The Latest News in ELT

December 2003

The English BodyLine?!
A Korean TV show is taking a fresh approach to English language study. "The First Class of Republic of Korea," which airs at 11pm on a weeknight, is based around the idea of revealing the secret tricks of 'masters' of English. These include well-known actors and actresses as well as English teachers. The panelists relate stories of their, often embarrassing, experiences with English or the kinds of techniques or concepts that have helped them master the language, some without ever leaving their own country. Examples include viewing oneself as a baby who was just born in the U.S., beating a drum to get a feel for the rhythms of English, and giving English sentences a visual form by drawing a 'bodyline.'

"English has a different bodyline from our language," says teacher Moon Dahn-yol, and suggests the learner draw the bodyline with his own hands. He takes the phrase, "I have a problem," as an example and asks the learners to feel the intonation and stress of English themselves while making a shape of a gourd bottle as follows: small bulge (I)...narrow neck (have a)...large bulge(pro-)...narrow neck(-blem). (December 19, 2003 )

Little Matsui in the Big Apple
There's no doubting his ability on the field, but Kazuo Matsui, the former Seibu Lions shortstop who recently signed to play with the New York Mets next season, is eager to work on his English skills. On a recent visit to his newly adopted hometown, he greeted the press with his trademark cheerful smile and a self introduction, "Hello everybody. My name is Kazuo Matsui. I love New York." The seven-time All Star is known as "Little Matsui" in comparison to the bigger Hideki Matsui who joined the crosstown Yankees last season, or just "Kaz." At a later news conference he talked about his study plans. "I really want to study English," Matsui said. "There is an expression in Japanese, 'Even if I could do it one day quicker,' I wish I could speak with all of you guys; the sooner, the better. I want to be able to speak with my teammates, to be able to have conversations with them. It will help me with my team. I'm going to be very active in studying English." ()

Tom Cruise Cured of Dyslexia
According to a statement from Tokyo General Hospital, Hollywood actor Tom Cruise was cured of his dyslexia while in Japan shooting his latest film, "The Last Samurai." Apparently, the star can now read perfectly without aid from anyone else. In the course of Cruise's deep research into the film which involved learning Japanese, "something miraculous happened. Suddenly I could read anything Japanese. The local newspapers, the script, the beer labels, everything," Mr. Cruise, beaming his million dollar smile, said. "My tutor was totally blown away."

That being noted, Cruise still finds difficulty in the English language. "That's probably why me and Nicole (Kidman) couldn't work things out. Never mind. I've found my calling," he remarked. "I hear the beer ads here pay a lot! And think of the marketing possibilities!" Apparently Cruise was referring to his new film to begin shooting this week, entitled "Show Me The Money," to be filmed entirely in the Japanese language. It will be remembered that in the 90's, Cruise revealed to the world his disease, which inspired millions of people around the world to become Hollywood box-office superstars, examples of which include The Rock and Shaquille O' Neal.
(Courtesy of Lorenzo Lee, TheSpoof.com) ()

English Teachers' Conference in Taiwan
On Tuesday, The Korea Times carried a report on this year's International Symposium and Book Fair on English Teaching, held in Taipei. The writer attended as the representative of KOREA TESOL, and was surprised to see that the event was much bigger than the equivalent in Korea. Noyable speakers included Steven Krashen, Jeremy Harmer and Susan Stempleski. On the final day, representatives from Taiwan, Japan and Korea had a Pan-Asian Conference meeting to discuss improvements to the PAC organization. The next PAC conference will be held in Vladivostok in June, 2004.
Korea Times article (December 18, 2003 )

Travel With the Nova Usagi
"Nova Usagi," the pink rabbit that has been the commercial face of major English conversation school chain Nova for the last couple of years, now has its own computer game. The software features the character in nine different travel-related situations, such as sightseeing and shopping, and allows users to practice relevant phrases. "Nova Usagi no Travel English," produced by Unbalance Corp., goes on sale on January 30 and retails for ¥3,980. The rabbit has featured in a series of TV commercials and Usagi merchandise has sold very well. ()

