What Does It Mean To Be Educated? - Allegory Of The Cave

Every year, Susquehanna has an university theme that their summer common reading is centered around. The theme that I've been so lucky to come into school with is "What does it mean to be educated". At Orientation, we were all handed an anthology that promised to explore "how we learn from formal and informal educational experiences".

One chapter of the book is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It is a dialog between Socrates and Glaucon in which they discuss the duties one who has escaped the cave has to his fellow brothers still in chains. Take this quote in which Socrates tells of what should be the State's goal with those who pursue an education:

Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all - they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good;but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them do to as they do now.

What do you mean?

I meant that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labours and honours, whether they are worth having or not.

In short, Plato through Socrates is saying that yes, our leaders should and must encourage those that are after an education. That is needed. However, once they reach a certain point, they must then be made to serve the greater populous - those that remain in the cave, instead of completely leaving them behind.

There we have our first question: Those that become educated -whatever that may be-, should they be forced to partake in something that benefits everyone? Or should they be left to do as they wish?

I believe that more often than not, those that are clearly educated have a way of flocking to positions that have varying degrees of 'public service'-ness in the job description. Senators, presidents, judges, doctors, cancer researchers, teachers etc - of all of these, the best of the best have been awarded an education and it is their job to do what they can for the embitterment of everyone.

Of course, that is the general aim of such positions and I'm speaking in rather ambiguous terms here, but bear with me. Just looking at the words 'presidents' and 'senators' in that sentence above makes me laugh, but remember its more often than not. Hopefully.

Anyways, back on tract. I can't completely agree with Plato when he says that they have to be forced into such roles, but I believe that especially with a liberal arts education, most people have the Mensch, do gooder attitude instilled into them. I can't force people to give up their own happiness for the happiness of others - I feel like such a thing would cause resentment in some hearts that would then grow and jeopardize their performance.

Does this mean that I would allow for people to put their own happiness above the well being of others? Does that mean that those with the opportunity to gain seats of 'power' should be allowed to exploit that power at the cost of their people, much like we've seen throughout history.

Plato has something to say to this. A page or two later he writes:

Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and quietly governed , and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.

...

You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State... Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after their own private advantage, thinking that hen they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and the whole State.

He writes that those who have no interest in ruling will be the best suited for the job, and will provide order. Those that have an interest in ruling will only cause disorder because they want to jobs to serve their own goals and ambitions.

If I don't have an interest in something, no matter how much I know it is important, I'm likely to just not put effort into it and only do what is needed. I wouldn't go above and beyond for the people.

However, he does have a point about the others. I simply need to look at our own government to see what happens with officials are fueled by their own self-interests. Take the progressive hell that plagued the Albany the past month or so, take the retarded actions of the republicans during the 2008 election trail up to this very day. Order has gone out the window and progress is the true victim here.

So what would be the best solution? I'd be willing to wager that the answer lies in having a balance between duty and self-interest. You're own wants and needs shouldn't overcome your duty to your people, nor should you become a slave to them. This is also wherein lies the concept of wisdom - of knowing how to deal with both screaming fools at the same time.

And for what it's worth - Plato seems to be implying that only certain people should be taken and nurtured to fill positions of the such; of picking out those who you want to place into a special track of sorts. This goes against what everyone says America is all about - its the land where anyone can work their way up. And while this may be true, there is still the existence of that special track for *certain* people. It is possible for those not on that path to find their way to it, but its only makes things harder. Thank you life chances.

I'll conclude with one last question: Should our elective officials be wise? Keep in mind the hell Ms. Sotomayor has gotten in the past week for calling herself a 'wise latina woman'. I'll give you a minute to answer that question.

Tick, tock.

You done? Good. You should have answered with a resounding 'Hell to the yes!' or something of the sort. If you didn't, well, I'll let you ponder your own silliness. Now go sit in the corner till I'm done.

