Japanese learn English from Obama speeches

By GottaLaff

::clears throat:: Konnichiwa! Madam Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, and the American people... When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression....

If you're going to learn to speak English, learn from the best:

The speeches of U.S. President Barack Obama have become the favorite way of Japanese students to learn the English language, sales figures show. [...]

[A] compilation of Obama's speeches has sold even better at 500,000 copies, turning the president into Japan's most popular teacher of the English language, The New York Times reported Monday.

The Times said the CDs, released by Asahi Press, a Japanese publisher of language books, are leading a host of Obama-themed language learning products, including such titles as "Speech Training: Learning to Deliver English Speech, Obama Style"; "Learn English Grammar From Obama"; and "Yes, I Can With Obama: 40 Magical English Phrases From Presidential E-mails."[...]

[S]tudents say Obama is a good teacher because his English pronunciation is easy to understand.

Imagine if they listened to audio of Barbie McLipschmutz. They'd speak in run-on garble with buckets of fake Alaskan folksiness.

VIDEO-- Obama's influence on education: He inspires teacher's book

By GottaLaff


Okay, so there's this kid sitting in the back of the class. And he totally gets the teacher to listen to him when he had a suggestion about all that boring vocab memorization:

The Rev. Eugene Williams Sr., of Clinton, has self-published "Words, Cross & Across: Word Searches on Barack Obama," a book of word searches and puzzles based on the president-elect and his family.

Mr. Williams, 67, said he got the idea for the book last year when his 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade English students at Annapolis Road Academy, in Bladensburg, didn´t understand many of the words in Mr. Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. [...]

Mr. Williams said he eschewed the traditional memorization approach to vocabulary by building on the suggestion of student Aaron Johnson, who sits in the back of the class.

Pshyeah. Teens are so kewl that way. Serious.

Mr. Williams said he crafted the searches and charts with word meanings and usage components so students also could learn definitions. [...]

Words such as "father," "nice" and "bank" are included to balance out "elucidate," "puissant," and "gregarious" so that even younger children can learn from the book. [...]

Mr. Williams said he spent months researching before writing the 156-page book, even watching the president-elect on the Web site YouTube, to help him make better associations with Mr. Obama's word choices. [...]

"One best remembers words through association," Mr. Williams said, adding that students will not forget the word "loquacious" when used to describe them.

Omg, I know, right? Like, Bush: Cretin. Bush: Embarrassment. Bush: Destruction. Cheney: Torture. Cheney: Felon. Cheney: Unconstitutional.

The proceeds from his most recent book will go to Academic Resources Unlimited Inc., a nonprofit group created by Mr. Williams that provides tutoring services for underprivileged students in the D.C. area. [...]

Mr. Williams also has taken a more "grass-roots" approach to sales. He is allowing residents to sell copies of "Words" for 30 percent to 40 percent commission. This not only gives the book publicity, but it also allows people looking for a little extra cash to take advantage of "Obamania."

"People are buying everything about Barack Obama," Mr. Williams said.

Upon release, he sent two copies of "Words" to the Obama campaign office in Chicago - one to Mr. Obama, another to the president-elect's wife, Michelle.

Mr. Williams said he knew the Obamas would appreciate his book because they shared the same philosophy on education.

"With an educated populace, we have a better society," Mr. Williams said.

That last sentence explains so much about the policies of the past eight years. With an uneducated populace, we have a weaker, more compliant society. And what more could a power-hungry administration wish for?