Above are some images of my two favorite activities, reading and traveling! Reading lets me journey to new places and times. I read a book called Akhenaten by Egypt's Nobel Prize winning writer Naguib Mahfouz (about Tutankhamen's strange father), then journeyed to Egypt and saw the pyramids and Tutankhamen's gold mask, then read another book by Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy (about an early 20th-century Cairo family), then visited Cairo, and saw cute lively little boys getting out of school in Cairo, AND my reading made my traveling more deep and interesting, and my traveling made my reading more deep and interesting, and both made me feel alive and human and lucky. So I recommend both reading and traveling! The more you do them, the more you can do them and the more you enjoy them and the more you learn from them. Try!
**If you want to see more of my travel pictures and books that I read, go to my personal website and check the About Me page there: https://jpfukudai.weebly.com **If you want to see some of my recommended books, go to my personal website and check the Great Books page there: https://jpfukudai.weebly.com/great-books.html (or read the books I put on our African American, Children's, Fantasy, and SF lecture handouts!) For the last time: TGIF!!!!!!! (And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!) From today's class please remember these three points: 1) If you study American and British literature and culture in English with full power and thought, you will be excited and moved, improve your English, learn about other cultures (and so about Japanese culture), get many topics to talk and think about, and become more human (more full of empathy and curiosity and knowledge and pleasure). So I hope you will all read and watch many American books and movies etc. and learn many things about American culture etc., no matter what course you chose! 2) American culture and literature are really BIG and full of variety and very interesting. In our class, I could only introduce to you a very small sample of it all. 3) To improve your English, you must USE it every day! A great way to use it is to read books or watch movies (or TV shows) in English. I wish you good luck with all your examinations! I will miss you and miss our class! And so I hope to see you at Fukudai. TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING A LAST COMMENT TO OUR BLOG (by December 26) 1) You could watch the whole 48-minute "Human Is" TV version on Amazon Prime and compare it to the original story (doing this will get you more points than a usual comment!). **And there will be Japanese jimaku if you watch the Amazon prime video on their website** Here is a link to the Amazon.jp Prime page with the TV show Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. Go to the link and choose the third episode, "Ningen Rashisa." https://www.amazon.co.jp/真生活/dp/B078T5KH33/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1544520645&sr=1-1&keywords=electric+dream 2) You could tell about something you enjoyed or were surprised by etc. that we did in class in Koki. 3) You could write your reactions, impressions, feelings, experiences, etc. about any of the pictures on this blog post. 4) You could explain how you make yourself more human. In my case, I travel and read and try to learn and teach about how other people think, feel, live, create, and so on. What about you? **The deadline for submitting extra points reports is January 12, 2024 **The deadline for submitting blog comments is December 26, and you cannot submit comments to old posts**
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TGIF, everybody!
Above you can find a link to the "Human Is" audiobook. It takes 32.5 minutes, and the reader is good, and you can click "captions" to see English subtitles as it plays OR you can just read your printed copy of the story. Try the first ten minutes and see how it goes. Or try the last five minutes (the climax). Practice your listening and pronunciation and increase your enjoyment! Also above you can watch a four-minute fan video from the hit sf high school romance TV show Roswell, in which you will see a lot of American culture (part time jobs, high school hallways and lockers and classrooms and graduation, weddings, funeral, etc.). Keep in mind that all the romantic couples you see are one member alien, one member human: they really love each other! Finally, you can watch the full 49-minute Amazon version of "Human Is" and compare it to the original short story we're reading for class! You must belong to Amazon.prime to watch. Go to this link and choose the third episode in the series ("Human Is" in English, Ningen Rashisa in Japanese) of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. YOU GUYS! If you don't even try to read a story in English, how will you improve your English? You can NOT improve your English only by talking or listening to music or watching movies. You must also READ English. It is a big part of improving your expression, your vocabulary, your understanding, and so on. I'm really disappointed that so many of you did not read the story... Anyway... From today's class, REMEMBER the following things. 1) "Human Is" has four parts.
