「ALT Report」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Hello, everyone. In this week’s ALT Report, I will talk about a garden.

Can you see the garden in this picture? It is a traditional Japanese garden in Vancouver, Canada, the Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia. But who was “Nitobe”?

Inazo Nitobe was a famous writer in the early 20th century. Maybe you have seen this money before. In 1984, the Bank of Japan put Nitobe on the 5000-yen note. He wrote a book that was very popular all over the world, called Bushido: the Soul of Japan. This book was about the “way of the warrior,” bushido, and Japanese culture. He was born in Morioka, Iwate prefecture in 1862, and lived in the United States, Germany and Canada. Because he was important to Canadians, the University of British Columbia has a Japanese garden with his name.

I hope you can see the Nitobe Memorial Garden someday. It is a beautiful reminder of the connection between Japan and Canada.

More reading: Inazo Nitobe on Japanese Wikipedia

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

In Gunma prefecture, there is a holiday on November 4. I hope you all enjoyed this day. In Canada, our national holiday is on November 11. It is called Remembrance Day.

From 1914 to 1918, Canada fought in a war, called World War I or the Great War. Many people died in this war, and on November 11 Canadians have a “moment of silence” for the dead. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11:11 a.m. on November 11), for one minute nobody speaks. We also wear poppies on our clothes, a symbol from the famous Canadian poem “In Flanders Fields,” written during World War I.

Here is the poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

You can find a Japanese translation at this page.

Thank you for reading the ALT Report, and I hope you think about Remembrance Day this weekend. It is a very important day for Canadians.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello again, everyone! Next week is the chorus contest, I hope you’re all ready for it.

This week in the ALT Report, I want to talk about Halloween; a special day we celebrate in North America. Halloween (sometimes spelled Hallowe’en) is celebrated on October 31, and here are some traditions we have for this special day.

Carving pumpkins

Carved pumpkins, called Jack-o’-lanterns, are a famous Halloween tradition. Some Jack-o’-lanterns are very impressive. You cut the top off the pumpkin, take out the insides, cut out a “face” and put a candle inside.

Pumpkin pie

Carved pumpkins aren’t the only Halloween pumpkin tradition. Pumpkin pie is a delicious pie made with pumpkin. It is delicious plain or with ice cream.

Trick-or-treating

On Halloween night, children put on costumes and go “trick-or-treating.” What this means is they knock on a door or ring a doorbell, say “trick or treat” and get candy.

Watching scary movies

The last Halloween tradition is my favorite. On Halloween, it is a tradition to watch scary movies. Movies with ghosts and monsters are great for Halloween. I like movies with zombies best, like Night of the Living Dead.

This has been the ALT Report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello again, everyone! The typhoon is over, now let’s talk about a fun topic.

Japanese music, movies and video games are famous around the world. But the Japanese things that are popular around the world are often not popular in Japan! In this post, I will look at some Japanese things that are well-known in America and Europe but not so famous in Japan.

Final Fantasy games

The Final Fantasy series is popular in Japan, but not as famous here as Dragon Quest. In America and Europe, though, Dragon Quest is not very popular but Final Fantasy is the most popular RPG series. European and American lists of the best games ever made always include many Final Fantasy titles, especially Final Fantasy VII (1997). People around the world love the music, the characters and the stories in the series. My first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy X (2001) on the Playstation 2, and I have loved the series ever since.

Japanese cinema

Maybe you know the directors Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki. But do you know names like Kon Ichikawa, Shohei Imamura, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu? The movies made by these people are often found on “best movies” lists around the world, and their names are very famous in Europe and America. Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (東京物語 in Japanese) in particular is often called one of the greatest movies ever made. People around the world love these classic Japanese stories, and many Japanese directors are called the best in the world.