Of course I want my officials to be wise. I'm trusting them to make deicisons that impact all of our lives and while wisdom is a attribute gained through one's life experiences (unlike what some would want you to believe otherwise) wisdom is still wisdom. Wisdom is knowing where to come to a compromise that actually gets something done. If you can't do that, if you won't be willing to hear other ideas and take them into account, if you will say 'no' as if its your magic wand for getting what you want, then sir/madam I want you off the stage. Just leave. I've lost all my patience with such people. Granted, doesn't that (in someway) make me as narrow minded as they are? Yes, I do believe that argument can be made, but at the same time, I don't care. What I care about (and what others should care about as well) is finding how we can make life better for all.

After all, shouldn't that be an end goal of education? Making life better?

And if I banished you earlier, you may come back now from your timeout in order to discuss this with the rest of us. Just remember to behave yourself. Or else...

The 11th Hour

Ever thought that the grass would be greener on the other side on the fence, but then on your way over, you start to realize you're not as interested as you once were?

Perhaps that's how I'm currently feeling about going off to college. In this 11th hour - as the days keep rushing to August 27th - I find myself not all that excited as I originally was.

Take for example, the fact that I'm done with high school. I thought I would bask in the glee of graduation but instead, I feel no different. There is no sense of 'OMG! I can't wait to get out of here' as I've seen in my friends.

There are two things about college that I'm looking forward to: The topics I'll explore and graduation. I get to fuel my readings and reflections on race and it's ramification and if I'm able to stay within the honor's program, I will graduate cum laude. At least. This will hopefully put me in a great position to reach the goals I have for after graduation, but more on those later.

I think, that after a week or two at Susquehanna, I'll get more excited. For now, it shall remain some far off distant reality.

The Need to Speak

I love to learn languages.

Well, honestly I love the concept behind language - bits and pieces of sound from our mouths, coming together in some masterful order that relays messages of any sort. And then, there are so many different ways to attach the sounds to each other that it just leaves me in awe. But I've noticed something just a few minutes ago:

I don't use them!

Really, all this time learning French and Japanese yet in the end I use English because its what I need to use. There aren't enough French and/or Japanese outlets for me into interact with on a constant basis. And because of that, all my effort slowly start to unwind themselves and I end up forgetting what I learned.

Now what is a boy to do? Is he to run away, abandon his dreams of traveling to faraway lands and actually understanding the natives instead of depending on hastily brought phrase books to get him through the trip? And heaven forbid he ever gets lost, for he won't know heads from tails, much less how to read a map.

No, he will not run away. Instead, he will create avenues to interact with the languages in a more hands on manner.

Now, I'm the type of person who when learning a language likes to only read. Reading is easy. Its personal and you can take as much time as you need to look up words and the such. But now, I'm sick of simply just reading. It doesn't help me when I need to speak, which should be most of the time. So, here is my plan to fix this:

As I look around my room right now, I see a good amount of books in French and Japanese that I've collected through nothing less than unusual means. Most of them are in a bookshelf just watching the days roll past. Now what I would like to do is once or twice a week, take a passage from one of these books and record myself reading it. Then allow for full public humiliation by posting the audio files right here on this blog.

Why would I be so willing to send myself up the river like that? Well, its because this is the area that I am lacking in - speaking in another language. I am far too bashful for my own good and my speech is choppy at best. By putting the files online, I'll have a record of my progress so I can see how far I've come and how far I still need to go.

Here is what I hope to be the most interesting part. In every post with audio, I plan to have a copy of the text I'm reading typed out for all to see. This way, not only can people who actually do speak the langauge properly can point out where I made mistakes and maybe even make audio files of their own for me and anyone else to listen to and repeat after, working on the sounds we mercilessly massacred. Matter of fact, I want anyone who is learning the language the post is in to post audio of what their reading so that they can get feedback as well.

Of course, there are some flaws I see in this. One is that its going to be seriously painful for me to go back and listen to my own files since I completely detest the sound of my own voice when recorded. Second is that no one will upload files with me. But even if that does happen, its still ok because what matters is the practice I'll get from it.

