Some recent photos...

So I've had a little more time this past week, due to winter break - both at work and in my online MA program. So I've gotten the camera out (along with my new tripod - finally) and taken a few photos. Check 'em out! We've got a lot of snow. (As always, click on a photo for a larger version)

Here's a shot at Eniwa Station. A good idea of how much snow we've got on the ground. And we're on the lower end of totals here in central Hokkaido. Some areas are pushing 6 meters (approx. 20 ft) of snowfall for December.

Another buried bike - on it's side, so it's not quite as impressive as it might otherwise seem.

Eniwa Station.

Nakajima Park at night. Another buried bike. What is it with me and bikes? Oh yeah. I'm a cyclist. I guess I'm drawn to bikes.

Trees at night. And a lot of snow.

I know light pollution isn't a good thing. But it made for a nice photo in this case.

The mountain of snow at the T intersection right by my apartment. It's only going to get bigger.

The public bathrooms in the park. It's a nicer picture when you don't know that fact.

One of the movie billboards in downtown Yubari. I've written about Yubari before. It was once a booming coal town - 116,000 people lived there in about 1960. After the mines closed, the population crashed - now it's probably less than 10,000. But in th2 1990's, an attempt to boost the town was made by starting an international film festival. And it worked, for a while. Tarantino showed up a few times - and even named a character after the town. Since the city went bankrupt (and didn't get bailed out by the national government) it's become a MUCH smaller film festival. But they're still trying.

More billboards for movies I don't know.

What I guess passes for downtown Yubari. Once upon a time, there were apparently 17 movie theaters in the town. Not sure when that was.

One more for good measure.

On the road back to Eniwa from Yubari, I always pass this place. And it's a complete mess. Not sure when it closed, or what exactly it was. I'm sure if I ask around, I can get some details - maybe even find some photos. But I think it might have been an onsen (hot spring bath).

As you can see, time has taken a bat to this place.

But it fits well with my fascination with ruins.

The nice thing about a tripod? I can take shots like this one of the moon.

And just a couple from Mt. Racey Ski Resort (in Yubari).

It was completely cloudy - to the point of not being able to see 10 meters - at the very top of the mountain for most of the day. But on my second to last run of the day, it cleared off just enough to get these photos.

Who should teach English?

So there's a big debate in the English teaching communities in both Japan and other parts of E. Asia, notably South Korea. And the question is whether or not having native speakers in the classrooms as assistant language teachers (ALTs) is worth the expense. From what I have seen recently on some Korean teacher's blogs, apparently the Seoul board of education will be eliminating at least some of it's ALT positions. And of course, this has more than a few people in an uproar. Japan occasionally sees the same phenomenon. And the argument on the ALT side almost always comes down to this: I'm a native speaker. I know how English is really used. Regardless of what kind of training I have (or don't have), I am a valuable asset for the school and students. Admittedly, that generalization is just that - a generalized over-simplification of the argument put forth in favor of retaining the ALT positions. The argument almost always extends to: At least some of the non-native teachers that I work with are terrible and can't speak any English at all!

And you know what? I can sympathize with all of that. There are plenty of non-native speaking English teachers who don't speak much English. But there are also plenty who do speak English reasonably well. And you know what else? All of the non-native English teachers are trained teachers. Sure, that's no guarantee that they are going to be good at it.

But any guesses what percentage of the ALTs are trained teachers? Honestly, I can't say for sure, but based on my experience as an ALT, back when I first came to Japan - the number isn't terribly high. I was one of those ALTs untrained as a teacher. Only a small handful of the ALTs around me were trained as teachers. Which would seem to me to be a strike against ALTs.

And just as there are both good and bad non-native English teachers, the same applies to ALTs. Being a native born speaker of English doesn't automatically mean that you any business being in a classroom with 30 or 40 Japanese junior high school students.

And when asking student opinions about who they prefer, the data is very mixed. Students point out some positives about both native speaking teachers and non-native teachers. So often, when a certain data set comes out that seems to show students favoring teachers who share the same first language as the students, ALTs and the like are very quick, and rightfully so, that the data always refers to highly qualified, competent teachers. All I ask is that the ALTs apply the same rules to themselves when making the arguments. If we are going to argue in favor of ALTs, we need to make sure the ALTs are also highly qualified and competent. Go out and get your TESOL certificate. Do a master's program. You can do it online and not miss any paychecks. I'm doing it, working a full time job as the main English teacher at my technical college.

And whatever you do, when you post on webforums, complaining about the use of the English language in Japan or Korea or wherever you happen to be - please take extra care not to make simple mistakes. Don't use the word respectively when you mean relatively. And while I'm not asking you to go read every book in the world, I think that it should be fairly common knowledge that the Three Musketeers is not the original title of Dumas' book. It was NOT written in English. It was written in French. It was called Les Trois Mousquetaires. If you want to say that you are qualified to teach, don't give people reason to doubt it. Thanks.

Is it still English? Really?

There's a certain bulletin board that I'm a lurker on. It's all ex-pat English teachers working in Japan. They are almost entirely junior high and elementary school teachers, so much of the school stuff they talk about I no longer have to concern myself with, so I find it better to just remain a silent observer to the occasionally useful, often frustrating conversations.

This past week, a conversation thread about words and phrases that are annoying, several of the users complained about the Japanese pronunciations of English words, specifically singling out TV. The example give was a particular shoe store called ABC Mart. In Japanese it gets pronounced as エービーシーマート (approximately ei-bi-shi-maato). Admittedly, the second only sounds vaguely like the English pronunciation. But at this point, is it really English any more? No, it isn't. For starters, the alphabet is NOT the exclusive property of the English speaking world. Go to Scandinavia. The first letter of the alphabet is not pronounced the same way English speakers say it. So, any particular argument about how to say the letters becomes dicey in the first place. And then there's the word mart, or マート. At this point, it's become a loan word, hasn't it? When speaking Japanese, and saying the name of the store, if you were to pronounce it as it were English, it would be horribly incongruous. Mart is English. マート (maato) is Japanese now.

When we speak English, do we say entrepreneur with a French accent? Do we say gestalt with a German accent? Only when we're being pretentious. Once a word becomes widely used in a second language, it becomes a loan word and the new language can do with the original word as it likes. Yes, you are allowed to bemoan that fact. But I am then allowed to call you a dick. Deal with it.