Nov 02

EL本棚紹介(109) National Geographic Global Issues: Globalization, by Andrew Milson

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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The English Lounge has several different textbooks and Extensive Reading (多読) book series by National Geographic. This series was written for native-speaker elementary school students. It is like a whole textbook in just 30 pages. National Geographic always has great photographs and writing about places all around the world.

This book about Globalization has short chapters about Germany, some African countries…and Japan. It can be interesting to read about how Japan is written about for (probably) an American audience. You can also learn about the topic of globalization from several different angles. However, there is something strange about this book: it was written in 2014. That means that the data and technology in it is quite old. You might think this is a bad thing, but you might think that it is interesting to read critically. Think: what has changed? What has stayed the same? What can I still learn from this book?

My two cents: National Geographic is always interesting, but I especially recommend to students who like non-fiction or like studying with textbooks more than reading stories.

Nov 02

EL Game Series (10): “Between Two Cities” ふたつの街の物語

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.]

（ELゲーム連載へようこそ。このコラムはELで遊べるボードゲームやカードゲームを紹介する。本来のやり方通りにやってしまうと、遊ぶまでの時間が大変かかるかもしれないので、ある投稿では簡単な遊びの工夫が紹介される。ほかの投稿ではなぜゲームで英語を勉強するのがよいかが説明される。投稿のタグを使ってほかに興味ありそうなポストを見つけられる。）

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“Between Two Cities” is like a puzzle game in which players try to make the best city by combining parks, restaurants, shops, factories, offices, and houses. What makes the game interesting is that instead of building one city, players build half a city with one partner, and half a city with another partner.

The basics:

Round 1:

  • Each player takes 7 small tiles, chooses two to keep (one for the city on their left and one for the city on their right). Then, they pass the remaining tiles to the player on their left.
  • Tiles must all face the same direction and must connect to other tiles in the city.
  • Players discuss how to build their cities and place their tiles. At the end of the game, each city will have 16 tiles; 4 rows by 4 columns.
  • Players look at the new tiles they received, choose two more, and pass the remaining ones to the left. They repeat the discussion and build the city.
  • Repeat the choose/talk/build process until only one tile remains. That tile is not used.

Round 2:

  • Players take 3 large tiles and choose just one to add to the city on their left. The remaining two tiles are not used.

Round 3:

  • Repeat Round 1 with 7 small tiles, completing the two cities.

Scoring:

  • Every kind of tile scores differently (look in the rulebook for details). For example, Houses earn points if they are in a line; the city with the most Factories gets extra points, cities with a variety of Restaurants get extra points, etc.
  • Players’ final scores are decided by the lower of the two cities they built.

For English Learners: This is a good game for conversation. Players have to discuss with their partners about how to build their cities.

Final Thoughts: This is a pretty simple game. The first time you play, don’t worry about getting a high score; instead, play as quickly as you can. Then, after you score, you can try again with new partners.

Oct 20

Computer Programming with English

Oct 20

Halloween 2026

Oct 20

Forum 8

Oct 02

Opening and Advising Week, October 2026

We will have orientation and advising week every day from  October 1, to Friday, October 9. Please stop by anytime!

We especially recommend participating in the Opening Seminar on October 9.

See you soon in the Lounge!

Sep 25

EL本棚紹介(105) Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation Under the Volcano

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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The English Lounge has the whole Magic Treehouse series, and you may have even read some of these books in Japanese when you were in elementary school. In each book, two children named Jack and Annie go on an adventure through space and time. Morgan le Fay (a famous witch in British literature) sends the children and their treehouse on special missions, where they learn about history, culture, and science. In Vacation Under the Volcano, they go back to ancient Rome to see the city of Pompeii before it is destroyed by a volcano. They learn about Roman culture, save an important from being destroyed, and run for their lives to escape the volcano.

Magic Treehouse is a good example of an “authentic text” (母語話者向け教材). Some students like to read textbooks that are written for language learners, but some like to read “real” books that native speakers also read. Of course, college-level authentic texts might be too difficult for Extensive Reading (多読), but children’s books might be appropriate for you. Magic Treehouse has pictures, the letters are the page are big and easy to read, and each chapter is short. This makes it very easy to read a whole book quickly. Finally, although it is a long series, you can choose any book and still understand almost everything.

My two cents: The Magic Treehouse series is written for children. Some students don’t want to read children’s books. However, if you don’t mind it, I can strongly recommend this series.

Aug 01

EL本棚紹介(104) Long-ago Stories of Japan, vol. 1, by Carla Valentine

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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“Momotaro,” “the Crane Gives Back,” “Kachi Kachi Mountain”…these are the first three stories in Long-ago Stories of Japan. Each of these folktales is very short, just 15-20 pages including pictures. Long-ago Stories of Japan is an excellent book for your Extensive Reading (多読) practice. Extensive Reading means reading a lot of easy English…but “easy” can be many different things. In this case, the sentences are not too long and the vocabulary is not too difficult. However, I think the story content is more important: Long-ago Stories of Japan is easy to read because you probably already know the stories in Japanese. Therefore, even though the Yomiyasusa Level (3.0-3.6) sounds difficult, I think this book is easier to read than that.

There are many other books in the “Ladder Series” in the English Lounge about Japan, so find something interesting to read. The letters are big and easy to read, and each story starts with a list of characters and important vocabulary words.

My two cents: While the stories are fun and easy to read, there are some very strange translations from Japanese to English. In English, it is confusing to read a monkey say “key, key” or for a bird to say “whirr.” However, if you can ignore those small things, I can easily recommend this book.

Jun 29

EL本棚紹介(103) Say WhAt? The Weird and Mysterious Journey of the English Language, by Gena K. Gorrell

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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This book has a very boring cover, but we have a saying in English: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Say WhAt is a very easy to approach book about the history of the English language. It contains many pictures, maps, and short quizzes. It is also written in very friendly English, so despite the boring cover, it is actually easy to recommend this book to students studying English.

Most chapters are very short—about five pages, including pictures and diagrams. Each chapter introduces a stage in the history of English or a topic related to how the language has changed. This structure also makes it easy to start with any chapter you are interested in, instead of having to start with chapter 1. There are also many examples of how English is related to other languages. This can be helpful when studying new vocabulary.

My two cents: If you are interested in language or history, I can easily recommend this book. Because of the short chapters, it is also a good choice for close reading (精読) instead off extensive reading (多読).

Jun 29

EL本棚紹介(102) Scholastic Children’s Thesaurus

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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I do not like recommending “children’s books” on this blog, because most of you are in college. However, Scholastic’s Children’s Thesaurus is a really useful book for learning difficult vocabulary. A thesaurus (類語辞典) contains words like a dictionary; however, it organizes them by similar meanings. It also gives example sentences and uses pictures to help you create an image to remember.

You can use this for two different ways of studying vocabulary. First, you can learn groups of words with similar meanings. If you do this, you can remember that “new,” “fresh,” and “original” all have close definitions. Second, once you know which words have similar meanings, you can use the thesaurus to compare and understand how they have different nuances. For example, “new” emphasizes time, meaning “just made or begun.” On the other hand, “fresh” emphasizes how something is “not yet affected by time or use.” A “new vegetable” might be a variety that was recently invented, but a “fresh vegetable” is one that was just picked and has not gotten old, stale, or moldy.

My two cents: This is not a book to sit and read from cover to cover; instead, try using it to experiment with new ways of studying vocabulary.