This is a notebook and guide for learners of English as a second or overseas language, all over the earth. Most of the writings here are in Basic English, first designed by C. K. Ogden, using 850 necessary words and a number of international words only.
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Sundown
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We do not see, in our town, an orange-colored sundown like this. Because we have mountains in the west, the sun goes out of view before it gets red. The picture was taken at a place away from our living place. We are having the year-end days with our relations, with old ones and young ones getting together.

A number of bad things have taken place this year on the earth. They make me sad. The earth, the animals, plants and persons on it are in need of greater love.

I have had, however, a greater number of good experiences. I am looking forward to having a new year and hoping that every one of you may have a happy new year!
| Quick Notes | 16:28 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Writing about Music: For Ones with Knowledge
If you are writing for general readers who have some interest in music, it will be better for you to keep your statements within the limit of Basic words and Ogden's international words. If you are writing online, you may put some pictures or sounds as helps to give a better idea. But it may be necessary for you to have deep knowledge of Basic words.

If you are writing for music lovers, players or song-men, you may make use of special words which you see in school-books of music. It is possible because music from the West has been, in a way, international.

Let me give a bit of backdrop knowledge. Chief bases of music from the West were formed in Italy, hundreds of years back. Italian men of music like Palestrina or Monteverdi made up the chief theory and examples of music. Other Italian music-writers made journeys all over Europe and got positions in Austria, Britain, France and Germany. So Italian became THE language of music. German men of Music like Johan Sebastian Bach and Austrian men like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made journeys to Italy, and took time learning Italian music and language. Mozart was specially good at Italian, and he made long song-plays in the language. Players and writers of music still make use of Italian words like do, re, mi, allegro, and andante.

Writers and players of music, in addition, generally make use of more and more English words now. Japanese players of music, for example, never make use of Japanese music words like ha, ni, ho, he, to. They make use of English, or German, words and signs like C, D, E, F and G. They will not have a hard time facing English words with the same senses.

In the coming year, I will give more examples and suggestions for writing about music in Basic English.
| Basic English | 18:08 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Music and Basic English 2
Why did C. K. Ogden put only a small number of words for music on his lists of Basic and international words? There may be two reasons. 1. Talking or writing ABOUT music was not much of general interest. 2.Music in the West had already been international. In the coming posts I will put more about these reasons, one by one.
| Basic English | 18:04 | comments(1) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood: A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (Modern Library)Besides Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said, I was reading a book by Truman Capote, and I came to the end of the Capote book on the Christmas Day. It is a true-crime book, or a long account, in prose, of a cruel event which certainly took place. Two men, in the late fall of 1959, violently put a Kansas family to death.

Capote was a noted man of letters, for the serious art of writing prose fiction. He had a talk with everyone on the town, and every possible one who had a connection to the event: hundreds of them. Hours and hours of talks were put together, in the best possible way, into one long story. In a talk with another writer, Capote said, "Every word was true" (Conversations with Capote).

Crime books were generally prose fiction printed on rough papers and put on the market cheaply. True stories, on the other hand, were generally printed in newspapers and newsletters, with little weights on the quality of writing. But this book was different; the story was made of facts, he said, and the quality of writing is high.

The book is In Cold Blood: A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. Multiple murder is act of putting a number of persons to death. Consequence is outcome. The picture over is the cover of the book made public by the company named Modern Library. The man on the cover is probably the writer.
| American Writings | 18:00 | comments(0) | - | pookmark |
Le Guin Stories to be a Japanese Motion Picture
Fantasy is something uncommon and unnatural. Fantasy, in the field of music, is short work with free form. Fantasy, in the field of letters, is fiction story of very uncommon and unnatural events. The most noted American writer of fantasies may be Ursula K. Le Guin.

The most noted work of Le Guin is probably the Earthsea stories. They are about a man named Ged, who has very special power, and about his experiences in a place named Earthsea. Now those stories are to be made into a new motion picture by a Japanese company named Studio Ghibli. The news was made public in Japan this month.

I will put more about the new picture when I get more news, more about Le Guin, and more about fantasies in my daybook.

Online pages in English by Ghibli lovers: Nausicaa.net
| American Writings | 09:50 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Against the Sky
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These branches are of a tree in the garden of the art-house. This picture was taken on the same day I took the one of the building.
| Quick Notes | 08:02 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Pictures of the Church
You may see some pictures of the 100-year old church-house from this bookmark. The house was more beautiful that night.

The 100-year old church:http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~stephen/"
| Quick Notes | 00:00 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Music in the 100-Year Old Church
I am a piper, or a player of pipes. My pipes, made of wood or plastic in different sizes, are instuments of music, named recorders. I have one of the pipes in my hands, upright, and put my breath through the pipe, and a sound comes out, making music.

I have some friends who are players of those pipes, and we sometimes have a good time making music together.

Yesterday, four of us got on stages. The first stage was at a day-care house for old persons. The second was at a church in our town.

The church where we had music that day is a small house made of wood. It has looks like an old American school-house. The work of building the house was done in 1905. So it is 100 years old, but it is well-kept and clean.

It was the time of nightfall when we were playing. Some persons put lines of wax-lights on the earth in front of the church. The mark of Christian religion on the rooftop was lighted. It was a beautiful night with snow falling. A young woman from a television station was talking outside, with a sound apparatus in her hand.

We had a number of Christmas songs, "Kanon" by the German music-writer Johan Pachelbel, a number of happy music by the American music-writer Leroy Anderson, and "Raise Your Hats!" a group of four short works by the British music-writer James Carey.

In addition to us, there were three other groups who gave music last night: a group of men playing Italian and Spanish corded instruments, players of metal pipes, and a group of female voices.


| Quick Notes | 10:45 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
Music and Basic English
I am a lover of music, so I am happy whenever talking or writing about music.

Basic English, however, do not have much words for music. Instruments of music, for example, like guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, saxophone, flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, tuba, viola, and cello are not on C. K. Ogden's list.

Old books from the Orthological Institute, which was Ogden's organization, did not have much about music. Books by I. A. Richards, in addition, did not have much about it. Those two men, though they were experts in a number of different fields and with great knowledge of arts, did not seem to have much interest in music.

So it is possible to say that music is a "road not taken," one of the less walked-on fields, for anyone interested in Basic English. And there is much to do with writing about music. Writing in Basic about music has to be started by someone. It may be me.
| Basic English | 12:24 | comments(3) | - | pookmark |
The Art-House
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This is the front part of the building named Fukushima Kenritsu Bijutsu Kan, the greatest house of arts in our town.
| Quick Notes | 20:47 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |
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