Activities on September 30th (９月３０日（月）のアクティビティー)

Today, complete activities 1-4. (If you do not finish them in class, finish them at home). 

1. About the Blog Project (5 min.)

• We will start a blog project today. First, read a post titled "Blog Project," which illustrates the purpose of this project. You can click the link or you can find the entry by scrolling all the way down and you will see the entry titled “Blog Project.”

2. Creating a Blog (15 min.)

• Scroll down this page and you will see a post titled: “How to Create a Blog Account.” Read this and create your blog.  If you have successfully created your blog account, help out your nearby classmates. Please try to come up with a unique blog title. Avoid a title like "My Japanese Blog," which is too general.

• Once you have started your blog, click "View blog" and then send the blog’s URL address (e.g. http:example.blogspot.com) to your instructor.(Matsui: kml2168@columbia.edu, Eguchi: se53@columbia.edu, Park: parkjisuk3@gmail.com, Tatsumi: nt2358@columbia.edu).

3. Write a Self-Introduction in Japanese (30 min.)

• In hiragana, write a first draft of your self-introduction. (Do not publish it online yet). For those who do not want to use their real names, you can use a pseudonym. If you  have questions or technical problems, we encourage you to get help from each other. An instruction for changing the language setting to Japanese on Apple computers can be found on today's handout "How to type Japanese words in Hiragana and Katakana."
• After writing your self-introduction, form groups of 2-3 students to peer edit your self-introduction. (Is your hiragana written correctly?) *If the hiragana appears too small on the page and it's difficult to read, press the “Apple/command” key and the “+” key together, (For PC users, press the “Control” key instead of the “Apple/command” key) and the characters will get larger.

• After everyone in the group has read and corrected each others’ self-introductions, click “publish post” which then allows your post to be published.

4. Post in English (or your native language) (10 min.)

• Write in English (or your native language) about why you chose to study Japanese, 
what you are excited, and what you find difficult after the first 4 weeks of the class.

*If you use an online translator, such as Google Translate, you can read your classmates' blogs in any language (See "べんりなリンク(USEFUL LINKS)" in the right column), so it doesn't have to be in English.