Interview

Teacher: Mariko

  Mariko Shimizu was born in Vancouver, Canada. Her parents are Japanese who came from Japan to Canada a long time ago. She grew up in the city and studied Political Science at UBC University.

  Now, she teaches English at International House. she has been teaching here for eight months. She enjoys education very much because it’s very fun and makes her happy. She met many international students and is told a lot of interesting things that her students think about. Before she taught at I.H, she was a tutor and had many part time jobs. When she tutored, she had to teach children homework and English one by one.

  When she has free time, she always relaxes and likes watching TV series/shows and reads any kind of books at home. On Friday nights, she plays volley ball in the gym, but sometimes wants to play it at the beach in summer.

  Mariko likes traveling and she has been to the USA, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Europe, and more. Her favorite travel experience is Florence, Italy. She only stayed there one day, but the city is so beautiful and the food is so delicious that she couldn’t forget the sightseeing (pasta and famous Gelato ice cream). She wants to visit Florence again one day.

  Mariko thinks the best city is Vancouver. It’s her hometown, she feels comfortable and happy in the city, with beautiful mountains, ocean, and parks. Maybe sometimes people drink to much and are impolite, but she still likes Vancouver.

  In the future she wants to move to a different country to get more experience. And she hopes she has a dog, because she never had pets. A dog is cute like a baby. Mariko really wants a dog in the future.

Teacher: Bryan

  Bryan Field Anderson was born in Canada. His parents are from England. He likes Vancouver very much, there is beautiful scenery, friendly people and comfortable weather, everything is good, but the best thing for him is the hockey.

  Bryan says “Canadians like Hockey”, He likes hockey very much  that sometimes he plays in the park with his students. The sport lets him feel great and excited. But he played hockey for the first time in the Rockies with us. He can’t forget that experience, it had amazing scenery and everyone had fun.

  Now he works 6.5 years at the I.H. school. But before he came to I.H. he taught English for 3 years in Japan from 1999. He likes this job a lot and enjoys it, because he meets and teaches many students. He teaching style is interesting that every student can understand in the class.

  Bryan's other hobby is playing the piano. He started to play piano when he was 9 years old. He made the song “Game on”, it’s about “Winter Olympics” which is wonderful, and I like the song a lot. His inspiration for the song was from the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. He is excited and it touches his heart when he watches the game’s video. And he fellows his feelings when plays piano. He doesn’t have to write on  paper, he just keeps it in his head and plays by ear. Before he had a band, he met them at a nightclub in 2006. Bryan likes many singers, but only Elton John and Billy Joel are heroes in his mind.

  He has even been to American, Japan, Australia, and more. In the future, he hopes to travel more. (South American and Europe) He wants to get a lot of different culture and experience.  

Roger-selfier

What is your opinion of selfies?

I think some people want to tell the world, "I'm here!" It can prove they were ever born on this earth. Then when they die on Earth, they would travel to other planets in the Universe. So, everyone would have a record in this space when you collect all selfies from different planet, then you will really finish your life mission. this will prove your existence. then you will become nothing to wait next birth. 

In a parallel universe have many different time line, then we live in inside. the most life know the line haven't end, It is limitless. actually It have end. how do to ending it? just have only way can to ending. So the human find the selfies. but they don't know it can to finish the parallel universe for himself. 

Chaos isn't nothing. It has a time, we call it epoch. Every epoch Universe will rebirth, then when they rebirth, it will release all life of finished parallel universe. than they are will gat some especially ability, It can to change their world if they want. so everyone have change to got this capacity.

WARNING: SELFIE ALERT

Nowadays, it’s very common to find people carrying cameras, tablets and smart phones everywhere. Even when you’re alone, you can take uncountable pictures of yourself. In other words, you can make selfies! It’s a good way to show yourself in different places, without asking someone to help you.

The big advantage is to share your selfie with whole world through social media. But, you need to be careful, because the selfie might show a negative image of you. The people whom you share your picture with or who might see you taking a selfie, can judge you. You might show a selfish image about yourself if you repeatedly upload your pictures. It sounds like someone begging for attention all the time. Clearly, this attitude doesn’t please everybody. However, now, pay attention and enjoy “your selfie”!

In my selfie, I decided to take a picture with my umbrella on the street, because while in Vancouver it’s winter, in my country is summer.

Selena-fear

The fear of women’s position

Because of my masters, I have always been concerned with the issue of gender and sexuality, and I really appreciate that I have the chance to learn and know more about it. Unfortunately, not every woman is as lucky as me. I heard that in some countries, women don’t have the opportunity to educate themselves about their rights, or think about gender equality. What I said is not just about education, sometimes woman have no human rights, too. Women are claimed to be the secondary gender and the property of their male counterparts.

     Looking back on my life, I don’t have to worry too much about that since our government requires everything to be fair for both female and male in my country, and so on in other modern countries. However, sometimes I still confuse women’s positions and their future even though things are already different if we compare them to traditional society in Chinese culture. Nowadays, women can find a job, and might have the same salary as man; moreover, babies can also use their mother’s last name not just their father’s. In addition, more and more men would like to share the responsibility in the family such as housework and taking care of children and the elderly. Doesn’t it sound perfect?

     Nevertheless, something is still hidden under the peaceful surface in modern society. There are several various discrimination of woman there. Of course it might not be as serious as some cases which happened in other male-lead societies, but people are still judged by gender and sexuality. For example, you can’t be a perfect wife and mother if you can’t do very well in both work and family. The other case is, if you can’t have a son, your in-laws might suggest your husband divorces you and marries another woman, because Chinese culture prefers having male members in the family. People still believe that there are some limitations for women; when born, women are claimed to be bad in science and logic, that’s why people believe that women are useless in rational society.

