Uncategorized – Page 43 – Shinichiro Yano

Japanese lecture 2 : 11 general things you learn first.

This list is mostly from “The basic Japanese grammar”.

There is no words correspond to the English words, a, an, or the.
Nouns do not have special plural forms; they remain the same whether they indicate one object or many. The Japanese word “戸(to) ”, for example, can mean “a door,” “the door,” “doors,” or “the doors,”
Pronouns are usually omitted if they can be understood from the context. But they can be used for emphasis, or when they are needed to make the meaning clear.

Example) 元気です。 I am fine, thank you.

私は元気です。 As for me, I am fine.

4. Verbs do not have special form to indicate person or number. Each tense has only one form, which is used no matter what the subject is.

Example) 読む(yomu; to read) in any of situation, I read, you read, we read, they read, the man reads, and so on.

5. Adjectives are closely related to verbs, and take endings according to their tense and mood.

6. There are no cases for nouns or pronouns. Relations between the words of sentence are indicated by “little word” called particle or preposition, which are placed after the word they control.

Example) が(ga) usually indicates the subject of a clause.

わ(wa) can be translated “as for” and often indicates the subject of a clause.

を(o) follows the direct object.

の(no) means “of” in most of the English senses of the word, and indicates possession.

か(ka) indicates a question.

7. There are the frequent ending

ます（ません）(masu(masen)) indicate present tense. () indicates negative verb.

ました（ませんでした）(mashita (masendeshita)) indicate present tense. () indicates negative.

ましょう（ませんでしょう）(mashou(masendeshou)) is usually translated by using the word probably in the sentence. () indicates negative.

8. The common ending て-teusually indicates a verb particle, which can be translated into English in most cases by present particle (“-ing”)

Example) 来て(kite) coming. 歩いて(aruite) walking. して(shite) doing.

9. Basic word order is “subject – object – verb”.

10. Conjunctions come at the end of the clause they govern.

11. Subordinate clauses must come first in the sentence.

I found good summary on this text book “Basic Japanese grammar”. If you have any question about these, feel free to ask. I will add explanations. Each case on this list, we will look into carefully later on this blog.

The PhD factory

This is from article ‘Nature news’: The PhD factory

The world is producing more PhDs than ever before. Is it time to stop?

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html

The number of science PhD grew by nearly 40% between 1998 and 2008, in countries that are members of OECD. The growth shows no sign of slowing: most countries are building up their higher education systems because they see educated workers as a key to economic growth. But, is it time to stop?

Japan: The system in crisis.

Of all the countries, Japan is arguably one of the worst. In the 1990s, the governments set a policy to produce 10000 PhDs, trying to triple the number, which succeeded quickly. However, because they have limited seats for professors, academia doesn’t want them. And also, because Japanese companies want undergraduate students to train by themselves, Japanese companies neither.

China: Quantity outweighs quality?

The number of PhD holder in China grew from 10000 (1999) to 49000 (2008). But the main problem is the quality of student. Because of its rapidity, many PhD supervisors are not well qualified. And length of PhD training at three years is too short.

United States: Supply versus Demand.

The population of the people with science PhDs who get tenured academic positions in the sciences has been dropping steadily and industry has not fully absorbed the slack. The poor job market has discouraged some potential student from embarking on science PhDs. Some universities are now experimenting with PhD program that better prepare graduate student for career outside academia.

Germany: The progressive PhD.

Germany is Europe’s biggest producers of PhDs, producing around 7000 PhDs in 2005. Because they have long period experience for training PhDs, they developed progressive training system. Some PhDs seek for job in Academia in Germany. PhDs can also seek for the position in the rest of Europe, and also Europe companies are also interested in them. They are the best of the best.

I believe that Japan have to seek for Germany model. We should develop better PhD training system to satisfy demands of Asia academia and companies.

(See figures on source http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html)

Magnetic Frustration.

I am working on the magnetism. Even 3000 years of scientist’s dedication, the magnetism is central issue of physics. We have a lot of mysterious and unsolved problem. I have studied for almost 7 years from undergraduate student to postdoc. And I will have studied the magnetism throughout my carrier.

The magnetism is study of how and why spins align in the material. The smallest unit of magnetism is spin which is caused by rotation of electron (for simplicity here). Spin is quantum, so there are only two states up or down. So, only two states exist. Let’s consider two spin on each 2 sites. The interaction between two spin is parallel, spins align up and up (or down and down) which that material have possibility to be a ferromagnet. (Fig.1 above) However, the interaction between two spin is anti-parallel when spins align up and down (or down and up) which that material have possibility to be anti-ferromagnet. (Fig.1 below) In these cases, it is not so difficult to find the lowest energy of system.

