August: La Tomatina

La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol, near to Valencia in Spain. Thousands upon thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to throw tomatoes at each other in this 'World's Biggest Food Fight' where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
ラ・トマティーナは、スペインのヴァレンシアにほど近いブニョールの町で、毎年８月の第４水曜日に催されるフード・ファイト祭りです。
この「世界最大のフード・ファイト祭り」は、100トン以上の熟しすぎたトマトを通りで投げるお祭りで、お互いに向かってトマトを投げつけ合うために世界各地から何千もの人々がやってきます。

The week-long festival features music, parades, dancing, and fireworks. On the night before the tomato fight, participants of the festival compete in a paella cooking contest.
１週間にわたるお祭りの特色は音楽、パレード、踊りや花火です。トマト合戦の前の夜、祭りの参加者はパエリア料理のコンテストで競い合います。

Anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 people come to this huge tomato fight, greatly expanding Bunol's normal 9,000 person population. There is limited accommodation for people who come to La Tomatina, so many people take the easier option of staying in nearby Valencia just 38km to Bunol by bus or train. In preparation for the dirty mess that will ensue, shopkeepers use huge plastic covers on their storefronts in order to protect them from the carnage.
そこらじゅうの２万から４万の人々がこの巨大なトマト合戦に参加し、通常は９千人のブニョール人口は大変に膨れ上がります。ラ・トマティーナに参加する人々のためには限られた数の宿泊施設しかないので、多くの人々はより選択しやすい、ブニョールからバスや電車でほんの38キロに近接するヴァレンシアに滞在することを選びます。続いて起こる汚れへの備えとして、店主たちは店先を惨劇から守るために巨大なプラスティックカバーを使います。





Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina

http://www.latomatina.org/

http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/tomatina.asp

Big Shoes To FIll

According to Heraclitus, change is the only thing that endures.
We cannot prevent it from happening.
All we can do is to accept it and adapt.
If we choose not to, we will be left behind or left out.

Last week, big changes shook the world.
First, Apple's iconic CEO, Steve Jobs announced his resignation.
Upon hearing this news, a lot of his followers were saddened.
The other news was Japan's Prime Minister Kan's decision to step down.
After being severely criticized for his administration's handling of the Tohoku earthquake, former PM Kan has long been nudged to resign from his post.
His announcement last Friday garnered mixed emotions from the public both in Japan and overseas.

Both newsmakers will soon be replaced by their successors.
For Apple it will be Tim Cook and for Japan, it will probably be Mr. Yoshihiko Noda.
The two gentlemen will be scrutinized severely in their first few days.
In addition, the public will expect a lot from both so they have to deliver.
They both have their work cut out for them... and they both have big shoes to fill.
I wish them luck in their respective fields.

The Magic of Deception

People lie everyday.
The gravity of the deception might differ but basically it's still a lie.

A friend of mine was not in perfect health last weekend.
When I called yesterday to check up on this friend, she said she is A-okay.
However, I learned this morning that she still has fever and is still resting in her home.
I took no offense that my friend told a white lie.
Probably, she just didn't want me to worry about her.

We lie for different reasons as well.
We say we are fine even thought we are not, so that people will not worry about us.
Some of us say we are on our way, but in reality we haven't even began the journey.

In this short video, you will see how a man and three iPods explain deception and lies through magic.
Please watch this TED talk offering by Mr. Marco Tempest.





So the type of magic I like, and I'm a magician, is a magic that uses technology to create illusions. So I would like to show you something I've been working on. It's an application that I think will be useful for artists -- multimedia artists in particular. It synchronizes videos across multiple screens of mobile devices. And I borrowed these three iPods from people here in the audience to show you what I mean. And I'm going to use them to tell you a little bit about my favorite subject: deception.

(Music)

One of my favorite magicians is Karl Germain. He had this wonderful trick where a rosebush would bloom right in front of your eyes. But it was his production of a butterfly that was the most beautiful.

(Recording) Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, the creation of life.

(Applause)

(Music)

Marco Tempest: When asked about deception, he said this:

Announcer: Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you -- and he does.

