CROSSROADSCROSSROA DS Language StudioÊs Newsletter September,September , 201
20 1 7It’s been said that “good fences make goodneighbors.” Since antiquity, people have felt
compelled to build walls around their huts,houses, places of worship, towns and evencountries. But back then it wasn’t so muchabout keeping immigrants out as it was about
defending from invaders. For example, around
122 CE, the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall innorthern England to protect Roman Englandfrom marauding Picts
and other northern“barbarian” tribes. Its
remains are still theretoday. It stretches about
118km across northern Hadrian’s WallEngland, and in its heyday was about 3 meters
wide and 4.5 meters tall.
Ella Wall
In spite of how impressive Hadrian’s
might be, the wall that immediately comes tomind when the topic comes up is the Great
Wall
Janisof China. It is, in fact, a combination ofThe Great of Wall China several walls the first being
constructed as early as the3rd century BCE. Its
purpose was border control
as well as defense. It
reached its most impressive
size during the Ming
Dynasty(1368–1644).
Today it stretches for 8,850
km including 6,259km of actual wallinterspersed with natural barriers such as hills
and rivers.
Even earlier in antiquity, walls began to risearound cities throughout Mesopotamia shortly
after urbanization began to develop in that
region around 4500 BCE.

Babylon was supposedly surrounded bywalls as early as 1792 BCE and walled
cities, for purposes of defense, became
common in the 10th century BCE; Jericho(now in the West Bank) and the Sumeriancity of Uruk (in modern day Iraq) areexamples.
It is thought that the first wall build todefine (and defend) a national territory
rather than just a city, was built by theSumerian King Shulgi of Ur in 2038 BCE.
It was 250km long. Shulgi, his son and hisgrandson all tried to maintain this wall in
an attempt to defend their lands, but
eventually Ur fell in 1750 BCE bringing toan end the state of Sumer.
And so it has been with all such walls
from the distant past to recently in history.
The Berlin Wallwas erected in1961. Its purpose
was more to keeppeople (in E. Berlin)in, rather than to The Berlin Wall before 1990
keep invaders out, but it was fated to end inmuch the same way as most walls; it waspulled down with great rejoicing in 1990.
The wall’s main purpose is, and has
been, ostensibly, to keep people out (or in).
In spite of their ultimate failure to do this,people still love building them. This hasn’tchanged much over the centuries, and it
would seem that building new ones is still
all the rage, even in day’s world.

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Here are some photos of famous walls from aroundthe world: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/13famous-walls-around-the-world-photos_us_5810eec
2e4b02b1d9e644643

Joshua Says: I don’t like to be restricted by barriers. Walls, in the actual sense
and the symbolic sense, do not turn me on! Yet, I suppose, like everyone else, Ibuild them; we all do, around ourselves in the hope of protecting ourselves insome way, from something. The question is, from what? If “fear is the mindkiller” then conquering fear is the mind opener. Let’s consider this in light ofwhat is happening to you as you struggle with your second language studies....
Junko Says: “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all overthe place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing
shape, from a spider’s web.” This quote from Pablo Picasso reminds me of Van
Gogh’s “Chair” which radiates powerful feelings of its existence and somehow
forces you to contemplate it. “Emotions come from all over the place.” This issomething to make you wonder, isn’t it?
Matt Says: This is my last Newsletter post before I move to China. I
hope you all have had a good time learning this year. I think everyone
has shown great progression since I started teaching so keep studying
hard and you will be fluent in no time. Good luck with your English
adventure and don’t forget to practice whenever you can!
Darrin Says: ..... (continued from last month) Sometimes during the day it
can still get up to 25 degrees with clear sunny skies so it's not unusual to see
people swimming at the beach. The other thing that takes some getting used
to is being cold for Christmas Day. It's our family tradition to go to the beachon this day after eating our Christmas feast.
Mandcy dit: La fin de l’été est arrivée et hélas, c’est dèjà la rentrée !!!
Toutefois, « triste est l’automne, pour celui qui ne sait l’égayer ». Il fautprofiter der la vie et je me languis désormais du pot-au-feu de pommesde terre, de la vue des feuilles d’érable et de la contemplation dessplendides montagnes de Shikoku couvertes de rouge et de jaune.
Vivons, tant que nous le pouvons. Croquons le jour et soyons heureux.
1ACROSS
3 placed at intervals
4 determine, show or outline
6 keep and protect
11 uncivilized person
13 people who move to a foreign country to live
14 appearing to be so
15 constructed, built to stand (up)16 an interest followed by exaggerated eagerness
DOWN
1 forced to do something
2 the growth of cities and societies
5 people who enter a place or country by force
7 a very old period in history
8 what something is used for
9 attacking plundering in search of booty
10 final, concluding
12 ordinary, usual(print version here)

