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Japanese Courses in Sheffield

ロバート — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:34:02 +0000

I read some comments made by Amelia Cook of Chocochip Languages on a (ill concieved) campaign against romaji web site today. Based solely on the level-headedness of her comments, she comes across as an enthusiastic, thoughtful and caring teacher who can convey her enthusiasm. Following her links to Facebook, I found a page about her courses in Sheffield. If you are in the Sheffield area and want to learn Japanese I suggest you check it out.
Chocochip Languages Japanese courses in Sheffield
They seem to have many options for courses and an interesting approach. While you can learn a lot by yourself if you are disciplined, a class; classmates; a teacher and a regular time for Japanese can be incredibly useful.

(unfortunately since it seemed to insist on a Facebook account I couldn’t comment on the no-romaji site. But in the spirit of fixing the Internet I’m working on a post in rebuttal.)

microblog

ロバート — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:21:58 +0000

I’ve started a microblog on posterous for briefer posts and interesting pages that don’t seem to be appropriate for this site. There will probably be posts about FileMaker as I continue with the Kanji Sieve project. Eventually I’ll sort out the RSS feed display and there will be a listing in the sidebar.

しあわせ microblog

Leaving Certificate Japanese

ロバート — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:21:22 +0000

Amy Murphy has started a web site guide to Leaving Certificate Japanese. Having taught herself Japanese successfully for the 2009 Leaving, she is now passing on her enthusiasm and insights to other candidates.
If you live in Ireland, Leaving Cert Japanese is worth a look.
Self-motivated and self-led learning is a completely different experience to the rigidity of most secondary school language programs.

Kanji Toy

ロバート — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:18:27 +0000

Short post and link.
I’ll be on the lookout for these the next time I’m in Japan. Kanji Transformers from Bandai!
The site I found it on, Pink Tentacle, is a mine of ~~weird~~ interesting Japanese art and design.
Another one from them is spot the kanji in town logos.

Crack appears in Mixi’s exclusion method

ロバート — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:29:23 +0000

Two years ago mixi started requiring a Japanese email address in order to sign up to mixi. It seems that what they are doing is filtering for undesirable domains. Hence google mail etc are being barred, Japanese keitai are not.
Koichi at Tofugu has found an apparent crack in mixi’s filters. dot-edu domain addresses are not being blocked. (for the moment). Which is good news if you have a .edu email address. He has even found a way to get a .edu address via an Australian site. Details can be found on Tofugu.
Apparently (I haven’t checked) .ac.uk addresses work as well.
You also don’t need an invite to join mixi anymore according to Tofugu. But play nice please; mixi is different from Facebook et al. and the social conventions around friend requests are different.
I wouldn’t liken it to the Black Ships yet. No one is forcing mixi to open up (and no-one should really). More like some Jesuits being snuck in.

Japanese Blog in German

ロバート — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:41:41 +0000

I got a nice email from the author of futurefire, a blog about Japanese study written in German, so I went to check out her site.
I can’t read German but I’m sure it would be useful if you can. As you might expect from someone studying design the graphics are interesting. Check out the article on a re-design of the Tokyo subway map and one on furoshiki.
Also have a look at thephotographs on Wanda’s main site.

Terracotta Film Festival London

ロバート — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:20:45 +0000

As part of the Terracotta Film Festival at the Prince Charles cinema over the bank holiday weekend, there are three Japanese films being screened.

After School Saturday 23 May 16:15
High Kick Girl Sunday 24 May 18:40
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 Friday 22 May 20:45

Details at the festival site. There are also films from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia if you are a fan of Asian cinema.

Thanks to Paul at London Japanese Language Meetup for the heads-up!

The Queen’s Classroom – 女王の教室

ロバート — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:22:07 +0000

I first saw The Queen’s Classroom in Japan about a year ago. It has got to have the most evil bully of a teacher even in TV. Set in the sixth grade class in an elementary school, Akutsu-sensei has a heart of ice and rules with a mental rod of iron, introducing her charges to all the injustice they will encounter in the wider world.
Today I came across it on a Drama site with links out to Google Video. I’m enjoying it in an oh-my-God sort of way. In fact the lead is so~o evil they have to show her transforming back into an actress in the closing credits.

YouTube

BBC Four Japan season

ロバート — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:51:22 +0000

BBC Four has a season of Japan related programs at the moment called Hidden Japan. Also on their web site there is an amusing series of Japanese word of the day to watch. If you miss any you can catchup using iPlayer. Unfortunately online versions via the BBC are most likely restricted to the UK (or those with the knowhow to have their IP appear in the UK) so I’ve changed the embedded video to a YouTube video that should work for everyone.

Photographs of Old Japan

ロバート — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:36:55 +0000

For several months I’ve been following Okinawa Soba’s fascinating photostream at Flickr. He has an enormous collection of Meiji period photographs mainly by a photographer called T. Enami which he is generously sharing via his flickr account. His comments make for interesting reading as well. He is what might be called cantankerous and I’m sure would be an interesting companion over a drink or two in a izakaya.

(original photo from Okinawa Soba used under creative commons licence)