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Patti
Jan 29, 2015 10:35:30 GMT 9
Post by Admin on Jan 29, 2015 10:35:30 GMT 9
Please introduce yourself.
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Patti
Feb 2, 2015 23:51:05 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 2, 2015 23:51:05 GMT 9
Hello Guys! My name is Patti, I am 19 years old and I am from Brazil! I graduated in the first group of students in Soka School of Brazil in 2009, which was nominated by the founder as "The First Group of Victory of Soka School of Brazil". I am so thankful to have the chance to be a Soka University Student! In order to improve my English skills, my family gave me the opportunity to study English in Toronto, Canada. It was a 6-month exchange program with so much development. I met people from different cultures, which made me sure that I really want to become a global citizen! I love meeting new people, specially from different cultures. I am an outgoing person and I am sure is going to be amazing studying at FILA! My hobbies are to dance and hang out with my friends. Even if I am not that kind of person which loves reading, I am working hard to read books in English. I love kids! I love taking care of them! I actually do a volunteer work at a hospital that cares about children with physical problems. I've learned that no matter the circumstances, they can do what others could think it is impossible. I am really determinated that I will work with children. They are my real motivation. Thank you for the opportunity. Let's study hard! All the best,
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Patti
Feb 3, 2015 2:14:41 GMT 9
Post by Chelsey on Feb 3, 2015 2:14:41 GMT 9
Hi Patti! I'm Chelsey and I'm from Malaysia It's so great that you have a Soka elementary school in your country! We haven't had one yet in Malaysia, but we do have a Soka kindergarten here and I used to study there. Have you attended the Soka kindergarten in Brazil as well? I love kids too! They always inspire me and I sometimes find myself learning something from them too. I have an 8 year old little brother and he is the cutest and sweetest little thing ever, it breaks my heart that I will not be able to watch him grow up for the next four years when I'm studying abroad, but I'm sure these years in will be worthwhile and rewarding! Looking forward to see you soon! Chelsey.
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Patti
Feb 3, 2015 9:35:33 GMT 9
Post by Admin on Feb 3, 2015 9:35:33 GMT 9
Hi Patti, Welcome to the FILA message board! Thank you for making your first post. We are excited to have you join us on this journey of discovery. Please read your classmates posts and comment on them. I'm looking forward to reading your weekly reports.
Sincerely,
Miyagi H
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Patti
Feb 7, 2015 0:35:44 GMT 9
Post by Selena on Feb 7, 2015 0:35:44 GMT 9
Hi,Patti and Chelsey. I'm Selena and I live in Japan! Nice to meet you. I love percussion so I want to play it to dance music. Let's together enjoy music!
It's great that you used to study in Soka education. Please tell me about your memories in Soka kindergarten in Malaysia and Soka high school of Brazil!
I'm not used to communicate by using English. So I want to talk with you very much!! I'm looking forward to see you!
Selena
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Patti
Feb 7, 2015 2:29:28 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 7, 2015 2:29:28 GMT 9
Hello Miyagi.
Thank you so much for the supports.
Here is my weekly report. I am doing a holiday English course which is a preparation for the Cambridge Exam. It has been really nice because I am having classes from Mondays to Thursdays, almost 4 hours a day. The last week of classes is going to be last week.
Vocabulary: I learned 20 new vocabulary in 4 days. All of the words, I looked at the dictionary to get more examples, meaning and which part of speech are those, writing down on a paper so I could have a completed list. For the next 5 words missing, I will do at night when I get back home.
Listening: I watched many TED-speakers and I made some exercises in my English course. - "The beauty and diversity of Muslim Life" TED - "The secret to desire in a long-term relationship " TED - "My trek to the South Pole" TED - "8 Secrets of success" TED - "Success is a long journey" TED
Writing: I wrote the first 2 quick write which was proposed. - "What do you like to do in your free time?" (228 words in 10 minutes) - "Write about my hometown" (194 words in 10 minutes) And also I wrote the first composition from my English Course, which I got 9,5. I am so happy!
