A Man in Suit!

     My first impression of Mr. Kitashiro was someone who is well dressed and his hair neatly combed to the side. I thought he was serious at first but he had a nice sense of humor just like Hibiya-sensei. Mr. Kitashiro said we can speak English if we study the language for 6 months...Then he added the word "INTENSIVELY," which made everyone in our class laugh. He also like the approach of "ATM," which I thought was cute. I hope he won't be mad at me for calling him "cute." He only takes his anger out on someone three times a year right? Wink. Wink ;) I thought Mr. Kitashiro and Hibiya-sensei is similar in that they both promote diversity and support women's activity.
     As I said before, I work at a fast food restaurant. I personally felt that a lot of the tips Mr. Kitashiro gave us applied to my own part time job. I truly enjoy my part time job and when I wonder why...It was all what Mr. Kitashiro had said. First, I do my best at my current position, which is the register. Also, my manager let me challenge myself once in a while by trying out the new position like making burgers instead of serving customers at the register. Furthermore, I completely agree with the statement that "Doing things right even when people are not watching is important." Again, take fast food restaurant as an example of this! An employee notice the coffee machine flashing "Brew new coffee!" If no one is looking, the employee could serve customers old cups of coffee but that would lead to customer complaint. In addition, it might lead other employees to behave the same. Of course, this is also not fair to the customers because they pay for their coffee.
     Here are other tips I have learned from Mr. Kitashiro. There is a lot so I guess I'll just list them down below!

1. It's best if you read books while you are students. He recommends old books on Japanese history, Chinese history, ancient Greece or Rome because old books have what they call "unique value."

2. "Do not reprimand your manager in front of his or her people as much as possible"...because that would hurt one's pride.

3. Learn your own country's history first...before learning about other countries. This comes in handy once you start interacting with foreign people in a company(during coffee breaks or something).

I would like to thank Mr. Kitashiro very much for taking his time to talk to us :)

Hilarious Healthy Hibiya-sensei!

I'm writing this blog right after hearing Hibiya-sensei's lecture. I thought the President would be VERY VERY serious but she was actually petite, charming, broad minded, friendly, sweet and cheerful. She has those big, round eyes. I wonder how she manages to make everything sound so interesting. In the beginning, Hibiya-sensei introduced Germanic languages and Indo-European languages. I don't know if it was intentional but she gave us a word of advice. She made a statement that it is better for us to acquire one of the Indo-European languages because English is Germanic. I was planning on learning Spanish so this was a good news for me! Towards the end of her lecture Hibiya-sensei referred to herself as "Exercise freak." I was convinced how important it is to keep your stamina and constantly take care of yourself. It is true that you need to be able to look after yourself first in order to become a leader and bring people together. I also enjoyed her talk on American food..."Junko in her fattest years" or "This is the last elastic pants I'm gonna buy." I can tell from her gestures and facial expressions that she must of really savored her time in the cafeteria. 

Most of all, Hibiya-sensei mentioned how her experience at PENN taught her how important it is to take into account the ethnic diversity. Then, she turned to us and added by saying she valued us for our diverse cultural backgrounds. The moment I heard her say this...I truly thought I came to the right university. Just like what Shiho said, "We don't need to feel anonymous at ICU."

Hibiya-sensei's lecture reminded me of this picture! Women's Liberation Movement.

Chapter 8 Lighten Up!

     I can make a statement that this chapter is probably the most important chapter for me. I seriously need to learn how to "Lighten up!" People who don't know me well describe me as a cheerful person and smiling all the time. However, I truly don't know how "to be the first to find humor in stressful situations" (139). For example, I don't like to procrastinate when it comes to assignments. Then, I try to do everything at once and I fall into stressful situations. Apart from school work I have part time job and after school activity (Of course, there are others out there who are going through a tougher time). Outwardly there seems to be no trouble...Like I'm balancing everything perfectly, yet it's often too late when I realize I'm experiencing mental exhaustion. Suddenly it occurs to me that I'm finishing books on my way to school (on trains)... I stay up till three in the morning to study and wake up at seven again to go to school... I'm spending my afternoon working at part time job or doing after school activity instead of staying with my friends... I use up my morning and lunch time studying in the library.... I have a quarrel with my parents because I come home late when I come back from my after school activity... My house is not located near ICU and I'm not at home most of the time...We have arguments about how I don't have time to clean up my messy room... My parents tell me to inform them whether I'll have dinner or not and I forget to do so... With that I realize I am leading a somewhat irregular private life and how much trouble I am causing my parents. Sometimes, I feel like just giving everything up or go easy on myself but I can't. I think too much and this is a flaw in my character. I appreciate my friends for telling me to be positive but it will take me some time because of who I am.
    Though,  I recently found out that horror movies help to relieve my stress :) Like yesterday I watched this movie called "Gothika." Today, I watched this video called "HELL NO: The Sensible Horror Film" on YouTube and I enjoyed it very much! The video goes against the usual horror movies and it's funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olEbwhWDYwM&feature=share&list=TLwkNCx_OCrEJo6XW9aDQTEjmez2kYUgkc

Personal Mission Statement

I feel I lived my life to the full when...

I use my Time Wisely (Study)

I am Physically Active

I am Surrounded by Those Who Give Me "Total Freedom to be Myself" (Morrison)

Some days...Maybe life throws you a curve ball

I have to Keep Moving Forward

Life may be tough

I don't wish to Take It Out on My Family

Instead, I hope to be Devoted to Them

I hope to...

Leave enough time for Personal Interests

Just hop outside and take a walk

Engross myself in a good book

Shop till I drop

Put Myself in Someone's Shoes

Give Others a Reason to Smile

Make Full Use of My Talent

Meet Different People 
a
n
d 
Broaden 
     My 
                          Perspective :)

Chapter 7 Conflict

As we are all aware of...Shackleton is a leader with an extremely sharp mind. One thing that surprised me was when he was choosing his crew for the trip to South Georgia Island. It said in the book how Shackleton chose Vincent and Crean on purpose because they were both known as troublemakers. He was planning to leave Frank Wild a lot less trouble. It's always important for leaders to think about his team members.

Most of all, I look up to Shackleton and his way of handling antagonistic people. Instead of pushing away these antagonistic people, he tries to “maintain close relations” with them (122). I am the complete opposite. Let's say...90% of the time I could tell whether I like that person from their first impressions and I can be quite frank about the whole thing. It's either I like that person or not. To make matters worse, I show it in my attitude. I wouldn't ignore them but I would say “Hi!” and there is nothing more. The conversation stops right there. Moreover, once I start seeing what I don't like, I can only focus on their bad sides or faults. However, this is a wrong reaction because once you act all uncomfortable in front of that particular person he or she will sense that awkward silence. As it is mentioned in the book, this is “detrimental to the organization” or at times when you are working as a whole.

Yesterday!!

     In yesterday's class, we mainly focused on question number 3 ("Which is your most common conflict strategy...?"). People in my group had Confronting, Compromising and Forcing. I had Smoothing...The word "Smoothing" sounds pleasing but I feel like I'm a kind of person who evade the conflict. I'm from ICU high school and ICU is famous for being international with more than half the students being returnees from other countries. Since students at ICU tend to be what we call "Americanized," I was able to assert my own opinions. However, I was much different in the past. When I went to an elementary school in Japan, I often restrained myself from feeling annoyed. Whenever I had a fight with someone I would always apologize first in order to avoid any conflict. On one side, I may seem like a tolerant person but...This is not an effective way to handle a problem because I keep things to myself and I can't say things to their face. The worst thing you can do is to talk behind someone's back. Moreover, this IS stressful! In the end, I guess I still have that side of me in which I tend to "Smooth things over."

Chapter 6 Core Team Values

     Strategy 6 points out how significant it can be to forget about status differences and treat everyone the same. I was teaching my friend the other day because she was struggling with one of the passages from her ELA Reader. It was on "McDaniel" and the reading mainly focused on "the importance of effective intercultural encounters"(8-1). It gave Japan as an example to demonstrate how nonverbal communication practices and cultural themes coexist. For instance, Japan value hierarchy... "the junior is socially compelled to assume a passive role"(8-2) and "the junior person bows first, lowest, and longest"(8-4). What I wanted to say was...Shackleton's strategies may successfully be applied in foreign countries but maybe it is more difficult in a country like Japan.
     In addition, I was looking through the "Expedition Log" and number 5 "When was the last time you made a personal sacrifice for the benefit of the team? Have you ever done the equivalent of serving tea and milk?"(109) caught my attention. This was a difficult question for me. I have been in different sports team, volunteer activities and orchestra band. However, it took me a while for me to go over whether I made any personal sacrifice in my life. Then I did remember about the time when I had the school festival. We had to practice some dance moves as the cheering group. Even though my college entrance exam was on the next day, I decided to stay after school and practice with younger students. One reason was because I was one of the sub-leaders but it was also because so many other sub-leaders were absent (because of exams) that I thought people needed me to teach them the dance. So I guess I made a personal sacrifice because I had a choice of spending my time preparing for my exam.

Chapter 5 The Team Message

      

      Chapter 5 focused on teamwork. On page 84, there was a story about a plane crash that occurred on January 25th, 1990. There were 73 victims in total... Many were separated from their loved ones and it was such a disaster. It said on page 85, "People would pass each other, reach and take a hand for a moment. Or they would look at each other, make a brief comment, and then move on. Sometimes they would embrace or nod, then continue applying bandages or moving bodies to the makeshift morgue. People needed that brief, but meaningful, contact to continue working with determination. It rejuvenated us." This scene reminded me of Aurora shooting in 2012. This incident was tragic but to a lesser extent in terms of the number of casualties. After the tragedy, President Barack Obama offered the nation's sympathy to survivors of the shooting. In his speech, he insisted that a brighter day would come. Obama sent out a message to his people that America could make a fresh start by working together.
     By the way, let me share one of my favorite quotes in this chapter. "A handshake is, after all, a time-honored way of connecting with other humans" (87).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/us/shooting-at-colorado-theater-showing-batman-movie.html?pagewanted=all