2021/5/3(月) ZOOM

Hi everyone!

Here are the minutes of the Zoom meeting held on May 3.

This was the first Zoom meeting that we are aiming to hold on a regular basis. The online meeting is held at least twice a month for a start as well as the meetings in person (SMC).

The President served as the Coordinator and he facilitated the meeting. This time there was a guest who is a coworker of the President. First of all, at the initiative of the Coordinator each member talked a little about themselves and the latest news about themselves. And then the meeting moved on to the Table Topic Speech session. With goal of managing time, the discussion session including Q& A was set after the completion of all speeches. At the end of the meeting, the regular members exchanged their impressions about the meeting with the guest of SM Eda. The members expressed a high hope of SM Eda’s becoming a regular member. He responded with his comments about the meeting, saying that he felt that the voices were lively and was positive about participating in the meetings from now on.

Table Topics Speech

“What is your favorite family activity for summertime?” (SM Koizumi)

The speaker talked about pleasant memories of travelling to a villa in Karuizawa that allows pets, such as dogs. He traveled there with his family of his wife and a daughter. His family dog is a Malcheese. For a pet dog, in the past he said in his speech that his family got a dog against his will while he was living away from home in Europe, he said.

“The world is a smaller place these days.”(SM Eda)

The speaker voiced a strong support for the statement, saying that in contrast with the period of 100 years ago when people had no choice but to venture to use a ship to go to an oversees country. With an advent of the internet, people have a wider choice of travel means and nowadays we can enjoy online meeting, say a Zoom system.

“Are good family or good friends more important? Why?” (SM Kaneko)

The speaker said it was difficult for him to make a decision of the choice between the two. He said that having good communications with family and maintaining a friendship with others are important. With loneliness in mind, he said that interactions with people around him including his family and his friends are crucial for him, he said. SM Yamazaki added his comments about loneliness that is often taken up in the media. He quoted the coverage of the media, saying that people might be left behind from the opportunities of maintaining communications with others depending on the level of education and financial situations, say online meetings. He also said with the spread of technology people might end up become lonely ironically because they can spend a lot of time doing netsurfing, eg. YouTube, in contrast to the fact that in the past face-to-face communications were indispensable.

“If animals could talk, which would be the most charming?” (SM Takahata)

As a dog lover who used to have a pet dog until several years ago, the speaker said that it would be charming if she or he could say something like asking for a food.

“What did you want to be when you grew up?” (SM Yo. Narisawa）

The speaker said that she wanted to be a flight attendant when she was a child not a teacher. However, with an encounter with her future husband in university, she began to have a more concrete desire to become a teacher, she said.

“Will you tell us about what you are proud of about yourself?”（SM Yu. Narisawa）

Half-jokingly, the speaker said that he found it difficult to narrow down the good points he is proud of. Repeatedly he said being gentle is one of his aspects he feels proud of.

“Junk food's popularity relies on marketing.” (SM Yamazaki)

He voiced his support of statement, saying that young people are likely to be affected by commercials. Also he said that junk foods are his least favorite, with a world-wide hamburger chain in mind he touched on his food preferences of staying away from meat just for feeling bad about their taste since he was child. In his speech, he took up the term “fake meat” that has becoming popular in foreign countries that intends to raise an environmental awareness of people. SM Takahata raised a question about whether or not the term of “fake meat” means soy bean meat. He responded to her, saying that there may be different kinds of words for the word. She also added the word of pescatarian that her daughter has preferences for.

Next meeting

5/8 (9:30-12:00) Oyama Community Center

Coordinator: SM K. Narisawa, Lecturer: SM Kaneko

Reported by YAMAZAKI