Beginners on 12/1/2008

Number of students: 10
Summary: Lesson 3 (Review of the last week and Direction marker "に")

(1) Review of the last week:
- Exercise of site-translation using sentences from p.65-I-B exercise
- Practice pronunciation

(2) Direction Marker: "に" ex) ゆうびんきょくに行（い）きます。

Michiko's Observation:
It seems that for many students these "markers (or particles)" are quite difficult to get used to. First, you need to change your paradigm of thinking - especially for Western language speakers, whose native language doesn't have these particles (or markers) for each noun; and secondly, you need to memorize quite a few particles (or markers) --- such as Topic Marker (は), Object Marker (を), Place Marker (で), Time Marker (に), and Direction Marker (に).

But please don't give up, just hang in there! You are guaranteed to get used to these in no time, because each time you speak, learn, and practice Japanese, you always have to use these particles :-)
Just practice, practice, and practice! Although it is a cliche, it is true that "practice makes perfect".

And as I mentioned in the class today, I suggest you make it a habit to write down everything you are learning (whether it is hiraganas, verb conjugations, markers/particles, or new vocabulary). It will definitely help you to memorize/remember things better, and it will also give you a great opportunity to practice and memorize Japanese letters (hiraganas and katakanas).

Please try to dedicate some time (maybe 20-30 minutes a day everyday, or 1-2 hours session a week) during the Christmas break to review and practice what you learned in this semester. And I hope to see you all in the Spring semester (which starts on Jan. 12th, in the same time slot, Monday from 6pm)!

Beginners on 11/24

Number of students: 10 (including one newcomer)
Summary: Verb conjugation (～ます／～ません） and three new particles (を=object marker, で=place marker, に=time marker)

Today, as I announced last week, I brought my 7-months old son Benjamin, and we had a fun class partly (or largely?) thanks to him!
To my relief, Benjamin remained quite happy and cheerful for most part of the class - perhaps thanks to everyone's cooperation and some (eager) assistance for his play from a few students. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

(1) Review of the last class: basic rules of conjugations of three groups of verbs (Ru-verbs, U-verbs, and irregular verbs) =>Please read pp.58-59 of the textbook Genki I for details.

(2) Exercise p.65 I-A

(3) Introduction of the object marker "を"
(ex. 本（ほん）を読（よ）みます。）

(4) Exercise p. 65 I-B (a)

(5) Introduction of a place marker "で"
(ex. 図書館（としょかん）で本（ほん）を読（よ）みます。）

(6) Introduction of a time marker "に"
(ex. ２時（にじ）に図書館で本を読みます。）

For detailed explanation of particles, please read pp. 60-61 of the textbook Genki I.

Beginners on 11/17/2008

Number of students: 7
Summary: Review test of Lesson 2, Introduction to Lesson 3 (verbs and basic verb conjugations)

(1) Review test: word quiz and listening comprehension (everyone did very well!)

(2) Verb conjugations --- please read p.58 of the textbook (Genki I) and catch up (especially if you have missed the class. We will start from reviewing the verb conjugation next week)

(3) Exercise p. 65 -I-A

Important Announcement
- Next week, I have to bring my baby with me (due to my husband's schedule) and therefore I need to finish the class early (perhaps at 7pm.) Please try to come in time, which is 6pm (and I will try that, too!).

- Our last class will be Dec. 1st. So that means we will have just two more classes including next week.

I hope to see as many of you as possible in the next two classes! (Though I know that most of you are very busy at the end of the semester...)

Beginners on 11/10/2008

Number of students: 12
Summary: Learned & practiced to order foods in a restaurant, and to buy things when shopping. Finished Lesson 2. (A small review test of Lesson 6 is planned in the next class, before moving onto Lesson 3.

