¥­¥Ã¥º¥«¡¼¥Ë¥Ð¥ë¾®¶â°æ2012 Kid's Carnival Koganei 2012

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http://profile.ameba.jp/kidscarnival-koganei2012/ 

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I will have a booth again at the Kids' Carnival Koganei 2012 event
to be held in the Cultural Hall of Gakugei University Campus, Koganei,
on 27th May 2012 11:00-16:00.
The event this year will offer activities in 5 areas (playing, learning, exercise, looking and listening and eating) for both parents and children to enjoy together.

I will be reading some of my picture stories as well as introducing a few
simple games and songs related to the stories.
 
Usually over a thousand people attend this event.
I hope to see you there!

You can see some photos of a previous Kids' Carnival Koganei event here.
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http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kodomo_carnival/folder/620770.html?m=lc&p=1
 
| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊUpcoming events) | 19:33 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

The Sound of Colors

Sometimes I am asked what the target age range for my books is.
And I usually say from around the ages of 4-10, non-native English speaking children.
But actually, I have read my stories to all age groups and sometimes people in their fifties, sixties or seventies come to my book-readings and tell me afterwards that they had a good time.
I think there isn't really an age limit for picture books.

But some picture books do have a more adult theme.
Recently I read Jimmy Liao's The Sound of Colors to several different groups
of upper-intermediate level adult students.
I adore this book. It doesn't matter how many times I read it, I always find something new in the lyrical text or imaginative pictures.
What is the book about? It's about a spiritual journey. It's about getting over melancholy or depression. It's about life and longing. Imagination. Nostalgia. Trying to rediscover identity. It may be about losing one's eyesight. It may be about getting over an illness.
In fact, one of the most wonderful things about picture books is that they can be about whatever you think they are about.
It was interesting to hear the students' reactions to the story.
Each of them had a slightly different impression.
In one class, after reading the story, the students started to talk about deeply personal experiences they had had in their lives, experiences connected to death, giving birth, supernatural or inexplicable incidents that they had never talked about before.
| - | 16:18 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Nature in our backyard

 I went on a bicycle ride today to Lake Tama. I had to stop when I saw this spectacular display of colours and the impressive contrast between the cherry blossoms, magnolia tree and tulips.
 
I started thinking about how nice it is to connect to nature in our immediate surroundings. In fact we don't really have to travel so far.
Nature is always there "in our backyard."
Recently I have taken an avid interest in stargazing.  I am enjoying spotting the planets and constellations and the movements of the stars. This is something we can do on clear nights just by stepping out of the door and looking up and if you have a pair of binoculars it is even better.

When teaching children I like to use picture books showing some aspects of nature and have the children observe and describe their surroundings as well. For example, Patty's Hot Day by Amy Uehara is a lovely, heartwarming story that features some prairie dogs looking at the shapes in clouds. They can see a snake, a tornado, a sunflower seed... After reading the book to children they go outside or look out of the window and observe the clouds.
After that they draw pictures or tell me what shapes they saw in the clouds.
Another classic and simple English picture book is The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. This book was written over 60 years ago but conveys the joy of planting a seed and growing a carrot to children. Children can try to grow something simple (cress is always a good starter!) as homework.
Children always have so many questions about the world around them and Why do stars come out at night? by Annalena McAfee gives imaginative and humourous answers to many of those questions with wonderful pictures.

  

| - | 23:01 | comments(2) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Please Make Mistakes!

 

In Japan too many people are afraid of making mistakes when speaking English.

They are so afraid of making a mistake that often they prefer to remain silent.

There are a number of reasons that this situation has developed and probably the education system with its ¡Èright and wrong¡É approach is the main reason.

I teach oral English at two Tokyo Metropolitan high schools.

In the first lesson of the year I tell my students, ¡ÈPlease make mistakes!¡É

Sometimes they look a little puzzled or laugh, thinking that I had made a mistake.

I then explain that the most important aspect of speaking in another language is to quickly convey what you want to say. It doesn¡Çt matter if the grammar is incorrect or that there may be a better choice of words, the most important point is to respond, to keep a conversation going or give your opinion.

In time, the more mistakes we make, the more we improve.