MT: I like to think of myself as an honest magician. I use a lot of tricks, which means that sometimes I have to lie to you. Now I feel bad about that. But people lie every day.

(Ringing) Hold on.

Girl in Phone: Hey, where are you?

MT: Stuck in traffic. I'll be there soon. You've all done it.

(Laughter)

Lady: I'll be ready in just a minute, darling.

Man: It's just what I've always wanted.

Woman: You look great.

MT: Deception, it's a fundamental part of life. Now polls show that men tell twice as many lies as women -- assuming the women they ask told the truth.

(Laughing)

We deceive to gain advantage and to hide our weaknesses. The Chinese general Sun Tzu said that all war was based on deception. Oscar Wilde said the same thing of romance.

Some people deceive for money. Let's play a game. Three cards, three chances.

Announcer: One five will get you 10, 10 will get you 20. Now where's the lady? Where is the queen?

MT: This one? Sorry. You lose. Well, I didn't deceive you. You deceived yourself. Self-deception. That's when we convince ourselves that a lie is the truth. Sometimes it's hard to tell the two apart. Compulsive gamblers are experts at self-deception. (Slot machine noise) They believe they can win. They forget the times they lose.

The brain is very good at forgetting. Bad experiences are quickly forgotten. Bad experiences quickly disappear. Which is why in this vast and lonely cosmos, we are so wonderfully optimistic. Our self-deception becomes a positive illusion -- why movies are able to take us onto extraordinary adventures; why we believe Romeo when he says he loves Juliet; and why single notes of music, when played together, become a sonata and conjure up meaning.

That's "Clair de Lune." Its composer called Debussy said that art was the greatest deception of all. Art is a deception that creates real emotions -- a lie that creates a truth. And when you give yourself over to that deception, it becomes magic.

(Applause)

Thank you. Thank you very much.

(Applause)


Sources:

http://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_magic_of_truth_and_lies_on_ipods.html
http://youtu.be/fumsXEuiLyk

Exotic coffee lover

During the free-style lesson…

T: Tre K: Katz

T: Alright Katz, I’m all ears to listen to your
free-style lesson topic.
K: To begin with, I am a HUGE coffee fan! I love coffee
and I consume three cups on a regular day.
T: Wow! That’s a tremendous amount of caffeine to perk
up your day.
K: I couldn’t agree more… my day is not complete without
it!
T: So, do you have a preferred type of coffee preparation?
I assume you are a coffee connoisseur.
K: Nothing in particular. I prefer pure black coffee,
without any milk, cream or sugar. I’m not particular
about the preparation. I’m more concerned with the
kind, aroma and quality of coffee beans. I have tried
Arabica and Robusta coffee beans processed in various
ways. But there is a particular coffee that I wanted
to give a try…
T: Hmm… probably that coffee is uniquely processed and
quite rare in the market.
K: Exactly! Exotic as you call it and coffee growers
could hardly mass produce it.
T: Surely that coffee has a NAME…
K: Have you heard of the "Kopi Luwak or Civet/Weasel
Coffee"?
T: The word "civet" rings a bell - it means the Asian
Palm Civet or "Musang/Alamid" in the Filipino language.
　 By the way, what’s the lowdown on civet coffee
processing?
K: Civets can eat selectively and process single handedly
pulped coffee berries that have the right maturity.
In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans
thereby altering their chemical components. The coffee
beans are then channeled through the intestines and
finally defecated keeping the shape of the coffee beans
minus the pulp.
Farmers collect the defecated beans and undergo series
of thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and
brewing to yield an aromatic coffee with significantly
reduced bitterness.
T: Wow! The civets are just like "bio-factories" …
that' s out of the ordinary coffee processing!
K: Indeed… due to its bizarre and labor-intensive processing,
this coffee commands a premium price especially the
Vietnamese Weasel Coffee at $6,600 per kilogram!
T: Well, I will just stick to a healthy and affordable green
tea.
K: If I have a chance, I will surely try a cup for its
heavenly taste!





