Here is my favorite:

See the rest and vote on them them at http://www.reddit.com/r/EFLcomics/!

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Scott Bean of Kansai Gaidai University gave a special English lesson on last night’s episode of “Sekaiichi Uketai Jugyou.” It included this scene, where three Japanese celebrities assume that English-speakers would understand the katakana words for certain foreign foods:

Bean tells them that:

• Ordering a “mikkusu sando” (ミックスサンド) sounds like you want a bowl of mixed sand. Instead, you should order a “mixed sandwich.”
• Ordering “shu kurimu” (シュークリーム) sounds like you want shoe cream. The katakana term is actually based on French: Chou à la crème. In English it’s called a “cream puff.”

• English speakers would supposedly understand that “aisu kohi” (アイスコーヒー) refers to iced coffee. [Fun fact: iced coffee has been common in Japan for over a hundred years, but didn't really catch on in America until the 1990's.]
• If you ask for “gamu shiroppu” (ガムシロップ), English-speakers won’t understand that you’re asking for a syrup sweetener for your coffee. They might might think you’re talking about chewing gum or something to stick your dentures to your gums.

Viewers were also introduced to some of the following terms:

• ham actor – an unskilled actor
• top banana – a leading actor; an important person
• second banana – an actor who plays a supporting role

Many native English speakers might not even be familiar with these terms, because none are really used in everyday speech. It’s probably unrealistic to expect entertainment programs to provide serious English lessons, but sometimes it feels like these kind of shows deliberately go out of their way to teach useless words and phrases.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

A program on Japan’s NTV network tells viewers that they should no longer use English-style name order when introducing themselves in English:

Introducing yourself as “Takeshi Tanaka” is “old-fashioned” English. Now, you should introduce yourself as “Tanaka Takeshi.” [Family name first, in the way one says names when speaking Japanese.]

As proof, they cite the New Horizons English textbook, which now teaches junior high school students to introduce themselves in the “new” style. This “new” style is based on the nationalistic way that Indians and Koreans speak English. Saying one’s family name first supposedly shows “respect” for Japanese culture.

There’s a thread over at BigDaikon in which some ALTs discuss the name order issue. Those that actually care about helping their students learn proper English seem to think that the “new” style will cause unnecessary confusion. For example, here’s a comment from lifer:

The whole name order debate gets a bit tedious. Whatever the Chinese or Koreans do is irrelevant. Plus, lots of Ks and Cs have a ‘western’ name that they use when communicating in English, or living abroad for any length of time. So, Chan Yo In becomes Winston Chan, or Kim Sae Bon becomes Gilbert Kim when they are in Eigo World.

It’s really very simple to solve. Just mention the “when in Rome” proverb, but change it to “when speaking Roman…”. When you speak English, you use English conventions and customs. When you speak Japanese, you use Japanese language and customs. Otherwise, confusion reigns. When I introduce myself in Japanese, I use Japanese naming convention and introduce myself as “last name, first name”, or simply “last name”.

People are free to introduce themselves any way they like, but are also responsible for any confusion that results. So, if a Japanese person rocks up to a hotel in gaijinland and says, “hi, I have a reservation, my name is Tanaka Hiroshi”, he shouldn’t be surprised if the clerk comes back with “sorry, we don’t have a reservation for you, Mr. Hiroshi”.

I think Monkasho is trying to make yet another false binary paradigm- Japan vs. gaikoku. In Japan, we do it this way, but in gaikoku it is done another way. Since we are Japanese, in Japan, we will follow the Japanese way. Education takes a back seat to cultural insecurity.

My opinion: Japan’s Ministry of Education should not encourage the use of this “new” naming order. The United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and other English-speaking nations still use the “old” name order for Japanese people, so it’s stupid to print textbooks instructing Japanese students to adopt the “new” system.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

An English language interview with Tomomi Itano of the pop group AKB48:

The whole interview is unnatural that it’s almost painful to watch. It seems that Itano carefully memorized scripted answers to each question, probably without even knowing the meaning of most the English words she was supposed to be pronouncing.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

“Shame on these schools for using a disaster to promote their businesses. This ad campaign is not about what you can do for Japan–it’s about the schools desperately trying to find teachers. I have a feeling that nobody wants to work anywhere near Fukushima.”

From what I’ve heard, quite a few foreign teachers have fled the country because of the earthquake and nuclear accident, so there probably is a shortage of English teachers. However, it does seem pretty tacky for profit-making ALT dispatch and eikaiwa companies to boast about how becoming their employees will help “Japan.”

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

YouTuber Japanarchist asks his friend Mika to provide an English language summary of the movie “Titantic”:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

A commercial for AEON English lessons plays off the old “Japanese with screwed up intonation = foreign” joke when having a little girl ask for a second helping “in English”:

Meanwhile, it seems that a couple sites have been discussing a sign that was found at a QB House barber shop in Tokyo:

I’ve been to a few QB House barber shops over the years, and haven’t seen any sign like that. Back in the day when I could barely speak any Japanese, I went through the trouble of always looking up certain phrases and bringing some notes with me to the barber. I was never turned away.

Comments threads about the sign have been a mixture of people who don’t really see a big problem with a store in Japan expecting customers to speak Japanese, and people who think this sign is yet another example of racism against foreigners. A couple people even seemed offended by notion that QB House wouldn’t be prepared to deal with customers who only spoke English.

As in past instances of outrage reported on Debito.org, it seems that none of the people expressing outrage over the sign actually called up the Japanese company to complain about it. A Japanese blogger called QB House and asked for an explanation, and got this answer:

1)They pulled down the sign in question.
2)They welcome foreigners.
3)The purpose of the sign was not to exclude anybody unfairly but telling people in advance,”we’ll do our best, but there might be a case where we may refuse service when the communication breaks down.”
4)whether to set up a new sign or what to write on the sign is under consideration.

A new sign has since been put up:

The new sign uses slightly different wording, and the messed-up English only serves to underline just how unprepared they are to offer service to people who only speak English. They also include Chinese and Korean versions of the message.

