Beginners on 2/12

Yesterday we had 7 students including 2 newcomers. We first did a quick word quiz and then mostly focused on the polite form past tense conjugation of verbs.

What we did:
(1) Word quiz of Lesson 4
(2) Introduction of past tense (both affirmative and negative) of 「です」and 「～ます」(polite form verbs).
(3) Exercises Textbook p.86 III-A and B, and p.88 IV-A

Homework:
(1) Continue to learn the vocabulary of Lesson 4
(2) Review of the last class
(3) Listen to the Audio resource I have given to you and practice pronunciation, intonation and listening comprehension as many times as possible.

It was great to see so many students last night, when it was such a bad and cold weather.
Hope to see you all next week too!

Beginners on 2/5

Yesterday we had 5 students (including 2 new students).

What we did:
(1) Review of last week - 「PLACEに～があります／います」
(2) How to say locations of things (e.g. in front of ～=～のまえ（に）, on the desk = つくえのうえ（に））
*These expressions are typically more difficult and can be confusing to a native English speaker, so PLEASE DO PRACTICE these expressions by yourself as many times as it takes for you to be able to say this smoothly without thinking. You can refer to the list of these expressions on the textbook p.78.)

(3) How to say your plan and/or schedule. This is quite a useful expression when you want to make an appointment and/or a plan with your friends or your supervisor etc.

「TIME　に　EVENT　があります」
　
ex. 火曜日（かようび）に日本語（にほんご）のクラスがあります = There is a Japanese class on Tuesday.

Homework
(1) Review what we did at yesterday's class
(2) Read the textbook p.79-80 (Grammar Explanation of Past Tense)
(3) Continue to learn vocabulary of Lesson 4 (Word quiz of Lesson 4 is planned for next week)

That's it for today. See you next week!
p.s. I would appreciate if you email me beforehand when you find out that you cannot make it for the class. Thank you for your cooperation.

Beginners on 1/29

Yesterday we had 5 students including a new student (Alex).

What we did yesterday:
(1) Lesson 3 Review tests: Written test (vocabulary & short sentences translation) & Listening Comprehension

(2) Introduction to Lesson 4
- 「"PLACE" に"THING(S)" があります」= There is/are THING(S) + PLACE.
- 「"PLACE" に"PERSON(S)/ANIMAL(S)" がいます」 = There is/are PERSON(S)/ANIMAL(S) + PLACE.

(ex.1) つくえの上（うえ） に本（ほん）があります。=There is/are book(s) *on the desk*.

(ex.2) 銀行（ぎんこう）の前（まえ）に女（おんな）の人（ひと）がいます。=There is a woman in front of *a bank*.

*Note that when you want to say something like "on the desk" or "in front of a bank", in Japanese you always start with the object (desk and bank in these cases) and add "～の上" or "～の前” to the object (like "つくえの上" and "銀行の前"). And then you add に as a place marker.

**Note also that you use に as a place marker in these "SENTENCE OF EXISTENCE" patterns, instead of "で". "で" is used when an action takes place in that location, for instance, "としょかんで本をよみます。"

　***Note also that you use が in these sentence patterns instead of "は".

(3) Exercise textbook (げんきI） p. 83, I-A

Homework
(1) Review of what we did yesterday
(2) Continue to learn new vocabulary (word test planned in 2 weeks)
(3) Continue to listen to the model reading of the Lesson 4's dialogues and vocabulary and practice pronunciation

Beginners on 1/22

Today we had 5 students, including one new student (Dasun, a.k.a. Tatsuya).
We finally finished Lesson 3 of Genki I today, and next week we are going to have a review test and then move on to Lesson 4.

Today we did:
(1) Speech presentation - Plan of today/tomorrow/weekend (homework assigned last week - p. 70-B)
Everyone did quite well. The best performance of today was Yi-Lu's - it was really a good job, Lulu!

(2) Review Exercise p. 71-C

(3) Dialogue on p.54
- Listening Comprehension (listen to the dialogue without looking at the textbook, followed by Q & A about the content of the conversation)
- Listening to learn pronunciation and intonation
- Pronunciation practice (repeating after the model reading)
- Role play


Homework:
(1) Review of Lesson 3 --- Study for the review test!
Review test will consist of vocabulary and listening comprehension.

