Reflection 3

1. This week, I learned the grammar points we studied and some details about Japanese students who came in to visit us and let us quiz them. Though, sadly, my question of dental floss seemed to fall on deaf ears. Or made some ears deaf, depending on who you are.

2. I'm not 100% done with this newspaper yet, but I absolutely love it. That's just because I love writing since I'm not very good with the whole speaking aspect of Japanese. Listening to the Japanese students talk was also fun, even if I got lost at some points.

3. My great success? Definitely getting to write. When I get to be creative, I'm happy.

4. My greatest challenge was trying to understand everything the Japanese students were saying. Compared to the class, I feel I have a much more limited vocabulary. That, and I'm not any good at listening, even in my language and I would have felt rude if I said "Huh?" everytime I didn't understand something.

5. I mean, for the vocabulary, I could probably peruse my dictionary and learn new words on a daily basis and that would help in the long run. But I have no idea how to improve my listening skills. I'm at a loss there.

Reflection 2: In which I don't make an Inception joke

1. This week, in Japanese, I learned all about the joy and wonder of talking about mysterious strangers doing activities for a definite reason and I learned how to describe a situation in which an action takes place during another action. (I feel this is where I would use an Inception joke, but I'll spare it. No promises for the future though.)

2. The most fun thing I did? I can't really remember. Going to class was fun. Telling people to kick customers in the face is also a fun thing.

3. I remembered the kanji for two mechanical objects. I wasn't really expecting that.

4. The greatest challenge? Not thinking about puppies because of the dog kanji. I kid, of course. The greatest challenge for me was rembering the kanji for experience.

5. Well, I studied it. And I used a kanji bank that I made myself on the quiz. I'm seriously going to be using those a lot more now. They're very helpful.

VokiVokiVokiVoki

すみません、私のVokiはよくない。

Reflection of the first week

1. This week I learned a lot of people's names, which will probably take me forever and a half to memorize, and I learned how to use the passive voice and the various situations it can be used in. I also learned how to say, "Somebody put something in my drink." Whether this will be useful to me in the future or not is yet to be determined.

2. I really liked doing the four panel comic strip. It was an interesting way to learn the grammar point and make some nonsensical sentences. Although, I would have preferred to write a short story, but that's just because I'm not a fan of drawing.

3. Success? I survived drawing a comic strip. I think I could count that as a success.

4. It's related to number three. I can't draw. That was my challenge. And I could probably count figuring out the context of passive voice as well.

5. I'll study the passive voice to get a better grasp of it. But, I'm not going to work on my drawing skills since I don't really see how they'll help me later in life.

Reflections on a Presentation

The most difficult thing during my presentation was the fact that I accidentally threw myself for a loop due to an error in translating numbers. After the brief discussion, my nerves were a bit shaken and I started to feel a little nervous which isn't something I normally experience while giving a presentation. So the new presence of my nerves threw me off my game and made a certain frame of my presentation feel a little difficult. If that didn't happen, I would have never lost my nerves. However, towards the end, I found my center again and regained some of the old confidence I had prior to the presentation. Other than that, my throat became a little dry from the talking and I wish I would have brought some water to drink up with me. A dry throat is so annoying during a presentation.

Two things: I wish I would have taken time to learn how to effectively use photoshop and I wish that I had translated the rent amounts correctly. For photoshop, I wanted to spice up my presentation with some created images just because stock photos can be a little dull sometimes. And with the currency, if I had checked with someone prior, it would have been correct and I wouldn't have gotten shot nerves.

Giving a presentation in a foreign language that you're studying is the fact that it requires you to know exactly what you're talking about and how you're going to say it in the target language. For me, presentations involve a lot of improvisation, which means I'm forced to think on my feet. This doesn't give me time to think about what I'm trying to say in English first, so it's a test of mastery. Another benefit of giving the presentation in the language you're learning is that it helps you to really use the language. Dialogues and practice sentences are great, but they don't compare to talking for seven straight minutes. That kind of length really helps one get comfortable with the language.

