Hi all,

I thought I'd point you guys to a resource that you may not have thought about.

The site is translated into hundreds of languages and the translations are pretty much identical.

Japanese:
http://www.watchtower.org/j/index.html

English:
http://www.watchtower.org/index.html

There are lots of general interest articles which are pretty interesting:

Like this one on the Sloth:

http://www.watchtower.org/e/200907b/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/j/200907b/article_01.htm

There's also: http://www.scientology.jp/ ^_-

Ahhhh, all those languages and no Esperanto.

very useful... thanks

nest0r Wrote:There's also: http://www.scientology.jp/ ^_-

Very true... but there are fewer general interest articles. [^.^]

That's why I linked to the sloth... it's about the pace of my Japanese studies some days. ^.^

Yes, the article on homosexuality sure was... interesting. I wonder if stormfront and gnxp also have Japanese translations. So many 'interesting' articles! ;p

Are you seriously making a comparison to white nationalists? Gimme a break.

Anyway, a listing of all the articles on plants and animals available here:
http://www.watchtower.org/j/archives/index.htm#animals

Topics covered
* ナマケモノののんびりライフ
* ゾウを乗りこなすには
* 飛ぶ生き物の羽
* オオハシのくちばし
* 驚異の植物―トウモロコシ
* 雪の中でも暖かく
* 魅惑のバラ―アフリカから
* 鳥を導くのは本能―人間を導くのは何か
* 花粉―命の粉
* ロバのいない生活なんて！
* 動物は創造者エホバを大いなるものとする
* 協力関係―命に欠かせないもの
* なぜ絶滅の危機に？
* 鳥から学べること

Yes, reading that article again: http://www.watchtower.org/e/200702b/article_01.htm - It's much more weasely than your typical white nationalist would be. But I suppose if the aim is to address young people and/or proselytize, then one must gloss over the ideas in such a way. Kind of like linking to a site like watchtower.org purely as a 'learning resource'.

For entry level material, there's Kids Web Japan, which has lot of the same articles in both English and Japanese.

Also, less creepy than some cult material.

That first post is really creepy.

Linking to a religious cult that advertises EVERYWHERE all over
America(I don't know about the rest of the world). And then
presenting it as a general learning resource.

A resource is a resource. One may not like the source material (Harry Potter, Bible, Watchtower philosophy, South Park humor, etc) but that's the beauty of a having a variety of resources. You might realize there's something that's sourced on a topic you REALLY like.

Much better than back in the day when the only multi-language resource (if not the only reading resource for some regions) were the various Christian bibles.

Chancham, it's a free country. You're free to ignore it. It wasn't an advertisement, and if you notice the content of the articles that were posted, they are general interest. Can't get more general interest than "Alluring Roses from Africa" http://www.watchtower.org/j/200710b/article_01.htm

I'm assuming you didn't click on the link and check that for yourself.

Sure, there are bible-based articles on that site. If you're interested in bible-based articles ( and again, I'm talking about general interest here ) you'll find that you can check the references in your own bible.

And yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are a worldwide religion. Even in Japan. Less than 15% of them are in the USA.

Anyway, I'm not here to preach or have a religious discussion with anyone. The link was posted because they are generally very accurate translations of articles that cover a wide swath of different topics. They're also short, and generally inoffensive to most people. That's not to say that everyone will not find anything that they will not agree with. But I think we're all smart enough to filter out what we want to read about and what we don't.

I've read the Bible, and Jesus didn't sneak up and abduct me or anything.

Living in Japan is the first time I've willingly spoken to Jehovas Witnesses. Good speaking practice innit. Reminded me of this:

Actually, if you talk with Jehovah's Witnesses, it is possible you could have a positive influence and save them from their unfortunate fate of being a complete bore their whole lives. I went on a bus mission to New Orleans with my fundamentalist church group to save sinners as a teen-ager.
Guess which party ended up being rescued from eternal suffering?

If you do decide to discuss views, then you should never turn it into an argument or anything negative. Once someone feels they're being attacked, they stop listening.

It does seem to be a fairly good source for studying Japanese no matter what your native language is. Though, there doesn't seem to be a direct link to switch back and forth between languages within a specific article if you wanted to practice reading one paragraph at a time.

bodhisamaya Wrote:It does seem to be a fairly good source for studying Japanese no matter what your native language is. Though, there doesn't seem to be a direct link to switch back and forth between languages within a specific article if you wanted to practice reading one paragraph at a time.

You can just change the 'j' in the URL to an 'e' to have the page in English or Japanese.

eg:
En
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200601/article_01.htm
JP
http://www.watchtower.org/j/200601/article_01.htm

NB: this article was chosen at random from the front page. Please don't take this as any kind of implied endorsement of it's contents.

That's a pretty nifty trick :-)