J.K. Rowling - a biography

J.K. Rowling's journey to success was filled with hardship & resilience.

Born in England in 1965, she loved writing stories from a young age. After university, she worked various jobs but never felt fully satisfied. She dreamed of becoming an author, yet life presented challenges. Her mother passed away, her marriage failed, and she returned to England as a single mother, struggling financially & emotionally. Despite these challenges, Rowling started working on a story about a young wizard named Harry Potter.

Sitting in cafes, she carefully wrote while her baby daughter slept beside her. Rejection after rejection came from publishers, but Rowling didn't give up. Finally, in 1997, a small publisher took a chance on her manuscript. The first Harry Potter became an instant success, transforming Rowling's life.

The Harry Potter series went on to become one of the best-selling book series in history, leading to films, merchandise, and a dedicated fan base worldwide. Rowling;'s story is a powerful example of perseverance, proving that even in the hardest times, holding onto your dreams can lead to amazing outcomes.

Posted for Miki

Harry Potter – Books and Movies

There are seven Harry Potter books in the series, and eight movies. When I was a university student, my sister, who loves reading books, recommended I read these books. As they are fantasy stories, we need to use our full imagination when we read them. Most of the things in the world of wizards and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry do not exist in our real world. I realized that I couldn’t enjoy the stories perfectly, because sometimes I couldn’t imagine such unreal things. When you watch the movies, you can see how these things are, and you can also enjoy the differences between what you thought and what the author thought. Therefore, I recommend watching movies after you have read the books.

I have always liked learning English...a dreamer writes

My first pen friend was an English boy in Portsmouth.  It was so much fun to get a letter from overseas and his European life amazed me.  We both became busy studying for the examinations (O-level for him and high school entrance exams for me), it ended shortly.  Then I was fascinated by the Bay City Rollers: when I spell Saturday, I'm still mumbling their famous song (clever readers could guess my age).   

I dreamed of English hills covered with daffodils as Wordsworth said and heather, footpath, hedge, afternoon tea, scones, clotted cream, victorian sandwiches, mincemeat, pubs, beers, fish 'n' chips, movies, TV dramas, etc…  Those never ending interests have made my heart wide open and I had a lot of opportunities to see and talk to people from over sea and people who have the same interests, those who were amazing.

At the Nagano Olympics, my American friends introduced me to the US Olympic Committee and luckily I had an incredible chance to work there as a receptionist.  Whole the Olympic time I was in the Americans, I felt as if I were in the US, which I had never been before.  They were very friendly and efficient.  They rented a big building out as their offices and some residences for the senior officers.  There were free Coke machines and free McDonalds, lots of stationery, and their own overseas telephone service in the building.  They also even gave us free tickets for some Olympic games.  I thought I had used all of my good luck for my whole life.

English gives me such great experiences, it makes my world no limit, it frees my heart from a tiny and unpleasant real life. Reading English books brings me extra knowledge and that makes English more interesting: ex found out the original meanings of some rather strange characters' names in Harry Potter's…

So, you young learners, read lots of English books and see a lot of movies,and make lots of friends!  Open seas spread before you!

Posted for Sayuri 

Postcard from Universal Studios Japan - Osaka

Despicable Me!

Hi everybody at Luna.

I drove across Gifu prefecture on the backroads to avoid big traffic jams, but still got stuck around Kyoto & Osaka. The next day, I think we met everybody as they were all queueing for rides at USJ as well. Oh my word, so many glum looking people waiting for over three hours with NO entertainment to sit on a 90 second ride. Admittedly, the rides are pretty amazing (Harry Potter was first choice, and Despicable Me/Minions in the old Back to the Future zone was second) but good grief the waiting was grim.

Souvenirs? What a racket - Y5,000 for a plastic chopstick with a crap light bulb in the tip = Harry Potter's wand. Every other kid had a Minions water cannon backpack - starting at Y3,000 each. You can seriously drain your bank account here without trying very hard/doing very much.

My kids even had to wait to get a picture with Kitty-chan, and again with Elmo! Best use? Charlie Brown's bullpen.

Meet the throng

In all, I think we stood in line for 7 hours. My suggestion? Don't go to USJ or Disneyland in the summer, and certainly not on a national holiday. If you must, try a pre-typhoon day or a nice snowy one. Take your own food & drinks, and take turns waiting in the queue - go do something else while one of you waits :)

What can you see from your bedroom window?

            When I asked my younger students “what can you see from your bedroom window?” I got a rather dull and boring answer of “a wall”. One of my students even said that he doesn't have a bedroom. I had to make sure he wasn't Harry Potter! These were not exactly the responses of inspiration and wonder I was hoping for. I couldn't even use the Japanese Alps in view from out of my classroom window as creative inspiration since it was dark. As I wanted my students to transfer their bedroom views onto paper, I realized this was going to be rather an unfruitful activity if we spent the next part of the lesson drawing our neighbour’s walls.

So I took a slightly different approach. Instead of asking “what can you see from your bedroom window?” I asked “what would you like to see from your bedroom window?”. This gave the class the spark I was looking for, giving them the incentive to use their creativity and imagination. The students began to draw the most bizarre and wonderful things you could imagine: from dinosaurs to an octopus climbing Mount Fuji, even the vast expanses of space!

Once our visions of wonder were completed, we learnt how to spell and write all of the marvellous things we had just drawn. This allowed the students to recycle the words they have learnt previously as well as learn how to say some of their favourite things in English! The students took great pride in hanging up their make believe bedroom view around my classroom, boasting to their fellow classmates of all the new exciting words they have learnt.

A fantastic way of engaging the students while giving you the opportunity to learn a little more about them. So the question is; what can YOU see from your bedroom window?

Damian Gowland

Harry Potter voicethread project

by Yuhi & Remi :)


http://voicethread.com/share/1285615/

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - film review

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by Alfonsin Cuaron. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasly, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. The story was written by J.K.Rowling.

The film was set in a school called "Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry". The film was based on the third "Harry Potter" book.

The film is about Harry Potter and his friend Ron & Hermione. It is their third year going to Hogwarts and Harry was really looking forward. A new "Defense Against the Dark Arts" teacher, Professor Lupi, comes to Hogwarts. But a convicted murderer, Sirius Black, which is Harry Potter's godfather, escapes Azkaban and is coming after Harry Potter. The magic world is in panic and the "Dementors", which are supposed to be guarding the gate of Hogwarts were flying around the school. Harry Potter learns a spell which would save you from the Dementors. In the middle of the story Harry, Ron and Hermione understand that Sirius Black isn't bad so they help him escape from Hogwarts because he was caught in prison in Hogwarts.

I strongly recommend Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The soundtrack is really good and makes you absorbed in the movie. My favorite scene is when Harry Potter rides Buckbeak, because it looked really fun and I would love to ride Buckbeak.

Toshiya (homework from Unit 7, New English File Intermediate)