School started!

Finally, the school started!
Looking back at my Feb, I was having a severe homesick when i came back from Malaysia.
But now, everything started to move. I've got no time to be bothered by the homesick. Though i still wanna go home asap ><

hmm... lets report the courses im taking and all the jobs im involved with in this semester.

Quarter 1:
Social psycology
Japanese traditional art (flower arrangement)
Asia Pacific religion

Quarter 2 :
International Security & Politics
Multiculturalism and society

Semester :
Introduction to research method
Korean 3
Kumon special lecture

Session :
Peer leader training

TA :
Workshop 1
Computer literacy

other jobs :  SA, RA, cafeteria part time.

Activities : planning to participate Chinese Week, Vietnamese Week, Indonesian Week, and Chinese dance show.

So see you in the class if you're taking the same course with me ^^

Kumon
Particularly wanna talk about the Kumon special lecture.
It's a special lecture in accordance with Kumon company. They sent their staffs to APU and teach us how to manage a Kumon style education.
11 of us were chosen in this course. Heard that many people failed the application.

at first, i thought it was gonna be a class that we can learn about teaching psychology or something.but it turned out that the class is actually a TA training. only the difference that we are getting 2 credits for being a TA of Kumon.

I still haven't experienced any excitement in doing this course so far because first, the training is soooo japanese style that the instructor always mention about Shakaijin (an adult in the society). Your behavior is being observed in this course. It's just like another RA stuff but less international and more Shakaijin brain washing.

Personally, i dont like the Shakaijin style teaching because i believe we are not living others' lives. We should have our own right to choose the way to live. but the instructor is telling me to live like others do. to become a Shakaijin that everyone has the same standards, manners, skills.
Anyway, though i dont like it, i still will consider it as an experience and try to learn the way how japanese society works.

RA
RA life is getting exciting because i have a group of warm people in my team ;)
Thanks again for everything W/C building.

As usual, RA's schedule is busy! I think in APU, only RA will require you to participate in several different teams and work on several projects at the same time. Im doing Education team, World festival PR team, and Buffet Party performance team which we have done it.
Imagine 1 team will need you to hold an at-least-1 hour meeting once a week, 3 teams we need 3 meetings + RA's regular meeting every tuesday + Floor meeting once a month.

Every RA should be respected for their workloads i think. We sacrifice our private times for AP house without getting monetary incentives which is equivalent to our workloads.  
Though it's tough, it's fun. I had had a bad image within RA organization last semester because of my carelessness, forgetfulness, absent mind and etc. it wasn't that i'm an asshole who doesn't cooperate or not good at working with a team. It was because i didnt like the team.

But this semester, i love RA. I would do everything that the team asked me to, because im happy with that.
It reminds me of the lecture i got from a professor about leadership.

Saying that leadership consists of 2 function

Performance function & Maintenance Function.

P = to focus on the outcome and result. 


M = to focus on the team management. 

A good leader should be PM, which means taking a good balance between performance and maintenance.
However, a PM leader is not easy to become.
a Pm or pM leader is more likely to be seen in most organizations.

According to the research, the good leadership order should be following:


Short term :  PM >Pm > pM > pm


Long term : PM > pM -> Pm > pm


What i m trying to say here is that , If you are trying to focus more on performance but neglecting the maintenance of team, your leadership is likely to see the down soon as a hardworking team without any team  activities is discouraged.

RA of this semester put more focus on maintenance function. and I'm a person who likes M more.
That's why im very happy to work with the RA in this sem ;)
Of course, thought we strengthened the M, we should keep P going well too.
Enjoy the life after getting our jobs done seems to be the motto of this sem.
Ganbatte guys ;)

又是个超忙新学期

接新生的时期终于结束了！
AP house又开始朝气蓬勃~一堆日本人外国人入居AP house

有时间真的想把这连续5天接新生的故事一一写下~
但实在太多故事了
总而言之，就是每天早上8点-晚上12点与自己栋的RAs聚在一起等新生来~
有时间就练习舞蹈，为新生的party准备
新生来了就去接待，介绍AP house等等

连续5天，真的是累死人！

昨天办了一个Welcome Party 欢迎W/C栋的新成员
参加人数大概50人
来自世界各地的，有本科生有研究生，我们W/C栋就是比别人栋多了一种跨越年龄的特征 :)

我又担当了MC 主持人，化身为疯狂搞笑主持人~
再次深深感到，我很享受在别人面前说话的感觉，
尤其是最后玩 “谁吃到Wasabi" 游戏时当MC interview参赛者时
更是笑料百出

其实一切都要感谢吴宗宪和台湾综艺节目的影响
从小看到大，我大概习惯了台湾主持人的谈笑风格 - 以挖苦人为乐
这也正是很多国家所没有的特色
因此我在AP house这个汇集世界各地学生的舞台上
往往主持活动都有自己的一套~是每看台湾综艺节目的人所无法模仿的 XD

活动结束后，接受到很多肯定
自己栋的成员有几个会在没人时悄悄称赞我，说主持得好好！good job！
我终于找到我听了会开心的话，那就是 "你说话说得好好"
比起你好帅，更让我开心 ^^

---------------------------------------------------------------
本想着新学期领奖学金后，
生活应该少工作，和多点时间读书和交女朋友

昨天开始，幻灭了。。。

我上学期申请了一个课程-  公文协定特别讲座
是一个很特别的课程，和 公文  (一家教育公司 Kumon )
开发自学教材，主张无需教师也能自学

而这个课程呢，是培养11个学生成为公文式教育班的supporter~
上百个学生申请，而我被选中了。

本来想说学习一些新的教育方式也蛮有趣，我本身自己也当过日语教师，这一来应该可以帮助我了解更多教育手法

怎么知道这两天的集训   每天6小时的集训
一直被灌输  "责任，成长，社会人的能力”等等非常典型的日本教育
然后了解到原来公文的教育，就是购买一连串的教材，看例题自己做作业，然后交给supporter批改，然后supporter要很会称赞学生，让他们有动力继续自学下一套教材。

课程的讲师是  公文有限公司  的职员   末宗先生 Suemune san
非常圆滑的一个老家伙
笑脸盈盈，说话非常地有技巧，既不失礼又能讨人喜悦
无论你说什么做什么，他都有办法称赞你的优点    好厉害！

我们的任务就是从他身上学这些技巧，然后用在购买教材的学生上，让他们继续自学教材，然后成长。

我看了看教材，真的很不错。就是做完规定的作业后，supporter批改后会发新的作业，一直持续下去，从初级至高级，让学生自己解开难题得到挑战下一关的动力。

这个课程开学后，需要我们11个人当免费劳工，每个星期至少2天4小时值班观察学生自学情况
而且8月头还要11人准备好一切资料飞往东京对总公司发表自己努力的成果

现在必须马上开始的是打广告宣传这个自学班
还要劝诱新生购买教材

我开始对这课程有点恶心，因为这根本就是利用我们学生来帮你们卖教材嘛！
不过仔细想想，的确是能训练到我们各方面的能力。
像是宣传，心理，组织等等

开学后我又必须参加好几项演出，像是越南周，中国舞蹈公演等
加上RA6月还有一个大活动World Festival
出动全员AP house住客好像校庆一样的园游会

哇这学期又忙死了~~

马来西亚！等我！！
8月就回去！ ^^