Date: April 26, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

Listening (1:31 - 178.2 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has attempted to clarify his feelings regarding his citizens’ allegiance to their national anthem and flag. Journalists have constantly, but carefully, tried to extract the Emperor’s opinions on this issue that has stirred a lot of emotion of late. Japan’s national symbols have been the centre of a patriotic controversy this past year, with many schools forcing students and teachers to face the “Hinomaru” flag and sing the “Kimigayo” anthem. Almost 300 teachers have been punished in the past twelve months for refusing to stand and sing the anthem in their schools.

The Emperor had previously asserted that students and teachers should not be forced to face the flag and sing. He relayed his latest thoughts on the issue yesterday: “All nations of the world have national flags and anthems and I believe that it is important for schools to teach students to respect them”. He intimated that any acts of loyalty to flag and anthem should be voluntary, as in an Olympic Games competitor singing their anthem or holding their flag: “Regarding the national anthem and national flag, it is best if individual citizens think about the matter themselves.”

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: Emperor Akihito / national anthem / flags / national symbols / Olympic Games… For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. NATIONAL ANTHEM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with national anthems. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. FLAG QUIZ: Match the (nick)names of these flags to their countries:

The Cedar Tree Five Stars Red Flag Tricolore Hinomaru Union Jack Maple Leaf Stars and Stripes The Hammer and Sickle The Southern Cross Star of David

Ex-Soviet Union Australia / New Zealand United Kingdom China France United States of America Israel Lebanon Japan Canada

How does each of these flags make you feel?

How does your own flag make you feel?

4. NATIONAL ANTHEM QUIZ: Match these national anthems (some translated into English) to their countries:

La Marseillaise The Star-Spangled Banner My Golden Bengal Land of Mountains, Land on the River Kimigayo The Hope The Thunder Dragon Kingdom God Save the Queen Ode "to Joy" God Bless the Sultan Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People

Europe UK and the Commonwealth Bhutan Israel France Austria Japan India Brunei Bangladesh USA

Can you sing or hum any of these anthems? How do they, or other national anthems, make you feel?

How does your own national anthem make you feel?

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘national’ and ‘anthem’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. Japan’s Emperor refuses to comment on his national flag or anthem.  T / F
2. Journalists have carefully tried to get the Emperor’s opinions on this issue.  T / F
3. Schools in Japan do not sing the national anthem.  T / F
4. Hundreds of teachers were punished for not singing the anthem.  T / F
5. The Emperor has said students and teachers should face the flag and sing.  T / F
6. He said acts of loyalty to flag and anthem should be voluntary.  T / F
7. He said the duty of Olympics Games competitors is to hold their flag.  T / F
8. His conclusion was that allegiance to flag and anthem is a personal affair.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	clarify	whipped up
b.	allegiance	free-willed
c.	extract	aired
d.	stirred	pry out
e.	patriotic	spell out
f.	intimated	shows
g.	relayed	contemplate
h.	acts	jingoistic
i.	voluntary	suggested
j.	think about	obedience

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	attempted to	symbols
b.	citizens’ allegiance	the flag and sing
c.	extract the	twelve months
d.	national	Emperor’s opinions
e.	in the past twelve	clarify
f.	had previously	citizens
g.	face	his latest thoughts
h.	He relayed	intimated
i.	acts	to their national anthem and flag
j.	individual	of loyalty

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL: Put the words on the right into the correct gaps.

Japanese Emperor and anthem

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has __________ to clarify his feelings regarding his citizens’ __________ to their national anthem and flag. Journalists have constantly, but carefully, tried to __________ the Emperor’s opinions on this issue that has stirred a lot of emotion of late. Japan’s national symbols have been the centre of a patriotic controversy this past year, with many schools __________ students and teachers to face the “Hinomaru” flag and sing the “Kimigayo” anthem. Almost 300 teachers have been __________ in the past twelve months for __________ to stand and sing the anthem in their schools.		forcing refusing allegiance punished attempted extract
The Emperor had __________ intimated that students and teachers should not be forced to face the flag and sing. He __________ his latest thoughts on the issue yesterday: “All nations of the world have national flags and anthems and I believe that it is important for schools to teach students to __________ them”. He said that any acts of __________ to flag and anthem should be __________, as in an Olympic Games competitor singing their anthem or holding their flag: “Regarding the national anthem and national flag, it is best if __________ citizens think about the matter themselves.”		relayed loyalty individual voluntary previously respect

 

2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Check your answers to this exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to this exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP FILL: Check your answers to this exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT ANTHEM SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down questions about national anthems, or on the article. Ask other classmates your questions and report back to your original partner/ group to compare your findings.