(1) New vocabulary which appear in the Dialogue II (pp.30-31)
(2) Dialogue II - Listening comprehension & practicing pronunciation
(3) Review exercises (Role Play) Conversation in a restaurant (p.49)
(4) Review exercises (Role Play) Conversation in an antique shop (based on a Dialogue I on p.30 and exercise p. 48)
(5) 「あれはなんですか」- practice of asking "What is this/that/it?" and using the right word for これ／それ／あれ（this/that). (p.44-C)
(6) 「これはだれの[thing]ですか」-practice of asking "Whose [thing] is this?" (p.45)

Homework
Please prepare for the small review test of Lesson 2. (Mainly word quizzes and listening comprehension)

Beginners on 11/3/2008

Number of students: 10
Summary: Lesson 2 Dialogue I: expressions useful for shopping

What we did today are:
(1) Useful expressions in a classroom
- 「＊＊ページをあけてください。」=Please open at p.＊＊
- 「教科書（きょうかしょ）をあけてください。」=Please open your textbook.
- 「教科書（きょうかしょ）の＊＊ページをあけてください。」=Please open your textbook at p. ＊＊.
-「れんしゅうしましょう。」= Let's practice.
- 「リピートしてください。」= Please repeat (after me).
From today's class on, I am going to use these expressions during the class instead of giving these instructions in English. Keep up with me!

(2) Dialogue p.30-I
- New Grammar 「たかいですね。」「これは１８００円ですよ。」
「～ね」「～よ」 are both tags you put at the end of a sentence. Please read p.38 of the textbook Genki I for more details. But please note that 「～よ」are usually used in a friendly way, despite that the explanation in the textbook may lead you to think that using「～よ」at the end of the sentence is authoritative, rude, and/or presumptious.
-New Grammar 「～をください」=Please give me～.
- New Grammar 「～も」= 「は」＋too、「を」+ too

(3) New Grammar 「だれの」= whose
(4) Exercise p. 45-IV Practice of using「も」

Beginners on 10/27/08

A number of students who attended: 11 students.
Summary: Lesson 2: Expression useful for Shopping

Yesterday we did:
(1) Numbers from 100-10000
- Number-Identifying game using cards
(2) Exercises p.40 I-A & B
(3) New Grammar: 「この」(kono)/「その」(sono)/「あの」(ano)/「どの」(dono) + Nouns
*Note that this "-の" series must ALWAYS be FOLLOWED BY a NOUN, whereas
"-れ" series [=「これ」(kore)「それ」(sore)「あれ」(are)「どれ」(dore) ] must ALWAYS be used ALONE. For more details, please read pp. 34-36 of the textbook Genki I.
(4) Exercise: practice of 「この[noun]はいくらですか」= "How much is this [noun]?" 「（[Noun]は＊＊＊円です」= "It's ＊＊＊yen."
*We used real advertisements of Japanese super markets, pizza restaurants, ice cream stands, electric appliances discount stores, etc. for this exercise, and it was a lot of fun!
(5) Learning new words such as さいふ、かばん、てぶくろ、etc.


Please don't forget that "Practice makes perfect" --- and try to review the last class, learn new vocabulary, listen to the audio resources, and/or pracitce pronunciation whenever you can!

Announcement:
Joe in our class shared two websites where you can watch some Japanese animes, TV dramas and movies. Visit the following links if you are intersted:
www.mysoju.com
www.crunchyroll.com/drama

Beginners on 10/20/2008

Yesterday we had 10 students. After the class finished I heard that this is a mid-term exam week at IU, so maybe some of the students who couldn't come yesterday were studying hard for their midterm exams??
Now that I know about the midterm, I feel a bit sorry for giving you the word test yesterday --- hope it didn't give you too much burden if you also had to study for the midterm exams!

Yesterday we did:
(1) Word review test for Lesson 1
　　I also asked students to come up and write answers in hiraganas on the board, and to my pleasant surprise, all of you did quite well! Some were perfect, and some were stilly on his or her way, but I can see that everyone made efforts, which is what counts.

