This is something I've found interesting for the past couple of weeks. People in Japan are buying a book, The Speeches of Barack Obama, thinking they can learn English from his speeches.
I think it isn't useful for language study. Please let me explain why.
In 5 conversations with students about this topic, the students all asked me "Justin, why don't you think it is useful study material?" I replied with "Do you think I could learn useful and practical Japanese by studying the wartime speeches of Tojo Hideki or by watching Aso Taro lie to everybody on TV right now? Do you think I should speak Japanese like that? Would it sound natural?"
"No."
If I spoke Japanese like a wartime soldier or a politician, it would sound pretty strange, wouldn't it? For the same reason, Japanese people should never try to speak like Barack Obama.
I'm sorry, but in my opinion, I cannot recommend this book to any of my students for language study. Students need good, practical English - not presidential speeches.
Here's an article:
Japanese to learn English from Obama speeches
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-20 14:50:48
BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- An English-learning textbook "The Speeches of Barack Obama" has sold more than 400,000 copies in two months in Japan, media reported on Tuesday.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's speeches are proving a best-seller, a big hit in Japan where few hit novels sell more than a million copies a year.
The 95-page paperback features Obama's speeches in English from the 2004 Democratic National Convention and during the Democratic Party primaries, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton. They are accompanied by Japanese translations.
The 1,050 yen (11.6 U.S. dollars) book, which includes a CD of the speeches, tops the bestseller list on bookseller Amazon's Japanese Website.
"Speeches by presidents and presidential candidates are excellent as listening tools to learn English." said Yuzo Yamamoto of Asahi Press, which produced the best-selling text book.
"Obama's is especially so. His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as 'yes, we can,' 'change' and 'hope' that even Japanese people can memorize," he said.
Speeches by U.S. President George W. Bush did not have the same appeal, however, and nor do those made by Japanese politicians, Yamamoto said.
Following Obama's inauguration Tuesday, Asahi Press plans to issue a sequel that includes his inaugural address.
As you can see from reading the article, Yamamoto refers to words that "even Japanese people can memorize". "Even Japanese people can"???? To me, this sounds like he is saying that Japanese people aren't smart enough to learn English and his company needs to make things simple for them. This is a very condescending attitude for him to have and it makes me upset because I see the fine work and study of my good students. None of my students are seeking the easiest way because I have told them that there is no easy way to learn a language.
So what if somebody can remember the phrase "yes we can" or "hope" or "change" in English? If they cannot use that in conversation or written communication, knowing those words is meaningless. My guess is the phrase "Yes we can" will find its way into Japanese English and we'll see talents on television saying it, to try and make people laugh.
SOME KANJI GAMESHOW
Host: "Shinjo, your team has 20 seconds to read this kanji. Can you do it?"
Shinjo: "Yes we can!"
Audience: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
I think the Asahi Press has a good gimmick for selling these books. They're very good salesmen and saleswomen.
I welcome any student comments on this topic.
Jus
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Mobile phone update!
My phone can do emails again! However it can only do telephone calls, sometimes...
I didn't have a chance to go to the Softbank shop today but I will go there tomorrow morning.
Thanks to all of my students who sent email to my pc instead of my mobile phone.
It's ok to email my phone again now.
Jus
I didn't have a chance to go to the Softbank shop today but I will go there tomorrow morning.
Thanks to all of my students who sent email to my pc instead of my mobile phone.
It's ok to email my phone again now.
Jus
Scrap the IMF and World Bank
I think we ought to dismantle both the World Bank and the IMF. They're nothing but capitalist tools used by big companies to rob poor people and keep them poor.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/01/31/davos.wef.brown/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/01/31/davos.wef.brown/index.html
What's wrong?
Come on, Jessica. Sit down and tell uncle Justin what's wrong. Did you lose your fork? Is that it? Your spoon? No?
I love zombies!
A prison in The Phillippines has found a unique way to reduce inmate violence. The inmates are allowed extra time out of their prison cells, if they participate in....
THIS!
OH
MY
GOD!
THIS!
OH
MY
GOD!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Brain Training games DON'T WORK - sort of...
I've just read this article in a Canadian newspaper and thought you might enjoy it.
