My Father’s Dragon

Sayuri meets her dragon!

 When I read this fabulous story for the first time, I was an elementary school student.  I fell in love with this lovely front cover picture at first sight, and as soon as I started reading it I was so much into it I had to read it all the way through, again and again for ages.  Over the year though, I forgot about until I saw an advertisement about an exhibition for the original illustrations of this book at PLAY! Museum in Tachikawa.  “I have to go there!”

Tachikawa is a well-planned, beautiful city with the Museum just a 10 minute walk from the railway station.  We arrived a little earlier than the opening time, but the smiley staff welcomed us and let us wait in the cool foyer.  At reception we got a sticker and lovely paper-craft pictures of dragons as souvenirs.  The receptionist told us we could re-enter the Museum anytime that day, using the sticker.  We were even allowed to take photos inside.

My first photo had to be with the beautiful Boris the Dragon at the entrance!  He was so lovely, just as I had imagined.  I was over the moon - I felt like my lifelong dream to see the Dragon had came true!!

As well as the original pictures, the exhibition room was full of black and white animals made me feel as though I was on ‘Wild Island’ with Elmer Elevator, the main character.  The original pictures were drawn into so much with pencils and their captions were put with which were shaped like twigs, lollipops, chewing gum, bird feathers, which were iconic items in the story.

There were also crocodiles lined-up like stepping stones which Elmer had used as a bridge in the story.  In the display the crocodiles groaned when we stepped on them, which was so much fun.

The Museum shop was really exciting too.  There were so many lovely items like T-shirts, postcards, books, posters, socks, lollipops, water-dorm, etc, etc…paradise!  I bought books, T-shirts and other trinkets! Shopping done, we went to the Museum cafe and enjoyed interesting dishes inspired by the exhibition.

‘My Father’s Dragon’ and the subsequent Ruth Stiles Garnett stories, ‘Elmer and the Dragon’ and ‘The Dragons of Blueland’ were written in 1944, being translated into Japanese and published in 1963.  I had only ever read them in Japanese before, but now I’ve got an original English version which I’m looking forward to reading and seeing the Dragon I love.

The most dislike story is "The Room in the Tower"

The most disliked story is “The Room in the Tower”. 

According to this story, the writer had a bad dream many times. In his dream, he met with a man who was from his old school, but he didn’t know him well. If I’m the writer, I won’t want to see a person who don’t know very well in my dream. Of course, I don’t want to meet a stranger in my real life. 

I imagine that he couldn’t only sleep very well due to the bad dream, but also, he couldn’t spend his life lively during he had a bad dream. It is important for us to sleep, so his situation was terrible. I don’t want to be annoyed by the bad dream. Because I cannot wake up easily when I had a bad dream. Also, I couldn’t refresh my body and brain. It’s hard for me to work a day. I believe there are some bad effects without enough sleeping time.

In the end, he was nearly killed by old lady. The lady was painted on a picture, but she appeared in front of him and put her hand his neck. It was really terrible.  

When I read this story, I felt weird from the beginning. I thought that this story was written like “Déjà vu” story, however, the end was such as ghost story!!! I cannot understand what happened after that. 

After finishing of reading, it left me a bad aftertaste. 

A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?

Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.

 

Teacher says - almost nothing? Let the kids play!

Teacher said 'rip it up'!

It's been a while since I've shared our classroom activities here. My students inspire me, and I love how the simple things work best - we are more or less back face to face & done with blended zoom lessons - where we couldn't use physical resources...

Any teacher of young learners will tell you that the physical interaction of learners with their own resources, and their physical interaction with each other is priceless - and we are more or less mask free too (not a policy, just the mood).

You can see we are continuing to use online resources - really cool presentation tools & 'distracting' audio/video components. And of course you can see our students all have their own text books = physical resources we at Luna think are irreplaceable. 

You can see flashcard chaos? 

Let's get organised!

I see students managing their own stuff, sorting and saving - and helping each other. Gentle corrections and lots of unsponsored vocabulary spoken...I mean, no teacher talk time, but students prompting, checking, repeating. Teacher's job = shut up & listen! Sure, a few subtle corrections & non-verbal encouragements, nudges & thumbs up, but hey, the students are doing all the heavy lifting! All the non-involved (but attentive) teacher needs to do is a little bit of fine tuning of pronunciation/word substitution & make sure we all have the same number of cards.

Pro tip? Before you take flashcards out of the books (eg Compass's Sounds Fun or Oxford Phonics World) ask students to 'tag' their own cards with their own unique colour - a pink dot in all the top left corners, for example. Why? Well, any card game you play = they will need to unsort quickly! And give then a zip lock bag to keep their precious cards, and elastic bands if you want to save even more time & bundle sets/units together - I don't...the "sorting hat" scramble is another opportunity for learners to queitly/quickly re-process vocabulary & categorise/sort it. Another little win, sensei!

I think I'd estimate teacher talk time in these lessons at about 2 minutes/hour. As a game player - setting the standard/modelling output & answering "Jim sensei, what's this?" questions, & joking along (H told me to 'Go away!' instead of  'Go Fish!') fully involved - but as a peer & actually trying to loose the game itself. 

I have a cunning plan!

How much Japanese did the teacher need to speak? Nope, none.

How much Japanese did the students come out with? Precious little, apart from 'social'or game play reactions.

How much explanation went into the games? None - we started, and guess what, the students figured the rules/goals out for themselves & stress-tested their ideas - and then refereed when Jim-sensei tried to blatantly cheat!

 

Saori writes from her study abroad in England

 

Bath - World Heritage Site

Dear Mr. & Mrs. George

Hi Jim & Yukari, greetings from London

Time flies, already three months have passed since I arrived in the U.K.!! I've just finished taking lesson in Bath. I had been staying with my host mother for six weeks. She was very generous ...so I was lucky.

I could make a lot of foreign friends. And I could know different culture. I've already had many good experiences.

Besides, I went on a trip. For example, Oxford, Cardiff, Cotswolds, Weymouth, Bristol and Cheddar Gorge. In October, I'm going to Venice to meet my friend again. She was my flatmate.

I think that living in England is a great experience to improve my English skill. I feel my English has improved more than before. I'm going to another language school in Winchester on 4th of September. I'll do my best!! I'd like to show my growth by next meeting. Next time (when I come back to Japan), let's talk about what's going on recently.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

Best regards,

Saori

The old wooden name tag

Recently I found an old wooden name tag with my name and class room on it, which reminded me of my first summer holiday from elementary school.  So let me tell you about my bitter-sweet memory, and the shadow of my mum that still effects me deeply.

Do you like swimming?  Actually I do now, but I certainly didn't use to as I was afraid of water.  I would hide in the toilets during swimming class, and go home with my never-used-dry-swimming suit, and secretly put it in the laundry.  In the summer holidays, students had to go swimming almost everyday, with their neighbourhood friends.  When you arrived at the school pool, you needed to put your name tag on the board to show who was there.  

The author, with THAT wooden peg 

One day, when I was hiding in the toilet as usual, my teacher showed up with my mum and found me there.  I was terrified and froze in shock, bursting into tears with the horror of punishment for my bad behavior and embarrassment.  However, my teacher was rather gentle and sweet, and asked me why I was there.  After I explained my aquaphobia, he took me to the pool-side and showed me how relax and be comfortable in the water, on a hot summer's day.  He led me through the cool shower gently and took me to the big pool step by step.  Almost everyday after that, my teacher came to the swimming pool and made sure I was there safe and sound.  Gradually, my fear of water disappeared and I could even swim a little by the end of the summer holiday.  My place was very close to the elementary school, and I spotted my mum spying on me from behind the wall around the pool, with her parasol in her hand, everyday without any doubt.  I thought I couldn't hide anything or anywhere from her.

Thankfully I'm not afraid of water anymore and I can swim for a long distance, but I still feel my mum's eyes watching me everyday, even after almost half a century...she's watching.

Postcard - from Matsumoto, Japan!

Dear Luna family

To students past and present, thank you all for your kind words and support through the years.

We had an amazing time celebrating our wedding in Matsumoto where our relationship began.

