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SQ1 Original Content - 📚 Stop Learning in Front of a Mirror🪞 #82

SQ1 Original Content - 📚 Stop Learning in Front of a Mirror🪞 #82 (CEFR B1.2)

More often than not I watch English language TV shows with Japanese subtitles on. As a result, I have done a lot of passive studying of Japanese language filtered through two constraints.

One, the length of the scene itself. The sentence has to be short enough to read in the time the performer is speaking.

Second, it's a Japanese approximation of English. It isn't English, but it isn't a 100% Japanese either. In a way, I'm learning a language in front of a mirror. I'm looking at myself in the mirror, my culture, my language, my roots; when I should be looking out the window and seeing a wider world.

I'm guilty of making the same mistake the Japanese Ministry of Education has made by insisting on teaching students English so they can explain Japanese culture to the world, instead of learning English or another foreign language so you can learn about another culture entirely.

I am limiting myself to learning a language through the cultural constraints of my language and culture.

The TED speaker below didn't do that. She used books to open her mind to new ideas and perspectives, not to comfort herself with the familiarity of what she already knew.

自動翻訳をクリックすれば、すべてのYouTube動画に日本語字幕が表示されることを忘れないでください。

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See you next Monday!

Matt Keighley

Representative Partner @ Square One Japan Ltd.

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