Update from Eido Inoue about the second sign not being new:

I’m the one that took the second picture in your blog post. To clarify (and I don’t blame you because you got your wording from another site which got its wording from yet another site), the second photo of the blue sign is not a “new sign.” Rather, it’s a sign that’s been there since the beginning. You can see the master photo, with EXIF data showing the time and place taken, here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-DHJtegMTfu15Lc408r_2g?full-exif=true

You can see the comparison of the old sign vs the new sign’s positions here (taken by the original poster, photo EXIF metadata is also included):

http://picasaweb.google.com/nihongode.kk/QB#5561268926491926706

I had a chance to briefly converse with one of the barbers(no more than two and a half minutes; they were packed and had a continuously refilling queue of customers that night) to clarify details about the white an blue signs.

The white sign was an ADDITIONAL English sign added in addition to the pre-existing four language blue sign which had been there for some time (and is present in other QB House establishments as well) because apparently English speakers were ignoring or not noticing the original blue sign. I don’t know how this is possible, as the original blue sign is at eye level about 40cm to the right of the vending machine, whose use is mandatory if you want a haircut.

I’d appreciate it if you could update/correct this blog post to reflect this information. Thanks!

The Japanese blogger who originally called up and complained to the store has since visited it, and found that all such signs are now gone.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

When Japanese people learn English, they tend to write out the approximate pronunciation of each word using katakana. Since this forces English words to conform to the sounds and syllables of the Japanese language, it is an absolutely horrible method of learning to speak English. It might help somebody pass a written test, but it would barely make sense when spoken aloud.

Here’s an example:

• English: Ham and Eggs
• Katakana: ハムアンドエッグス [Hamu ando Eggusu]

What a mess. The original English should be only 3 syllables, but the katakana-ized version is more than doubled that. It also adds unnecessary sounds that were never present in the original English.

A few days ago, an alternate method of learning English pronunciation was introduced on TV:

Unfortunately, it still seems to rely on katakana. The only thing that is different is that the expert who created this system prefers to shorten everything. Rather than “Hamu ando Eggusu,” we get “Hamu n Eggu.” It ends up sounding more like English, but it still results in weird pronunciation. The loss of so many unnecessary syllables speeds one’s speech up to a more natural rate, but many sounds are dropped, such as the “s” that should come at the end of “eggs.”

The highlight of the clip is a delivery of Barack Obama’s famous “Yes We Can” speech by comedian Hiroshi Tamura. Tamura had been given 2 weeks to prepare his pronunciation using the shortened katakana study method.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

An English teacher sets up a Samuel L. Jackson impersonation contest at a Japanese university, offering free Disneyland tickets to the student who can best reenact one of Jackson’s famous performances:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

1. Find three Japanese comedians with poor English speaking skills.
2. Give them a 1-month cram course on how to interview a movie star, focusing entirely memorizing phrases and vocabulary from past interviews of Tom Cruise.
3. Send them out to interview Tom Cruise and hope he doesn’t use any unexpected English. (Also, pray that Cameron Diaz doesn’t try to get in a few words, since they have not prepared to speak to her.)

Here you are:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

A new web comedy series about English teachers in Nagoya has been making its rounds through most of the English language Japan websites. Here’s the first episode:

“It’s part drama, part comedy — a dramedy,” jokes Sherr, who recently played the lead role of Tony in the movie adaptation of “Darling wa Gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner).” “It was really funny the way that they’ve cut it, so I think it’s going to be pretty entertaining. The situations are quite embarrassing.”

In the show, which will be broadcast online as eight episodes lasting five to seven minutes each, the employees of fictional children’s eikaiwa Be Yes! rally to save their school from bankruptcy when a major language school opens a branch nearby.

“The school is having troubles, and it’s about the challenges they face, and whether they can overcome them,” says Sherr, who was born in California and raised in Iowa.

“The story doesn’t try to delve into the nitty-gritty of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) or the business of eikaiwa,” says director and coproducer Anthony Gilmore, who teaches English part-time at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies and has worked at language schools in Japan and South Korea. “We try to keep the story focused on the characters. It is called ‘English Teachers,’ not ‘Teaching English.’ But we took a lot of direct inspiration from the bankruptcy stories of Nova and Geos, and also smaller schools — when a well-financed school moves into the community and they lose a lot of their students.”

The production value of the show is pretty impressive, but I can’t honestly say that there was much in the first episode that makes me want to continue watching the series. That might just be me, though, since I hate the lame American comedy dramas that they are so obviously mimicking.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Francol86 has turned some grade school English teaching audio into a lesson for adults:

I manipulated the audio tracks from the Eigo Noto CD (a cd that we used to teach grade school level English in Japan), and made this adult instructional video out of it. This video, surprisingly, won first place in the Fukuyama Film Festival 2010. Thank you to everyone who helped me make this video!

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Rakuten is very serious about competing in a global market. Even though most of the reporters there were Japanese and their questions were asked in Japanese, Mikitani made a point of responding in English. An interpreter provided Japanese translations. Although many employees are still in the process of learning English, the company cafeteria has gone ahead and changed its menus to English.

While several other Japanese companies have made English the official language of company documents, few have gone as far as Rakuten’s policy of requiring Japanese employees to switch all communication (including talking) to English.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

The parents of the student who killed himself, meanwhile, are angry. “This kind of teaching is a problem,” they have said.

The testimony of several current and former students led to the discovery. According to the students, since at least 2007, the teacher has used the drawings on the blackboard, adding a line and circle to the picture every time a student can’t answer a question or answers a question incorrectly, gradually forming a complete picture that resembles a person who has been hung.

According to the parents of the third-year junior high student who hung himself on school grounds in November 2008, in his school notes there were also pictures that looked like hanging victims. At the wake for their son, the parents showed the picture they had found to their son’s friend, who told them that it resembled pictures drawn by the English teacher in class, the parents say.

One graduate of the school said, “I considered it a part of a game, a harmless black joke. But, now, thinking about the fact that someone killed themselves, I don’t think it was a good idea.”

Another student said, “It was also going on in 2009 (after the suicide).”

[...]

According to Professor Kazumi Fujimori of Musashino University, a clinical psychologist and author of the book “Gakko Trauma to Kodomo no Kokoro no Care” (School trauma and care for the minds of children), the use of the pictures could almost be considered a form of “power harassment,” when a person abuses their position of authority to harass others in the workplace.

