Alhough I’m writing this four months after Rikuto was born, you’re about to watch a video of when he was just three weeks old. I didn’t post this earlier because Mami and I were talking all through it and I’ve only just learned how to remove that audio and play music and narration over the top.
So this is Rikuto when he was just a wee little nipper. If you can’t see the video, you can watch it here on YouTube.
I’ve had a busy evening changing over from the ready-made template on LongCountdown to one of my own custom designs, which you may have seen on my other blog, Nice4Rice. I hope you like the new look. It’s all part of sprucing up the blog for the birth of little Rikuto at the end of July.
I’ve been slack of late with writing new blog entries. I think I’m suffering from writer’s block as I don’t have much to talk about. That will change though as I’ll be using LongCountdown to keep Rikuto’s grandparents in England up to date on how he’s progressing. Hopefully, you’ll all follow along as I learn how to be a father.
Human life is a wonderful thing. Mankind has achieved so much, but in the spirit of my “English T-shirts in Japan” series, let me say…
One of the biggest difficulties in teaching English to adults in Japan is you are constantly battling against what they have previously learned. Most Japanese have studied English in some capacity for at least six years, most of which, if not all, were at the hands of a Japanese English teacher, and in some cases the teacher wasn’t even an English teacher, just a homeroom teacher reading from an English book!
What this means is that their pronunciation is awful, and their listening ability is equally dreadful. There’s a world of difference between listening to a Japanese speak English and then an Australian. They sound completely different!
It wouldn’t be so bad if English were isolated to situations requiring just English, but unfortunately, a bastardized version of English has been absorbed into Japan’s own national language. There are literally thousands of examples, many of which are abbreviations of English words that, along with different pronunciation, make them unrecognizable to native English speakers, and likewise few Japanese understand the original English versions. Here are some examples:
You get the idea. The problem is, most Japanese actually think these are English words, which means you have to un-teach the “English” they know, and start again. This includes going right back to basic ABCs, because…
In Japan, the letter “W” is pronounced “double”, without a “you”. They don’t seem to realize that “W” looks like it does because it’s a double “U”. This leads to the letter “W” being used to mean “double”. Here are some pictures to prove it:
A cheeseburger with W beef!
Some mints with W grapefruit!
A can of insecticide with “W jet” !
I’ll wrap up this post with a little poem I’ve written. I hope you like it.
Double With You
I thought I’d be without you for a while,
You left me and I thought I’d be okay,
I’d come back stronger, last a bit longer,
Feel double without you each day.
When you were gone I lost my will to smile,
By myself, things didn’t go my way,
Together we are stronger, last even longer,
Double me, double you, always.
In my first post on English T-Shirts in Japan, you saw the “Honey Spunk” shirt. Here’s another classic, modelled by one of my seven-year-old students. What do you think?
I explained the meaning to the class by kicking myself on the bum with my heel, and yelping “Ouch!”. I think they understood!
The Japanese love to wear clothes with English on them because it supposedly looks cool, yet they often can’t understand what these slogans say. This week I had one student with the expression “No Time to Kill” emblazoned on her shirt, which although perfectly acceptable English, I doubt this housewife is busy enough to warrant wearing such a shirt!
Clothing manufacturers take advantage of this ‘English is fashionable’ attitude and produce shirt after shirt with random English words that make no sense. How about this one:
Now where I come from, the word ’spunk’ refers to number three in this list from the American Heritage Dictionary:
spunk (spŭngk) n.
- Informal Spirit; pluck.
- Punk, touchwood, or other tinder.
- Vulgar Slang Ejaculated semen.
If you can remember any ‘Funny English’ shirts, leave a comment below or send an email (with a picture if you have one) to ‘nick at the title of this blog’.
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