Some ideas

Here are some various ideas that may be useful for teachers of English to Japanese students.

1. Do your students like manga? There are many manga translated online. Here's One Piece.
2. Students may be too shy to write to real people. But how about a Chatbot? Type in your message and then 'Say It'
3. If students like Harry Potter, then they may be interested in reading David Snopek's method of using it to teach himself Polish.
4. Students may prefer to be coached rather than taught.
5. Students may be bored by traditional methods.

1 alphabet of advice

Avoid your off-buttons 

Build an English world 

Carry out kaisen 

Do a stock take 

Enlist support

Find your passion

Generate mistakes 

Have fun with English

Individualize your system

Journal your journey

Keep going

Let learning happen 

Minimize grammar 

Notice—don’t ‘study’

Organize a routine 

Practice holistically 

Question your beliefs 

Reward progress 

Select what you like 

Try authentic text 

Understand your psychology

Vary your routine,  

Work with whole sentences

eXpect no quick fiX 

You take control 

Zoom ahead boldly

In 1 sentence

Start a routine, 

make sure you don't stop, 

and then improve what you do over time.

In 3 words

Start

Continue

Improve

 

English Coaching 2

On June 30, we had the second of 6 coaching sessions. Three people out of six managed to come. The session's title was: Take charge/Know yourself.


I wanted to begin with 3 surprising facts:

1. No one can teach you a language - you learn it on your own
2. You already know enough English - you just need to practice it
3. There is only one mistake - which is to avoid making mistakes

We talked about Mistake Phobia (mentioned in the previous post).

I also asked you to answer 2 things, if you have time:

1. What are your off-buttons? That is, which things do you dislike doing when you study English (for example, I dislike classrooms and exercises)
2. What do you think about the 10 following beliefs? Children learn better than adults. Women learn better than men. Quiet people learn more slowly than people who love to talk. Grammar is important. Mistakes should be avoided. The harder you try, the faster you improve. If you go more slowly and carefully, you learn more. Some people have a talent for language. It takes years to learn a language well. It's best to learn English in an English-speaking country.   

By the way, So . . . , is Siddhartha one of the books you have? The audio for the whole book is here on Youtube.
Also,  Jane, I found the audio for Alice in Wonderland too.
 

English Coaching 1

In a previous class, I had people from many countries

On the 16th of June, 2014, a group of 6 people joined me for the first of six English Coaching sessions. We met at 6.30 a.m. at a Macdonald's in Kumamoto. I had run 2 trial sessions the previous month, so I knew Sa and So from then. (I'm sorry that I repeated some of the content.) Ja, Em, Ka and As are new. Welcome to all of you!


We will enjoy 6 coaching sessions over 3 months. Each session, I shall bring some material, but I also encourage everyone to ask questions, and to share what they are doing. We can all help one another. During the 90-minute session, we'll keep things light and relaxed. The real business happens at home, when people create and follow their own programs.

This first session was 'Kicking off' (a term used to describe the start of a football game). Its purpose is to encourage everyone to make the best start that they know how. Later, you shall improve what you do.

Just to remind you, these are the 4 things that I asked you to try:

1. Start a journal
2. Write your English goal
3. Create a daily routine
4. Bring some work to show, or questions to ask

 Here are some things for you to take a look at:

• Benny's language-learning site. He is the man whose hobby it is to learn a new language in just 3 months.
• You may wish to try listening to (and maybe creating) a Vlog. Here is a list of some vlogs that people have made in Japan. 
• Here is a short PDF about Mistake Phobia. Please take a look at it before we meet next time.

Excellent lecture

Here, on YouTube is an excellent talk to listen to for improving your English. Alan Watts speaks for 12 minutes about what is wrong with the world. He has an English accent, and has excellent pronunciation and intonation. You can watch this with the captions on too.

Learn a language for free

Here is a link to many language learning audio resources. Some of them are free. It looks like it is well worth exploring.

Here is a free English-learning podcast.

The Time Keeper

The Time Keeper, by Mitch Albom is a good book for people learning English. The sentences are short, and the grammar is fairly simple.

You can read here what people say about it. 

Great movie

The movie below is a good one for learning English. The dialogue is slow and clear, with pauses. There is no violence or bad language. I discovered it on Youtube, so it may not remain there forever. It was made in 2006 and is called Tomorrow is Today.

TED talks

I like TED talks a lot. You can listen to one below. They are short: 10 minutes or 20. They are about many kinds of topic. You can turn on their captions and read along. and you can even sometimes translate them into Japanese. This talk is excellent for pronunciation, especially for intonation, rhythm, stress and so forth.

Story of 1000 words

The story below has exactly 1000 words. It has 708 different words, including all of 300 most common English words (it was necessary to check(1) several(2) lists(3), because there is quite a lot of variation between them). Moreover, the other words come from the 1000 most frequent English words. However, the sentences turn out not to be at all easy to read. This is because I've had to twist and maneuver to squeeze in words tightly by hook or crook.  Lots of adjectives, adverbs, clauses and slightly odd collocations.

