Professor Poo - Living, Loving, Thinking, Again

Justin McCurry “Poo-themed educational book becomes bestseller in Japan” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/05/japanese-children-unko-kanji-doriru-professor-poo

『うんこ漢字ドリル』*1を巡って。

Written Japanese comprises 2,136 “regular-use” Chinese-based characters – or kanji – and the hiragana and katakana phonetic scripts. Hiragana is made up of 46 base characters that are often used as particles or to inflect verbs and adjectives. The same number of basic katakana symbols are commonly used to write foreign loan words.
Japan’s children – among the most numerate and literate in the world – are supposed to be able to read and write 1,006 kanji after six years of primary school education, starting at age 6. To help them reach that goal, and prepare them for memorising the remaining 1,130 characters before they complete their their formal education at 15, the book includes the word “poo” in every one of its 3,018 sample sentences.

日本語の表記システムについて先ず了解しなければならない英語圏の人たちにこの面白さを伝えるのはちょっと難しいかも。
さて、PooはPoohとも綴る。Poohといえば、黄熊*2。但し、この場合のPoohはfecesとは関係なく、ふうふうと息を吹きかける擬音語*3。ところで、プーの性別論争があったということも知らなかった*4。
See also

吉田雄弥「うんこ漢字ドリルのシュールな例文10選！電車で見るの大変危険」https://www.buzzfeed.com/jp/yuyayoshida/unkodekanjiwomanabu

*1:https://unkokanji.com/ https://twitter.com/unkokanji See eg. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%86%E3%82%93%E3%81%93%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%AB なお、低学年向けは「かん字ドリル」。

*3:See Nekolas「【知ってた？】『くまのプーさん』の名前が「プー」な理由」http://rocketnews24.com/2016/09/04/794084/

*4:See アサイ「「クマのプーさん」はやっぱり男の子だった件」http://asay.hatenadiary.jp/entry/20110825/1314284743