2) There are many themes in "Human Is." Read some of my ideas about them in the print/handout I gave you today with my lecture points for the last part of the story. For now, I'll say that good literature (like "Human Is") makes you think about your life: how to be a good husband, how to be a happy wife, how to be a good human being, etc. **By the way, that is one good point of enjoying and studying culture and literature: the stories and situations and characters etc. often give you interesting and important things to think about in connection to your own life and the lives of your family and friends.** 3) Alien means "foreigner" and comes from the Latin word for "other." So I am an alien in Japan, while you are aliens in America, and we are both aliens to each other. In science fiction stories, aliens come from other planets, but usually they are metaphors for us (for human beings who are different). Some sf aliens are evil monsters trying to kill us (the Alien movies), while some are good visitors trying to make friends with us (E.T.). Which kind is "Human Is"?? (hint: it depends on your point of view!) 4) There are many stories similar to "Human Is," where an alien or a demon or a ghost etc. takes over (or makes) a human body and tries to pass for human, and there are also many stories where people change bodies (girl and boy, father and daughter, father and son, etc.). That's because people like to imagine what it would be like to be in another body (an old or a young or a male or a female one). It's also because people like to imagine the fear of having their bodies used against their wills... 5) A good way to learn the human heart and human (or American) culture and English is to read lots of American literature and watch lots of American TV shows! From "Human Is" you can learn a lot of American English expressions (like "Damn" and "Dear") and American culture points (like typical American meals). TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS ON THIS POST (by December 19, 2023)
HOMEWORK (for December 22, 2023) 1. Practice our old five-point quizzes to get ready for the examination on January 25. 2. People who want/need bonus points should submit another blog comment and or submit a bonus points report about a movie, etc. TGIF, everyone!
Which of the above pictures do you like better for the story?? The first one is by a professional sf illustrator for magazines in the 1950s and 60s, while the second is by a former Fukudai LE first year student from 20 years ago! (I really like her picture of Gus and his "tiger.") About today's class--I enjoyed hearing your ideas about those "Human Is" topics, but I regret rushing through my main points for the last fifteen minutes of class. If you missed my main points, read the lecture handout we gave you in today's class. And REMEMBER the following points from today's class: 1) Science fiction uses fantastic science and technology (like aliens, robots, computers, spaceships, the future, etc.) to tell us things about our lives now. 2) When Philip K. Dick was alive, science fiction was a small genre without much money. After he died it became one of the biggest (maybe THE biggest) most successful, and most popular genres for fiction and movies, and his stories are made into many movies and TV shows these days. 3) "Human Is" (1953) was written during the Cold War (1948-1991), when the USA and the USSR (Soviet Union) were enemies who hated and feared each other. That's why in the story human beings on Terra (= Earth) and aliens from other planets hate and fear each other and are fighting a Cold War. 4) In the first 80 paragraphs of the story, Lester Herrick is a bad husband for Jill Herrick, because he thinks only of his work (military poisons) and is not kind or loving to Jill and does not want children (she says he's "inhuman"), BUT then he goes on a research trip to an alien planet (Rexor IV), and when he returns he's very different to Jill: kind, gentle, loving, etc. What happened????? You will find out when you finish the story! 5) You can find lots of American culture and conversational English in American stories and movies. In "Human Is," we can see American technological goods, scientific research, divorce, dinner, etc., and expressions like "Damn it!" and "Dear..." TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING WRITING (by 12/12) 1) Write any impressions of or questions about the first 80 paragraphs of "Human Is." 2) Write about the pictures of the story I put at the top of this post. 3) Write about your childhood imagination: when you were a little boy or girl, did you imagine that your toy was alive or that your cat or dog was a tiger or wolf or that you were a princess or a hero etc. etc.? 4) Write about your parents: when you were a kid did your father work too much so he was too busy or tired to play with you, or did he make time to play with you? And are your parents romantic to each other? Etc. 5) Write about a science fiction movie or TV show you have watched. HOMEWORK (for 12/15): Finish the whole story (read it to the end!) and the Guide for it and be ready to write about "Three Topics for After You Finish the Story" on the first page of the story: 1.Compare the mood of the story’s last paragraph to the mood of the first. 2.Which husband does Jill choose, her original human mind husband or her new alien mind husband? Which would you choose if you were her? 3.What’s the theme (message about life) of the story? **We might have one more quiz, so do the homework carefully! **When you finish the story, think of "The Girl and the Chenoo" and "Beauty and the Beast." **You can challenge listening to the audiobook of the story: a reader with a clear voice and slow pace reads the whole story on Youtube, for about 32 minutes. You could listen to the native speaker of English reading the story and follow the story with our text!!** Here is a link to the Youtube "video" of the story being read: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeNLLJ3cpbw&feature=emb_logo (The picture on the video has NO CONNECTION to the story!) Doraemon is science fiction, because Doraemon is a robot cat from the future who comes (in a time machine) to our time to help Nobita-kun improve himself, so that Nobita's descendant will live a better life. Doraemon uses advanced technology, not magic. The Terminator movies are also science fiction, because in them bad robots (reverse Doraemons!) from the future come into our time to try to kill people.
