The reason she gave me was that it isn’t related to her course. As a cultural value, the image of O-week as being the time when people only get drunk and “waste time” is not very appealing to Chinese students.

Taking a class together does build a connection between a group of people, but there are the pressures of assessment, part time jobs and existing friendship circles during semester. The time people make new friends at university is during O-Week, let’s get into it There is so much more to uni than just studying.

６年間後、二人とも、いろいろが変わってきた。でも変わらなかった物もある。共通友達について聞かせたり、今でも彼と連絡してるの？とか聞いたり。さあ、話はけっきょく深くなる。”ライフは？”

It is so good to know that the people I cared so much about, are still here. Its hard to know though, when the next time I see them will be.

すごいいい仲良しは今でも会えるといい。でも今度はいつか会えるか予想不可能。

Example. I’ve set up a meeting to have a coffee and discuss a new project or event for 3pm on Thursday. Because I know that I’ll have to leave the office at 2:30 to get there, I tell the academic I am only able to work on the conference until 2:30. I am okay with 3pm, because I can get back to the office by 4:30 at the latest, and do another hour and a half before I get so hungry I have to go home. If its a one hour meeting and it takes half an hour to get there, its actually a two hour committment.

What if you ask if I can move the meeting an hour forward? I have to tell the plan before that that thing have changed. What if it is an hour later? That means I won’t be able to get back to the office with enough time to do any meaningful work, so I will just go home early. In the first instance I have to make a request to someone else to change the time, and in the other situation I end up losing another hour and a half of meaningful working time.

Once I set the time, I am more worried about changing it for the sake of others, than myself. Although my own interests do play into that as well. 

この前に渋い喫茶店が見つけなく、日本はスタバとかばっかりだと思った。実際はまじめように見てなかったわけだ。ここは僕の基準にかなわてないことじゃなくて、ただ僕は日本のこと詳しくなかった。そして見つけたいことが見つけなかった。

Except for the milk really yummy.

Very few coffees are made here with the barrista style foam on top. Its a sad reality, and unfortunatly the cost for this kind of coffee is actually higher in real terms than coffee in Australia

残念ながら日本で本物のバリスター的なコーヒーが売ってない。バリスタースタイルがコーヒーの上に泡があるっていう意味だ。そうしても、オーストラリアより、日本のコーヒーが高い。

The atmosphere is really good though - でもふいんきはばっちりだ

The department is a mix of native and non-native speakers of English and it produces an annual journal called the Kio. The staff are dedicated to both teaching and research, and the guidance I’ve received so far from the staff so far has been extremely valuable to me. Thank you so much.

Its going to be impossible to fill those shelves with books in the month I’m here, but I’ll try.

Goals 2012

1.  Social Well Being

People

• Be someone that other people want to help
• Be a beautiful person to all in my life
• Meditate everyday
• Become a mentor to others
• Meet and build rapport with ten influential people

2. Career

• Join Researchship at Tohoku University Jan-Feb
• Language Testing Resource Center Internship
• Publish Test of English as a Lingua Franca Article
• Publish my honours thesis
• Jun’s Research
• Find 3 academics that could possibly supervise me for Monbusho PhD in Japan
  • CIR Jet program (If fail book flight to China)

3. Language Connection

Melbourne

• 20 Volunteers
• 5 Events Weekly
• 3 conferences/ trips
• 5,000 people benefiting from our program

External

• 5 Volunteers
• 3 Regular events
• 1,000 people benefiting from out program

4. Develop Personal Profile

Appearance

• Look good in skin, hair, clothes, overall health

Public Relations

• Appear in 20 newspaper articles, radio and TV spots
• Speak at as many events as possible (20 minimum)
• Apply Young Victorian of the year

5. Finance

Have 10,000 in total net worth

• 10,000 Kiva SWY Microfinance
• Mark down everything I spend

Here is a brief summary of the article we will be working on while I am there:

This joint study will focus on the effects of volunteer activities in an elementary school in Tohoku following the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 3/11 on pupils’ intercultural perspectives 異文化的意識. The background for this study is based on volunteer activities which I have already been conducting on several occasions since the disaster. I have made syllabus, organized and conducted fun, motivating and practical English lessons in the 5^thgrade classes of an elementary school in Miyagi with the help of a large group of volunteer students of Tohoku University, including Japanese and foreign students who went there dressed in their native costumes. During one of the English lessons, we also presented each 5^th grader with a children’s illustrated book (written in English by an American who donated most of the books) which told the story of a Japanese boy in a village struck by a tsunami and how he had built a bridge. For this research, we plan to conduct interviews and questionnaires, and then analyze the data in order to examine the children’s intercultural consciousness and how the children feel about building bridges and bonds 絆with countries and people beyond Japan.

