Miya Maya’s blog

I had a drink with my co-worker, L,  who started to work almost the same time as me.
She told me how she doesn't like our manager, J.......

I understand where L stands and there were something J shouldn't have done to L.
So I agreed with L a lot, and I even felt sorry for her.
It was fun to hung out with a co-worker who is around my age.

And then, I felt really bad about bitching about J....I felt so much guilty...
Because I can see how J has to deal with so many pressure on her with such a young age.

I like both of them, and I understand where they stands and how they feel about each other.

I think I should have told L that you have to wear J's shoes...
I shouldn't have agree with L so much...

I mean, we talked about a lot of stuff other than work, but still feel so bad...

Bah, alcohol....my bad.

I guess everybody has weakness.....

I joined an ESL group in the downtown.
It will take a time to get the meeting venue, but the meeting is every other Saturday which fit with my schedule.

The ESL was more like a social meeting rather than a class, since the group only had some tutors with 25ish students.
Probably the ESL was less efficient than a real ESL class when you consider about leaning English, but meeting people around the world was extremely fun!
I learned a lot about various kinds of cultures in the short amount of time, and I had soooooooooo much fun sharing experiences and thoughts about the U.S, and each native countries!
I think experiencing this kind of diversity is something the U.S, is unique about as well as should be proud of.
I really appreciate and feel fortunate to be in this big city in this country!

By the way, I felt I should restudy Geography...some people I met there were from some countries where I couldn't remember in which region belonged....such a shame!

I think I can study English with Podcasts, reading books, and talking with my co-worker who was majoring journalism.
I might restart studying at online leaning websites as well.
Above all, I can tell my reading and listening are getting much better than 2 month ago!

I have been wanting to participate an ESL class for a long time to improve my English.
Once I found a free ESL class in local, but I could not attend the class because of my busy schedule.
But finally, I discovered a free ESL group close to my work, and was planning to go there.

And then, my husband said that I should not attend....
He thought interacting with other non-native speakers using broken English will make my English worse.

That is a fact I learned wrong expressions from non-native speakers before, and just working in my company where are full of good native speakers has been improving my language skills A LOT.
In addition, my husband always correct my language mistakes.

But, the thing is, I think I need a more professional person to teach me the language...like an English teacher who can expand my knowledge.
I have a nice co-worker who has a degree in Journalism, and she has been giving me a lot of chance to learn new vocabularies more than my husband can.

Also, socializing with people from all over the world is exciting!
I am sure that I can get to know more about other cultures if I go to the class.
Beside, I want to do something other than work!

At least trying once or twice would not hurt.

I hung out with a friend from my university yesterday.
Catching up  with an old good friend was really nice.
It brought me back to the collage time.
We promised to see each other more often.

I finally finished reading this book.
I watched the movie before, and enjoyed both of the media.
It's amazing how this author gather those information and put them as a great story.

I would like to read this book later again in the future.
There are so many unknown vocabularies in the book that I gave up checking each words.
I understood the main story, but I probably missed many small details.

I just finished reading "The Oz" for the first time. I had never known the story really well. I even have never seen the movie, but finally I read the book.
The story was much more interesting then I expected. It reminded me "Alice in Wonderland" a little.
I like how each main characters accomplished their goals while they help each other.

If I have extra bucks to spend in a shopping mall, I would go to a book store.
As a 20-something female, may be I should buy a sexy shoes and a flattering skirt.
I do love shopping clothes, but I love buying books much more!

Most of clothes can be worn out withing some years if you pay $50.
But if you spend the same amount on a good book, it can be your treasure for life.
( I know we need clothes to wear ...can't be naked if you don't have hairs on your entire body like a monkey.)

I got 8 books as holiday gift...that was fantastic!
My fiance gave me few more gifts which I needed. (Like a good leather bag for work.)
Among of them, the books were especially my favorite.

Since I was a kid, I loved reading.
Sometimes on 4th grade, I got really fascinated by a series of fantasy stories.
My teacher started to worry about me, because I read too much books but not interact with other kids during breaks.
The teacher talked with my mom, and both of them asked me with anxious faces, "Why don't you play with others?"
I had no idea why they thought it's bad to keep reading books, but I sensed I had to prove myself I could be social.
So I did it. It was easy to jump in to a social circle to me.
I had a great social skill as a kid. I would say I was a popular kid. :p

Also it was a book that really motivated me to learn English in the first place.
When I was a high school girl, I found an art book written in English at my favorite book store.
My eyes were caught by the beautiful photographs and arts, but I just could not read what it was written on the pages!
I only could follow some easy words, but that was it....
I felt I was missing soooo much.
Then I thought, "I really wish I could read English right now!"

