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Every week throughout the year, a blog written by a Ritsumeikan language facilitator will be posted here. These blogs cover a wide range of topics: language learning tips, stories from daily life, travel recommendations, and more.
By clicking on the ‘CATEGORY↓’ tab on the right, you can search for subjects you’d like to read about. Whatever your tastes, we are sure there will be something here for you!
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11 .01How to memorize English vocabularyPhoto by Paul Chilson https:www.pinterest.com/blueump/
Have you ever had trouble remembering new English words, particularly technical terms? When you try to remember new words, how do you usually do that? Here’s one possible effective way of memorizing new words. Let’s have a look through examples of medical English terms.
Before starting, I’ll talk about “Morphology.” In a nutshell, morphology is the study of words. Morphemes are the minimal units of words which have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further. Morphemes have two main types: free and bound. Free morphemes can occur alone and bound morphemes must occur with another morpheme. For example, there’s a word “unimportant.” Can you see this word consists of two morphemes? That’s “un” and “important.” Now, which morpheme is free and which is bound?The answer is:
Free morpheme: important
Bound morpheme: un
“Un” is bound because it cannot stand alone though it has a meaning. It must be attached to another morpheme to produce a word. Like “un,” affixes are often the bound morpheme and they will be a key for remembering new words. The popular affixes are prefixes and suffixes. A prefix is added to the front of a word and a suffix is added to the end of a word.
Examples:
Prefix: dis- , com- , re- , mis- , tri-
Suffix: -able , -ness , -er(or) , -ish , -less
If you have deep knowledge of prefixes and suffixes, it can be a big help to remember new words and increase your vocabulary size.
This is a common strategy for remembering words and it can be applied to storing technical terms as well. Here, technical terms mean “medical English terms.” Medical English terms have a feature, that is; a frequent use of morphemes specialized in the field. Therefore, it can be a shortcut for memorizing medical terms efficiently to know affixes including a prefix and suffix used frequently in the medical field.
Basically, a medical English word consists of:
Prefix + Root + Linking Vowel Sound + Suffix
Because medical English terms are composed in this manner, many of them are long. Therefore, it can be very difficult to remember a meaning without following a pattern. It’s much easier to remember words by breaking a word down into each morpheme.
Example: ar – rhythm – ia
ar- (prefix) rhythm (root) -ia (suffix)
un-, in- heartbeat state of illness
So, arrhythmia means an irregular heartbeat.
In medical English terms, it is often said that prefixes generally show numbers and positions. Roots, which are a core part of a word, generally show body parts including organs. Then, suffixes generally show condition and symptoms. Here are some examples of each morpheme. They are all popular in the medical English terms.
<Prefix>
Meaning
anti- against
dys- difficult, bad
hyper- above, excessive
hypo- under, below
mal- bad, wrong, ill
<Root>
Meaning
abdomin- belly
cardi- heart
dent- tooth
neur- nerve
derm- skin
<Suffix>
Meaning
-gram drawing
-itis inflammation
-oma tumor
-pathy disease
-rrhea flow
It is of course important to have a lot of knowledge about roots as they are core parts of a word but even having knowledge about prefixes and suffixes will help you memorize new words. Moreover, the knowledge about them helps you guess meanings when you face new vocabulary. Here, I showed the examples of medical words, but you can make your own morpheme list based on the field you’re interested in. I hope the way shown in the blog helps you remember new words!The BBP Staff -
10 .25Rugby Union Explained SimplyThe Rugby Union World Cup is happening in Japan from September 20 to November 3, 2019. France is set to host the next one in 2023. If you have been watching the world cup and said: “What is going on?” I am here to help you with that.About rugbyRugby is a physical sport. It is a popular sport in New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and France. The object of the game is to score points against your opponents while stopping them from scoring.Each rugby team consists of 15 players. There are 8 forwards, big men that do a lot of the hard work in the game. Trying to run the ball, tackling, scrums, line-outs, and mauls. They have the number 1 - 8 on their jersey so it is easy to find them on the field. Then there are 7 backs. (number 9 - 15) they are usually the smaller quicker players. And they are sometimes the last line of defense, or they are the quick ones who try to get through the opponent's gaps when attacking.Rugby is played on a rectangular field, 100m long by 70m wide. There is a try zone at both ends of the field and H shaped goalposts. The sport is played with an egg-shaped ball. The game is played in two 40 minute halves. The half ends when there is a stoppage in play after 40 minutes. For