There is a website that I use quite frequently when I need help to read a Japanese web-page: www.rikai.com. You go to the Rikai website and enter the address of the web-page you want to view. It will then take you to that page, and when you roll the mouse over Japanese text, a small pop-up will appear with an English translation for that word. Like a regular dictionary, it gives several possibilities for each word, and you have to try and work out which is the appropriate one for the text you are reading. It's not perfect, but it's great for people who have some literacy skills in the language and just need occasional help.
One of the staff at school has a son who recently played baseball for Australia against Japan, with he game being held in Osaka. The only way they could follow the game was on a play-by-play website (where each ball in the game is described in writing by someone who is actually there watching) which, of course, was completely in Japanese. She rang me, and I gave her a rough translation of what was going on. I then suggested she try the Rikai website. She and her husband don't speak any Japanese, but by using the website they could follow the game.
Perhaps there are similar websites for other languages.
2009年3月29日日曜日
2009年3月23日月曜日
On-line Translators
I have to say that Penny's video made me laugh out loud! (I've included it below for those who haven't seen it yet.) I think I will actually show that video to my Year 6 students as the start of a discussion about online translators and their accuracy (or lack thereof!).
It's actually quite topical, because I have started to introduce my students to being able to word-process in Japanese script. The students think it's great, as it is much easier than laboriously trying to write unfamiliar hiragana characters by themselves. The really keen students are eager to start writing as much as they can, and often want to look up the words that they need. Because I travel from room to room, the students don't have access to a class set of traditional dictionaries, and I will often use an online dictionary myself if I have to find a word I don't know when asked by a student. The danger of course, is that students go beyond a single word and try to look up whole phrases or paragraphs. (Or they try to translate a sentence one word at a time, keeping the same word order as in English, and end up with complete gibberish!)
I think this is a really good way to demonstrate the complexity of language. I often say that languages, like most things, don't always follow rules - there are always exceptions. This is why computers can't match the human brain when it comes to languages and translations (well, not yet, anyway!!)
It's actually quite topical, because I have started to introduce my students to being able to word-process in Japanese script. The students think it's great, as it is much easier than laboriously trying to write unfamiliar hiragana characters by themselves. The really keen students are eager to start writing as much as they can, and often want to look up the words that they need. Because I travel from room to room, the students don't have access to a class set of traditional dictionaries, and I will often use an online dictionary myself if I have to find a word I don't know when asked by a student. The danger of course, is that students go beyond a single word and try to look up whole phrases or paragraphs. (Or they try to translate a sentence one word at a time, keeping the same word order as in English, and end up with complete gibberish!)
I think this is a really good way to demonstrate the complexity of language. I often say that languages, like most things, don't always follow rules - there are always exceptions. This is why computers can't match the human brain when it comes to languages and translations (well, not yet, anyway!!)
Japanese Children's TV
I found this "TV Channel" on Mogulus.com. I'm not sure whether or not I will be able to use it in the classroom, as access to sites like this that require live streaming are often blocked. Our tech people are pretty good about unblocking sites that are for educational purposes, so that may not be a problem.
I'm also not sure if I can save particular parts of the broadcast, rather than just showing my classes random clips that happen to be showing at the time. It would be of more value if I can sort through and choose clips that show songs that we know, or use language with which we are familiar. How do you "record" live streaming? (I don't think the actual show is live, as the time stamp in the corner isn't always consecutive.) There is an "On Demand" button, but that doesn't seem to do anything - there are no clips to select from when I click on it.
I'll have a play and see what I can work out.
I'm also not sure if I can save particular parts of the broadcast, rather than just showing my classes random clips that happen to be showing at the time. It would be of more value if I can sort through and choose clips that show songs that we know, or use language with which we are familiar. How do you "record" live streaming? (I don't think the actual show is live, as the time stamp in the corner isn't always consecutive.) There is an "On Demand" button, but that doesn't seem to do anything - there are no clips to select from when I click on it.
I'll have a play and see what I can work out.
2009年3月19日木曜日
Voki in the Classroom - a First Attempt
Okay, I finally decided to give it a go and see what happened. I created a Gmail account on behalf of each Year 6 class, and then registered with the Voki website. I decided I'd try that first, before going to the effort of creating individual e-mail addresses for all 58 students. My worry was that we would not all be able to log-on at the same time with the same username/password. I waited until the last 15 minutes of the lesson, and told them that it was just an experiment, and might not work, but we all managed to log-on without a problem! Some of them had already found the website and experimented at home after I mentioned it in a lesson a couple of weeks ago. I insisted that we all log-on with the class e-mail, so I can keep track of their class work.
The kids had a great time trying out the possibilities. There was great laughter when we first logged-on, and students were running from desk to desk to check out the random Vokis generated by the website when you first log-on.
Unfortunately, there was one point I forgot - you can't save a Voki until you have given it a voice. We ran out of time to try out any recording (in hindsight, I could have just asked them to type in "hello" so that there was at least something there, and we could edit it later) so most of the students didn't save anything. I made a rule that everything saved must have their own name included, so we know whose Voki is whose.
I spoke today to a mother of a Year 6 boy who isn't the most enthusiastic language-learner. She said that he came home yesterday and told her that he did some "cool stuff" in Japanese today. Yay! A step in the right direction.
