OFF報告　ながーい！

Oxford Factfiles についていろいろ意見を寄せてくださり、
ありがとうございました。

以下に、みなさんの投稿を英語に直したものを書き込みます。
ものすごく長いです。これをOUPのOFF担当者にも送ります。
この広場のOUP訪問記２のスレッドをほぼそのまま英語にして
あります。だいぶ変わってますが、時間の関係でご容赦。

実はOBWの挿絵の件も同じように英語にして渡しました。
それも全文書き込みます。

さらに、OBWについても意見や感想を投稿してもらいましたが、
それを英語にしたものも、全文書き込みます。ただし、こちらは
あまりにたくさんあったので、半分までです。残りはピアソンの
担当者に日本語のスレッドのままフロッピーで渡して、
日本人の奥さんに読んでもらってくださいと言ってあります。

では、殿、ご覚悟を！

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Requests to Oxford Factfiles editors

The Hungry Caterpillar

I’d appreciate if you could increase total word counts for the series, especially for Stages 2 and 3. Not too much, though, say around 20% more? But not too many specialist terms, please. Am I being too selfish?
Topics I would like to read would be culture, science, biography, and history.
Some of the readers in Step Into Reading Level 3 (Random House) were good and
I suppose many adults would like just a little bit more in-depth stories than those.
I liked Harriet Tubman and the Undergraound Railwa, Amazing Rescue, as well as
stories of a guide dog and outlandish frogs.

I would also like to read stories from ancient history because I missed out history in school, like history of regions things are happening now, and true stories of witch-hunting?

I’d welcome a sequel to Information Technology which is already in OFF.

Oh, yes---Mr Tim Vicary writes beautifully in OFF as well.
The Spycat

I like the format of one topic in two pages.
I hope there will be more books in biographies, politics, economy, social topics and sciences. I liked the biography of Martin Luther King and I learned a little about economics through Commerce.

Banana

I liked stories from history.
I liked books on various countries to some extent
But some of OFF’s were a little too formal and hard to read.

I would like to read about:
* Famous people in history
I’d very much welcome a series of books on famous people in history.
We know quite a number of names but don’t really feel close to them.
If they were described in very easy English, say at the level of bios of film stars in PGR 0 and 1, it would be even more welcome.
* Hitorical events
The Plague, the origin of Protestants, Paris Exhibition, the Hundred-year War
will all be good reading if background, events, episodes, their effects and significance were explained.
* Culture and life-style
How people live in other parts of the world is always fascinating to know.
I wonder what, say, British school children are like.
What they want to be when they are grown up;
Do they enjoy their school?;
What kind of games they play? Video games, perhaps?
Do they also go to after-school courses in music, sports etc?

* OFF readers are a welcome change for adults from other GR’s.
I’d like you to know that we expect a lot from OFF.
* Incidentally, I would like retold versions of Freud, Karl Popper and others as well.
Retold GR’s have helped me realize that classical fiction is very good to read.
I wonder if you couldn’t do the same with classical ‘non-fiction’ works. I’d read them avidly, I think.

Miya

1. I read OFF’s as an introduction to OBW’s at the same stage, because they have less total word counts and a lot of pictures to help me go ahead. It’s like reading a magazine and you enjoy learning about things. I’d very much appreciate OFF’s at every stage, please.

2. I can read them while I commute.
One topic in two pages is so convenient when you travel by train. I like the paper too.

3. I would like to read books on Britain.
* In Social Science
* Political system in Britain. Many people believe there are only Conservative and Labour parties and none else.
* Legal system. (Unlike Japan, their courts go by precedent judgement of cases.)
* Multi-national companies (Many of them have come to Japan.)
* Insurance ( I work for an insurance company, see?)
* Private investments ( I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.)
* EU (History starting from EC would be welcome.)

* In Humanities
* Guidebooks to Museums ( I would take them to Britain as real guideboods.)
* Famous people in British history
* History of humour and cartoons ( The Punch, Chaplin’ films, Monty Python, Mr Bean, among a lot of others.)
* Victorian period (My favourite.)
* Celts (I like Enya’s music.)
* Arthurian legens (Another of my favourite topics)
* History of education in Britain ( Was it the key factor for the domination of the English language in the world?)
* Philosophy in Britain
* The Anglican Church (Why the Royal family have their wedding in St. Paul’s Cathedral.)

* In Natural Science
* Theory of Evolution (This has become the mindset of people around the world)
* History of academic-industrial complex ( I’m interested in Lunar Society.)
* B.S.E
* Newtonian Phisics (One fallen apple and the universe is explained away?)
* History of science in Britain (There are so many scientists!)

* Miscellaneous
* The Premier League
* Dramas and Musicals
* English tea time (Wedgwood explained. Why scone is so tasty.)
* British network of transport
* Mail system (Another of British inventions)

Junjun

I agree with Miya-san ( in the message above) that OFF’s are a good introduction to Stage 1 because they are shorter in length.

But I find them a little difficult to read from time to time because the words are placed funnily. Maybe I’m simply not used to books printed in English.

In addition to Miya-san’s requests I would like to read super-easy readers on NATO, WHO, UNICEF etc. Museum guides sound extremely interesting too. How about readers on World Heritage? OFF’s on the origin of the Earth, Stars, Universe, would also be fun to read. I’d also like to read about gardening in Britain, especially history of different kinds of roses, of which I hear there are more than 4,000! Talking of gardening, wouldn’t readers on dogs be popular? And on horses? And history of volunteer works?

apple

I would have requested ‘gardening’ and ‘BSE’ myself. Let me add ‘English tea’ instead.
Writing about BSE in easy English would be a challenge, though, come to think of it.

