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Jul 25, 2010 - 1:29 AM - by Sciby
Attachment 388Well, I just dunno how to feel about this - are they saying that a monkey can teach English, or is it a cutesy method for giving students someone who has comparative and therefore relate-able English skill?
"Lulu the chimp has initially been hired to work in the chain’s internet-based teaching curriculum which enables students to conduct a dialog with the teacher in a chat room style format via computer."
Either way, I wonder how long I start getting paid in bananas...
Source: http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/jz/2...eaching+Monkey
Jul 12, 2010 - 8:39 AM - by Chjoey
Maybe some of you jgo speakers can get jobs with the government upon returning home?
Thirty students from the U.S. traveled to Kyoto last month under a new U.S. government initiative to boost the country’s number of Japanese speakers, to make the country more competitive globally.
The student trip was sponsored by the U.S. State Department as part of its Critical Language Scholarship Program, known as CLS, a government initiative aimed at improving the foreign language skills of U.S. citizens.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/l...nguage-program
Jun 29, 2010 - 10:57 PM - by Chjoey
Just another example of Japanese history text books leaving out the dirty details of Japan's past:
However, the term ‘‘comfort women’’ was wiped away in the 2006 versions of history textbooks from all eight publishers, although two referred to them by merely noting that young women were dispatched to the war fronts for Japanese soldiers, according to the leaflet, ‘‘Bringing Back Reference to ‘Comfort Women’ in Junior High School History Textbooks.’‘
http://www.japantoday.com/category/l...-comfort-women
So what do you think? Should junior high school students learn about this?
Jun 16, 2010 - 8:12 PM - by Chjoey
Jun 15, 2010 - 2:05 PM - by Mothy
Well, some people find JET useful still. Personally I disagree though.
The U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange, which is known as CULCON, said in a joint statement issued after its two-day gathering in Washington that investment should be made in education for the Japan-U.S. alliance in the future. "The investment should range from improving English language education in Japan to stimulating interest in each other's country...sustaining the JET program and fostering public intellectuals through graduate and post-doctoral studies," the statement said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1
Jun 06, 2010 - 9:24 PM - by Mothy
Nationalists once again prove that they're still the most powerful interest group in Japan.
Outrage and fury among hardcore nationalists have been building for months, finally causing a Tokyo movie theater to cancel plans to show the film.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2...g-controversy/
Apr 12, 2010 - 7:02 AM - by Sciby
Well, not quite, but if certain people get their way, robotically assisted farmers will be toiling effortlessly in Japan's fields within 12 months.
Fifteen years in the making, the robosuit will soon hit the market in Japan to help ageing farmers harvest their fruit and vegetables while avoiding backaches and nasty cramps.
That's all wonderful, but going from the picture, the "wearers" hands and fingers are still the only thing holding up that box, not the suit. I suspect this will be one of those "nice idea, completely stupid execution" things...
Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/po...-1225851880070
Apr 08, 2010 - 2:20 PM - by Sciby
Tie me kangaroo down... tomodachi? As an Australian, I'm both proud and puzzled by this report:
According to Brent Swancer at CryptoMundo, the first kangaroo sighting in Japan occurred seven years ago. Since then, there have been at least 20 similar reports.
Kangaroos are very hardy animals and very adapatable - they're capable of having three pregnancies in progress at one time, and halting the development of an embryo in vitro when food is scarce so I'm not really surprised if some roos are flourishing in Japan. I do love the little bit of input from the cryptozoologist at the end:
(he) believes that what everyone has been seeing is in fact a wallaby. He shared his feelings with Swancer, saying, “There are wallabies adapted to colder climates that do well in northern locations. They are the ones that are most often, incorrectly, reported as kangaroos.”
He's saying that instead of it being a large grey marsupial that hops around on two legs eating grass, its a slightly smaller grey marsupial that hops around on two legs eating grass. Not surprising that people might get confused... [ Read More]
Apr 02, 2010 - 11:18 PM - by Mothy
I have to say I'm somewhat a cultural relativist- what is wrong in one culture is perfectly fine to do in another culture. But at some point I guess things are just wrong no matter what. But is it right for western culture to tell Japan they're wrong?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=C2
The national government is considering making possession of child pornography illegal -- currently it is not. But this possible change to the law is due to outside pressure, not internal protest.
Cleveland says Japan has some of the most heinous examples of child pornography in the world. "It's a country that has been held to task by the U.N. for human trafficking and exploitation of women."
"Japan has ways of expressing sexuality that are practically indecipherable to a Western sensibility but that are so normalized in Japan that the Japanese don't often understand or acknowledge the critiques that are made against them," Cleveland says.
Japan has different ideas about sexuality than western... [ Read More]
Mar 18, 2010 - 1:14 PM - by Mothy
...the weather this winter really was crazy.
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201003160337.html
Bitterly cold air blowing south from the Arctic Circle triggered highly unusual weather fluctuations that brought heavier snowfalls to areas of Japan this winter.
A committee of experts under the Japan Meteorological Agency said the highly unpredictable weather is an anomaly that may occur "only once in 30 years."
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