The Newsletter
The
of the
Friendly ~ ·INGUI ST
, L~tfD5e ~ e C.rde Dee. 1"1,1'1t5" N..S..
CHRISTMAS' PARTY lt On iYedn<?oday, Dec. 18 (today) , I.EC will bafl a Christmas Party at Harpsr Hall. from 6:00:-9:00. Harper Hall is near the back gate at ICU Kiudez,,,. garten . Participants will meet at D-kan louup at 5:30; it you will be late , go direotly to Harper Hall . Please bring a s mall gift won.h about ~500 and a participant ' s tee ot ¥5()0. Cake , tea, gumdrops and other candies will be ser.ved. (Sorry , no alcohol!) Feel free t o .~ring your own favorite ca.11dy or cookieal We will play games, of course . What kinds of games? That •• secret! This is the last event ot LEC in 1985. I.Er' S HAVE FUN 11
More generally, campus life iteelt ehowa little interaction between national grQUJJII• Howev6r , unlike t h~ problem mentioned above givt.-n t te I'.iS:1.t mot ivation it could eaail7 be rei!lediod - - t !:le nasons for the lack of ural. in~cr~~ti on a=e 1"-finitaly more complex . Surel7 thos~ Jaµne s e who have been educated abroad have
a I t was a pleasure to re~d the editorial of a recent edition of the Weekly Giants (Dec 12, 1985) . Paradoxically~ in P. so-called internal tional university, articles written in English are s urprisingly scarce. The fact that it stood in splendid isolation a:nct.g fourteen pages blackened with kanji emphasizes the paradox but does not ~xplain it. Rathe~, it leads one to think that language exchanges at ICJ are not quite what they are claimed to be by the university's boist erous prospectus. Nor are academic pursuits, f or that matter. Apathy pervades the campus and , the administrative machinery accurately reflects the situation. Does the fault lie rlth the student body, with the teaching staff - whose role 16 t o actively guide and nurture exchanges and thinking - or both? . This articl~ does not otter r emadies, much less an analysis of the situation cut ·rather a sketch of the salient · teatures ·which characterize the general complace~cy.
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The inadeguacies of language oxchanges Newspapers have a major role to play in the promotion of language exchanges . Why then i s the principal newpper of an international institution exclusiTely run and written by Japanese atudents? Two possible explanations stand out : · vested interests and the apathy of foreign stud1 1 enta. Yet although one might expect ·a certain , resistance from Japanese staff members, the ease with which this article was accepted gives one no option other than the rejection -of the first al• ternative. Theforeign community stands accused. One may cock an eyeb~ow at the lack of interest shown by foreign students, but evidently "here one year, gone the next" is not an attitude r.onducive to cha.nge.
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ICU and acad<,mic eu:euite Th~ editorial of the Weekly Giants raised four points. The university bookstore •• called "diminutive"; calls were made for the creation of a student government and the extenaion of l i bt'ar)' hours; the advisor system was criticized. In essence such attacks question the veracity of ICU's claims to being a university. Yet t h• art;\.cle is misl eading for it discusses nttda which , though r elevant to American or European universities, are not felt at ICU. Despite it.a claims t o internationalism the latter i s a Japanese institution which cannot be compared t o i t s Western counter parts . Western ideals are .-not necessarily shared by t he Japanese. There will be differences of opini-on as to the d~ti~• of a universit y. The truth is thatdeapite the occa.• ai onal growl to exercise the jaws, students a re content wit~ the current situation . 'Ther e is no Hn~c. · i1'1 scratching a spot if it does -not i tch. Announcements If you have some news or comments, please pu.t it in the M-box of !SHIMURA, Chia.Id (Jr. )• ls there anyone who will be l onely in Tokyo ~ver Christrns !l:,d New Year's'Z Please c~tact OONISHI, Akiko (Jr . ) , LEC will plan acaet hing for y~.
t-~~------------------------1 00 YOU LIKE UNAGI?
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LEC ia having an unagi party on Monday , January 6th at Harper Hall from 6(50 to 9: 00. Fee: ¥500 + rx (less than ~'1000) For more info contact HASHIMoro, Yoehio (Jr).