Reading: I am reading the book called "Annie", which is about the story of a girl who has believed that her mother and father would come back to her New York City orphanage to get here. Her life in the orphanage is just terrible because the headmistress is making her life a misery. She goes to the school but she has suffered bullying for not having good clothes and parents who can look after her. After realizing that her parents might not come to get her, she decided to run away from the orphanage in order to find them. I am so excited to see how Annie is going to do. What motivates her is that no matter what people say, she has a dream which makes her struggle all the circumstances. I really want to be like her!
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Patti
Feb 7, 2015 2:37:29 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 7, 2015 2:37:29 GMT 9
Hello girls!
Wow! I am so excited to talk with you two!
Well, you know what? Studying in Soka School of Brazil was one the treasures of my entire life!!!
I studied there for 8 years and I did the whole elementary school. Soka School of Brazil has kindergarten and elementary school only. We do not have yet the High School level. But we might have in a few years!
As I told before, I belong on the first group that has graduated from the entire school from the elementary school. The founder, Dr. Ikeda, has nominated us as "The First Group of Victory of Soka School of Brazil". What a pleasure!
I am so happy to have this opportunity and I will do my best to achieve all the expectations.
When I have more time, I will write down more details!
Thank you for being here! ;D
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Patti
Feb 9, 2015 0:41:50 GMT 9
Post by malcolm on Feb 9, 2015 0:41:50 GMT 9
Hi Patti! This is Malcolm, one of the FILA English teachers. Wow, it sounds and looks like you are immersing yourself in English at the moment. Thank you for all the details in your weekly report! It makes it easy to see what you are doing. Vocabulary: Good job with the vocabulary! Try using the new words that you learn each week when you write posts on this board or any time you speak or write in daily life. It may seem strange at first, but it does help you remember them. Maybe you have heard the phrase, "Use it or lose it." Using the words regularly with help you to remember them and keep them in your long-term memory. Then you can say, with certainty, that you have learned them. Good job this week. Keep it up! What is the most interesting word you studied this week? Listening: Which of the TEDTalks did you find most moving / inspirational / enjoyable / motivating / educational? What kind of exercises did you make for your course use TEDTalks? Tell me more. Writing: Good work on your first few Quick Writes. Again, thanks for the details! Oh, congratulations on your good marks on your first composition. Keep up with all the writing you can. Great word counts! Strengthen your "writing muscles!" Reading: Annie is definitely a girl who overcomes many obstacles. Have you seen the musical movie version of the book? Keep up the good work! Malcolm
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Patti
Feb 12, 2015 1:36:52 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 12, 2015 1:36:52 GMT 9
Hello Professor Malcolm! Nice to meet you! Thank you for all the supports and please count on me! I am going to do my best! Talking about vocabulary, I liked the word cheer, because I can use like... "I cheer up for my friends!" "Cheers for the life!" I knew the meaning but I am trying to read and write down all the words in the list that you sent me. As a result, I can get the colloctions and idioms correctly. On the listening part, I enjoyed hearing all of them... hahaha. But one of my favourite was "8 secrets of success" due to the easy and clear explanation and point of view of the life. The ted-speaker encourages the audience to never give up of our goals and when you achieve what you want, to not stay in a confort zone. It is a cyclo that never ends. Annie is definitely a girl who inspires others to run after your dreams. In Brazil, it is going to be the realease on the end of this mounth. I am so excited to check the movie but I want to finish my book first. hahahaha Thank you
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Patti
Feb 20, 2015 23:13:57 GMT 9
via mobile
Post by Patti on Feb 20, 2015 23:13:57 GMT 9
Hello Guys! Sorry for not posting on the last week! It was the last week of my English classes so I was studying hard for the tests! And I passed with good marks! I am so happy This is the report of two weeks: Vocabulary: - I managed to learn 50 words!! As the same, I wrote down the meaning, all parts of the speech and many examples to illustrate my understanding. I love the phrase which I can use the word lever: "Dialogue is our most powerful lever for peace." Is that correct? Listening: - I did not have so much time to listening to many listening but I did watch movies in English, such as "Real Steel". And also, I met a Japanese friend who studied with me in Canada. She is in Brazil and we went to some museums together in Sao Paulo. It was a good opportunity to practice speaking and listening. We had a good moments! Writing: - "What is the best thing about high school time?" (234 words) - "Write about a Christmas Eve or New Year experiencesexperience." (260 words) - "Write about your experience studying for the university entrance examination." (275 words) This was the eseasiest one. One that I felt so comfortable to write about. Haha. Actually, I had been trying to get into Soka University for 3 years! I managed to write of what happened in 3 years into 10 minutes. I actually could not finish but I put the mainly things. Reading - I am still reading "Annie". She decided to run away from the orphanage because she realized that she need to find where her parents actually are. She just cannot wait anymore. She tried twice to escape, which she failed. Then, on the third time, she got into a plastic bucket with dirty clothes and escaped from the orphanage. However, it was winter time and it was really cold. She got a job in a poor restaurant which was managed by two brothers who want to get advantage of the little girl. Work for food and home. After 3 months, she decided to run away from where she was with her little dog that she found on the streets. But she does not know whewwhere to start looking for her parents. Feeling hungry and cold, she and her dog slept on the station.
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Patti
Feb 22, 2015 10:21:08 GMT 9
Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2015 10:21:08 GMT 9
Dear Patti, Thank you for posting your weekly report. I'm glad to hear that you did well on your final exams.
Vocabulary: Good job learning 50 new words. Yes, a lever is a means to an end. Dialogue is a means/lever to peace.
Listening: What was Real Steel about? What kind of museum did you go to with your friend? Did you learn anything at the museum? Please give more detail next time.
Writing: Excellent job with your quick writes. 275 words is great.
Reading: I love the story of Annie. This story reminds us how grateful we should be for our family. Annie suffered cold and hunger but this was nothing compared to the pain she suffered from not having her family.
Great job on your weekly report.
Sincerely,
Miyagi H
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Patti
Feb 25, 2015 18:06:54 GMT 9
Post by Judy on Feb 25, 2015 18:06:54 GMT 9
Hi!Patti! Nice to meet you!I'm Judy.I live in Osaka,Japan.I go to Kansai Soka High School,but I'm from Hokkaido which is in north of Japan,so I live in a dormitory.My graduation ceremony is on March 16.This is a special day.Do you know why?I have only about 2 weeks that I can go to school.I'm sad:(
I was a dance club.I like Hip Hop Dance!What kind of dance do you like?Let's dance together someday!
I want to know about Brazil Soka Gakuen!and I want to talk with you more!
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Patti
Feb 25, 2015 22:18:25 GMT 9
via mobile
Post by Patti on Feb 25, 2015 22:18:25 GMT 9
Hello!
The movie "Real Steel" is in the time where human boxers are replaced by robots in fights. Charlie, ex boxer, found himself lost and decided to invest in robots made by scrap of cars to fight. His business was not going well and he discovered he has a son, Max, with his ex girlfriend, who had passed away. Charlie need to retain Max for three months before he decide if he will be capable or not to stay with Max. Then, Max discovered the robot fight and found a robot, Atom, on the landfill of the city. He was a robot which was designed to withstand severe damage and capable of mimicking its handler' motion. As a result, they started fighting with Atom in many of fights, winning all of them. To resume, Charlie discovered how amazing is to be a father and decided to fight for his son, no matter the ciucircumstances.
