Archive for the ‘Teaching functional language’ Category

This is the one simple recipe that teachers all over Japan are using to raise the level of their students’ English:

• Take one copy of the Japan Times that you were going to read anyway
• Cut out one topical and/ or cultural article that might interest your students
• Photocopy
• Make up some comprehension and discussion questions, either before or on the spot
• Explain the 20 or 30 pieces of vocabulary you think they don’t understand while they tap away at their electronic dictionaries at the same time
• Send them home happy that they have ’learnt’ said vocab and read a real newspaper article
• Repeat next week

And really, the punters do love it- because they get the impression of having done something authentic and difficult. However, due to the fact that there are no real comprehension or vocabulary questions and that they can talk about the article using as easy language as they like, they haven’t actually been pushed at all. Just like watching an educational programme on NHK television, the illusion of learning is complete and the actual learning is almost zero. Evidence for the prosecution:

• Students who study this way get no practice of day to day functional questions and linked speech, and so whatever their level they will need to ask a native speaker to repeat social chit chat questions several times before they can reply
• Students almost never use the vocabulary in the texts in that or subsequent lessons, and even less in the rest of their lives
• Such as lesson covers almost none of the language and skills needed to move up to the next level as described in the Common European Framework
• Any approach that is being used a lot in Japan obviously isn’t working, or the Japanese wouldn’t have such a low level of English

Maybe these joker teachers don’t care. Maybe they are just looking for a justification to read the newspaper (I’ve found mine- start a blog!). I do care, and for a perfectly selfish reason. I am sick and tired of getting a student or class of students in Japan that I have to teach pairwork, phonemic script, linked speech pronunciation, basic chit chat and functional language questions, basics of telephoning and emailing, classroom language questions etc. etc. from absolute scratch. And there is only one solution. I hereby ban the use of authentic newspaper articles in class in Japan- no exceptions! And that includes Breaking News English!

Rant over

Why are the Japanese so into ”kawaii” (cute)?

As long as it is socially acceptable, there is no reason why having a picture of a kitten should not make you feel warm inside. Being around cute stuff makes you feel good. And anything that makes you feel good can be addictive. It should also be noted that “kawaii” is also used by some people with such a wide range of meanings it could even be translated just as ‘good’ rather than ‘cute’.

Why do the Japanese sometimes answer yes/no questions in English with the answer ‘maybe’? One reason could be being asked a question that is not standard in Japanese. For example, “genki desu ka” is often given as the translation of “how are you” but is in fact very rarely asked, perhaps because it could be seen as intrusive. Another is that there are many ways of being vague in Japanese but they are not taught ways to be vague in English. For example, “so desu ne” (That’s so) and “so desu ka” (Is that so) can be given many fine shades of meaning including doubt by changes in intonation etc. These are probably the phrases in their head when they say ‘maybe’. 

Why do Japanese streets have no names?

All Japanese communities, including parts of cities, have always been like little villages where everyone knows everyone else and so there is no need to have street names or even house numbers in order. This was even more so in Tokugawa times, when blocks of Tokyo streets would be surrounded by walls and watch towers dividing them from other parts of the city.

Thanks to Laurent for the top two questions. Keep them comng, everyone.

This series of posts also sprouted their own blog- Japan Explained. Give it a click and give it a go!

Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of Wimbledon tennis club, quoted in full by the International Herald Tribune- no doubt for the amusement of their American readers:

“We take very seriously being a sort of world-class event, hopefully”

“And to a degree there’s always been those people who have said it’s a bit cloistered. Maybe with the roof off, I don’t know, it is going to get people more excited”

Great fencing language! (As well as the much despised but almost standard There has been people). He could almost be speaking Japanese with that much use of vagueness. No wonder British English is so popular in Japan (although a certain amount of anti-Americanism is also involved). And ditto as a Brit learning Japanese, you can really express the way you don’t want express yourself.

The most fluent foreigner I have ever met was Italian, but there was something utterly un-Japanese about the way she spoke- no umming and ahhing at all. Japanese and British English must be the only two languages where you make yourself sound more like the natives by lacking fluency.