Anyways, I plan to get the first file up, if not today, then by Friday. I still can't believe this never occurred to me before...

Reading and Comprehension

I've been thinking lately about my training in languages. My Japanese is slowly moving somewhere, though not as fast as I would like it to be, and I'm starting to forget my French (which mortifies me). So because of this, I've started to place this new idea into action. I've asked friends who speak the two target languages to assist me with this concept. Basically, I'm asking them to just glance over articles that I've chosen to read and create questions based off the readings for me to answer. This is nothing new - its a popular way of teaching languages in school. I myself remember being drilled in such ways. And remember that it did help. And now that my old ways aren't working as well as they once were, I need to change things up again. Hopefully I can get somewhere with this.

*Edit: I realize now that this would be something very interesting to research. The link between reading and comprehension. Know what? I think I will go poke around the web and then post my findings here. Save everyone else the trouble.

Possible Series of New Posts ~ Plans for the Fall

At hunter college, I'm applying to take a new introductory class for the fall of my senior year. I can only get into one of my listed choices, so I'm gunning for a class in French or Japanese (and another subject that is outside of this post's focus). For French, I'm leaning towards an Intensive Elementary course that covers both the 101 and 102 classes, and in Japanese I'm fine with 101 class, though by now I should be able to handle a 102 class (hopefully).
Anyways, in any of the classes that I get into, so long as they are pertaining to these languages, I'm going to have to go over content that I've learned either on my own or in pervious classes. This, of course, is the point of me signing up for them - I want to go through content I've seen before to make sure that I still at least remember it. And that is what leads me to this idea; I want to start reviewing things now and while doing that, write little notes/guides for myself and post it up here for others that may be learning the same languages as well. I'm always being told that the best way to learn anything is to have to teach it to others, so this is my attempt at doing so. Finally, I must ask this: Is anyone interested in seeing such a feature brought to life? If so, tell me any ideas you may have. Same goes for if you don't think its a good idea.

SAT Scores

So this morning, I went to finally see my scores. At last the moment of truth was upon me. As soon as I had woken up, I rolled out of bed and propped myself right in front of my laptop which was already set the night before (I made sure of it). Yet still, merely waiting for the page to load felt long and drawn out, like someone or something had messed with my perception of time. I thought it may have been due to me just waking up but I was so overly alert, fueled by anticipation that I decided not to dwell on it.

I ended up having a 640 for the reading, 630 for the writing and 530 for the math, for a grand total of 1800. As you may have known from previous posts, I was aiming for a 1700. In fact, I even had a dream that I got 1700 fairly recently. Now I must say, I am very happy about what I got. But quite frankly, I want more. I'm planning to re-take the test in June, only this time my overall goal will be to get a 2000 or better. The more practical goal is to get into the 600s in the math section. Anyways back to studying...

I also happened to go to school today instead of going to my internship place. I went because there were three representatives from SUNY Binghamton coming to talk to us. I found out some useful information about the school from them, but its still not one of my top choices. I still need to make plans for traveling outside of the city for the purpose of visiting colleges.

Aikido

When I was younger I took some type of martial arts lessons. I believe that I first started around 4th or 5th grade, switched dojos, then continued learning till my 7th grade year. I've really always regretted leaving and every year when my school hold their after-school program performances, I always begin to really miss it. Watching those kids up there make me think about how far I could have gone if I'd stick around. And so today, during my little Japanese lesson, I was reminded of this fact. It would appear that my teacher use to study Aikido when he was younger and started to show me some videos of different techniques. It was all in an effort to show how language is more than something that is a set of rules for sounds that convey a message. Rather, it incorporates itself into the people and their ways. The culture and language reflects each other in their values. Especially in Japanese. I've never dealt with a language, and consequentially culture much like it before. Amazing how it all started from me repeatedly writing certain kanjis wrong. But now, there is something in me gravitating towards the idea of learning Aikido. There is some sort of peacefulness that, at least to me, comes along with the art. Plus it would make for great physical exercise that is oh so important nowadays. Yet still I think that if I really am serious about all of this, it would be best for me to make plans to start next year or when I'm finally settled in college. That way I should have a lot more time seeing as how I'm expecting things to have calmed down by then.

