Ryota's Old Daybook: Language Arts & Basic English
2005/10/31
  New Paper on Basic

Good news! A new paper on Basic English is now out in an international newsletter on language teaching.

"Towards a People's English: Back to BASIC in EIL" is a new attempt to make teachers see that an answer, or the answer, to troubles in teaching EIL, English as an International Language, is Ogden's Basic English. The paper in the newest copy of Humanising Language Teaching gives a short history of Basic and what we may do with it.

Bill Templer, the writer of the paper, gives a short account, in it, of Mr. Katagiri and his friends, the Japanese groups working for a long time on Basic and teaching English using Richards-Gibson System.

You may see the paper online here:
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep05/mart05.htm

You may get a copy for printing here:
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep05/mart05.rtf

Mr. Templer was the writer of a letter to a Thai newsletter, which I made a note on in Semptember:
http://ryotasan.blogspot.com/2005/09/letter-in-thai-newspaper.html
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2005/10/30
  More on the Man Who Was at the Nazi Prison

August Kowalczyk, in 1940, was a young Polish man with a strong love for his country. He made an attempt of getting out of Poland to be with a Polish group secretly working against Adolph Hitler's political moves in France. He was taken by Nazi law-officers and sent, as the prisoner number 6408, to a walled place at Oswiecim. At the time Oswiecim, a Polish town, was under the rule of the Nazi military forces. So the town, and the prison, had a German name: Auschwitz.

Mr. Kowalczyk had a very hard time there. Every day, every decision, and every move he made was between death and living. But he had a good chance of secretly running away from Auschwitz, living, in 1942. After that he was with the secret Polish group against the Nazis.

After the war, he became a stage actor and manager, and he kept on working for peace, giving talks of his experience inside the wall, round the earth.

A Japanese page on Mr. Kowalczyk and Auschwitz:
http://www.am-j.or.jp/museum_info/2004-2005schedule/050727_2.htm

An online page in Germany to keep the memory of the death houses, in English language:
http://auschwitz.dk/
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2005/10/29
  Leaves of trees are changing

their colors from green to red, orange, yellow or brown. Time of sundown is getting earlier.

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2005/10/24
  A man who was at a Nazi prison

came to our university and gave a public talk on his experience inside the wall of the death houses. He is an old but strong-looking Polish and gave his talk in Polish.

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2005/10/22
  Been to the Basic English

Society's general meeting. This society is a small group of Japanese working on Basic. A great number of them are teachers. Some have a very long experience.

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2005/10/18
  Night School

Fukushima University, in this April, made a start with a new structure. One of the new divisions in the university is a night school.

I myself made a start of teaching at night from this October. This is the third week, and I'm going to do my work starting at 7:40.

Most of the learners at night school are a bit older than the daytime university men and women. Some have works in the day.

This time I'm to do another new thing: teaching English by using Richards-Gibson system, by acting it out. I will say, pointing myself, "I am here." I will say, pointing one of the woman in the school-room, "She is there" to the other learners.

I've been giving my teachings IN English for over 10 years, and I've been making use of English through Pictures for a number of years. So it may not be a very hard thing for me to do.

I have in fact some fear. The fear gives me a feeling that as if I was young again. Doing something new and having some fear may keep you young.
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  Stand by Me: The Song and the Motion Picture

If you keep yourself upright, on your feet, you are standing. When you stand by me, you keep yourself upright, on your feet, by me, as my friend. "Stand by Me" is an old song from the 1960's, made by an New Orleans man of music Ben E. King.

I'm writing about this song, though "stand" is not a Basic word, because the first three lines of the song are all made of Basic words. I don't make a copy and paste of the words, because of the copyrights. You may see the words on the page from this bookmark:

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/standby.htm

When the night and the dark comes to the land and even if the only light they see is the light of the moon, the writer of the song says that she, or he, will have no fear as long as her friend, or boyfriend, stands by her.

This song was based on a part of a very old verse in The Bible: "Psalm of David" or "Psalm 23." In Basic English the part of the Bible verse goes like this:

Yes, though I go through the valley of deep shade,
I will have no fear of evil; for you are with me,
your rod and your support are my comfort.

From "Psalm 23," The Bible in Basic English.

The most noted words in this old verse are "the valley of deep shade." This word group, in the King James Bible, are put like: "the valley of the shadow of death."

In the 1970's, "Stand by Me" was played frequently on the radio and music stores, because a new recording of the song was made by John Lennon.

In the 80's, the song was played again at the end of a new motion picture, Stand by Me. This moving picture was based on the story, "The Body." It's about four boys making a journey through dark woods, looking for the dead body of a young man. The boys in the story are having hard times at school, in the town and at their houses, with the violent and hard-drinking father, or feeling no love from his family. The unhappy boys have a hope that looking for the dead might make them happy. They are, in a way, walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
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2005/10/08
  Fall

is the days after summer and before winter. The position of the sun in the middle of the day has a fall from high to low. The measure of heat in the daytime has a fall to the level between warm and cold. Leaves of trees have a change of their colors. At the end of fall, these red, yellow, leaves have their falls. The "dead" leaves on the earth, a sign of coming winter, are food for very small things living on and in the earth.

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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.

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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

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2005/03 | 2005/04 | 2005/05 | 2005/06 | 2005/07 | 2005/08 | 2005/09 | 2005/10 | 2005/11 | 2007/01 |

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