A collaboration between Masayuki Takayama's must-read article and my photographs. Part 2.
A partnership of Masayuki Takayama's article and my photos, a must-read for all Japanese citizens.
April 25, 2023
That's enough time for language classes.
Use the extra time for Japanese language education.
June 23, 2022
The following is from Masayuki Takayama's column in the latter part of today's issue of Shukan Shincho.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but also for people around the world.
What is Penaghan?
My biography includes "Los Angeles Correspondent.
I also interviewed Peter Drucker for Scrapbook.
But to tell the truth, my English could be better.
I went to an English school in front of the station for a while before I arrived.
So I turned on the T.V. when I arrived, thinking I would be okay.
CNN News came on, but they were talking so fast I couldn't understand half of what they said.
I was especially troubled by the word "pagan."
It came up repeatedly, but it wasn't in the dictionary.
The head of the foreign credit department was so mean that he didn't even provide me with an assistant, so for a while, I didn't know what pagan was.
Then, the real estate agent I had asked to help me find a house came to me.
He showed me a map of the area and said, "I have an excellent place for you.
"Look, it's right next to Sanvisene," he pointed.
The map spelled out "San Vicente Street."
Then it hit me.
"You guys don't just mute the t's in words," the real estate agent nodded.
Now I have a clue how to solve "Penagan."
I put in a t somewhere and finally arrived at the Pentagon (Department of Defense).
I can pronounce the t in multinational, but when an American pronounces it, it sounds like "mortai" instead of "multi."
The American accent is terrible.
It's the Aomori dialect in the English-speaking world.
I did not understand the language of the black man in charge when I went to a parking lot in the city.
It was like a rap song.
I couldn't even park the car without the woman in the passenger seat translating for me.
The so-called ebonics (black English) are, first of all, incomprehensible to the Japanese.
It took OJ Simpson three years to correct his black English when he first saw Nichole, a white female waitress.
Then he asked her to marry him, and the tragedy began.
Even O.J., who grew up in the English-speaking world, took that long to master the habitual American English.
Los Angeles has other Mexican Spanish accents.
You can only become an Angeleno (Los Angeles native) when you can distinguish each.
It is the situation on the West Coast.
If you go to the southern part of the U.S., you will encounter different English.
Even in the U.S., English is spoken in such a selfish way.
In this sense, English is similar to Chinese.
Cantonese people do not understand the Shanghainese language.
However, the meaning of "蘋果日報" (Apple Daily) can be understood in Cantonese everywhere.
Japanese people can also go to the bathroom and order noodles if they write Chinese characters.
Our Ministry of Education needs to understand that.
They believe that speaking English is excellent and that "speaking with foreigners" is the primary way of English education.
Thus, they have English classes starting from elementary school, and they have prescribed that the correct education is to have a gaijin stand up in the classroom and listen to raw English.
Gaikokujin were recruited, and it is now widely believed worldwide that if one can speak English, one can become a teacher in Japan.
Mixed in among them are many Julian Blank-type offenders of the "press a Japanese woman's face into your crotch" variety.
Incidentally, the Sri Lankan woman who died after refusing to be deported also wanted to learn English in Japan and become an English teacher, even though Sinhala is her native language.
The scary thing is that people think a Sinhala accent is acceptable in Japan.
In fact, it seems that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has realized that the English world is full of accents and has started saying that understanding accents is part of proper English education.
As proof, the Ministry of Education introduced three speakers in the listening section of the Common University Entrance Test not long ago.
One was an American with a Pennagan accent.
The second was a Brit.
He read "Rain in Spain" as "Line in Spain.
The third was a Japanese-American, whose English was tested by "listening and distinguishing" between their accents.
Isn't it stupid even to hear?
They will put Black English and Sinhala accents on the test soon.
What is the point of learning such English if you are not an interpreter?
Japanese people do not know how to pronounce Chinese.
Even so, we can understand their intentions by using Chinese characters.
That's all there is to languages.
