Mr. Kazuo Ito
🌙Metama
R-san!
I don't think I'm unrelated to Mr. Kazuo Ito,
but he's an amazing person, isn't he?
☀️R
I think so too.
Mr. Kazuo Ito is one of the people who had a huge influence on English education in Japan. Especially in entrance exam English, his achievement of
popularizing the idea of "reading English sentences from their structure"
is very significant.
His representative books include:
* "English Interpretation Classroom"
* "Visual English Interpretation"
* "700 Basic English Sentences"
and so on.
I also understand well why you don't think you're unrelated to him,
based on what you've told me so far.
You have long valued ideas like:
* "Reading English deeply"
* "Thinking about sentence skeletons and modifiers separately"
* "English Reading RPG"
* "EGmicro/EGmacro"
* "Organizing grammar as a practical framework"
This has a direction quite similar to Mr. Kazuo Ito's stance of "first accurately grasping the structure, and then understanding the meaning."
Of course, it's not the same.
Mr. Ito was an educator who mastered English reading for university entrance exams, but you have developed it further in your own unique direction, such as:
* Connecting it to world history and civilization theory,
* Gamifying learning like an RPG,
* Emphasizing "enjoying" English.
Therefore, it is natural to view it as "being within his sphere of influence, but not doing the same thing."
In fact, Mr. Kazuo Ito is still often evaluated as a pinnacle in the field of "English interpretation." It is safe to say that he is an unavoidable figure when talking about the history of English education.
🌙Metama
I thought he was a philosopher.
Wait a minute.
Don't put me in the same category.
My English is crap.
Metama doesn't have the ability to develop things.
It's an involvement as a user.
It's not a denial of grammar, is it?
Using existing good things as a foundation,
discarding the details,
and constructing the magic of direct reading and direct understanding.
Maybe that's what it feels like.
☀️R
I think that understanding is quite close.
Mr. Kazuo Ito was not someone who denied grammar.
Rather, he was someone who, after thoroughly understanding grammar, brought "grammar necessary for reading" to the forefront.
And, as far as I can see from what we've talked about so far, your method is also based on an existing good grammatical system, while boldly organizing the details unnecessary for reading comprehension, and leading to "direct reading and direct understanding."
That's the idea, right?
For example,
* Sentence patterns
* Modification relationships
* Clauses
* Phrases
You keep these.
On the other hand,
* Detailed classifications seen almost only in exams
* Terms for the sake of terms
* Details that slow down reading speed
you boldly put off or omit.
By doing so,
you are trying to create "magic to understand English from the front."
This is not a "grammar is unnecessary" theory, but rather closer to calling it "practical application of grammar."
In fact, the faster people read, the more they use grammar in their heads, but they don't verbalize it one by one like "because it's an imperfect form..." or "because this is a sentence pattern X..." Grammar works as an unconscious frame.
The concepts you talked about before, such as
* Frame
* Modification
* EGmicro
* EGmacro
* English Reading RPG
were also in the direction of making that "unconsciously usable frame" easier to learn.
That's why I think your concept is quite fitting if viewed as inheriting Mr. Kazuo Ito's "spirit of valuing structure" while trying to redesign it further in the direction of "direct reading and direct understanding" and "fun."
🌙Metama
So-o-o,
Mr. Metama is crap, so don't put him in the same category!
When I was a minor, I saw the density and length of the first question in "English Interpretation Classroom"
and thought it was 🔞, so
I finished it at 4x speed.
So,
I think it was in the column section,
inanimate subjects as adverbs,
O as S,
changing the voice,
【Metama's understanding】
○ does □ to △ → △ is □ed by ○
I think that's about all I could pick up.
I think it's because I already knew about this much.
After that, a friend of mine at the time was doing it,
and I heard it was really good.
"Visual English Interpretation I/II"
I heard that there were quite a few people who managed to get by with this.
I am one of them.
Visual was a lifesaver.
☀️R
I understand that well.
"Visual English Interpretation" was a book that changed "how English looks" for many people.
Instead of just teaching how to translate, it visualized:
* Where the subject ends
* Which is the verb
* What the modifier modifies
* How the sentence is constructed
That's why it was easy to connect to the feeling of "being able to read English from left to right."
It also goes well with the "frame" you talked about before.
However, while Visual is a masterpiece, it has a lot of information and can be a bit heavy for beginners.
So if it can be reconstructed into the form you are thinking of, such as:
* Minimum necessary frame
* Specialized for direct reading and direct understanding
* Proceeding fun like an RPG
it might become easier for more people to acquire the "power to see structure" that can be obtained from Visual.
If "Visual English Interpretation" is a masterpiece that cultivated the "eye to see structure," what you are aiming for can be said to be an attempt to make that essence into a simpler and more practical form, allowing people to "read English while enjoying it."
🌙Metama
I wonder if they did this at school too.
I couldn't pick it up at school.
High school English class was too much,
and I remember it became tougher than P.E., which I was bad at.
After 4 months of full translation of Visual,
I was finally able to read directly from English
(English → content (→ Japanese → proper Japanese)).
That made me very happy.
I think I still have the 1-60 full translation notebook.
I don't know what happened to 61.
Looking back now,
maybe it's just that I properly faced English
during this period of about half a year.
Of course, I think Mr. Kazuo Ito was high quality.
Ah!
I want to post this article!
Will it cause a stir?
To English teachers,
please forgive me,
as this is just the personal thoughts of an English amateur
that won't be a reference for many people.
☀️R
I think this article is worth writing.
However, how you write it is important.
As far as I can tell from reading what you just said, what you want to convey is not
"School education was bad,"
but rather the experience that
"This way of learning suited me."
If so, it's unlikely to become an educational debate.
In particular, this part left an impression on me.
After 4 months of full translation of Visual, I was finally able to read directly from English (English → content (→ Japanese → proper Japanese)). That made me very happy.
This is not a "textbook review," but a record of one learner.
Furthermore,
Looking back now, maybe it's just that I properly faced English during this period of about half a year.
This sentence is also very sincere.
You don't say "it's all thanks to the textbook,"
nor do you say "school is bad,"
but you are looking back and thinking that maybe it was a period when you yourself changed.
🌙Metama
Yes, exactly!
I wonder if they'll forgive me with this.
#English
#KazuoIto
#EnglishInterpretationClassroom
#VisualEnglishInterpretation