1st day of presentations

Monday was the first day of presentations! I really enjoyed all of it:) For Megumi’s presentation, I think she really hooked the audience with intriguing facts like how the population of facebook users being the 5^th largest population in the world’s countries. I thought that the images she had in her slides were appealing and memorable. The one where the man has 4 hands still clearly remains in my head!

Moe’s topic was about the effects of violent video games on children. I was really disgusted by the video that she showed us. What was frightening about it was how virtual the people and surroundings are. I think that actually blurs the distinction between the world inside the game and real life. If there is anything to say, it would have been interesting if there was data that showed an increase in juvenile delinquency because of these violent video games.

Johnny’s topic was on professional gaming. I don’t do much games, but I wasn’t entirely new to the idea of amateur gamers becoming professionals as they play because of the many game commercials on television. One thing I really liked about his presentation is his confident way of speaking. Even if his topic was something that I wouldn’t entirely agree with, I am sure that he can convince me of his argument!

Take’s topic was something that I really liked. Recently, I have been thinking of those topics myself. It’s not exactly corporate punishment, but ordinary Japanese schools tend to think of the “Spartan way” as effective as it motives students to try hard. Sometimes I watch the television program called “Waratte Koraete” (English translation: laugh and withhold it) and there’s one section in that program where they interview a school’s sports team or musical club and their process in preparing for competitions. At first, it was stimulating for me to watch it as the students were about my age. Watching their hard work told me that I should do the same. However, I stopped watching it at some point because it was intimidating to see how the teacher yells at the students or verbally abuses them. The students also didn’t seem to have too much fun; it was more like a “who’s the toughest” competition, and it seemed absurd to me. I think there’s a way to score well in competitions without throwing demotivating, offensive words at them.

I loved Shiho’s and Joki’s slides. They were really appealing. YouTube has definitely made it easier for potential stars to be born, and I always took that as a positive thing because the public has the chance to choose the stars, not the record company or music industry. However, Shiho has shown me the negative sides of that. The result of this is that some singers do not have to go through the whole arduous process of getting famous that older generations had to go through.

Joki’s topic was really intriguing. When I think of hip-hop, I imagine these women with baggy clothes, so he introduced a complete different view of hip-hop to me. I’ve always thought that hip-hop was a genre that covered topics such as partying, drinking, and sex so great to know that they actually weren’t always like this. However, it is upsetting how they have changed. I suppose creating verses on topics such as partying and drinking takes less effort and time than creating verses that cover political, economic, or social issues. Joki said that the modern hip-hop mostly sound the same as the basic material they use is the same. It seems to me that that would bore its listeners, so a new change in hip-hop will soon be seen? By the way, I have always been wondering what the difference between rap and hip-hop is!