じゅにちろと友美

昔々、男の人でした。名前はじゅんいちろです。じゅんいちろは寂しい男の人でした。両親は「じゅんいちろ！友だちを作らなくちゃいけません！」と言いました。でも、じゅんいちろは友だちを作れませんでした。人々と話す時、戦いました。ある日、じゅんいちろは女の人に会いました。彼女の名前は友美でした。友美はとてもやさしくて、きれいでした。毎日、彼らは話します。

でも、ある日じゅんいちろは「友美。私は外国に戦いに行かなくちゃいけません。今度の先週、行きます。」と言いました。

友美はそれを聞いた後に泣き始めました。「じゅんいちろ。。。愛していると思います。行かないでください。」

「これは私の義務です。さようなら。」

一ヶ月後に。。。

刀でじゅんいちろを打ちました。「愛の女神！怪我で死ぬ前に友美と話をしたいです。」

突然に雲は分かれて、ワルキューレは地面に来ました。

ワルキューレはじゅんいちろに「これは君のねがいですか？」を質問しました。

「はい。」

ワルキューレは頷きました。「でも、泣いたら、地獄に行きます。わかりますか？」

「はい。友美に会いたいです。」

後で。。。

じゅんいちろと友美は話していました。

「友美。。。私は死んでいますよ。」

「いいえ！死んではいけません！」

「友。。。友美。聞いてください。愛しています。早く言えばよかったです。」

友美は泣き始めました。「じゅんいちろ。。。愛しています。」

じゅんいちろは話さないで、泣き始めました。「友美。。。さようなら。」

ワルキューレは「馬鹿。今、地獄に行きます。」と言いました。ワルキューレの刀でじゅんいちろを打ちました。

じゅんいちろは「私。。。私の世界は。。。は。。。黒くなっています。」と言いました。

単語

寂しい　さびしい lonely

戦う　たたかう to fight

彼ら　かれら　they

泣く　なく to cry

義務　ぎむ duty

刀でｘを打つ　うつ to strike X with a sword

女神　めがみ goddess

怪我で死ぬ　けがでしぬ to die of wounds

突然に　とつぜんに all of a sudden

雲　くも cloud

分かれる　わかれる to part

ワルキューレ　Valkyrie

地面　じめん the earth (ground)

願い　ねがい wish (noun)

頷く　うなずき　to nod

友美　　ゆみ　　Yumi

 わかるといいですね。

音楽：　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJkTfZ0gLUw&feature=related


ールペ

Teaching Each Other

Is teaching each other effective? There a lot of variables to consider when asking this question, but my opinion boils down to a no. First, there definitely wasn't a good amount of time to come up with a coherent lesson plan and translation questions. You also have to consider that not all of us are going to school to be teachers of something. Being a Computer Information Systems major, I'm not heavily inclined to educate others. Seeing as I have not taken any teaching classes, I also don't know effective methods of teaching and the best I can do is try to copy the teacher. My problem is that I know the information, but don't know how to convey it. With teaching others, one also has to remember that when it comes to language we don't know the intricacies of it. With regards to my question about using ～はずです to state an opinion, the book doesn't necessarily point to the fact that the way I was talking was incorrect. Only a native speaker or someone fluent in Japanese would really know that, so it's good that 友紀先生 was there to interact.

I probably come off as ultra critical of the exercise, but that's only because of my past experiences. It can work in some situations, I've just never seen it happen.

How could it have been done better? Well, personally, I would have liked to have more time in order to create a lesson plan and a sheet of translations or something for the class to work on. There's also the fact that when a student takes the reins, the other class members don't really listen or pay attention. I try to stop myself from doing that, but that just seems to be the case based on this experience and past ones. I'd suggest implementing a way of making the class pay attention, but I don't really know how that would work. So, time to create a lesson plan and a quiet class that is in absorb mode during the teaching part. That's what I would have liked to see.

私は悪い先生だと思います。日本語を教えるのが下手ですから。でも、簡単な分布を教えてよかったです。教えるのが嫌いですから、文法を教えないはずです。