My presentation.

FESA PRESENTATION

                           Dr Evil's Secret Mountain Base

I was asked to do a presentation on Saturday 13th November for the Federation of English Speaking Associations for High Schools in Wakayama. In short it was a big meeting of the English Clubs.

Each school did a presentation or performance. The standard was really high and the English is getting better and better each year!

Exchange students did speeches in Japanese. I was really impressed at how quickly these students have learned Japanese.

I did my presentation on the topic of "Thinking more Deeply about Words". I wanted to get across to the students that language is not a code and words have deep meanings which require cultural knowledge to understand. I showed some examples of some horrible "computer translations" from the internet.

I also wanted them to practice thinking about how to explain nuances in language. For example the difference between Kawaii and Kirei or Tanoshii and Ureshii. I used examples from the comic Darin wa Gaikokujin and Nihonjin no shiranai Nihongo.

To be honest, I think the students were a little bored and they were exhausted after completing their presentations. Some kids came up to me and said they liked it though.
I have learned alot about how I need to improve my skill at delivering presentations as well. Especially when presenting in English to ESL learners in Japan.