Robert Geller; ロバート・ゲラー

私事恐縮ですが、西村義樹さんと私は本を書いています。 書名：「日本人が知らない英語の正体～ The secrets of real English」 出版：日本評論社、2025年4月ごろに発売予定。

@wolfbearpack @TheHoopHerald Probably UCLA per se didn’t offer a cent. But probably Sam Gilbert, the famous UCLA booster, offered considerably north of a cent.

@TheHoopHerald An old anecdote about the college recruitment of Lew Alcindor. ALLEGEDLY, St. John’s offered his family a house. What did UCLA ALLEGEDLY offer?

If you are mad about the amount of money these kids are getting legally, you would have been furious to know the amount of money they were getting for the last 40 years in envelopes of cash in Gas Station Parking Lots Love how people act like 5 star kids were committing to schools because of their computer science degree and meal plan This game has always been about who was playing ball

日本地震学会(私は会員)が「地震学的視点で捉える南海トラフ地震の臨時情報と防災対策のこれから」との論文集を公開した。困ります❗️「南海トラフ地震」は間違った周期説に基づく単なるシナリオだ。「いわゆる南海トラフ地震」ぐらいと言うべきだ❗️学会は政府のプロパガンダを垂れ流すべきではない❗️

@Colin_P_A_Jones This will get you started. scholar.google.com/intl/en/schola…

@Colin_P_A_Jones You can establish ownership of your Google Scholar profile and edit it to remove articles that were written by some other Colin Jones. This will solve the problem.

I sometimes get Google Scholar notifications about publications that cite my work. Yesterday I got a notice about a cite in an article entitled "A Scoping Review on Remote Patient Monitoring Technologies." This is not because I am an eclectic polymath. It's because Google Scholar doesn't work and randomly sends me alerts about cites to works by a broad cross-section of the non-trivial number of "Jones, C" in the world of academic publications. But nice to see how the clan is doing, I guess!

@kushibo @selinawangtv Japan probably never will retrofit small stations in the countryside, but almost all the stations in big and medium cities will probably be retrofitted; the work is still in progress. The waist-high barriers shown in the photo are a compromise to keep costs down.

@rjgeller @selinawangtv Seoul (and other Korean metro systems, I think) retrofitted ALL of the old ones, which I didn’t think they’d successfully pull off. Either way, though, what Japan is doing is smart.

Back in my old stomping grounds in Tokyo. Why can’t subway stations in the U.S. have these barriers?

@kushibo @selinawangtv In Japan newly built lines (like the Nanboku subway line) also have floor-to-ceiling partitions, but retrofitted barriers are all like the type shown in the photo.

@selinawangtv In Seoul we have them from floor to ceiling. But either style should be required in the US for basic safety.

@ThatYuta I suggest starting with NHK news programs that have an English translation sub-audio. And with editorials (社説) from major newspapers, looking up all the words and phrases you don’t know. This content isn’t nearly as interesting as anime, but it’s mainstream orthodox Japanese.

Okay, so Japanese textbooks are not a good resource, and apps like Duolingo are not great resources. So how should you learn Japanese? The answer is simple: use Japanese content that you actually like and enjoy. Beginners can start with easier anime, and more advanced learners can watch YouTube videos or reality shows for faster, more natural conversations. We have this incredible thing called the internet, where you have virtually unlimited materials to learn Japanese. With Google and, to some extent, AI, you can get almost instant answers to basic grammar questions. Sure, if you were learning a language in the 80s when you didn’t have access to a vast database of content, textbooks were one of the few resources available. But we don’t live in the 80s anymore. We live in the age of the internet, social media, and streaming platforms. Course creators like myself exist to give you the convenience of a large quantity of beginner-friendly content all in one place, with all the definitions and explanations added and checked by humans, and with access to human Japanese teachers for more nuanced and accurate answers. Everything is done for you so you can start learning right away. But even without spending any money, you already have access to the materials you need. You just have to spend some time to find them and figure things out on your own. And that’s more than enough.

@Colin_P_A_Jones @lemire Subscribe to MS365 Classic (6000 yen cheaper for the family plan) which comes without the AI garbage.

@lemire The copilot prompt in every new document with default formatting that no sane writer would ever want and is difficult to change is actually anti-helpful.

I am in Microsoft Word. I press Copilot. I ask for a table. The AI can't modify the Word document so it creates a new document in the cloud. It then allows me access the document through a link. Presumably I am supposed to go there, copy the table and put it in my Word document myself. Who designed this ? This is so obviously a low-effort implementation that I am baffled. It is almost as if they wanted to fail. Why can't Microsoft see that having direct access to Microsoft Word is an incredible edge that they could leverage to embed the AI directly? It is almost comical.

@JPNStation Not quite, I think. The full name of the Hanshin railway company used to be 阪神電気鉄道株式会社. 阪神急行電鉄 was a separate railway (Hankyu). They’ve now merged into one holding company.

