International Club Dinner Dec. 5

Finlandia's International Club held a potluck dinner and activities on Dec. 5 in Finlandia Hall. Toshi, leave some of Gustavo's rice for Kumiko! Whoops! I mean, did Kumiko leave any of that rice for you? (Photos by Michele Bourdieu)

Desserts included some Finnish specialties: pannu kakku (Finnish pancake) and pulla bread along with Karen Johnson's excellent brownies! Here, from left, are Moto, Toshi, Justin (International Club president), Nick and Kazuki finishing up the last course.

A Faustian Bargain

By Kumiko Takahashi

A Faustian bargain originates an old story called "Faust." In the story, Faust, who is a main character of the story, makes a bargain with the Devil so he can do everything that he wants to do, even though he has to sell his soul to the Devil. Since he sells his soul to the nasty Devil, he is eaten by the Devil at the end. The story shows the situation in which something is gained, but also lost at the same time.

We are using many kinds of mass media to get lots of information today. Although mass media such as the Internet, radio and TV are really effective and convenient tools, they have many negative influences; and we may have to sacrifice something valuable if we become too dependent on these media.

Today, our world is based on mass media. We can watch many kinds of news and information with TV, or the Internet. In an emergency, we can listen to news or any information with the radio. The Internet is one of the most popular convenient tools to get tons of information right away, and it has become a necessity in today’s society. We can watch TV programs, read novels, buy clothes and listen to music with the Internet. Many companies have websites that help customers contact them or research information. Even though those information and communication technologies seem to be the greatest invention in human history, they also have negative points -- a price that we have to pay, as Faust had to pay in the end of the story.

Since forms of mass media are entertaining, people, especially in American society, are likely to get addicted to them. People stay in front of TV to watch programs, enjoy the gossip of famous actors, play video games all day rather than go outside and walk. Some people always listen to the radio even though they are in a public place. People play computer games online, meet new people and stay in front of the computer all day. They can’t live without mass media. It causes people’s lack of communication ability, and lack of exercise. Addiction to mass media has become the big issue in many countries, in terms of health, society and communication. In Japan, there are many people who don’t want to work, go to school or even get out of their room. They are called NEET (Not engaged in Employment, Education or Training). Neet usually keep living with their parents to make them take care of them. And they are likely to keep staying in their room and using the Internet all day and to talk to other people online. The lack of communication ability isolates them from the world and makes it difficult for them to get out of their room.

Because mass media have to keep people’s attention, they tend to make their programs funny, individual and interesting. In order to make them interesting, mass media are likely to seek gossip about famous people. Moreover, although freedom of expression is guaranteed by the law, excessive reports can violate people’s privacy. If you were Tom Cruise, your house would be surrounded by photographers waiting for you to get drunk and drive. People’s curiosity makes the media seek a more interesting story, but the media attention can make it worse.

Mass media are usually supported by advertisements of many kinds of businesses and companies. We are passively watching and listening to over 20 advertisements in a day even if we aren’t aware of it. Advertisements on TV cut the show into 10-minute pieces. Ads on the Internet make the web page heavy, so it takes a long time to open the page. Although ads are the most effective way to inform people about their product, too many ads would be irritating or annoying. Also, ads which use many bright colors task people’s eyesight.

The development and diffusion of mass media has brought us a very convenient information age. However, like the story of Faust, we have to pay with some sacrifices in order to gain something. We tend to look at only the good side of mass media, but they also have as many dangers as benefits. We have to be aware of these dangers and try not to be too influenced by the media.

Kazuki models in Fashion Show

Kazuki Nishiyama participated as a model in Pamela Kotila's SYR+ISM fashion performance presented before the Scarlet Masquerade Nov. 1 at the South Range Community Hall. Photographer Adam Johnson of Brockit.com captured this great view of Kazuki ...

Kazuki Nishiyama spreads his wings during Pamela Kotila's SYR+ISM fashion performance on Nov. 1 in South Range. Click on photo for larger version. (Photo by Adam Johnson of Brockit.com © 2008 Pamela Kotila. Reprinted with permission.)

November photos ...