Hope to see you all at a future Luna event!

Damian, Rumi, Emma & Millie

If I could switch places with another person

If I could switch places with another person, I would like to switch to a model like Victoria’s Secret.

I think everyone has some sort of complex for their appearance. However, the models look like not only slim and tall, but also have beautiful muscles. Most importantly, they walk down a runway with a big smile and a full of confidence.

Since I’m not a tall, the clothes are limited I can wear. Even if I think the clothes are nice, they may be too long to wear for me. If I was a taller, I could wear them. In addition, the view is different when I wear shoes with high heel. I feel refreshed as I can see the scenery better. In my opinion, height affects people’s feeling and personality more than a little.

On the other hand, I’d live a hard lifestyle to keep the ideal body shape if I would be the models. I guess they’ll train hardly and pay particular attention to their diet. Since I would like to eat as much as I want, I thought it’d be fine as is.

First day at Boston

 When I get off an airplane at Boston, I am quite sure that I want to walk because I sit for almost 13 hours on the airplane. At airport, I take a bus using “Go City Boston” pass to reach near a hotel for leaving my heavy luggage.

After left the hotel, my first sightseeing is Museums of Fine Arts, Boston. It is the 4th biggest museum in the U.S.A. and it will be good chance for me to enjoy arts and to exercise.

Next, I move to Newbury Street where has various shops, restaurants, café etc. for my short break including lunch and shopping. I will enjoy walking along the streets with so much atmosphere which are different from the ones of Japan. Also, I definitely enjoy Italian sweets called cannoli which cream is put into pastry shell.

At the end of my first day in Boston, I visit a place called “View Boston” to overlook Boston and see the sunset and the night view. I check-in the hotel early night to get a recommended activity, place, food, souvenir etc. at reception and to get enough rest and for enjoying my 2nd day in Boston.

Postcard from Suomi (Finland)

 

Dear Jim & Yukari

Hi!

It's been 4 weeks since I came to Finland and I finished my mission.

Time passes quickly!!!

It's frustrating day when I can't say what I want to say, but what you taught me is so useful :)

I think that I shold keep learning English.

Best wishes,

Makiko

Letter to Holmes

Hi Mr. Homes. How have you been well? I’m Glichrist. I’m working as a policeman in South Africa, and I’m doing good here.

I still regret that I shouldn’t have made the mistake. Although it may be a selfish, I feel thank you as I would live with a guilt feeling forever if I took the exam. In addition, my parents are glad me to become a police officer, and I think I could repay them. My parents would feel disappointed if I passed the exam and didn’t go back my country.

Every time I face criminals, I recall you. You hold me kindly when I cried, and I could tell you everything honestly. Sometimes, I do the same thing to people who commit crimes, and they open their mind to me. I learned importance to forgive people when they make mistakes. Of course, I shouldn’t do that for everyone as I have a responsibility to save safety of the citizens.

I learned a lesson from the past mistake, and I will make best effort to be a good police officer who can consider how people are feeling. Please let me know when you come to my country.

Letter from Miss Sutherland to Sherlock Holmes

Dear Mr. Holmes,

I had been waiting couple of months for Mr. Hosmer Angel after I visited your office. Previously, Mr. Angel visited my home when my farther went to France, but he never showed up at my house. I couldn’t forget about him easily and I wanted to know the reason why he left me. I believed he married with me. I put an advertisement on newspaper again to find him, however, I couldn’t see him. I had to take an absence for typing work due terrible feeling. 

My parents worried about me. They provided me with a ticket for dance party to get chance to meet another man. In the beginning, I didn’t want to go but I understood that I should forget Mr. Angel, so I went to the party. Then I met my future husband at the party. We talked and walked around. I concerned myself about him because I didn’t want to make a mistake again like Mr. Angel. Fortunately, as I spent with him, my worries were gone away. He will never disappear from me. I can trust him, and my parents like him. 

I’ve got engaged now. I’m happy now and I forget Mr. Angel completely. 

Anyway, you really helped me out last time. Thank you so much.