Mixed Views at JALT Forum
Yesterday's Daily Yomiuri carried a report on the open forum sponsored by the newspaper at the recent "JALT 3002" (sic) conference. Education minister Takeo Kawamura was scheduled to appear but was unable to attend. Hitoshi Nara, head of the ministry's international education section, stood in and with the other five forum panelists discussed the current state of education reform. Not all opinions expressed were in accord. JACET president Mamoru Morizumi was critical of the compulsory training imposed on all 60,000 English teachers as part of the reform plan introduced last year, saying that it was "too one-sided and uniform." He also said that overall the plan was unfocused, adding, "It's not clear why we should learn English, what we are trying to do with English and what kind of Japanese we want to be." Also, in a direct contradiction of the views of Kiichi Matsuhata, president of JASELE, former U.N. undersecretary general Yasushi Akashi questioned the change of focus from reading and writing to a more communicative approach. "To have a high-level conversation in English, we have to acquire proper reading and writing abilities first. It is also necessary to acquire wide knowledge about the world - the differences in culture, ideas, logic, etc - before English ability itself," he said. Other speakers looked at the role of ALTs at all education levels and the importance of English in international business.
Daily Yomiuri article (December 17, 2003 )

Chomsky Backs Tokyo Uni. Protest
As a follow up to our recent story on the assimiliation of four public universities in Tokyo, there is a site for teachers who wish to protest aspects of the plan, which include many staff losing their jobs. The central aim of the university reform project is "the reorganization and integration" of four Tokyo Metropolitan universities (Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology, Tokyo Metropolitan University of Health Sciences, and Tokyo Metropolitan College) "in the form of a single comprehensive university by April 2005." While it is rare for public workers to be fired, such a realignment project allows the metropolitan government to considerably streamline staff numbers. The four universities currently employ some 39 teachers of English and/or Anglo-American literature, a number that is expected to be greatly reduced. The current list of appeal "sympathizers" includes several from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, most notably the world's preeminent language theorist Noam Chomsky (who, when contacted by ELT News, declined to comment further). The site is mostly in Japanese and French, but also includes some background and a letter of protest in English.
Appeal | Letter of protest (December 16, 2003 )

Rumsfeld Knows What he Knows
And you thought the Japanese came up with baffling English! The UK's Plain English Campaign has awarded this year's "Foot In Mouth" award to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The award, for the most baffling statement by a public figure, was well deserved by America's suave PR man in the war on Iraq. Rumsfeld said during a news briefing on the war, "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns, there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." "We think we know what he means," said Plain English Campaign spokesman John Lister. "But we don't know if we really know." Recently elected California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was a runner up for his opinion that "gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman." Appliance maker SMEG was one of several winners of the "Golden Bull" award for its dishwasher manual which contained the instruction: "By pressing the relative button of desired program (see table) it will lid up the relative pilot light to confirm that the operation did occurred on the DISPLAY (9) will appear a program duration forecasting." (December 15, 2003 )

For the Gaijin Who Has Everything
In her Saturday 'Japan Lite' column in the Japan Times, Amy Chavez suggested some Christmas gifts for the above mentioned foreigner in Japan. Her first idea, a "questioning machine" - as opposed to answering machine - for your telephone combined with a toll number, seemed almost plausible as a means of making some extra cash from Japanese callers who want to practice their speaking. Reading on, however, the article is obviously not meant to be taken so seriously. Unless you feel there really is a need for machine that translates aizuchi, "those sometimes confusing signals Japanese people use when communicating, such as sucking in air through the teeth or the long, drawn-out 'sooooooooooo desu ne.'"
Japan Lite ()

New Tokyo University to Team Up With Language Schools
In an unprecedented move, a new university planned by the Tokyo metropolitan government is to commission private language schools to handle its foreign language courses. Students will have to attain a certain level of language skill in order to graduate, but will be able to earn the necessary credits at schools off campus. There will be exemptions for students already proficient in a foreign language, such as those who have lived or studied abroad. The plan reflects one university official's thinking, that experts in foreign literature or linguistics "are not necessarily skillful in teaching foreign languages."