Looking more closely, 43 words are repeated. In fact, the most common 8 words are repeated more than 10 times. In order, they are:

1. a (42)
2. the (41)
3. and (29)
4. to (24)
5. I (23)
6. of (15)
7. he (11)
8. in (11)

Other words repeated 5 or more times include: or, on, you, it, that, at, his, with, by, for, is, our. In total, 44 words occur more than once, and they number one third of the 1000 word word-count. However, the other words, approximately 650 of them, don't repeat.

Some words occur in another form. For example, a verb may occur in the past or continuous form, and a noun may be a plural.

It may be interesting for a learner of English to check if he or she knows them all, and can spell, pronounce, and use them. The most common words by far are the articles 'a' and 'the', It's probably important to know their function, as it's impossible to create English text without them! Prepositions and pronouns are also both important.

Finally, the English used in the story is not completely natural, but that would have been too difficult. My aim in writing it was simply to use as many of the most common English words as I could, repeating myself as little as possible, and not using a single word that was not included in the 1000 most common words of English.

Is this story true? Maybe.

I live in a house on land close to a city population several million citizens. My community, where I hold a role of authority, pushes to teach Social Education, War History and Language of Art at an American college. However, the local school body actually includes members from many top eastern and western nations.

Recently, I spend my free time with groups of old friends who often meet across town in a building with lots of space, and wide rooms of various colors and shapes, including fine views, naturally. Among themselves, people might play games with easy rules, winning or losing a little money. Others probably catch news programs on television, watch sports reports or else sit listening to popular music. On warm summer evenings, everyone reads difficult books. We bring these to study, learning common facts needed for research reasons. Every party may continue until a late hour when the power turns off after five AM. It’s sure set up nice. Believe me, almost nothing happens to break the law. Not yet, anyway! Why not join our interesting society?

Last month, I remember, a man from the International World Government stepped through our door. He brought a list on paper and produced a form to check, mark and fill. He entered to find some person, a young woman described as measuring half his weight. According to him, her ‘kid’ had really caused something of a problem. “Talk against the system,” he stated, “Which developed into a political issue of great importance.  Perhaps he was offering to sell major military maps and data to the wrong buyers.” The whole business sounded fishy. I explained that I provided a service, and didn’t know about such serious things.

He came here again, picking a period right near the end of the third week, so a smaller number than usual of girl students and guys stood around. At once I cut short the public meeting. “Return later,” I suggested, with a class test to control.

During a single term, he visited and even called and pressed me on line and by private phone. I wasn’t glad, because I didn’t like its sound (or his pushy company). Those days, his questions kept me busy and involved. I sometimes became very hard of hearing!

“I understand that this case is unusual, Mr.  But the process has taken too much thought. If you require more information, would you kindly identify another office?”

Well, he finally saw my point. “Yes, of course,” he agreed. “Makes sense. You are correct. I should leave today and in future consider trying a different plan. I think that’s the best idea. Thanks for your patient attention.”

Over in the north part of the country, a mother and son were resting. Since early that morning, each had walked at quite a rate a long way without water to drink, enough food to eat. The couple sat by the road’s side beneath a tree in hot, sunny weather, and it took ages before either spoke a word. The family had gone on foot as far as humanly possible. The woman held the boy’s hands between hers and asked, “How do you feel? You seem less happy”

“Although I don’t mind the effort, everything’s grown dark,” he answered. I mean, the level appears changed in effect. My poor left eye just went bad, always writing at night. I hope I can use it. The other one still receives light clearly, though. At least its condition is healthy.”

The woman looked carefully into his face a moment. She was able to see her father and husband there. All three owned exactly the same full mouths, straight noses and large heads.

“I want to build a field base centred in a better area, whether mountain, plains or island, no difference. Mainly we have to go to ground—earth?— under cover certainly. Within a year, we’ll create a new home and stay for good. We’ll experience a fresh start. 

“Only, our first job is to get away, traveling south ten, a hundred, a thousand miles, crossing streets, rivers, sleeping below a deep blue moon with stars. I miss the farm’s birds, fish, a few dogs and horses. Have you ever planted wood, oiled machine wheels, flown planes, enjoyed the cold rain and wind? It’s special to lay the table by the fire, lie dry in a heated bed, snow outside, laughing, singing songs, drawing pictures of animals, for example.

“Please do whatever I decide. For a while, life won’t be simple. I can’t help that.  Also, let’s act quickly, or our work will remain incomplete.”

But a minute ago, along from behind, a speedy object raced by—a fast, black car modeled on the latest computer technology. Suddenly, it turned round and soon stopped. A team whose image and actions directly from the movie and film industry, sent to that place to fight or kill them, got out.

She counted six especially strong white men,

“Oh, most likely they’ve followed us already! Come, we must run!”

Someone noticed them move. “Wait or you die.”

In front, the leader showed his king-size gun, raised it, and pointed it toward… his former wife!