There is evidence that the student mentioned in school that he had been browsing suicide websites, but most of the focus seems to be on the terrible foreigner who drove the child to suicide with “power harassment.” A Yomiuri article states that the parents are suing the school and demanding a considerable about of money.

Hangman is a game in which the objective is to save someone from execution. It is widely used at schools in the United States, where nobody associates it with suicide or harassment. Nevertheless, using the hangman game in class after the suicide was probably not a good idea, assuming that the foreign English teacher even knew about the suicide. In most cases, a Japanese teacher would have to approve lesson plans before use, so it’s hard to imagine why the hangman game continued after the suicide. A lot of ALT’s are told practically nothing about what goes on outside of their English class, and ALT’s who aren’t fluent in Japanese often work inside a virtual bubble, relying on Japanese English teachers for most of their information about conditions at schools. Also, given the high turnover rate for ALT work, it’s quite likely that the English teachers who used the hangman game after 2008 were not even teachers at the school at the time of the suicide.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Major English conversation school operator Geos Corp. said Wednesday it has started bankruptcy procedures at the Tokyo District Court, which ordered its assets protected from creditors.

The Tokyo-based school’s total liabilities are said to be 7.5 billion yen.

The school operator said it would hand over about 230 of its 330 schools nationwide to Nagoya-based G.communication Co. and shutter the remaining 100.

The transfer would allow 29,000 of Geos’ 36,800 students to continue studying at their current schools, Geos said. Additionally, about 7,800 students at the locations slated for closure could keep studying if they agree to transfer to nearby Geos schools.

N-H-K News reported on the collapse last night (For English audio, cover up the left side of your headphones):

Read more about the collapse of Geos at Let’s Japan dot Org, which always has interesting discussion threads.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

An American man running an English school in Fukuoka Prefecture has been indicted for allegedly shooting pornographic images of a girl who was his student, investigative sources said Monday.
The 69-year-old resident of Fukuoka City was indicted in early March after police seized from his home more than 600 videotapes and photographs comprising images of dozens of his students, mostly elementary school-aged girls, they said.

The man was initially arrested in January on suspicion of conducting lewd acts on his students but released later without being indicted, according to the sources.

This story has been getting pretty big attention on the news tonight.

Here’s a quote from the Yomiuri’s article about it, including an excuse the man gave when questioned by the police:

「撮影は子供が大人になった時、成長記録として見せてやるつもりだった」
“I filmed the children so that, when they became adults, I could show them a record of their growth.”

If some of his lewd acts took place after the cops let him go free in January, police have some serious questions to answer…

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

A fly-on-the-wall documentary about Steve, an Englishman who starts his adventure as an English Conversation instructor for a large Eikaiwa chain in Japan.

[via Lets's Japan dot org]

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

They then quiz Japanese teens about the meaning of “gr8″ and one girl says it means that there are “eight gyaru lolitas.” After the reporter teaches them that it actually means “great,” they say that it could also be used in Japan.

At the end of the clip, a group of Americans introduces Western-style heart and smiley emoticons. (Most Japanese emoticons are not flipped sideways.)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

While other Eikaiwa chains typically charge students　nearly 10,000 yen a month, this plan costs several thousand yen less. Since these lessons can be so close to home, customers also don’t have to worry about paying transportation fees or worrying about the safety of their children traveling to and from English lessons.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

English language school chain Nova has a new commercial for its kids’ classes:

The end of the commercial adds a “G Com before the familiar Nova jingle, perhaps as a reminder to viewers that this is Nova is different from the Nova that ripped off so many former students.

Related Story: Former Nova president Nozomu Sahashi was sentenced to three years, six months in prison yesterday for embezzling some 320 million yen in company funds.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

NTV’s “Real Time News” sometimes airs some pretty dumb special reports, but it also devotes considerable time to serious issues. Here’s a very good report on how using dispatch companies to employ foreign English teachers is killing the quality of English education in Japanese public schools and making foreigners endure poor working conditions (subtitled in English):
Part 1

These videos were originally uploaded by the General Union, which seems to be doing some good work fighting for better working conditions and posting the latest news on this issue.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants to send Filipino English teachers to work in Japan:

In an interview with Japanese public broadcaster N-H-K, Arroyo hailed Tokyo’s acceptance of Philippine nurses and care workers in line with the economic partnership pact signed between the two countries in 2006.

“This is a milestone because it is the first visible impact on the benefit” of the pact, said Arroyo, who is on a visit to Japan.

Seeking an increase in the number Japan would accept, Arroyo said Manila was ready to send more Philippine workers such as English teachers and information technology engineers to Japan.

There are, of course, already some Philippine citizens teaching English in Japan. I’ve encountered a few Filipinos who teach English as ALT’s at Japanese junior high schools. They were far better at speaking English than the Japanese English teachers they were assisting, but their English was not at a native level. They worked for private dispatch companies that paid them less than 160,000 yen a month, far below the typical wage native English speakers earned doing the same job. A few of them had impressive teaching qualifications and had taught for years back in their country, but they still were paid less than native English speakers straight out of college with no training or work experience.

If Arroyo’s desired opening of the Japanese market to Filipino English teachers became a reality, would companies across the industry fire their native English speakers and replace them with cheaper Philippine citizens? It is possible that the hiring of lower cost English teachers could attract customers with cheaper English lessons, but many Japanese customers would probably willing to pay more to have a native English speaker as a teacher (regardless of the actual teaching qualifications of each teacher).

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

A majority of junior high school students say that English lessons at elementary school are either boring or unhelpful, according to survey results released at a recent research meeting of the Japan Teachers’ Union.

Foreign language studies, which are already taught at some schools, will become compulsory for fifth- and sixth-grade elementary students from the start of the 2011 school year.

A teacher from a junior high school in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward carried out the survey on 168 pupils, around 80 percent of the total student body. Eighty-seven said the lessons were either “a bit boring” or “boring”, compared to 81 who said they were “fun” or “lots of fun.”

Am I the only one out there who read this story and was reminded of a particular news report from America?

