It seems Twitter is good to see the trends of people who I never likely to talk with. I think some one should make psychoanalysis software based on twitter. Well, I am sure there is one already. Or the twitter or any SNS is doing this for business.
ことば
An incompetent idiot: 池田信夫 (Ikeda Nobuo)
He is the chief of a conservative Japanese blog forum that often complains about liberal minds. Ikeda, who is a professor of a small private Japanese university, does not understand even microns of science and logic of climate change. http://newsweekjapan.jp/column/ikeda/2009/09/25.php Climate change is not measured by year by year variation, it must be measured by the longer term trend, but not so long enough that Earth spin axis starts fluctuating. No wonder he thinks university is useless since people like him are teaching. Top class scientists would strongly disagree. If he thinks university is useless, that is reflecting his qualification as professor: he is a useless prof, just staying the position for the sake of money and prestige.
Here comes an anti-English book, guess what, written by a French lover.
英語を学べばバカになる グローバル思考という妄想 (光文社新書)
暴走する「地球温暖化」論—洗脳・煽動・歪曲の数々
Interestingly the author turned out to be a climate change denier, but I thought these people only exist in some part of the USA. Where is this guy getting his idea? — American media, for sure, since there are not so many climate deniers in France. So learning French as well as reading bad science can make people dumb… To be fair to France, he is just a Japanese idiot who can write well to fool others without content: he is an excellent example of idiots who can learn other languages but cannot understand science. Depressing. French people would be disgusted to know he can speak French…
In general, idiocy comes before learning English not other way around. The author of 英語を学べばバカになる グローバル思考という妄想 (光文社新書) did not even finish his PhD, and he is now a professor of a university: that sadly manifests the level of the university. Too many useless books are around.
“英語を学べばバカになる — グローバル思考という妄想”: I would agree if he wants to say that English becomes “an indulgence” (贖宥状) for losers in Japan: a tool for cherry-picking facts that fit their opinions around the world. People must weigh multiple opinions on given issues to extract most optimal solutions. Equally idiotic is that Japanese who does not understand the world claim that Japan is a heaven since other countries have so many problems.
“キャリアに関するデータの真相 その1:「若者は内向き」という誤解”
http://www.r-agent.co.jp/kyujin/knowhow/tatsujin/20101118.html
This is really an important piece of information no media or people talk about. Media often blast that basically Japanese youths do not have global ambitions. But the decline in Japanese students in American universities stems from more complicated reasons. Many people involved this issue should be aware of these statistical frauds, otherwise they are as incompetent as the very youths they are targeting.
These days there are too many negative news between China and Japan. It is natural to have serious disputes between neighboring countries. I doubt many Japanese who complain about China really know real Chinese in person. Likewise, not many Chinese who are bashing about Japan know about Japanese. Patriotism is one of a few pastimes which any folks, regardless of their intercultural and financial capacity, can enjoy free. Unfortunately people of low intelligence enjoy this too much. If I write this in Japanese or Chinese, I would get many hate mails from both sides. It is convenient to have absolute foreign evils since we are the right one, right? Problems exist and they must be addressed, and they must be addressed constructively. At the same time, we should seek alternative solutions in case nothing works out. Each side should agree to disagree. China nor Japan is a stupid country which haters in both sides are dreaming about. Nor neither of them will geographically go away. So we better learn how to live with disagreements and seek agreements if possible. Cold peace is better than cold war and much better than hot war. The relationship is actually much better than cold peace comparing other fighting countries. We do not have to love each other but we just have to learn to live side by side. We will just get used to each other as time goes by. “We”s used in the last few sentences mean Chinese and Japanese.
How to boost corporate Japan: Stop speaking Japanese.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/11/15/ilist.japan.englishization/
The article is itself boring but its comment section is interesting. I have no interest in the company but it is nice to see how things will work out.
In the comment:
What is the difference between the two? — I forgot going to the post office. I forgot to go to the post office.
I think this is a stupid example. How should non-native should know the difference without more context? It seems the first means that “I intentionally did not go to the post office.” Like “Do you have to study, now. Just forget it.” The second one means the obvious.
三木谷浩史 H. Mikitani (CEO of Rakuten)
He claims that his English is like a native speaker’s. That is too much; he must have been thinking about high school kids when he was discussing his English skill. His innovation skill might overwhelm his poor English grammar but he should get some one to correct his English errors, in at least written format like twitter, which is blatantly public. Any case, he does not use incomprehensible English. His mistakes are typical ones made by many Japanese including myself. Basically he cannot use articles properly.
