Textbook Tripe

June 12th, 2007
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Let me first say that I think some of these things are worth talking about and valuable to understanding the modern state of the United States of America. Having said that, let me say that it is ridiculous to use them as the top keywords necessary for obtaining a basic grasp of the country and its position in the world. I present to you the 4-word-long list found on pages 15 and 16 of The English Odyssey (英語百科). Incredulous is not the right word. Saddened or dismayed might be more accurate.

1) WASP
2) Civil Rights Movement
3) Affirmative Action
4) Ebonics

That’s it. The list of keywords necessary for comprehending America. Anybody but me sensing an agenda in this textbook? Where are words like “representative government,” “checks and balances,” “constitutional democracy,” “democratic republic,” “freedom,” or even the archaic language that marked into our history the concept of humanity’s “unalienable rights?” Ha ha. Nowhere to be found. You see, America is about racial conflict. No more, no less. All bad history, no good history. Sigh. Sure, there are tensions in America, but of all countries, Japan? If I had to pick the most important concept out of the above, I’d go with the Civil Rights movement, hands down. But seriously. There is more to America than this, folks. I just hope that some students go on to discover what can really be like. :-( There are faults in every country, but for a cursory overview of America, this is adamantly bleak. Uncool, textbook. Uncool.

This book is hard to track down online. The ISBN is 4-469-34239-4. It’s put out by Taishukan Publishing (website is crappy, but works – may take forced refreshing and re-encoding of characters, though), and is listed in an Excel file alongside other English texts like the Genius, Captain, and Departure books. Nice. Just thought you’d like to know. (I’ll get some pictures up later, if possible.) In the meantime, what four words would you choose as keywords to represent your country to Japanese school kids who’ve never seen it? There are entries about loads of other countries, so I’m willing to bet that yours is in there too. Thoughts?

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  • Thanks, Alex. :-) That's what I'm talking about. And, FYI, you can do the same thing with the "wp-login.php" page on any Wordpress blog that has registration enabled. (Or you can use your browser to remember the info. Your call.)
  • Clay - Register for the site here. Then it should keep you logged in automatically.
  • Clay - true. I like that bright-side approach. Living in the most homogeneous nation on the planet, I understand the value of seeing bad examples. Just wish our good side got in there too, sometimes.

    You can register for the site or use your browser's save form info feature if you want...I have NO idea how to integrate cookies on here...or you could point me to a tutorial! :-)

    Wendy, that's pretty much the response I had too...so it's legit.
  • Wendy
    I'm too tired to leave a proper response but WHY Japan Why?!
  • look on the bright side; the students might actually get a concept of what racism is. Lord knows they lack that on the whole.

    BTW, could I convince you to intergrate cookies to save our name email URL?
  • Ha ha ha - Ebonglish? What the heck. Good luck with that...
    I bet Osaka-ben and Nomikai would get taken off for one of the following: Ainu/Okinawan minority issues, militant nationalism (the big scary war past), or pop culture exports (anime, video games, etc.). But for all we know they could be selected at random. You could wind up with ninjas, sushi, geishas, bamboo, and coke bottle glasses. But seriously, does nobody question the choices made in that keyword list? :-P
  • Everyone knows the two official languages of America are English and Ebonics. I'm a major supporter of just merging the two. You know, the Ebonglish movement?

    It makes you wonder, though, how an American textbook might summarize modern Japan in 2 pages...

    1) Yasukuni
    2) Zangyou
    3) Nomikai
    4) Osaka-ben
  • Hi there, Carlie. Welcome to the site. Australia was mentioned, though I didn't spend too much time. Seemed to be all aboriginal peoples and body paint, from the pictures. And Ken, It was イギリス, not 英国. I think that's common, though. Ha ha. Whew. Alas, I don't have the textbook anymore. I do have a few quick shots I snapped of the pages, though, so I'll get them up when I can. Ha ha.
  • Carlie - perhaps number four should be shrimps and barbies?

    Deas, I'd love to hear how they sum up Ireland and - is it IGIRISU or Eikoku?
  • Do they have Australia in there? I'd like to see what they say. I'm not too sure what I'd pick for Australia (it's easier to see something when you're outside it than in) but I'm thinking maybe something about:

    * Sport
    * Mateship
    * Beer
    * Ummm....
  • Ha ha ha - nice. I looked. England and Ireland get their own pages, but the publishers seem to have given Scotland a miss. Yeah, I'm glad they didn't go for "guns," "war," "McDonaldization / Disneyfication / Walmartization," "capitalist pigs" or "cultural imperialism." Though, come to think of it, that kinda sounds like many an anthropology class I've taken. ;-)

    Oh yeah, and what about haggis, man? Surely that should make the list somewhere between the first and second booze.
  • Interesting post... Do they do Scotland, or is there just "England"? If it were Scotland I'd choose:

    * Booze
    * Scottish National Football team and supporters
    * Jacobites
    * More booze

    Look on the bright side Deas, at least they didn't choose "Guns" as one of them!
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