example, when the ball is kicked out, knocked on, or there are penalties against the attacking team.Scoring in rugbyThere are 4 ways to get points in rugby.1 - TryThis is when your team gets the ball into the try zone and touches it on the ground there. It is worth 5 points.2 - conversionThis happens after a try. Your team has a chance to get 2 more points after the try if they can kick the ball between the goalposts. So if you want a better chance at those two points you want to touch the ball to the ground closer to the goalposts. You use a stand to hold the ball in place when you kick it. Regular playtime is stopped for a minute to let the team try to convert. The other team can try to block the kick if they are fast enough.3 - Penalty kickThis is 3 points. When the opposing team does something bad to you, the referee might give you an option to kick for touch or kick for points. It is up to the team. But this is done exactly like the conversion. Regular playtime is stopped for a minute but the team cannot block the kick.4 - Drop GoalA drop goal is 3 points. It is similar to the conversion or penalty kick where you have to kick the ball between the goalposts. The only difference is that with a drop goal, you might have people trying to tackle you as you are doing this. Regular playtime is not stopped, and you have to drop the ball on the ground once before you kick it between the goalposts. You have to drop it correctly or it will be a knock-on.Some important information when watching the gameTackle: -When you wrap your arms around an attacking player with the ball and bring them to the ground. Tackles should not be dangerous. For example, no arms above the neck, no lifting and turning a player over 90 degrees, and no no-arm tackles.If are tackled, you have to release the ball. So you have to hope your teammates are close-by to grab the ball.If you are the tackler you can try to take the ball from the player you tackled. However, you have to be supporting your own weight on your feet. The minute you are supporting your weight on your hands, or knees. You cannot try to take the ball.RuckA ruck is formed when the teams try to get the ball from the tackled player. When a ruck is formed, it means that the ball is protected and that players from the team that doesn’t have the ball, cannot try to grab it anymore. Unless it is not under anyone in the ruck. Then the ball is considered out, and anyone can try to grab the ball.Knock-onWhen the player with the ball loses it and it falls in front of the player. The other team gets the ball and feeds it into the scrum.Forward pass:Passes in rugby should be to the players behind you. If you pass the ball and it goes towards the opponent's try line, that is considered a forward pass, and the other team gets a ball to feed into a scrum.Scrum: -This is when the 8 forwards from both teams fight for a ball that is put in by a scrum half. You will see this after knock-ons, forward passes, held up tries, and kicking out of bounds from the start off.Both teams have to try to keep the scrum up. If it collapses then the referee will try to see who is collapsing it and will penalise the team for collapsing the scrum.If the ball exits the scrum, then anyone can try to take or use the ball. But you have to be careful. If it is under the foot of a player it is considered to be still in the scrum.Line out:When the ball goes off the field the ball is thrown back into the field. If no-one besides the players on the field has touched the ball, then it is OK for the teams to throw it back in quickly and start the game. If not they do a line out. In a line out, the team throwing the ball into the field again, get to choose how many players will jump to get the ball. Usually, you will have 3 - 5 people in the line. You have to throw the ball straight down the middle of the gap the teams make and hope that your team gets the ball back.Maul:A maul is when a player is tackled but is kept on their feet by both teams.If the tackled player can release the ball to their teammates they can keep it. And they can use all members to push the ball forward towards the try line. If the maul stays still and doesn’t move, they are issued a warning to get the ball out of the maul and to start passing the ball. They have 2 warnings before they are penalised.If the player cannot pass the ball to his players, the two teams push against each other. The team with the more forward momentum is declared the winner and gets the ball.When a maul has formed, it cannot be collapsed by the opposing team, unless they have tackled the person with the ball and have brought them down. This leads to a penalty.You cannot enter a maul from the side. If you are pushed away from the maul, you have to run to the back and join again.Set play:A set play if usually a rehearsed move that the players use. They are usually done at the line out or the scrum. These are the times of the game where they know where everyone is and play a routine that will help them maximise their chances of scoring.Double movement:When a player is tackled to the ground and his held by the tackler they have to release the ball. If they try to move along the ground while still being held it is called a double movement and they will be penalised.Advantage:For