Best regards,

Sutherland

About ignored advise from others

Dear Mother,

Hope you are doing well. 

Can you imagine where I’m now? As you know, I have been traveling different place. When I’m writing this letter, I’m in Italy. I enjoy staying here. The weather is nice, people is kind and foods are delicious. I’m going to stay Italy for couple of months. 

When I’m writing this letter, I remember our worst time. We suffered a great sense of loss at my father’s death, but we didn’t have time to be depressed. I imagined you had hard time in England. For me, it was not as hard as I thought.

To be honest, I liked the life with you in England. I enjoyed playing with many friends. Because they didn’t know who I was. They didn’t care about my birth and my farther. When I was in Boston, we were lived lonely. People hate us and they were not kind for us. I pretended not to care about other people. 

After moved to England, I felt what nice world outside of Boston! So, I wanted to spend my life freely without any worries. 

I heard you help poor women and children in Boston. It’s really great things! It’s difficult for me to support together with you there, but I’ll send you beautiful clothes, foods, etc. Please let me know if there are anything to help. 

Take care.

Best regards,

Pearl

A letter from Pearl to her mother

Dear Mother,

Hope you are doing well. 

Can you imagine where I’m now? As you know, I have been traveling different place. When I’m writing this letter, I’m in Italy. I enjoy staying here. The weather is nice, people is kind and foods are delicious. I’m going to stay Italy for couple of months. 

When I’m writing this letter, I remember our worst time. We suffered a great sense of loss at my father’s death, but we didn’t have time to be depressed. I imagined you had hard time in England. For me, it was not as hard as I thought.

To be honest, I liked the life with you in England. I enjoyed playing with many friends. Because they didn’t know who I was. They didn’t care about my birth and my farther. When I was in Boston, we were lived lonely. People hate us and they were not kind for us. I pretended not to care about other people. 

After moved to England, I felt what nice world outside of Boston! So, I wanted to spend my life freely without any worries. 

I heard you help poor women and children in Boston. It’s really great things! It’s difficult for me to support together with you there, but I’ll send you beautiful clothes, foods, etc. Please let me know if there are anything to help. 

Take care.

Best regards,

Pearl

What did George use his money?

I hope he used to buy land for because he had promised with Lennie. The land was big, and there was a river. He made his farm, and plantation. As it was hard to manage his farm by himself, he hired some workers. 

He kept a black dog as a pet. A dog was named “Lennie” because the dog was big and kind like “Lennie”. When George played with the dog, he recalled a tragedy that happened in Lennie. He felt bad about what he did. He took care of a dog very much as if he asked forgiveness for the past sins.

As his job was succussed, he earned a lot of money from his farm. He was engaged in expanding his land more and more. When he was a worker, his goal that getting much money to buy farm or marry beautiful lady. However, his mind had been changed while his farm was bigger. He noticed that it is not important to earn money. He　understood that it is more important what he use the money for. After recognized, he spent the money for good things, like dotation for non-profit organization. 

As time goes by, a tragedy of Lennie fades away, but he suddenly remembered him, unexpectedly. George wanted to forget Lennie, but he couldn’t until his life end.

Letter from Brown to his doll

 Hi, my doll

I found you in a small shop when I took a walk in the warm sun. I was sometimes sad and often bored because I don’t have many friends, and usually don’t talk to many people. I didn’t have any definitive reason to buy you, but it might be one reason to buy you that I wanted someone to talk to even though you had never talked to me.

After I bought you, there were some strange incidents. For example, when I was taking a bus to go to an office, I heard that someone abused an old lady verbally, but all passengers including the Old lay thought I said it to the old lady. As this example shows, the strange incidents caused bad impact for me. Were the strange incidents caused by you? What is your purpose? Do you have something against me that you hold grudges? I do not understand at all why you caused me some troubles. If I am with you continuously, some bad incidents will happen to me continuously and you will break my life. It is much better for me to lead a boring life than having some troubles.

I am really sorry, but I have decided to say goodbye to you. And I hope that someone you love takes you new home.

Best regards, Brown

Postcard from...Bologna, Italy.

 

Ciao, Tutti!!

