What is your understanding of this article?

In this article, Chamcharatsri mentioned about how poetry writing affect to L2 writers’ learning of target language. This is almost the same as what Hanauer and Iida mentioned, but Chancaratri mainly focuses on the English learners in Thai. In addition, the theme of this reserch is about “love,” based on the experiences of the students. This is because that people in Thai does not so often speak or use the language of love to show their affection in public. So there are not so many words to express their thoughts or feelings in Thai, but if they can use English, they will be able to convey what they feel or what they think about love.

Why is creative writing important to us?

We usually speak only one language, “mother tangue.” For us, it is Japanese. I think that each language stands each culture. So, if we can speak only one mother tangue language, we are forced to live in only one culture. We may live without understanding how to express our feeling about “love,” like Thai. However, it is difficult for us to grammartically convey our feelings in target languae. So, the poetry writing will be useful. We do not need to write grammartical sentences in poetry writing, and we can express our thoughts, feelings or beliefs easily. In this point of view, we can break the obstraction of expression by using another language in poetry writing. So, we will be able to express more things by learning and using poetry writing.

1. What is your understanding about this article?

Hanauer’s article focused on all of the use of poetry, but this article focused on second language (L2) writers’ poetry. Poetry writing is a efficient way to learn target language because we can freely express our experiences, emotions, thoughts, and so on. Because of the freedom, we can express the situation more directly. For example, in this article, Japanese L2 writer used a Japanese phrase “つながりません” in his/her poem. This writer surely could translate the Japanese phrase, but darely used the Japanese phrase to convey the writer’s emotion clearly. In this article, I learned that L2 writers can express their feelings in target languages because of the freedom which the poetries have. In short, using poetry writing in foreign language education is important to improve the language skill of students.

2. What is the best poem in this article?

I like a poem titled “Supermarket” the best. I have two reasons.

First, we daily go to supermarket to buy something we need. It is natural that at least one supermarket in one town. I think that supermarket and the rice, food, and bread on the shelf is the symbol of normal daily life. When great east Japan earthquake happened, the normal daily life had gone. In this poem, the writer expresses the situation and feeling with using a symbol of daily life, “supermarket.”

Second reason is the way of expression. This poem has got a good rhythm. I really like the rhythm or beats of this poem. In addition, the writer uses three “no” in a row. I think this expression makes us feel that there was absolutely nothing then. This three “no” may emphasize the situation that there is nothing to eat. This is very interesting.

Because of these two reasons, I like the “Supermarket” poem.

1. What is your understanding of poetry writing?

What is poetry? I think that poetry is a tool to convey our ideas or opinions to someone in the short context. It is great way for us to understand other cultures or other thoughts. For example, which one do you want to read, a short essay or a long article. The answer is clear. We can learn how the author feels and what kind of things the author wants to say. We read a poetry about a terrorism of September 11th, 2001(on 81p), in our class. We, japanese, can not know even how American people felt then. Maybe someone does not know the terrible events. However, because of the poetry, I could know how they felt briefly. We can know diverse thoughts or beliefs because of the fascinating direct writings.

2. Why is poetry writing important to us?

The answer is relating with my thought written above. These days, because of the development of transportations and networks, we can have relationship with everyone. While it is very useful and meaningful for us, it can be dangerous because there are many races, religions, beliefs, and senses. In other word, there are varieties. In such a situation, we should convey about ourselves and understand others. However, recently, we are so busy that we can not spend enough time for understanding others. What we need to do is conveyng our feelings and understanding others briefly. Poetry is so brief that we can read and understand it easily. In addition, we can learn how to express things and grammatical or literary expressions. Because of these reasons, I think that poetry writing is important to us.

In the beginning of my blog, let me introduce about myself.

I was born in Gunma prefecture. I have lived in Gunma for about twenty years, so I am used to windy weather.

I like playing and watching soccer. I have played soccer for ten years. Once I dreamed to be a professional soccer player, but one day I found that it is impossible and it is interesting for me to coach in soccer, so I decided to aim for a teacher and an coach of a club activity.

I also like listening to music. This is also my hobby. However, I am not good at playing musical instruments and singing songs.

I would like to be a teacher who can dedicate myself to my students.

Thank you for reading.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton