11月 01

EL本棚紹介(82) My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky, by Hayao Miyazaki

[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 am sure you have seen the movies My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky. I don’t need to write about the stories here. Almost everyone likes Studio Ghibli films, so you will probably like reading these full-olor manga versions of the stories, too. So, what is there to say?

I think these books are good for you for a few reasons. First, they are great examples of “learning what you already know.” You already know the story and characters in Japanese, so they should be very easy to understand in English. Because they come from the films, there is also surprisingly little reading. Most of the story is told in pictures, and (unfortunately) all of the onomatopoeia 擬音語・擬態語 are left in Japanese. That does not mean these are bad for language learning—it just means that you can read a whole book in one sitting.

Borrow these books if you are interested in an easy, quick read. These books can motivate you to try something a little more challenging next time.

My two cents: While I recommend you read these, I think they are very interesting objects for thinking about media. All of the art comes directly from the films, so it is a strange translation to manga format and I don’t think it always works very well. Animated films do not have frames(コマ), so a lot of pictures had to be shrunk down or cut up to fit in the manga. Also, the beautiful, dense art for the backgrounds works well for animation, but I think overwhelms the character art in the static manga format. Those are just my thoughts, though—what do you think?

 

11月 01

EL Game Series (02): “Word Up”

[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します。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ます。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ます。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ます。）

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Word Up is a game for English learners. It uses a board like Monopoly and is simple to understand. Players will move around the board and answer English questions to get points.

The basics:

Players roll the dice to move around the board. When they land on a color, they answer an English question from another player. Each question type has a color: missing word (orange), crossword clues (green), and multiple choice (blue). A correct answer gets you a token (トークン) of that color. If you land on a red space, take a red “Word Up” card and follow the instructions. The first player to get three of each color tokens wins.

For English learners:

This game is for English learners, so the rules are simple enough.

Final Thoughts: This game is less “fun” and more “study.” However, it might be a good activity to start a conversation.

10月 27

Halloween Event

10月 19

EL本棚紹介(81) The Big Wave, by Pearl S. Buck

[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 Big Wave is a very, very short book that I think is worth your time. It was written by Pearl S. Buck, a woman who lived in Japan and China before World War 2 and wrote stories about East Asian culture. Her most famous novel is The Good Earth 『大地』, which is about a Chinese farming family.

This book is about two Japanese boys who survive a terrible tsunami. It is told like a folktale, using simple sentences and mostly easy vocabulary. However, the meaning and emotions behind the story are more complex. This is book is not too hard to read, but you can think about it a lot afterwards. Maybe you disagree with the author’s conclusion?

Another reason to recommend this book is that it is an example of “culturally-familiar learning material” (文化的親和性ある教材). Because you know about Japan and Japanese culture, it can be easier to read and enjoy that something foreign. This is similar to “learning what you already know,” which I have mentioned several times in this blog before.

My two cents: While this is a very interesting book, a close reading can show something about orientalism, too. How did this westerner look at Japan? How did she treat it differently from the west?

10月 19

EL Game Series (01): “Scrabble” and “Upwords”

[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します。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ます。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ます。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ます。）

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Scrabble is a classic American boardgame. It is so famous that it is in the dictionary! Upwords is not as famous, but it is a very similar game that you can play in the same way. The problem with these games is that they are meant for native English speakers, so they can be very difficult even for me.

The basics:

In both games, players get a set of tiles（コマ）with letters on them. They take turns making words on the board. It is like building a crossword puzzle. In Upwords, players can cover old letters up with new tiles, making spelling words a little easier. Each word earns the players points. The player with the highest score wins.

For English learners:

  • Don’t worry about the score! Just make words.
  • Instead of taking a few letters at a time, put a lot of letter tiles next to the board. Players can choose any letters they see on their turn.
  • Play with teams. Work with a partner to make the longest words possible.
  • Make a puzzle. Try to see how many times you can make words cross each other.

Final Thoughts: These are games about vocabulary and creativity. Use word roots and word families when you play.

10月 06

Power of Community Space

10月 05

EL本棚Column: Thoughts on choosing an Extensive Reading Book

(read the English version of this post here)

私が学生だった頃、日本語を様々な方法で勉強していましたが、大体最初から今まで一貫して「多読」をやってきました。そこで今回のブログでは第二言語で読み物を選択することについて個人的な見解を共有したいと思っています。

まず、最も大事なのは読み続けられる本を見つけることです。

多読に関する研究は常に読む「楽しさ」と「読みやすさ」の大切さを中心化します。一方、我々先生が多読用の本を勧める際に「Graded Readers」を取り上げ、主に読みやすさや難易度を説明する癖があります。Graded Readersとはイングリッシュ・ラウンジや図書館にある、難易度（長さ、語彙レベル、文の複雑さ）を示す数字が表紙に表示されている図書のことなのです。一般的に、多読では辞書を引かずにすらすらと読んで内容を８０～９０％理解すれば適切だとされています。そういう本を探すのにGraded Readersが大いに役に立つでしょう。

ところが、Graded Readersはいわゆる「オーセンティック・テキスト」、つまり母語話者のために書かれた文章ではありません。実際、その多くは有名な話や古典文学が単純に書き換えられたものです。

さて、貴方はそれについてどう感じるのでしょうか？私は日本語を勉強していた頃、Graded Readersがありませんでしたが、教室で簡単化されたテキストを二回ほど使った覚えがあります（漱石の『坊ちゃん』と鴎外の「高瀬舟」でした）。正直に言いますと、それらが原文ではなかったことが後で明かされたら、私は裏切られた、ウソつかれた気持ちになりました。所謂「本物」を読みたかったからです。そのため、おそらく自分は個人的にはGraded Readersに向いていないと考えられます。代わりに、当時私は青空文庫をよく使っていました。自分にとって、オンラインで読む大きな魅力の一つは、知らない漢字をオンライン辞書にコピペできることでした。

ところで、昔のクラスメートが、そして今現在の留学生も、漫画を使って日本語を勉強することがよくあります。しかし、私の場合は、初めて来日した時に興味を持ちそうな漫画は三国志とか時代物であり、言語的にはるかに難しすぎるものだったため、意図的に漫画を読まないことにしました。結局、初めて全巻を読みこんだ漫画は同じく言語的に難しい方の『蟲師』でしたが、すでにアニメ版を視聴していたためほとんどの内容を把握しており、漫画を理解することが大体できました。つまり、このブログで何度も言及してきているlearning what you already know（すでに知っているものを第二言語で勉強しなおす）を自然に行っていました。そこで、好きな映画、邦訳で完読したもの、学校で日本語で学んだ内容などとかかわっている図書を、難易度が少し高くても、学生に勧めることがあります。

最後に言及したい点になりますが、Graded Readersから小説への架け橋についてです。もしオーセンティック・テキストを読みたいがなかなか適切な読み物が見つからない場合は、いわゆる「児童文学」をおすすめします。イングリッシュ・ラウンジの本棚にたくさんの「児童文学」がおいてありますが、私はこのブログであえて「児童文学」という言葉を使わないようにしています。なぜなら、私だったら大学生として「児童文学」だと言われたら絶対読みたい気持ちにならないからです。貴方もそう思いませんか？ところが、自分が中学生、小学生の時に日本語で読んでいた本に出てくる言語の難しさや面白さを思い出してみてください。以外と勉強になりそうなものもあるでしょう。

イングリッシュ・ラウンジが提供している所謂「児童文学」は読み甲斐あるものだと評価しています。その本は考えさせるテーマ、面白い登場人物、展開の不思議なプロット、あるいは少なくともユーモアやアクション場面などを含めているからです。別な観点からすれば、多くの人は宮沢賢治を「児童文学」の作者とするでしょうが、その反面、大人には読む意義がないという人が少ないでしょう。要するに、「児童文学」と言われるだけで拒否せずにオープンマインドで迎えてみてほしいです。私はできるだけイングリッシュ・ラウンジの本棚を読み通しているのですが、まだ一度も大学生にとって価値のない本に遭ったことがありません（そして万が一発見した場合は即時に除籍する！）

では、本ブログの主張を再確認しますと、多読を効率よく行うのに沢山読まなければなりません。そのために読みたい気持ちを作らなければなりません。今回はGraded Readers、Learning what you already know、そしてオーセンティック・テキストとしての児童文学について触れてきました。先生が言うことより、自分の性格と気持ちを知って読み物を選ぶ必要があります。もしかすると貴方にとっては文学というより新聞か科学の教科書の方が適しているかもしれません。以上の段落の目的は、自分の性格や気持ちを探る過程を促すことでした。

 

7月 27

EL本棚紹介(80) Animal Farm, by George Orwell

[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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George Orwell’s most famous novel, 1984, is a masterpiece of modern fiction. It is a fictional story examining how a fascist society operates. The setting is a drab but realistic world in which individuality is stamped out by an oppressive government. It was also made into a pretty good movie (see the trailer here: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2065472025/?playlistId=tt0087803&ref_=tt_ov_vi).

Animal Farm is a novella—only about 100 pages—and tells the story of a group of animals who rebel against the farmer and drive the humans from their farm. They create a new society with rules to keep everyone equal and happy. But the good times do not last, as the pigs rise to power, rewrite the history of Animal Farm, and open up relations with the men in the town.

Animal Farm sounds like a fairy tale, but it is really a political critique, like 1984. In this book, Orwell is critiquing the Soviet Union. As the introduction explains, Orwell was a leftist, but he also could not ignore the atrocities and failures of the Soviet government. The fact that he translates this critique into what almost seems like a children’s story is what makes Animal Farm so unique.

My two cents: This is certainly a challenging book, but I think if you are interested in history or politics that it well worth your time.

7月 27

EL本棚紹介(79) Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small

[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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One of the reasons why comic books and graphic novels have become popular in the United States recently is that they are a creative “medium.” Instead of writing only with words, artists combine words and pictures to show how they feel. When the boy in Stitches feels lonely and retreats into his drawing, he literally falls into his coloring book. When adults are angry and difficult to understand, they start looking a little less human, and more like monsters.

Stitches is an autobiographical story by David Small. He writes about a horrible experience he had growing up in 1950s America surrounded by homophobia (anti-LGBTQ hate), angry parents, and a life-threatening disease: cancer. David’s story is a sad one, and he suffers neglect from both of his parents, who hide both his cancer from him and the terrible reason he got it. It’s a mystery, it’s a little weird, and it’s strangely beautiful.

My two cents: I read this book in one sitting. It’s not a happy, “fun” story, but it really captured me.

7月 21

EL本棚紹介(78) The Tempest: The Graphic Novel, by William Shakespeare, adapted by John McDonald

[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 Tempest is the last play that Shakespeare wrote by himself. If you have never read Shakespeare or never seen a movie or play by him, you will probably be surprised by this book. The story is full of magic, fairies, and monsters. There is fighting and humor and a little bit of mystery. Everything happens when a great tempest (storm) forces a king, his son, and their comrades onto a mysterious and magical island. The wizard Prospero lives there, and causes all sorts of chaos for the king and his men. However, when you learn about the wizard’s past, you may come to understand his point of view.

Unlike the Shakespeare manga series, this book uses mostly easy to understand modern English. The art is decent, and the whole book is in full color. Because Shakespeare wrote plays, they fit very well with the visual medium of the comic book. Also, as this series is published by an English education company, there is a vocabulary list and interesting information about Shakespeare and the play in the back of the book.

My two cents: I found myself wanting to know more about Caliban’s story as I read. Caliban looks like a monster, but I think you will feel sorry for him and how he is treated.