(2) Dialogue of Lesson 1 (Listening comprehension and pronunciation practice)

(3) Lesson 2: これ　それ　あれ
We did some exercise using these words, expressions such as:

　これはわたしのゆびわです。This is my ring.
　 それはわたしのでんわです。That (which is not close to me but close to you) is my phone.
　 あれはわたしのほんです。That (which is far away from both you and myself) is my book.
　
*Next week we are going to learn the following expressions:
　 あれはいくらですか。 How much are those?
　 どれですか。 Which one (do you mean)?


Homework
(1) Review of Words of Lesson 1 (based on your own reflection of the word test we had ;-)
(2) Continue learning and brushing up your skills of hiraganas and katakanas
(3) Start learning vocabulary of Lesson 2 I suggest you do this on a daily basis, little by little, probably breaking them down into some chunks, as it is much more "doable," easier and efficient to master them!
(5) Review numbers from 0-99, as a preparation for the next class. We are going to learn from 100-10000.
* To learn numbers, you may probably find this site very useful: Learning Supplements (numbers, time, money expressions etc.)
(6) Listen to the audio files (dialogue and vocabulary sections of the lesson) which I have sent you. Please let me know if you haven't received them.

Beginners on 10/13/2008

Yesterday we had 14 students, and we spent most of the time practicing asking questions & answering about personal information, and introducing oneself in Japanese. We have almost finished Lesson 1, and in our next class we will finish Lesson 1 by practicing the dialogue of the lesson and giving you a little word quiz from the vocabulary section of the lesson in the textbook (Genki I). Please study hard hiraganas and katakanas!

What we did yesterday are:
(1) Q&A exercises with each other
ex.
あなたのなまえはなんですか（Anata no namae wa nan desu ka)
あなたのしごとはなんですか (Anata no shigoto wa nan desu ka)
あなたはなんさいですか　(Anata wa nan sai desu ka)

(2) Self-Introduction (last week's assignment)
Each student introduced him/herself one by one to the class. Everyone did very well, and I am really impressed!

Announcement:
(1) I will give you a little word test from the vocabulary section of Lesson 1 of the textbook (Genki I).

(2) We are going to practice pronunciation of the dialogue of Lesson 1, so please try to listen to the audio file I have given to you as many times as you can, as a preparation.
If you don't have the audio files, please contact me with email. Thanks!


Some Afterthoughts to yesterday's class (extra information)
I have some afterthoughts to share with you about some of the topics which came up during today's class:

(1) For Xin's major, Optometry:
I did some online research because I couldn't find the translation for this word as a subject of study in my dictionary.
According to several websites I found, optometry is a quite a new area, and it seems they most often use ”オプトメトリー”(oputometori, a foreign-origin word written in katakanas). But if translated in Japanese, that would be 検眼学（けんがんがく；kengan-gaku)、which means "science of eye examination").

(2) For Jonathan's hobby, electronics:
"Electronics" is usually translated as "電子工学（でんしこうがく; denshi-koogaku）” in Japanese, which means "Engineering of electronics".
But we don't really say "My hobby is "でんしこうがく(=Engineering of electronic)", because it sounds more like a name of a department in universities rather than a hobby.
So, after some online research, I came to a conclusion that "機械（きかい; kikai)いじり（ijiri）”（＝fiddling with mechanics or electronics) is an appropriate translation for "electronics" as a hobby.

(3) For an appropriate word for "wife" in Japanese:
First, I need to apologize and correct myself: I told you that "家内" （かない; kanai. One of the words which means "my wife" in Japanese）means "the back of the house" in today's class, but it was not exactly true. I confused it with another Japanese word for "wife", which is "奥さん”(おくさん; okusan) --- this word "okusan" is the one whose literary translation is "the back of the house".

The literary translation of "Kanai(家内；かない）" is "Inside the house".

And another important afterthought --- As for "妻（Tsuma, つま）, which I referred to as the most "politically-correct" word for "wife":
You usually use it ONLY for your own wife. In other words, you can say 「わたしのつまはだいがくいんせいです」(=My wife is a graduate student.), but you cannot say 「あなたのつまはだいがくいんせいですか」. "Anata no tsuma" sounds a bit rude because "tsuma" is too neutral and does not have an honorific connotation.

