Lesson 9
Dear Prof. Sue Garreis
Thank you for the eighth message. My replies follow in pink.
⇒Where do people in Japan put their most valuable documents? We are concerned in part about theft of the documents. Valuable documents are safe from fire in the bank's safe deposit boxes. They will be destroyed in a home fire. Of course, they will be more easily stolen from a home or business as well.
It will be interesting if Japan goes to a system of ID (identification) numbers. What do people use for identification now? Passports? Everyone has a social security number in the US. They are issued when a child is born now. In the 1960s, when I got mine, they were issued when you got your first job. Will Japan just use a number as a means of identification or is Japan thinking of introducing something like Social Security? The identification system is ok, but the benefit system is not. I hope Japan doesn't repeat the mistakes we have made. It was a very serious error for Congress not to raise the age of benefit collection (retirement). When Social Security was first introduced, the retirement age was a little past the life expectancy of people. Now the retirement age (65-67) is about ten years younger than the life expectancy of men. Most people have the expectation of being able to stop working while they still have plenty of energy and having their retirement savings take care of them while they travel. Not so! The way Social Security is funded in the US is unusual, I think. The people who are working have to pay a tax. That tax (FICA) is used to pay the benefits of people who are retired. That system worked well in the beginning when the number of workers far outnumbered the retirees. But soon there will be many, many more retirees than workers. The benefits will not be available as they have been in the past. It would be better if Japan just used the identification aspect.
In Japan, We put our documents in each house. Our banks do not keep except money or monetary assets. If we can put our documents in the bank's safe deposit boxes, it certainly is safe. Japanese people must keep our valuables by ourselves. There are not any facilities to put, in Japan. If there are such facilities, it will be convenient.
In Japan, we use "a copy of a person's family register". When a child is born, his mother and father register them. I guess system such as social security number is used to collect our tax or prepare for war in Japan. Japan is in a financial crisis now. Moreover people don't pay taxes much. There are many tax delinquents. So that system may be helpful to collect our tax. Now, though Japanese people are saving our welfare pension, it is not certain if we can receive our pension in the future. And the government officials sometime do wrong. There are few honest or excellence statesmen. Some statement use themselves campaign funds. So most Japanese people have doubts about tax or a welfare. A consumption tax will rise before long from 5% to10%. Still, Japanese financial won't restore. If some firms adopt IFRS, it causes a lack of a reserve fund for retirement allowances. There are innumerable problems to solve in Japan. Now all of us gradually became dim interest in politics.
⇒Americans travel to a variety of cities. Because the country is so wide (three thousand [3,000] miles across), most of us just travel near our side of the country. While many people have been to New York, I cannot say that most of us have been there. Often a trip to New York will be a school trip. My trips there were for conferences.
It's so big country! I wonder that how many times does it take from west to east in America.
⇒I never have been. In fact, I delight in talking to you! We have a long break coming up, but we will resume our talks in September.
I also delight in talking to you!! We have a long break from today. If I don't touch up English, I will forget English words. So I will take "Test of English for International Communication" (Toeic). As I took a rare opportunity with you, I want to put our exchange. I wonder that I can make funnyer joke, if I study English more.
⇒Yes, we were an English colony once. But we chaffed under the British rule and rebelled. I guess that is what happens when criminals and misfits are sent to a new country! Fourth of July and Independence Day are synonyms.
I supposed America have not been colony. In America, It was the American Civil War. I was thinking that the Civil War is fourth of July and Independence Day. My favorite movie, "Gone With the Wind" showed about the Civil War.
⇒We in America use any excuse to launch fireworks. There are fireworks after some baseball games in the summer. At the Nationals Baseball Stadium in Washington DC there are small fireworks after every home run. There are fireworks at Memorial Day in May. There are many, many fireworks displays on the Fourth of July. Individuals can buy fireworks to set off themselves. So in the summer, some people will set off small ones whenever they want. Now that I think about it, I don't recall hearing many fireworks go off on ordinary days, though. I lived in a place once where some neighbors set off fireworks on Christmas Eve (Dec)! The fireworks that Meg and I saw were great. Not too noisy, since they were set off downriver. And beautiful! There was a clear view of all of them.
Japanese also buy fireworks a convenience store or a supermarket. You have many opportunities to see fireworks. In Japan, there are a few fireworks experts. They compete with fireworks in fireworks displays of my area. As it is not well known, about a thousand fireworks experts gather from all over the country every year. It's just fireworks displays. Recently, I saw a firework in Tokyo Disney land or sea. I often go out with my best friends there as my friend is Disney mania.
⇒Yes! Although the temperature varies, depending on where you are. In the mid-Atlantic, where I am, it is hot. It is hotter in the southwest in the desert, though. I could not stand to live there! 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius) is way too hot for me.
If I go to the mid-Atlantic, I will dry up! Maybe I also can't stand to live there. I wonder that it occurs every year?
⇒Eighty-two degrees Fahrenheit is more like it!
We had a wonderful rain on Saturday. It was just what we needed--slow and steady for twelve hours. The ground was parched. The hummidity is reduced somewhat, too, although I can tell that it will rise very soon. While it rained I put my indoor plants outside for a thorough soaking. They loved it. I have three grapefruit trees (about four feet high), an orchid, a bonsai tree, a Christmas cactus and an ivy plant. I don't water them on a regular schedule, so they were glad for the rain, I know.
Japan is the rainy season, now. A few people was killed in the typhoon, and some houses collapsed. Japan suffered great damage every year during the rainy season.
I was fun to exchange email with you. Thank you very much for all you have done for me.
See you next class! Have a great long vacation!!
Sincerely,
Mei
Dear Mei,
Attached is my reply to your ninth message. Something happened to my email and it would not send. Sumi massen. So I copied the reply into a Word 2007 document and have attached it to this message. Although I said you did not need to reply to my message, I would ask that you confirm that you received this Word document and that you can open it and read it. Sorry for the inconvenience. Enjoy your summer.