Japan Living Vol. 4                         Japan Living
Ecstasy? What Are You On?

    I have given up on the idea of my life being ecstatic.  I think there are moments of ecstasy,
that we experience while being human, but it is part of our condition to have a tough time.  "We
must earn a living;"no one gives it to us.  "You can't take anything for granted." "Life is not
fair." All of these sayings are true.  No one owes us anything and we must work for everything
we get.

    I now feel that if you can be reasonably happy most of the time, you are doing well here on
earth in 2004.  At times you will be ecstatic and at others you will be sad.  I feel more contented now.
I love my family and enjoy watching them grow.  I enjoy watching myself grow.  I enjoy trying to make
the world a better place through my writing and teaching, and no I don't have all the answers, nor do I
profess to.  I am just another guy biding my time on earth and trying to answer my own spiritual questions.
If I can make your time here a little bit happier, funnier or more interesting, then I think I have fulfilled my
role.

    I think we all have different roles here on this planet at this time.  It is up to us to figure out what they are;
where we fit in.  So many English teachers in Japan denigrate their own profession, but I see it as a many
faceted position.  You not only represent your country of birth but you are teaching Japanese people about
another culture, while learning about theirs and at the same time teaching them the paramount international
language of the world.  It is a good role.  Maybe it isn't one you wish to pursue for life, but if only for one or
two years, it's a good thing to do for yourself and the world.

    Osama Bin Laden and others of his ilk have forgotten their role.  "The pen is mightier than the sword,"
is true.  There is a lot of wisdom in these sayings.  If Osama had simply written about what he did not like
and published it, he might have more friends now--friends who could help him.  What I'm saying is, if he
could have convinced some in the American government that their policy towards Palestinians was misguided
for example, real change may have come about.  Now though, in the powder keg of a world we are living through, tumult
and chaos is occurring everywhere--with anthrax scares, real and imagined.  I think if Osama's real goal was
to change American policy, then the pen really would have been mightier than the sword.

    In truth, his goal has been to kill American people.  He is a very sad and angry man, much as Hitler, or Stalin was.
He is driven by hate rather than by any political goals.  He is a racist and operates from that paradigm.
Unfortunately he seems to have a lot of influence over a few of the young Muslim men.  Men who have forgotten
their own roles.  Men who are angry and need to let go of that anger.

    Western countries are not inherently bad.  If we do not understand the Middle East at times then educate us,
don't kill us.  Don't cheer for the deaths of innocent Americans.  Don't equate America's attacks on the Taliban
and Osama Bin Laden's people as an attack on Islam.  It isn't!  Everyone knows that Islam is a great, positive,
and peaceful religion and calming influence on the world.  Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban practice a
bastardized version of it.  You cannot call the Aum Shinrikyo-- Christian.  They are a misguided and even crazy
cult, with an insane (former) leader.  You cannot call what the extremists in the Middle East do Islamic either;
it isn't.  Islam professes peace and the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden do not.  They share more with Hitler
and Stalin than they do with Mohammed.

Kevin Burns

How to Study English

How to Study English-written in Japanese

                           
                  "For toddlers, learning one language is no more difficult than learning another...Even if the child doesn't
                                   continue in the language, learning so young clearly stimulates brain activity."-Francois Thibaut,
                                   Founder of The Language Workshop for Children and a pioneer specialist in Early Childhood Education
 

Learning English while living in Japan is a very difficult thing to do. However it can be done.  When learning English
one must remember that "Rome wasn't built in a day." It takes a very long time to be able to speak well. Learning
English is more like learning Classical piano than it is like learning how to ride a bicycle or how to swim. With swimming lessons
you can see the results very quickly.  After only a few months or less, you can swim. English is very different. It takes years
of English classes to become fluent. Arguably, English is the most difficult language in the world to learn, comprising the largest
vocabulary in the world, and possessing a system of grammar that often leaves students and even teachers dumbfounded.
I digress, but in many ways Japanese is actually much easier to learn than English, the grammar rules do not change very much,
whereas English grammar has many exceptions to the rule.

 If you are lucky enough to go and live in an English speaking country for a year,  and study
hard, speak everyday, and avoid having many Japanese friends while there, you will come back to Japan as a fluent English speaker.
Why is this so? Well if you simply add up the hours of English speaking practice--let's say 8 hours of English speaking and listening
per day, multiplied by 365 days, that comes to 2,920 hours of English for the year! Wow! If you go to a typical English conversation
school, and you are a very good student and do homework each week, study each week, watch English movies, listen to English
music, and read English books, and sometimes think in English when you are on the train or walking home, then  perhaps you
experience English for 8 hours a week, multiplied by 40 weeks (excluding holidays, sickness, class cancellations etc), and this
comes to 320 hours of English per year.  To equal a year of living abroad, you would have to study at a conversation school
and at home for almost ten years.  This is probably pretty accurate. Language school students who do stay for 4 years or more,
tend to be very good English speakers. The ones who have stayed 7 or more years are approaching the level of students who
have lived abroad.  I do not want to discourage students from studying English at a language school! It is a very good thing to do
if you want to learn English and cannot live abroad.  It is also necessary if you are going to go abroad for a trip or to live.
But you must realize that you cannot study for a few months and be a great English speaker. It just isn't possible.  Learning to
speak English is more like an art, one which took native speakers a long time to master.  Even North American children frequently
make mistakes when they speak.  Frankly, so do many adults!