An education ministry spokesman said, "It's no problem to invite outside instructors to the campus. However, if the university leaves the foreign language curriculum and grading of students to the discretion of an outside school, they can't be recognized as university classes." The new university is set to open in April 2005 and will replace four existing public institutions. (December 12, 2003 )

ALTs to Face Off at WC2003 Venue
The finals of the 5th All-Japan ALT Soccer Tournament will be held next month at Saitama Stadium, a venue used for last year's World Cup. The event is open to teams made up of current and former Assistant Language Teachers on the JET Program. Regional playoffs were held in October and November, and the top eight teams will play on January 10 & 11, 2004. The event is supported by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, regional education boards, the Mainichi Newspaper group and several private companies, including Kirin Brewery and Mitsui & Co.
5th All-Japan ALT Soccer Tournament ()

Yohan to Publish TOEIC-based Catalog
Major book distributor Yohan is to publish a catalog aimed at getting young people to read more English books. "Hajimete Yomu Eigo no Hon" (First English Books) will base next spring's catalog on the TOEIC and TOEIC bridge level system. For example "Frog and Toad," the translated version of the book "Kaeru to Gama-kun" which is included in the Japanese curriculum, would be listed under TOEIC bridge 110-120. The catalog is being supervised by Junichi Chida of the English education consulting company ICC and author of the bestselling "Zettai, Dokuyomu." The idea was developed in response to requests from teachers. Yohan plan to send 15,000 copies free of charge to junior and senior high schools. Another catalog, focusing on general literature and based on TOEIC scores, will be distributed at book stores nationwide. (December 11, 2003 )

Bogus J-E Phrasebook Getting Tourists in Trouble
Yahoo!'s entertainment site carried a story last week about a bogus Japanese-to-English phrasebook that is getting tourists into a lot of trouble. The story sounds far-fetched but goes like this: every phrase in the book, which has reportedly sold more than 50,000 copies in the last year, is deliberately mistranslated. The garbled phrases have led to "blank stares, hysterical laughter or even brutal beatings." The result has been over 2,000 incidents reported to the Japanese embassy in the US. According to an embassy spokesman, "This is not a funny matter to us... Tourists have been found beaten to a pulp on street corners with this terrible phrase book still in their hands."

Examples given include the phrase 'Can you direct me to the rest room?' being translated as, 'Excuse me, may I caress your buttocks?' One of several incidents recounted in the article reads: A 29-year-old Tokyo man visiting San Francisco for the first time meant to ask a female store clerk, "May I please have film for my camera?" But what he actually said was, "Would you place your copious breasts in my mouth?" He was slapped in the face, then got tossed out by the manager.
Yahoo! Entertainment News & Gossip (December 10, 2003 )

Krashen vs Childs - Part II
A letter printed in the Daily Yomiuri by the famous Stephen Krashen challenging an article by Marshall Childs has elicited the following response from the author (DY, Dec. 7. Unfortunately, the original article is no longer accessible on the DY site, except to paid subscribers) "No risk to children from bilingual upbringing "I am flattered to attract the attention, even the public criticism, of the famous Dr. Krashen (Letters, Dec. 2). But in this case I must protest that the good doctor seems to have gotten his preconceptions ahead of his facts.

"In response to my column, Krashen wrote that Japanese parents who presume to speak English to their children may actually damage the children with "imperfect" English, for imperfect communication "can cripple emotional and intellectual development."

"Certainly it is true that poor parent-child communication can have bad effects. developmental psychologists teach us the ways in which this can happen.

"But does "imperfect" English lead to poor parent-child communication? The logic is missing a middle step. Surely Krashen is not proposing that the child is able to judge and reject all but the Queen's English. Nor can he mean that "imperfct" English thrusts children into the condition of "wild children" (those few children, famous in psycholinguistic literature) who were denied access to any language and whose psychological development was indeed strange. What, then?

