Home > The Treasure Hunt Club > No. 57 Made in Japan
No. 57 Made in Japan (2010年04月10日)
カテゴリー: The Treasure Hunt Club
投稿者: 名ばかり編集長
This month I have another collection of different websites connected
only by the fact that they were made in Japan and are aimed at
Japanese learners.
First up is Fear No English. It is a rather nice little side project
of some teachers in Kanazawa, including Wes Cunningham. It’s free to
use for everyone (registration is required though you can access quite
a lot as a guest). The site is designed to be fun and user-friendly
and it succeeds nicely. It has a quirky sense of humor but is
pedagogically very sound. The audio for pronunciation, for example,
allows you to compare slow careful pronunciation with natural reduced
forms―you can hear and see the difference. A nice resource for self
study. http://fearnoenglish.com/
Most readers are familiar with the story of Little Charo, the English
course running on NHK. You might not know, however, that a second
season has just begun (on March 29th) and a brand new website has been
built to accompany the series. NHK seems to have put together a very
capable team to produce the website and it is a nice accompaniment to
the videos. There are explanations and many activities to help
learners follow along with the series and maximize learning.
http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/charo-nclub/index.cgi#
And speaking of NHK, they have begun broadcasting a series of lectures
by Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel who wrote the 2009 book Justice:
What’s the Right Thing to Do? This is a unique opportunity to
experience a lecture series that comes with a simultaneous Japanese
translation that you can use to check your understanding when
necessary. The topic is justice and Dr. Sandel explores many
controversial topics in an engaging and stimulating manner. Each of
the half-hour lectures has its own theme. Interesting historical
cases, thought experiments, and moral stories are used to illustrate
the themes and Dr. Sandel asks the students in the audience to give
their opinions to show the diversity of opinions on each issue. You
might find some of topics can work to get your students talking as
well. Here is the Amazon (US) page for his book. It also contains a
short video introducing the lecture series.
http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Whats-Right-Thing-Do/dp/0374180652/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270427837&sr=8-2.
And here is the NHK page showing the broadcast schedule for the
lectures in Japan (in Japanese). http://www.nhk.or.jp/harvard/
Finally this month I’d like to introduce a site that elementary school
teachers may find useful. It was made by Omuta City in Kyushu and it
is a collection of teaching points, activities and games for use in
elementary schools. The best part of the site is its long list of
lesson plans (enough for 2 years of lessons) and the extensive use of
videos illustrating how the games should be organized and played. For
elementary school teachers who need to start teaching English but are
not very familiar with how it can be done, this is a great place to
start building a collection of games. The site displays best in
Internet Explorer and you may have some problems viewing some content
if you are using Firefox or Safari.
http://www.e-net21.city.omuta.fukuoka.jp/english/index.htm
only by the fact that they were made in Japan and are aimed at
Japanese learners.
First up is Fear No English. It is a rather nice little side project
of some teachers in Kanazawa, including Wes Cunningham. It’s free to
use for everyone (registration is required though you can access quite
a lot as a guest). The site is designed to be fun and user-friendly
and it succeeds nicely. It has a quirky sense of humor but is
pedagogically very sound. The audio for pronunciation, for example,
allows you to compare slow careful pronunciation with natural reduced
forms―you can hear and see the difference. A nice resource for self
study. http://fearnoenglish.com/
Most readers are familiar with the story of Little Charo, the English
course running on NHK. You might not know, however, that a second
season has just begun (on March 29th) and a brand new website has been
built to accompany the series. NHK seems to have put together a very
capable team to produce the website and it is a nice accompaniment to
the videos. There are explanations and many activities to help
learners follow along with the series and maximize learning.
http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/charo-nclub/index.cgi#
And speaking of NHK, they have begun broadcasting a series of lectures
by Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel who wrote the 2009 book Justice:
What’s the Right Thing to Do? This is a unique opportunity to
experience a lecture series that comes with a simultaneous Japanese
translation that you can use to check your understanding when
necessary. The topic is justice and Dr. Sandel explores many
controversial topics in an engaging and stimulating manner. Each of
the half-hour lectures has its own theme. Interesting historical
cases, thought experiments, and moral stories are used to illustrate
the themes and Dr. Sandel asks the students in the audience to give
their opinions to show the diversity of opinions on each issue. You
might find some of topics can work to get your students talking as
well. Here is the Amazon (US) page for his book. It also contains a
short video introducing the lecture series.
http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Whats-Right-Thing-Do/dp/0374180652/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270427837&sr=8-2.
And here is the NHK page showing the broadcast schedule for the
lectures in Japan (in Japanese). http://www.nhk.or.jp/harvard/
Finally this month I’d like to introduce a site that elementary school
teachers may find useful. It was made by Omuta City in Kyushu and it
is a collection of teaching points, activities and games for use in
elementary schools. The best part of the site is its long list of
lesson plans (enough for 2 years of lessons) and the extensive use of
videos illustrating how the games should be organized and played. For
elementary school teachers who need to start teaching English but are
not very familiar with how it can be done, this is a great place to
start building a collection of games. The site displays best in
Internet Explorer and you may have some problems viewing some content
if you are using Firefox or Safari.
http://www.e-net21.city.omuta.fukuoka.jp/english/index.htm
