e-GEOS日記

English Vowels

2007-09-06T19:45:00+09:00

English pronunciation is not easy - especially the vowels.

How many vowel sounds are there in English? In Japanese there are five (a, i, u, e, o) and you might think (based on the written letters) that we have the same number in English. A good guess, but wrong. English has at least ten pure vowels, plus at least three diphthongs (two vowel sounds together). Canadian English has ten, American English has eleven, and British English has twelve. And these are all distinct - they are not just long and short versions of the same vowels (as is the case in Japanese). Here is a way to find them: look for ten words that start with a /t/ sound and end with a /k/ sound. For example, "teak". Don't worry about the spelling - concentrate on the sounds (for example, "take" is one of the words). See if you can find all ten. Next week I will post the answers.

Punctuation

2007-08-24T18:38:00+09:00

Hello everyone. Boy, August has been a hot month. And the Osaki Bon Odori Taikai started today. It really feels like summer - muggy weather, 'matsuri', the sound of 'semi'...

Today I want to stress how important punctuation is. Always be careful to use correct punctuation.

There is a famous book by Lynne Truss (which I just bought) which tells this story:

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Ho, ho, ho. Do you get the joke? By the way, the title of the book is "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (2003, by Lynne Truss) - I recommend it.

To A Great Student

2007-08-02T16:14:00+09:00

Teaching English in Japan is very rewarding, but not always easy. There were many times it was hard for me to find the motivation to teach. Sometimes, I have to admit, I did not feel like I was doing a good job. I felt there was something missing from the classroom.Everyone knows that students depend on teachers to provide good lessons. But I don’t think most people know that teachers depend on students to provide motivation. Honestly speaking, a lot of students expect teachers to do all the work in class. This becomes tiring for the teachers; especially if the students don’t talk. I have had many students like this. These are the hardest students to teach. They can really make a teacher tired of teaching.
Sometimes, however, special students can really motivate a teacher.
This diary is a tribute to one of these students who really motivated.
I started teaching at e-GEOS in 2004. It was hard at first; I had to learn the technology, adjust to teaching from a distance, and work in an office building instead of a classroom. I struggled, and wondered if I could continue doing it.
One day in 2005, I gave a model lesson to a young 10 year-old boy from Nagoya. He was quiet at first, but soon he felt comfortable enough to speak in English. His level was low at first. But he tried very hard.
After a month or so, we began to develop a special routine. Every time he got an answer right, he stuck out his thumb and said “Shyakin!” This was so much fun. His motivation was so high. And soon mine was too.
His dream is to become a pilot. He studies hard at cram school almost every day. He knows everything about planes. He loves math and studying. Most of all, he is extremely hard working and happy. I have never seen a happier young man than him. His spirit is so pure and honest. He is now 12 years old and unfortunately has to study very hard for his school exams.
Today was his last class at e-learning because he must focus on passing his tests. I was very sad to say goodbye. I know he will do well. But I just want to say to him and to everyone who reads this: This young man inspired me. His spirit and energy motivated me as a teacher and a person. I will miss him, but I know that this man is the future of Japan. I am lucky to know him.

Bakemoji - What is this Goobledegook?

2007-07-25T18:32:00+09:00

Building webpages in Japanese is a lot of fun. By 'fun' I mean it is challenging. It is through doing this I learnt the Japanese word 'bakemoji'. Bakemoji describes the strange characters a webpage shows when it cannot display Japanese (or another language).
This is because computers use different codes to display characters. Without being geeky, this means that if your computers code is different to the code the webpage is written in...BAKEMOJI!...So I thought if there was a word for Bakemoji in English but as it is not something English speakers encounter very often I couldn't think of one.

Bakemoji might be called: gobbledegook

Goobledegook usually means language that is too complicated to understand or language made too hard to understand on purpose.

However others words I have heard for bakemoji are: garbage, garbage text, alien speak, garbled text, gibberish and windings (because it looks like the font).
As multilanguage becomes more and more important for the internet I am sure English will soon find a word for it.
But for now there is no word in English and looking at Wikipedia it appears that bake-moji or Mojibake is becoming a Japanese loan word in English for this goobledegook!!

Study Habits

2007-07-24T18:47:00+09:00

Hello Everyone,

It's Alex from e-Learning. Just a short message today:

The best way to study is a little bit everyday. 10 minutes everyday is better than 1 hour every Sunday. You'll find you improve much more quickly if you do this.

And don't give up! Slow and steady wins the race! If you pump enough energy into learning English you will succeed in the end.

Hi - from Tony

2007-07-24T12:20:00+09:00

Hi everyone, my name is Tony, I am teaching Chinese in e-GEOS, for I am Chinese.My English is very poor, so I can't talk in English so much. I know Chinese very well, also I know Japanese too. I have been Japan for six years. I like Japan very much, I like the Sashimi and Shusi and so on. So if you are interest in Chinese, please just come to e-GEOS, and I can tell you not only about Chinese, but also about interesting things in China. I think you can learn a lot of in e-GEOS. Please just have a look in Geos. I hope to meet you soon in e-GEOS.

Cultures in Japan

2007-07-24T17:26:00+09:00

I have lived in Japan for 5 years now and it never ceases to amaze me how much can be learned about foreign cultures, meaning non-Japanese cultures, in Japanparticularly cultures from affluent countries like England, Scotland, Australia, and various other European countries. I grew up in Montreal, Canada, which is one of the most multicultural cities in North America. But over the past 100 years, most of the immigrants to Montreal have been from less affluent regions. Migrant workers from Italy, Ireland, Greece and eastern European countries came in droves in the first part of the 20^th century. I never met many people from the U.K. or Australia. Now that I am in Japan, I work and meet hundreds of people who are incredibly foreign to me. I have actually picked up more English in Japan than I did in Montreal! I have also met many more Germans, Swiss, and Korean then I ever did before. So coming to Japan has not only given me the chance to meet Japanese people, but it also has led me to encounter people from all over the world. Thanks Japan!

The Queen's English

2007-07-20T13:26:00+09:00

I had a conversation recently with one of my students about the differences in British and American English.
Often students have said that they can hear one type of English easily and not the other.
This is not to worry because often British cannot hear Americans clearly and Americans cannot hear British clearly.

One reason for this I have noticed is a single very strong pronunciation difference...
Knowing this makes both dialects easier to hear and also change your pronunciation to sound British or American.Generally American English stresses the 'vowel' sounds which are: A E I O U
Generally British English is softer on vowel sounds and stresses consonants : BCDFKJKLM etc.

So in American: I want ---> I wAn(t) a ... : The 'a' sound is very strong and you can barely hear the 't'
In British: I want ---> I WaNT a : The 'a' is heard less but W,N and especially the 'T' are strongly pronounced.

When an American speaker uses 'Can' and 'Can't', I find British speakers have trouble understanding because they cannot hear the 'T' sound in 'Can't'.
In British English they would pronounce the 'T' strongly.
Therefore they do not know if the American 'Can' or 'Can' as it sounds the same.

Another classic is the word 'Often'
To British people an American is saying 'O-ffen' not 'ofTen'.
See what other words you can find that would change like this.

You can hear this pattern when you listen to American and British speakers.
You can also use this to imitate a British or American accent.

So when you listen to films, TV, music, friends and your teacher --- listen out for this difference!
And if you want to have a certain type of English accent then you can use this to help you.