Meet
~*.*~mariko~*.*~
May 31, 2003, Mariko sent this short message:
My name’s Mariko. I study international cooperation at a university
in Japan. Yeah, I'm interested in investment things around the world, coz, as
you know, my country has long been in a severe recession and it seems to be the
right time to consider economic probs and systems as an individual economic
reformer. But my knowledge is so small now my only way is voodoo economic
“policy” :)
I like jazz music (I sing & play the guitar in a band), painting
(oil-color, graffiti), writing, reading, hanging out and yakking with my
friends, etc. I don’t like alcohol, smoking, lies and pimentos :)
Earlier, she had sent us this looonnnngggg
introduction
I like any kind of music, not only jazz and blues, and one of the reason
for which is it's the sacred cow any of the most powerful political intrigues
can't step in. BUT! Don't blame me if you know of politics-free things other
than music ;-) I bet there are some though. I play music in a jazz band and
have small concerts from time to time at the same old dingy hall, which I love.
I like the atmosphere of many familiar people packed in a small, musty
"snake-pit", rocking their bodies, singing together with us green musicians.
I may be too serious sometimes though so easygoing usually. I like jazz
just because it comforts me, but why I like blues music is a little different;
of course it turns me on as well, but what I see in it the most is the mood of
lyrics. I think you can know the background of the origin of the black music.
Slave trade and slavery in the US, I mean. This is what I found interesting
about it for some reasons. I'm sure you can share what I'm saying now if you're
interested in history.
Well another interest of mine I forgot to tell you in my last message
is languages & cultures. I've studied Korean, German, English and French,
but am master of none! :) Well, I've narrowed down the target languages to
English and French for a certain reason... Anyways, I am itching to live in
Switzerland to learn the two languages and experience a different culture. Also
I am fascinated with the headquarters of WHO, ILO and International Red Cross.
I think I can somehow learn so called international attitudes there. Although I
have this plan in my mind what I have to do first is to graduate from
university and be an independent individual.
It's often said that experiencing other cultures broadens your
horizons, but it actually does, and did! I did home stay in California 5 years
ago. The 3 weeks I spent with my host family, neighbors and other warm local
people was beyond my words. Though it was a great challenge for me to do things
in a complete different, unfamiliar way, I've learned to see things from
different angles, which have enabled me to adapt myself to many other
unexpected, or new, situations.
Thank you, Vance, for telling me my attached email had been dropped.
Thanks a lot and sorry, Deden, I didn't know you hadn't read the message below.
Thanks, Sheena, for writing to tell me you didn't find it, and you weren't
wrong! And sorry, everyone, to have sent you mysterious messages. Well, I cut
& pasted the message, hoping all of you will know of me better.
I'm Mariko, nice to meet (or write to?) you all new "classmates" and
teachers!
I decided to join this group coz I wanted to improve my English through
fun, interesting conversations and discussions with people around the world.
I've studied English for nearly 8 years in Japan but what the textbooks taught
me was a bookish language without humor and SOUL. Though I crammed almost all
the rules of this language into my petite head, I'm not at all content with MY
language. I hope I can learn to talk in the way I want to.
I have a great deal of passion: music (singing and playing the guitar,
my favorite genres are jazz and blues), photography, fine arts (graffiti, oil
colors, designing etc.), basketball, watching ski-jumping and figure skating,
writing, reading (any kinds of books and magazines but of sci-fi), net-surfing,
chatting and hanging out with my friends and so on, you name it.
Almost all of you may be unfamiliar with the music I like, but.I like
Sara Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert
Collins, Miles Davis, Luis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday.and yeah,
you know of Norah Jones, don't you? The one who swept the Grammy this year.
I'm a 20-year-old university student whose major is international
cooperation and my field is refugee studies. Also, I've been taking a distance
learning course in freelance journalism for 8 months. You may find my future
plan is a little rambling, but it isn't :) I WILL be a journalist who writes
features articles on international issues, flying all over the globe,
interviewing the "silent locals". Well, this is an image of what I will be in
the distant future. I know I have to be at the bottom of the totem pole for so
long.
I live in a city called Sapporo which is famous for its beer and the
Snow Festival. Sapporo is located in the northernmost prefecture Hokkaido,
where there is a lot of beautiful nature still preserved savage, and thus
people visit this place for its fresh foods and for sight-seeing. We have
visitors most in the early February when the Snow Festival is held. We have
over 300 snow statues in 3 venues within Sapporo during the festival. The
statues are built by Japanese Self-Defending Force and public people both form
Japan and foreign counties such as China, Canada, the US and Australia.
My prefecture has an interesting, thought-provoking history of the
indigenous people called Ainu. The Ainu were persecuted by so-called Japanese
people till just a couple of years ago. They were first discovered by the
Japanese over 200 years ago by the pioneers sent by the then government. As
development got on, people began to come as settlers and this was the beginning
of the 2 groups' collision. Maybe some of you know this kind of thing as your
countries' own experience.
Now you see what I meant in my earlier message on webheads ;)
~*.*~mariko~*.*
May 31, 2003, Mariko also responded to Phoenix, from
Iran:
Nice to meet you, Phoenix! This is my first time to speak to an Iranian
in my life ;) Anyways, welcome!!
I'm Mariko and I'm a Japanese university student who’s studying
inernational cooperation in which my special interest is refugee issues and
conflict resolution predominantly in sub-sahara Africa. Me, too, I’m badly
interested in music(jazz, especially), art (oil-color paintings, grafitti,
photography) and language learning. What kinda music and art do you like, by
the way?
When considering refugee issues, Iran should be one of the most
important nations in the world, but to my shame I have had few chance to look
to it personally. Now this must be a good chance for me to give an eye to it.
What has been stuck in my head is Iraqi and Iranian Kurd refugees fleeing to
the UK and were detained in a small Norman city Sangatte, being forced to sleep
on the ground outside the overgrown refugee center, waiting for scarce food and
daily necessities. Now that the center has been closed for nearly half a year,
though I once heard most of the asylum-seekers there suceeded in getting asylum
in Paris to be allowed to immigrate to the UK as legal residents and some
returned to their homelands. I bet you know of this much better than I,
especially about what the prob’s like after the closure of the center
though. Maybe this kinda topic interests many of people on this group, so I
hope you can give us a little more “interesting” info on
asylum-seekers and returnees.
Regards,
Marik¤º°'°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°'°º¤ø¤º°'°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°'°º¤ø¤º°'°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤
You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in. -- Arlo
Guthrie
See Mariko's writings on SARS Nation
Mariko's Lists:
Coucou a tout,
I've created some mailing lists, and wanna invite you to the brand- new
places.
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Last updated: June 21, 2003