Yap, there was no serious intention toward my career or my dream in the begging when I decided to learn English.
My first motivation was just to read the art book written in English.
I was just a teenager didn't know what to do for my life.
But I'm glad I followed my intuition, and I appreciate my parents letting me choose my path.

After I came to the U.S, I only had few textbooks for my university classes.
I could not stand with the situation. NO BOOKS IN MY ROOM?! CAUTION!
I started to collect books when I could.
I moved to a new apartment every year.
 Every time my friends who helped me to move complained how heavy my boxed were.

However, I had a problem.
I didn't want to read anymore after I had to read 50 pages of a textbook written in my second language.
During some years, most of my reading were only my textbooks.
The first semester was really hard, but my reading skill got better every semesters.

Now I read books for fun either it is written in English or Japanese.
After all I love books. and I like being a little bookworm.
I love being surrounded by books. I admire bookstores.

Today is Blog Action Day!  Take action by posting about the environment in your own way.

A) A Flash game about Sustainability.
I reposted this link again here.

Consumer Consequences
http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

They have a flash simulation game which evaluate you how much you are "green."
They will tell you how much earths we would need if everybody lived like you.
More than one earth means people cannot sustain the earth.

B) Thanks Al Gore for making "An Inconvenient Truth."
I have at least 5 reasons to thank him.

1. The recognition of global warming in a small town in Kansas last year

Last year, I was in Kansas, a middle of nowhere.
A small peaceful town filled with farmers.
Majority of people in the town didn't believe in global warming.
My fiance once randomly asked people "Do you believe global warming is really happening?" just for fun.
He asked about 10 people.
No body said yes.
They thought it was a political threat.

2. A great recycling system that nobody know

They almost seemed like they were just doing fine with the environmental protection.
This town had a recycling system, but most of people never knew about it.
Why?
I once interviewed the Solid Waste Division Superintendent of the town for my research paper.
I pointed out the fact people didn't know about this program and asked him why he didn't promote it.
He answered me that there was no need to "preach" people about recycling.
Bah.

You know what? I knew why he couldn't tell everybody in the town about this system.
This superintendent had given me the hints just 10 min ago before I asked him the question.
The economic reason was a key.
The waste division center collected two kinds of recyclable materials:papers and bottles.
The city could sell papers to a dealer, but they had to pay to give bottles to another  business.
If people recycle more bottles than papers, the waste division center would get in to the red.

How about give them more budget so they can operate their job better?
I guess to do that, the city probably have to rise tax.
It would be really challenging because of lack of recognition of recycling among people.
Unless people are educated enough, the waste department cannot "preach" people about their great program.

Well, I don't blame them about being not knowing about this and that.
Everybody is ignorant in some point, of course including me.
Especially in a small town in Kansas, what people see there was huge, clear sky and endless horizon, not smog.
Their life style is just more environmental friendly than city life style anyway.

3. National interests, manipulated media, and ignorance.

There is another reason people can be ignorant with an important issue.
The information from media about this subject in this nation was strongly controlled.
When I wrote a paper about sustainability last summer, I found out that one politician in the White House manipulated a scientific report about global warming in order to dodge the issue.
I found the article by public source.
Regardless of the importance of this issue, this news was not focused enough by media.)

In my opinion, every nations control media in order to favor own government or interest.
People think only Communist nations control media just like Chinese government banned Wikipedia.
Well....IT'S WROOOONG!
I can tell that the U.S. manipulate information as well as Japan in some degree.
Not terrible, but it's there.
Just like each medias has own bias, each countries has own bias.
I would not reproach for this tendency, because protecting own positions is another way to survive this world.

On the other hand, people should remind themselves about this, so they would not be fooled.
Never trust one media as well as one country's point of view.
It's like listening to one side in a court room.

I know it's hard to find out hidden facts among this crazy amount of information.
I wonder if there is any way that people can get more broad information from other countries without taking a lot of efforts.

To me, being a bilingual helped me to get variety of information.
It's pretty funny when you read totally different stories from same subject.
This is like listening a couple fight from each side.
He has own view and different opinion, and she has her own.
The problem is just how you perceive the information and how you communicate with others.

4. One of my culture shock in Kansas.

The circumstances in Kansas surprised me because of my experience in Japan.
In Japan, global warming has been consider as a solid scientific truth from decades ago.
Recycling was almost a "common sense."
Everybody knew about Kyoto Protocol and Mr. Bush refused to sign.
( I finally heard this word "Kyoto Protocol" in spring 2007 in a class room in Kansas.
My professor asked students how many people knew about it, and only 2-3 kids out of 30 rose their hands.)