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

A TBS feature news program took a look at CLAIR, focusing on Hashimoto’s charges that local governments pay large sums of money to fund activities of questionable importance (This is only a partial clip of the show. If anyone can find the full video, let us know so we can post it!):

• Most of CLAIR’s executives are former high level government bureaucrats. This is a prime example of amakudari, the practice of offering high salary jobs to former bureaucrats in the hopes of receiving preferential treatment from their contacts within the government. An executive interviewed claims there is nothing corrupt going on: CLAIR has merely hired former high level bureaucrats because of they have the necessary skills to run the organization.
• CLAIR has established several overseas offices. The report examines CLAIR’s New York office, finding that it costs a huge amount of money to maintain. CLAIR seems to think it is important to send workers from local governments across Japan to the New York office, but the nature of their work – entertaining/guiding visiting Japanese legislators, writing a few reports, and organizing sister cities programs – may not seem to justify the cost. Rent for the Manhattan office is very high (about $40,000 a month) and its interior is spacious and clean. Those working for CLAIR in New York have huge cubicles, while Osaka city employees must work in old cramped offices. (TBS also seems to have a problem with the fact that CLAIR’s website mentions how workers in New York can enjoy bagels and coffee on the weekend. )
• CLAIR has been receiving much more funding than it needs to maintain its current operations. It has saved up billions of yen, which may be used to set up even more overseas offices in the future.
—
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/15/is-clair-squandering-taxpayer-money/feed/ 43 http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/09/japanese-to-english-dictionary-with-too-many-slang-terms/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/09/japanese-to-english-dictionary-with-too-many-slang-terms/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:14:59 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8638 An example of the English terms provided for a Japanese word meaning “good friends” [親友] from the ALC’s Eijiro Japanese-to-English dictionary [via JapanSoc]:



I understand the need to inform language learners about certain slang terms, but it would probably be more useful if ALC didn’t use alphabetical order and placed more commonly-used translations before terms such as “asshole buddy” and “ace boon coon.”

—
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/09/japanese-to-english-dictionary-with-too-many-slang-terms/feed/ 28 http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/01/how-long-have-you-been-studying-english/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/01/how-long-have-you-been-studying-english/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:36:28 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8518 An example of what you get with English teaching system that focuses on exams instead of communication:


[via Brian in Jeollanam-do]

—
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/02/01/how-long-have-you-been-studying-english/feed/ 37 http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/01/24/japanese-comedian-attempts-part-of-an-obama-speech-in-english/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/01/24/japanese-comedian-attempts-part-of-an-obama-speech-in-english/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:08:48 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8373 Nocchi, the Japanese Obama impersonator that doesn’t use face paint, attempting to say a phrase from President Obama’s inauguration speech:

Grade him on his performance:
• A
• B
• C
• D
• F
View Results
—-
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/01/24/japanese-comedian-attempts-part-of-an-obama-speech-in-english/feed/ 8 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/15/yoga-eikaiwa/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/15/yoga-eikaiwa/#comments Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:30:45 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=7794 A TV news clip about Atsuko Hasegawa, an English teacher that also teaches special yoga classes to customers who want to hear instructions in English:

About 90% of her yoga lessons are in English, and most of the people participating in the lesson are Japanese who want to learn yoga while improving their English ability.
—-
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/15/yoga-eikaiwa/feed/ 6 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/11/speaking-english-is-cool/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/11/speaking-english-is-cool/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:44:59 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=7739 A CNET Japan reports on a survey that ranks foreign languages by their coolness:



1. English – 64.8%
2. French – 13.0%
3. Italian – 5.1%
4. German – 5.1%
5. Spanish – 2.0%
6. Latin – 2.0%
7. Arabic – 1.4%
8. Chinese – 1.4%
9. Korean – 1.0%
10. Thai – 1.0%
11. Russian – 1.0%
12. Portuguese – 0.7%
13. Other – 1.4%

Update: The full survey results have been translated at posted at What Japan Thinks.

[via FG]


—-
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/12/11/speaking-english-is-cool/feed/ 42 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/master-what-now/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/master-what-now/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:10:45 +0000 fatblueman http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=7258 When I was in high school I remember a kid getting kicked out for wearing a Guns N Roses, LIES LIES LIES t-shirt because it was judged to be obscene. Today my student was wearing this shirt. I suppose I should have judged it to be obscene, if only I could have understood it.



PS. A note to very gentle people everywhere: lock your doors.

—
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/master-what-now/feed/ 9 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/man-fined-for-taking-photos-of-womans-hip-area/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/man-fined-for-taking-photos-of-womans-hip-area/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:34:51 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=7240 Kyodo News delivers some weird news:

In a decision dated Monday, the top court’s five-justice third petty bench ruled 4-1 to uphold a high court decision that imposed a 300,000 yen fine on defendant Koji Hisasue, 31, a Self-Defense Forces member, who was accused of violating a local anti-nuisance ordinance banning indecent acts.

Justice Tokiyasu Fujita, the presiding judge, said the defendant’s acts can be interpreted under normal social conventions as indecent and obscene.

Fujita also said the victim would likely have felt ashamed and anxious about having pictures taken of her hip area, even though she was wearing pants, and that the defendant’s act clearly violated the Hokkaido government’s anti-nuisance ordinance.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Mutsuo Tahara said the defendant should be acquitted, questioning whether the photographing of the woman’s hip area was indecent and noting that the defendant cannot be found to have taken photos of the victim’s hip area only.

According to the top court ruling, Hisasue followed a 27-year-old woman for about five minutes and for about 40 meters at a supermarket outlet in Asahikawa, central Hokkaido, on July 21, 2006.

The defendant took 11 pictures of the hip area of the woman from a distance of 1-3 meters.

Those of you out there who have taught English in Japan may have had to explain quite a few students (especially kids trying to make jokes) that the English word “hip” does not refer to the butt/buttocks. This can be confusing for Japanese people, since the katakana word ヒップ (hippu), can refer to both the hip and buttocks.

Aware of this common mistake and annoyed by the awkward use of “hip area” in Kyodo’ story, I searched for a Japanese language article about the same event. Sure enough, the Japanese words used [尻/臀部] referred to the butt/buttocks.

Update: It would seem that the Asahi Shimbun has translators who know what they’re doing.

