BLOG, 宝箱（お客様の声）, 自然保護
鳥取県立八頭高等学校の生徒さんたちの言語コミュニケーション活動
鳥取県立八頭高等学校３年生の英語のクラスでは、英語指導の福島先生を通して、代表の生徒さん４名が、私とコミュニケーションをとってくれました。学習を終えてから、教科書本文には言語化はされていなかったけれど、テキストを掘り下げていくにしたがって見えてきた「Awareness is not good enough; we need to take some action!」という点に、生徒さんの意見がまとまり、レッスンをふまえた言語活動として「長谷川さんへのメッセージを英語で書いてみよう」ということになったそうです。自分が社会にどんなことができるか、自分は社会にどんな変革を起こしてmake the world a better place to live にしていくか、深く考えたそうです。
このように若い世代の人たちが、この教科書のトピックに影響を受け、その影響が、水に石を投げたときに水面にできる波紋のように広がっていけば、私にとって、この上ない喜びです。ありがとうございます。
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Through reading the story about your project and activities, my thought on nature around me has changed.
You let me realize that I take it for too granted that beautiful nature around me is always by my side. However, as you point out, we can’t live even a normal, usual life without nature as it is. It is true that nature gives us almost all of what makes our daily lives: we truly owe a lot to nature around us.
Still, the reality is that I can hardly give anything to nature in return. This leads me to the conclusion that, for the time being, what I am supposed to do in my daily life as a high school student is to keep doing one thing to preserve nature in Tottori.
As I can’t go Hawaii right now to join your tour or project, I have decided to always bring “eco-bag” with me whenever I go shopping with my mother. She often says, “Just paying some money for a checkout bag can save us much trouble in shopping.” However, I agree with you in that small things count. What I can do in my high school life to help nature is do whatever small things I can do. So, I do and will keep in mind that I ask her to bring “eco- bag” when going shopping.
I know this is not good enough. I really want to find myself more about what I can do for nature.
I’m glad that I have a great opportunity to learn from you that even a single person can do a lot to help people become more aware of the importance of nature. Thank you very much for letting us know we can still have more to preserve nature.
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Hello. I’m a high school student in Tottori and I have learned a lot from your story in English class.
I think that we can’t live without nature. We have to appreciate nature around us. Until the introduction of your story, I have never heard of the word “eco tours”. As I study your project, I have come to understand what it is like to join eco tours and to learn something important from the direct contact with nature. I think it is a very good idea and practice to help people realize the importance of the environment because people in Japanese big cities are likely to forget about it.
During the class, I had a chance to read your homepage articles. What impressed me so much is your following message: the memory I make through five senses is my lifetime treasure. I agree with this! It is true that the real beauty cannot be described in any word. I learned from your story that you are leading so active a life. I respect your hard work.
I have one question for you. You have been staying in Hawaii for a long time. What kind of change has been made in your life or your point of view since you started to live there? I’m curious to know about it.
Thank you very much for reading my message.
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Hello. I am ｘｘｘｘｘ and I am a student of Yazu Senior High School in Tottori Prefecture.
I got your strong message in English class and I have realized the significance of your project and “eco-tour” after reading your story.
I think that the older we become, the more likely we are to stop coming in direct contact with nature. I assume this is one of the reasons why eco-tour is a good opportunity in order to remind people of the importance of nature. Thanks to your work, people who take part in your tours and their friends are becoming more and more appreciative of nature around them.
I believe an eco-tour is not the purpose of raising people’s awareness of the environment but the process of helping people take some action to preserve our precious nature. What is really important is what we do after taking part in eco-tours.
Now I give one question to myself: As one of the members who learn something important from you, what do I do to protect nature? All I can think of is reducing, recycling and reusing – what we call “3Rs.” I have thought that kind of my actions is too small to serve as something. However, you show me that we don’t have to do something big. It is as if you are encouraging us by saying, “Keep doing small things. Keep making little effort to help save nature. It will make a big difference!”
Thanks to your message, my thought about nature has changed. And … this is the very reason why I really want to join your eco-tour in the near future. I want to be a person who can make some change like you to make the world a better place to live.
Thank you very much for reading my message.
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Hello. I am ｘｘｘｘｘ and I am a student of Yazu Senior High School in Tottori. I would like to tell you how appreciative I am of you and your projects, including eco-tour.
To be honest, it was not until I took the English class that I noticed my big misunderstanding about nature preservation. I thought that I did realize how important nature is to me, but, in fact, I didn’t. I also thought that I was aware enough to understand the significance of nature to us, but you let me know being aware is not good enough. In my school life, I sometimes see trash or garbage throw away in the street on my way home. Whenever I catch the sight, I feel sad. It implies that some people have less concern about nature as well as less awareness of molarity. However, I did nothing then. I just felt sad. That’s it.
After I read your story, I have come to realize what is important to me is not complaining about others’ behaviors but taking same action myself. In fact, I decided to take part in a volunteering activity my school promotes. It is called “Yazu-ko aishi aisare campaign.” This is a student-planned project which encourages Yazu-ko students to do whatever necessary for them and the local people. Cleaning up the trash in the streets or pulling weeds with friends for an hour after school is a good example. The aim is that, through the activity, the students come to love their school more and so do the local people.
It can be a good opportunity for me and my friends to change our actions toward nature, because our school is surround by beautiful nature. Thanks to its beauty, we can study comfortably and relaxed. We owe a lot to nature whether we feel it or not. I will definitely join the project, and I hope I will rediscover the significance of nature around me. It will make some change not only in my attitude toward nature but also in my life itself.
Thank you very much for helping me realize an important thing I should never be without.
