Oof! It’s gone a bit far hasn’t it. I mean obviously by the name of my substack I love Japanese aesthetics and I’m happy if people discover them but I see your point.
what about easy to understand ENGLISH books. God, help the Japs learn English. Their curriculum is profoundly flawed when it comes to English!
They love reading books so much. Might as well pick up some easy to read contemporary books written by foreigners sitting in Japan who has some cultural intelligence.
On that note, could you please elaborate on, how do you actually publish your writings so easily in Japan ??
I hardly ever see Japanese students read, at least at the public school. Requiring students to read alone would make such a huge difference!! It’s why all my university classes require it. Reading graded readers specifically, stuff built for second language learners of English, and there’s plenty with Japanese learners in mind :)
For my MA I analyzed the vocabulary level of my junior high school students’ textbooks. You may already know, but the most common 1,000 words in English have coverage of like 72% of the language and should therefore be prioritized. They had some words in the 4,000 level. That’s another place to start.
On publishing, I had a friend who set up his own publishing business just in his office! It was a few years back and I don’t remember the details, but he was publishing his research by himself!
I feel like there's already an existing school of life which combines Tekitō and Mendokuse. Also I feel some of these need an AI generation "motivational" posters to go with the "book"
Congrats for one of the best posts I’v seen in a long time on “japanese philosophies”. This was a good laugh!! 😂😂
Glad you liked it!!
Oof! It’s gone a bit far hasn’t it. I mean obviously by the name of my substack I love Japanese aesthetics and I’m happy if people discover them but I see your point.
Hehe yeah! It does take from great concepts like Wabi Sabi too :(
Unbelievable, I can't believe 'Kiku' is actually a book. 🤯
Right!?
I just realised that I used 'unbelievable' and 'I can't believe' in the same sentence, but that's because I really just couldn't believe it.
yeah, who would believe it?
Brilliant! Thanks Tim!
The other Japanese publishing fad we have in the UK is whimsical books about cats.
As in The Travelling Cat Chronicles, The Cat Who Saved Books, We’ll Prescribe you a Cat... etc, etc.
No idea why...
Well that’s obviously because cats… but yeah!
Enjoyed this. I only got a few pages into the Kiku book before forgetting about it. Surprisingly dry.
Thanks Everett! Someone who's actually (tried to) read it! Wow. Also not surprising how it is dry...
My colleague, author of 365日食べても太らない手づくりのマヨネーズレシピ, says just about anybody can publish anything in Japan.
Maybe I should write the book I've been thinking about - How to Make an Entrance by Nisoku Uwabaki.
What’s stopping you? That’s an awesome title btw
Both, I mean.
what about easy to understand ENGLISH books. God, help the Japs learn English. Their curriculum is profoundly flawed when it comes to English!
They love reading books so much. Might as well pick up some easy to read contemporary books written by foreigners sitting in Japan who has some cultural intelligence.
On that note, could you please elaborate on, how do you actually publish your writings so easily in Japan ??
I hardly ever see Japanese students read, at least at the public school. Requiring students to read alone would make such a huge difference!! It’s why all my university classes require it. Reading graded readers specifically, stuff built for second language learners of English, and there’s plenty with Japanese learners in mind :)
For my MA I analyzed the vocabulary level of my junior high school students’ textbooks. You may already know, but the most common 1,000 words in English have coverage of like 72% of the language and should therefore be prioritized. They had some words in the 4,000 level. That’s another place to start.
On publishing, I had a friend who set up his own publishing business just in his office! It was a few years back and I don’t remember the details, but he was publishing his research by himself!
What did you use to design the covers?
A bit embarrassed to admit this, but ChatGPT. It explains the typo and weird typeface
I really loved the author じくしねり
Oh I should have put Richard to make it harder to work out! Chance missed. Glad you enjoyed it though!
床に周り笑う
ROFL!
Brilliant! Thanks. (Or should I say ありがとう, the Japanese art of saying thanks)
どういたしまして!
You should definitely pitch those book ideas. They're going to sell like hot cakes.
When I do I'll make sure to say I'm a Self-professed 'Nihongo Ojozu Desune'!
I feel like there's already an existing school of life which combines Tekitō and Mendokuse. Also I feel some of these need an AI generation "motivational" posters to go with the "book"
You might be onto something… that describes a lot of my students for example. And yes to the posters!
https://substack.com/@francisturner/note/c-178074121?r=7yrqz&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Haha, this is great! Reminds me of the NZ posters from Flight of the Conchords. New Zealand... Rocks! New Zealand... Bring your mum!