(2) Start learning vocabulary of Lesson 4

(3) Read the Grammar section of Lesson 4

That's it!

See you next week!

Beginners on 1/15

Today we had 6 students, including 1 new student (!). It was a very nice class I thought, and I'm glad to see all of you in the first class of this year 2008.

What we did today are:
(1) Review of verb conjugation
(2) Exercise p. 66 I-D 「～ますか」「はい、～ます」／「いいえ、～ません」
(3) Today's new expression 1:「～ませんか」= Why don't we ～？ (Making a suggestion) 　
(4) Exercise p. 69 「～ませんか」　「いいですね」「ううん、ちょっと…」
(5) Today's new expression 2: adverbs of frequency 「毎日（～ます）」「よく（～ます）」「ときどき（～ます）」
　　「あまり～ません」「ぜんぜん～ません」
(6) Exercise p. 70 IV
(7) Exercise p.70 V (Review Exercise of Chapter 3)

Homework
(1) Exercise p.70 V-B
Make your plan of today/tomorrow/on this weekend etc., and practice it as many times you think is necessary so that you can speak it smoothly without looking at your draft.

(2) Listen to and practice pronunciation of the dialogue of Chapter 3. (Please use the recording of my model reading that i have given to you before.)

Next week I would like to finish Chapter 3 --- this is our goal for our next lesson!

Have a nice week.^^

Beginners on 12/4

Yesterday we had 2 students (Zoran and Nick), and 1 guest who wanted to observe my teaching.

What we did yesterday are:
(1) Review of the last class (textbook p.65 Exercise I-B)
It seems that both students had quite a bit of difficulty to retrieve what we studied in the last class after 2 weeks' break. It is understandable, but for that very reason, I strongly suggest that all of you should review and study on a regular basis even when we have no classes (including the coming Christmas break)!!

(2) Exercises p.66-p.68

IMPORTANT NOTICE
(1) There will be no class from next week until January --- I have just found out yesterday that Asian Culture Center closes after 5PM from next week on and therefor no language classes in the evening until January. I will let you know when we can start our first class in January when I find it out.

(2) Yesterday I handed out some worksheets (self-study materials) to the students. So those who didn't attend the class yesterday, please pick up a set of worksheets at the Asian Culture Center during next week. The worksheets are found in the mailbox for language tutors (under the name of Michiko Owaki), which is located in the manager/staff's office (the first room on the left side from the main entrance).

Beginners on 11/13

Yesterday we had 4 students and mainly studied Verb Conjugation and 3 new particles (markers) "を" "で" "に".

What we did yesterday are:
(1) Verb Conjugation (textbook pp.58-59)
(2) Practice with flash cards
(3) Exercise on textbook p.65 (I-A)
(4) New particles "を" (object marker), "で" (place marker), and "に" (time marker). (Textbook pp.60-61)
(5) Exercises on textbook p.65 (I-B)

Next week plan:
(1) The use of "present tense" for future actions (in case of "action verbs" (→Textbook p.60-2)
(2) Invitation expressions 「～ませんか」
(3) Frequency adverbs

Homework:
(1) Read textbook pp.60-64
(2) Review what we did in class yesterday (especially practice verb conjugation and building sentences with new particles!!)
(3) Continue to learn new vocabulary in Lesson 3 (pp.56-57)


Michiko's Notes:
At yesterday's class, Kyle asked me a question as to whether you can say "テニスする" instead of "テニスをする".
At that point, I thought that Kyle was asking if we could say "テニスる”, so I said, "No, you always have to say "テニスをする".
However, after the class, I realized that what Kyle actually meant was whether you could say "テニスする" instead of "テニスをする", in a similar way as "べんきょうする" and "デートする".
The answer is, YES. Though for most of the sports, I think that saying "～をする" (ex. テニスをする, サッカーをする）is more common/natural than "テニスする" or "サッカーする", the latter way is totally fine too.

