Social Language Learning Part 4 – Communication

As I mentioned before, I decided to study English on Lang-8 and LingQ. Still, I keep the other accounts active to help Japanese language learners by correcting their sentences and pronunciations, answering questions and so on. Besides, I started to study Chinese on LingQ and LiveMocha.

As for Chinese, I exchange messages with a little Chinese girl these days. She lives in East China, not Beijing or Shanghai. She is very good at English.   She is busy with school on weekdays, so she sends me messages on weekends. The other day we talked on Skype too. She spoke briskly and smartly.   Don’t you think she is amazing?  The face that a girl who is just 13 year-old can communicate overseas with people makes me realize how different times are now.   I’m wondering if there are such junior high students in Japan?

Incidentally, my first text chat was with a Kurdish woman living in Turkey. It was very impressive that I was able to talk with Kurdish, who I’m not familiar with.  I heard of Kurdish on the news, but I don’t know much about them.  Turkey is the home of the belly dance which I am learning.  So, I asked her about it, but she didn’t know. She said, “What is it?”   While I was thinking how I should explain it for only about 7,8 seconds,  she complained my answer was too late.  What an impatient Kurdish!  She said Japanese has beautiful sounds, especially the word “arigatou” which means “thank you”.   I don’t understand the feeling, but it’s interesting.

Furthermore, my first voice chat was with a Bosnian man.   I felt his sincerity from his voice. Since he asked me where I live, I answered “Kyushu, south Japan”. Then “Saga?”he asked.   Saga is a name of small prefecture in Kyushu.   How does he know such a small area???  He said “I know Saga by watchig Oshin”.  “Oshin” is a famous Japanese TV drama which was broadcast in the 1980’s.  I am surprised that people overseas still watch it even today.   He liked Saga dialects. lol It was a shame that my voice was so echoed with time lag that I couldn’t speak a lot. I want to talk with him again, but I can’t find him.

My story will be continued. Here is LiveMocha video. Interaction on LiveMocha is very active.

I attended a lecture

I attended a lecture at university yesterday.

Lecturer explained the American financial history
introducing the video “Inside Job” by Charles Ferguson.

When the gap between rich and poor is wide, the society becomes unstable.

 Reading handout, American society is crazy.

The top 1% earns 1/4 income of all in USA.

Just before the Great Depression, the top 1% earned 23.9% of all income.

Then 2007, the ratio reached about the same 23.5% again!

The top 10% accounts for over 70% of all American wealth.  Wow!

American dream is a dream.  
It seems that social mobility is low in unequal country.