3rd presentation and project meeting

As usual, we did a reading presentation and a project meeting in the class. It has been 8 weeks since the seminar started. We gradually get used to the new school life and the class gets more and more exciting.

This week’s presenters were Yuki and Haruka Mizuno. They gave a presentation on interdependency. This chapter was a little complicated, so many members had difficulties understanding the whole content. However, because these two made a fantastic presentation, we could understand about interdependency more deeply.

First, Yuki talked about social exchange, four types of relationships and the economies of relationship. Then, Haruka explained the nature of interdependency and commitment. They used some visual aids and examples which made their presentation easier to understand. From the presentation, we learned that we can make choices for our good relationship and we should be thoughtful and committed for the good and continued relationship. Afterwards, we asked questions to the presenters and there were many interesting questions and opinions.

After the presentation, we had a project meeting. Yuri and Natsumi held the meeting well by using facilitation skills. Today, we decided the title and subtitle of the free paper. Each of us was thinking about them in advance. There were many good ideas and we made the best title and subtitle.

We also used a half of lunch time after the class to decide the schedule of the future. We hope to issue the first free paper in November and distribute them during the school festival. It seems that there is not much time left but we will do our best and we are all excited.

 

In conclusion, every week we learn a lot from the text book. I will do my presentation with Risa on friendship next week. I am nervous but I would like to make a great presentation as others did. Also, there was a great news that more than 130 people have watched this blog so far! We all would like to thank you and promise to keep writing an interesting blog. Please enjoy and look forward to the next ones!

 Miyako

Presentation and project meeting

We learned new things this week from an interesting presentation and also discussed about project meeting.

Haruka and Yuuki made a presentation on two types of communication: nonverbal communication and verbal communication. When we have conversation with someone, we sometimes have interpersonal gaps. The presenters suggested that it is critical to know how to make better conversation to close the gaps by using nonverbal and verbal communication, which are essential in our daily lives. Since the presenters used many gestures, pictures, and graphs, the presentation was really easy to understand and we all enjoyed listening to their great presentation.

Then, we asked discussion questions to the presenters. Many of us asked them a question related to the differences between man and woman and some asked them about friend relationships, self-disclosure, interpersonal distance, miscommunication, etc. Not only the presenters expressed their opinion, but also the listeners expressed their comments.

After finishing the presentation and discussion, we had a meeting to discuss our seminar  project that is to make free papers for Nanzan students. This week’s topic was to decide a purpose of creating free papers. Facilitators were Haruka and Miho. First of all, each of us proposed purposes which we had considered in advance. After all members expressed their opinions, we categorized them into five groups and discussed advantages and disadvantages of each goal. Consequently, we put five purposes all together and have decided the overall purpose: Rediscover the good points of Nanzan University through introducing about “Nanzan” including about the systems, seminars, clubs, etc. therefoe, we aim to help improving percentage of attendance and job hunting.

In conclusion, since learning about communication in detail makes me think about relationships among friends, family, etc, I would like to make good use of communication skills that I learnt for in my daily life. Also, I hope to do my best to create free papers with my friends in seminar.   

                                                                                                                     Shiori Murasawa

   

Reading presentation and project meating

6 weeks have passed since we started working together as Imai seminar. In the past 5 weeks, we have studied several things such as the basis of communication, facilitation skills, and English presentation skills. From this week, we have started a new activity called reading presentation besides the seminar project meeting by using the skills which we have already learned.

 First, the class started with a reading presentation.  From this week, a couple of members make a presentation on a summary of each chapter of a textbook in front the class in each week. The first presenters were Misaki, Shiori, and Miyu. They did a great presentation though this was the first English presentation in this seminar. They must have been very nervous. However, they carefully explained us about what is intimate relationship, so we can easily understand it.

 

 After the presentation, each of us asked presenters a question related the chapter in textbook. Some questions were very deep, but presenters helped each other and carefully answered all of our questions.

The next thing we did was a project meeting. In the previous meeting, we have decided to make a free paper, so we were talking about 2 things in this week; who can be the reader of our free paper and what contents we put on the paper. This week, Miyako and Risa led our meeting as leaders by using facilitation skills. As a result of the meeting, we unanimously decided to make the free paper for university students, but couldn'tu choose its contents because we have many things that we wanted to put on it.

In conclusion, we have started a new activity called reading presentation from this week besides the seminar project meeting. Both may be a bit tough for us, but we succeeded in doing both work in this week. This experience will lead to our confidence on doing new things, and it would be very meaningful for our future.

Natsumi Joho

Career decision and project meeting

This week, there were two things we did in our seminar class: career decision making and seminar project meeting.

First, we learned how to make a satisfying career decision. We are third-year students, so it is time to start thinking about job hunting. However, there are many jobs in the world, so it is very difficult for us to find the best job. Therefore, we learned about how we can be satisfied with our choices. In the case of professor Imai, he made a list of important things in choosing a job. After that, he ranked the items according to his priorities. Then, necessary things to consider become clear for working,so it is easy to make a satisfying choice.

In addition, the process of achieving a goal is important. It's necessary to think of what we have to do for the goal, and we should try to step into the field where we want to work without being afraid. The try may be a good opportunity to know different sides of the job. Also, we shouldn't act without thinking. If you can do so, you can be close to the goal. The time to start an internship is approaching, so it may be a good chance to take action.

Next, the other thing we did about project meeting. The other day ,we decided to carry out one project ,but we did not decide what to do. Therefore, we used the technique of facilitation to brainstorm project ideas. We wrote some ideas on post-its, and our facilitator integrated these ideas into one idea. As a result, we decided to make free paper. I am looking forward to completing this project. 

In conclusion, we discussed career decision and seminar project this week. First, in the discussion, I learned that we can use various skills and experiences to decide on a job. After that, in the project meeting, we proposed some ideas and integrated them into one idea. I believe that both seem like different things, but they may be related to each other.
                                           

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                                                                Haruka Furuta

First Social!

1 month has passed since when our seminar started! On May 7th, we had the first social at Hamakin.

Fortunately, all the members could make it for the social. Atmosphere was amazing and food was awesome. We had a wonderful time!

Misaki and other members who helped organize this social, you are FANTASTIC. Thank you, thank you, thank you :)

English Presentation Skills

There might be few people who like presentations. However, presentations are necessary when we work for companies, and in fact, we will have a chance to do presentations at least in a few years. Therefore, we should learn how to succeed in presentations and master it. In this week, we learned the important points and skills of English presentations.

First, we learned the some important points of the power point’s slides. This time, I categorized them into two points which we have to be careful about when we make slides for presentations. The first point is that we should try to make slides as simple as possible and easy to look. To be concrete, we should not write too much information, should choose white backgrounds, choose font that is easy to read and make key words or key phrases stand out by changing their colors. The second point is to use figures such as tables and charts. They help audience understand the content easily. In addition to this, if it is useful to use animations and pictures, we should use them. In short, if we can make good slides, they will help us succeed in presentations.

Next, we analyzed the good and bad performances skills by watching "Ted Talks" in which there are a lot of important points that we can use for our presentation. This time, I introduced five points from. They are that a speaker should look around the audience and should not look down, should make eye contact with them, should have good posture, should gesture, and should use easy words and say key words clearly and slowly. Besides them, the most important point is to have confidence.

Finally, I am not good at presentations, but I will do my best by using these skills that we learned in this class with my friends. Also, I wish that we all can grow up gradually through this seminar.

Miho Nomura