Hey Judy! Nice to meet you! I am so happy that I can meet Soka students from all over the world! You know what? I was so sad about graduating from Soka School of Brazil too. But you need to be pround of being a Soka student and to have the awareness that it's time to put in practice what you have learned. The world is our mission! I am so surprised that you got into the university so quickly. Hahaha! I tried for 3 years to get into! Congrats! Again, nice to meet you and let's be good friends!
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Patti
Feb 25, 2015 22:36:12 GMT 9
via mobile
Post by Patti on Feb 25, 2015 22:36:12 GMT 9
There are so many things to say that I even forget to comment. Hahaha sorry!
Talking about the museum, I went to two museums. The first one is on Pinacoteca. The exhibition is from Ron Mueak, an Australian sculptor. There are several sculpture that faithfully reproduce minute detail of human body, such as the hair, nails and veins are well presented. The second museum is an exhibition of modern inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. It shows us his side as an inventor, engineer and architect. It is amazing to see how his vision of the things were so modern in comparison with others inventors from his time. I could realize that we need to be like him, to make our mark and be visionaries.
Judy! Coming back to you, I love dancing anything! Hahahah In my dance group, I usually dance more hip hop songs. However, I love dancing anything and anywhere! My preference is hip hop.. but I enjoy most kind of music. I do not know so much about K-pop or J-pop.. I know that is famous in Japan and I need to start hearing! Do you have any suggestion?
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Patti
Feb 26, 2015 20:47:17 GMT 9
Post by Judy on Feb 26, 2015 20:47:17 GMT 9
Hi!Patti!Thank you for sending back soon!I'm so happy! Yeah,when I found you graduated Soka Gakuen in Brazil, I was surprised and I thought I wanted to contact with you:)I try to spend important time I have.I have a proud that I am a Gakuenn student! Actually,we have recommendation test for Soka University,so almost of us can go if we want to go,but FILA is so popular,so it was very hard to get a recommendation.We have tests two times,in April and in September.And academic results are important,too.I'm so happy to pass FILA!
My dance club is usually Western music.I like Taylor Swift,LMFAO,T-Pain,50cent and JustinBieber in dance!Please listen to !Who do you like?
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Patti
Feb 28, 2015 3:42:22 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 28, 2015 3:42:22 GMT 9
Hello guys!
Hoping everyone is doing well.
Here is my weekly report:
VOCABULARY: - I managed to learn more 26 new words. I wrote down the meaning, examples to illustrate my understanding and some collocations and idioms. I like the idiom with the word "lump". Even though is sometimes bad and unpleasant, there is an expression also in Portuguese. "That is the situation, like it or lump it!" And also, the word "nicely", which I can say that I am doing very nicely with my English studies. However, there are a lot to do! Let's study harder! Time flies! I hope that I can keep my dormitory very tidy and "neat" in Japan(other word that I saw this week). May someone help me? I saw the word "sophism" but I did not get the meaning... I looked it up on Google but I did not get anyway.
WRITING: I wrote 4 quick writing on this week. I feel I am doing very nicely because I can write what comes to my mind immediately. However, grammatically, it is not all the things right. I am just wondering about writing as much as I can without caring too much if it works or not. Am I doing right?
- "What do you miss about your elementary school life?" (271 words) It was really interesting writing this topic because I could write about Soka School of Brazil. I miss going to school and learning with teachers who are like our parents for us. Meeting my best friends everyday and having good time with them. - Why is it important to study English?" (285 words) This one was easier because I had already written something similar in my English School. - "What do you do to deal with stress" (343 words) It was funny writing this topic because I was actually stress. Hahahaha. That is why I wrote a lot! However, I think I repeated many words and phrases because I want to emphasize my ideas. I do not think it was a good one but I wrote a lot. That is why I am asking if I am doing right or if I need to worry more about grammar points. - "What are your future goals for the Faculty of Liberal Arts Program at Soka University?" I have just realized that I misunderstand the topic. I though I was asked to write about my goals for studying at FILA, not the future plans. And I felt blocked because of the grammar points. That is why I wrote less comparing to the other ones.