It is done!

Yesterday, I finally took my SAT. I can't believe I did it. It really was not as bad as I was expecting it to be. I woke up at 6 or so in the morning and was at the testing site by 7:30. I then had to wait a while until they let us get our room numbers, though the way that they went about it made me feel like I was in a flock of sheep. Looking around, you could tell no one really wanted to be there, but I suppose they understood that you have to do what you have to do.

So when I finally got to the room, I found a nice sit and then proceeded to take out my things. I'd just so happen to bring two calculators with me and had just gotten them out when some kid asked me if he could borrow one.

Now, you know full well what you came to do there. Why is it that you forgot to bring something as essential as a bloody calculator? And if that was not bad enough, other people forgot to bring pencils! I mean come on. The entry tickets said to bring all of these things. Yet after that, I forgave the missing calculator boy and ended up giving him one out of good will. At least he brought pencils...

The rest of the test took place without any problems. I felt comfortable with the reading and writing sections, though the math is what made me second guess myself. But what is done is done. I can now only wait and see what I got.

Oh, one more thing. After the test when I was waiting outside for my ride, the boy that I gave the extra calculator to came up to me and thanked me again. That one action made me really glad that I gave it to him. You never know what can happen when you help some one else out.

Final for Sociology Class ~ Tracking in Schools: A Discussion

Out of randomness I've decided to post this up here. I guessing that I'm going to post some of my other papers up here as well. So as background info, this paper was my final for the sociology course I took at Hunter College here in New York. I must say that I had a great time in the class and it did help expose to something I can later pursue when I actually get to college.

Tracking in Schools: A Discussion

Methods used in educational systems across the nation have always been a popular topic of discussion. Most apparent are the reforms that have been taking place, attempting to fix problems that arise from the usage of an outdated idea. One such reform is replacing the use of tracking student’s academic careers with organizing children into age groups. Tracking is a fundamentally flawed system that leaves room for sociological issues to occur, some of which include large, widening gaps between the students’ test scores and perceived social class. In addition to this, it also limits the potential educational success every child has the possibility of reaching, which is something no educational structure nor authority should have the power to do.

As defined in Sociology: The Essentials by Andersen and Taylor, tracking is “the separation of students according to some measure of cognitive ability.” Historically tracking has been around for many years and is thankfully declining in use. Students are placed into different levels and the curriculum is shaped towards each level’s ability of comprehension. The ideal concept behind tracking is that everyone should be able to learn at a greater degree due to having the planed course of subjects edited to their benefit. Yet, in practice, the actual result prevalent in observations made is quite the opposite. It is explained that “students in the lower tracks learn less because they are, quite simply, taught less. They are asked to read less and do less homework. High-track students are taught more; furthermore, they are consistently rewarded by teachers and administrators for their academic abilities. “(Pg.361 Ibid) By placing children into certain tracks we are harming their education instead of enhancing it.

Stratification is a significant result found in the implementation of tracking. In the article, The Stratification of Socialization Processes, author James E. Rosenbaum explores the severe use of tracking in a town called Grayton school’s system. At one point he states, “Thus, the Grayton track system produces a highly rigid stratification system in many ways resembling a caste system.” (Pg.3) Caste systems are sociologically renowned for their brimming levels of stratification. By Rosenbaum drawing such a connection between the two, one can see just how extreme the difference between each existing track can be. He has alluded to the clear-cut grade contrast of each track and the popular problem of tracking, favoritism. Furthermore, keeping in continuation of the caste system archetype, those higher up in the rankings are happier with the arrangements while the others are more inclined to be disheartened. “Observers in Britain and the United States have argued that secondary school stratification polarizes the student body into pro-school and anti-school factions. College-bound students conform to the school’s demands, while others resist.” (Pg. 4, The Variable Effects of High School Tracking) This illustrates how the lower ranking members can grow to become angry at the conditions and try to oppose them, only strengthening the polarization.

