The Explain About Japan section
This website is designed for people who are learning English and want to practise their English reading and listening, while thinking about how to use the English in spoken conversation.
The themes being introduced are all connected to Japan. The reason for this is that Madam Puffin who is the director of this website is living in Japan.
There is a part at the end of each Explain About Japan section which imagines that you, the reader, are talking about the topic with someone else. The first speaker is someone not from Japan and the second speaker is someone from Japan. It is designed to help anyone studying English have a conversation in English.
In each section there are some illustrations. These are designed to help with your understanding of the topics being introduced.
The English on this website is British English. Sometimes it is written that a word is British English if Madam Puffin thinks it will be difficult for you to understand. In this case the American word is also written.
The Playmobil Theatre in Japan section
This section has mini stories which are connected to the earlier Explain About Japan topics.
It is designed so that people of all ages can read it without much trouble and can hopefully enjoy learning a few new words.
The Katakana English section
This section is to help Japanese people studying English by explaining the original English meaning of the katakana word.
Katakana is an alphabet in the Japanese language based on loanwords. This alphabet is separate to the alphabet which uses kanji (Chinese) characters. Many of these Katakana words have different meanings, sometimes completely different meanings, to their original English meanings. Many people in Japan don’t realise this and this can cause a lot of problems for Japanese learners of English.