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TRAVEL WORLD
Exploring Kinosaki-Onsen by SP5’s Noriko Ikeda
That’s me!

Did you enjoy your summer holidays? My husband and I traveled to a traditional hotspring spot this summer. We love hot springs and we have been to some onsen tourist sites
before. This time we visited Kinosaki-onsen. This is a place I have wanted to visit for a longtime. Finally we got there.
The Kinosaki-onsen area is very well known for traditional hot springs and considered oneof the best onsen towns in Japan. And it has become increasingly popular among foreigners
these days. Kinosaki is located at the northern end of Hyogo Prefecture and is very far fromEhime Prefecture. It took us a total of six hours to get there by car. But this place is worth
taking the time to visit. The onsen town is full atmosphere and there are a lot of classical andold Japanese houses and buildings. It’s very peaceful and gives us feelings of nostalgia.
Besides, we can also enjoy eating delicious foods from traditional dishes to popular sweets.
I’ll show you haw Kinosaki-onsen is!
Atmosphers and Hospitality
When we reached Kinosaki-onsen and saw the town from inside our car, we didn’t notice its attractions. After arriving at a
traditional Japanese style hotel, a ryokan, and putting our luggage down on the tatami mat, we realized the beautiful atmosphere.
We could see a well-kept garden and hear some soothing sounds of crickets. It wasn’t just the countryside, but an unreal world.
Soon, one of the ryokan staff members served us welcoming drinks and sweets. This was
not the usual. She served us in the tea ceremony style. She made powdered tea foe us andserved it with “Wagashi” (traditional Japanese sweets). And after that, she served anothertea and snacks. This time it was barley tea and rice crackers. Indeed, we paid more money forour stay than usual; not the usual price because it was onsen-season. But I don’t think theroom we booked was too expensive or very high-class. Therefore I asked her why she served
two kinds of tea. She told me that Kinosaki-onsen has many guests not only from Japan, butalso from foreign countries, so she wanted to show Japanese culture to foreigners and let them enjoy her demonstrations. Ofcourse she wanted Japanese guests to enjoy the unusual luxury and have a relaxing time too. And she gave us anotherreason. Perhaps some guests don’t like, or are unfamiliar with maccha, so she always prepares two types of refreshments.
This is Japanese hospitality.
After taking a short rest, we went out for a stroll in the town. This onsen town is much larger than Dogo-onsen inMatsuyama. The townscape is beautiful and there is a long street lined with a variety of shops along the river. Sometourists enjoyed selecting souvenirs while others had the fun of “onsen-hopping” at public baths before dinner. Mostryokans issue an “onsen-hopping pass”, and we can try all of the seven public hot springs in addition to the ryoken hot
spring for free with this pass. .... (continued next month)
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Last Month’s Puzzle Solution
ACROSS
1 modest, humble, inconspicuous
3 undo or disentangle
4 distinct from others
8 to go up gradually or continuously
11 large, long-haired ox of Tibet
12 little, small
13 successfully grow and develop
14 following an established practice
15 a challenging job

DOWN
2 mountaineers living in Nepal and Tibet
4 getting to the top
5 extremely, exceedingly
6 running in panic
7 to get better than, to solve a problem
9 in an alarming or frightening manner
10 great in number

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