Let’s move on to the next. Physicist likes symmetry. (Do you agree?) So, let’s introduce third site and spin, and put on perfect triangular lattice (which means the strength of interactions are same) with antiparallel interaction. This state is not stable. We don’t know which direction third one should align. Because 1^st one you can put “up”, 2^nd spin should be “down”. How about the spin on third site? Should it be “up” or “down”? That is question. We call this magnetic frustration. This problem is still fascinating.

Actually, in this case, the system compromises and forms 120 structures. These spins align with 120 degree. (Fig.3 ) This is lowest energy state, however this system is so unstable, so that dynamical or interesting phenomena in this system has been observed. Physicists have revealed a lot of things but still fascinating.

To study the magnetism, I use neutron scattering. Neutron has a spin. So there is interaction between neutron spin and spins in the material. Throughout interaction we will see dynamics of spin and structure of spin in the material.

Wild Wing Cafe in Charlottesville

Last Friday, I went to Wild wing café to listen to the band playing. That band consists of basically vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, and Drums. My excitement at that place is indescribable. I realized how much I needed this loud, but lovely sound. I should play guitar in some band sometime soon. I want to play on the stage!! I was so excited to listen the band music!!

I have played the guitar for 12 years. And I also have played in the band. I like playing guitar and being in the band. I used to play classic (?) American Rock, such as Deep purple, Eric Clapton, Eagles, and so on. And also I played Japanese pops the band especially for women singers. I will definitely write here about my favorite music later, especially from Japanese music scene.

The band I listened last Friday, the members are around 50 years old. I asked their currier, the drummer said he has 35 years of currier. I was happy to hear that. Because I could imagine I could play also when I am 50 years old.

And I vaguely understand what they are going, what are their ideal sound, rhythm, and groove. I think there is a specific rhythm or groove for each races. Each race has its own sense of time, rhythm, and accent. As for me, maybe Japanese, I am absorbed in more up tempo sound, sharp sense of time. But American (White) seems to be slower than us. I am interested in Black.

I want to be in some band here. Even though the different atmosphere, there is something I can learn. I am eager to play.

So, I looked back my currier. I am amateur musician. But some of my live concert was recorded, of course by me. So, I checked my play, and analyze my strength and weakness. I just start practice again!! I hope I can play on stage soon!!

Good English words I found at books, online, and my life recently.

1. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Jane Austen “Pride and Predudice” found at The Great Course DVD “how to write about anything”

2. Great writers are always great readers.

The Great Course DVD “how to write about anything” Chap1

3. We haven’t closed the wealth gap between black and white Americans.

The Huffington Post | By Bonnie Kavoussi.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/21/martin-luther-king_n_2498349.html

4. Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. — Gene Fowler

Writing research papers at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html

5. Remember you are smarter than the calculator. Check your answer to make sure it is reasonable.

CK-12 Basic Physics – Second Edition (Kindle Locations 62-63).

6. “I often think about music. I daydream about music. I see my life in the form of music.” – Albert Einstein

CK-12 Basic Physics – Second Edition (Kindle Locations 151-152).

7. We may not able to avoid pain, but we don’t need to add suffering on top of it.-Dalai Lama.

I found this phrase on the book ‘Lifelong love’.

8. 4000 years of medicine.

2000 BC: Here, eat this root.

1000 AD: That root is heathen!! Here say this prayer.

1865 AD: That prayer is superstition!! Here, drink this potion.

1935 AD: That potion is snake oil!! Here swallow this pill.

1975 AD: That pill is ineffective!! Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 AD: That antibiotic is poison!! Here, eat this root.

By unknown, I found facebook post by English language and literature.

9. If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you!!

By unknown, I found it on Facebook post by English language and literature.

10. No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.

By Confucius

Japanese language lecture 1 : Introduction.

I have just started teaching Japanese in the U.S. for my friends. I am a native Japanese speaker but I realized how it is difficult to teach my own language systematically. I am actually novice as a teacher. But I promise I will do my best to explain. If you are interested in Japanese, please feel free to contact me, leave the comment. I am living in Charlottesville VA U.S. I can be your language partner.

I am going to teach Japanese on this blog for learners who can speak English.

Japanese, unlike the other foreign languages that you are likely have studied, is not a member of Indo-European family, and is not related to English. Nor is it related to Chinese, even though it has borrowed a large vocabulary from Chinese. It is pretty much a language by itself.

