I wrote in The Journal News about how a local ESL class is using Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” as an English learning tool. In Japan, Obama’s speeches are apparently being used for the same purpose.

The publisher of a paperback edition of the president’s speeches tells Reuters,

His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as “yes, we can,” “change” and “hope” that even Japanese people can memorize.

“What I’ve learned about Barack Obama from reading his book”

I read only 22 pages of his book, but learned a lot about him, his family
and the history.
One of the most impressive story is about the racism. It was not until I read about his parent’s marriage to know that interracial marriage was prohibited in many parts of the South even in 1960’s. I guess how hard for his grandparents to accept their daughter’s marriage at that time, but they were free from the racism. They were even to black people, and it was so unusual that they sometimes were criticized by other people. It was the reason why their daughter has no prejudice and be attracted by Obama’s father.

I also learned Obama’s father was a smart person who could defeat the border of the racism. The racism at that time must be much terrible than that of now, but he could get the scholarship to go to the University in Hawaii and also could pursue his Ph.D. at Harvard.

I can see how Obama loves his father and is proud of him very much even though they separated when Obama was two years old. However, he had a lot of struggles about his parents and his multiracial heritage. We are going to read about it from now, and I’m looking forward to knowing it.