In a low, pained voice, he forced himself to say, “I expected our loving relationship to grow with age.” Four arms reached slowly into the air. “Begin by telling your real names,” he told the two, adding, “Pull open that big red box you’re carrying, now. Pass us the gold inside. Give it back.”

“I’ll never allow you!” the woman shouted, and next second threw it into the sea. Then, both individuals jumped down and fell to their deaths. No ship or boat, they hit deadly rocks.

As a result, parent and child together paid the highest price. On record, the police’s official position is that drugs could have been a factor at the heart of the matter. In any event, the economy cannot support this type of situation or activity.

Learn a Language in 6 Months

TED talks are often good. Here's one by someone very enthusiastic about learning languages.

 
And more: http://youtu.be/-WLHr1_EVtQ

World Order

There is something to be learned here about body language and physical presence. For a Japanese person to 'fit' into a Western setting, he (and she) needs to be able to behave in the manner of the men in this video. By that, I mean that you need to have a certain pride in yourself, and confidence and independence to do something that you know might attract attention . . but you don't give a damn.

Gold list method

I have just now come across this term (Gold list method), and started to read about this method of language acquisition. It looks promising. I'll write more after I learn more . . .

If you are Japanese

If you are Japanese, here are the top sites sites for learning English (according to Joe Lauer from Hiroshima University).

English words with a Japanese twist

Many English words have become part of the Japanese language. It should be possible to make use of them to learn English. They are certainly a lot of fun for English speakers learning Japanese.

A man called Benny learns languages in only 3 months each. While he was learning Japanese, he made a music video using such words (with a little help from his friends).

Something is Wrong in Japan

I like what AJ Hoge from Effortless English has to say about the way that English is taught in Japan, not because the story is a happy one (it's actually very sad) but because it was exactly my experience of almost 20 years ago. You can listen to it here, or read the full story here, but if you don't have so much time then you can find it below in 659 words.

Something is Wrong in Japan

I was an English teacher in Japan. I worked at a junior high school. A Japanese English teacher was the main teacher. I was the assistant, so I watched her teach. I didn’t do much teaching. Sometimes I had to read aloud from a book.

On the first day, we walked into a classroom. The students were excited. They were curious because they didn’t usually see foreign people. They wanted to start learning English.

The teacher said something in Japanese, and all the kids stood up. They bowed to us and we bowed to them. They sat and picked up their pens, and the teacher wrote an English sentence on the board.

The boy gave a pen to the girl.

The students were happy. They were smiling. They wrote the sentence in their notebook. Then the Japanese teacher began talking in Japanese. I can’t speak much Japanese, so it sounded like blah, blah, blah, da, da, da. I sat and watched. I didn’t understand.

The teacher talked, and the students wrote for several minutes. Then, the teacher picked up a blue piece of chalk and circled “the”. She wrote something above it in kanji. The students wrote, and the teacher continued in Japanese: blah, blah, blah, da, da, da, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese. The students were writing and writing and writing. More and more and more.

I sat and listened. I didn’t understand. What was happening? What was she saying? What was she saying about just one word?

After ten minutes, she stopped. She took another piece of chalk and underlined the word “boy”. She said, “Boy desu.” She said, “Boy subject.” And then da, da, da, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese.

Then she drew an arrow from the word “the” pointing to the word “boy”. Then she wrote something in Japanese above the arrow, and then she continued talking more in Japanese. Japanese, Japanese.

The kids filled pages of notes. I just sat there. The teacher took another piece of chalk, and underlined the word “gave”. She drew a little “v” for verb. She said, “Verb desu.” And then she started talking in Japanese again. Da, da, da, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese. On and on and on.

The kids were writing, writing, writing. The teacher circled “the” and “boy” together and drew an arrow to the verb and she kept talking and talking and talking. This went on for the whole class.

The whole class was about one English sentence, and it was mostly in Japanese! It was 99% Japanese and maybe one percent English.

This seems like a funny story. A woman talks in Japanese, and writes in Japanese, for an hour about just one sentence! How can anyone talk for 10 minutes about the word “the”? Why would you need to explain one word for 10 minutes? I don’t know.

It’s funny, but it’s also a tragedy, because every class, every day, was like this. Every class was in Japanese most of the time. The teacher would write a new sentence, and then she would draw circles and arrows and lines, and she’d write in Japanese all over the board. The students would take notes and notes and notes in Japanese about one English sentence.

After several weeks, the kids were not excited any more. They didn’t seem happy. The kids became bored. I saw them lose their natural curiosity to learn. They became more and more confused, frustrated and stressed, especially when the teacher started to give them tests. The tests were about grammar. The students had to remember long lists of vocabulary.

Something was wrong. The children’s love of learning was destroyed. That’s what the school system did to them. That’s what their English class did to them. The teacher was a nice woman. She wasn’t a bad person. She was friendly. She cared about the students, but this was how she was trained to teach in a traditional, normal, Japanese school system.