TRALEE PEARCE (author's name)
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
January 29, 2009 at 9:28 AM EST
That Nintendo brain-training game you're carrying around in your purse may be sparking some mental activity, but new evidence suggests your prefrontal cortex may be just as happy with a crossword puzzle or a good book.
While millions of trendy puzzle-based video games have been sold around the world on the premise that they can improve cognitive function - and even reverse the signs of an aging brain - there's nothing the "technological jewel" can do that low-tech alternatives can't, according to cognitive psychologist Alain Lieury of the University of Rennes 2 in France.
Dr. Lieury and his colleagues tested the impact of the electronic exercises over seven weeks on a sample of 67 10-year-olds split into four groups.
Two groups played the bestselling Brain Training game (known as Brain Age in North America) on Nintendo DS in addition to doing their regular school work. One group was given puzzles to do on paper, and a fourth group was given no extra work. Memory and math tests were given before and after the training period.
On the memory tests, which involved maps, the puzzles-only group showed a 33-per-cent improvement, but the Nintendo kids' performance dipped 17 per cent. The Nintendo and puzzle groups matched each other with a 10-per-cent rise in logic scores. In math, all four groups - even the ones with no extra work - showed roughly an 18-per-cent jump in scores.
Dr. Lieury says his research proves that the buzz around the Nintendo games and their creator, Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, is more about marketing than science. In the paper's conclusion, he writes that Dr. Kawashima joins a long list of "marchands de rêve" (dream merchants).
Dr. Kawashima's games are "not efficient," Dr. Lieury said in an e-mail interview.
"Nintendo should say clearly, 'It's a game, not a scientific test.' "
Dr. Lieury's work was published last month in the Bulletin de Psychologie.
Toronto neuroscientist Endel Tulving has not seen the games himself, but cautions that the activities are unlikely to be transferable to specific skills such as improving memory.
It's akin to hitting the gym for two hours a day and expecting to be good at all sports, says Dr. Tulving, chairman of the Rotman Research Institute.
Media reports of Dr. Lieury's study this week have spurred Nintendo lovers to fill comment boards in defence of the games. "It's not Nintendo's claim that Brain Age is somehow better than exercising your brain in other ways, just that it's more fun, and more convenient," one observer wrote on Wired magazine's games blog.
Another wrote: "Even if there were no measurable benefits (I believe there are), just using Brain Age makes people feel good about what they're doing. That's more than enough benefit in my book."
Some observers challenged Dr. Lieury's assertion that if the games don't work for 10-year-olds, they won't work for adults, a criticism echoed by some experts.
"There are many processes going on in the elderly that are qualitatively different than those going on in children," said Robert Sutherland, an expert in neurobiology and memory at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.
Even people in their 40s and 50s don't produce new brain cells the way they did when they were children, he said. Everything from reading to exercise can stimulate blood flow to the brain and delay its deterioration.
The kids Dr. Lieury studied are at an age when they need little additional stimulation, he said. This may explain why the math scores improved in the group of children who had no additional training.
While Dr. Sutherland said the results might have been more robust in older people, he agrees with Dr. Lieury's general conclusions.
"These games are probably okay, but you're paying a lot of money when a walk in the park with friends would be even better," he said. "And free."
But don't rush to replace your Nintendo with a single alternative brain cure.
"I wouldn't get stuck on one thing. A lot of older people think that there's something magical about Sudoku or a crossword. There isn't," he says. "The kinds of activities that are helpful are only narrowed down by the imagination."
It comes down to the old adage: Use it or lose it.
"It's like there's no magic to enhancing the strength of your bicep; you actually have to use it."
TRALEE PEARCE (author's name)
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
January 29, 2009 at 9:28 AM EST
That Nintendo brain-training game you're carrying around in your purse may be sparking some mental activity, but new evidence suggests your prefrontal cortex may be just as happy with a crossword puzzle or a good book.
While millions of trendy puzzle-based video games have been sold around the world on the premise that they can improve cognitive function - and even reverse the signs of an aging brain - there's nothing the "technological jewel" can do that low-tech alternatives can't, according to cognitive psychologist Alain Lieury of the University of Rennes 2 in France.
Dr. Lieury and his colleagues tested the impact of the electronic exercises over seven weeks on a sample of 67 10-year-olds split into four groups.