Adam Gamoran’s Measuring Curriculum Differentiation also looks at the issue of stratification between the children. He notes “…student’s positions in the curricular hierarchy are linked to stratification in the wider society…” (Pg. 1) In other words, there are cases where tracking can be seen as a mirror of the board differences between groups in society. Where a person is located on a societal scale is allowed to affect the expected rate of academic performance others hold for them. This logic is dangerous for kids coming from lower and middle classes seeing as how class is in no way a portrayal of intelligence.

Being placed in a so-called ‘low’ track has its mental effects on kids. Michael D. Wiatrowski, in his work Curriculum Tracking and Delinquency, expresses what some of those impacts are for those who are not considered great candidate for college. “Students in noncollege curricula are believe to suffer loses in social status in school, decreased commitment to educational goals, lower self-esteem and poorer self-concept, and are thus more likely to become delinquent than college-bound students.” (Pg.2) These conflicts within their own personal judgments of themselves can hurt these children in and out of matters relating to school. One could say that tracking systems punish these kids twice. First by making it hard for them to compete on an academic platform with others, and twice by creating emotional strife. These kinds of issues can also manifest themselves in the children’s intimate lives for some period of time even after they’ve graduated and moved on past the need for any schooling. It does not make sense that while we are trying to educate students, we are also corrupting them so that they can’t lead seemly normal lives.

Tracking has repercussions on the chances students are exposed to as well. In Jeannie Oakes’ article entitled Can Tracking Research Inform Practice? Technical, Normative, and Political Considerations, she looks into what can be learned from tracking’s past data. “Finally, tracking influences students’ attainment and life chances, over and about their achievement. Track placements are quite stable, partly because early assignments shape students’ later school experiences. By high school, track location has a far-reaching influence – with college-track students enjoying better prospects for high school completion… than their otherwise comparable non-college-track peers.” (Pg.3) Her statement mentions the notion of life-chances. As seen in her example, the tracks have an eminent amount of power in dictating where one ends up later on after high school. The higher up in the tracking system you are, the most chances you have in succeeding in school, and sequentially the rest of one’s life.

Along with the more internal complications tracking brings in schools, it not without its share of social backlash. It has the prospect of becoming more political in nature. “Tracking is accompanied by public labels, status differences, expectations, and consequences for academic and occupational attainment. Thus, tracking becomes part and parcel of the struggle among individuals and groups for comparative advantage in the distribution of school resources, opportunities, and credentials that have exchange value in the larger society. This political dimension often encompasses highly charged issues of race and social-class stratification.” (Pg. 3 Ibid) This comment represents a conflict theorist perspective on the situation. It views tracking as something that provides grounds for members of different tracks to quarrel over the assets that the school has to offer. The sheer fact that they are at odds with each other means that in the end, the overall education received will be at a lesser quality than if they were all in mixed classes. Then everyone would be more likely to receive the treatment they are entitled to.

While succeeding in school is of great relevance, life outside in the real world is a lot more demanding. When children are being partitioned there is rarely, if ever, any consideration of more personal skills. As it was put in the collection of sociological readings known as Sociological Footprints, “we also don’t know the extent of the social-class gaps in noncognitive skills – such character traits as perseverance, self-confidence, self-discipline, punctuality, the ability to communicate, social responsibility, and the ability to work with others and resolve conflicts. These are important goals of public education. In some respects, they may be more important than academic outcomes.” (P.330) The theory of symbolic interaction is most pronounced here, with functionalist undertones. Tracking does not truly take into account social interaction has it is being implemented. The traits needed for interaction between individuals can be taught in school, if everyone is only exposed to those that are really the same as them then the traits listed above cannot be properly assimilated. Thus one of the societal purposes of schools, which is socialization, is not fulfilled, leading to a likely gap in non-cognitive abilities. This outcome completely derails the functionalist conviction of schools being vessels that instills values needed by society.