●Vocabulary:

★exotic - 異国風の、風変わりな
★all ears - （be～）一心に耳を傾ける、熱心に傾聴する
★tremendous - 途方もなく大きい、とてつもない
★perk up - 元気づける、～を引き立たせる
★connoisseur - 目の肥えた人、玄人、通
★aroma - 匂い、香り
★mass produce - 大量生産
★rings a bell - ピンとくる
★single handedly - 自力で、人の手を借りずに
★lowdown - 秘密情報、内実
★proteolytic enzymes - タンパク質分解酵素
★seep - 浸透する、染み込む
★altering - 変える
★chemical components - 化学成分
★channelled - 導かれた、もたらされた
★defecated - 排便された
★aromatic coffee - 香りのある（芳醇な）コーヒー
★significantly reduced - 著しく低下した、大幅に削減された
★bio-factories = bio + factories - 生命工場
★out of the ordinary - 並外れた、常軌を逸した
★bizarre - 奇妙な、風変りな、とっぴな
★labor-intensive processing - 労働集約的過程
★premium price - 割増料金
★heavenly taste - 極上の味





「風変わりなコーヒー愛好家」

フリースタイル・レッスンの間…

T: トレ K: カズ

T: じゃカズ、きみのフリースタイルレッスンのトピックを聞く
準備は万全だよ。
K: まず最初に、僕は大のコーヒー好きなんだ！　コーヒーが
大好きで１日に３杯はいただくね。
T: ワオ！１日を活気づけるにはものすごい量のカフェインだね。
K: 全くその通り...　それなしでは僕の１日は完成しないからね。
T: それで、好きなコーヒーの入れ方はあるのかい？　君はコーヒ
ー通と見たけど。
K: 特にはないよ。でもブラックが好きだな、ミルクもクリーム
も砂糖もなしで。入れ方にはこだわらないよ、どちらかという
と
コーヒー豆の種類や香り、質の方に関心があるかな。
色々な方法で製法されたアラビカ種とロブスタ種を試したけど、
試してみたい特別なコーヒーがあるんだよね。
T: ふーん。きっとそのコーヒーは独自加工で市場ではとても珍し
いんだろうね。
K: その通り！珍しいといわれているように、コーヒー豆を栽培
する人達はそれを大量生産するのが難しいんだ。
T: そのコーヒーの名は間違いなく...
K: コピ・ルアク、あるいはジャコウネコまたはイタチコーヒー
って聞いたことある？
T:「ジャコウネコ」って言葉でピンときたよ。フィリピン語で
「マレージャコウ猫または"ヤシジャコウ猫」という意味なんだ。
ところで、シベット・コーヒー加工処理の秘密って何なんだい？
K: シベットは、適度に成熟したコーヒーの実を選んで食べて、
果肉を自力で加工するんだ。胃の中でタンパク質分解酵素が豆
　 に浸透し、それによって化学成分を変化させる。そしてコーヒ
ー豆は腸を通して排便されて、最終的には果肉の部分を除いて
コーヒー豆が形のまま残るんだ。
苦味が軽減された薫りあるコーヒーを産出するために、農家が
　 排便された豆を集めてそれを洗浄、日干し、軽い焙煎と醸成と
いう工程を経るんだよ。
T: すごい！シベットって「生物工場」みたいだね。...普通の
コーヒー加工の域を越えてるね！
K: まさしく... この風変りで労働集約的な過程のおかげで、特に
ベトナムイタチコーヒーなんて１キロ6,600ドルっていうプレ
ミア価格がつけられているんだよ！
T: 僕はヘルシーで手頃な値段の緑茶でいいや。
K: 機会があれば、絶対その極上の味を試してみたいね！

使える英会話表現がいっぱい。DCECメルマガダイアルグ "The Big Search"

