I have two major passions in life. One is English education, and the other is baseball. These two passions cross paths quite often, but never more than in one particular individual: Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

If you do not recognize the name, let me introduce him a little. He was born and raised in Hyogo Prefecture and graduated from Ritsumeikan University several decades ago. After being drafted by the Orix BlueWave (who are now the Buffaloes) and having a successful pitching career in Japan (Rookie of the Year, All-Star), he spent nine years playing Major League Baseball for the Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners. Because his name is so difficult for many non-Japanese to pronounce, he was given the nickname “Shiggy” which I will use the rest of this article.

Shiggy actually did not go to the major leagues because of his baseball aspirations. He went there because he had a fascination with America, and wanted to live there and experience the culture. During his time there, he gained proficiency in English, but also deepened his understanding of the national culture. As such, he was able to understand his own culture better, too. In fact, he has written several books about his experiences in America, plus his methods of learning English. I have not read all of Shiggy’s books, but what I have read, I have thoroughly enjoyed.

A book called {素晴らしき！メジャーリーガーの人生}. is a collection of the monthly columns he wrote for a Japanese newspaper while he was playing baseball in America. He also has one called {メジャーリーグで覚えた僕の英語勉強法}, and most recently, he put one out called {好かれる英会話}. In fact, last year during the pandemic (and online classes for many of us), he did an exclusive “webinar” for Ritsumeikan students and staff based on this book, which is about how to really enjoy speaking English. The webinar was truly enlightening and helped me see that Shiggy has transcended nationality and culture in his life. He is able to objectively see America for what it is, and the same is true of Japan.

This nation of ours (Japan) has a lot of TV shows that focus on how foreigners view Japan. While I enjoy programs like “YOUは何しに日本へ？” It feels a little superficial at times. It also comes across (to foreigners) as Japan tooting its own horn. The show seems to be declaring, “Look at how awesome the world thinks we are!” Shiggy kind of does the opposite in his writing: how does Japan view America? What I enjoy about Shiggy and his writing is that he does not put his own country OR his adopted country on a pedestal. He promotes understanding and acceptance while encouraging people to learn and love English. Oh, and of course, he loves baseball, too.

I highly recommend that you check out Shiggy’s books and aim to emulate one of your fellow Ritsumeikan graduates.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Quiz

Q1. Which baseball team did Shiggy not play for?

a) Orix BlueWave

b) Orix Buffaloes

c) Anaheim Angels

d) Seattle Mariners

Q2. Why did Shiggy want to play Major League Baseball?

a) He wanted to live in America

b) He wanted to challenge his baseball abilities

c) He wanted to teach Japanese to his teammates

d) He wanted to write books about learning English

Q3. What does the writer of this blog appreciate about Shiggy?

a) He loves Japan so much

b) He loves America so much

c) He can see Japan and America without bias

d) He watches TV shows like YOUは何しに日本へ?

Scroll down for answers

A1. b

A2. a

A3. c

When Matsumoto supermarket opened 20 years ago in my neighbourhood in Kyoto, the store played marching band music to perk up the customers.  It used to annoy me to no end because it was so loud. I’d shop in a hurry just to escape the noise. The other day though I heard a new type of music there.  It was the song “Dynamite” by BTS, but a poor, digitised copy that made it sound like an elementary school playing their keyboard harmonicas.  Even so, I recognized it as my university student daughter’s favourite K-pop dance song. It’s a lot of young people’s favourite song around the world because it is made of positive vibes, energy, hope and love – a feel-good song during the Coronavirus pandemic.  Why do so many people like BTS?

The K-pop superstars from South Korea are loved not just because of their music and dance videos. The Seoul government signed them up as tourism ambassadors as they are the most influential celebrities of Korea.  And the United Nations loves them too: BTS has raised $3.6 million dollars (¥404,113,000) since 2017 with the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, to fight violence, abuse and bullying and to promote self-esteem in young people. On September 20, 2021, BTS made a speech at the UN urging people to “choose kindness”.

The fans love their lyrics that inspire them to be positive and happy. The seven idols are unique because they are very upfront about mental health and their own personal struggles. In the 2016 album Agust D, member Suga talks about depression and self-hate. On the same album, “So Far Away” talks about pain and loneliness. On the 2014 album Skool Luv Affair, “Tomorrow” expresses the hardship of the young generation today and how they are afraid of tomorrow. And finally there are the songs “Answer: Love Myself”, “Not Today” and “On” that are healing to fans because they address self-doubt and encourage them to have more self-esteem.