We (Rakuten Eagles) signed contract with new head coach, Senichi Hoshino today! 2011 season should become very exciting one!
=>We (Rakuten Eagles) signed a contract with the new head coach, Senichi Hoshino today!
Discuss “discuss about”
>Let’s stop discussing about our policy to convert our main language to Eng. We are going to do this to become strong global company.
> I agree…my GE colleagues including Jeff Immelt are using discussing “about” when want to specify the subject.
>Well I think many native people use “discuss about”. At least my friends at Harvard did. How good is your English??RT
=> This was a reply to the complain about the misuse of “discuss about”: discuss is a transitive verb which takes a direct object without a preposition. I think this is a minor mistake but the use of “discuss about” by natives does not change the grammar rule. Especially he tried to justify this by citing “Harvard friends”. He must have forgotten GW Bush also graduated from Harvard MBA. A Harvard MBA does not prove his grammar is acceptable if anything at all. It is better not to use “discuss about” in a formal document. But in a speech, it may depend how people say it. eg. “About” can be a good spacer: like “discuss, … (thinking this and that)… about our best strategy.” (About becomes “bout” in speech and can be very weak, especially in UK.) Well this might sound stupid to natives but …
>We are going to do this to become strong global company.
=> We are going to do this to become “a” strong global company.
>now most of my meetings are in English. I think we are making a good progress!!
=> making good progress!! (progress: uncountable)
>We are about to start have the first monthly board meeting in English.
=> We are about to start the first monthly ~
(This type of error means nothing in practice but a jerk like me can dig this out.)
>Today all company meeting is in 100% English. Going well!
–>The meaning is slightly ambiguous. He might have wanted to say:
=>Today all company meetings are in 100% English.
=>Today the company meeting is in 100% English.
>We added MacOS 10.5 to our required OS for Rakuten Toolbar. The required browsers for MacOS are Firefox 3.0, 3.5, and 3.6.
=> I guess he meant: required ->supported
>Today we are going to have semi off site meeting w board members at Rakuten New Tower!
=> a semi off site meeting
>Good morning! It’s beautiful day here in Tokyo! Many many thanks for great messages for my birthday from my followers yesterday!
=> It’s a beautiful day ~
>Good morning, we are in the first ”English” executive meeting. Big step for truely internationalize the company for Rakuten.
=> A big step for truly globalizing the company for Rakuten.
=> A big step toward truly globalizing the company for Rakuten.
>Bangkok we have Rakuten Travel Branch! Yoroshiku!RT @ibekai: @hmikitani Really! we are very very hottest about 35 temperature in Bangkok!
=> It’s very hot: the max temp is 35 (Celsius). => People would know it was very hot.
>Make sence!RT @NYasunaga : Nation is the notion made by people. So the breakers can be the people. It’s all up to us .
(These are not his comments.)
=>A nation is the notion defined by a people. So the breakers can be the people themselves. It’s all up to us. (This is very tricky and it depends on the meaning.)
> I read a book called “the world is flat” it is very interesting and the book talk about the
=> the book talks about
He may be mumbling correct words in his head but typing wrong words in his busy schedule. There is no doubt he can communicate in English effectively but I do not see such many errors by natives in very short sentences, though his twittering is much better than others.
Writing is a good way to uncover errors since you can write and come back some time later when you can look at the own sentences with fresh eyes.
(It shows fake words to prevent people from guessing.)
V-Check report http://www.wordengine.jp/ 英単語力測定
WordEngine is a computer based English vocabulary assessment test developed by a Prof of Aoyama Gakuin university. I am not convinced of the validity of the method: at the very beginning, I was punished with a yellow card for pushing a wrong button. (Or meme is correct word as they confirmed.) I do not think they can check one’s vocabulary without using a more extensive test. Some of the words, never have I have seen before, but no context was given so it was useless. (Note: It seems they are intentionally inserting fake words. If I know that, I would have scored better. The score method is described below.) You can see the score below, but vocabulary is essential but constructing concept and sentences are more essential. As far as vocabulary is concerned, mine is close to the native or more in science. But I do not know much English in comedy and colloquial expression: especially expressions and words related to pop cultures.