N - Nicole M - Mari A - Ami

N: Hi guys! (greeted her learners)
M: Geesh, Nicole! You're nicely made-up today.
What's the occasion?
A: Yeah, I think this is the first time I've seen you
in this style.
I like the smoky effect on your eyelids.
N: Miraculously, I woke up early so I experimented with
some new stuff.
M: (leaned over to get a closer look) And you're
wearing mascara too!
N: (blushed profusely) Okay, enough about me.
A: Is there something you aren't telling us?
N: Nothing. It's just that my friend came for a visit
and she brought all the stuff for me as a birthday
gift.
M: I wish I had a friend like that too.
A: Does she work for a cosmetic company?
N: Well, you can say that.
One of their subsidiary companies is in that industry.
A: I see. So what goodies did she bring you?
N: Let's see... (enumerated the things she recalled)
She brought a lot of mascara... eye shadow...
eyeliner... anti-frizz mousse... perfume...
vanilla-scented lotion... etc.
M: Wow! Now you can open your own cosmetic shop.
Now, all you have to do is buy some clothes and you're
ready for your big day.
N: Ummm...
A: Don't tell she gave you clothes as well?!
N: Not really. Three of my friends and I had a date
yesterday and we splurged a little.
M: A little? (raised her right eyebrow at Nicole)
A: Define a little. (challenged her governess)
N: Just a pair of jeans and some strappy sandals.
A: You should have bought a top to complete the outfit.
N: That was already in my mind but something stopped me.
M: Was it a what or a who? (quizzed Nicole)
N: I just realized I could still go to another mall this
week to search for that perfect top.
A/M: Ha ha ha! We won't stop you then.



●Vocabulary

★made-up - メイクした、仕上がった
★occasion - 大事な行事
★smoky - かすんだ、煙のような
★miraculously - 奇跡的に
★experiment - 実験
★stuff - もの
★lean over - ～に身を乗り出す
★get a closer look - 近くで見る
★cosmetic company - 化粧品会社
★subsidiary company - 子会社
★industry - 産業
★goodies - おいしいもの、ちょっとしたおまけのもの
★enumerate - 数え上げる、列挙する
★recall - 思い出す
★anti-frizz mousse - 縮れ毛直し整髪料
★-scented - ～の香りの、匂いがする
★big day - 大事な日、記念すべき日
★splurged - 散財する、ぜいたくをする
★define - 定義する
★strappy - ストラップのついた
★quizzed - 質問する



「大きな探求」


N - ニコル M - マリ A - アミ

N: ハイ、みんな！（生徒にあいさつする）
M: うわあ、ニコル！　今日はきれいにお化粧してるね。
　 なにかあったの？
A: ほんと、そのスタイルを見るのは初めてだと思うわ。その
くすみがかったアイシャドウがいいわね。
N: 奇跡的なことに早く起きたから、新しいものを試してみたの。
M:（身を乗りだして近くで見て）それにマスカラもしてる！
N:（顔を真っ赤にし）さあさあ、もういいでしょ。
A: 言ってないことがなにかあるんじゃない？
N: ないわよ。友だちが訪ねてきて、誕生日プレゼントとして
これを全部持ってきてくれただけよ。
M: 私にもそんな友だちがいたらなー。
A: 化粧品会社で働いてるの？
N: まあ、そうともいえるわね。子会社のうちの一つがその産業
にあるの。
A: なるほどね、それでどんないいものを持ってきてくれたの？
N: ええとね...（思い出して数え上げる）たくさんのマスカラ...
アイシャドウ...アイライナー...縮れ毛直し整髪料...香水...
バニラの香りの化粧水...などなどね。
M: すごい！　自分で化粧品店を開けるわね。あとは服を買って、
大事な日に備えることだけね。
N: うーん...
A: まさか服までくれたの？！
N: そうではないんだけどね。昨日友だち３人と私で出かけて
ちょっとぜいたくしたのよ。
M: ちょっと？（ニコルに向けて右眉を上げ）
A: 少しの意味を説明して。（ガヴァネスに食いつく）
N: ジーンズ１着とストラップの付いたサンダルよ。
A: トップスも買って、服装一式そろえればよかったのに。
N: それ考えたんだけど、なにかが止めたの。
M: なにかって何、または誰？（ニコルに聞き）
N: ピッタリのトップスを探しに、今週他のショッピングモール
に行けるって気付いたのよ。
A/M: ははは！　どうぞどうぞ、それなら止めないわ。


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Ways to cool down this summer

It’s so freaking hot!
Every time I go out of my house, I would like to go back in and stay in my air-conditioned room.