  Hopefully you are still reading this, and haven't run away from the computer screaming about all the money you spent on English
study! There are some students who learn English very quickly and become very good speakers, and even fluent in a short time.
Just like the person who becomes very good at tennis, they practice. You do not need a fantastic tennis coach to be a very good
tennis player, you do need to practice. The same rule applies to English study. Here are some habits of Japanese who speak
English very well:

1.  PARTICIPATE: When you come to class, speak up. Try to talk as much as you can. When asked a question answer more.
ie) "What did you do on the weekend?"   Answer: "Nothing."  Not only is this a terrible answer, you obviously lead a very boring life,
and need to get out more!  Better answer: "I went shopping in Odawara with my friend."  Also  the teacher can't correct you, if
he or she can't hear you. Speak up! Come to class on time, try to come every week. Borrow English study software, videos, and
books from our libraries.  Read English newspapers and magazines, especially magazines about the hobbies you like.
Try to really get into English, and make your home into a little Canada as much as possible by watching
English movies, and using the English study software on your computer. Get Wow Wow or PerfecTV and watch as many English
TV programs and movies as you can. I have mentioned this many times all ready, and that is because it is so important to becoming
a good speaker and listener. In your car, listen to English cassettes which you can borrow from our schools, or listen to FEN radio
AM 810 or InterFM, FM 76.1, both of these radio stations have a lot of their programming in English. Also, don't give up!
Our teachers would be glad to recommend study software for you, or a good listening cassette or book from our libraries.

For Junior High School Students:  Some of you need to leave the negative attitude at the door. Try to have fun, your teacher is.
You may not realize it now, but English is going to be very important to your future. If you plan to travel anywhere outside of
Japan, then English really is a necessity. English is cool! If you can speak well, you will have so many opportunities that others will not.
It really is the world's language, so you can learn it now, or you can learn it later; when it will be more difficult as you will be very
busy working, and perhaps have children and other responsibilities.  See below....   Listen to English music!

2. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME:  When you come to class speak English. You can speak Japanese at home. Never use Japanese
during class, and remind your classmates of this as well. When you finish a pairwork activity, this is a good chance to do free talk
in English. Don't waste your time by doing free talk in Japanese. Your Japanese is all ready very good! If you don't know the
English word, describe it or use gestures. Be creative! Do your homework EVERY week! Study the important points in your textbooks
every week. For every hour of class time, you should spend at least one hour of home study to prepare for class. So three hours
of classes per week equals three hours of study at home, plus you must do the assigned homework each week. No one said it
would be easy! You can of course study much more than this, and this will increase the speed at which you become a good speaker.

3. PAY ATTENTION: Listen to other students talk. You can learn just as much from them as you can from the teacher.
Look at the student who is speaking. Also, make eye contact with everyone when you speak, not just your teacher.  It is rude
to just concentrate on one person when you speak, you should make eye contact with everyone in the class.

4. THINK IN ENGLISH: By answering quickly you can train yourself to think in English. If you translate everytime, your English
will be very slow, and your grammar will be bad. It is difficult to translate from Japanese to English and speak well--the languages
are so different. Answering quickly will prevent you from translating into Japanese.

5. RECORD your English lesson and listen to it later.

6. PERSEVERE: Students who become good English speakers don't give up. They continue to study until they master English.
This may take a long time. But so do many things in life.

7. TRAVEL to English speaking countries whenever you can. It helps you to practice and it spurs you on to study more.

8. JOIN us for our school parties and events, and join some of the international societies in Odawara, Yokohama, and Tokyo.
You can meet many people from other countries and practice your English.  If you go to Kinokuniya Bookstore, they have
many magazines in English. The Tokyo Journal and Tokyo Classified, advertise many international societies which you can
join and meet others from other countries. You shouldn't join just to practice your English of course.  You should join a society
in which you have a genuine interest.

9. JOIN our Kevin's English Schools Online Community, it's free! You can ask questions about English, post messages
and have discussions in English. The more you practice your English either by speaking or by email the better!

10. MUSIC: Listen to songs sung in English.  Sing English songs when you go out for karaoke.

Above all, do your best to enjoy your studies, that way you will persevere and study longer.


Writer Kevin  Burns is the Owner & Head English teacher of Kevin's English Schools.
He has taught English in Japan since 1989. He started teaching English to Japanese students in Canada in 1987.