"Human beings use language and many other means to communicate love, security and other necessary messages. Judgements by others as to the degree of perfection of the languages used have nothing to do with the quality of a parent-child relationship or of the emotional and intellectual development of the child.

"To my knowledge, language that others may judge "imperfect" does not, by itself, cause bad communication. Parents and babies usually communicate quite well. The families I have studied were communication very well indeed.

"Where is the evidence that "imperfect" language impairs parent-child communication to the point of causing psychological damage? If Krashen is in possession of such evidence, he owes aily Yomiuri readers - and mankind - a full account of it.

"Marshall R. Childs, Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture" (December 09, 2003 )

Getting Ready for Speech Wins International Acclaim
Getting Ready for Speech, a basic level speech and presentation text, won recognition in the Education/Academic/Teaching category of the 20th annual Independent Publisher Book Awards. Of the three finalists, only Getting Ready for Speech was an EFL/ESL textbook. A spokesperson for the publisher, Japan-based Language Solutions, said "This award is really ironic. The last unit of Getting Ready for Speech features speeches on giving and receiving awards." The book was co-authored by David Harrington and Charles LeBeau, both veteran teachers in Japan. Awards were presented at BookExpo America in New York.
Independent Publisher Book Awards | Language Solutions Inc ()

Free DVD From Genki English
The Genki English duo, made up of ex-elementary school JETs Richard Graham and Will Jasprizza, have released a new DVD and are giving away 1,000 free copies to elementary schools. For the last 3 years Genki English have been giving voluntary training sessions at elementary schools across the country. In June this year alone, they taught 1,000 teachers and over 7,000 kids. The Genki English website is now visited by 2,000 people a day from 99 different countries. They currently have too many requests from schools than they can handle in person, and so released three of their most popular lessons in video format on the DVD. "The Genki English mission is to make sure that elementary school English doesn't turn out like the boring, grammar based system used in junior high schools, where hardly anyone learns how to speak," said Graham. "With our travels around Japan, we have seen the amazing results teachers have been getting using Genki English, where the kids really enjoy English and want to learn more.
Genki English | DVD cover (large) ()

City Backs Racist Teacher
Saturday's Japan Times reported that the Fukuoka Municipal Government urged the court on Friday to reject a damages suit filed against the city and an elementary school teacher who is accused of physically and verbally abusing a 9-year-old student. The abuse is said to have started after the teacher discovered during a home visit that the boy's great-grandfather was American. Apart from physical abuse, he is accused of racial slurs and urging the boy to commit suicide. The boy and his parents are seeking compensation of 13 million yen from the city and the 46-year-old teacher. In Friday's session, the municipal government admitted the teacher, who has been suspended for six months, did commit some of the alleged acts. The teacher did not enter a plea as he has not found a lawyer. In contrast, the case has attracted a legal team of over 500 lawyers to defend the boy's case. (December 08, 2003 )

American School Operator Arrested
John M. Christiansen (49) and his wife, Mitsuko Kagawa (55), were arrested on November 25 by the Ibaraki Labour Standards Office (LSO) on suspicion of violating the Labour Standards Law over unpaid wages. The couple operate three schools in the Osaka area under the name American English Academy and have about 150 students. The charges relate to some ¥340,000 in wages unpaid to three foreign teachers between November 2002 and February of this year. The Berlitz chapter of the General Union claims to have heard of many cases of unpaid wages with this company since 1996. Most recently, the union managed to get payment of one teacher's wages and an apology through mediation in January last year at the Osaka Labour Commission. According to a GU spokesperson, "The arrests were inevitable considering that the LSO had already given the company 6 warnings and prosecuted twice. The problem was that the company still showed no real intention of improving the situation. Our union has long been pushing for the LSO to use their powers more against recalcitrant companies, and this, the first arrest of its kind in Osaka for 14 years, is a great step forward. We will now be pushing the LSO to take harsher action against all those companies who refuse their orders, and not to wait till the seventh refusal." ()

