Third week. Learning Journal

Question1. 
    The new thing I learnt inside the HELP program is how to write research paper at the writing class. My research theme is about women's higher education, comparing Japan and Korea and, especially I focus on their problems to go to the  universities. And, I have to interview some Japanese American students as one of the important research skills. But, it is very hard for me to do that. Firstly, it is because I have to make some questions for interview. The questions should not be too general and too specific and I should make questions to make interviewee comfortable to answers. Since I never have tried interview in my university, I found it is very hard to do research thorough communicating persons. Secondly, It is lots of trouble to find resource such as books, magazines and websites for research. In particular, since education is broad theme, I made effort to find the books related to my research. For these reasons, it is very hard but very useful for me to learn how to write research paper. Also, it is new thing to learn in the third week in the classes.

Question.2.
      Since I came to this program, I met many people and learned lots of things from them. Especially, in this week, I learned that I have to know about my country. This Friday, I talked with some UH students at the language exchange meeting. Although I did not sign up it(Sorry! Cynthia.) , I could talk with one UH student well at the class. We tried to speak their learning language and talked about our each culture. In particular, it is very interesting to hear about thanksgiving. Although I watched this event in the American TV dramas,  I did not know what it is actually. At the same time, I learned I have to know my country's culture more to explan other people. Outside the HELP program, some students often ask me about Japanese culture, literature, history and language. In particular, explaining about Japanese literature is very hard, because I did not study that well at school. Also, some of my freinds at UH likes Murakami Haruki, but I never read his book. Thus, I always feel I should learn  about my country and it is very important to know other poeple. This is the new thing oI learned outside the program.

Question.3
     There are several important steps to create GOs. The first step is reading fast without stopping, but to find signal words is also very important. For example,  at the GOs class, I learned some important signal words such as "both","different"and "similarity". It is very useful to find whether the reading construction is comparison or construction. Also, to create the GOs, understanding the reading construction is very crucial, because I should recognize and  divide the differences and similarities in the sentences. Secondly, as mentioned already, I have to divide the differences and similarities of some topics. For example, if the reading article focuses on doctor's work between Japan and America, you have to find the differences or similarities of their working way. Finally, when creating GOs, It is better to use two circles to reveal the differences and similarities. In that, writing some words and phrases simply is key point.