Photos by Takaaki Niikura (Nick) and Kumiko Takahashi

Finlandia's new sign is seen here with early snow. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo © 2008 Takaaki Niikura)

The Portage Lift Bridge connects Hancock and Houghton. (Photo © 2008 Takaaki Niikura)

View from under the bridge. (Photo © 2008 Takaaki Niikura)

Waterfront walk in early snow. (Photo © 2008 Takaaki Niikura)

Amanda in Pamela Kotila's fashion show. (Photo © 2008 Kumiko Takahashi)

Fashion show models dancing. (Photo © 2008 Kumiko Takahashi)

"Traying" on campus. (Photo © 2008 Kumiko Takahashi)

Christmas tree in the dorm with origami decorations by Kumiko. (Photo © 2008 Kumiko Takahashi)

Online communication

By Takaaki Niikura (Nick)

Our lives have been changed completely by online communication. Workers check e-mail as soon as they get to their office, students use Messenger in their classes, and even old persons or children use e-mail or text messages to communicate with their friends. Online communications contribute to our convenient life. The greatest changes made by online communication are distance, speed, and time. Those changes are very useful, but our human lives are being stretched thin.

Before the Internet was developed, we had only mail and phone to communicate with a distant friend. The international mail took more than a week to other countries. But now we can talk or even TV phone with a web camera through the Internet for free, and e-mail can be delivered in a couple of seconds. I’m from Japan, and I’m studying abroad in the U.S now. My family and friends live in Japan, almost on the opposite side of the earth; but I can talk from my room to their cell phone, or I can get e-mail immediately. These communications make it seem as if they live very close. To communicate, the distance around the world is nothing now.

In addition, the time needed to send something has been shortened because of the speed of email. We can also chat with our friends through the Messenger as if the two of us are next to each other. However, the old snail mail is more humane. The handwriting expresses the writer’s character. The time to wait for mail from a distant friend was very exciting. Even though the use of e-mail is now widespread, e-mail can’t replace the pleasure of receiving a personal handwritten letter.

The time for communicating is also changed. Except in an emergency, we didn’t communicate with friends at midnight, but now we can send text through a cell phone. In the past, we didn’t have to care about our job while traveling, but now we might get a call from an office about our job during a trip. We are living in a world of anytime and anywhere with family, friends, or job. Those things are not separated.

The new technologies have given us many convenient communications, but old ways still have advantages. Human beings like and chase new technology; however, we are human beings, so our most important ways of communicating are talking face to face or writing by hand.

The Internet kills music artists

By Kazuki Nishiyama

Today, we can get any kinds of music in the world on our computer through the Internet. You can put songs you have in your computer on your blog or Youtube and send the songs to whomever you want. Also there is some software which allows us to share music in the world we have on our computer. We can download songs for free, anytime, and rapidly. These websites and computer software programs are very useful for us because we don’t need to go to a shop and pay money for CDs. However, the Internet breaks our respect for musicians and kills their careers in the music industry.

Before the IT revolution happened, we usually bought CDs or records at the shops to listen to music, and we put emphasis on the CDs, records, and music itself. When I was an elementary school student, CDs were too expensive for me to buy so when I got a CD, I took good care of it and listened to it many times as one of my treasures. There were a lot of music fans like me at that time, and music artists could dedicate all their strength to making their CDs and winning fans.

There are still a lot of music fans in the world. However, today, when you get a new song from the Internet and you don’t like it, you can throw it away on your computer whenever you want. Even if you pay to get a song online, when the song isn’t popular any more, you can delete it. In short, just as music for people is declining in value and becoming meaningless, music is becoming just like "Information" for people. People get songs as they get today’s news on the Internet.

Of course these phenomena have an effect on music artists. For example, when my a cappella group released a CD, the number of our songs which were sold outnumbered the songs on our CD. Even when my friend bought our group’s CD, he lent the CD to others and the others made copy CDs. At that time, I thought it was good for us to be listened to on our CD, and if the others bought our CDs as well as my friend did, we would earn more money. We can release a new CD if we can get money from former CDs.

At present, there is no ticket out of the music artists’ predicament. We have to create a new technology and protect the music artists’ rights by some means, for example, "copy control CD," which doesn’t allow you to put songs from the CD on your computer.