The integration of students from all academic standings is the self-evident alternative to tracking. Andersen and Taylor refer to this as the detracking movement. They describe it as “based on the belief that combining students of varying cognitive ability benefits the students more than tracking… Students of high and low ability can thus learn from each other; the high-ability students are not seen to be ‘held back’ by students with less ability but are enriched by their presence.” (Pg. 361, Sociology: The Essentials) When classes are mixed, schools can correctly do their societal duty as detailed in the previous paragraph. This is in stark contrast to how “observers and survey researchers have found … students tend to form friendships with others in the same track.”(Pg. 4, The Variable Effects of High School Tracking) There is not much of an enrichment of school if it is a group of similar students. As explicated, a large part of learning is done, not from the teachers, but from the peers’ communication with each other. Limiting the number of peers that they may come into contact with, in turn limits their capacity to learn.

In the end, recent years have shown that the use of tracking, as a whole, has been on the downswing. Educators have been gaining awareness to the negative effects discussed here and turning to the method of mixing students together, so that each class has a good variety of students. They have utilized that tactic in hopes of providing a richer education of all of the students. Needless to say, systems of education are all still inherently plagued with difficulties due to each individual participant’s distinct learning or teaching style. And probably always will be. Yet, one can see that they are now in a more desirable state than they were years ago. Students are no longer afflicted with the stigmas fabricated by the concept of tracking.

Appendix
From my own point of view, I do see how tracking is a negative idea. However I understand why tracking seems to be a good idea, especially when schools are given inadequate funding. There are simply no funds to provide students that in need with the proper individual attention. After speaking with two of my own teachers about this topic, it is now truly apparent that they struggle to find the right balance of teaching to help all the children in the classroom. They also brought up how the No child Left Behind law is, in their eyes, nothing more than an upgraded form of tracking. They also informed me of how when some of their colleagues had moved past the planned curriculum in order to help students, they got mad and reported that teacher on it. So after writing this paper, and listening to actually first-person accounts, I must say that there really does not seem to be any real action that can fix the issue. It looks as if it people will continue to go around in circles with it while no substantial improvements are made.

linguistic social networking websites

I've began to play around with something that seems to be the social language learner's dream. livemocha.com is the one i'm currently using. I think its a pretty cool idea. You get to socialize (if thats your thing...) and learn something new. Also you get to talk to people who you, most likely, would never talk to. As a matter-a-fact, as I was writing this post, someone learning English sent me a message and we started talking. It was interesting to hear her reason behind learning this language. It just made me think about how much of a good thing these sites are.

I'm also wondering about what it can do for me. But in order to find out the results I need to use it a bit more, thus I may post some more about it later. In the meantime, I must say thanks to the person who informed me about it. Thank you ted.

Japanese grammar book - chapters 1-4 questions and answers

Many times I said that I wanted to start writing more in my target languages but I did not really know how. But I realized that at the end of every chapter are a set of questions, thus i started to answer them. The questions themselves don't mean much to me but its the practice I'm after. These most likely have some problems within them, but it serves its purpose.

chapter one
しつもん：
１。アリさんはマレーシアの学生ですか？
２。マナさんもマレーシア人ですか？
３。マリアさんは先生ですか、学生ですか？
４。山本(やまもと）先生は女の先生ですか、男の先生ですか？
５。山本先生は英語の先生ですか？
６。アリさんのレコードは日本のレコードですか？

