Halloween

The night of October 31st is Halloween. These days, many people celebrate the event, especially in the United States and Canada every year. In the past, people believed the souls of dead people appeared on Halloween. It is also said that the origin was the spiritual event to celebrate the harvest in the fall and to turn out evil spirits. It took hold not as a spiritual event but civil event. This time, I introduce three events in Halloween.

 

First, I’m going to write about Trick or Treat. Children visit houses while saying ‘Trick or Treat’ and get snacks. Then, they are dressed in costumes such as witches, ghosts, insects, princesses, characters and other things. The origin of Trick or Treat is from the custom which was called ‘souling’ and developed in Europe. It is similar to the custom of the drinking party in the Christmas which was called ‘wassailing’. Cristian walked from one village to other village while wanting to get soul cakes on November 2nd. Then, people promised to pray to guide the souls of the dead relatives the way to the heaven.

 

Second, I’m going to write about Jack-o'-Lantern. Jack-o'-Lantern is made by cutting eyes, a nose, and a mouse in a pumpkin by knife. Sometimes, people cut bats, witches, old castles or other scary things in pumpkins. After that, people put a candle inside pumpkins to shine through the holes. It is the most famous symbol of the Halloween. People make the pumpkins which have scary faces and silly faces and put them on the doorstep to scare evil spirits to get it out. It is the symbol of ‘will-o'-the-wisp’.

 

Finally, I’m going to write about dressing up. They dress up costumes as traditional things such as ghosts, witches, bats, black cats, goblins, zombies and devil and supernatural monsters which appear on the novels such as Dracula, werewolf and Frankenstein. These days, many children like to dress up as characters which appear on the movies and animations such as Spider-Man and Batman, princesses and pirates.  Women also wear costumes like maids, nurses and police. People hold a Halloween costume party.

 

These events will be popular in Western and this year people will also celebrate Halloween on a large scale. On the otherhands, in Japan, Halloween wasn't celebrated before. However, these days, it's becoming popular year in and year out. This is my first Halloween in America and I have not joined Halloween party until now. I’m looking forward to coming Halloween.

 

 

*reference*

Halloween in Japan

http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japanesefestivals/a/halloween.htm

 

 

Why Japanese are NOT good at speaking English?

Some people say that the age of globalization has come and English skills are the most important in the international communication. We need to speak English to play an active part in the world. However, most Japanese are not good at English, especially, speaking English. I found an article about this problem and consider my opinion, why Japanese not good at speaking English. I mention three reasons.

First, we don’t need to use English in usual in our daily lives. There are little people in Japan who need to use English and they are people who work for multinational corporations. Most people have no problem in their daily lives even if they don’t speak English. It is probably one reason which Japanese are not good at speaking English.

Second, Japanese government focuses on reading, writing, and grammar on the English education. We don’t have enough opportunities to speak English and hardly do discussion and group work in the classroom, especially, when we were high school students. Also, Japanese dislike to do different behavior from others and it makes us feel embarrassed to pronounce correctly. It’s also one reason that Japanese can’t improve speaking skill.  

Third, Japanese language is completely different from English in pronunciation letters, and structure. We don’t use our tongues and breathes when we pronounce. Also, we use hiragana, katakana, and kanji as Japanese alphabet. In addition, verb is placed on the end of sentence in Japanese. On the other hand, European languages and Chinese are rather similar to English in word order. It means learning English for Japanese people is more difficult than it is for European and Chinese people.

I think Japanese should have more opportunities to speak English to improve their skills. In addition, Japanese people need to speak English more fluently and logically because English is widely used all over the world and the necessity for English is increasing these days. This makes easier for us to communicate with foreign people and many companies more smoothly, which would strengthen our economic power. We have to learn English more for us.     

*Referenceｓ*

Why Can’t Japanese People Speak English

http://blog.gaijinpot.com/cant-japanese-people-speak-english/

How to Protect Us from Natural Disasters

I’m going to write about natural disasters in Japan, today.

In the world, there are many kinds of natural disasters such as earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, landslide, flood, tornado, drought, tidal wave, snow damage or others. Sometimes these kill or injure a lot of people. Every year, many people die unexpectedly because of natural disasters suddenly. 

Especially, earthquake and tsunami which arises in the wake of earthquake, and volcanic eruption are natural disasters which Japanese pay attention. 

Therefore, this time, I mention how to protect us by ourselves from these three natural disasters.

First, earthquakes often happen in Japan every year and they have different sizes.

They cause the damage for human because of injury, the danger of life, mental damage like stress, depression and neurosis because of the death of their family or friends and the life at refuge. Also, it causes the damage for structures, agriculture, traditional buildings, factories, stores, lifeline, and ground, fire, tsunami, the decline in medical service, public service and public service.

By the way, what should we do to protect us from earthquake?

We can put up resistances to earthquakes on houses, hold furniture strongly, check shelters, prepare preserved food and listen to information of earthquakes and second disasters.

When earthquake happens, we should leave from large furniture, protect our heads and bodies, put out the fire on gas stove, shut the gas tap, open doors and windows, and wear clothes, shoes and helmet to protect. After the shaking subsides, you should go outside.

Second, Japanese also consider that volcanic eruption is one of the natural disasters which people are afraid of.

Some people die and injure, volcanic eruption give damages to mountains and forests, wastelands, rest stations on the mountains, private houses, airplanes and other transportation because of volcanic gasses, cinders, volcanic mudslide, volcanic ash slide, lava, and eruption. Some ship are sometimes wrecked and people are killed because of eruptions of undersea volcanoes.

We can listen to the information about volcanic activities in ordinary life, especially before we go to mountains. We can submit climbing notification, confirm where there are the shelters or mountain huts, and take protective mask and goggles before we go to mountains. Also, it is necessary to prepare preserved food and water, flashlight, blanket, and medicines if you live near active volcano.

When we meet volcanic eruption in mountain, we should go upwind and the shelters or mountain huts, cover your mouse with handkerchief or mask, and take contact lenses off. If we meet volcanic eruption in the house, we should gather information and seal up windows.

A volcanic eruption of Mount Ontake took place on September 27th, 2014. Mount Ontake is a volcano located in Japan and located around 200 km western Tokyo. It killed over 50 people. Also, on March 11^th, 2011, the large earthquake stuck Japan. It is significant for Japanese to pay attention to natural disasters and prepare countermeasures against them.

*reference*

The Japan Times

Mount Ontake's ashes yield four more bodies as search teams race to beat typhoon 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/05/national/bodies-found-volcano-search-resumes-ahead-typhoon/#.VDG_P3lxnIU