—
• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/11/14/man-fined-for-taking-photos-of-womans-hip-area/feed/ 2 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/09/27/elementary-schooler-aims-to-pass-highest-eiken-test-level/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/09/27/elementary-schooler-aims-to-pass-highest-eiken-test-level/#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:47:52 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=6361 Below is an excerpt from an NTV feature report about an elementary schooler aiming to be the youngest Japanese person to pass grade 1 of the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency:

As you can see, the poor kid spends every single moment of his free time studying. He attends and elite private school where English language education is stressed, and when he gets home from school he engages in non-stop English cramming. Even meal times are spent watching English language movies with English subtitles as reading/listening practice. The video clip also shows him studying for a French proficiency test. His mother buys him toy cars are rewards for successfully answering study questions.

Grade 1 of the Eiken exam tests university level English proficiency, and it’s unreasonable to expect an elementary school kid to pass it. However, his mother drives him on and he takes the test. He ends up failing it, but he is determined to take it again until he passes. He’ll also continue to study French after having passed a beginner level French proficiency test.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/09/27/elementary-schooler-aims-to-pass-highest-eiken-test-level/feed/ 28 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/07/15/osaka-english-teachers-stage-sit-in/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/07/15/osaka-english-teachers-stage-sit-in/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:04:51 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=5137 The OFSET Union has held a sit-in to protest education budget cuts and a reduction of their monthly salary:

After submitting the letter shortly before 4 p.m., the Osaka Fu Special English Teachers Union, which comprises 20 of 34 native English teachers employed by the prefectural government, began a 24-hour sit-in at Osaka Castle Park in Osaka to protest the plan by the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education to cut their monthly salary of 303,000 yen by 4 percent from August.

The teachers have not received a pay raise since 1996.

“If the government has 300 million yen to spend for Midosuji Ave.’s ‘light up’ project, it should spend the money on education,” said Steven Thompson, general secretary of the union.

Osaka Prefecture is nearly bankrupt, and the OFSET union has been fighting hard to save the jobs of its teachers since budget cuts began earlier this year.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/07/15/osaka-english-teachers-stage-sit-in/feed/ 7 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/24/ex-nova-president-faces-arrest-for-not-paying-employees/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/24/ex-nova-president-faces-arrest-for-not-paying-employees/#comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:39:04 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4971

Ex-Nova president Nozomu Sahashi is going to be arrested and charged for deliberately making his employees work with the full knowledge that his company was going under and that no wages could be paid to the workers:

The labor ministry’s regional bureau is planning to send information to prosecutors possibly later this week on Nozomu Sahashi, former president of bankrupt English-language school chain Nova Corp., on suspicion of nonpayment of wages to language instructors in violation of the Labor Standard Law, informed sources said Monday.

Osaka prefectural police, meanwhile, are also planning to launch investigations, possibly on Tuesday, to build a criminal case against Sahashi, 56, for alleged embezzlement of fringe benefit provisions for employees at what was once the largest English-language school chain in Japan, the sources said.

According to the sources, the wage allegations concern a total of around 100 million yen in salary that should have been paid to around 400 instructors and staffers who worked for Nova nationwide last September and October. The amount represents one of the largest cases of nonpayment of regular wages in Japan.

But in the two-month period, it is known that around 8,000 Nova employees did not receive salary payments totaling 1.8 billion yen, the sources said. Unpaid wages are thought to rise to 4.1 billion yen in all if the period after October, when Nova went bust, is included in the computation.

Sahashi told the labor ministry’s Osaka bureau that he did the best he could to make payments by even using his own personal assets but the bureau concluded that he continued running the company knowing that he would not be able to meet salary payments, the sources said.

The bureau is not seeking responsibility of other executives because Sahashi was in full control of management, the sources said.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/24/ex-nova-president-faces-arrest-for-not-paying-employees/feed/ 0 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/05/nova-used-staff-welfare-fund-to-pay-debts/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/05/nova-used-staff-welfare-fund-to-pay-debts/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:48:19 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4782

Not exactly the best way to look after the welfare of your employees:

OSAKA–About 300 million yen contributed by employees of the bankrupt language school chain Nova Corp. to a staff welfare fund was transferred to a company bank account in July to cover operating costs and done without the approval of employees, the police have said.

According to the police, former Nova president Nozomu Sahashi ordered the transfer of the entire balance of the fund to a Nova business account to allow the payment of refunds to students who had canceled contracts with the financially troubled firm.

The police are investigating the case as possible embezzlement in the course of business by Sahashi, who owned the affiliate firm that handled the money transfer.

For more on the continuing Nova mess, check out LetsJapan and GComm NOVA blog.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/06/05/nova-used-staff-welfare-fund-to-pay-debts/feed/ 2 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/17/sensei-tional-confessions-of-english-teachers-in-japan/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/17/sensei-tional-confessions-of-english-teachers-in-japan/#comments Sat, 17 May 2008 00:07:33 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4613

I recently received a copy of the book Sensei-tional! Confessions of English Teachers in Japan, which has the following description on its back cover:

“The vast majority of English teachers in Japan are horny and hedonistic travellers, desperate to delay their adulthood by drinking as much as is humanly possible and shagging anything with a pulse.”

Outrageous, grotesque, and frequently hilarious, “Sensei-tional” is a collection of true tales about the misadventures of language teachers in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Rex Chesney has been teaching in Tokyo for several years and here he compiles the most jaw-dropping anecdotes he has heard from his colleagues or experienced himself. Stories of drunkenness, debauchery and ineptitude, with a cast of gangsters, stalkers, transsexuals and hyperactive five-year-olds.

When you are an English teacher in Japan, anything can happen.

As the title of his book suggests, Rex Chesney’s book is a collection of wacky and sensational stories from the eikaiwa world, with special emphasis on Nova. The English teachers in his book regularly show up to work drunk, seduce their students, pass out drunk on the subway, and commit petty crimes. Chesney also tells tales of the terrible students, employees, and cops as well.

After reading the back cover the the book and the wild generalization it made about foreign English teachers in Japan, I really wanted to hate this book. However, it’s pretty clear that the focus of this book is ridiculous comedy, and few people who buy this book would be seeking a fair or accurate picture of what life is like in Japan for most English teachers. Several of the stories are actually amusing, especially when they’ve got illustrations such as the one below:



Near the end of the book, Chesney concedes that there are some decent individuals among the English teachers in Japan, which he calls “a few good apples floating in the barrel of scum.” It seems he doesn’t consider himself one of those apples.