2009年3月17日火曜日
The Japan Times
It's difficult (and expensive!) to subscribe to Japanese-language newspapers when you live overseas, but I like to keep up with the latest news in Japan. Also, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, my kanji reading is at primary school level, so reading authentic text for adults is time-consuming. For this reason, I have been subscribing via e-mail to "The Japan Times". Every day, I receive an e-mail with all the news headlines, and I can click on the story I want to read, which takes me to The Japan Times website. This takes a bit of time, while I wait for the story to open in a new window. With RSS Feed and Google Reader, it will be much quicker.
In fact, when I went to the website to see if there was an RSS Feed button to add to Google Reader, I discovered a "widget" to add The Japan Times to my blog (see left!). Even better!
RSS Feeds - I think I might get swamped!
I LOVE the idea of RSS feeds. I have found interesting blogs in the past, and added them to my "Favourites" or "Bookmarks", but then never seem to find the time to go and check each one for new posts. RSS feeds and Google Reader solves that problem!
Unfortunately it also creates a new problem! How do I keep up with all the new posts on Google Reader? I think the answer will be to wait for a while, and then decide which blogs are most relevant to me, and unsubscribe to to the ones I don't really need. Or, use the "Mark all as read" button sometimes, and accept that I will never be able to keep up!
2009年3月16日月曜日
日本語
I have now changed my language settings for Blogger, which I did a while ago, and also for Gmail. It is quite a challenge for me, as my kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese reading/writing) reading is not very strong! Luckily for me, many IT terms are written in katakana (one of three Japanese "alphabets") and they sound very similar to English. For example カレンダー (karenda- = calendar), メール (me-ru = mail) and ヘルプ (herupu = help). The main thing is to remember how to change it back!!
Navigating around other peoples' blogs in languages with which I am not familiar is much harder. Of course, if you know the layout well, you can guess what most of the words mean, but it feels very strange. Perhaps that's what it's like for people who use the internet for the first time - lots of unfamiliar words, almost like another language!
Navigating around other peoples' blogs in languages with which I am not familiar is much harder. Of course, if you know the layout well, you can guess what most of the words mean, but it feels very strange. Perhaps that's what it's like for people who use the internet for the first time - lots of unfamiliar words, almost like another language!
2009年3月8日日曜日
SlideShare
I really like the idea of SlideShare. If I can organise a class blog for my Year 6 students (see previous post), then we could also post any PowerPoint presentations we develop on there, via SlideShare. My only concern with SlideShare would be the same one that I have with YouTube: you're never quite sure what will come up as the "featured" or "recommended" presentations. What if it is adult content? In the past I have shown YouTube videos direct from the website, but now I try to convert the clips first and insert them into my Smart NoteBook presentations (IWB software) so that I know for certain what the students will see. You can also do this with SlideShare of course, but if the students need to go to the site to post their presentations, it could be a problem. Maybe I can post on behalf of the students...
The presentation below would be good to show to my Year 4 students, when I do an in-depth explanation of script types. I particularly like the way the author has used photographs of real signs in Japan (from the flickr.com website) to show examples of different scripts. I must remember to take a look at flickr.com myself. (or is that already on our list of 23 Things??
The presentation below would be good to show to my Year 4 students, when I do an in-depth explanation of script types. I particularly like the way the author has used photographs of real signs in Japan (from the flickr.com website) to show examples of different scripts. I must remember to take a look at flickr.com myself. (or is that already on our list of 23 Things??
Voki Fun
Well, here is my first attempt at a Voki. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm really keen to use this with my Year 6 students. What I'm struggling with is the logistics of setting it up. Blogging is not something that we have done in the Junior School, and some staff are wary of privacy issues. If the students only use their first names, and it is a private blog, I don't think that should be a problem. It's the setting up of the blog, making sure I get the privacy settings right, and then getting all the students to sign up that's going to be tricky. I wonder if they have a limit on how many Vokis you can create? Could the students all simply log in as me, and create their Vokis in my account? Getting them all to create a Gmail account, verify it, sign-up for Voki, verify that account and then create their Voki could be a nightmare with a class of 10 and 11 year olds! And then they would have to get their code and embed it in the blog... hmmm, need to think about this a bit more!
2009年3月2日月曜日
YouTube 大好き！ I Love YouTube!
I love using YouTube videos in my lessons. As we have SMARTBoards (IWBs) in our classrooms, it is easy to share them with the class. With the K-2 students, I often end the session with a short (2-3 mins) video clip from Japanese TV. The children love it! We talk about how TV shows in Japan are the same as or different from the ones we watch. One of our favourite shows is "Anpanman", a cartoon series that was first created in 1968 and has been on TV continuously since 1988. Over 50 million Anpanman books have been sold in Japan - it is an institution!
The video I have embedded here is from another TV series about a dog called Shibawanko. This series is designed to teach Japanese children about Japanese culture and traditions. Although all in Japanese and quite difficult for young students to understand, it is interesting just to look at the pictures and discuss things such as Japanese traditinal housing and gardens. After participating in PD related to Intercultural Language Learning, I encourage my students to notice things, rather than telling them what life is like in Japan. Watching authentic Japanese videos is great for this.
This particular episode explains the origins of Children's Day (Tango no Sekku). I will show it to my Year 3 and 4 students in May.
The video I have embedded here is from another TV series about a dog called Shibawanko. This series is designed to teach Japanese children about Japanese culture and traditions. Although all in Japanese and quite difficult for young students to understand, it is interesting just to look at the pictures and discuss things such as Japanese traditinal housing and gardens. After participating in PD related to Intercultural Language Learning, I encourage my students to notice things, rather than telling them what life is like in Japan. Watching authentic Japanese videos is great for this.
This particular episode explains the origins of Children's Day (Tango no Sekku). I will show it to my Year 3 and 4 students in May.
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