sink has tended to be congested recently, and it got completely congested today. Since we had no class this afternoon, we tried to repair the congestion. It seemed to me that we needed a tool, which you see in the picture above, to clear the congestion, so I said that. And then, Yuto proposed to go to buy the tool, which I thought represents his energy for action.

Another demonstration of his great activity was seen when we looked for a sports shop. I thought it was hard to find one just by walking around, so I said that we needed to ask someone. However, I was too timid to talk to locals and hesitated to ask for some time. Then, Yuto proposed to ask a shop clerk, and soon he did it.

At the table of diner, the Madame of my host family argued that we should have had talked with her much more. It happened suddenly. Just after we began eating, she started speak in an upset manner. I could not understand at first because of my poor French proficiency, but gradually I understood what she said. She argued that she had been alone before or after diners in the past one month because we, I and a girl staying in the same home, were with her just for the diner time.

I believe she expected us to be with her for longer hours from her experience as a host family. Compared with her expectation, we spend LESS time with her, so she had a fuman. On the other hand, not only for her satisfaction, there is a benefit for us to spend more time with her; we would speak more of French and improve it. From both of the perspectives, I will stay with her for longer hours from now on.

20100504

2010.05.04 Tue.

Maybe I ought to do what I should/want to do, not what will make my stay to seem “enjoyed.”

I have wondered what I should do so that I, after this stay, can say with confidence that I will have enjoyed the stay. That has lead to caring how much I am "seen enjoying" the stay from the others’ points of view. I have been affected much by my imagination of how I am seen by others: if I am seen making the most of this stay.

This inevitably interferes with what I genuinely should/want to do. For sure, my own assessment of my stay must be more important than those of others. In conclusion, from now on, I try not to care how well I am seen doing, and concentrate on what I should/want to do.

20100503

2010.05.03 Mon.

I realized that I should intently listen to the lectures as a listening practice. It is sure that we carefully listen to lectures when we have not understood the contents. However, we tend to listen to the lectures less seriously when we have already understood them. I argue here that we should not do so.

Generally, for the improvement of language fluency, we need a lot of time on practicing processing the language. It is also true to the listening ability. And, attention! The entire lecture is given in French; this can be precious time for the processing practice. So, in order to take the most of the class, we have to consider it as a listening-practice opportunity and listen to it intensively.

Another thought on listening. Is there any significance in the noises in the background of listening materials for practices? In some listening materials, there are noises that hinder the understanding. For example, in the background of dialogue on the street are noises of cars. I believe these noises are to interfere with our understanding, and they works when we want to examine the ability to listen to words, in spite of the noises.

Ordinarily, however, listening in the class should be supposed as a practice. In practicing the process of understanding languages, we need materials that we can understand easily, because we can exercise the ability only when we understand materials. On this ground, I believe noises that hinder the understanding must be harmful to nurturing listening proficiency.

20100502

20100502 Sun

Since I could not write any post for this blog in the morning, I stayed at a café with my laptop from 13:30 to 19:00. Several points are different from weekdays at the cafe.

First, we cannot stay the interior just with a drink; we need to order something to eat in order to have a seat inside. So, I had a seat on the terrace, although it was cold and also rained, furthermore. Later, I could move into the interior and have a seat there. Sigh…

Second, the prices of drinks seemed more expensive. I didn’t ask about or confirm the prices of other drinks, but hot chocolate I ordered was 2.2 Euros, while it is 1.5 Euros on weekdays.

I will not go to the cafe any more on weekends.