Last Monday night, I had a terrible headache.
I felt so weak and really couldn’t hold myself up well, thus I decided to go home early.
The symptoms I had were very similar to a heatstroke, I was told.
Though, I am not really sure if it was.

So, please stay out of the sun as much as possible.
Hydrate yourself all the time.
Also, you could check out some of these methods a colleague suggested:

Cool gadgets







Cool food




If all else fails, then you could just do this…




Sources:

http://delacruzenglishclub.aminus3.com/image/2011-07-12.html
http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=kakigori&hl=ja&client=firefox-a&hs=ihL&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:ja:official&channel=np&biw=1280&bih=886&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=q81ATrr_EuXRiAKtr8S1BQ&ved=0CDcQsAQ
http://www.henkaq.com/SHOP/fa_coolpillow.html
http://www.shf.co.jp/photogallery/
http://www.bousai.j-taisaku.net/heatstroke/goods/pocket_handkerchief.html
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/konpo/t-sudare-nagomi-rollup-019.html
http://foodlibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/07/cold-japanese-somen-noodles-summer.html

It's a metamorphosis

Last weekend, my friends and I were supposed to join a fruit-picking bus tour.
However, I declined upon knowing the time of departure from Tokyo.
Why did I pass up this chance?
You see, I am not a morning person.
I am still half the woman many people know around 5:30am.
I only become complete around 9am.
Plus, I prefer the transformation to happen in the comfort of my home or in the restroom and not on a mode of public transportation.

I often see these signs aboard the subway in Tokyo.



But these signs do not stop some women from putting on their make up in front of on looking passengers.
Amazing how they can line their eyelids, put on their lashes while and curl their lashes while the train is going around 80km/h.

For those of you who feel disgusted about these rituals being done in the train, I think you are still lucky.
You haven't seen someone doing this on the train, have you?




Sources:
http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/life/10-worst-behaviours-public-transport-637826
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metro_Ginza_Line

Tales from the other side of the mountains

Sc: Scott F: Felicity

Scott is visiting some friends during his summer vacation.
He and his friends have just arrived at a local summer
festival, only to find that the venue is almost completely
empty. He calls Felicity to complain about the situation
and see if she can search the Internet for information.

Sc: Hey Felicity.
F: Hi Scott, fancy you calling. How are you enjoying your
vacation?
Sc: Everything has been great so far, but I'm a little
perplexed about the matsuri here.
F: What do you mean?
Sc: Well, we arrived here, and there are people, there are
fireworks, and there are vendors, but...
F: Everything sounds on the up-and-up, what's got you in a
huff?
Sc: The thing is, there are only four vendors operating
　　tonight. I want to buy something to eat, but the lines
are astronomical, and if I wait any longer, I think I'm
going to expire. Can you see if you can find any
information on the Internet?
F: Sure, let me see what I can find for you.
Sc: Thanks.
F: The only news I can find in your area is an article
about the local yakuza having a fight with another rival
group a few days ago.
Sc: Ah, one of my friends mentioned that this afternoon
when I asked why he wasn't coming tonight. But why is
the yakuza not being around detrimental to the
festivities?
F: Well, from what I've heard, usually the vendors that
operate at the festivals are gangsters, so it doesn't
surprise me that they were absent, given the climate.
Sc: Ah, that makes sense. I was wondering why he said "Why
is it that they're around when you don't want them, and
not around when you do?"
F: (laughing) Sounds like your friend is a bit of a pessimist.





