CROSSROADSCROSSROA DS Language StudioÊs Newsletter September,September , 201
20 1 5First came play. In addition to mankind,zoologists have identified many species, fromchimpanzees to turtles, and just about everything
in between, that partake in it. Through play, aspecies can learn valuable lessons for future
survival, not to mention experiencing theapparently simple joy of participating in andbonding with one’s fellows while playing.
Humans have taken play to a higher level ofsophistication. By abstracting play andintroducing the concept of “rules”, we humans
have, over millenniums, developed countlessforms of “organized” play. We generally refer tothese as “games”.
Games, whether on a field played between two
teams such as soccer, or played on a board likechess, have one common characteristic; bothsides must understand and follow the rules if thegame is to succeed.
The following are some of the board games
that have been with us for, in some cases,
Ellathousands of years:
The ancient game of“Senet” (S’n’t) was played inJanis from about 3,100BC
Egypt(5,000 years ago!) up until
400AD. Variations are stillplayed in Egypt today. A Tutankhamen’s Senet set made ofmagnificent example of this wood and ivory, inlaid with gold.
game was found buried with Tutankhamen.
Another ancientboard game discovered in a tomb inmodern-day Iraq is
The Royal game of Ur set.
called “The Royal
Game of Ur”, and it was played in that area as
far back as 2,500BC.
Modern day Chess isplayed throughout the world
today. It was originally called
Chaturanga, and dates
back 1,400 years toancient India.

An even older game that hascome down to us from India iscalled Snakes and Ladders(“Shoots and Ladders” in NorthAmerica). It was conceived ataround 200BC as a game to teachmorality and, to this day, remains virtuallyunchanged. It still serves its original purposeof teaching children about good and evil.
China, of course, has produced some classic
games that have endured for centuries. MahJougg is said to have originated in the Tang
Dynasty some 4,000 year ago.
Wei-qi, or modern day
Go, dates back to 2,300BC.
It is unique in that it is stillplayed to this day following
the original, roughly 4,000
year old rules.
Games travel across cultures; they travel
across time. The reason they can do this isbecause the rules remain constant no matter
where the game is played or who is playing it.
When two players face-off on opposite sides of aboard, in addition to agreeing to compete, theyalso agree to communicate. Even if the players
do not have a common spoken language, they
are still able to gain a level of understanding ofeach other through the game. It is possible tocommunicate through such games with anyone
from any culture, China, America, Africa, solong as both players agree to follow the rules.
Indeed, if Tutankhamen were to be granted hiswish for immortality and returned to this world,
you could easily sit down with him and play agame of Senet, provided you learn the rules first.

NET LESSONS: Too busy to come to CROSSROADS?
…. Try our lessons through the net!
Here is a site outlining some of the history of ancient games:
http://astralcastle.com/games/index.htm

Joshua Says: This month we have to say “goodbye” to Aaron as he must
return to America to help with some family matters. It is always disappointing
to see a good teacher leave us, but circumstances prevail. We will miss Aaron atCrossroads and we wish him all the best of success back home. If there is achance for him to rejoin us again next year here in Matsuyama, we would be
happy to welcome him back. In the mean time, “all the best in America, Aaron!”Junko Says: Recently I started teaching a TOEIC course for one of our outside clients.
There are 14 students in this class. They say they found our regular TOEIC course too
difficult and asked if we could prepare an easier course for them. And, they requested aJapanese teacher, so I guess that’s me! I hope I can help them gain some confidence
during this course, but, actually, I find that with the right attitude and enough study, it is not so
difficult for anyone to improve on their score. I hope I can get them to agree with me!
Mark Says In my home country of NZ a referendum will be held in November toselect a possible new national flag. A selection of four flags was released in late August
for voters to choose from. Unfortunately, three of the four designs are almost identicaland all are very unpopular. Via social media, a fifth option has appeared and there ishope that it may be added to the referendum. Take a look - http://goo.gl/xGrBWH
Aaron Says: Unfortunately I will be returning to my home country at
the end of this month. I sincerely wish I did not have to go, but there
are a few important matters I must attend to. I hope to be back inMatsuyama teaching with Crossroads as soon as possible. I will misseveryone and look forward to seeing you all again.
Danielle dit; Ça y est, les vacances sont finies, c'est la rentrée. Qui ditrentrée dit pleures pour les plus jeunes, retour des devoirs pour les collégiens
et lycéens (et oui, il n'y a pas de devoirs pendant les vacances d'été !) etnouveau rythme de vie pour les étudiants qui entrent à l'université. Quoiqu'ilen soit, tous attendent la même chose : les prochaines vacances !
ACROSS
4 complexity, refinement
5 of extraordinarily high quality6 the same in essence, but not in actuality
10 a little different from others of the same kind
11 to many to count
13 placed underground
14 continue through hardship
15 the ability to live forever
16 everywhere
DOWN
1 fairly close to correct
2 taking part in an activity
3 theorizing, conceptualizing
7 created, thought up
8 unchanging
9 a specialist concerned with animals
12 developing a close personal relationship