Two groups played the bestselling Brain Training game (known as Brain Age in North America) on Nintendo DS in addition to doing their regular school work. One group was given puzzles to do on paper, and a fourth group was given no extra work. Memory and math tests were given before and after the training period.
On the memory tests, which involved maps, the puzzles-only group showed a 33-per-cent improvement, but the Nintendo kids' performance dipped 17 per cent. The Nintendo and puzzle groups matched each other with a 10-per-cent rise in logic scores. In math, all four groups - even the ones with no extra work - showed roughly an 18-per-cent jump in scores.
Dr. Lieury says his research proves that the buzz around the Nintendo games and their creator, Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, is more about marketing than science. In the paper's conclusion, he writes that Dr. Kawashima joins a long list of "marchands de rêve" (dream merchants).
Dr. Kawashima's games are "not efficient," Dr. Lieury said in an e-mail interview.
"Nintendo should say clearly, 'It's a game, not a scientific test.' "
Dr. Lieury's work was published last month in the Bulletin de Psychologie.
Toronto neuroscientist Endel Tulving has not seen the games himself, but cautions that the activities are unlikely to be transferable to specific skills such as improving memory.
It's akin to hitting the gym for two hours a day and expecting to be good at all sports, says Dr. Tulving, chairman of the Rotman Research Institute.
Media reports of Dr. Lieury's study this week have spurred Nintendo lovers to fill comment boards in defence of the games. "It's not Nintendo's claim that Brain Age is somehow better than exercising your brain in other ways, just that it's more fun, and more convenient," one observer wrote on Wired magazine's games blog.
Another wrote: "Even if there were no measurable benefits (I believe there are), just using Brain Age makes people feel good about what they're doing. That's more than enough benefit in my book."
Some observers challenged Dr. Lieury's assertion that if the games don't work for 10-year-olds, they won't work for adults, a criticism echoed by some experts.
"There are many processes going on in the elderly that are qualitatively different than those going on in children," said Robert Sutherland, an expert in neurobiology and memory at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.
Even people in their 40s and 50s don't produce new brain cells the way they did when they were children, he said. Everything from reading to exercise can stimulate blood flow to the brain and delay its deterioration.
The kids Dr. Lieury studied are at an age when they need little additional stimulation, he said. This may explain why the math scores improved in the group of children who had no additional training.
While Dr. Sutherland said the results might have been more robust in older people, he agrees with Dr. Lieury's general conclusions.
"These games are probably okay, but you're paying a lot of money when a walk in the park with friends would be even better," he said. "And free."
But don't rush to replace your Nintendo with a single alternative brain cure.
"I wouldn't get stuck on one thing. A lot of older people think that there's something magical about Sudoku or a crossword. There isn't," he says. "The kinds of activities that are helpful are only narrowed down by the imagination."
It comes down to the old adage: Use it or lose it.
"It's like there's no magic to enhancing the strength of your bicep; you actually have to use it."
The Money Hole
In America, the government is literally throwing money at the banks to keep them open. They are not telling the people exactly what is being done with the money or who is getting how much. I think that is no way to run a democratic country, but then again, I've never believed America was as "free and democratic" as they say.
Jus
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Since marrying Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes has become a little strange. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I think she is beginning to look a little bit like Tom Cruise. Just a little bit, though...
HAHAAAAAA!
Jus
BOOOOOOOOO!
My mobile phone is broken!
I think the SIM card has a problem. I will take it to the Softbank shop on Saturday.
In the meantime, please send all emails to my hotmail account justin_leyte@ hotmail.com
Thanks,
Justin
I think the SIM card has a problem. I will take it to the Softbank shop on Saturday.
In the meantime, please send all emails to my hotmail account justin_leyte@ hotmail.com
Thanks,
Justin
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
E.R.
I can remember back when E.R. was good. That was LONG TIME AGO! Then, everybody who was a good actor left the show.
Anyway they are filming the last episodes of E.R. right now. The series will finish this year.
George Clooney has returned to film his last scenes today. This picture was taken a few hours ago. Most of the old cast are returning for the series finale.
Jus
Friday, January 16, 2009
I'm sick!
.JPG)
I've got this thing, see... It's a sickness, see... a disease...
I'm addicted to Country Ma'am cookies! Once I open a bag, I cannot stop, don't stop, won't stop!
I know you think it's bad but I can't hear you because I've got a banana in my ear!
Jus
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