For a K-pop band to be the messenger of goodwill and hope, they are extremely successful.  Their tour “Permission to Dance” in Los Angeles, California in December 2021 sold out with tickets being sold for thousands of dollars. It is no wonder that even a supermarket likes the idea of piping in their music to lift our spirits, capitalising on their positive energy that is truly global...and cool!

Photo credit Marcello Chagas@Pexels

Quiz

1. Why did the United Nations ask BTS to give a speech?

a) They are tourism ambassadors

b) They raised millions of dollars for UNICEF

c)  They believe in kindness

2. What issue for the young generation is BTS concerned with?

a) goodwill and hope

b) raising money for charity

c) mental health

3. Why did the supermarket choose to play a BTS song for its customers?

a) They can pipe in their music

b) They have positive energy

c) It is a digitised copy

Scroll down for answers

Answers

A1. b

A2. c

A3. b

On April 23, 2021, Bill Gates was one of the speakers at the Leaders Summit on Climate, ahead of the United Nations conference on climate change (COP26) that took place in November in Glasgow, Scotland. Key figures from around the world gathered online to talk about some of the most important challenges in climate change, including reducing emissions, financing new ideas, and creating jobs during the transition to a clean-energy economy.

Most people want to continue to be provided with all the benefits of the modern lifestyle, and many others in poverty want to attain a modern lifestyle. However, continuing to use today’s technologies will prevent us from meeting the goal of achieving what Gates calls ‘a Green Premium of zero’.

These days, there are an increasing variety of zero-carbon technologies available, but most of them are more expensive than their fossil-fuel counterparts. Gates explained that we need new zero-carbon products that are just as affordable. Unfortunately, creating such products is difficult, but it can be done more easily by governments and corporations investing in innovation and building the infrastructure for the transition to a clean economy.

To do this, Gates has proposed three steps to achieve these goals, all requiring international cooperation:

First is the development and distribution of breakthrough technologies that allow us to eliminate carbon emissions.

Second is to use the power of markets to fund and deploy these innovations, such as new ways to finance technologies. This will make it easier for new technologies to have greater appeal to corporations and customers instead of continuing to use fossil fuels.

Third is for governments and corporations to begin using policies and programs such as ‘Mission Innovation’ and ‘Breakthrough Energy Catalyst’ that will make it faster and cheaper to make this transition. This requires leaders to reward those who take difficult steps to choose progress over profits.

So, what can YOU do as an individual in society? Are you reading this article because you are also a climate activist? This doesn’t mean only recycling pet bottles and switching off lights. A climate activist is someone who brings attention to problems by demanding action and change from governments and corporations. If you are old enough to vote, choose a politician who really cares about these issues. You can ‘vote’ with your money too, by supporting companies who are already taking actions to reach zero-emissions.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Quiz

Q1. In which Scottish city was the COP26 held?

Q2. What does Bill Gates call new and affordable zero-carbon products?

Q3. What are the names of the examples of policies/programs that will make it faster and cheaper to make the transition to a clean economy?

Scroll down for the answers

A1. Glasgow

A2. Green Premium products

A3. ‘Mission Innovation’ and ‘Breakthrough Energy Catalyst’

My father died last January. He was 90 years old and suffered from sudden pneumonia during my visit to my hometown, Fukuoka. I can’t say he was a diligent, tidy, and reliable person, but he was good at creating a cheerful atmosphere everywhere. He was born into a high social and financial standing. However, when he was in his twenties, he dropped out of university and eloped with an older woman of lower social and financial status. The marriage lasted only one year. After he got married to my mother and started his own company, he would lend his money without hesitation to others and often never got it back. My mother regretted marrying him.

Partly because I was raised hearing my mother’s complaints about him, I thought he was far from an ideal father, although I liked his cheerfulness. However, his last ten days at the hospital made me reconsider how I will spend the rest of my life. Are high social status or money determining factors when it comes to enjoying the final stages of our life?

Shortly after he was carried to the hospital at the end of last December, the doctor told our family he was dying. As my hometown is located in the countryside in Fukuoka, and at the time had only counted a small number of Covid-19 patients, only fifteen minutes were allowed per visitation. We immediately called his siblings and learned that most of his friends had passed away already, so we were only able to find one of his friends.