Learning from People

Text and Photos by Kumiko Takahashi

Last spring I went down to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to help victims who were still suffering the damages caused by hurricane Katrina, which attacked the U.S at the end of August in 2005. I decided to take part in this trip on a whim. Before going on this trip, I didn’t know how much it would mean to me, but it became one of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve ever had.

Spring Break 2008: Students prepare to leave wintry Hancock for Mississippi, accompanied by Bill Melchiori, second from left, Director of Student Life and Housing, and Suzanne Van Dam, Assistant Professor of English, next to van. Click on photos for larger versions. (Photos © 2008 Kumiko Takahashi)

On the long way down to Mississippi, I learned how to talk with people I hadn’t talked with very much. Originally I was shy and not good at talking to people because I couldn’t think of what we should talk about. I could understand half of the conversations and jokes, but sometimes I didn’t understand why they were laughing. At a restaurant, for example, one of my fellow travelers started talking to a waiter very loudly. Though I couldn’t catch what she was talking about, everyone without me started laughing. They said to her that she was so funny, and I was smiling like they were, but inside I was sad because I couldn’t follow the joke.

Our church "bedroom" on the trip.

On the trip there were about fourteen people who I didn’t know much about, and they didn’t know much about me. I felt really anxious about it and I built a wall around myself. I was really afraid they couldn’t understand what I said. Soon, however, I realized that I was mistaken. Some of them started to try to talk to me. Every time someone said a joke, two girls would try to explain it and they also said a joke to make me laugh. They also taught me a card game which is called BS, so we played that many time in the Van. When there was something I had never seen, they always explained it to me. The long way, at least I thought so before the trip, became a very short trip because of their easy, funny jokes and the game. I learned the importance of the first step in making new friends and felt how their effort was courageous and how lucky I was to receive it.

Here we are doing yoga to get in shape!

When you go somewhere for the first time, you find many differences from the area where you live. That was my first time staying in another part of this country. Since I have lived only in the U.P., I had been used to “Yooper” English. The farther south I went, the more I was surprised because of two reasons. One was the difference in pronunciation from the northern part of the U.S. On the way to Hancock from Japan, I had stayed at some airports in the northern part of the U.S to change my plane, and I found that it was easy to understand what people were saying.

Here I am with friends in Mississippi.

In Mississippi, people spoke fast and unclearly. At first, it was like a new language for me. For example, when I went to Subway for the first time in the U.P., I ordered a sandwich and a medium pop smoothly, but in the South, I couldn’t. I was totally confused about what the saleslady asked me; she had just asked me whether I wanted French fries or not. To be honest, at first, I tended to dislike it there; but the longer I stayed there and worked around people, the more I enjoyed the way they spoke. Though it was hard for me to understand what they said, it was good practice to hear their different accents. In the end of the trip, I got used to them and I could order a sandwich a little smoother than before.

Suzanne Van Dam, my advisor and English professor, plays her guitar.

Another thing was the gap between the rich and the poor. I haven’t seen that big a difference either in Japan or in the U.P. In these places, people live in beautiful, clean houses and have cars, bicycles, or roller skates. Of course in Mississippi, many people had houses like in Japan or the U.P., but there were also many people who lived in broken or rotten houses. There was even a man who had lived in a car in the forest because his home was completely destroyed by Katrina. Our job as volunteers was to clean up his ground which was full of garbage, stray cats, and broken toys including a creepy, dirty baby doll. Can you imagine that he had lived at such a place for so many years? He was too old and poor to clean his own place or ask someone to do it for him.

Cleaning up to help hurricane victims.

This place needed some paint.

Three years have passed since Katrina came. People tend to forget about it these days. That is the real tragedy. Since going on the trip, I have started to think about the environment more than before. There are many problems facing us, like global warming and desertification; we can see climate changes even here today. There are also many things we can do about them. A new hurricane called Gustav has hit the same region as Katrina did. I’m wondering if it makes people think about it more seriously as I felt on the trip.

This was a house before Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi.