This is true of anything. Think of it as practice.

It is also true in art.

Nearly everyone who is some kind of creator has a mental block, writer's block, artist's block, or lose confidence in their creativity at some point.

I have suffered from this many times.
There are a number of reasons for these blocks.  Often they arise from a desire for perfection, a recognition of the gap between what we want to produce and what we can produce in reality and the consequent fear of failure.
At such times it is extremely difficult to keep creating.

But the most important thing is to keep at it, keep going, keep producing, not everything will be what you are trying to create, in fact, most of it will just be practice.

Recently, a friend of mine, the artist Laura Stagno, lent me an inspiring book called ¡ÈArt and Fear¡É by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

One anecdote in the book I found particularly vivid.

There was an experiment in a ceramics class at a college. The class was divided into two groups of students. The ceramics teacher told one group to produce as much pottery as possible (quantity) and the other group to produce one perfect piece (quality) and both groups were told that they would be graded on their work. On the final day of the class everyone brought in their work but, strangely enough, by far the highest quality of pottery was produced by the group being graded for quantity. The ¡Èquantity¡É group learned from their mistakes whilst churning out a large quantity of work and made great improvements. But the ¡Èquality¡É group was so tense, trying too hard to produce the perfect piece; they were too afraid to make a mistake and their work suffered from this paralysis.
This "fear of failure" in art is not so different from the "fear of making mistakes" in a foreign language.

| - | 23:17 | comments(4) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Regular blogging

 

I got a surprise when I looked at my blog yesterday and found that I had been punished for not updating my blog for 60 days by having a whole load of ads posted on my blog instead.

Well, I thought, I really should write my blog more regularly.

Particularly, as every day a number of people visit my site. Thank you! I have no idea who you are or whether you are regular visitors or random guests but I should write something to make it worth your while to visit.

But what should I write about?

Usually I write about some of my activities related to picture books but I feel I should broaden the scope of what I write.

So I started trying to define what it is I actually do or am that could be a springboard for a regular blog and may be of interest to some readers.

I am writing, illustrating and narrating stories, teaching English and translating from Japanese to English. All of these activities are connected to language and imagination.

So I thought I could write a regular blog on topics such as:

What is important when learning or teaching a language?

What role does imagination play in our lives?

What kind of experiences have I had when teaching English?

What words or expressions present a challenge when translating them from Japanese to English?

How am I inspired to write stories?

How can we use picture books to teach English?

How does imagination influence learning?

I thought these kinds of topics could be rather interesting.

I will try to write something once a week or so and I will start from today¡Ä

| - | 23:13 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Narration Concert at Speech Contest Finals

 Yesterday (5th February) I had the great pleasure of attending The Fifth All Japan High School English Speech Contest Finals (Á´¹ñ¹âÅù³Ø¹»±Ñ¸ì¥¹¥Ô¡¼¥Á¥³¥ó¥Æ¥¹¥È¡Ë at the Youth Olympic Memorial Center in Tokyo.

The level of English proficiency and the content of the speeches were truly impressive. The participants came from all parts of Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, and their speeches covered thought-provoking topics such as life as a twin, the role of imagination in education, reaching out to help other people, interesting encounters on Facebook, viewing oneself as "hybrid" rather than "half" and the importance of conserving water.
I think the judges must have had a tough time deciding on the winner.  

Whilst the judges were deliberating, I gave a narration concert.
This is the fourth time I have given a narration concert at this event.
I think my main role is to help relieve the rather tense atmosphere in the hall whilst the participants, their teachers and family members are waiting for the judges' final decision.

This time I narrated two stories translated from Japanese.
The pictures were projected onto a large screen and both stories were accompanied by music. 
The first was the story of the space probe Hayabusa and the second was a Rakugo story - the story of a Samurai staying in an inn (Yadoya Gataki.) The pictures for the Samurai story were drawn by Takagi Munehiro, an extremely talented high school student from Suginami High School.
I felt that Takagi-kun's pictures really captured the atmosphere of the story so well.
The first photo below shows me narrating the Rakugo story and you can see Takagi Munehiro with his mother in the second picture.
Finally - many thanks to Takahashi-sensei for operating the computer and Inoue-sensei for taking charge of the background music.



   
| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊPast events) | 22:13 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Storytelling session at Chihaya High School

 Despite both the Chuo line and Yamanote line grinding to a halt this morning (a train driver saw some smoke, apparently), I managed to arrive at Chihaya High School in the Senkawa area of Tokyo just in time for my storytelling session today.

