Learning English the Japanese way: “Spare me my life”
Bookworm on Jul 06 2012 at 2:34 pm | Filed under: Silly Stuff
You too can learn how to face dangerous situations and simultaneously get in your aerobics workout:
(I particularly enjoy the diaper-like thing on the bad guy’s head.)
And for those less dangerous social encounters, the fit Japanese person is never at a loss for words:
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[...] last note on Japan: their exercise videos combine aerobics with learning English. ShareFacebookEmailDiggRedditPrintStumbleUpon This entry was posted in Japan, Language and tagged [...]
Book, always enjoy your posts. But gotta say, digging up old Japanese videos from the 90′s is very embarrassing… As with most things pop-culture in Japan, we imported it from the West, transformed it to fit our pre-conceived notions, and created something that was hilarious! The funniest thing is that the producers were ‘serious’ about helping people learn English!
The Japanese are great believers in the power of language. Their historical fantasy spells were even written and deployed on paper in the form of symbols of kanji.
But this seems to be something orientated towards Japanese tourists or travelers that are in the Western world, specifically America/Australia/UK/Canada. The Japanese have a lot of families that move, due to work, either wholly or partially overseas.
My preferred phrase would tend to be this.
Leave me sight within 10 seconds or die.
Japanese businesses tend to have a lot of calisthetics, and it is done as a mandatory group esprit de corp building exercise, much like the military marching programs are designed to do. In this sense, it provides the company employees knowledge of foreign words to use in tense situations and it allows them to exercise their upper body and get the blood flowing. So that when they return to the cubicles, their brain oxygen and blood flow will allow greater work efficiency.