small things that happen like knock-ons, forward passes, offsides, the referee will play an advantage if the team receiving the penalty has the ball. This means that the game will continue to see if the team receiving the penalty can do something with it. For example, score a try, or move down the field. If yes, he will call advantage and there is no stoppage for a penalty. If there was no advantage then he will stop the play and call the penalty.Short arm penalty:Given for technical offense committed by the opposing side such as numbers at the line out or time wasting at a scrum. A free kick is given, however, if they kick for touch the other team gets the throw in.Longarm penalty:Most penalties are longarm. These penalties allow the team some options. Either kick for touch and then have a line out or take a penalty kick.Conceded try:When the defending team does something that results in a yellow or red card that stops the team from scoring a try when they look like they will score a try. This usually happens when the attacking team is close to the opponent's try line.Yellow card:A player has repeated penalties or does something dangerous, the player is sent off for 10 minutes. He can only rejoin after the 10 minutes and there is a stop in play.Red card:If the player receives a second yellow card or does something extremely dangerous, they are sent off for the rest of the game. The team goes down to 14 members for the rest of the game.I am sure that there are many things that I am missing. However, this is enough information to get you up and running to understand Rugby Union and enjoy the world cup.The BBP Staff
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10 .18Safe Summer Hiking in JapanLast year over 3,000 people got into difficulties in the mountains of Japan. Of these, 342 died or are still missing. A large percentage of these accidents and fatalities occurred during the summer months, when large numbers of walkers venture into the Japanese mountains to enjoy hiking amongst the breathtaking scenery. However, due to the sudden increase in popularity of this pastime, many hikers lack experience and are often unprepared.If you are thinking of hiking in the Japanese mountainside, here are some tips to make your trip safer and more pleasurable.Take a map and compass. Don’t rely only on guidebooks or your smartphone. The most popular maps in Japan are Shobunsha’s Yama-to-Kogen 1:50,000 maps. These are easily available from most bookshops and give adequate coverage for most hikes. They include predicted timings for different sections of routes which are surprisingly accurate. 1:25,000 scale maps offer much more detail but are not so easily available. If you feel you can’t live without an app then YAMAP provides a good one. However, remember signals are notoriously poor in remote areas.
Carry enough water. Summer in Japan is hot even at altitude. Many Japanese mountains do have natural springs, and mountain huts usually have a supply of water where you can refresh your water bottle. However, you should still carry at least 3 liters of water during the summer months. You will be surprised how quickly you go through it in the heat.
Get insurance. Usually the last thing on your mind is being rescued. However, if you are lost, sick or injured on a mountain it may be your only option. Helicopter rescues can cost around 400,000 yen so you are advised to buy insurance, particularly for longer treks. YAMAP offers some reasonable and flexible insurance options from 280 yen per day, or 480 yen for a whole 30 days' cover. Link below:
https://yamap.com/insurance
Take the right gear. Weather can change rapidly and rain can quickly turn a warm summer hike into freezing cold misery. Always carry some rain gear with you. Also, even in summer carry a warm layer such as a fleece or down jacket. This will be especially welcome if you find yourself having to spend an unplanned night out in the open because you are lost or injured. On this note always carry a torch or headlamp, just in case you find yourself out after dark.
A large percent of reported injuries are from walkers slipping or falling. The mountain paths above 1000m are often very rugged with lots of loose, jagged rocks. Good footwear is essential. Use purpose made hiking shoes or boots. Lightweight Gore-Tex hiking shoes and boots are fine in the summer and autumn months, but avoid training shoes. These have poor grip in the wet and little protection for your feet on the craggy mountain paths. Additionally, get some hiking poles. A pair of hiking poles will offer a welcome relief for your knees on the way down. Additionally you get some extra stability; many accidents occur on the descent when tired climbers slip and fall.
Finally be flexible. Be prepared to change your itinerary if you feel exhausted or the weather changes. In 2009 a group of 21 hikers were caught in a rainstorm while summer hiking in Hokkaido. Instead of remaining in the mountain lodge where they were staying, they decided to keep to their itinerary and pushed on through the storm. 10 climbers died from exposure. This was a senseless and avoidable waste of life. Remember it's OK to change your plans, just quit and call it a day if things are not going your way.Chris Pond