TGIF! From today's class, REMEMBER the following points. 1) Fantasy changes the real world. 2) The fantastic changes usually show us the human heart (our desires or fears), so fantasy is not only an escape from reality, but also is a way of understanding it. That's one reason why we feel fresher or happier or stronger etc. after reading or watching a fantasy story or movie etc. 3) Science fiction is a kind of fantasy that uses science and technology to explain or make the fantastic changes from the real world. 4) Science fiction uses fantastic science and technology (like aliens, robots, computers, spaceships, the future, etc.) to tell us about our lives now. 5) There are many kinds (sub-genres) of science fiction: spaceship, time machine, robot, alien, after civilization, etc. 6) Science fiction usually shows how to be human or how not to be human among all our technology. 7) When Philip K. Dick was alive, science fiction was a small genre without much money. Since he died it has become one of the biggest (maybe THE biggest) most successful, and most popular genres for fiction and movies, and his stories are made into many movies and TV shows these days. ABOUT CHOOSING YOUR COURSE (for first-year LE students) 1. Both courses are good for learning English, growing your mind, and studying abroad 2. Both courses are good for getting any job: from teacher to airport ground staff, etc. 3. To improve your English and to get your goals and dreams, the most important things are your energy, effort, and motivation, so choose the course you want to study more! Choose your joy to be successful! **Here are what I think are the good points of studying culture and literature: •Learn useful and interesting English •Learn about the human heart and mind •Get topics for conversation and thought •Learn about American etc. people and culture •Have entertaining and moving experiences But ask Sato Riku in the library or me in email or office or your Kisoenshu teacher etc. about any of this any time. TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING WRITING TO THIS BLOG (by 12/5)
HOMEWORK (for 12/8): 1) Read topics 1 and 2 on the Guide handout/print for the story. 2) Read the "Human Is" handout first page introduction AND the first eighty (80) paragraphs, to the middle of page 261. 3) USE THE GUIDE TO THE STORY: find the paragraph numbers from the story paragraphs and the black italics font words from the story and read my explanations for them. IT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE STORY! TGIF, Everybody!
I liked getting your ideas about the story today in class! From today's class, REMEMBER the following points: 1) Fantasy is a way of changing the real world, so it appears in many genres: magic, fairy tale, adventure, science fiction, horror, and so on. 2) Fantasy is not only an escape from reality, but also a way of understanding it! That's because the fantastic changes from our real world show our desires (what we really want) and fears (what we really don't want). So in "The Girl and the Chenoo," the story shows the fear that someone might kill or eat us, and the desire that we may change a bad person into a good person or may solve our problems with cleverness and kindness. **It is true that too much fantasy or too much fantasy without enough reality can lead to unhealthy or dangerous results, like with stalkers...** 3) In "The Girl and the Chenoo," Little Listener and her brothers--and the Chenoo--all cooperate (work together) to change the giant monster into their grandfather (but Little Listener is the leader!). **To understand the story more deeply, read the "Chenoo" lecture handout I gave you in class today.** TOPICS FOR COMMENTING ON OUR BLOG (by 11/28) 1. Write about the two pictures illustrating the story that I put in this blog post at the top (click on them to make them bigger). Which one is a better illustration for the story and why? 2. Compare "The Girl and the Chenoo" to any monster story or movie etc. that you know, like Kimetsu Aiba, Frieren, "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," Where the Wild Things Are, and so on. 3. Write about any of the topics I gave the class today. 4. Write any question or comment about "The Girl and the Chenoo." 5. Write about fantasy in general. HOMEWORK (for 12/1): Read the Science Fiction lecture handout Page 1, topics 1, 2, and 3. Be ready to quickly answer the following questions in class: 1) What is science fiction? 2) Why is America a science fiction country? 3) Who was Philip K. Dick and what is something interesting about him? TGIF, Everybody!
