Overall Course Reflection

Wow, what a trip it has been.

I guess I'll break it down according to my opinions on the book and the class.

Book: I'll say it. I hate Tobira. Hate it. Hate hate hate. I understand the concept of "higher level thinking" that the book tries to teach by, but I have honestly found myself lost so many times in this book it wasn't even funny. I will admit, this is in part due to the fact that I did not have the time to devote myself to completely mastering the material. The lack of furigana and kanji definitions is a bit troublesome at times as well. For instance, when reading one of the informational sections, occasionally one will stumble upon an unknown kanji. Said kanji was not in the vocabulary of any chapter and is not given furigana to guide the reader toward a definition. That gets real old, real quick. Kanji sections could also give the definition of the kanji. If my phone weren't capable of character recognition, I don't know how I could have survived the course. I miss Genki. Genki made sense and presented the material in a fun way that was easy to comprehend.

Class: Class was either really fun or really boring. I felt like I noticed the boring more often than not. And this complaint stems primarily from the fact that I didn't see much of a difference between struggling to read the book at home and struggling to read it in class. But, this struggle is amplified by the struggling of others. It doesn't do wonders for confidence, that's for sure. However, on the other hand, when we actually got to do something fun and creative, I was having a blast. The photostory, the newspaper, the history research, all of that stuff was really fun and really helped to reinforce what I was supposed to be learning. I feel the book failed in that regard. And as for quizzes, I have no complaints. But I would have liked to see a little more time on the super quizzes. Those can get pretty rough.

Too long; didn't read section

Beneficial: Projects! I love creative projects. Those actually help me learn the material completely.

Not beneficial: Reading from the book. It did nothing but frustrate me to the point of stress.

How to learn: Well, I got better at memorizing long kanji lists if that counts. I didn't learn anything new about my learning style.

アメリカの歴史上の人

セオドア・ローズベルト

ローズベルト：アメリカの二十六番大統領

 　　　　　誕生日は1858年十月二十七日。子供のとき、彼は病気だった。喘息とがいたので、家で勉強しなくちゃいなかった。でも、喘息がいるので、難しい趣味があった。例えば、彼はボクシングや搬送を学びました。為政家になる前に、ハーバード大学で生物学を勉強しました。
　　　　　大統領ながら、ローズベルトは世界を違った。彼はパナマカナルを終える助けていました。もっと、Square Dealを作りました。Square Dealは大企業からアメリカの人々を保護しました。最終、彼は世界に海軍を 披露しました。