●VOCABULARY

★fancy: 気まぐれの、風変わりな、奇遇の
★perplexed: 当惑した、まごついた
★vendors: 露天商、的屋
★on the up-and-up: 好調で、うまくいって、成功して
★in a huff: むっとして、怒って
★astronomical: 桁外れに大きな、莫大な
★expire: 息を引き取る
★rival: 競争相手、敵
★detrimental: 有害な、弊害をもたらす
★festivities: 祝祭行事、祭典
★climate: 風潮、風土
★pessimist: 悲観主義者、悲観論者





「山の向こう側のお話」


Sc: スコット F: フェリシティ

スコットは夏休みの期間中、友人たちのもとを訪れている。
彼と友人たちは地域の夏祭りにやってきてみると、現地はガラガラ。
彼はこの状況の不平を言い、ネットで情報を調べてもらえるか聞いて
みようとフェリシティに電話をする。

Sc: やあ、フェリシティ。
F: あらスコット、電話なんて珍しわね。休暇はどう？
Sc: 今のところ満喫しているよ。でも今来ているお祭りのことで
　　ちょっと戸惑ってるんだ。
F: どういうこと？
Sc: ええと、ここに着いたら、人も花火も屋台もあるんだけど...
でも...
F: みんなうまくいってるように聞こえるけど、何が不満なの？
Sc: それが、今夜やってる屋台が４つだけなんだよ。何か食べるもの
を買いたいのに、ものすごい大行列で、これ以上待ったら死ん
じゃうんじゃないかと思うよ。ネットでなにか情報が得られない
か見てもらえるかな。
F: いいわよ、何かあるか探してみるね。
Sc: ありがとう。
F: その辺りに関する記事は一つだけね、数日前に地元の暴力団が
対抗勢力と一戦交えたって。
Sc: ああ、今日の午後友達が、今夜なんで来なかいのか聞いたときに
言ってたな。でもなんでヤクザがいないことが問題になるのさ？
F: ええと、私が聞いたところでは、通常お祭りの露店をやって
いるのは暴力団員たちだそうよ。だからその状況からして、彼ら
が出店しなくても不思議じゃないわ。
Sc: ああ、どうりで。なぜ友達が「どうして、彼らはいてほしくない
　　ときにいて、いてほしいときにいないんだろう」って言ってたの
　　か不思議に思ってたんだ。
F: （笑いながら）あなたの友達はちょっと悲観的のようね。

How to listen

When learaning a language, knowing how to listen is something very important that each and every one of us must master.
How do we do that?
It really is difficult especially that our world is such a noisy place right now.

Julian Treasure (yes, his family name is really "Treasure") is a sound consultant.
He "advises businesses on how best to use" sounds.
What does he want us to do?
He wants us "to pay attention to the sounds that surround us".
Do you think it's easy?

In his talk, he mentions an acronym that I would like to share with you - RASA.
It stands for Receive, Appreciate, Summarize and Ask.
Why don't you listen to his presentation?



We are losing our listening. We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time listening, But we're not very good at it. We retain just 25 percent of what we hear. Now not you, not this talk, but that is generally true. Let's define listening as making meaning from sound. It's a mental process, and it's a process of extraction.

We use some pretty cool techniques to do this. One of them is pattern recognition. (Crowd Noise) So in a cocktail party like this, if I say, "David, Sara, pay attention," some of you just sat up. We recognize patterns to distinguish noise from signal, and especially our name. Differencing is another technique we use. If I left this pink noise on for more than a couple of minutes, you would literally cease to hear it. We listen to differences, we discount sounds that remain the same.

And then there is a whole range of filters. These filters take us from all sound down to what we pay attention to. Most people are entirely unconscious of these filters. But they actually create our reality in a way, because they tell us what we're paying attention to right now. Give you one example of that: Intention is very important in sound, in listening. When I married my wife, I promised her that I would listen to her every day as if for the first time. Now that's something I fall short of on a daily basis. (Laughter) But it's a great intention to have in a relationship.

But that's not all. Sound places us in space and in time. If you close your eyes right now in this room, you're aware of the size of the room from the reverberation and the bouncing of the sound off the surfaces. And you're aware of how many people are around you because of the micro-noises you're receiving. And sound places us in time as well, because sound always has time embedded in it. In fact, I would suggest that our listening is the main way that we experience the flow of time from past to future. So, "Sonority is time and meaning" -- a great quote.

I said at the beginning, we're losing our listening. Why did I say that? Well there are a lot of reasons for this. First of all, we invented ways of recording -- first writing, then audio recording and now video recording as well. The premium on accurate and careful listening has simply disappeared. Secondly, the world is now so noisy, (Noise) with this cacophony going on visually and auditorily, it's just hard to listen; it's tiring to listen. Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn big, public spaces like this, shared soundscapes, into millions of tiny, little personal sound bubbles. In this scenario, nobody's listening to anybody.