REMEMBER: Common sense is nonsense in another place.
This was an example.

5.  YOU SMART PEOPLE!

Anyway, since the Al Gore's movie came out, things started to change in the U.S.
I thought, "FINALLY!!"
That was amazing how people in the U.S can absorb the new information if they realize what they really need!!

In my home country, the government had a hard time to educate people about the environmental issue and why people should recycle.
It took long time to adjust the concept to people.

On the contrast, the American people was like BOOM! So fast...!
This is something I really like about the U.S.
People in the U.S really know how they take actions.
You damn smart people!!!

I believe that people can keep up the good work and improve this situation.

By the way, my apartment doesn't provide recycling cans... ah, hello?
Toto, I thought I already got out from Kansas!

I watched a movie called "Blood Diamond" in the other day.
It was really shocking and painful to watch.

The story is about conflict diamonds, which are traded for war money in Africa.
It's just surprising that bloody conflicts happened just for the stones...
A piece of carbon shouldn't worth more than people's lives...

I was ashamed that I didn't know about anything about conflict diamonds in Africa.
I thought I knew major problems in the continent such as famine, poverty, HIV, drag giants, genocide, civil wars, corrupted governments, foreign oil companies, polluted land, desertification, and children at wars.
However, I knew nothing about this issue as well as the existence of this good movie.
They should have advertised more for this movie.
(Or is it just me who didn't know about it?)

I think whatever we do, we have to be careful what kind of influence we will have to the environment and the societies especially when you live in advanced nations.

ah, uncomfortable, indeed....

I found a really interesting website about sustainability.

Consumer Consequences
http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

They have a flash simulation game which evaluate you how much you are "green."
They will tell you how much earths we would need if everybody lived like you.
More than one earth means people cannot sustain the earth.

My result was 3.3 earths.
bah.
I thought I really have to check how I can recycle in my neighborhood and buy locally grown vegetables
But it was better score than other people.

I used to live in a middle-of-nowhere-state.
I got curious what score I would get if I still lived in the rural area.
The result was......2.2 earths!
Wow! I guess it's better than living in suburb.
(I heard living in a suburb is worse than living inside city, because people own more area in suburb and they have to drive a lot.)

I think I can tell why I got this score this time.
The life style there was pretty slow and small.
I could go to my university by foot.
Even when I have to drive to go to somewhere, it was always around 15 min driving because of the size of the city.
Also they had a lot of firming area, so I could buy a lot of locally grown products.
Not so many people in the city knew about this, but they did have a recycling system which I participated.

Now, I'm so curious about the score if I still lived in Japan.
The result was.....1.6 earth!
It's close to achieve sustainability!

I think I know why.
It' because, Japan is a little maniac to become "green."

1)
In most of area, recycling is strongly REQUIRED!
You would be in a trouble if you don't.
Their recycling systems are so picky too.
They have to classify around 10 kinds of materials for recycling, and they have certain dates for certain materials.

2)
Also, their public transportation is much popular than the one in the U.S.
I have to say American public transportations are usually somewhat old, dirty, and dangerous.
No wonder people don't really use it and they use their cars instead.
( I know some of metro is nice, but I'm talking about general public transportations in the U.S. here.)
On the contrast, Japanese public transportation is pretty clean, safe, and prompt.
People don't really use cars to go to work or to study in Japan unless you live in super-rural area.

The metros are even high-tech.
For instance, most of people buy commuter tickets like 3-month-pass or 6-months-pass to use trains.
When they enter / leave stations, they don't even have to bother to take the ticket out from their bags .
The computers in the entrances can read your tickets through your purse when you walk by.
This way,  traffic in stations can be  much smoother than before.
( The morning rush is crazy. It's a little chaos in everyday life in Tokyo.
 The employees of metro sometimes have to push passengers to let them inside trains.)

3)
Plus, their housings are pretty small and efficient.
Because Japan is a tiny country, you have to found efficient ways to use up limited lands.
Personally I don't really like small houses, and I think not so many people do.
But it's good for the environment...oh well,
Anyway, our people are usually smaller than other people in the world , so I guess it's not a big problem. hahaha.

4)
This is a personal reasoning of the score.
My parents house has solar panels on the roof to generate electricity.
It's not really common for residential buildings, but my dad really loved the idea.
It was good that the local government helped some cost of it when they attached the panels too.

HOWEVER, the emission of green gases has been increasing in Japan regardless of Kyoto protocol.
The amount of gas has still high rates among the world,even though the governments and the communities have been put efforts on it.
It's a shame.
I want to do better on this, and I hope people will do better too no matter where they live.