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Sleep

Sleep deprivation

Please follow the link above and read the article, then make a short presentation about it for class. Then think of some questions to ask your classmates about sleep in general.

Five Minute Presentation

For class, prepare two five minute presentations, one concerning your career and another about an interest that you have.

_______

Bonus Material One

大阪城と二条城の雰囲気と形は違うが、美しさは同じだと思う。これを英語では、

Their atmosphere and shape are different, but Osaka castle is as beautiful as Nijo Castle, と言います。

でも、「大阪城より姫路城の方が美しいです」と言いたい時、たいてい日本人は “Himeji Castle is more beautiful than Osaka Castle” と言います。これだと、英語では『雰囲気は姫路城はとても美しいですけど、大阪城はあまり美しくない』と言っている事になります。でも、もちろん大阪城にも美しさはありますので、”Osaka Castle isn't as beautiful as Himeji Castle” と原級比較の否定形を使った方が、ニュアンスは正確に伝わります。

例えば

Sashimi is as delicious as sushi.

Sushi is more delicious than natto.

Generally, British food isn't as delicious as Japanese food.

They are different, but the British Autumn is as beautiful as the Japanese Autumn.

The summer is more humid in Tokyo than in London.

Kyoto isn't as cold as Birmingham in the winter.

Bonus Material Two

Climate Change

Please watch the video and make a small presentation about it. Then think of five questions to ask your classmates about climate change. Finally, make a short presentation about your views about the action needed to fight climate change.

Practice makes Perfect

Please watch the video and make a presentation about it. Then make a second presentation about how you have practised something in the past, but it MUST NOT be about practising English.

Bonus Material 

 英語の冠詞はちょっと難しいけど、大切な事なので、勉強しましょう。今朝、珈琲館に行った。その珈琲館で美味しい朝御飯を食べた。英語で、

This morning I went to a coffee shop. I ate a delicious breakfast there.
通常の文法では「Coffeeshop」は数えられる名詞なので、最初「a/an」を使う。その後、「the」を使う。
生徒たちは僕の事をよく知っているので、みんな「ジョンは上島珈琲に行った」と推測すると思う。そういった場合「This morning I went to the coffee shop. I ate a delicious breakfast there」の方が文法的に良い。理由は、聞き手と話し手の間で、すでに店が特定されているからです。また、話し手である自分にとって大切な場合も、最初から「the」を使います。例えば、銀行、病院、駅とか郵便局。
I went to the bank
I need to go to the hospital
Every day, I go to the station.
I have to go to the post office

冠詞のミスをしても英語は通じますが、もしちゃんと使えれば、よりカッコいいので頑張ってください。

Keeping Languages Alive

1. How many Celtic languages have you heard of?  
2. Do you know any Celtic words or phrases?
3. Before watching this video, did you consider Celtic languages to be: alive and flourishing; gradually dying out or dead?
4. Do you think that speakers of Celtic languages use them as a first language or a second language?
5. Do you think that those speakers would be completely bi-lingual in English and their Celtic language or would one language be stronger?
6. Can technology help keep a language alive, by allowing it to evolve?
7. Is it natural for languages to die out or should they be saved? 

Bonus Material 

Reading English

At university, I studied educational psychology, but I am very sceptical about a lot of research, how much of that research ever makes a real difference in the classroom? In Britain, primary school starts at five years old and reading is the first priority.  My older brother and sister learned to read quickly, but I made no progress at all because the style of teaching had changed. My mother noticed this and she taught me to read. Without her help, I truly believe I would have been illiterate. But my writing skills lagged behind, luckily my history teacher (Graham Wigley) in secondary school, during his own time helped me improve. A large part of my work now is helping Japanese academics with their English writing and presentations, I could never have been able to do this without the help of my mother and history teacher, I am truly grateful to them. So literacy is a very important subject for me. Japanese people often tell me that reading English is difficult, but if you watch the video above, you can see that it can also be difficult for native English speakers.

For class:

• Watch the video.
• Make a short presentation about it.
• Think of five questions to ask me.
• Make a second presentation about how you think this way of teaching English reading could be useful or not useful for Japanese learners of English.

1999年に日本に来た。その時、僕は新しい英語の教師。その上日本語が出来なかったので、「I had to sink or swim」！その表現の意味は、もし頑張らなかったら、失敗するだろ。時々、新しい教師は船のように沈んだが、たいてい新しい教師は泳げた。いろいろな状況にネイティブスピーカーは「sink or swim」を使う。例えば、試験を受ける、運転免許試験を受ける、会社に入るとか外国で英語を使う。1999年4月成田空港に 着いた。成田では元会社、NOVA英会話の広告が多かった。理由はたくさんの日本人は国に帰った時、英語の能力に失望したので、英会話学校に入りたい。その時NOVA英会話では「VOICE ROOM」があった。その部屋は教室じゃなくて、会話の部屋だった。教室は安全な部屋だけど、失敗する可能性があるので、生徒さんにとって 「VOICE ROOM」はちょっと怖かった。でも、もし「VOICEROOM」でよく失敗したら、英語が上手になった。もし外国に行って、英語を失敗したら、悲しい事は、日本で教室以外、英語をよく使えない。去年から、僕はいろいろな英語のイベントを作っている。今年も京都、神戸と名古屋でたくさんのイベントを作るつもり。今年の最初のイベントはインド料理のランチだが、人気があるので、完売した。二番目のイベントは17日8時から京都のMan in the Moon六角店である。もし興味があったら、連絡してください。