We're becoming impatient. We don't want oratory anymore, we want soundbites. And the art of conversation is being replaced -- dangerously, I think -- by personal broadcasting. I don't know how much listening there is in this conversation, which is sadly very common, especially in the U.K. We're becoming desensitized. Our media have to scream at us with these kinds of headlines in order to get our attention. And that means it's harder for us to pay attention to the quiet, the subtle, the understated.

This is a serious problem that we're losing our listening. This is not trivial. Because listening is our access to understanding. Conscious listening always creates understanding. And only without conscious listening can these things happen -- a world where we don't listen to each other at all, is a very scary place indeed. So I'd like to share with you five simple exercises, tools you can take away with you, to improve your own conscious listening. Would you like that?

(Audience: Yes.) Good.

The first one is silence. Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful exercise to reset your ears and to recalibrate so that you can hear the quiet again. If you can't get absolute silence, go for quiet, that's absolutely fine.

Second, I call this the mixer. (Noise) So even if you're in a noise environment like this -- and we all spend a lot of time in places like this -- listen in the coffee bar to how many channels of sound can I hear? How many individual channels in that mix am I listening to? You can do it in a beautiful place as well, like in a lake. How many birds am I hearing? Where are they? Where are those ripples? It's a great exercise for improving the quality of your listening.

Third, this exercise I call savoring, and this is a beautiful exercise. It's about enjoying mundane sounds. This, for example, is my tumble dryer. (Dryer) It's a waltz. One, two, three. One, two, three. One two three. I love it. Or just try this one on for size. (Coffee grinder) Wow! So mundane sounds can be really interesting if you pay attention. I call that the hidden choir. It's around us all the time.

The next exercise is probably the most important of all of these, if you just take one thing away. This is listening positions -- the idea that you can move your listening position to what's appropriate to what you're listening to. This is playing with those filters. Do you remember, I gave you those filters at the beginning. It's starting to play with them as levers, to get conscious about them and to move to different places. These are just some of the listening positions, or scales of listening positions, that you can use. There are many. Have fun with that. It's very exciting.

And finally, an acronym. You can use this in listening, in communication. If you're in any one of those roles -- and I think that probably is everybody who's listening to this talk -- the acronym is RASA, which is the Sanskrit word for juice or essence. And RASA stands for Receive, which means pay attention to the person; Appreciate, making little noises like hmm, oh, okay; Summarize, the word "so" is very important in communication; and Ask, ask questions afterward.

Now sound is my passion, it's my life. I wrote a whole book about it. So I live to listen. That's too much to ask from most people. But I believe that every human being needs to listen consciously in order to live fully -- connected in space and in time to the physical world around us, connected in understanding to each other, not to mention spiritually connected, because every spiritual path I know of has listening and contemplation at its heart.

That's why we need to teach listening in our schools as a skill. Why is it not taught? It's crazy. And if we can teach listening in our schools, we can take our listening off that slippery slope to that dangerous, scary world that I talked about and move it to a place where everybody is consciously listening all the time -- or at least capable of doing it.

Now don't know how to do that, but this is TED, and I think the TED community is capable of anything. So I invite you to connect with me, connect with each other, take this mission out and let's get listening taught in schools, and transform the world in one generation to a conscious listening world -- a world of connection, a world of understanding and a world of peace.

Thank you for listening to me today.

(Applause)


Sources:

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better.html
http://youtu.be/cSohjlYQI2A

New Heights

A lady can never have too many shoes, I think. I, for one, am a self-confessed shoe addict. If I could have it my way, I would like to buy all the styles and colors that would fit me. Of course, I cannot do that. The shoes in my collection range from flats to high heels. However, I cannot imagine myself wearing the new shoes that famed shoe designer Christian Louboutin made.



Would you like to try?

Source:
http://www.thelifefiles.com/2011/06/30/christian-louboutin-introduces-their-eight-inch-heel/