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My Santa Claus stopped coming to me with pr esen ts long before I reaJized ...£t t ha t there was no real man namea Santa r,J. -u•.<tt' I-YIA ~ \., /JV,,\ Cl "That means I've been dropped f..,,,rV"l,;~ If ~ '-, ~~k fr~~s the good childre~ list? Hhat did · V ~ r do wrong? " , 1· used 1,,0 think. I had ~ rrff >'17'CJ -j.t..tJ-( ~/I.,(f A..t1 ~;!..l,. no con~ef~io1:1 that, Christmas was ~~la;ed ~ 1.. ~ ~ ,. "-, ,. • I to Christianity . Purthermore, I aidn t r./ 1,\t1 -.ra ~~1-=. 1-:1 v~- ✓~! v-,-C ...,,/< -'"' even kno w what religion 'is. 'L'o me, (t, (~IJ,t, ,~t1- - r~~t1 J l 1 ff) IJ),r 11"1 ~ , Chr i s tmas meant cake, champagne, Cnristf~1.l-\ "TL1,f~~(,:", . \.'-, f--_ t1§1irt1 1iJ"lLr: ••',/,. m~s trees, Santa Claus ; and presents. ¢J(,.•l;1? .J 't,.7f i/"~'>(-"-,(,. ,· 'rhese were my Christma::,. ~V-11. 71JJ..<7'ff< . ~1 1i1-i.ir-:.A1J1~:e, J?h Howe ver , ~to t~e Japa1:ese people, '~;et, ( ,1, ' . , ,•,?11tfrll except t ho se !eW wno are Christian, fik:t\."-1 JP:tf$'1J'< f fJ,? f-:. • 'L ti'\ t .: 1✓>.c \ , :Im"r brist mas ; 6 nothing more than an annual t\.'•H,'1>~ ;LJ;f.~1.,U/tJ,.,f-:..~"'[''J,Ja . :iA1"!. ; ,;en t. Tn;n what do es 11 religiort'meamin t~ t,-r 1117-~ A ~!'l. -r.··,,,;. 'l'f )'A.~/-( t he Japanese t oday? som 7 J !3-panese gh ?,/l, '71/1,."<J.. · '1'1- ·(t,1) , 1'f""rt7'0- A1~J;t/ , say that it is only appll. caol e when 1°vAt"':/~-t"t>..,f-: 0 someone dies; others that it is only a ~ ~ ,,,. I. -r "'1 ,t.:"' "7iJ , . collection of social customs. In eum, , ~-1}\~ • ,, <f'J c1rt;A..t - c...., '-- ,, tJ 1J tr-:,_, .'!vJJ( . J apanese have no faith in religion • .1'1: ~/J.L, Jf<. 1) , 71, 1-:ZA~\.'1-01?11 . /'.. t:.·ff(J The Ja·p anese's sloppy attitude toward h~fnl 1'=- 1:f 'f/ t' ~1.''rt/{l'1J'k~11 religion might be difficult for devout ~~1. ·-r\1. it1{ 13~)...{,: ~-?i' !J~~l1 L'" Christians to understand, but co:iversely (-;_1., , 1;j{Jn-C.,. f) "J;1"/J'? j?J;)-. t1- j._J;\"Ttd,.,(-:" the Japanese .~a-ye ~ifficul~y -compre- :L -a-t ,-:.~a; *v!X..r/±~-c-·~;,; vL'l' ~ bending why Cnristians bedlievet ind tthhee !; tb ~ v ~ <!I (... :IE, faith so strongly . To un ers an s 11 :;ir flktf~ir..1 ~ fit ' "(,.V'.,f-:. . ?ft' QI': ,nutually is a key for Japanese to ½i 1q?,~ j]t'(jt~n-('1lh<1 !nl-.?Ti t't'fl11'' ~nderstand other cultures and viceJ..,,.t'J/fM 1-Kf.t1A,l'i 11JJ-f~:,.,,~f.-.f~;t'=t1 versa . ~· 1:1-, '- liI (-.J.-t ) ff.M ·(~ fcf \.' 11, f ~ ,J'l !J: \ 1J't . ~ .J'l t~, -: . i€t- I~.. ~ Al ,.,,.,,,. 'J,<"'1 \::l:fA.. 11:11 · f!•tt'.7 1/J..f~ Y'Of '.fAlll'-~ 1~$ i.,·. ~fr~P"]b' itM, l, fJh-' "1 -C..;5~ . ~ il'U1 i ~\, 'I~ 3tM 1; ::. ~ Q·t. ~:} i-,E11 l) ; ~ N!;vle !.◄ t. 'i,~o~,tlv: TJ1n 1"'11 fJ \, ,p, t ;fv.11 ~1 •. ~
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Time travel has been a popular theme in television and movies for years . After movies like 11 'l'he Time Machine", 11 The Time Bandits", "Time After Time", "Somewhere in Time", and several episodes of"Star Trek" and the series "Voyagers! " on television, a.':long others, one may wonder why writers and directors continue to rehash the s ame old plot of " travel back in time tc preserve the _proper flo w of history . " #ell , the 1985 version is here in writer-d-irector Robert Zemeckis ' "Back to the Fu t ure " . Fortunately , "Back to the Future" delightfully breaks out of the mold cast l:>y all previous time travel stories . Of course the basic plot is t he same bu t the storyline is fresh and Zemeckis adds just the right amount of comedy in all the right places to meke this movie one of the ·best of the past f ew y ears . Teenager l·f.arty ;,;cFly , played to perfection by l·iichael J . Fox, finds himself r etur ned in time via his friend Dr . Brown's time machine to 19.5.5, wherEt Harty must make sure his then-teenage parents meet each other or his f amily will not come t o be . Christopher Lloyd, in his most memorable movie role since the alien ~ohn Bigboote i n "Buckaroo Banzai", puts in doubtless the finest performance as the wis e, nutty Dr. Brown . ;-:r . Lloyd especially shines in the scenes · where Zemeckis piles climax upon climax as Dr. Brown attempts to return Marty to 198.5. It will be interesting to see if "The Academy" agrees that ;-;r. Lloyd is one of the finest actors of our time. . Aside fro m some very poor make-up jobs on Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson as i·!r . and Mrs . ,'foFly, costuming and practical effects live up to what has come to be expected from. executive producer Steven Spielberg's work. Especially noticeable are the wonderful 1950 ' s clothing, automobiles ,~nd the like. Congratulations are also in order for the marvelous work done by the fine special effects teams assembled by Mr. Spielberg . The effects are spectacular enough to be noticed but not so overdone that they detract f r om th o story, as has been the case in so many other science-fantasy movies , Again, this is just t he quality that has become so characteristic of uny project produced or directed by Mr , Spielberg. I t &hould be interesting to see how well the hur:ior has survived the translation to J apanese . At any rate, it would be a s~rious m:!..,~take to ciss this movie. Don' t be fooled by the rock'n'roll lure evid enced by two hits by Huey Lewis ; "Back to t he Future" is a movie for everyo r.. e . Don't miss itl