Sensei-tional can be found at Amazon.com and Lulu.

Do you think most foreign English teachers in Japan are scum?
• Yes
• No
View Results
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/17/sensei-tional-confessions-of-english-teachers-in-japan/feed/ 13 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/12/mark-ledbetter-comments-about-teaching-english-on-japanese-tv/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/12/mark-ledbetter-comments-about-teaching-english-on-japanese-tv/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 09:07:17 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4570

Remember our January 13th post about Japanese TV shows that teach English? The teacher/author who appeared in the video clip we posted, Mark Ledbetter, has sent us an e-mail responding to the post:

——————————————-

Good evening, all. Just stumbled onto this site. And find myself being seriously raked over the coals. Are there really that many gaijins watching? I had no idea! Well, let me say that I actually agree with most of the comments here. In my defense, I did what I could within the restrictions of the show.

Those being:

1) Everything has to be really simple with problems easy enough for elementary school students to understand.

I’m limited to everyday katakana words, as school kids know those. One writer above suggested I talk about the asobu/play problem. Another suggested cunning, mansion, smart, and challenge. In fact, I have dealt with all of these in my books and with mansion on earlier Sekai-Ichi shows. Asobu/play type problems are, to me, much more interesting than katakana words. My favorite in that category would probably be oboreru/drown. Since you don’t have to actually die to oboreru, you hear things like: “My father doesn’t like the ocean because he drowned last year.” Alas, elementary school students don’t know “drown” or most other problem words based on one-to-one translations. So I just can’t do them on the show.

2) Answers should be black and white, right or wrong.

I try, really!, to explain that everything is context-driven, that often right is wrong, and wrong is sometimes ok. I’ve actually managed to get a bit of that into earlier shows, though most of the time it is edited out.

3) It all has to be funny.

Unfortunately, I’m not really a very funny guy. So I have to leave it to the “talentos,” or to the staff to come up with unlikely problems that may arise from katakana pronunciations. In fact, many of the problems (like cool pond) are from real life experience. That one seems pretty unlikely to me, but who am I to dispute their actual experiences?

4) All items have to be considered interesting by mysterious producers I never meet, people who hold all-nighters to discuss the content of the shows.

Most of the things I find interesting are “too difficult.” Most of the things they find interesting are, to me, rather boring. But, apparently not boring to most of their Japanese audience. Again, who am I tell them that what their audience finds interesting, is not?

I’ve proposed a number of, I think, really useful things for their show. The people I propose them to often agree, and even become a bit excited about presenting some important heretofore unintroduced language issues on TV. But the ideas always get shot down when explained second-hand to the decision makers higher up. I just hope that if I’m patient with the system I’ll be able to eventually talk about things that matter a little bit more. I have some hope that that may happen.

Thanks Hartz, and a couple of others, for a few nice words in the relentless (if basically correct) stream of denigration. That’s right, when I use a “textbook” at all (which is rare), I use the English version of Conan. Mangas are often a great source of true-to-life conversation.

Well, thanks for the feedback! It’s always appreciated and, to tell the truth, this is the first I’ve ever gotten.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/05/12/mark-ledbetter-comments-about-teaching-english-on-japanese-tv/feed/ 23 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/04/08/osaka-city-government-cutting-budget-foreign-english-teachers-losing-their-jobs/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/04/08/osaka-city-government-cutting-budget-foreign-english-teachers-losing-their-jobs/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:26:59 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4218 Some of the most experienced foreign English teachers at Osaka public schools may soon lose their jobs:

Nearly three dozen native English teachers called Monday on Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto not to cancel an education program that places native speakers of English in the prefecture’s schools and expressed concern that the teachers have only been offered four-month contracts.

The Osaka Fu Special English Teachers Union (OFSET), which represents the 34 native English speakers working at prefectural-run high schools and special education schools, hand-delivered a letter to representatives in the governor’s office in the afternoon and requested a meeting as soon as possible.

“The Osaka Prefectural NET (Native English Teachers) Program is currently under threat of cancellation due to budget concerns. NETs, working closely with Japanese teachers of English, have spent years developing sophisticated English programs at schools throughout Osaka Prefecture. Without NET teachers, these programs would become unsustainable and simply vanish,” the letter says.

After taking office in February, Hashimoto announced that the prefecture would enact a four-month emergency budget to run from April to July.

By then, two special project teams, appointed by the governor to review all prefectural spending, are expected to have their final recommendations on what should be cut. Osaka Prefecture has nearly ¥5 trillion in outstanding debts and is nearly bankrupt.

Many NET teachers are very unhappy about their four-month contracts, fearing that it may be a sign that their jobs will cease to exist under the new city budget:

At a press conference attended by about 15 union members, Steven Thompson, general secretary of the union said: “A four-month contract [for teaching work that requires long-term planning] is just crazy. It’s a terrible problem.”

For more details on the situation, check out the OFSET Union’s homepage.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/04/08/osaka-city-government-cutting-budget-foreign-english-teachers-losing-their-jobs/feed/ 5 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/03/07/nova-expanding-into-university-education/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/03/07/nova-expanding-into-university-education/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:35:49 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3998

News from LetsJapan.org:

Strange but true, g.education announced plans to open a Nova school on the campus of Aichi Gakuin University in April.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the opening of a private business on a university campus is almost unheard of. The article notes that the president of g.communication, Masaki Inayoshi, is a graduate of Aichi Gakuin and apparently this connection was used to help set up a Nova school with the university in order to boost the English ability on campus. The new Nova school will use the current 9-level curriculum and offer lessons at a discount to university staff and students.

Do you think on-campus Nova branches will improve English education at universities?
• Yes
• No
View Results
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/03/07/nova-expanding-into-university-education/feed/ 5 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/18/japanese-education-now-with-even-more-school-baked-right-in/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/18/japanese-education-now-with-even-more-school-baked-right-in/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:04:25 +0000 Laurence Hewitt http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3810 The Japanese Education Ministry announced Friday that starting in 2011, they are increasing the number of class hours for elementary and junior high school kids for the first time in 40 years. This is a retreat from the Ministry’s “yutori kyoiku,” or relaxed education policy that began in the 1970′s.

