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The Naganuma Language School and the "Naganuma Method"

Buntaro

運動不足
27 Dec 2003
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I see there is a new review for the The Naganuma Language School in Tokyo. Can someone tell me what the "Naganuma Method" is?
 
As I understand it The School's primary objective is to develop each of student's ability to communicate effectively in Japanese. Because a language is inextricably linked to the culture where it is born, Naganuma has always focused a great deal of attention on programs and lessons that nurture the student's understanding of the Japanese culture.

The School's founder, Naoe Naganuma, was influenced by the Oral Method of language training introduced by the British pioneer in language pedagogy, Harold E. Palmer. He subsequently went on to develop the Mondou (question-and-answer) Method specifically for Japanese language education which eventually became known as the "Naganuma Method".

;-)
 
I see there is a new review for The Naganuma Language School in Tokyo. Can someone tell me what the "Naganuma Method" is?

Are you referring to the review below?


This was posted to the forum in 2011 but recently transferred to the Review section. Still hoping for more reviews. ;)
 
Yes, that's the one!

The Nagauma Series was one of the first Japanese textbooks I studied decades ago. I still have fond memories of it. (Tokyo to Kamakura on the JNR for 30 yen!)

Has anyone else studied this series of textbooks? Does anyone have these books?

In what year did JNR become JR?
 
Yes, that's the one!

The Nagauma Series was one of the first Japanese textbooks I studied decades ago. I still have fond memories of it. (Tokyo to Kamakura on the JNR for 30 yen!)

Has anyone else studied this series of textbooks? Does anyone have these books?

In what year did JNR become JR?

There are a series of several Naganuma "Readers". He originally was one of those chosen to teach the Army language school during WW2 to help military people learn Japanese as fast as possible. I think the "Readers" grew out of that effort.
 
Re: Naganuma Readers:

These links, sent to me some time ago, may prove of interest:
Actually, "標準日本語讀本" has some editions.
The link for vol.1 and vol.2 of the same edition(revised edition) is below.
URL:標準日本語讀本
You can find the links to vol.1 to vol.8 in the middle of the page.

The links for another editions are following.
○Edtion published by Kaitakusha(開拓社) from 1931 to 1934.
URL(Vol.1):標準日本語讀本
URL(Vol.2-7):標準日本語讀本 = Hyojun Nihongo tokuhon : the standard Japanese readers

○Edtion published by Edwards Brother's.
URL(Vol.2 only):標準日本語讀本 = Hyojun Nihongo tokuhon : the standard Japanese readers

○Edition published by University of California Press in 1942.11
URL(Vol.3 only):標準日本語讀本 = The standard Japanese readers

○Edition which publisher is unknown.
URL(Vol.1, 4-6):標準日本語讀本
 
Somewhere out there, sitting in some forgotten off the beaten pack curio shop, are some old 78 RPM recordings of the audio for the Naganuma readers. It would be great if they could be found, digitized and restored. Or do they exist somewhere as mp3's already ?

B2d
 
Buonaparte2d's post above has suddenly triggered something way deep in my memory, but I also confess that earlier I did not properly pay attention to this thread and didn't pick up on a key point made note of above.

I have some sort of military language training material for not only Japanese, but also for the Korean language.

If there is any connection with this Naganuma Method that seems to be the key here I am not sure, but the material I have is from a fair number of years ago.

One very big problem, though, is I have no clue where they are located. Well, a clue, but probably buried deep with all sorts of other stuff. Unfortunately, I have all sorts of stuff I have saved over the years, to include some very old records and some of those are some famous Japanese group of ladies I once saw an article about and I suppose those records are also something somebody wouldn't mind having in their own collection.

But with regard to what I have I can hardly use the word "collection" in the sense that I know what I am doing and what I have, because in my case it isn't like that. I simply keep things and make sure they are neatly wrapped up and safely stored into a foot locker --- speaking of the military, the old foot lockers are some seriously strong boxes --- anyway, I just stash the stuff away and then - poof - out of my memory; until something triggers something way deep in my old brain and I realize I probably have this or that.

I have a huge "collection" of stamps and some of them are seriously old by now, but they are not properly organized like we see them folks in them movies with their fancy little tweezer things.

Anyway, I will place a card overhead with a few others already there about the old military language training stuff and at some point in the not too distant future I can check on that.

I seem to remember some sort of odd machine we used to have in the MOS libraries that could produce images or even film type training stuff and with sound and I think that also was used for language training. I had OIC duty for a bit of an MOS library and that is the only reason I remember that, but I wasn't the technician person for that system.

On another topic that popped up above; Buntaro, I don't remember exactly when JNR became JR, but I remember it was a fair number of years ago --- but I have a question for you: Do you remember when the tickets were clipped with a little design cut out of a ticket? I seem to remember a different design/shape would be cut out at different stations. I'd bet that I still have some tickets from back then. For some reason I used to buy double tickets and then keep the one that was clipped and give the one that wasn't clipped to the fella at the exit, if they even paid attention; which many times during rush hours they simply couldn't keep up with all the tickets and you just tossed the ticket into a pile or maybe a bucket thing, or something.

And even now there are stations out in the country where there is nobody watching anything, except at some there might be an attendant on duty only during the busiest times.

Or the diesel powered locomotives, like the Hachiko Line that went through Yokota Air Base. Yep, right through the facility. I think it still does. But they converted it to electric about thirty years ago. Well, maybe 25 or so years ago. Can't remember that detail, either.

Okay, back to that language training material --- I'll check that in the not too distant future, folks. We had some of that sort of stuff at the embassy, too. I only just remembered that as I was typing here. If them docs would quite pumping all those chemicals into my system I'd bet my brain would work a little better. Of course, if they didn't do that my brain wouldn't be working at all, so I better not complain, eh?
 
With regards to Korean, I'd love to find the cassettes to go with Myongdo Korean learning books - they were done by some Franciscan monks in the mid 1980's but are quite difficult to find now.
The records for the Naganuma course would be great but of course you'd have to digitize them and then upload them somewhere. I doubt anyone cares about the copyright after 70 years or so but you'd want to check that if you find them.
 
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