Probably I know about 20,000 English words and perhaps much more, considering that I finished all of my degrees in Canada working on various fields. Getting degrees requires extremely a large number of vocabulary, though physics requires more mathematics and computing skills than words. Retrospectively, if I had my current English knowledge when I was in university, I would have had an easier life: that is, my college life was almost nothing but hell because of the lack of English skill. But when you are in the hell you may not realize you are in the hell since you cannot see the life beyond: the hell becomes the norm of life. That may be a good thing to reduce further suffering. Many people undervalue formal education, but it does provide a solid knowledge background though it may seem intangible.
I do not watch TVs, movies nor read non-fictions. (But I will read more and buy some vocab books.) I have hard time to concentrating watching TVs which I only do while I am flying. The average seems very low. I have never seen TOEIC exams these days — I used its materials years ago for improving my listening skill. But, based on what I got, a serious English teacher should get a high score, though any people who have been using English more than 15 years should have sufficient vocabulary, but not so much accuracy.
Based on this score, there is no course available from this company since I cannot select any class; when I tried to select a class to find out my coverage, it said there was not enough words to learn. My maximum words to learn was 5.
Perfecting English skills is waste of time for the beginners. Once people clear the initial difficulty, however, they need to know details: especially, they need to know phrases they are using are commonly used or not. And commonly used English phrases by Japanese are often wrong partly because they are constructing English sentences in Japanese mind sets.
This does not mean they should brain wash themselves with Anglophone culture and custom. It just means people need to know commonly used phrases, and inventing phrases without knowing English in some details would cause confusion. Literal direct translation often makes wired English expression.
This problem is not specific to Japanese but to all the other non-native people. Or even Anglophone people often encounter difficulties as well if regional custom is different from their own. Obviously people cannot what I am writing here do not need to worry about this type of mistakes but people who are teaching English in any way should know this.
So what kind of errors do Japanese make? These days Japanese are writing English in blogs and twitters, we can see errors people often make.
attend to Osaka university to study=>attend Osaka university to study
my nickname was determinated.=>my nickname was determined.
Kids go university. Parents will go to the university to see their kids.
I’m a starman. ?? Are you alien? I do not get it.
to achieve deeper communication with people all over the world.= to communicate with people around the word. A complicated sentence does not make a better expression. Simple is best if you are not sure. Fewer words will make fewer possible errors.
I believe reading is important for enriching life.=>I believe reading can enrich our life.
「発音は完璧だけれど、語彙が少ない人や 語るべき内容がない人」はまったく尊敬されません –> No one respects fluent English speakers with little vocabulary and intellectual depth.
入国審査で「コンニチワ」
Custom officers may friendly say “konnichiwa”. But do not be fooled that they are friendly. They are just checking if the subjects (you) understand the basic Japanese. If a non-Japanese are faking as a Japanese they might freeze up. I do often freeze up thinking “Are you talking to me? What’s wrong with you?”. The best way to handle wired comments is just to smile and ignore these phrases.
„Man kann auch ganz burleske Fälle konstruieren. Eine Katze wird in eine Stahlkammer gesperrt, zusammen mit folgender Höllenmaschine (die man gegen den direkten Zugriff der Katze sichern muß): in einem Geigerschen Zählrohr befindet sich eine winzige Menge radioaktiver Substanz, so wenig, daß im Laufe einer Stunde vielleicht eines von den Atomen zerfällt, ebenso wahrscheinlich aber auch keines; geschieht es, so spricht das Zählrohr an und betätigt über ein Relais ein Hämmerchen, das ein Kölbchen mit Blausäure zertrümmert. Hat man dieses ganze System eine Stunde lang sich selbst überlassen, so wird man sich sagen, daß die Katze noch lebt, wenn inzwischen kein Atom zerfallen ist. Der erste Atomzerfall würde sie vergiftet haben. Die Psi-Funktion des ganzen Systems würde das so zum Ausdruck bringen, daß in ihr die lebende und die tote Katze (s. v. v.) zu gleichen Teilen gemischt oder verschmiert sind. Das Typische an solchen Fällen ist, daß eine ursprünglich auf den Atombereich beschränkte Unbestimmtheit sich in grobsinnliche Unbestimmtheit umsetzt, die sich dann durch direkte Beobachtung entscheiden läßt. Das hindert uns, in so naiver Weise ein „verwaschenes Modell“ als Abbild der Wirklichkeit gelten zu lassen…“
BBC stopped practicing queen’s English long time ago and there is no such a thing as British accent, people here say. Lots of lots of regional accents, that is.
