Manners

* The kind of rude behaviour that infuriates me
When someone does something that is unkind or not good for others, I am irritated and I want he or she to think about others. Sometimes it is important to concentrate ourselves, but for me, it is a little rude not to think about others, to bang on something that is not interesting for most people, to put down someone in front of other people, or to be selfish.

* Good manners between men and women
In Japan, it is not common that couples kissing and cuddling in public, and most elderly doesn't accept those kinds of acts.

* The social taboos in my country that a foreigner should know about
When we talk with older people or people who have high social status, we use different words such as formal and polite ones. Even if there is only one year difference, we normally use such words, and if we made a formal appointment such as job interview or meeting, arriving on time is not enough. It is better to get to the appointment place at least five minutes before.

☆Avril Lavigne☆

Avril Ramona Lavigne Whibley, she was born in 1984, is one of the most legendary singer, musician, and songwriter all over the world. In 2004, she won a World Music Award for favorite pop and rock artist, and in total, she has sold over 21 million albums to this date.

Last year, I went to her concert in Japan. The audience was very excited and the concert started with deafening applause. She was belting out many songs, for example, Girlfriend, Complicated, My Happy Ending and so on. She has a wide variety of songs, so every time she began to sing new songs, the atmosphere changed and we never die down. Her masterpiece Girlfriend is recorded in seven languages, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish, so we can enjoy not only in English but in our own language. Besides, she has performed in various countries as well and has a good number of fans. It shows that she is the worldwide singer.

She added two songs as the encore, and at the end of the show, she said, 'Thank you for coming, I love you so much, I am going to come back here again, Thank you very much!' She was giving the audience 100%. I had a quite wonderful time!

If you have not listened to her songs, why don't you do it now??

Vancouver and Kagoshima in Japan

There are a lot of similarities and differences between Vancouver and my hometown, Kagoshima, in Japan. One remarkable difference would be the population of people from different countries. I was very surprised when I came here, because there are many foreign people, including me. However, in Kagoshima, which is in the countryside, we rarely see such people. A further difference to consider is the language that is spoken in each area. In Vancouver, most people speak English because it is the native language(also French). It seems to be natural, but if we talk with people from another countries in Kagoshima, we usually talk in English despite our native language is Japanese. In my opinion, it is not common that foreigners come to Kagoshima to learn Japanese and the proportion of foreigners is quite a few, that is why we talk with them in English. The only thing I am concerned is that we should protect our own language, though English is lingua franca. There are another differences between us, but we have similarities as well. I firmly believe the kindness of people is similar. If we ask the impression of Kagoshima to tourists, most people say that people are bery kind and we can feel confortable. I feel the same thing in Vancouver.

Over the 10 years, globalozation has been changing my hometown. For example, now, we have not only Japanese instruction but English, Chinese, Korean, and French in public washrooms, stores, or the announce of transportation. It means the population of foreigners is increasing and the view is becoming wide. I suppose that kinds of globalization help us to broaden our mind and to develop the country. I am sure that globalization is very important to respect each country or way of thinking and it is the most effective way to make world peace. I hope Kagoshima will be changed in a positive way more and more.