Learning to Speak Better English: Yes, We Can!

[babylonsister]

Learning to Speak Better English: Yes, We Can!
In Japan, Students Practice Reciting Obama's Speeches; 'Convey Your Message'

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI


TOKYO -- English teacher Makoto Ishiwata stood in front of a classroom one recent morning and watched a gray-haired Japanese student struggle with a line.

"They ... would ... give me an ... African name, Barack, ... or 'blessed,' " said the man, furrowing his brow in concentration.

"Not 'blessed,' " Mr. Ishiwata interjected. "Bless-ed."

The student was reciting a passage from Barack Obama's famous 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention. That oration catapulted Mr. Obama into the national spotlight and laid the foundations of his presidential campaign. But in Japan, that speech, and others by Mr. Obama, have become the latest fad fueling this nation's long, and oft-frustrated, passion for mastering English.

Mr. Ishiwata, who heads an English language school called Kaplan Japan, draws almost 200 students a week to his Obama workshops. Pupils recite Mr. Obama's speeches line by line, using a special check sheet to record progress. Accel English, another Tokyo language school, encourages students to emulate Mr. Obama, memorizing and repeating aloud chunks of his speeches at least 50 times before flipping to the text to see what he really said.

"The Speeches of Barack Obama," a best-selling book that comes with a CD and a glossary for phrases like "spin master" and "stop-gap measures," sold 480,000 copies in Japan in three months. The publisher, Tokyo-based Asahi Press Co., hired four translators to start on a new book using Mr. Obama's inauguration speech as it was broadcast live at 2 a.m. in Japan. It printed the book-and-CD combo three days later. At least six similar Obama speech books have been published, creating a modest windfall for the publishing industry.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517693330337663.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one

[Berry Cool]

1. Can you imagine the Japanese holding classes so people could learn English from Bush speeches?

Yet another example of how far we've come...

[treestar]

5. Is we learning English? We go to work to practice our love to put

sushi on our families. We coexist peacefully with fish. Our enemies is looking for ways to harm us and so are we. It is in the nature of Saddam Hussain that he is willing to terrorize himself. Our Japanese finance minister knows a lot about finance.

[rug]

2. Somebody tell the cats.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yet another way in which the World Has Become a Better Place! nt

[rucky]

4. When I taught ESL in Koreatown, I used a tape of MLK's "I have a dream"

in a unit. We broke it down line by line and studied the cadence. It was a huge hit with the students.