１。はい、アリさんはマレーシアの学生です。
２。いいえ、マナさんはマレーシア人ではありません。タイだ。
３。マリアさんは学生です。先生じゃない。
４。山本先生は男です。
５。いや、山本先生は英語の先生じゃない。彼が日本語先生だ。
６。いいえ、日本ではありません。マレーシアのレコードです。

chapter two
しつもん：
１。鈴木（すずき）先生の部屋はどんな部屋ですか？
２。食堂の食券はいくらですか？
３。大きいパンは四十（よんじゅう）円ですか？
４。日本の牛乳（ぎゅうにゅう）は高いですか？
５。病院は高いですか、低い（ひくい）ですか？
６。病院はどんな病院ですか？

１。鈴木先生の部屋は小さいです。大きくない。
２。白い食券は十円です。そして、赤い食券は百円です。
３。いいえ、大きいパンは六十円です。小さいパンが四十円です。
４。いいえ、全然（ぜんぜん）高くない。安いです。
５。病院は高いです。低くない。
６。病院は新しいと大きいです。
chapter three
１。マリアさんの部屋にどんな部屋ですか？
２。山田（やまだ）さんマリアさんの部屋で何を飲みましたか？
３。寮の食堂は何時に始まります（はじまります）か？
４。マリアさんは日曜日にどこで食事をしますか？
５。マリアさんたちは先週の土曜日に何をしましたか？
６。マナさんはパーティーで何をしましたか？
７。パーティーは何時ごろ終わりましたか？

１。小さい部屋です。大きくないです。
２。マリアさんの部屋で、山田さんはコーヒーを飲みました。
３。六時に始まりました。
４。日曜日にマリアさんはレストランで食事をします。
５。マリアたちは先週の土曜日にパーティーをしました。
６。マナさんはパーティーでピアノを弾きました（ひきました）。
７。パーティーは十時ごろ終わりました。
chapter four
１。五月（ごがつ）五日（いつか）は何（なん）の日ですか？
２。マナさんと　さとうさんは五月五日にどこへ行きましたか？
３。新宿（しんじゅく）の公園で何をしましたか？
４。マナさんはどこの国の留学生（りゅうがくせい）ですか？
５。マナさんはいつ日本へ来ましたか？
６。マナさんはいま（今）何才ですか？
７。マナさんと日本人の女の人の子供は同じ年ですか？

１。子供の日です。
２。マナさんと　さとうさんは公園へ行きました。
３。マナさんと　さとうさんは写真（しゃしん）をとりました。
４。マナさん、タイの留学生です。
５。今年の四月に、来ました。
６。今、マナさんは十八才（じゅうはっさい）。
７。はい、マナと日本人の女の人の子供は同じ（おなじ）年です。

Tentative list of college choices

As of today I now have a list of 18 potential colleges to apply to. I checked with my guidance consular and the list seems to be a good one to start with. Its broken down into three categories: Safety, Best-fit, and Reach. The names should be pretty much self-explanatory but just in case, they refer to schools I should be able to get into with little to no problems, schools that fit me at my current academic standing, and schools that are a bit above so said level, respectively. Now while I've already began to look into the courses and other things offered at each school, I feel that I need to increase the amount of focus and effort I put into it. Because of that I started to use a website my friend of mine showed me called students review. I'm interested in seeing what other people liked or don't like in the schools I'm looking at to see if I can get a fuller picture of what I'm putting myself into. It makes no sense to blindly set myself up for something that I won't like. I think for the next two weeks or so my aim for this will be to cut down the list a bit so I can keep track of myself a bit more. I'm thinking about posting my thoughts here about each school to see if anyone has their own two cents to add...

New plan for language study

I've reached a mental plateau. In my French and Japanese studies, I've noticed that I've just leveled out. I don't feel like I'm learning anything new and because of this I need to shake up how I'm doing things. I decided to go back to Pimsleur and the FSI for one. Also I want to make time to start using the Rosetta Stone more often. Finally, I'm looking to take more opportunities to use them in. Because of that on Monday I'm going to a group meet-up in which I have to speak Japanese. There are no if and buts. I've also got into a French language class at Hunter College starting in January. At this point, if I truly wish to keep going in these languages I have to expose myself more to them more often. I can't be as shy as I once use to.