Blog#6:Lang-8

Hello, this is Mai. How have you been?
Today I introduce Lang-8, which is a language exchange social networking website. I have never used it before, but I'm really interested in it these days. I guess that everybody in this class will be interested in it, too.

First, create a user profile and add your native language and your target language of studying. Then, write a journal and it will be checked by native speakers. Therefore, you can improve your writing skills of the target language for free. In return, you should check and correct other users' journals, which are written in your mother tongue. You can also add a comment on a journal, if you want.

In addition, there is no rule that you have to check the diary written by the person who checked yours. It means, you can help other users when you have a lot of free time!
As of March 2011, the website currently had over 250,000 registered members, from over 120 different countries.

I like this social media very much because we can learn languages for free by helping each other all over the world. I feel like that users in the world are all friends! So I would like to try this site.
This is the URL of the site. Please click here!

Blog#6: Social Media

  Hello! I'm Natsumi Shiraishi.

 Today, I will introduce a social networking service, MySpace. Do you know it? It is not so popular as Facebook and Twitter, but used for long time all over the world, especially by lovers of music.

 

 In this service, singers and bands of musicians exhibit their music on view. Ordinary members of the service can listen to their music free of charge, and exchange with musicians you like.

 

 MySpace has big influence on the music world of America. Musicians, engineers and radio’s DJs can expand group sharing links. By investigating MySpace, lovers of musician, and tastes of music of people can be seen. So it is very important means of marketing to advertise in this site.

 

  I like this site because I can listen to new music without buying CD or download by spending money, and be told good musicians by music lovers who have similar tastes to me.

 

  If you get interested in MySpace, click here.

 

 

Blog#6: Social Media; LibraryThing

     Hi, this is Fumika. Today I’m going to introduce a useful social media site when you want to start to read books. The site is LibraryThing, a worldwide book club. You can create a catalog of books there, like what books you own, what books you’ve read, what kind of books you’d like to read, and so on. Also you can write review of books, and refer to reviews which were written by others. I found this site when I wanted to read English books. I didn’t know which book is better, what does it like, then this site helped me. You can not only making a catalog and writing reviews, but find people who have similar taste with you. I recommend you to use this site if you are a book lover, or you want to be a book lover. Check here.

Blog#5: Fish Dance

  Hello, this is Natsumi. I will introduce a building named Fish Dance.

  This building is built in Meriken Park in  Kobe in 1987 for 120th anniversary of Kobe's  opening port to foreign ships for trade. It was designed by Frank Gehry and supervised by Tadao Ando, who is a Japanese architect and a professor emeritus of Tokyo University.Its hight is 22 meters, and it is used as a restaurant.
  In1991, it was painted pink without permission for prevention against rust, but  Frank Gehry criticized that, and in 2005 he painted it silver again.This fish overcame the earthquake in 1995, and has been visited by many people.
  After 1980s, he made a lot of things related to fish. Do you think why?　There are various opinion, for example that his childhood nickname was 'fish', and that he put a carp into bathtub and played with it  when he was littele.
  I think this fish looks real and alive.  His unrestrained idea is interesting.

  The site of the park where you can see the fish is here!

Blog#5: Walt Disney Concert Hall

Hi, this is Fumika. How are you? Today I’m going to introduce a building of Frank Gehry. I watched many buildings which built by him, and it was really hard to decide the one to talk about, because every building was beautiful. Finally, I decided to introduce Walt Disney Concert Hall which is in Los Angeles, California. As its name, this is a concert hall, and Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, decided to build this. Frank Gehry took charge of the design, and Yasuhisa Toyota who is an acoustician took charge of the acoustics. The construction was started in 1999 and completed in the spring of 2003. It cost about one hundred and thirty million. In addition, for saving the cost, Frank Gehry changed the original material of exterior wall to less costly metal skin. I don’t know what he tried to use originally, but I like this metal skin. In the daytime, it changes the atmosphere by the sky. At night, it really reflects the illumination beautifully.

Moreover, Frank Gehry also made a very unique design inside. It’s a large concert organ which was completed in 2004.

Both outside and inside are very beautiful and powerful indeed. Also it’s just right for the Disney. The Disney always give us impact and impress, I think this concert hall does same. I want to go there, and listen to a concert someday. It will be an amazing experience. If you want to know about Walt Disney Concert Hall more, click here.

Lastly, this is a video about Walt Disney Concert Hall and Frank Gehry.