In some ways Japanese is simpler than English, in the other ways it is more complex. For example Japanese is extremely regular in its grammatical forms; the exceptions to the grammatical rules of formation can be counted on your fingers. On the other hand, syntax and sentence structure can become very complex, and idioms are numerous. Even native Japan speaker should keep learning. And also we should care about cultural difference, we have kind of seniority system. That is because, I think, we had a lot of natural disasters. We believe senior has better knowledge. So some times, we follow the senior’s opinion, even when we know the senior person should be wrong. We some time choose harmony of group or society rather than right decision. So, we have different form of language to senior person. But English basically does not have such form and we can discuss our opinion with freely at any age.

On this blog, I will use ‘Basic Japanese Grammar’ written by Everett F Bleiler. And also I might write about the grammatical problem that I would face during teaching.

If you are familiar with Japanese culture, it is good. Anime, Electronics including camera, Game, History, whatever, these are your strength to learn Japanese. Tell me if you are interested in something. Tell me if you have something what you want me to post. Your feedback is important!!

Like learning other languages, you need to practice speaking, but also go back to Grammar periodically.

Again, Japanese grammar, though different from your past experience, is not really difficult. I hope that understanding grammar will make your travel more pleasant when some of you come to Japan in the future.

Asian economic ranking

From the economist article : A game of leapfrog

http://www.economist.com/node/21553498

From point of GDP, it is known Japan is third largest economy in the world, but by which means Japan is the 3rd happiest country in the world? It’s hard to say. Throughout almost all my life, I have always thought that why Japanese economic hasn’t revitalized? What is point? I want to tell you later but today, I want to share the fact which is less known. This is review recent article from the Economist.

For years, Japan was Asia’s richest and most powerful economy. It was the first Asian economy to industrialize, and the emerging Asian tigers Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and late China – merely followed in its tracks. Now, however Japan is steadily overtaken.

It is less known that Asia’s so-called newly industrialized economies (NIES) are, one by one, becoming richer than Japan. Most economist reckon that the best way to compare living standard is to take GDP per person measured at purchasing-power parity (PPP), which adjust for difference in the cost of living in each country. You know, the cost of living in Tokyo is the most expensive in the world 2012. Compare to New York City 33th and Shanghai is 16th. (See figure on source: http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/cost-of-living-rankings )

Cost of living: http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/cost-of-living-rankings

On this gauge, Japan was overtaken by Singapore in 1993, by Hong Kong in 1997 and by Taiwan in 2010. And South Korea will be richer than Japan soon. This is surprising, because in 1980, South Korea’s GDP per person was barely a quarter the level of Japan’s.

Now, Japanese prime minister is Shinzo Abe. He is famous for his policy of economics called Abenomics. Thanks for expectation for Abenomics, now stock price of Tokyo market has increased and the price of yen has decreased, which are good, will help Japanese economy later. But, the issue is Abenomics is going to introduce inflation target 2 percent. I am not sure whether or not inflation suits for Japanese economy. I said the living cost in Tokyo is the most expensive in the world already. If your salary is stable but the price of product increase, it is hard to live. And also it is important that inflation rate should be stable. Does this work?

Even it seems we have had hard time. For people in the world, Japanese economy is one of most important model. It is because Japanese economy has experienced Modern Industrialization, Bubble economy, and Aging society in advance any other country in the world. Let’s thinks about the future of Japanese economy.

Movie Review 1 : Shawshank redemption

This movie is the story of a prison break, which is caused by a smart banker who is suspect for having killed his wife. The movie starts from the scene when the main character called Andy (Tom Hanks plays) is in a drunken state. While he was setting up the gunfire, his wife was having sex with famous professional golfer. He knew that his wife had a secret love affair with the golfer, decided to kill them both. But he couldn’t. He threw the gun away in river and drove to home. However, wife and golfer were killed at that night with gun.

In the court, Andy was asked why he killed his wife. Because the motivation is clear and there is no alibi, he insisted he did not but no one believed him. Unfortunately, the police could not find the gun that was used for murder. The prosecutor said to him “Is it convenient for you, isn’t it?” He said with angrily “Because I am not a killer, this is not convenient for me.”

That’s why he came Shawshank prison.

He had been in the Shawshank for 20 years. In the prison, he was raped by a male prisoner, and worked for the officers and the governor of the prison to help them made papers for tax illegally, built library and dug a hole which is large enough to escape from prison.

One day, young thief came to the Shawshank. He knew the truth and the killer, so Andy asked the governor to reexamine his case. But his offer was rejected and, the young thief was killed because Andy was useful and also has many secrets of the governor and the officer of the prison.