5. ‘NATIONAL’ / ‘ANTHEM’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What did you think of this article?
2. Do you agree with what the Japanese Emperor said?
3. Should the national anthem be sung in schools?
4. Should the national anthem be sung in other public places, like cinemas?
5. Is having a national anthem important?
6. Do you know the words or meaning to your national anthem?
7. Do you feel patriotic when you hear your national anthem?
8. Are there other national anthems you like or hate?
9. How do you feel when you hear your national anthem at the Olympics?
10. What do you think of your national flag?
11. Do you know the history of your flag and the reasons behind its design?
12. Are you proud of your flag?
13. Do you have your flag on any of your possessions?
14. How would you feel if you saw foreigners burning your flag?
15. Are there other national flags you like or hate?
16. Are national anthems and flags dangerous?
17. Did you like this discussion?
18. Teacher / Student additional questions.

7. NATIONAL STUFF: Complete the following table for your country and talk about what you wrote with your partner. Are the things you wrote positive or accurate representations of your country?

NATIONAL…	Thing or comment
anthem
flag
flower
dish / food
dress
hero
gallery
university
health system
security

8. WORLD FLAG COMMITTEE: Pairs / Groups – You are responsible for designing the new flag for the world, just in case we are visited by aliens. Decide together on the shape, colours, symbols etc. Present your flags to the rest of the class explaining the different choices behind the design. Vote on the best flag.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on your national anthem. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. WORLD ANTHEM: Write the words to a world anthem (just in case aliens come to visit). Show your world anthem to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. MY FLAG: Write a story about a time you felt particularly proud of your flag. Read your story to your classmates in your next lesson.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Japan’s Emperor refuses to comment on his national flag or anthem.  F
2. Journalists have carefully tried to get the Emperor’s opinions on this issue.  T
3. Schools in Japan do not sing the national anthem.  F
4. Hundreds of teachers were punished for not singing the anthem.  F
5. The Emperor has said students and teachers should face the flag and sing.  F
6. He said acts of loyalty to flag and anthem should be voluntary.  T
7. He said the duty of Olympics Games competitors is to hold their flag.  F
8. His conclusion was that allegiance to flag and anthem is a personal affair.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	clarify	spell out
b.	allegiance	obedience
c.	extract	pry out
d.	stirred	whipped up
e.	patriotic	jingoistic
f.	intimated	suggested
g.	relayed	aired
h.	acts	shows
i.	voluntary	free-willed
j.	think about	contemplate

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	attempted to	clarify
b.	citizens’ allegiance	to their national anthem and flag
c.	extract the	Emperor’s opinions
d.	national	symbols
e.	in the past	twelve months
f.	had previously	intimated
g.	face	the flag and sing
h.	He relayed	his latest thoughts
i.	acts	of loyalty
j.	individual	citizens

 

FLAG QUIZ:

The Cedar Tree Five Stars Red Flag Tricolore Hinomaru Union Jack Maple Leaf Stars and Stripes The Hammer and Sickle The Southern Cross Star of David

Lebanon China France Japan United Kingdom Canada United States of America Ex-Soviet Union Australia / New Zealand Israel

NATIONAL ANTHEM QUIZ:

La Marseillaise The Star-Spangled Banner My Golden Bengal Land of Mountains, Land on the River Kimigayo The Hope The Thunder Dragon Kingdom God Save the Queen Ode "to Joy" God Bless the Sultan Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People

France USA Bangladesh Austria Japan Israel Bhutan UK and the Commonwealth Europe Brunei India

 

GAP FILL:

Japanese Emperor and anthem

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has attempted to clarify his feelings regarding his citizens’ allegiance to their national anthem and flag. Journalists have constantly, but carefully, tried to extract the Emperor’s opinions on this issue that has stirred a lot of emotion of late. Japan’s national symbols have been the centre of a patriotic controversy this past year, with many schools forcing students and teachers to face the “Hinomaru” flag and sing the “Kimigayo” anthem. Almost 300 teachers have been punished in the past twelve months for refusing to stand and sing the anthem in their schools.

The Emperor had previously intimated that students and teachers should not be forced to face the flag and sing. He relayed his latest thoughts on the issue yesterday: “All nations of the world have national flags and anthems and I believe that it is important for schools to teach students to respect them”. He said that any acts of loyalty to flag and anthem should be voluntary, as in an Olympic Games competitor singing their anthem or holding their flag: “Regarding the national anthem and national flag, it is best if individual citizens think about the matter themselves.”