     Frankly, the worst thing for me is, sometimes not only are men chauvinistic, but women are as well. They, as some men do, try to limit and regulate women as they were in the past-- sometimes they ask more than men. It sounds ridiculous but it’s true. It’s an absolute tragedy.

     It’s seems to me that women are hard to have their own position if people keep discriminating against gender. Basically, while they have many challenges in work and family, they are hardly rewarded. Where should women go? Personally, as a modern woman, I’m afraid of being limited by society and culture. To be honest, I don’t want someone to tell me what I can and can’t do based on my gender. If I can’t avoid being judged, I wish I could be judged in something I can change.

The fear of water shortage

     As a resource, water is vital in the world; people need water in various ways everyday. However, it seems to me that most people have not appreciated about the present that we receive from nature. It is weird since the treatment of an important resource looks like rubbish to people.

     Why do people still waste water even though they already know that water might be exhausted in the recent year? In my case, I had had an aware experience about the poverty of water before I came to Vancouver. Several years ago, I have been to Southwestern China once. When we went to the washroom in countryside, I found there was no water for cleaning. It’s impossible to happen in Taiwan; I thought it might be a special case, but unfortunately, we faced the problem again and again in China. In that time, I realized that water was not always plenty in everywhere and, suddenly, I was extremely shock though I already knew the fact for a long time. Being in that situation, I felt guilty because sometimes I wasted water, too. 

     Therefore, I do really worry about the water shortage issue now. I saw a lot of research and newspaper which discuss about the water pollution and shortage. In addition, some information shows that many countries have not had enough water in both livelihood and the development of economic and country. At the same time, people in those powerful countries have tons of water and they don’t really care about resource wasting.

     It’s high time we saved water. It’s the responsibility that we can’t avoid to bear for all human who living in the earth. Considering the justice and ethics, we must do something to save water. Otherwise, we will lose the beautiful world and made more and more people stay in a poor and sad situation

 

Canadian Visa approved or not?

My fear about the past was not getting my visa approved. This is a big problem for most of students who want to travel abroad. Because it is not easy to enter into a foreign nation. You have to prove to the Canadian Consulate all your ties with your original country. If you are young, probably you don’t have sufficient ties, such as job, career, own house, etc. The Embassies needs to know if you have sufficient funds to support yourself during trip. Moreover, the most important thing is to prove that you will return to your home country after this trip is complete. Other student’s concern is what will be happened in this new challenge, and what will be change since this travel starting. For sure, everything will change inside of you. All the moments will be unforgettable.

Biological Clock ticking

One of the women’s fear is the biological clock. When you’re 30 years old or a little more, the clock is ticking. This is a way to remind us that our time for becoming a mother is almost over. Sometimes people might drive us crazy with this subject. The society imposes that we must be better than we are. Everybody starts charging us every time. The list of questions is extremely big; “How is your career?”, “Do you have a boyfriend?”, “When will you get married?” Who is your partner?”, “When will you want to have a baby?”, “When will you have your own apartment?” etc. All this questions sent shivers up in her spine. But, how about ourselves? What do we think? Personally, I believe this is just a social pressure. In my opinion, the women shouldn’t worry about this. They should just take their time and think about what they really want to do in the future.

Roger-fear

One day, the wind won’t be able to blow air, life won’t be able to breathe, and the water will stop flowing. Every thing might standstill. Our appetite will destroy us. Any awareness will go back to nothing again. It is an unfair world but also it is a fair universe. Those who break the balance of life must pay for it in the future forever. 

In my photograph; the sun represents chaos, but it’s also a powerful magnate. The tree represents a lawman but it’s also a laborer. The color represents the environment. 

Most humans always think about themselves and forget who the creator is. But now the water, the trees, the sun, everything little by little will disappear and become doomed. The humans want to use petty tricks to become God, they want to control everything, but they don’t know how, they can't see tomorrow. Finally, they will discover their own small power. However, the damage will be irreparable. 

My fear is for the environment because we are always taking everything from the Earth, we are also pretending to be good Samaritans, who want to help the earth. We are shrimp fighting the whale. It’s a battle we’ll never win. No one can stop destruction from coming , compared with the ecological environment; humans are so small.

 

Selena-selfie

     As far as I’m concerned, the value of selfie is hard to define. Since the social media has grown and technologies become better and better, selfies are everywhere. Therefore, I’m curious about what a good selfie is and how to critique a selfie when most of them look very similar. The problem is, if selfies just show the subject, what’s the difference between all of them? Moreover, how can we critique or make some recommendations?

     Obviously, selfies are usually full of symbols of narcissism. However, I insist there might be some interesting issues through the discussion in our class. One of my classmates, Tais, reckoned that a selfie could say some fun story if the photographer notices the angle, structure, background, and so on. I believe she got the point! Even though the distances between subject and lens are limited by the lengths of your arm, a selfie still can be an artistic picture if we put a creative idea into it. Then of course, we could show more meanings in the selfie than just showing how beautiful/handsome we are.

     In my selfies, I pretended I had my picture taken by someone else in the pictures and I refused to face the lens. What I wanted to confirm in this series was the personal privacy and freedom of photography, and the confusion of the subject's pose. Actually, you can easily find those kinds of pictures on the internet though their intention might be totally different than mine; it seems to me that people just want to show how good they are. What’s the most interesting thing to me is that sometimes you can see a mirror or some reflections that show they’re taking the photo by themselves (even though they want people to think someone else is taking it). When I took the picture, I was really careful because I didn’t want to make those funny mistakes like they did.