It is a season to fall in love with books

Japan School Library Association and The Mainichi newspaper conduct a survey every year about school kids reading. If a child reads no book in a month, it is called “No reader”. The results from May 2016 were that 4% of Elementary, 15.4% of Middle School and 57.1% of High School students were “No reader”. From this result, more middle school students than elementary and more high school students than middle school are not reading books.
It is very important to read books. We can lean so many things through books. We can lean widely and around the world. We can be a friend of an author. We can be a friend of different age groups and hundreds years ago people.

A reading week will start from Oct 27. The fall is also called “Fall of reading” and the night is long, quite, not too hot and not too cold so it is a perfect season to read books. To enrich the minds, the fall is a season for “Fall in love with books”! (2017 reading week slogan)

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Learn from elderly people

The 3rd Monday, September 18th, 2017 was a “Respect-for-the-Aged Day” in Japan. As you may know, it was held on every September 15th, however, it is held on the 3rd Monday of September due to “Happy Monday” system which was established in 2001.
The number of people age 65 and older in Japan as of September 15th. This group accounted 35.14 million (27.7% of total). The ratio of the total population is more than a quarter for four straight years.
Elderly people have experienced and studied a lot of things, and also have stored their minds with knowledge. We can say that elderly people is “Life Master”, because they have already had a broad range of knowledge that we should try to acquire.
A “Respect-for-the-Aged Day” is not only the date we treat elderly people so kindly, but we should learn from their valuable experience and wisdom and we also have to think about the importance of it. These things will lead to respect for them from our heart.
Everyone goes through the same thing. This way of thinking is a step for creating a rich aging society.
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Never forget! Etch in your heart and think over

September 11th, has become a day of memorial for the U.S., it has been 16 years since the terrorist attack that killed just under 3,000 people including 24 Japanese. I have visited where the World Trade Center used to be. They had busy traffic like they used to have.
On the other hand, 6 and half years has passed since the Japan earthquake Disaster that took about 20,000 people lives. I remember the memorial message given by the Iwate Prefecture Representative. “Already 6 years, but still only 6 years past. During this time, I got married and additional family members have come, and a new house has been built. However, since that year, the closer to March 11th, I get nervous. As the outside scenery changes, it seems real that things are better and has been working to be revealed, this emotional reaction might never go way. To ease natural disaster victims shock, what we can do is not to forget and etch in your heart to remember of them.”
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An emotional eraser

We use an eraser when we write something wrong or have the wrong answer when studying. In fact, we all have an emotional eraser.
When we do something wrong to our friends or family, or bother someone; or when we cannot deliver what we were asked to do, we say “I’m sorry” or “I apologize.” This is just like an emotional eraser. Regardless you’re a child or an adult, when we realize our mistakes, we can avoid a disagreeable feeling or an argument if we use the emotional eraser with courage.
The more we use this emotional eraser, the easier it can erase. Or it becomes harder and harder to use or nothing will get erased.
I believe we can use the emotional eraser to brighten our lives 続きを読む…

It is not easy to see yourself

We do not like other people criticize us. We often say, “Please leave me alone. I know about myself more than anyone does.” Is it really true? I think it is difficult to know yourself. Normally, people tend to overestimate or underestimate oneself, and it is not easy to evaluate oneself objectively. Then what is the key to know oneself? After all, how other people see you is the key. For example, your personality is how other people feel about you.

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Look up at the sky for the celestial event of the century.

“Total solar eclipse” was observed in a wide range of area across the North American continent, from the state of Oregon in the West to the state of South Carolina in the East. There were a great number of people who enjoyed this enigmatic occurrence woven by the celestial bodies which reoccurred after 99 years this time. This is an event which is said to happen only once in hundred years in America. Unfortunately, Philadelphia had only partial solar eclipse, but even it was only partial eclipse, the enigma of the celestial bodies was fully enjoyable. In Japan, “annular solar eclipse” occurred on May 21, 2012. At that time, queer sunlight filtering through foliage created by the pinhole effect was also observed. This time, it was also fun to watch people get engrossed looking up at the unbelievably extraordinary view on the sky.
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Energetic voices from students echo throughout the school

The long summer vacation has finally ended. Today is the start of the second trimester here at JSLP. Even though we borrow the Friendﾕs Central School facilities just on the weekend, children really shine in this environment. Maybe itﾕs just me, but a school without lots of children just appears as a boring container. Today was a wonderful day, as it has been a while since I have heard all the exciting and enthusiastic commotion from the students. 続きを読む…

It Is Very Difficult to Know about Yourself

“Please leave me alone as I know what I am doing.” In general, we do not like being advised what to do by others. As a matter of fact, however, it is probably true that knowing yourself is very difficult.
Generally speaking, the majority of us tend to either overestimate or underestimate about ourselves because of the difficult nature of fair self-observation. Overestimation causes “overvalue/self-esteem” and underestimation causes “obsequiousness and loss of self-confidence”.
So, how do we get to know about ourselves? The objective evaluation by others is probably the ultimate way to achieve it. 続きを読む…

Don’t push your views toward others.

Human beings are social animals and unable to live outside the society. Living in the society amongst others means you are constantly being taken care of by others around you wherever you are. We are routinely disrupting others. For example, things you own, dress, use, pens and notebooks, pencils, pens etc… You can pick any one of those things and it is made by someone or has gone thorough some process made by someone. You may not know the name of the person but there’s nothing that is around us that did not involve other human beings. We benefit from works and efforts of so many people.
After all, we have to live in the society with others and more or less have to get along with them and getting along means not pushing your views or opinions toward others and while maintaining respect for others.
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Cooperate with your child’s stress!

“Study” (勉強) when written in Kanji, it can be read as “forced to strive”, and it could be a source of stress.
You study because you do not understand something. As you try to gain full comprehension, you will face many walls. In order to clear each obstacle, you deal with stress. It is quite natural to have worries and troubles, and children grow as they manage to overcome those worries and troubles.
There is no such thing as stress-free study, and if you let your child grow up without having them deal with stress, you should concern your child’s being when they are grown up.
The students at Japanese Language School of Philadelphia attend their regular school during weekdays where they experience different cultures, different life styles, and different languages. Being in such environment, you can easily imagine how stressful it could be for a child to face various subjects such as acquiring a new language, daily schoolwork, health, future path, and interpersonal relationship with others.
The key here is that the parents, guardians, and teachers know the level of stress or troubles the child is going through and be able to provide support and cooperate with the child.
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