第１０１回　WORKSHOP報告（３月２１日） / 参加者６５名

第１０１回　WORKSHOP報告（３月２１日） / 参加者６５名

 

11

（１：最近は外国籍のメンバーも増えてきました）

 

12

 

（２：ベストマテリアルに選ばれたTさんのマテリアルに再度挑戦！）

 

13

 

（３：後半はヘッドフォン難聴についてのマテリアルでした）

 

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《　今回のworkshop　》

 

○workshop参加人数：６５名（うち新人の方：６名）

 

○【前半】：「Japanese (language) is difficult to learn? 」というテーマでディスカッション

 

○【後半】：” Hearing Loss Report: Limit Music Listening To An Hour A Day, Says World Health Organization”という記事に関するディスカッション

 

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＜英語サークル　E’s club　第１０１回workshopのご案内＞

 

みなさまこんばんは、E’s club幹事のKです。

３月２１日（土）開催の第１０１回workshopの詳細をお送りいたします。

 

前回の第１００回記念Workshopに先立ち、みなさまにはBest Materialの投票をしていただきましたが、投票結果上位となったマテリアルの中からいくつかを、今後リバイバルさせていただきます。

リバイバルを実施する理由は２つあります。

ひとつは、人気の高かったマテリアルを、その会のWorkshopに参加できなかったみなさまにもぜひご体験いただきたいということ。

もうひとつは、これからのE’sのWorkshopをより充実したものにするため、今後マテリアルの作成をご担当いただく方々に、作成の際の参考にしていただきたいということです。

 

今回の前半では第一弾として、Tさんご作成の第６６回Workshopのマテリアルをリバイバルします。

Tさんは後半部門でも第６０回のマテリアルで１位を獲得しましたが、前半部門でもこちらのマテリアルで２位を獲得しました。

なお、第６６回Workshopに実際に参加された方のために、幹事の方で少しだけ設問を追加させていただきました。（3.の(8)以降が追加分です。）

 

後半のマテリアルはネイティブ講師のJ先生にご作成いただきました。

 

[今週のマテリアル]

 

＜FIRST HALF＞

 

こんにちは。Tです。

今回は日本語について、英語でディスカッションしたいと思います。

 

<Agenda>

Japanese (language) is difficult to learn?

 

<Questions>

1. Do you think that Japanese is difficult to learn?

Please tell us what point is difficult (or easy) to learn Japanese.

 

2. Have you ever taught someone Japanese?

In case you have to teach Japanese someone who cannot speak Japanese at all, what point do you weight to teach?

(ex. Grammar, Pronunciation, Words, Conversation(Listening, Speaking), Writing, Reading, Honorifics…..)

Please tell us the reason you think.

 

3. Could you explain us the difference of following words in English?

(1)Nippon/Nihon　　　　　　　　　(2)<GA(が)>/<WA(は)> (私が・・・/私は・・・)

(3)Jishu(自首)/Shuttou(出頭) 　　(4)AHO(あほ)/BAKA（ばか）

(5)Zousui(雑炊)/Ojiya(おじや)　　(6)Danna(旦那)/Otto(夫)

(7)Mori(森)/Hayashi(林)　　　　　(8)Waka (和歌)/Tanka (短歌)

(9)Noh(能)/Kyogen(狂言)　　　　　(10)Enka (演歌)/Kayokyoku (歌謡曲)

 

4. Do you speak any Japanese dialect?

Please tell us about dialects you use or you like.

 

<Article>

How hard is it really to learn Japanese?

by Reiji Yoshida　(The Japan Times)

 

As a language so distinct from most others, Japanese has an air of mystery about it.

Though no longer considered a linguistic isolate, Japanese forms a family with only the Ryukyuan languages and its origin remains uncertain. For English speakers at least, it is considered one of the most difficult languages to master.

Following are basic questions and answers about some characteristics of the language:

 

How many people are using or learning the Japanese language in Japan?

Japanese is effectively the sole language of the country, and almost all of the 128 million natives speak it.

Although there are a number of dialects and accents around Japan, the essentially monolingual status that prevails here is quite rare, experts say. Several principal languages are widely spoken within the borders of most countries.

According to Nagoya University linguistics professor Ken Machida, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 living languages in the world today, which, if evenly distributed, would break down to about 30 per country.

In addition to native Japanese, 135,514 nonnatives were studying Japanese at 2,047 institutions in Japan in November 2005, according to the Cultural Affairs Agency.

Of those, 77.1 percent were from Asia, followed by 4.6 percent from North America, 3.7 percent from South America and 3.6 percent from Europe.

 

What is the situation overseas?

Outside of Japan, 2.98 million people in 133 countries are studying the language at 13,639 institutions, according to a 2006 survey by the Japan Foundation. This number, up 26.4 percent from the previous survey in 2003, does not include people teaching themselves or taking private lessons.

South Korea accounts for most Japanese-language learners, with 910,957, or 30.6 percent of the total overseas. In effect, one in every 52 South Koreans is studying Japanese in the classroom.

After South Korea, China comes in second at 23 percent of the total, followed by Australia at 12.3 percent, Indonesia at 9.2 percent, Taiwan at 6.4 percent and the United States at 4.0 percent.

 

Is the Japanese language truly difficult to master?

Contrary to popular belief, linguists agree that spoken Japanese is relatively easy to master compared with other languages, partly because it has only five vowels and 13 consonants. On the other hand, English has 12 vowels and 24 consonants.