Use the extra time for Japanese language education.
A partnership of Masayuki Takayama's article and my photos, a must-read for all Japanese citizens.
April 25, 2023
That's enough time for language classes.
Use the extra time for Japanese language education.
June 23, 2022
The following is from Masayuki Takayama's column in the latter part of today's issue of Shukan Shincho.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but also for people around the world.
What is Penaghan?
My biography includes "Los Angeles Correspondent.
I also interviewed Peter Drucker for Scrapbook.
But to tell the truth, my English could be better.
I went to an English school in front of the station for a while before I arrived.
So I turned on the T.V. when I arrived, thinking I would be okay.
CNN News came on, but they were talking so fast I couldn't understand half of what they said.
I was especially troubled by the word "pagan."
It came up repeatedly, but it wasn't in the dictionary.
The head of the foreign credit department was so mean that he didn't even provide me with an assistant, so for a while, I didn't know what pagan was.
Then, the real estate agent I had asked to help me find a house came to me.
He showed me a map of the area and said, "I have an excellent place for you.
"Look, it's right next to Sanvisene," he pointed.
The map spelled out "San Vicente Street."
Then it hit me.
"You guys don't just mute the t's in words," the real estate agent nodded.
Now I have a clue how to solve "Penagan."
I put in a t somewhere and finally arrived at the Pentagon (Department of Defense).
I can pronounce the t in multinational, but when an American pronounces it, it sounds like "mortai" instead of "multi."
The American accent is terrible.
It's the Aomori dialect in the English-speaking world.
I did not understand the language of the black man in charge when I went to a parking lot in the city.
It was like a rap song.
I couldn't even park the car without the woman in the passenger seat translating for me.
The so-called ebonics (black English) are, first of all, incomprehensible to the Japanese.
It took OJ Simpson three years to correct his black English when he first saw Nichole, a white female waitress.
Then he asked her to marry him, and the tragedy began.
Even O.J., who grew up in the English-speaking world, took that long to master the habitual American English.
Los Angeles has other Mexican Spanish accents.
You can only become an Angeleno (Los Angeles native) when you can distinguish each.
It is the situation on the West Coast.
If you go to the southern part of the U.S., you will encounter different English.
Even in the U.S., English is spoken in such a selfish way.
In this sense, English is similar to Chinese.
Cantonese people do not understand the Shanghainese language.
However, the meaning of "蘋果日報" (Apple Daily) can be understood in Cantonese everywhere.
Japanese people can also go to the bathroom and order noodles if they write Chinese characters.
Our Ministry of Education needs to understand that.
They believe that speaking English is excellent and that "speaking with foreigners" is the primary way of English education.
Thus, they have English classes starting from elementary school, and they have prescribed that the correct education is to have a gaijin stand up in the classroom and listen to raw English.
Gaikokujin were recruited, and it is now widely believed worldwide that if one can speak English, one can become a teacher in Japan.
Mixed in among them are many Julian Blank-type offenders of the "press a Japanese woman's face into your crotch" variety.
Incidentally, the Sri Lankan woman who died after refusing to be deported also wanted to learn English in Japan and become an English teacher, even though Sinhala is her native language.
The scary thing is that people think a Sinhala accent is acceptable in Japan.
In fact, it seems that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has realized that the English world is full of accents and has started saying that understanding accents is part of proper English education.
As proof, the Ministry of Education introduced three speakers in the listening section of the Common University Entrance Test not long ago.
One was an American with a Pennagan accent.
The second was a Brit.
He read "Rain in Spain" as "Line in Spain.
The third was a Japanese-American, whose English was tested by "listening and distinguishing" between their accents.
Isn't it stupid even to hear?
They will put Black English and Sinhala accents on the test soon.
What is the point of learning such English if you are not an interpreter?
Japanese people do not know how to pronounce Chinese.
Even so, we can understand their intentions by using Chinese characters.
That's all there is to languages.
Use the extra time for Japanese language education.
2024/9/5 in Mihara