LISTENING: I listened to 4 TED speech this week.
- "How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime." This one was really interesting topic. She said basically that children who have any trauma during the childhood, they have more chance to have/ develop any kind of health problem in adulthood. It can be a physical, sexual or moral trauma. That's why is so important to take care of our kids. If we want to prevent future problems, we should also care about our children. - "To solve mass violence, look to locals." I thought amazing how the TED-speaker talked about this topic. She is a girl who had always wished to fight for a better world. However, to make something more effectively, she decided to understand deeply about the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo. She said that U.N and many diplomatists have been invested and fought on his country, which has killed more than 1 million of people. But every single movement to stop and solute it was failed because they are looking for something which is not the root case. To resolve it, she said that we need to focus on the local communities. Their local traditions and cultures create some conflict among different ethnic which turn into a national conflict. I really enjoyed watching this speech. - "How to let altruism be your guide." It was a talk from a Buddhist monk and basically he discussed about the conflict between selfish and altruism. He said that we need to have two changes: a personal and social change to have more altruism in our world. To complement what he has proposed, he gave some examples to support his ideas and present what he has been doing to contribute.
READING: - I actually listed to one more TED speech. However, I could not get all the ideas. Then, I decided to hear and read at the same time. The speech was "How I work to protect women from honor killing." It was a challenge topic for me to understand but I think I could take the main ideas. She explained what is honor killing, which is when a women is killed by her father or brother because she had a relationship before getting married, and decided that she was going to do something to change and empower women from Pakistan. Then, her family and she started to promote three of their main cultures, music, language and embroidery. They prepared books of their fables and stories, CDs of songs from their tribe and a center in the village where women would go every day to make embroidery to make money. As a result, they launched a branch with their work ad it has supported 900 women in 24 villages around Pakistan. It is amazing! When someone rises up for a change, it can have a big effect on other's lives. - I am still reading Annie.. hahaha
Thank you!
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Patti
Feb 28, 2015 3:47:24 GMT 9
Post by Judy on Feb 28, 2015 3:47:24 GMT 9
Hey Judy!
Thank you so much for the kindness!
Yes, I love Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, David Guetta, Maroon Five, Sam Smith, Usher, Rihanna and etc hahaa
Do you have a favourite Japanese singer/band? I know that in Japan, it is so common to listen to Korean Pop (K-pop) and Japanese Pop (J-pop). Do you like this kind of music? Can you give me any suggestion?
Xoxo!
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Patti
Feb 28, 2015 3:49:42 GMT 9
Post by Patti on Feb 28, 2015 3:49:42 GMT 9
Hey Judy! Thank you so much for the kindness! Yes, I love Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, David Guetta, Maroon Five, Sam Smith, Usher, Rihanna and etc hahaa Do you have a favourite Japanese singer/band? I know that in Japan, it is so common to listen to Korean Pop (K-pop) and Japanese Pop (J-pop). Do you like this kind of music? Can you give me any suggestion? Xoxo! Sorry! It was me on the top, not Judy! hahahaa!
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Patti
Feb 28, 2015 21:56:08 GMT 9
Post by Judy on Feb 28, 2015 21:56:08 GMT 9
Hi,Patti! I thank you very much! I don't know most of them very much,so I try to listen to! I'm fan of Arashi!Do you know them?They are one of the most famous singer group.They are called "idol".It is so hard to get their concert tickets.and I like EXILE,too.but I usually listen to western music:) By the way,in Brazil,do you always speak English? xoxo!! No problem:)
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Patti
Mar 2, 2015 21:36:48 GMT 9
Post by Selena on Mar 2, 2015 21:36:48 GMT 9
Dear Patti
Hi! I'm sorry for replying late.
Soka school of Brazil sounds marverous.Soka education for 8 years is treasure!You're nice!And "The First Group of Victory of Soka School of Brazil" is your pride. What do you think about good point of Soka school of Brazil?
Selena
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