Kotori

Let me suggest as topics for OFF:
* Stained glasses in churches
* Folk craft in the U.K.
* Biographies of British authors with pictures of where they visited or stayed
* Food and Drink in Britain
* Breeds of dogs that are original to the British Isles

fumi

* I like OFF readers on London, Oxford, and Food and Drink in Britain, and I would like to read more about European cities and towns.
* History of various sports: golf, horseback riding, tennis, as well as history of major sports events
* Biographies of Nobel Laureates: Not only their life stories but the background of their inventions, discoveries and theories, along with their impact on sciences today. Newspaper reports don’t always make these points very clear.
* History of zoos, aquariums, space ventures.
* I’d also enjoy retold editions of classics in natural sciences, like Richard Dawkins’ and Rachel Carson’s books. I’m afraid they don’t belong in OFF, though.

Yokusaru

More readers at OFF Stage 4, please. There only three books at the moment.
They are very good, compact and very skillfully described.

dr-patch

* I would have enjoyed some do-it-yourself suggestions at the end of Flight (stage 1).
I enjoyed ‘Try It Yourself’ in Strange but True in Stage 3. Something you can experiment yourself is always fun.
* Couldn’t a reader in OFF explain with a lot pictures how a video game works, together with a very elementary guide to protramming?
* Conservation is a great topic that one cannot but face today. In the same vein, I would like to see a book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in OFF.
* A reader which put nuclear energy into global perspective would also be welcome.
Technological catastrophes may be made more understandable in a book on the Columbia disaster.
* I enjoyed Food and Drink in Britain because they are part of the custom that you cannot glimpse if you are outside the country. Similarly, I would like to read about British education system because I can’t imagine ten-year-olds staying in a dormitory like Hogwarts School of Magic! There must be a lot difference from Japanese educational system.
* I would welcome readers on great achievements and how they were done.

Tada

I would very much like to have a book of very short guides to world’s classics.
I would also suggest readers on life of eminent people, natural science, ancient civilization, space, animal kingdom…

I agree with a lot of other people that OFF is extremely readable and a good fun for adults.

Furukawa

I like the idea of Tada-san. I would also like an OFF guidebook to the Best 40 Children’s Books!

Some readers on Japanese culture might be interesting too, like history of sumo, tea ceremony, and ikebana.

maria

How about a book on bonsai? Or, history of anime, a bio on Tezuka Osamu, the author of Astroboy.

Tada

Right. How about a book on Japan, then?

1/699

I’d welcome a reader on best children’s books.
Something like ‘A day in the life of a Year-9 student’ would be fun to read, I think. Pictures will tell us what kind of classroom they have, what their school yard looks like,
what their library is like, and so on.
I’d like to know about public libraries---how they are used, what people think of them, what kind of guidance people receive on what to read, etc.
Cooking is another of my interests, so I’d like to know about the kitchen, utensils, how they used… Again, ‘A Day in the Life of Mrs X’ might be good to read.
An OFF on preserved old railways would be fun, and a book on Flying Scotsman?

Polon

* I want more readers in upper stages---2500-word and 3000-word levels---that would
pave the way for non-fiction, ordinary paperbacks.
* History
Focus on a famous historical event rather than a chronological description of events over a long time. In other words, OFF equivalents of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry VIII and his Six Wives would be definitely in my bookshelf. I would like to have basic history as background to my reading in English.
* Biographies
President Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Aun San ???,
* International Politics
It might be difficult to write on this topic from a neutral viewpoint but there must be a common set of basic facts that would make it easy to follow international events around the world, the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal are among them.
* Environmental problems
Pollution is a too general topic so I would appreciate a book on air pollution, acid rain, water pollution separately.
* Greek and Roman mythology, Celtic and Norse legends, Arthurian tales explained with lots of pictures,
Julie

I was pleasantly surprised by Diana because I always thought non-fiction sounds too much like school course books. Even in Pollution, chemical terms and illustrations were easy to understand and the book was fun.

* I would like to read about the Bible. There must be lots of references to the Bible in novels and newspapers. I would like examples of such reference illustrated with quotations from novels and speeches by politicians.
* Feminism and the Bible would be another topic that I would like to read in OFF. I hear there have been researches into this area and I would like to know the latest results.
* Circumcision: What is it? A friend of mine from the U.S. said all her brothers have had it. How prevalent is it? I’d like to know about female genital mutilation in Africa as well.
* Different religions and different customs: Do pious Jewish men always wear the round skull cap? Does black clothing mean a Quaker? I’d like to know the background of common descriptions in novels and stories.
* Different body language: photos and pictures of typical body language in the West.
Shokunin

I would like to see more biographies.
And readers showing us what the daily life and custom is like in various countries.
And readers on natural science, like how to read weather forecast chart, how typhoons are born, why winds blow and rain pours. I’d like to gain knowledge about our body as well, like bones, blood, muscles and nerves. Space is a fun topic too. And food, nutrition. I find stones, and minerals fascinating, and how the earth came about, how the continents are made, and why earthquakes shake us. I would like to read about history of some of the machinery we use everyday. Cultures, customs, and alcoholic drinks will all be good reading.

OFF is great because seemingly difficult topics are dealt with in very easy and readable language. It’s like visiting a science museum with young kids. Adults enjoy it as well, you see.

Kuma-kuma

I like upper-stage OFF better than the lower ones. Information Technology at Stage 3 was a good read and I agree with Hungry Caterpillar when he says he wants a sequel to that one. There are readers on London and New York, so why not other cities in other countries as well? And Japan, perhaps?

I’d very much like to read about important events in history. I didn’t enjoy my history classes because I had to remember a lot of dates and names, but I suspect I would enjoy reading about history in OFF---world history rather than only British history.