Japanese Society

What is kusottare (gaijin)?

Oh... so 外国人 is a less polite form than 　外人.. Because it seems like 外国人 emphases the "external country" whereas 外人 simply means outsider.

What is kusottare (gaijin)?

I don't know if everyone knows these but there is actually an active programme by the Japanese government to recruit university graduates to teach English in Japan. I am not sure if Lindsay Ann Hawker was part of this scheme. Probably after JPLT 3/2 or after a university degree it would be good to sign up this scheme to make the final push for greater Japanese fluency by surrounding yourself with native speakers.

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/teach/jet_intro.html

　　　　　The three centers (Tokyo, Yokohama, as well as the Kansai Center where I was around ) produced a textbook called Nihongo no Kiso (Foundations of Japanese) for a 100-hour technical trainee course. The technical trainees needed “survival Japanese,” including how to convey danger to people around them, how to tell someone that they had a stomachache, or how to ask questions.

　　　　　The aim of this new textbook was for technical trainees to master this survival Japanese by learning basic sentence patterns in a logical order. We carefully selected basic sentence patterns which trainees (as well as other foreigners who were beginning to study Japanese) needed and tried to create a textbook without any “extras.” We wanted technical trainees to use this textbook to acquire basic survival language abilities. From an audio-lingual method viewpoint, we wanted the learners to be able to use what they learned as soon as possible outside of class.

In 1974 Nihongo no Kiso was revised and released as Shin Nihongo no Kiso (New Foundations of Japanese). This new edition incorporated natural Japanese, daily conversation, and conversation exercises. In 2001 Minna no Nihongo (Japanese for Everyone), a further adaptation of Shin Nihongo no Kiso, was published. In this volume we changed technical words used by trainees, such as “bolt” and “nut,” to words for everyday items.

It could be said that the mother of all of these texts, Nihongo no Kiso, is the trunk of the tree with basic sentence patterns, and Shin Nihongo Kiso (1990) and Minna no Nihongo (1998) are the branches and leaves.

There’s no denying that some, especially those who espoused the communicative approach, have found these texts to include unnatural expressions and sentences. The criticisms include that it is impolite to use the word anata (you) when asking, for example, “Where are you going?” (Anata wa doko e ikimasu ka?), or that it is rude, strange, and too direct to say “Nani o tabetai desu ka?” (What do you want to eat?) In natural conversation the sentence “Nani o tabetai desu ka?” would be “XX-san wa? (Mr./Ms. XX?) or “Nani o meshiagarimasu ka?” (polite; something like “Of what would you partake?&#8221

Although they were the brunt of much criticism, Nihongo no Kiso and Shin Nihongo Kiso (perhaps Minna no Nihongo as well) have continuously been the best sellers among Japanese language textbooks for 30 years. They are used at universities in Japan and are highly regarded by both teachers and students because these textbooks are simple, intelligible, easy for beginners to memorize and easy to teach.

Years later, when the textbook Situational Functional Japanese, which uses the communicative approach (and which I helped to write), was published by Tsukuba University, a publishing company in Taiwan offered to release it there. However, I understand that it did not sell well there because Shin Nihongo no Kiso had already been adopted by many Japanese language schools there and they did not want to change to a new textbook.

Nihongo no Kiso is a textbook which reflects the time when the supreme principle of pattern drills, repetition and teacher-initianed lessons dominated.



The creation of Nihongo no Kiso is still a very precious experience for me, and I was trained to maintain a fast-paced on-task class and to carry out sentence pattern practice, the foundations of the audio-lingual method. Even when the communicative approach became popular in later years, I appreciated the fact that I was able to cultivate the foundation of the audio-lingual method during my time at AOTS.

Dude come on.

I think she was in an eikaiwa. The best said about them, the better. Anyone wants to teach English in Japan, just avoid them like the plague. The lure of living/working in Japan is not great enough for you to forgo your basic ability and happiness. That place would destroy my soul like the seminal protagonist in a Bukowski novel. If you find me working in one of them, I give anyone the right
to shoot me. I’ll even put it in writing and frame it for you.

I don't understand this part. What do you mean by that? I mean the JET scheme allows you to play teacher teaching actual Japanese kids English, which is probably one of the best ways of interacting with the people there and know the culture and mentality of the people bottom up.

JET is solid programme, I'm having a go at the eikaiwa industry. Who are freaking awful.

Came across a very nice website/advertisement:

http://www.mitsubishi-mitekara.com/flash/index.html

Just let the thing run... the host would go on to talk for about 2 minutes. I must say this is the best online advertisement I have seen ever. Haha it is so good that I want to buy a car from her...

omg thanks mate this sites brilliant *-*

Its wo を. The potential form nearly always takes wo in this sense.

If you say; 日本語がはなせます。 You are saying 'The Japanese Language can speak', because you are stating that the Nihongo is the subject and therefore carries out the action of the verb and not receiving it.

Therefore; 日本語をはなせます。 suggests that '(something) can speak the Japanese language.'

A more fuller sentence would be; 外人が日本語をはなせます (foreigners can speak Japanese.) Notice how the particles play a role in the sentence and what their function is.

Hope this helps.

Gaijin... this is at odds with what I learn...

....

イギリス is such a poor representation of Britain (or United Kingdom) for that matter, because it is a direct translation of the word "England". I personally feel that 英国 (えいこ&#12367 is more appropriate, not least because there is at least the 国 there to indicate that it is a country ...