[Retro Japan Rails] Today marks the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Hanshin Express Electric Railway extension to Kobe Sannomiya. 阪神急行電鉄 (Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu) or "Hanshin Express Electric Railway" was the formal company name before it was shortened to Hankyu.

@TokyoTom2020 Sadly, an accurate image.

220,000 Japanese online have just now learned about US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Christian nationalist white supremacist tattoos, all over his body. I can’t begin to tell you what an image this conveys of the United States of America in this country.

@koh_nagao2 でも、フェアに言うと、先週に僕は40年前に勤めた某米国一流大学の事務局に12mbのファイルを送って不通だったのです。まぁどこでも事務系はIT的に遅れているんです。

日本政府は見栄っ張りなので体裁を繕って誤魔化しますが、世界の常識にかなり遅れているもよう…。 IT後進国だと思います。 @rjgeller x.com/rjgeller/statu…

コロナワクチン開発の詐欺⁉︎ 補助金の貰い得💥 詐欺師 #類は友を呼ぶ ようやくコロナワクチン開発を断念した「アンジェス」 ――詐欺紛い。アベ友教授、吉村府知事の責任も重大 access-journal.jp/67963

@DamianFlanagan I haven’t looked into this issue in detail, but other countries, such as the Netherlands, (almost completely) ban dual citizenship. I suppose there are arguments both ways. government.nl/topics/dutch-c…

I have no issue with the Japanese requirements for acquiring citizenship - criticised by some - which require measures such as 10 years residency, to be up to date with taxes and have Japanese language ability. All eminently sensible. My one quibble however is that they do not allow dual citizenship. Why not? In an ever more interconnected and global world there are going to be increasing numbers of people who can speak fluent Japanese and have a deep love and appreciation of Japan, but who also have strong ties to another country. I don’t think they should be forced to choose.

@yurikageyama There used to be a hotel near Ochanomizu called Yama no hotel. Was it that one? Or another?

He did have a favorite cafe in Kunitachi, or actually he may have operated one, and the place where I interviewed him was a hotel called Oka no Ue Hotel, to which you had to climb a slight slope to reach, very picturesque, so it was like the path to meet him. He chose that location.

@Karai_Dan It’s not really any different from foreigners who live in the US and become naturalized US citizens. Of course the annual number of naturalizations is much smaller in Japan than in the US, but IMO otherwise everything else is about the same. 2/2

@Karai_Dan Just ignore the overseas folks saying that bizarre stuff. I lived in Japan for 38 years as a foreign resident and as a citizen of Japan since 2022. My Japanese friends and colleagues are happy to accept me as such without any discussion of who is or isn’t “really Japanese.” 1/

A foreigner lives in Japan, speaks the language, has a group of Japanese friends and colleagues, respects the culture/societal norms, pays taxes, and Japanese like them. Living their best as a foreigner in Japan. An American chimes in. “You’ll never be Japanese. Go home.” 🤡

@gemmalouisejpn @DreamsOfSin123 @PElpru The people now living in Japan as citizens are ethnically a mix of people from Siberia, the Korean Peninsula, China, Polynesia, India, Europe, Africa, the U.S., …. so no need to be apologetic. Welcome! (Which I say as someone who became a citizen of Japan 4 yrs ago myself.)

@DreamsOfSin123 @PElpru I never said I’m genetically Japanese… I’m white through and through. To live as a Japanese is exactly what is expected of you when you become a Japanese citizen.

ご報告です。 このたび、日本に帰化しました！ 長年お世話になったイギリスのパスポートとも今日でお別れです。 これからは日本人として新しい人生を歩んでいきます🇯🇵

@gemmalouisejpn 4年前に帰化した者として、帰化おめでとう御座いますと言います。 これからも一日本人として充実した人生を送ってください。 海外右翼の批判を気にしないでください。誰でも知っているよう、日本国籍を有する人々は混血民族(アジア大陸、朝鮮半島、中国、ポリネジア、西洋諸国。。。)です。

@FiredUpCoug Take off your shoes indoors when asked (at a restaurant, Japanese-style hotel, etc.) If there’s a line for something join the end of the line. Don’t drink alcohol in public, in general. Get a prepaid card for buses, trains, and subways, and learn how the system works. 2/2

@FiredUpCoug Rude behavior is basically the same anywhere. Use your common sense. A few things: Don’t talk on your cell phone on a train or bus, but if you must, use headphones, keep your voice low, and make it short. Use headphones if you listen to audio in public. 1/

My Japanese friends. Someday I wish to visit your beautiful country. Before I do, I want to know something. What are behaviors from tourists that are considered rude in Japan?

@GentThePenguin Learn grammar as you learn speaking/listening and reading/writing. You can start with textbook material in Roman letters, then use phonetic Japanese (hiragana and katakana) for a while, then start learning kanji. Use your cell phone. Type in Roman letters and convert to kanji.

I've decided I want to learn Japanese. I'd appreciate any help anyone wants to give me. Thank you. 🙏