English4-akashiwa

the Philippines, a Prime Destination for Korean Students

akashiwa — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:24:38 +0000

The Seoul Times reported on Sunday that 111,000 Koreans visited the Philippines to learn English last year. The Philippines tourism department expects that the number will be a million by 2010. Some students join two-month English programs during summer or winter vacations and others enter international schools or universities in the Philippines. In addition, some Koreans visit the Philippines to learn English for particular fields such as medicine or nursing. Not only learning English but there are also programs that offer golf or diving. The Philippines is a good place to send their children for parents because of good English quality, affordable tuition, relatively low cost of living, and four-hour flight from Korea. The majority of the people can understnad English in the Philippines and the Philippines is one of the top five countries where many English users live. Therefore, srudents can learn English not only in a classroom but also the outside of a classroom by visiting tourist spots or communicating with Filipinos.

I was surprised that a lot of Koreans visit the Philippines to learn English, but it seems that the Philippines is a nice place to learn Englsih not only for Koreans but also for Japanese. Japanese students usually go to the United States, Canada, Australia、England, or New Zealand to master English but studying in these countries costs a lot of money and they are far from Japan. Comparing to these countries, studying in the Philippines is a nice choice. Someday the Philippines may become a country where lots of Japanese visit to learn English.

http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=6523

A Boy Is Shot on Halloween

akashiwa — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:57:53 +0000

A 12-year-old trick-or-treater name T.J. Darrisaw was shot and killed by 22-year-old man on a Halloween night in South Carolina. After hearing the knock on the door, the suspect shot the boy 29 times through the front door and windows. He thougth the ghoulish masked boy came to rub him, and his brother said that the suspect was suffering from post-traumatic stress after he had been rubbed and shot last year. The boy and his family were attending a Halloween celebration and stopped by the suspect’s house. His 9-year-old brother and his father were injured but released after they got treatment at a hospital. His mother and a toddler stayed in a car so that they were not hurt, CNN. com said. A policeman said that this incident is one of the worst tragedies he had experienced.

Shooting happened again on a Halloween night. In 1992, an international student from Japan stopped by a wrong house in a Haloween night. A man in the house thought the student was a rubber so that the man said “freeze” but the student could not understand the meanign of that word. After the student moved forward, he was shot by the man and died. Even though Holloween is supposed to be a fun event for children to dress up and get candies, children were shot and died. In both cases victims are innocent children who were probably excited to Haloween nights. Thinking of Darrisaw who was shot 29 times and the international student who died in a foreign country, no more such tragedies should happen.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/01/halloween.slaying.ap/index.html

A Boy Shot Himself At a Gun Show

akashiwa — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:01:24 +0000

ABC News reported that a 8-year-old boy named Christopher Bizilj shot himself with a 9mm micro Uzi submachine gun at a gun show in Massachusetts. He pulled the trigger and accidentally shot himself. He was pronounced dead after carried to a hospital. The show advertisement said “It’s all legal & fun No permits or licences required!!!!.” In Massachusetts children are allowed to shoot a gun if they have permission from a parent or a guardian, or if they are supervised by a licensed instructor. When Christipher shot himself his father and an instructor stood nearby him, police who still investigate this incident said.

How sad this incident is. A boy who is only 8 years old shot himself at a “fun” gun show. Children cannot take control of handling a gun. I do not know who has responsible for this incident. His father or the instructor who let Christopher shoot a gun, or the show itself ? A dangerous weapon such as a gun should be stayed away from children, specially young kids like Christopher.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/comments?type=story&id=6121915

Six Babies Born of One Pregnancy

akashiwa — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:48:08 +0000

A woman gave birth to sextuplets (six babies born of one pregnancy) in a German hospital. This lady had undergone fertility treatment and finally she delivered four boys and two girls at the same tme. The babies weight 800-900 grams, which means they are small but all of them are healthy. This German’s hospital is 300 years old, but doctors had never delivered sextuplets since the beginning of its history. The media reports said the probability of having six babies for one pregnancy is one in four billion.

It was happy news but surprising. How can a woman deliver six babies at the same time? Now the babies’ mother and father has a big family. They got a big present before Christmas. I am grad that all of the babbies are healthy and hope they will bring laughter and happiness to their mom and dad.

http://www.javno.com/en/lifestyle/clanak.php?id=194394

Again, the Nobel Prize

akashiwa — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:08:22 +0000

Just one day after three Japanese won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Osamu Shimomura, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, won the this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He will share the prize with two Americans for their research in “discovering, isolating, and utilizing a glowing protein in a species of jellyfish called Aequorea victoria,” Yahoo! News said. Since protein is so small that it is hard to see by a microscope. By attaching this green fluorescent protein called GFP to protein, GFP works as a maker and it becomes possible to observe the movement of protein. GFP has beed used not only by researchers but also by students in many fields such as mediical science and biology.

Mr. Shimomura has picked about one million jellyfish for his research. He said that once you start researching you should keep going and do not stop no matter how hard it is. This is true but it is harder than we think. I think never-give-up sppirit might make him become a Nobel Prize winner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20081013/bs_prweb/prweb1452954_1

The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics

akashiwa — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:54:58 +0000

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces Tuesday that two Japanese physicists, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, and a Japanese-born American, Yoichiro Nambu shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for “discoveries that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter,” Yahoo! News said on October 7, 2008. Nambu will share half of the 10 million kronor (about 1.4 million US dollors) prize and kobayashi and Toshihide will share the other half of the prize. The awards ceremony will be held on December 10.

The last Nobel Prize winners were Masatoshi Koshiba (the Nobel Prize in Physics) and koichi Tanaka (the Nobel Prize in Chemistry) in 2002. Kobayashi, Maskawa, and Nambu will be the 5th winners of the prize in Physics. Yahoo! News said that they focused on a concept called “symmetry.” I do not understand what it is, but the news said that their work contributed an understanding of later physics. Today will be a proud day for them as well as Japanese. Although it is impossible for me to understand what they have done, their achievements are outstanding.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_sc/eu_sweden_nobel_physics

Hello world!

akashiwa — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:34:12 +0000

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