Students will now be taking an extra 10 percent of Japanese, foreign language and social studies. There will be a super-sized portion of 22% more math and 33% more science. Kids will now need to learn 1,200 English words, up from 900. Even more kanji will need to be learned. And the 30% of the content of the textbooks that was cut in 1998 will be making a heralded comeback.



(photo by Eugene Matusov)

So, does this mean that the 6 day school week is also making a comeback? No official word, yet. But I wouldn’t be making plans for a Saturday afternoon trip to the zoo in 2011.

[note: article edited for accuracy by editor on February 19]

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/18/japanese-education-now-with-even-more-school-baked-right-in/feed/ 42 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/13/yoshida-san-speaks-english/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/13/yoshida-san-speaks-english/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:13:08 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3779 In this commercial for can coffee, Mr. Yoshida is awarded for being able to communicate in English at a meeting:

A feature on the making of this commercial can be viewed on the Georgia Coffee homepage.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/13/yoshida-san-speaks-english/feed/ 6 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/03/japanese-middle-school-english-comes-to-the-ds-in-april/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/03/japanese-middle-school-english-comes-to-the-ds-in-april/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:37:04 +0000 Brandon http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3700

If you’ve taught middle school in Japan before, you’ve seen this book: New Horizon. Coming April 24th, from Paon, Japanese schoolchildren will be able do textbook activities sans paper and pen, on their DSes. Even more interesting, is that kids will be able to do listening practice, in addition to writing practice, without the need for CDs or a dedicated portable audio player. I’ve taught in middle schools here, and what I hear from kids is that they don’t typically own iPods or the like.

It makes me jealous. When I was young, technology hadn’t yet advanced to the point where we could do anything this cool with our studies. Hopefully, since a lot of children don’t usually enjoy studying English, putting it on a DS and giving it the illusion of being a game, they’ll give it a try, possibly learning more than they normally would.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/02/03/japanese-middle-school-english-comes-to-the-ds-in-april/feed/ 3 http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/01/13/english-teaching-in-japan/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/01/13/english-teaching-in-japan/#comments Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:35:49 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3574 Update (May 2008) : Mark Ledbetter has responded to this post and your comments!
———————

ORIGINAL POST:



Mark Ledbetter is an American who has lived in Japan for 28 years and teaches English as a profession. Last night he appeared on Japanese TV to quiz celebrities on their English and inform the correct some misconceptions the viewing public may have held about converting certain katakana words to English.



For one of his questions, he asked the celebrities to tell him the English word for クーポン (coupon). One of the celebrities answered with the Japanese reading of the katakana word, which sounds like “koo-pon.” I think that most English speakers would be able to understand her answer as “coupon.” However, Ledbetter said she was wrong, as this video clip shows:

According to Ledbetter, the only correct way to pronounce coupon is “kyoo-pon.” He even claimed that native English speakers wouldn’t understand the word if it was pronounced as “koo-pon,” and they might even mistake it for “cool pond.”

As an American, I have heard coupon pronounced both as “koo-pon” and “kyoo-pon,” favoring the “koo-” version in my speech. Baffled by Ledbetter’s claim, I checked Dictionary.com:



Every entry in their database favored either dual use of “kyoo”/”koo” or exclusive use of the “koo” pronunciation. Random house describes the version Ledbetter promotes as an American variant with “an unhistorical y-sound not justified by the spelling. This pronunciation is used by educated speakers and is well-established as perfectly standard, although it is sometimes criticized.” Maybe Ledbetter has been away from America so long that he has forgotten how those who are not “educated” pronounce their English.

Ledbetter also taught viewers that they should not use convert the katakana term “body check” into English when talking about being searched by security at the airport. Instead they should use the term “body search.”



According to Ledbetter, if you said you were given a “body check” at the airport, native English speakers would assume that you had been playing hockey and received a nasty body check. It might not be the correct word in English to describe being searched by security, but given the context it would be presented in, wouldn’t it be pretty hard for such a ridiculous misunderstanding to take place?

Oh Japanese TV’s English teaching programs, how I hate thee.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/01/13/english-teaching-in-japan/feed/ 75 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/18/english-in-japanese-dramas/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/18/english-in-japanese-dramas/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:28:16 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3421

I don’t watch many Japanese dramas, but I did manage to catch part of an episode of one called Asakusa Fukumaru Ryokan last week. It is a drama about a Japanese style inn in Tokyo’s Asakusa district and its employees.

It just so happened that the episode I found myself watching was one focusing on a new member of their staff who helps them learn basic English to communicate with their foreign customers. Here’s a clip of some the the English scenes:

The new worker impresses her co-workers when she is able to talk to foreign customers, after which she teaches a few basic phrases to them. I guess a lot of it was meant to be cute comic relief, especially with the one woman who can’t answer the foreigners’ follow-up question. However, if it was kind of painful for me to watch because the actress playing the English-speaking staff member delivered her English lines so badly (would it have been so hard to get one of those foreigners on the set to coach her to speak her lines without the feel of strained reciting of katakana English?).

Later on in the episode she starts getting close to one of the foreign guests, a white guy who can speak Japanese. It looked like some sort of romance was developing between them, and the other Japanese characters seemed to have nothing but positive things to say about it. Having my fill of drama for the day, I ended up changing the channel before the episode was over.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/18/english-in-japanese-dramas/feed/ 25 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/17/yuuri-morishita-lost-2-million-yen-in-nova-collapse/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/17/yuuri-morishita-lost-2-million-yen-in-nova-collapse/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:54:06 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3418

An article in Mainichi’s Japanese edition today mentions that gravure Idol Yuri Morishita [pictured above] admitted that she lost a huge sum of money when English conversation school chain Nova went bankrupt. She told reporters that she had bought 2 million yen [$17,800 US dollars] lesson package, but only had to the time to take 3 lessons before Nova collapsed. Much like thousands of other Nova students, she will get no refund for pre-paid lessons. Morishita said losing all that money has been the biggest shock of her life.

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/17/yuuri-morishita-lost-2-million-yen-in-nova-collapse/feed/ 19 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/yoshio-kojima-english-teacher/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/yoshio-kojima-english-teacher/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:28:35 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3355 On a recent Japanese television show, popular comedian Yoshio “Opapi” Kojima visited the house of a needy family to give them some help. Since Kojima is a graduate of Waseda University, one of the most prestigious schools in Japan, he offered to help the kids in the family with their homework.

