Japanese google-foo fail

Japanese readers, can you help me.

I am looking for an image/map/illustration that shows the prefectures of Japan with their respective flags....idealy all of Japan but even just a map of the kanto area prefectures with their respective flags would do.

Japanese google-foo fail

Japanese readers, can you help me.

I am looking for an image/map/illustration that shows the prefectures of Japan with their respective flags....idealy all of Japan but even just a map of the kanto area prefectures with their respective flags would do.

brain drain.

Ok. brain hurty, need to step away from lessons for a bit.

brain drain.

Ok. brain hurty, need to step away from lessons for a bit.

Karim Nagi 2009: The show.

I wish I’d brought my workshop notes but I didn’t. This means I’ll have to start the Karim Nagi 2009 adventure before the workshops, at the performance, and you’ll all just have to be patient.

Luckily, this approach would be chronologically correct. Although I will warn you that it’s going to be hard not to go a Gonzo with all of this. I won't appologize too much. I know, deep down, you probably want the whole picture...not just of what I learned, but how I learned and my impressions of Karim as a teacher and as a person...because this is a small community. When people sponsor a teacher, or attend a workshop, personality does factor into it. Sometimes personality trumps teaching skils or breadth of information...Luckily Karim is the sort of teacher where personality simply supports all the otehr wonderul things he has to offer as a teacher, resource, musician,performer...and all that "Jazz."

I cannot exaggerate my deep love for Karim Nagi as a teacher.

Let’s go back.

http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/652461.html
http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/652573.html

Last year, when he first came to Japan, I took copious notes and was impressed with Karim. If you re-read the entries I am sure you’ll note my gushing and general state of smitten-ness (which my spell check changed to smuttiness. I was not smutty. Karim is not smutty.).

I've said this before: It is very hard not to develop crushes on good instructors in BD. There is an innate intimacy involved in sound and movement / music and dance. This intimacy transcends words... but when you find a person, male or female, who helps you gain a greater understanding of dance and music (be it through teaching, performing, or all) it can be intoxicating and a little overwhelming.

You’ll be happy to know I didn’t stammer my way through the weekend this time. Year two reminded me that while there is every reason to be smitten with the knowledge Karim has and is able to convey, and the fact that he’s a very nice man, I know he’s human. You can’t respect and hear a teacher if you’re objectifying them.

Someone on Buzz made the comment that they’d like to rummage around in Karim’s head and see what’s there…as he taught I found myself thinking “Hell, ‘I’d be happy to rummage around and simply see how it is organized.” My job is about how to teach teachers how to teach communication skills to students so that they can learn languages…so I think a lot about teaching…I recognize multilayered teaching approaches when they are aimed at me. I geek the fuck out! I know the pride in finding the right analogy to make things click, and I kno it when I see it. Kairm has every reason to e proud of his analogies, his visualizations, his visual/aural/oral/movement structures.

I was also impressed with how consistently and consciously Karim balances his natural personally with the need to maintain a friendly but professional identity. I was also aware of it, but it wasn't a negative thing. With some people that struggle creates an uncomfortable distance, but with karim it seems to facilitate more comfortable socliaizing for all involved.

( The Show )

Karim Nagi 2009: The show.

I wish I’d brought my workshop notes but I didn’t. This means I’ll have to start the Karim Nagi 2009 adventure before the workshops, at the performance, and you’ll all just have to be patient.

Luckily, this approach would be chronologically correct. Although I will warn you that it’s going to be hard not to go a Gonzo with all of this. I won't appologize too much. I know, deep down, you probably want the whole picture...not just of what I learned, but how I learned and my impressions of Karim as a teacher and as a person...because this is a small community. When people sponsor a teacher, or attend a workshop, personality does factor into it. Sometimes personality trumps teaching skils or breadth of information...Luckily Karim is the sort of teacher where personality simply supports all the otehr wonderul things he has to offer as a teacher, resource, musician,performer...and all that "Jazz."

I cannot exaggerate my deep love for Karim Nagi as a teacher.

Let’s go back.

http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/652461.html
http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/652573.html

Last year, when he first came to Japan, I took copious notes and was impressed with Karim. If you re-read the entries I am sure you’ll note my gushing and general state of smitten-ness (which my spell check changed to smuttiness. I was not smutty. Karim is not smutty.).