You will find many insights on English education in Japan. Her thesis is probably more useful than non-systematic discussion on this topic. This is better than a blog written by critics who proclaim to be an English expert without any credential. Getting a PhD is not impossibly difficult but it is more taxing than just writing blogs.
INVESTIGATING CLASSROOM DYNAMICS IN JAPANESE UNIVERSITY EFL CLASSROOMS: YASUYO MATSUMOTO
Investigating classroom dynamics in Japanese university EFL
[PPT]
Investigating Classroom Dynamics in Japanese University EFL Classrooms
A thesis submitted to
The University of Birmingham
For the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYDepartment of English
The University of Birmingham
September 2008
AbstractSince 1868 to the present day, the Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Culture (MEXT) has implemented many reforms to enhance English education in Japanese universities. However, much still remains to be done to improve the situation and one of the biggest hurdles is the fact that there are many unmotivated students in Japanese university EFL classrooms. This thesis explores the reasons for this problem by focusing on inter- and intra-relations between teachers and students in this context. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and questionnaires. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and uses space and methodological triangulation in order to overcome parochialism. My conclusions are that: 1) Visible and invisible inter-member relations exist between members of university classes and their teachers; 2) The teacher‟s behaviour affects the students‟ behaviour and impacts on their learning; and 3) Cooperative learning has a positive influence on language acquisition; 4) Japanese university students may not perceive how little interaction they have with their teacher; 5) Students exhibit gender differences in terms of the types of problems encountered and the ways in which they deal with them, but some problems are dealt with negatively by female and male students alike; and 6) Teachers appear not to perceive the problems and when they do they often deal with them by using negative strategies.
Some highlights from “Higher Education in Japan Higher Education in JapanHigher Education” They should be able to write better English, though that is not the point of the report.
“Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”
1. To invite international students to study in Japan
>Motivation for studying in Japan and expansion of the one-stop service>
$ To actively provide information about studying in Japan.
$ To strengthen the consultative function for students willing to study in Japan.
$ To enrich overseas Japanese language education and other measures.2. To improve entrances including entrance examination and admission to university and Japan
>To facilitate studying in Japan>
$ To strengthen universities’ abilities to provide information
$ To promote admission before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To promote the settlement of various procedures before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To have universities strictly manage their registrations and simplify immigration inspection etc. and other measures.
3. To promote the globalization of universities etc.
>To make universities more attractive>
$ To predominantly develop Universities as centers for Internationalization (30).
$ To increase courses conducted only in English.
$ To promote double degree programs, short-term overseas study programs and others.
$ To strengthen specialized organizational systems including universities etc. and other measures.
4. To create an acceptance environment
>Efforts to create an environment where students can feel at ease to concentrate on their study.
$ To make it possible to provide students with accommodation for a year or less after their arrival in Japan.
$ To improve and utilize the Japanese government scholarship student system etc.
$ To support and promote exchange activities with local communities, businesses, etc.
$ To enrich Japanese language education in Japan.
$ To give livelihood support to international students etc. and other measures.
5. To promote the social acceptance of students after graduation/completion.
>Globalization of the Japanese society>
$ Industry, government and academia cooperate to support students in seeking jobs or starting enterprises.
$ To consider clarification of the visa status and reworking of students’ permitted period of residence.
$ To enrich follow-up activities after students return to their own countries and other measures.
$ “Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”
The number of graduate students more than doubled in the past 20 years while the population of that age group decreased significantly. The older generation might question of the qualification and quality of these students. While younger generations argue that they are working harder and smarter, and the advance of technologies gives them greater advantage over their previous generations. This type of generational conflicts probably existed even before human started using fire if they lived long enough. All the generations think they are living in a special moment.
The number of Japanese who study abroad is not decreasing when the number of students is factored into the equation. Over all people are now studying many different places as the price of education in developed countries become prohibitively high. Despite constant political hostility between Asian neighbors, many Japanese find opportunities in these countries.
[PDF] 日本人の海外留学者数 … 76,464 ← 日本人の海外留学者数
[PDF] 日本人学生等の海外留学