Amazon Kindle 3

About two years ago, I couldn't understand how people would want to read e-books. I had actually made it through a couple on my computer, but it was slow and annoying. My eyes hurt from the screen, my neck hurt from the angle I was holding my head at to read the screen, and my fingers hurt from scrolling down. Give me a nice paperback any day.

Then last year I got an iPhone, and more importantly the Kindle app. Suddenly reading e-books was doable. Not only that, but it was really handy having a book (or twenty) with me all the time. It made reading in lines, while waiting for a student, while grabbing a sandwich easy. In fact, it made it easier than reading a book, because an iPhone is a lot lighter and only takes one hand to operate. I think I may actually be reading faster, as turning the pages is quicker...

The circle was complete earlier in the year when the new Kindle was announced. Being incredibly curious about what all the fuss was about, and able to afford it for the first time, I pre-ordered one in August.

It came in September, and I have been taking it on trips with me. Instead of three or four paperbacks, I just have one slim device. The battery lasts longer than I need it to, it can hold stupid amounts of books in it, and it is almost as easy to read as my iPhone (and more comfortable). I even got used to the annoying flicker as it turns a page so that I don't notice it any more).

I find I no longer want to buy books. My collection, built up over years, is now something that I want out of the house (dusty and bulky as it now seems to me). I suspect the same thing will happen with comics, books, and magazines once I get an iPad or similar device.

Looking at the prices and adoption rates of e-readers and tablets, etc. I reckon paper-based reading materials only have about a decade left before they become specialty, expensive rarities.

It only took two years to convert me completely.

I love Japan

So far during my ten years in Japan I have tended to focus on things that annoy me about my life here. Some of them are universal, and some more specific to Japan or Sendai. I'm sure everyone has their own list.

However, recently I have found myself appreciating my life here. I really do feel at home, and enjoy almost everything I do.

Keeping that in mind makes the small annoying things much less important.

I just wanted this on the record in case people had the wrong impression from the amount of moaning I do on debito.org and other websites.


(I took this photo myself earlier this summer, by the way)

Google translate

This video explains how Google translate works. Something for all the corpus linguists out there?

Conference season

I just received the following list of conferences from a JALT newsletter:

PAC 2010 / Korea Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (KOTESOL)   

October 16-17, 2010   

Seoul, South Korea

http://www.kotesol.org/

English Teaching Association of the Republic of China (ETA-ROC)   

November 12-14, 2010   

Taipei, Taiwan

http://www.eta.org.tw/en/index.html

Thailand TESOL (ThaiTESOL)

January 21-22, 2011

Chiang Mai, Thailand

http://www.thaitesol.org/

CamTESOL Conference (Cambodia)  

February 26-27, 2011  

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

http://www.camtesol.org/

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)  

March 16-19, 2011  

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/convention2011/

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

(IATEFL)  

April 15-19, 2011

Brighton, UK

http://www.iatefl.org/

I have never been to a conference outside of Japan, so I'm really interested in heading to KoTESOL or Thai TESOL (I can't make the others as I have other plans). IATEFL or TESOL would also be nice, but might be outside of my budget for this year ;)

Does anyone have any advice as to which of these would be most interesting?

Japanese in the English classroom

I am going to be doing a presentation at the ETJ Tohoku Expo with Steve Williams about using Japanese in the English classroom (use of L1 in L2 classes).

This seems to be a topic where the research (and publications) seem to be completely out of whack with actual practice. Many ALTs and eikaiwa teachers have restrictions on how much Japanese they are allowed to use in the classroom, and there seems to be a general expectation that native speakers will operate exclusively in their L1 while teaching. However, almost all the academics that write on the topic accept that the students' L1 can be an extremely useful tool in the hands of an experienced teacher.

Steve and I agree that this is something worth talking about with working teachers, so we're going to be presenting about when and how to use Japanese to make classes more effective. We only have 45 minutes, so the biggest problem is going to be fitting all the research Steve has done into such a short timeframe!

Please feel free to comment, especially if you oppose the use of Japanese in English classes in Japan, and if you can come along on the day (October 3rd, in Sendai) we'd love to see you.

Twitter

I have finally bitten the bullet and activated my Twitter account (I bagged the name last year but hadn't started using it). I am not convinced it is going to be anything but a waste of time, but I will give it a shot ;)

I am @sendaiben by the way.

Hiroshima

I just spent a week in Hiroshima on a one-week residential course for my MA. I am doing the distance Birmingham MA TEFL, and the course is an optional part of it.

Aside from the actual content of the sessions, I was struck by how much I got out of spending time with the tutors and the other students. Being able to bounce ideas off people, both in and outside of class, was invigorating.

It really made me realise how important it is to have a peer group. I'll be doing more to stay in touch with mine from now on!