Karakuri Funniest English and SILEC
Mar. 14th, 2007 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flonnebonneKarakuri Funniest English! In which some white guy walks around Japan (Tokyo? probably Osaka) asking people for funny personal stories--and then he asks them to translate their stories into English. Bad, weird, hilarious English. "Secret zone is very cute!" "Natto twister!" etc.
I could only find three of these videos, but apparently they used to be shown every Sunday night in Japan. SO THERE ARE MORE OF THEM. Anyone know where to find them? Preferably subtitled in English, but raw Japanese would be fine too.
I've been using these videos in my adult conversation class which I teach every Wednesday night. I show them a short segment in Japanese, stop the video, get them to translate it into English, then show them the (usually horrible) English translation done by the poor schmoe on the show. I'm sure it's a good boost for their egos.
I could only find three of these videos, but apparently they used to be shown every Sunday night in Japan. SO THERE ARE MORE OF THEM. Anyone know where to find them? Preferably subtitled in English, but raw Japanese would be fine too.
I've been using these videos in my adult conversation class which I teach every Wednesday night. I show them a short segment in Japanese, stop the video, get them to translate it into English, then show them the (usually horrible) English translation done by the poor schmoe on the show. I'm sure it's a good boost for their egos.
The name of my adult conversation class is SILEC, which stands for Stephanie's I Love English Club. Yes, my name is Stephanie--no, I did not come up with the name SILEC. The first JET to teach this class was also named Stephanie, so we can blame her for that.
Anyway, all but one of the adults in this class are middle-aged or older, and their English ability is very high. They'll say stuff like "I climbed to the summit of the mountain," or "my husband is a heavy drinker" or "headlight animal!" (deer caught in headlights). Their grammar is far from perfect, but they make up for it by having tons of vocab under their belts and a willingness to try. Compared to my mostly shy/sleepy/disaffected junior high students, my adult students are a dream.
What we mostly do in this class is sit around and chat and laugh a lot and teach each other...questionable words. Tonight they learned: "choke," "blackmail," "ignore," "bossy," "she wears the pants in the relationship," and probably some other stuff I forgot about. Oh, and tonight I informed them that wearing an earring in your right ear means you're gay, which apparently isn't something Japanese guys do (or maybe my middle-aged students just don't know about it). I learn a lot of weird stuff from them too, like "medo no omiyage" (I think), which means "souvenir for the afterlife." Yeah, I only know useless Japanese. It impresses the locals, even if I can't actually talk to them about important things ("Your house is on fire! You better get some medo no omiyage!").
I taught them poker and we play regularly (with fake money!), though I haven't taught them Texas Hold 'em yet. They told me if you have crap cards you're a "buta" (pig) and you should make "buhi buhi buhi!" noises. I hope they're not tricking me...
I adore this class. They have such a great sense of humour and they aren't shy at all about speaking English. We can play complicated roleplay games like Mafia and they always rise to the challenge. Even the students with lower levels of English participate actively.
(One of the things I notice about these roleplay games is that one student, Hayashi-san, always gets fingered as the bad guy. He just has that kind of face. Plus he works for NHK. If you've ever played Mafia, you'll notice that some people always just feel kind of evil, even if they haven't done anything.)
I feel bad about getting paid to "teach" (hah!) this class because I get as much out of it as they do, and I don't really have to do much prep for it. I don't have to make worksheets because the students have said that they don't want to study writing and grammar and they REALLY don't want homework. I almost feel like I should tell them that I don't want their money, but I know they'd insist I take it. Plus I don't want the next JET who comes along to get miffed about me killing part of their income. Not that JETs really need the extra money.
My adult students are ridiculously fun, generous, and open. They're quite well-travelled for Japanese people--one of them went to Singapore this year, another went to Hong Kong and Macau, another keeps climbing mountains. I hope they come to Vancouver one day so I can kidnap them and lock them in my house forever.
In conclusion, SILEC rules!
Anyway, all but one of the adults in this class are middle-aged or older, and their English ability is very high. They'll say stuff like "I climbed to the summit of the mountain," or "my husband is a heavy drinker" or "headlight animal!" (deer caught in headlights). Their grammar is far from perfect, but they make up for it by having tons of vocab under their belts and a willingness to try. Compared to my mostly shy/sleepy/disaffected junior high students, my adult students are a dream.
What we mostly do in this class is sit around and chat and laugh a lot and teach each other...questionable words. Tonight they learned: "choke," "blackmail," "ignore," "bossy," "she wears the pants in the relationship," and probably some other stuff I forgot about. Oh, and tonight I informed them that wearing an earring in your right ear means you're gay, which apparently isn't something Japanese guys do (or maybe my middle-aged students just don't know about it). I learn a lot of weird stuff from them too, like "medo no omiyage" (I think), which means "souvenir for the afterlife." Yeah, I only know useless Japanese. It impresses the locals, even if I can't actually talk to them about important things ("Your house is on fire! You better get some medo no omiyage!").
I taught them poker and we play regularly (with fake money!), though I haven't taught them Texas Hold 'em yet. They told me if you have crap cards you're a "buta" (pig) and you should make "buhi buhi buhi!" noises. I hope they're not tricking me...
I adore this class. They have such a great sense of humour and they aren't shy at all about speaking English. We can play complicated roleplay games like Mafia and they always rise to the challenge. Even the students with lower levels of English participate actively.
(One of the things I notice about these roleplay games is that one student, Hayashi-san, always gets fingered as the bad guy. He just has that kind of face. Plus he works for NHK. If you've ever played Mafia, you'll notice that some people always just feel kind of evil, even if they haven't done anything.)
I feel bad about getting paid to "teach" (hah!) this class because I get as much out of it as they do, and I don't really have to do much prep for it. I don't have to make worksheets because the students have said that they don't want to study writing and grammar and they REALLY don't want homework. I almost feel like I should tell them that I don't want their money, but I know they'd insist I take it. Plus I don't want the next JET who comes along to get miffed about me killing part of their income. Not that JETs really need the extra money.
My adult students are ridiculously fun, generous, and open. They're quite well-travelled for Japanese people--one of them went to Singapore this year, another went to Hong Kong and Macau, another keeps climbing mountains. I hope they come to Vancouver one day so I can kidnap them and lock them in my house forever.
In conclusion, SILEC rules!