So, he decided to escape from Shawshank using the hole.

He found the resort periphery of the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Interestingly, the money that he spent there was the money he made at Shawshank prison during serving for the offices and the governor as imaginary person, who is only existing in paper.

What I learned from this movie is the importance of enduring work throughout habits.

University Word List

If you are English learner and want to understand and use academic words, learning University Word List is definitely beneficial. So, what is University Word List?

International student who enter academic program as undergraduate or graduate students in the U.S. face considerable hurdles, not least of which is the daunting amount of and type of vocabulary they are likely to encounter in their academic fields, and be expected to use in their academic writing. Student with advanced proficiency in English may generally be expected to have acquired a minimum productive English vocabulary of 2000 head words (plus derivatives) along with a larger receptive vocabulary, while an average American undergraduate is estimated to have a vocabulary of about 20000 words. This wide gap in vocabulary knowledge would seem likely to penalize international students from the beginning by slowing down their rate of reading and compromising their comprehension of study material overall. In wiring, it has been noted that international student tend to use less academic vocabulary than their native born peers.

Studies of vocabulary reported by Paul Nation (1990) have shown that a basic 2000 words vocabulary of high frequency items actually comprise 87 percent of words in an academic text. A further 800 words academic words have been identified which comprise an additional 8 percent (95 percent of total) of textual items. Three percent (98 percent of total) of remaining words are technical items, which differ from on field to another, generally consisting of 1000 to 2000 items, which are usually taught or acquired in the academic program. The remaining 2 percent (100 percent of total) of words in any text are considered to be low frequency words, numbering up to 123000 (they may be mentioned only once in a given text).

So that, knowledge of a further 800 academic words can significantly boost the comprehension level of academic text and activities. Nation combined these word lists into 800 items University Word List (Xue & Nations, 1984), with the aim of having the lists into serve as a guide and focus for teachers and as a check list and goal for students. The University Word List consists of vocabulary that students are likely to encounter across all academic fields, concentrating on the language of research, analysis, and evaluation. Students who activate this vocabulary and use it in their academic writing will be more successful in effectively communicating their ideas as students and scholars.

You can practice these words.
http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/AWL/index.htm

University Word List divides into the sublist. So let’s learn with me on this blog step by step!!

The reason why I am writing my blog.

I am a young Scientist just turn 30 last September. I am going to study Physics throughout my life. I have studied solid state physics using mainly neutron diffraction. What I am interesting is mutiferroic, orbital order, helimagnetism, and so on.

On this blog, I will write about what I concern, such as Physics, English as a second language, Economics, Education, Japanese culture, recent politics, American culture, Book I read, music and so on.

I used to write Blog in Japanese. What I was trying to do is trying to think on writing. Of course this blog is including practicing English. But goal is not practice English.

1. As a Physicist (may be tagged Physics)

I want to write about recent news in my field of study and also history of physics. Sometimes, this is difficult for you to understand or maybe sometimes too easy for you. So feel free to left comment and ask question for me. I can explain what I can explain.

2. As a English learner (ESL)

I started learning English late my 20’s by teaching myself. For learning English younger is better? Older is better? It’s hard to say. If you start younger, you can get used to use English faster, but if you start older you have experienced knowledge to talk to. In my opinion, learning language is similar to playing instrument or sports. You have to practice consciously but finally use unconsciously. I will write here what I learn about English, maybe we can share.

3. As a Japanese (Japan)

I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. However I am Japanese, I am always concerned about Japan. You can ask me anything about Japan and Japanese culture. I have responsible for answering for that. And if you need exchange the language, feel free to ask me. I am interested in English, Romanian, Korean, and Chinese. Some people know but, there are few Japanese in the U.S. compared to Chinese and Korean. Why? I have some answer but that is issue I would like to write on this blog later.

4. As a Guitarist or Musician (Music)

I have been playing guitar for 12 years. I am not good at, but I started to teach guitar with my friends. Here, I will review about guitar theory and how to practice, play, and listen music.

5. As a reader and writer (Books)

I love reading books. I am strong interested in recent development of neuroscience, behavioral economics, phycology, politics, economy, and of course Physics. I will write review of books I read.

6. As a Runner (Runner)

I like running. I have been running for 1 year and 3 month. I just finished first half-marathon last October and marathon last March, and trying to keep running. On this blog, I would like to write about marathon, health, and food.

My writing skill need to be improved, but let’s get started. And if you have comment, feel free to write here!!

Thanks

Shinichiro at Charlottesville, VA, the U.S.