Even though he was dying and was kept alive by a ventilator, he was friendly and talked to everyone. However, sadly, most of his words were inaudible due to the apparatus. One of his grandchildren, who is a doctor, said in general it was very difficult for patients like him to talk because the blood oxygenation level was extremely low. During the last ten days of his life, his nine grandchildren, some of whom lived in Tokyo and some in Kyoto, returned to Fukuoka, so someone could visit him every day. They all loved the dying old man who was still joking with gestures on the bed.

According to the doctor, and due in part to Covid-19, this hospital had become a place for the dying, and patients rarely encountered visitors. Only my father’s bed was lively, and this created an atmosphere unusually cheerful for the hospital.

Through these ten days at the hospital, I realized that how we die is the same as how we live. Though he might have been sloppy, lazy, and gullible, my father treated everyone equally, regardless of their social and financial status. He never got angry at others, and tried to make everyone happy all the time, even at the end. Now I respect him so much and feel I want to spend my last days like him.

I believe how we die doesn’t depend on our financial condition or social status, but after all how we have treated people throughout our life. To this end, I renovated my house this summer and made a small corner where people can get together and have social gatherings. I hope I can cherish people and the time I spend with them for the rest of my life, and hopefully, die like my father.

Quiz.

Q1. Where is the author from?

a)    Kyoto

b)   Tokyo

c)    Fukuoka

Q2. What did the author’s mother think about her husband?

a)    He was not kind

b)   He was not talkative

c)    He was not a good husband

Q3. According to the essay, what makes our final days great?

a)    Money

b)   Jobs

c)    How we treat people

Scroll down for the answers

A1. c

A2. c

A3. c

If you were forced to choose between being consistent or speedy, what would be your choice? Now, many people might feel compelled to answer, “well, I would choose both.” But besides this being a cheat answer to the hypothetical question, you may want to think about the implications for this preference. In the end, rather than focusing on too many things at once, we should aim for being a dependable, rather than fast, person.

Of course, being able to consistently meet deadlines while also finishing tasks well before their deadlines would be great in your future workplace. However, the truth is that we don’t have unlimited time in such demanding environments. There are only so many hours in the day to complete seemingly never-ending work. The implication here is that by choosing to pursue both traits, we place equal importance on them. Why is this troublesome? Well, a professor once told me, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” Indeed, when we choose everything equally, we are, in fact, choosing not to place higher importance on anything. Realistically, just as some work tasks should have higher priority than others, so too is there higher importance for the traits we decide to develop in ourselves. We must understand that not all attributes are created equally.

Now, going back to the question, I ask you once more, which of the two traits would you choose? To give you the answer, let me provide you with a real-world example. Before moving to Japan, I worked for a large corporation in the United States. Within this company, I worked closely with a diverse team of co-workers to complete deadlines together. My fellow workers came from various backgrounds and had many different preferences and work styles. Amongst them, there were people who preferred to power through tasks and finish them as soon as they were assigned. This may seem great, yet these people lacked the consistency to keep this up for long. Yes, some tasks were finished quickly, but others would go unnoticed for weeks at a time. Ultimately, I couldn’t trust these employees to follow through on tasks and had to keep reminding them to make sure that they would meet the deadlines. 

Next, there were other types of co-workers who were the opposite. I might have sent them an email and then not heard back from them for several days. For sure, this was not considered fast compared to the abovementioned workers who would respond within seconds. The difference here was that I could always count on these people to meet the deadlines despite completing things at a slower pace. Where they lacked in speed, they most certainly made it up in being dependable.

Overall, in your future workplace, you might first strive to portray every positive attribute at the same time. But once you come to the realization that we cannot always do things perfectly, you will adjust your priorities. When this day comes, I hope you will become the type of person that others can depend on.

Photo credit: nappy@pexels.com 

Quiz

Q1. What does 'if everything is important, then nothing is important' mean?

Q2. What does the author mean by the word ‘consistency,’ and what is the author’s opinion about it?

Q3. What does the author mean by the word ‘speed,’ and what is the author’s opinion about it?

Scroll down ↓ for the answers

A1. By placing equal importance on everything, we do not distinguish one thing from another. Therefore, our priorities are spread too thin, and ultimately, nothing becomes important.

A2. Consistency is when someone is dependable and always finishes a task in the end. The author believes that, while consistent people do not always complete tasks quickly, knowing that they will follow through on the task is better.

A3. Speed is when someone finishes a task quickly. The author believes that, while it is great to finish tasks speedily, many speedy people cannot continue this consistently and sometimes do not finish tasks.