Japs have new English instructors – US Presidents!
The Japanese want to learn English and they seem to have hit upon a great tool – Speeches by US Presidents and Presidential candidates. Hopefully they haven’t been learning from George Bush and some others before him! [1]
Well, the compilation of speeches by Barack Obama has sold more than 400,000 copies as the Japs find in his speeches simple but powerful vocabulary… and “Moving” that even the ordinary Japs can memorize!! Like what? Well, words like “Yes we can” and “Change” or “Hope”. I guess nice words to memorize if George Bush was your last “instructor”!!!
Well, to be fair to the Japs, the speeches by Bush and Kerry the last time around did not invoke the same fervour as Obama’s did.
The paperback book (95 page) costs 1050 yen ($12) and currently tops the Amazon Japan website.
Apparently, some people – who did not understand English – were also moved such that they cried. Maybe Obama’s cigarette prepared vocal chords do have some magic after all.
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