What do you think of the pictures above of girls reading books with dragons? (There are many similar pictures if you do a Google Images search for "girl reading with dragon.") From today's class, please REMEMBER the following points: 1) Where the Wild Things Are has the Fantasy Journey and Return structure. In such a story, the main character begins in the bad real world (angry, sad, bored, or lonely, etc.), goes to a fantasy world where he/she has a big adventure, and then returns home to the real world and is a better person in a better real world. This is the structure of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (American), The Hobbit (British), Sen to Chihiro No Kamikakushi (Japanese) and The Neverending Story (German). Can you think of more examples??? 2) Reading picture books is fun! Kids and parents enjoy doing it. And they can make reading a picture book like playtime before bed. And reading picture books is a great way for you to keep your inner child heart alive and strong and to improve your English. 3) Every culture in the world has plenty of fantasy, because people like to imagine things that are impossible or different from every day reality, but American fantasy has some special points. One special American point is the strong connection between dream and business (as in the American dream or Hollywood "Dream Factory"). 4) Fantasy shows impossible things (that can't happen in our real world) that show us our true desires or fears (what we really want or really don't want). Therefore, fantasy is NOT an escape from reality! Think about that with the pictures at the top of this blog post. TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING BLOG COMMENTS (by November 21)
HOMEWORK: (for November 24)
BONUS POINTS: If you want to write an extra-points report about an American fantasy or science fiction movie, go to our Fall Bonus Points page and read how to do it.
Above are two videos of the Troggs' famous version of "Wild Thing," which became a big hit in 1966, three years after Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (1963). The song was written by an American guy for an American group in 1965, but the British Troggs made a hit with it, and ever since it has been covered by MANY different artists (check YouTube!) The lion video has the lyrics on the screen, so you can enjoy the simple words and rhymes in the song. Watching the videos should show you that "wild thing" is not the same as "monster." Wild thing is someone who is rebellious, sexy, and out of control: WILD. OK?? That's one reason why the English original title of the picture book is so much better than most translations of it.
From today's class, REMEMBER the following points: 1) Max grows and becomes a good, calm, quiet boy for the time being (for now). He may go wild again in future. Every time we read the book, he is wild again, isn't he? And at the end he's still wearing his wolf suit (though he has pulled back the head part), and the moon is full, and the moon is a symbol of wildness, lunacy, insanity, wolf man, etc. 2) Max is able to become a good, calm, quiet boy (for now) because he goes into pure wildness in his fantasy play, becoming the king of all wild things. Children can express their bad wild feelings by fantasy play, which will then help them be better kids in reality. 3) Picture books are complex because they combine pictures AND words. Sometimes they do different things (when the words reverse order to hint that Max is time traveling or when the pictures show the moon changing size). Sometimes pictures and words work together (in the picture where the words say "Max was lonely"), and sometimes they contradict each other (in the pictures where Max is doing much worse things than "mischief"). 4) Literature and culture are complex! There are many different ways to understand them. The monsters may symbolize monsters, Max's wild heart, or adults. The moon may symbolize insanity, imagination, female power, or time. The story may be Max's dream while he's sleeping, or it may be his real adventure. 5) You can find many American culture points in the story. In addition to English expressions like "rumpus," you can see American pajamas for little kids, American punishments for bad kids, and American single mothers. 6) Children's literature can give you a great experience (pleasure, emotion, ideas, etc.), can help you remember being a child, and can improve your English. **And Where the Wild Things Are really IS a great picture book, isn't it? I'm amazed that after 25+ years reading it for Gairon, I STILL find out new things about it, like this time I finally noticed that Max is holding a FORK as he chases his dog, because he is going to eat the dog, because he is a wild monster, and like what Momoka said in class: Max is on the left side of pictures early, then in the middle of pictures with the wild things, then on the right side of pictures later (and this shows his changing situation and heart etc.).** TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING WRITING (by 11/14)
HOMEWORK: (for 11/17) Read the handout about Fantasy, especially topics 1 and 2. TGIF, Everybody!