According to professor Machida, Japanese verbs follow regular rules of conjugation with few exceptions, unlike English, Russian and Greek.

“Overall, it can be concluded that Japanese is a language relatively easy to master once (learners) acquire rules because there aren’t that many exceptions,” Machida wrote in his book “Gengo Sekai Chizu” (“World Map of Languages”), published in May.

It is Japanese in its written form that presents the most difficulties.

Experts agree the Japanese writing system is one of the most complex in the world because it combines five different systems – kanji, hiragana, katakana, Arabic numerals and even the Roman alphabet.

“I don’t think any other country in the world uses a letter system of such complexity,” wrote Haruhiko Kindaichi, one of the most well-known Japanese linguists, in his book “Nihongo no Tokushitsu” (“Characteristics of the Japanese Language”), published in 1991.

 

When was kanji introduced from China, and how were hiragana and katakana created?

No native Japanese writing system is known before the introduction of written Chinese in the fourth century.

The hiragana syllabary is traceable to the ninth century, when Chinese characters began to be used for their pronunciations, while katana developed from parts of kanji around the same time.

Most kanji have two different pronunciations, depending on whether they refer to words of Japanese (“kun yomi”) or Chinese (“on yomi”) origin.

 

How many Japanese words must be learned to become functional in the language?

According to a survey by the National Institute for Japanese Language, contemporary Japanese magazines use about 30,000 words, but 90 percent of sentences are constructed from a pool of just 10,000.

The figure is much larger than English and Spanish, each of which requires knowledge of about 3,000 words, while French requires only about 2,000 words, according to Kotobano Chishiki Hyakka (the Encyclopedia of Words), published in 1995.

The encyclopedia also explains that Japanese has a relatively large vocabulary because it has adopted so many foreign words to create neologisms.

 

What’s the origin of the Japanese language?

There are several hypotheses.

Although Korean grammar is similar, its vocabulary is largely distinct from Japanese.

And while Polynesian languages can sound superficially similar to Japanese, and some believe Polynesians settled on the archipelago long ago, the theory of a linguistic connection has been discredited.

Others have postulated a connection with Tibetan, modern-day Myanmar or even Tamil.

Only the Ryukyuan languages have a demonstrable connection to Japanese. Together they form the Japonic language family.

 

 

＜LATTER HALF＞

 

<Article>

http://www.ibtimes.com/hearing-loss-report-limit-music-listening-hour-day-says-world-health-organization-1831286

Hearing Loss Report: Limit Music Listening To An Hour A Day, Says World Health Organization

By  Dennis Lynch @neato_itsdennis on February 27 2015 4:07 PM EST

 

Are you listening to music on your phone or MP3 player right now? If so, have you been listening for more than an hour? It’s time to take the earbuds out if you want to save your hearing, the World Health Organization said Friday. Too many people around the globe are listening to music for too long and at too high volumes, the agency said in a report. The WHO recommends headphone users limit their listening to about an hour a day, which could be a tall order for music lovers.

 

More and more people ages 12-25 are suffering from hearing loss now than in years past, according to the WHO. More than 43 million people in that age group have permanent damage to their hearing. A person who listens to music on headphones at a volume of 95 decibels, or roughly the volume of a jackhammer at 50 feet, for as little as 30 minutes daily “is going to get irreversibly damaged [hearing] in a couple of years’ time,” according to WHO hearing loss expert Dr. Shelly Chadha, according to The Associated Press.

 

Around one in seven people across the globe are at risk for hearing loss. “Many patrons of nightclubs, bars and sporting events are often exposed to even higher levels of sound, and should therefore considerably reduce the duration of exposure,” the WHO press release said. “For example, exposure to noise levels of 100 dB, which is typical in such venues, is safe for no more than 15 minutes.”

 

The WHO recommends that patrons and employees wear hearing protection when they go to loud concerts or bars. The organization also recommends that managers of these venues keep noise levels low and offer “chill out” rooms for patrons to get away from the constant barrage of loud music. Headphone users can better preserve their hearing by using noise-canceling headphones or just simply turning down the volume on their MP3 players.

 

Many noises regularly encountered in cities like New York, London and Tokyo can be extremely damaging to hearing. A subway train coming into the station should be heard for no more than 15 minutes, and a police siren can damage hearing in just nine seconds, the WHO said. Read more of their listening recommendations via BBC. Chadha added that if you “cannot understand conversation around you, you know that this is too loud.”

 

<Questions>

1) What did you think of this article?

Do you agree with WHO’s recommendation? Do you think WHO is overreacting?  Why do you think there has been an increase in hearing loss for young people?

 

2) Will this article change your listening habits?

Do you worry much about listening to loud music? Do you think many people will follow WHO’s advice? How often do you think people should listen to loud music?

3) How’s your hearing?

How important is your hearing to you? How often do you use headphones? Do you ever wear ear plugs?

 

4) Do you like listening to loud music?

What kind of music is best listened to loud? What kind of music is worst listened to loud? How important is it to you to listen to loud music? Have you ever been to a heavy metal or hard rock concert?

 

5) Generally, do you like listening to things at a high volume?

Is there much noise pollution in Japan?

 

6) What are your favorite sounds?

What are your least favorite sounds?

 

7) How often do you listen to music?

How important is it to you to listen to music? When do you listen to music?

 

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私たちと一緒に英語コミュニケーション能力を鍛えませんか？

 

ご興味を持たれた方は、

入会申込フォーム

 

https://english-speaking-club.com/cms/?page_id=93

 

 

よりお申し込みください。お待ちしています！

 

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