It was the first time for me to visit the school and I was so impressed with the friendliness of both the teachers and students. Many students were very outgoing and so it was certainly a very responsive audience.
I enjoyed narrating two of my stories - "Peter the Lonely Pineapple" and "Princess Lizzie" and I hope that the students found the real-life story about my experience with having picture books published a little helpful or interesting, as well. 

I would like to thank Nobuko Shimoyama-sensei and all of the other teachers for organizing today's session and I hope to have the opportunity to visit the school again. 
| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊPast events) | 19:22 | comments(2) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Zeneiren High School English Speech Contest National Finals

 The finals for the Zeneiren High School English Speech Contest will be held on Sunday 5th February 2012 at the National Youth Olympic Center in Yoyogi.
Admission to watch the contest is free and it is always an extremely interesting event with many excellent speeches about many different topics.
I would recommend anyone who is interested in English speeches or hearing the opinions of some young Japanese people to attend the contest finals.
You have to register your name first though.
Please do so via the Zeneiren website:
http://www.zen-ei-ren.com/
But you have to hurry - I believe the deadline is the 16th January!

This will be the fourth time for me to give a narration concert at the contest. I will be giving the narration concert from around mid-day whilst the judges are making their decision regarding the winners.
This year I will narrate a story about a Samurai (originally a Rakugo story) and the story of the space probe, Hayabusa, with projected pictures and accompanying music. 
  
| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊUpcoming events) | 20:17 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Recent Picture Book Readings in Tokyo

During November and December I gave a number of picture book readings of my stories or stories I have translated from Japanese to English. The most recent one was the Cosmopier event on Sunday 11th December which was in celebration of the one-year anniversary of their e-hon picture book club.

I always enjoy hearing comments from members of the audience afterwards.
At the NPO Forum event in Mitaka there were a number of adults at my book-reading. One lady told me that she was 61 and although she had studied English at university she hadn't used it recently. I was so happy when she said to me, "Your storytelling made me realize that we must never give up having a dream - even when we are older."
At the Cosmopier event I read "Stacy Strawberry" and "Hayabusa's Story." The latter is based on the true story of the Japanese space probe that collected samples from the asteroid, Itokawa, and then went missing for a while. The story was written by Nagisa Imai and I translated it from Japanese to English.
 After the reading a little boy showed me a picture of the Hayabusa space probe that he had drawn at home. He had come to the book reading event especially to listen to "Hayabusa's Story" and his mother explained that he had become really interested in space since hearing the story the first time in the summer. She said that he spends a lot of time studying books and pictures of planets, asteriods and other objects in space.
How nice to play a role in inspiring someone.
And through these connections I feel inspired to write more, too.
I have several books I am planning to work on during the next year, including a novel that I started writing three years ago and abandoned for a while...

Here are a couple of pictures of the Cosmopier event.



| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊPast events) | 15:56 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

English Picture Book Reading Event in Tokyo 11th December

To mark the one year anniversary of the "e-ehon" picture book club set up by Cosmopier Publishing Company with a membership now surpassing 1000,
the company will be holding a special all-day English picture book reading event with activities on Sunday, December 11th.
The event will be held in Cosmopier's seminar room near Hatsudai station in Tokyo.
Please reserve early as there are a limited number of spaces.

://www.e-ehonclub.com/index.asp?patten_cd=4&page_no=30

I will be reading Stacy Strawberry and Hayabusa's Story 11:40-12:30 with some fun language practice and activities connected to the stories.
Stacy Strawberry is a story I wrote for Cosmopier in 2009 about a strawberry who wants to be a pineapple...

Hayabusa's Story is based on the true story of the space probe "Hayabusa"  and has inspired many children to become interested in space.


| ¥¤¥Ù¥ó¥È¡¡¡ÊUpcoming events) | 10:17 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

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