1. Overview of the study

The period following opening of the Chinese economy to the rest of the world in 1979, has been marked by greater levels of globalisation, migration, international education and cross cultural communication (United Nations Development Program 2009, Kaur 2011, Neuliep 2006). Of particular note has been the economic rise of China (Bergsten et al 2006, Naughton 2007) as well as greater levels of communication between China and the West. These increased interactions, both at a national and person to person level, has brought under the microscope cultural differences between Western and Chinese communication strategies (Young 1990, Xing 2000, Lam 2010). While a number of these studies have sought to describe differences between the expectations of interactions, differences in cultural values and how rapport can be damanged, there is very little research which looks at what can make these conversations successful. This study will seek to identify both successful and unsuccessful styles of Anglo-Sino conversation in terms of the development of rapport.

As English has emerged as the world’s lingua franca (Crystal, 1995; Graddol, 1999; Jenkins Cogo & Dewey, 2011) the majority of conversations between Australians and Chinese speakers occur in English. Over the last three decades the numbers of Chinese students seeking degrees at Australian Universities has grown exponentially from 7,411 in 1999 to 90,908 in 2008 (Guo, 2010), however the difficulties of international student integration have been underlined by the differences between the groups. For Australians and Chinese speakers to be able to communicate effectively, significant research is required in potential threats to rapport, as well as the ways in which rapport is successfully built. This can be observed most clearly through face-to-face conversations. The present paper analyses such conversations through the lens of Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS) and specifically draws on Spence-Oatey’s Rapport Management Framework (2000, 2008) to quantify the data.

Goals 2011

1.  Social Well Being

People

• Be someone that other people want to help
• Be a beautiful person to all in my life
• Meditate everyday
• Become a mentor to others
• More relaxation
• Date a beautiful and intelligent (Chinese) girl for as long as possible
• Meet and build rapport with ten influential people
• Become domestically skilled

2. Career / Travel

• Have an amazing trip on Ship the World Youth 23

Applications

• Hanyu Scholarship Taiwan March 2011
• CIR Jet program Nov 2011
• Apply for jobs in China
• [If GHT takes off then put these on the backburner]

 GHT didn’t take off, and I didn’t apply for jobs in China. But I did apply for Jet, It is in my 2012 goals as well to start in August of 2012. And I did have a life changing trip with SWY. I started working for an academic and then later in language testing. I started honours, and I want to be an academic or work in language policy. A truly huge shift. 

3. Global HeartTours

Take it to China

• Organise three Chinese Groups coming to AUS/NZ
• 2,500 people benefiting from our program
• 250,000 in revenue

Great Online Presence

• Build a prototype for GHT Online
• Improve the lives of those who list
• Provide a meaningful but affordable experience for visitors
• 100 tours through the website

GHT reformed at Language Connection – the most drammatic thing to happen all year and it coincided with my personal shift from wanting to run a social enterprise with emphasis on the enterprise, to wanting to just focus on the social element, and delegating all of the money issues to other people. 

1. Language

Chinese

• Be able to tour guide by myself
• Understand business in China
• Learn to read balance sheets and company information

Japanese

• Understand Movies
• Understand Business in Japan
• Learn to read balance sheets and company information

1. Writing

http://www.atatakaidan.com/ Japanese Journal

• Distribute as widely as possible through friends, teachers, online
• Run a great online marketing campaign
• Get a book deal

 Too many goals. 

1. Develop Personal Profile

Appearance

• Look good in skin, hair, clothes, overall health

Public Relations

• Appear in 20 newspaper articles, radio and TV spots
• Speak at as many events as possible (20 minimum)

Footbag

• Continue to do any Footbag work that comes up
• Be open to all international performances and commercials

1. Finance

Have 50,000 in total net worth

• 30,000 diversified portfolio
• 5,000 Kiva
• Mark down everything I spend
• Understand Asian stock markets

Moving out of home and going back to study made a few of these impossible. But the microfinance group I started on Kiva – SWY Microfinance, turned over 5450 in 2011.