COMMUNICATIVE TIMES
A Newsletter for Japanese University Student Writers
Critical Thinking Special

Summer 2005

John Pereira (Editor), Dr. Simon Potter (Associate Editor)
Prof. Komei Go (Associate Editor; Kyoto Seika University), Toto Akeru (Art Director)

EDITORIAL

EFL Education & Computers: Shrinking Minds ...?　

If higher education is defined as what the computer cannot do
then where do we stand or fall?

I ask this question as a teacher/learner and a human being
and find

that whatever the surface it may be on
written language can be thought of in two ways

computer reachable language aka in the good ol' days as dictionary reachable
and
computer unreachable language (or if you prefer dictionary unreachable)

Now
which do you teach?
Both or only one? and how much of each?
(never mind the genre as it is of secondary importance)

With computers gradually becoming an acceptable and integral part of reading and writing courses
are we unwittingly encouraging only one category in the Age of Maru & Batsu

and showing the exit door to supporters of the other?

in effect
giving our students a lopsided curriculum to chew on
when they could learn how to think more effectively with texts where the dictionary is no longer their savior

making it clear to one and all
whether they have understood the intent of the writer and are able to defend their point of view or not


My Father
& Me

My father
regards everything

except scholarship

as trash

so
when he
asked me
what
I learned
recently

and
I told him
it was
the price
of vegetables

my father
cried

Saeko Hada (from CT2)

Critical Thinking Exercise in the Age of Maru & Batsu

What's the key point? And why?
キーポイントはa, b, c のうちどれでしょう？
また、その理由を説明しましょう。

a) she doesn't like her father
b) students should not learn the price of vegetables
c) the father's and the daughter's views on education are different


Explanations
His daughter thinks that everything can be an education; for her, finding out the price of vegetables is one example of learning. Her father, on the other hand, has a narrow view of education since he thinks only scholarship is education.

He is a boring man! He is also a poor man, in the sense that he can't see the worth of anything except scholarship.
　　　　　　　　　　Etsuko Saito


Her father thinks that scholarship is the only way to get an education. Clearly, he can't imagine another way of getting an education. I think he is a scholar and makes his living through scholarship.
　　　　　　　　　　Ryosuke Yamagata

POESSAYS
West Meets East
and
Aristotle Meets Basho

These
little things
are
not poetry

but
a simple marriage
of
the poem
and
essay forms

Poessays
in fact

are
opinions
expressed
poetically
　　　　　　　Editors

When her father went to school he studied in the classroom or library. And he listened to his teachers' lectures and memorized as much as he could. He thinks that she should do the same.

But his daughter has been receiving a different type of education. The daughter is studying not only in the classroom or library. And, further, she can get a lot of information through the use of computers. She also doesn't have to memorize as much as students of her father's generation.

So, it is to be expected that her thinking on education will be very different from that of her father's generation.
　　　　　　　　　　Wakako Ishizuka


Her father wanted to know what she learned at the university recently because he pays a lot of money! However, she told him what she learned in her new life as a student living away from home.

A simple misunderstanding ...?
　　　　　　　　　　Kazumasa Kotsuji


My guess is, she has just started living alone. Away from her parents for the first time, she has to shop and cook for herself - which she probably did not do very often when she was living with her parents. She has therefore a lot to learn from daily life, and she realized that education can happen outside of school too.

The most exciting thing for her was not school but her single life. "The price of vegetables" is nothing but a symbol of a single life, here. Her father was expecting some different answer like the joy of studying at university, and couldn't understand what his daughter was saying.

To begin with, he thinks, just like other people of his generation, that education happens only at school; "school equals scholarship equals education." And, this is the way to move up in Japanese society. To be highly educated is a good strategy, and so he invested in his daughter (university education is not free). Naturally, he expected his daughter to study something scholarly. But her answer was not about scholarship. Now, if his daughter doesn't study, his investment becomes meaningless - that's why he cried.

I also think that he is like most men of his generation. He didn't do any housekeeping! When he was young, his mother cooked for him, and did everything else. And, after he got married, it was his wife. So he is not aware that housework demands some intelligence. Naturally, he can't understand why his daughter is so excited about shopping for vegetables.

His daughter, who understands well her father's way of thinking, answered, "the price of vegetables." It doesn't mean she didn't study; she just didn't want to give him the answer he was expecting.
　　　　　　　　　　Akie Tanahashi

Other Critical Thinking Exercises

Go to Home