Here he is helping a girl study English:

And here he is helping a boy with his kanji studies:

Kojima’s useful method for remembering how to write the kanji for 泣く (to cry) is as follows:



Useful, isn’t it?

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/yoshio-kojima-english-teacher/feed/ 10 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/nova-the-movie/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/nova-the-movie/#comments Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:25:11 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3353 Youtube filmmaking group Gaijin Navi has created this short film about an English teacher experiencing the fall of Nova (video via Yin Yang Report):
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/10/nova-the-movie/feed/ 11 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/03/english-teaching-visa-procedures-in-korea-now-require-fingerprinting-drug-test-hiv-test/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/03/english-teaching-visa-procedures-in-korea-now-require-fingerprinting-drug-test-hiv-test/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:27:09 +0000 James http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3296

Are you a former Nova teacher looking for a job? If you’re thinking about responding to the many job ads for English schools in South Korea that one finds on the net, you should probably be aware of the fact that the South Korean government has created new rules to prevent criminals and child molesters from teaching in their country:

The Justice Ministry has announced that starting in less than two weeks foreigners who teach English will be required to provide their criminal record and undergo a medical checkup to renew or receive a visa.
In many cases, the new requirements will force English teachers to return to their home country to get the criminal record check. Many embassies here have already announced they cannot or will not conduct such a service.

[...]

In addition, people who are found to have committed a felony, have drugs in their system, a dangerous infectious disease, such as HIV, or a drug or alcohol addiction will have their visa canceled, the Justice Ministry said in a release.

The US and Canadian embassies have already informed the South Korean government they cannot carry out criminal background checks, creating a very difficult situation for Americans and Canadians currently teaching in Korea to renew their visas should they want to stay. Those applying for new visas will also have to go through an interview at a South Korean consulate in their country before having their visa applications approved (this is in addition to their criminal background and disease tests).

Korea blogger Michael Hurt has posted harsh criticism of the new rules, which he believes were enacted because of xenophobic fears spread by exaggerated media reports of criminal English teachers:

This is a stroke of pure genius!

Treat all foreign teachers like criminals, and force them to produce these documents every time they apply for or even RENEW a visa.

So, now the hagwons and schools will be more apt to hire the many more foreigners working here illegally on tourist visas, while the number of the vast majority of completely non-child molester, non-drug runner foreigners willing to put up with an extended life of being treated like a child-molesting, AIDS-ridden, drug abusing criminal will surely decrease.

[...]

And instead of rewarding those who’d like to stay long term because they’ve developed some reason to stay, you’re going to be penalizing them.

Just on a practical level alone, if I had to leave the country and come up with a criminal background check, submit to extensive blood tests, and have to travel back to all the places I have lived in the US in order to get a complete criminal background check, since there’s no central database on a federal level for records kept on state levels, I’d have to go to Ohio, Rhode Island, and California to do it. Or at least do some seriously irritating paperwork by mail and hope that all the stupid, clogged bureaucracy back in my OWN country gets this back to me in at least 6-8 weeks. And is all this paperwork going to come in during the time I have for vacation?

Who has potentially the thousands of dollars in time and money that may be necessary to spend in order to simply extend a visa?

It sounds a lot worse than the Japanese system of fingerprinting all foreigners at airport immigration…

These new rules are:
• a great way to protect South Korea from criminals and disease
• a bit too harsh and need to be slightly revised
• bullshit that reflects a xenophobic view of foreigners as disease-ridden criminals
View Results
]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/12/03/english-teaching-visa-procedures-in-korea-now-require-fingerprinting-drug-test-hiv-test/feed/ 30 http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/11/26/does-nova-rise-as-g-education/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/11/26/does-nova-rise-as-g-education/#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:10:00 +0000 W. Anthony Malcolm http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3230

The demise of NOVA has been well reported by every media source from blogs such as Japan Probe to newspapers like the Asahi Shimbun. Now NOVA is coming back: G Education, a subsidiary of Nagoya based G Communication, is opening branches throughout Japan. On Monday, November 26th, 2007 G Education will reopen the Akita City Eki Mae branch school in Akita City, Akita Prefecture.

Akita City Eki Mae is just one of three planned openings that will take place this week. The others are the Morioka Odori branch school in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, and the Hirosaki branch school in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture. I know specifically that at least three teachers will be on hand to teach classes at the Akita City school. What about students? Well, I have heard from one student that she thought the deal offered by G Education was a good one, and that she would be going back.

Now some will say, one student does not a successful branch school make. I agree, but Akita City had two NOVA branches that were doing fairly okay before the breakdown. Each of those schools had somewhere around 600 total students (300 actively going at any given time) and adding these together and would make a pool of 1200 students to work with. All the branch really needs is 300 to 400 active students to stay alive and profitable. This dual branch system was in place in Morioka City, but not in Hirosaki, which was far and above the strongest branch schools in the three prefectures listed, so I speculate it will do well with its original student population. Of course they all need teachers to teach classes and sales staff to operate the logistics. The teachers will probably come back as they are being offered the equivalent of their old salaries. The sales staff I do not know about, but I have heard that some were hesitant to restart with G Education because they realized, after speaking with labor standards bureau officials, that the salaries they were receiving were ridiculously low in comparison to the amount of work they were doing, and the sales industry standard. This could be a problem for G Education.

In this author’s opinion, it is shocking that G Education is doing this. I did not figure branches north of Sendai would be opening any time earlier than maybe January. My feeling was that G Education was keeping people on the payroll to build some clout with teachers, keeping them in the country (legally) for possible transfer to a new location at a later date. Also, I figured it would take G Education some time to work out various apartment deals left over by NOVA’s negligence. It would also require a host of other logistical nightmares like reassuring paper vendors, utility companies, etc., so this comes as a surprise to me.

[In recognition of full disclosure I will say that I was a NOVA teacher. I was an Assistant Trainer in Akita City (the AEON Shopping Center Branch School in Goshono New Town). However, I am not going back to NOVA, even though I was offered my old job at the salary I was earning pre-collapse. For the time being I do not have a job, but I do wish them well. ]

]]> http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/11/26/does-nova-rise-as-g-education/feed/ 7