From today's class, please REMEMBER the following things. 1) Children's literature is popular, partly because kids like reading to have adventures and to learn about other people and about how to be adult etc., and partly because American businesses are good at using synergy (making two or more things become greater together than they are when separate) to make money and entertain kids. So if a book for kids becomes popular, soon there will be a movie version and or a game version and or a toy version and or a Disney attraction version, and so on, and all of the different versions increases the popularity and pleasure of the thing. 2) Children's literature is a great way to improve your English: you can read books in English that are not SO difficult or long, etc., and that may have pictures etc., and then you can gradually improve your confidence and motivation to read books for older readers, and all the time you will be learning about American/British culture and human beings, etc. 3) Maurice Sendak was/is an important picture book creator! He used fantasy to "deal with" (talk about, show, explore, etc.) real life. His child characters sometimes become angry like real kids and then use fantasy to improve their mood. And he can do any kind of picture in any style for any story! TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by October 31) 1) You could write anything about Where the Wild Things Are. For example, here are some topics:
3) You could write about some other book by Sendak that you have read. 4) You could write any questions or comments about Sendak. **NOTE: you can watch the 2009 movie version of Where the Wild Things Are in the Fukudai Library!** HOMEWORK (for November 10)
2. What are some interesting points about the pictures, about the words, and about the words AND pictures together? 3. What do the Wild Things mean/symbolize/represent, etc.? 4. Does Max dream his adventure or really do it? 5. What is one theme (message about life) of the story? Do you like that Goodnight Darth Vader picture book cover? Darth Vader was reading a bedtime story to his children (Luke and Leia) to make them fall asleep, but he fell asleep, and they became active!!! ("ZZZZZZ" is the American sleeping noise in comics.) **I have the book in my office, in case you want to visit and read it!** Do you understand that Calvin and Hobbes comic?
Calvin's father does not want to read the same bedtime story to Calvin ("We've read that book a million times!"), so he changes the story to kill the hero, Hamster Huey, so Calvin and Hobbes are surprised. Children often want to hear the same bedtime story MANY times. My big sister read bedtime stories to me, and I would fall asleep as she read. I loved it. TGIF, EVERYBODY! From today's class, please REMEMBER the following points: 1) American children (like the children in any country) play to build healthy bodies, to be social, to become adult, to enjoy, to feel emotions and think ideas, etc. And American children read books etc. to be social, to become adult, to enjoy, to feel emotions and think ideas, etc.! Playing and reading use very similar imagination... 2) American boys and girls typically play together and read the same books up to about 8 years old, after which they typically play separately and read different books, boys focusing on adventure, violence, action, etc., and girls focusing on motherhood, romance, and fashion (example: GI Joe and playing army vs. Barbie and playing house). **Probably more American girls read usual boys' books (adventure etc.) than American boys read usual girls' books (family, romance, etc.). Isn't it the same in Japan?** 3) American children's literature has BIG variety: from ABC picture books for babies to serious novels for teenagers. 4) American kids also, of course, improve their English ability by reading books. Therefore, reading American children's literature is a good way to improve your English ability and to learn more deeply and widely about American culture. TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS: by November 7
HOMEWORK: for November 10
TGIF, Everyone!
**NOTE: I'll be in Hokkaido until Tuesday, so I may not be able to reply to your comments until then! But please submit comments by Tuesday the way you always do.** Anyway, from today's class, REMEMBER the following points: 1) Newspaper comics (good ones) teach you American culture, human life, and natural, daily American English, and they can also entertain you. 2) Some daily American newspaper comics sometimes combine to make stories, like the Calvin and Hobbes "Baby Raccoon" story. 3) One theme of "Baby Raccoon" is that although we may understand that life and death are part of the same cycle, we may not want our beloved people and pets to "go anywhere" (die). HOMEWORK (For October 20) Read page one (topics 1 and 2) of the Children's Culture and Literature handout and remember something interesting from it. TOPICS FOR COMMENTING (by October 17)
SPECIAL NOTE Remember that Bill Watterson never agreed to make Calvin and Hobbes goods. Nevertheless, many fans have made their own, personal Calvin and Hobbes goods and animations and costumes and pictures, etc. Here is just one of them, an interesting one showing Calvin as an adult watching his daughter walk away with big Hobbes... What do you think of it? |
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