Saddam Lives - in English Texts
The administration currently overseeing reconstruction of war-torn Iraq has been advised not to replace existing English language textbooks, despite their references to Saddam Hussein. Malcolm Griffiths, a freelance ELT consultant contracted by the British Council to carry out an assessment of ELT needs in Iraq, was impressed by the standard of English language curriculum design under the Saddam regime. In his report he said that a newly designed curriculum and textbooks were sound and reflected up-to-date thinking, adding that the Saddam references could be easily removed by teachers and students. "I'd seen much more politically influenced materials in the past and I thought this was actually quite mild," he said in an interview published in the council's internal magazine. "My approach would be to set up a series of seminars on how to work with and adapt these materials - rather than throw them out and lose lots of time writing an entirely new series of books." (From an Education Guardian story) (December 05, 2003 )

Japan Speaks to the World - in English
The Japan Center for International Communications (JCIC) has launched a portal site linking people worldwide to various web sites where Japanese companies and organizations express their opinions in English. On the top page of JCIC's web site, called Japan Information Network (JIN), are three gateway buttons -- Opinion, JIN Facts and Business. The Opinion section displays links to web sites divided into seven categories, such as nonprofit and other independent organizations, think tanks, academia and student groups. In 1995, the JCIC started an English-language web site about Japan, receiving more than 200 million hits a year mainly from U.S. educational institutions. Masamichi Hanabusa, chairman of the English-Speaking Union of Japan, who helped upgrade the web site, said, "We want to change the current situation in which overseas people have few opportunities to hear Japanese opinions, as well as provide a venue for young people to send messages in English worldwide." (From the Nikkei Keizai Shimbun)
JIN Web site ()

From Japan to Braidwood
If you think that a Japanese exchange student going to Australia isn't in itself newsworthy, think again. The local Tallaganda Times considered the presence of young Shiga native Seiya Yamashiro in the town of Braidwood a big enough story to give it print space. Seiya certainly seems to have enjoyed his "unforgettable trip" through the Australian outback.
Tallaganda Times (December 04, 2003 )

RIC Brings Diana's Story to Japan
RIC Publications translation division has just finished the Japanese translation of the most popular book in the world at the moment, "Diana - A Royal Duty." A huge hit around the world, it has had thousands of newspapers engrossed in their coverage. According to RIC president John Moore, "The RIC translation team managed to get the work completed on a very tight schedule, although it is only one of many books that we have taken on recently." As featured in ELT News in the past, RIC translation services is growing very steadily and is happy to look at anything that educators may need and welcomes any enquiries. Diana - A Royal Duty will be published December 18 with a Japanese publishing company. ()

Krashen vs. Childs
Yesterday's Daily Yomiuri also included a letter to the editor from famed linguist and author Stephen Krashen. It was a response to an article by Marshall Childs that appeared in the newspaper last week. Titled "No need for parents to talk to kids in English," it read as follows:

"I understand parents' desires to "raise tots to be multilingual" (The Practical Linguist, No. 28), but there is no need for Japanese-speaking parents to talk to their children in English. The advantages are slight and can be had elsewhere, and there are dangers.

By far the easiest way to make sure children master other languages are good programs in school - programs that fill the classroom hour with interesting projects, games, and discussions, and that provide children with lots of interesting reading, including comics, magazines and good novels.
Our research strongly supports this approach, but most foreign-language programs hold on to painful and inefficient methods that overemphasize grammar and memorization of vocabulary.

Those who take a great deal of pleasure reading in a second language automatically develop a large vocabulary as well as high levels of grammatical accuracy.

The research also tells us that there is no need to begin super-early; in fact, those who begin second languages later progress faster. It is more efficient to start at age 10 than at age 5.

Parents' use of a foreign language with their children can backfire when the parents do not speak the language well and communication is imperfect. Imperfect parent-child communication can cripple emotional and intellectual development. It isn't worth taking the chance."