Noise music

Maybe you’re thinking, what is “noise music?” Well, it’s an interesting kind of loud music that is very different from normal music. It uses many kinds of instruments that you do not hear in rock or classical music. Noise music did not start in Japan, but the most famous noise musicians are Japanese. The first noise music was American musician Lou Reed’s album Metal Machine Music in the year 1975. Many Japanese musicians heard this album and were inspired by its unique sound. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Japanese bands and artists like Boredoms, Fushitsusha, Hair Stylistics, Hijokaidan and Merzbow made noise music that became famous all around the world. Back in May, I saw Fushitsusha perform in Shibuya. It was very good.

This has been the ALT Report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello again, everyone! To the second-year students, I hope you all had a good Career Dream week.

In today’s ALT Report, I’ll talk about the word “typhoon” because typhoon 19 “Hagibis” will come to Japan this weekend. Be careful, everyone!

The word “typhoon” is a mystery. Some people say it came from Chinese, because the Chinese word taifung sounds like “typhoon.” The Japanese word taifuu sounds like it, too. Some people think it comes from ancient Greek, because “Typhon” was the Greek god of storms. In Arabic, the word is ṭūfān and in Portuguese it’s tufão. In many languages, the word for “typhoon” sounds very similar.

I hope you will all be safe. Typhoons are very dangerous.

This has been the ALT Report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

Hello again, everyone! Did you study well for your midterm exams?

In English, when someone likes sweets, we say they have a “sweet tooth.” If you have a sweet tooth, you will love these delicious Canadian treats!

Nanaimo bars

A specialty of my home province, British Columbia, the Nanaimo bar is a delicious Canadian dessert. With three layers, a Nanaimo bar has a layer of crushed wafers and coconut crumbs, one of custard icing and chocolate on top. Recipe in Japanese here!

BeaverTails

Usually, donuts are round, but Canada’s BeaverTails are flat donuts! With many delicious toppings, they are a classic Canadian dessert. The shop that sells them is so popular, they even have a store in Japan. If you’re in Tokyo, maybe you should give BeaverTails a try!

Coffee Crisp

This classic candy bar is made with coffee-flavored wafers and covered in chocolate. If you like the taste of coffee, you will love Coffee Crisp! You can find Coffee Crisp bars at some import candy shops.

I hope you enjoyed learning about Canadian sweets. This has been the ALT Report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello again, everyone! Did you enjoy the school Sports Day yesterday?

Well, in my home country, junior high school students enjoy a sports day too – but the name and events are just a little different.

In Canada and the U.S., instead of calling these events “sports days” we call them “track meets.” Most schools in these countries have at least one track meet every year, with many different events for the students to participate in. Like in Japan, there are running events and relay races, but there are also many different activities that aren’t in Japanese sports days. Hurdles (like in the picture above) are one of these. The high jump and long jump, as well.

There are also competitions for throwing objects, like the shot put (a heavy ball), discus and javelin throws. My mother used to do the shot put in her school’s track meets – she was very strong back then!

This has been the ALT Report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello again, everyone! Did you enjoy your Monday holiday? In Japan, there are two holidays in September – the third Monday of the month is called “Respect for the Aged Day” in English, and then there is the Autumn Equinox Day – which is on September 22 some years, and September 23 in others. But in Canada, we do not celebrate these days! Instead, in Canada and the United States, we have what we call “Labor Day.”

Now, you might ask, what is Labor Day?

Labor Day is a day for the workers, a day of rest to thank them for their hard work in the rest of the year. It is also a popular day for celebrations, with many events celebrating Labor Day – especially in sports, with the NCAA (National College Athletics Association) in particular starting their football season with games on Labor Day.

There used to be a belief that it was wrong to wear white after Labor Day, too. Do you think people shouldn’t wear white in fall and winter? Some Americans still do!

This has been the ALT report, thank you for reading and come back next week for more.

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)

Hello and welcome all, to the Kasakake Junior High School official ALT blog!

Tomorrow is the Midori city English speech contest! Junior high school students from all over Midori will be competing to see who can do the best speech in English. I will be there, too, and I am very excited to see our Kasachu students doing their best in the speech contest.

It’s been very hot recently,  so everyone please be careful in the sun and drink lots of water.

This has been the first post of the Kasachu ALT report. Please come back every week for more!

-Devon (Kasachu ALT)