From Bologna

It has been 10 days since I came here in Bologna. Taking Italian lesson is not easy, but I am enjoying life here. I found good small restaurants and a lovely bakery, market. Basically Italian people are nice, cheerful and very kind. After staying few more days, I am going to travel to Puglia southern part of Italy.

with love, Teruki

My dog

I have a dog, which performs as a duck hunting dog originally, from last year.

Although this type of dog was the duck hunting dog, they did not hunt ducks directly. There were traps around pond to catch ducks and the dogs tried to get attention of the ducks by wagging their tails. The ducks were interested in the wagging tails and chased them. The dogs just leaded the ducks to traps to help people for hunting. Therefore, there is no ferocity, and they are calm and friendly.

However, they need a lot of exercise. My dog acts up by much stress if exercise is not enough. Since it is not enough just walk, I go jogging with my dog every day. Since she likes a ball playing, she repeats to catch a ball and bring it to me forever until I finish.

She sometimes becomes a spoiled child. She tries to get in the way of my use of smartphone by getting in between me and it. She is also cunningly clever. She sets chin, have a hand on me, or turn over on her side when she wants my attention. She knows people feel it is cute if she does it.

This dog is also good for training. She enters to crate by herself when I go out or she goes to bed.

I am glad to feel her growing.

What's Mr. Windibanks like?

Please let me introduce Mr. Windibanks. Mr. Windibanks is stepfather of Miss Sutherland. Mr. Windibanks was nearly fifteen years younger than mother of Miss Sutherland and they were married after Miss Sutherland’s father died. He works for a wine company.

Miss Sutherland received one hundred pounds a year from her Uncle Ned in New Zealand after her father died. She gave her mother and Mr. Windibanks the hundreds pounds, and he got it from Miss Sutherland’s bank and gave his wife it.

Mr. Windibanks had tickets for a dance every year, but he didn’t want her daughter to go to the dance because he though “They’re not very nice people”. Mr. Windibanks often goes to France for two or three days. During he was　there, Miss Sutherlands could get to the dance with her mother. After Miss Sutherland met Mr. Angel, he could visit her house during Mr. Windibanks were in France. After he came back to home, Mr. Angel wrote a letter to his girlfriend.

Mr. Windibanks was interested in his wife’s money. As well as the money of his wife, he was interested in Miss Sutherland’s money which receive from her uncle. If Miss Sutherland marries anyone, Mr. Windibanks may not be able to receive Miss Sutherland’s money. Thus, Mr. Sutherland did not want Miss Sutherland to marry.

 

How to make Amazake of Sakekasu

- Sakekasu: leas from making sake

- Amazake: traditional New Year hot (cloudy) sake (rice wine) drink. Often drunk when you visit a shrine after New Year; you can buy it from a stall there.

 

Do you know you can make Amazake from Sakekasu?

You may think Amazake is made of Komekoji, but you can also make Amazake from Sakekasu.

First, I’d like to the introduce ingredients.

The ingredients are for two people.

 

Sakekasu 50g

Sugar 2 tablespoons

Water 400cc

That's all you need.

Now, let’s see each step to make Amazake.

First, I will use Itakasu. you need to tear Itakasu into pieces before you use it.

 

Second step is boiling the water.

After the water is boiled, you need to turn down to a low flame and put Sakekasu into the water.

It’s ready to go to next step when the Sakekasu has dissolved at sugar.

 

Third step is adding sugar.

You turn up to a high flame

The drink is ready when the sugar has completely dissolved.

You can just serve the Amazake to your favorite teacup and enjoy it.

Amazake made of Sakekasu gives you gentle flavors of sake.

If you like, you can add ginger.

So far, I wrote about how to make Amazake on a stove.

Actually, there is an easier way to make it by using a microwave.

If you just want one cup of Amazake, microwave is very convenient.

You put about 30g of Sakekasu and a little hot water into a teacup and microwave it for 10 to 20 sec.

Then, you add sugar and hot water after you mix sakekasu in the cup.

It’s very easy for you to enjoy a cup of Amazake.

I hope you can have some peace and calm time with rich Amazake.