I've said this before: It is very hard not to develop crushes on good instructors in BD. There is an innate intimacy involved in sound and movement / music and dance. This intimacy transcends words... but when you find a person, male or female, who helps you gain a greater understanding of dance and music (be it through teaching, performing, or all) it can be intoxicating and a little overwhelming.

You’ll be happy to know I didn’t stammer my way through the weekend this time. Year two reminded me that while there is every reason to be smitten with the knowledge Karim has and is able to convey, and the fact that he’s a very nice man, I know he’s human. You can’t respect and hear a teacher if you’re objectifying them.

Someone on Buzz made the comment that they’d like to rummage around in Karim’s head and see what’s there…as he taught I found myself thinking “Hell, ‘I’d be happy to rummage around and simply see how it is organized.” My job is about how to teach teachers how to teach communication skills to students so that they can learn languages…so I think a lot about teaching…I recognize multilayered teaching approaches when they are aimed at me. I geek the fuck out! I know the pride in finding the right analogy to make things click, and I kno it when I see it. Kairm has every reason to e proud of his analogies, his visualizations, his visual/aural/oral/movement structures.

I was also impressed with how consistently and consciously Karim balances his natural personally with the need to maintain a friendly but professional identity. I was also aware of it, but it wasn't a negative thing. With some people that struggle creates an uncomfortable distance, but with karim it seems to facilitate more comfortable socliaizing for all involved.

( The Show )

Workshop one: Stick, Stomp, and Spin with Karim Nagi 2009

Workshop one: Stick, Stomp, and Spin with Karim Nagi (November 22, 2009)

What is your most precious thing?...Now how would you feel if someone took it away and replaced it with a Goddess?

Karim Nagi was born in Egypt, he was not born in a Goddess. The music he loves and plays, the culture the loves and shares and more...didn't spring from the temple or the holy bag of a Goddess. It came from people and places he has a connection to.

Last year Karim marked his territory by reminding us that musicians don't need dancers but it isn't the same the other way around. This year he established his position quickly in talking a bit about the Goddess and troubling books about belly dance that don't include or even acknolwedge the Middle East or Egypt

Although I do not share it, I understand the desire for many dancers to explain the emotional and religious transcendence they feel in dance to The/A Goddess. I understand attributing the reconnection they feel to their own bodies to the concept of female bodies through history of the Goddess as a "form of" female body that guides us all...and having that connection is fine...but for me it crosses a line when that connection eliminates or obscures the very real cultural ties and history this dance has to very real people from the past and in the here-and-now. You can enhance your experience all you want with the Goddess, but show some respect for people while you're doing it.
And thus we started with the cultural, historical roots of Raq Sharqi (bellydance) as a very small subset of the world of Oriental (mostly folkloric) Dance.
( Read more... )

Workshop one: Stick, Stomp, and Spin with Karim Nagi 2009

Workshop one: Stick, Stomp, and Spin with Karim Nagi (November 22, 2009)

What is your most precious thing?...Now how would you feel if someone took it away and replaced it with a Goddess?

Karim Nagi was born in Egypt, he was not born in a Goddess. The music he loves and plays, the culture the loves and shares and more...didn't spring from the temple or the holy bag of a Goddess. It came from people and places he has a connection to.

Last year Karim marked his territory by reminding us that musicians don't need dancers but it isn't the same the other way around. This year he established his position quickly in talking a bit about the Goddess and troubling books about belly dance that don't include or even acknolwedge the Middle East or Egypt

Although I do not share it, I understand the desire for many dancers to explain the emotional and religious transcendence they feel in dance to The/A Goddess. I understand attributing the reconnection they feel to their own bodies to the concept of female bodies through history of the Goddess as a "form of" female body that guides us all...and having that connection is fine...but for me it crosses a line when that connection eliminates or obscures the very real cultural ties and history this dance has to very real people from the past and in the here-and-now. You can enhance your experience all you want with the Goddess, but show some respect for people while you're doing it.
And thus we started with the cultural, historical roots of Raq Sharqi (bellydance) as a very small subset of the world of Oriental (mostly folkloric) Dance.
( Read more... )