Ryota's Old Daybook: Language Arts & Basic English
2005/05/30
  Ryota's Japanese Daybook

I have made a new daybook in Japanese. It is chiefly for young men and women at Fukushima University. But anyone interested may come.
<ryota2005.exblog.jp>
   |

 

2005/05/26
  Basic English Discussion Group

Most of word-processing or picture-processing machines, online or offline, do their work by controlling electrons, very small bits whose moves make electric current. Those machines are electronic machines. We send out mails, or notes and letters, out of our machines eletronically, and get mails from our friends all over the earth. Years back, the name of those electronic mails became short ones like "e-mails" or "emails." Now boys and girls say those online letters are only "mails."

It's no hard work for us to send the same mail, at the same time, to a great number of different persons listed. That sort of system for sending online letters goes by the name of mailing list. It has been used for years by discussion groups of network users. If you send an online letter to a certain account, or a certain online list, the letter is sent to all the persons listed.

Basic English Mailing List, an online discussion group in Japan, have about 100 persons, most are men, and have an exchange of notes in Japanese about Basic English. The owner of the list is Mr. Ohyama.

<homepage1.nifty.com/teabreak/BE/>
   |

 

2005/05/22
  English through Pictures

I. A. Richards, when teaching English in China, got more and more interested in teaching Basic English to starters. He kept working on it after coming to Harvard, helped by Christine Gibson. Their step-by-step way of teaching had a growth into a new system, with books like English through Pictures, French through Pictures, German through Pictures, Hebrew through Pictures, and so on.

Book 1 and 2 of English through Pictures are the best books for the first learners of Basic. Book 3 is best for the learners who are going up to a higher level.

EP, or English through Pictures, have been out of print for a long outside of Japan. But a univerisity teacher living in Thailand has kindly sent me a news that now they are back in print in Canada by a company named Pippin Publishing.

English through Pictures: Book 1 and a First Workbook of English

English through Pictures: Book 2 and a Second Workbook of English

English through Pictures: Book 3

English through Pictures: Book 1, 2, and 3
   |

 

2005/05/18
  Arms and the Man, Again

An opening part of Arms and the Man, in Basic, is online. It is at the Basic English Institute of Mr. Bauer.

http://ogden.basic-english.org/isl442.html
   |

 

2005/05/11
  Arms and the Man

"Who's there? . . . Who's there? Who is that?"

"Sh--sh! don't make a noise; or you'll be fired at. Be good; and you'll be quite safe. . . . Take care: it's no use attempting to get away."

"But who--"

"Now then; if you make a noise, my gun will go off. . . . Get a light and let me see you. Is that clear?"

Those words are a part of the talk between a young woman and a man from a stage-play in Basic English: Arms and the Man.

This play was first made up, in general, unlimited, English, by a noted writer of plays from Ireland: George Benard Shaw. It was made public in 1894, and has been produced on stage in a number of different countries, in different languages. It's a story of a family, their servants, and military men in the wartime Bulgaria, with a happy ending.

It was put into Basic English, helped by Shaw himself, and printed in 1936. You may see an advertisement by Ogden:

http://www2.educ.fukushima-u.ac.jp/~ryota/basic_books.html#gbs

An online book of Arms and the Man, unchanged from the complete form put by Shaw:
http://drama.eserver.org/plays/modern/arms_and_the_man.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3618

Arms and the Man in Basic is now out of print. It's hard to get a copy even at great online stores of second-hand books.

I had a good chance of getting an old copy. I have a hope that this play in Basic may be acted on stage someday. It won't be so hard for Japanese learning English at high schools, colleges and universities.

   |

 

2005/05/08
  Walking Stick

Walking stick is the name of what you take in your hand to keep you in good balance when you have a hard time in walking, because your legs are feeble, you are on a hard road, or going up a mountain.

If a stick, or a machine in the form of stick, makes a move and has a walk, it may go by the name of "walking stick."

You will say: "No. A stick may only have a jump or roll. It doesn't have legs, so it will be unable to have a walk."

If a stickman, or a stick-like machine, has legs, it may go walking. In some countries, you may see an insect with a brown body which is truly looking like a stick of wood with six legs. It doesn't have a walk in an upright position, but it goes by the name of walking stick.


Picture by Mr. J. Josh Snodgrass.

   |

 

기초 영어 or Baza Angla. If you have knowledge of 850 English words, you may have a good time reading this daybook, Ryota's day-to-day notes, in Basic English, for college-level learners of English as a second or overseas language. Notes are generally on English or other languages, American or other writers or writings, and music or motion pictures based on those writings.

About Me
Ryota Iijima
Ryota's Japanese Daybook
Ryota's Rooms
Fukushima University

About Basic English
Basic English

About Internet Words
Blog
Comment
Trackback

What's New?
Changing Names
The End
Ryota's New Daybook
New Paper on Basic
More on the Man Who Was at the Nazi Prison
Leaves of trees are changing
A man who was at a Nazi prison
Been to the Basic English
Night School
Stand by Me: The Song and the Motion Picture

What's Old
2005/03 | 2005/04 | 2005/05 | 2005/06 | 2005/07 | 2005/08 | 2005/09 | 2005/10 | 2005/11 | 2007/01 |

Bookmarks: English
Ryota's Top-Page
Mr. Ohyama in Basic
Basic English Institute

Bookmarks: Japanese
Yuzuru's Daybook
Mr. Katagiri's Pages
Mr. Ohyama on Basic
Basic English Discussion Group
GDM: Or, Richards-Gibson System

Bookmarks: German
On Basic English

Powered by Blogger  Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com