Stephen Krashen, Los Angeles
Daily Yomiuri article (December 03, 2003 )

The World of Children's Books
Yesterday's Daily Yomiuri included two articles about English books for children in Japan. Emi Oshima, a director of the Kids' Books store in Hiroo, Tokyo, is one of the editors of Not Just For Kids, a guide to lesser-known English-language children's books from overseas. Though she expected the guide to sell mainly to mothers of young children, she has found that it is also being bought by teachers and young adults. Kids' Books has just launched an online workshop to help Japanese enjoy reading English-language children's books via its Web site. The article also looked at volunteers who give English-language storytelling sessions at public libraries and primary schools.
Daily Yomiuri article | Kids' Books

The second article was a feature on John Moore, president of RIC-Publications Asia. Moore set up the company a year ago because he felt that there was a large untapped world market for English translations of quality Japanese children's books. The first title he chose was "Hajimete no Otsukai" which has been popular in Japan for three decades. Under the title "Miki's First Errand" it became a strong seller on the Amazon Japan Web site, something Moore was very proud of.
Daily Yomiuri article | RIC-Publications Asia ()

Visit Tokyo, Please!
In its latest effort to attract more foreign tourists, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced a plan to offer free tours of the city to foreign workers and students who are about to return home. The hope is that word of mouth will help their bring friends and family to visit the city. Three one-day tours, one in February and two in March, will be offered to up to 90 foreign diplomats, businesspeople and students who have lived in Japan for three to five years. The tours will cover such areas as the traditional "downtown" of Asakusa, the Odaiba shopping and entertainment district and a night cruise on the Sumida River. All transportation costs will be covered by the government, who will also provide thirty guide/interpreters. Tokyo annually attracts about 3 million visitors from abroad but aims to match Singapore's figure of 6 million by 2006. The city has been trying to make itself more visitor-friendly by, among other things, erecting more bilingual signs but still has to contend with its image of high prices and the poor English level of its natives. (December 02, 2003 )

Cats and Dogs
First it was Bowlingual. Now there's Meowlingual. Yes, cat owners felt that they needed to communicate with their pets in the same way as Bowlingual enabled dogs to 'speak' to their owners. Toy maker Takara have recently put the device, which has a microphone and an LCD display, on sale for ¥8,800. Bowlingual captured the public imagination and has sold hundreds of thousands of units since its release. Takara are hoping to shift 300,000 units of the feline version by the end of next March. ()

Shizuoka Student Wins Speech Contest
Yoshinori Tanaka, a ninth-grade student from Shizuoka Prefecture, was awarded the H.I.H. Prince Takamado Trophy in the 55th All Japan Inter-Middle School English Oratorical Contest on Saturday, held at Yomiuri Hall in Yurakucho, Tokyo. Princess Takamado, the widow of Prince Takamado, who died just after last year's contest, presented the trophy this year. More than 100,000 students took part in the contest.

In the final round, the winner beat 26 other finalists with a speech titled "The REAL Japan," in which Tanaka, who lives in the temple in which his father serves, said he used to be "ashamed of my father's crazy job, my crazy family, my crazy home." When he participated in a homestay program in Australia, Tanaka was surprised to hear his host mother, after learning of his family background, say, "We have never met anyone from the real Japan before." That made him think seriously about Buddhism, and he has come to believe in the importance of teaching young people to appreciate Buddhist traditions. "We have got to teach children from a very young age to enjoy our temples," he said.
(From The Daily Yomiuri) (December 01, 2003 )

Raising Multilingual Tots
Marshall Childs' "The Practical Linguist" column in last Friday's Daily Yomiuri was on the topic of raising young children to be bilingual or even multilingual in this country. He talks of a "grass roots" movement in Japan, with hundreds or even thousands of families raising their kids to speak both Japanese and English. Some run Web sites and mailing lists for like-minded parents, providing a growing support network. The necessity for such grass roots efforts is largely due to the failure of the education system in this area. Childs also mentions the commonly held fear that learning English from an early age will impede a Japanese child's ability to learn their own language, adding that these particular parents "do not seem to have such qualms."
Daily Yomiuri article ()

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