13

2

4

5

6

7
8

9
10

11

12

13
14
15

16
www.CrosswordWeaver.com(print version here)In my apartment, on the train, or in

Here is the 8th installment of Ren’s“My stay in China”, series 2:

Crossroads’ Open House, I spend most of mytime reading books. Recently, I got several
English books. If you feel it’s hard to read
foreign books, I recommend you choosestories that you have read in your ownlanguage. In fact, I read Sherlock Holmes andHarry Potter in both Japanese and English.
It is interesting to check how
they are translated. Original texts have their unique nuances. For
example, “To be or not to be, that is the question” in Hamlet is wellknown.
You might think Shakespeare is too long to read. Today, I wantto talk about Macbeth. It is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies,
so you can read it more easily than Othello or King Lear. It’s a very
famous play, but please let me explain the plot. In the story,Macbeth, the brave Scottish soldier encountered three witches.
They predicted he would become king. He believed them andassassinated the Scottish prince to become the king himself.
After becoming king, Macbeth met the witches again. This timethey said, “No one born of a woman could harm you”. He felt
confident because all people are born of a woman.
Macduff, whose wife was killed by Macbeth, led a resistance todefeat the tyrant.
At the climax, Macduff drove Macbeth into a corner. Macbeth
depended on the witches’ word and insisted that he wouldn’t beharmed by one born of a woman. Macduff answered that he wasdrawn from his mother’s womb by caesarean section (literally, hewas not “born” of a woman). Macbeth noticed that he had been
deceived by the witches. In the end, he was killed by Macduff.
There are many Japanese versions of this story, but I think manytranslators have difficulty in translating “one born of a woman”. Toenjoy a story more deeply, we should read it in its original
language. It’s one of the reasons why I study English.

During my stay in Hong Kong, I also visited Macau in a tour
group. It is very close to Hong Kong, although you require a passport
to enter from Hong Kong. It was too short a visit. I was not satisfied
with my length of stay, so I want to visit again by myself someday.
The 3rd place I went to was Guanzhou. Iwent by train from Hong Kong. I heard
that, technically, this place is not a tourist
location. Actually, I couldn’t find it at thetourist information center. But I enjoyedseeing many lantern festivals there. And I Lantern festival in Guanzhou
tried hiking again on my last day there.
Lastly, I went to Kunming. I think this place is not sofamous in Japan. But I heard, in China, that it is the best
tourist spot in the country. That’s why I chose to gothere. It was so interesting. I think my choice was right. I
stayed here for 5 days. I first went to a popular spot
named “West hill”. The scene from the cliff was a littlebit scary. But when I reached the top of the hill, the view
was incredible. Another impressive site there was West hill inKuming
Yunnan Ethnic village. “Yunnan” is the name of thisplace’s province, meaning Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province.
Anyway, this village has 26 tribes. The
area is so huge that I needed to spend awhole day to get to all the spots. They
showed us dances in some places. The
amusement park is very interesting and IEthnic dance performancerecognized a distinct touch of Chinese
culture there. It is absolutely worth visiting Kunming if you can.
To be honest, here are more places I wanted to visit, but
unfortunately, the transportation system there is still weak: it was justbeing developed at the time of my visit. Actually, I saw that most of
the subway was still under construction. I heard there are more
exciting places in the suburbs. I didn’t have time and any means ofgetting to them so I gave up. I really hope to go to Kunming again.
This place is friendly to students who travel there b ecause mostcommodities are not so expensive.
After this mid-length travel experience, I started studying again bygoing to a private school in Beijing. My university also started soon after,
too. I had been looking forward to my 2nd semester! ...... (To be continued)

Critic’s corner with S(a)3’s Taro:D I S T I N G U I S H
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U N A P P E A L I N GSUNTQONCULCIS E R V I T U D ETRFTIEUHOOSLS U B J U G A T I O N
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R A P I D L Y
C U R I OTAIYNA N D R O I DC
B L U R R E D

Last Month’s Puzzle Solution
ACROSS
1 see or hear differences
6 not attractive or appealing
8 forced to serve a master11 forced submission
12 a logical result or outcome
13 quickly
14 something unusual and interesting
15 a machine that closely resembles ahuman being
16 not clear, hazyDOWN
2 a useful device or tool
3 being present everywhere at once4 not based on facts
5 capable of serving a purpose well
7 being only one
9 similarity of appearance
10 having the characteristics of ahuman being

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