So, snapshot:
わたしのかない（Watashi no kanai）＝My (humble) wife: Grammatically and socially correct, but not very politically correct
あなたのかない（Anata no kanai)=Your (humble) wife : Socially not correct, neither politically correct
わたしのつま（Watashi no tsuma) = My wife (very neutral): Grammatically, socially and politically correct ^^
あなたのつま (Anata no tsuma) =Your wife (neutral): Grammatically and politically correct, but socially it is a bit off
わたしのおくさん　（Watashi no okusan) = My (precious) wife : We use it only when you want to be a bit humorous, or only when you are talking to your wife herself
あなたのおくさん （Anata no okusan) = Your (precious) wife : Grammatically and socially correct
あなたのおくさま (Anata no okusama) = Your precious wife: grammatically and socially correct. Okusama (=ending the word with "sama" instead of "san") makes it even more polite and honorific.

Beginners on 10/6/2008

We had about 15 students today.

Today we did:
(1) A dictation test of Hiraganas and Katakanas from あいうえお　かきくけこ　さしすせそ　たちつてと　なにぬねの　はひふへほ、アイウエオ　カキクケコ　サシスセソ　タチツテト　ナニヌネノ　ハヒフヘホ.

The test was rather an incentive for you to learn/master hiraganas and katakanas as soon as possible, so if you found that you need to study more, please do so

(2) The last chunk of Hiraganas and katakanas: まみむめも　やゆよ　らりるれろ　わをん　マミムメモ　ヤユヨ　ラリルレロ　ワヲン, and some words which mainly use these letters. (ex: まんが　みち　ゆめ　ラーメン　ママ　メモ　ルールetc.)

We also learned contracted sounds such as きゃ　きゅ　きょ　(キャ　キュ　キョ）、しゃ　しゅ　しょ（シャ　シュ　ショ）and so on. (Word examples: キャンディ）

(3) We reviewed numbers 0-12, and learned more numbers from 10-100.

(4) We also learned how to say 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes... and so on, いっぷん、にふん、さんぷん... etc.

(5) Greeting words unique to Japanese language （ex. いってきます　いってらっしゃい　ただいま　おかえり（なさい）　いただきます　ごちそうさま　and どうぞよろしく（おねがいします）.)

Our time was up here. We couldn't do much speaking exercise today, which I am sorry about, but from next week I promise that we are going to do a lot more speaking exercises!


Homework
Compose or think about your self-introduction in Japanese.
I would like you to introduce yourself in Japanese to class next week, as naturally as possible. Try to practice saying it at least a few times before the class, so that you can talk to the class rather than reading your composition or memo.
You can include: your name, nationality, school, school year, age (if you like), your major/specialty and your hobby ("hobby" is 「しゅみ」(shumi) in Japanese).

See you next week!

Beginners on 9/29/08

Today we had 15 students (it's getting to a very good size class!).

Today we did:
(1) Hiragana and Katakana たちつてと　なにぬねの　はひふへほ　　タチツテト　ナニヌネノ　ハヒフヘホ　

(2) なに／なん(=what)
Asking questions using なに／なん (nani/nan), such as:
あなたのせんもんはなんですか。(=What is your major?)
ティモさんのしごとはなんですか。(=What is your occupation, Timo-san?)

(3) Numbers from 0 - 12
You can practice and learn numbers at the following webpage:
Genki Online: Numbers practice

(4) いま、なんじですか。= What's the time now?
（いま、）１（いち）じです。=It's one o'clock.


Homework
(1) Review of today's class
(2) Practice Hiraganas & Katakanas from あ-line to は-line
→I will give you a dictation test for these kanas next week.
(3) Listen to the audio resources and practice pronunciation, listening and speaking.
(4) Learn new vocabulary of Lesson 1

That's it. See you next week!