After the trip, I have been thinking about what I got from it. I made many friends from this trip. I had many opportunities to go to places I’d never been such as the sanctuary in the church, and also I learned many words such as “surgery,” “eliminate,” and “snore.” In addition, of course, I determined to be friendlier than before -- not to be too shy, not to be afraid to talk with new people, and not to build a wall around myself.

With a lovely Grandpa ...

As a result of my little change in myself, I’ve made many friends so far, and they give me other opportunities to meet other people. I’m really enjoying the life with people this year more than last year. Now I can say I have changed, thanks to the trip.

You can see I'm not so shy anymore. It was a great trip!

The twenty-first century life style

By Toshi Mita

I always use the Internet. I turn on my computer when I wake up. Then I check the e-mail, send back the mail, and read the daily news. After that, I listen to music on Youtube. I think this is one of my habits. So I am an Internet enthusiast. I don’t know what I would do without the Internet. I have some reasons why I like the Internet.

The Internet is very fast, convenient, and global. I just need to type the keyword that I want to know, and click. It’s only one second. The Internet offers us a variety of entertainments. For example, the Internet has YoutTube, where I can watch a video and listen to the music. I also can contribute the video, the music, and my comments.

Moreover, Facebook is a social network service on the Internet. I can make friends and chat, and post photos and videos to share on my Facebook site. YouTube and Facebook are very global, and people who live all over the world can access and see them.

I sometimes think that if I didn’t have a computer and the Internet, I would not be in the United States. I mean I am in the United States studying at Finlandia University by the grace of the Internet. I’m Japanese; of course I didn’t even know about Finlandia University in those days; but, one day, I got an e-mail from my father. He sent me the URL that was Finlandia University’s web site. I searched for information about this university and I was interested. So I can see the Internet wherever I like all over the world.

I can enjoy freedom of expression on the Internet. I think this point is most important when I use the Internet. I know a guitar player who plays the guitar on YouTube. He was contributing. One day, a record company scouted him; then he became a singer and he made a CD. My friend Daniel, he took some photos and movies that he made of himself playing soccer; then he posted them on his web site because he wanted to show them to soccer coaches of D1 and D2 in the United States. Then he tried to transfer to another university. I knew that because I was his cameraman.

Moreover, one of my friends in Japan, who works through the Internet, earns $10,000 from advertising in a month. He just puts some advertisements like Google and Amazon on his web sites. It is very easy to earn without hard work and to become famous.

All in all, this world changes almost everything from analog to digital. We demand fast, convenient, global communications and freedom. This is the twenty-first century life style. I think we can’t go back to the old style. So I agree the Internet is one of the most important technological innovations in human history.

Nonverbal communication

By Takaaki Niikura (Nick)

I stayed in a host house in Hawaii for two weeks. I had been in Hawaii for a month to study abroad through a Japanese university. During the study abroad, I experienced a cultural difference.

The host family game gave me a room. The room was on the second floor. I always closed the door of my room when I was in my room. One day, my host family asked me why I closed the door. I didn’t have any reason because I thought it was usual. Then, the host family told me that Americans don’t close a door unless they don’t want to be interrupted doing something. Most Japanese close their bedroom’s door because we think rooms are a private space, so the door should be closed. Of course, it doesn’t mean we refuse everyone. If someone knocks on my door, I will answer it.

I think this difference comes from different ideas about privacy characteristic of Japanese and Americans. In addition, [This is really a second difference] Americans are more frank and open than Japanese. If my host family hadn’t told me about this, I would have missed the chance to talk to them.

Eye Contact? Smile?

By Kazuki Nishiyama

When you pass others whom you’ve never met, do you look at them or avoid eye contact? Since I came here, I have wondered why, when people in the U.S pass each other, they are sometimes making eye contact and smiling at each other though they are strangers for both of them. Of course, making eye contact and smiling shows their friendliness and is good habit.

I am now accustomed to smiling when a stranger smiles at me here in the U.S. Moreover, I sometimes see strangers say "Hi" to each other.

However, when I imagine that if I were in Japan and made eye contact and smiled at a stranger, I would be considered completely abnormal, or people would make fun of me. People don’t see others, don’t care about others and look as if they seem to deny others’ existence. In short, we are not allowed to make eye contact with a stranger even for one second.