Actually,「べんきょうする」and 「デートする」（and other compound verbs like these) can also be used as "べんきょうをする" and "デートをする". But they are now much more commonly used/treated as one compound verb rather than "NOUN +を+する-verb" because people are by now so familiar with the words "べんきょう" and "デート" to be used with "する”, and we started to regard them as compound words, omitting "を". Such dynamics is always going on in any living language, and therefore "テニスする" may become more common than "テニスをする" in the near future too. Another example: we now frequently say: "パソコンする", "インターネットする" instead of "パソコンをする" and "インターネットをする", which is a sign of people's rapidly-increasing familiarity with the words and phenomenon.

OK, that's it for today. See you next week.

Beginners on 11/6

Yesterday we had three students, and had a fun class. We finished Lesson 2 of Genki I, and moved on to Lesson 3. We did a lot of listening exercises as a summary/final review of Lesson 2, and then we had an introductory session of verb conjugation in Lesson 3.

What we did yesterday are:

(1) Listening Exercise of the Dialogue of Lesson 2 (pp.30-31)
The students listened to my model reading of the dialogue without looking at the textbook, and practiced guessing the content of the conversation. After listening to the model reading twice, the students answered some questions that I asked about the dialogue.

(2) Q&A session about the dialogue
The students asked questions about any words or expressions that they don't understand in the dialogue, and in that way we made sure that everyone has understood all the content, grammar, and expressions in the dialogue.

(3) Reading and Roll-Playing Exercise of the Dialogue of Lesson 2

(4) Role Play Exercise on p. 49. --- This exercise was fun!

(5) Reading exercise of the useful expressions on p. 53

(6) Listening Exercise of Workbook p. 24 exercises A, B, and C
This exercise is not on the textbook, so we used a handout material for this exercise.

(7) Introduction to LESSON 3 --- Introduction of verbs and verb conjugation
We have looked at the verb conjugation patterns of "ru-verbs" and "u-verbs" yesterday.
Next week, we will review this first and then move on to irregular verbs.



Homework

(1) Read the Grammar section of Lesson 3 (pp.58-64)

(2) Listen to the model reading recording that I gave you either via USB memory or via email yesterday, and practice both listening and reading (pronouncing) it yourself.

(3) Start learning vocabulary of Lesson 3 (pp.56-57)

That's it for today. See you next week.

Beginners on 10/30

Yesterday was the evening before the Halloween. So I brought some homemade pumpkin cookies... but unfortunately we had only 3 students in the beginner's class last night :-(

Yesterday I was intending to finish Chapter 2, and we almost did, but there are some important review exercises left for the next class.

What we did yesterday are:
(1) A brief word quiz (words that appear in Chap. 2)
(2) Exercises (textbook) p. 44 II-D & p.45 III
(3) New Grammar: 「も」
　「も」=「は」+ too (topic marker with the additional meaning of "too/also")
　ex) わたしは　がくせいです。たけしさんもがくせいです。 （I am a student. Takeshi-san is a student, too.)
*Important point*: 「も」is always used in place of the topic marker「は」, and so it is not used with 「は」.
ex) ×　わたしはがくせいです。たけしさんはがくせいですも。／たけしさんはもがくせいです。

(4) Exercise p.45 IV & An additional worksheet to practice 「も」
(5) Dialogue of Chapter 2 (pp.30-31) - Pronunciation practice
(6) New phrases in the dialogue: 「～ね」「～よ」「～をください」「～をおねがいします」「どれ」「だれ」「どこ」
*For the usage of these phrases/words, please read pp.38-39 of the textbook.
(7) Exercise p. 48 VI-A

Plan for the Next Class
(1) pp. 48-49 Review exercise VI-A (with real items next time) & Vi-B
(2) textbook p. 53 (Additional expressions)
(3) listening exercise with a worksheet
(4) Introduction to Chapter 3

Homework
(1) Review what we did in the class today (If you couldn't make it for yesterday class, please try to catch up with the class by studying the textbook by yourself)

(2) Memorize the words and important expressions in Chapter 2

(3) Continue to learn hiraganas and katakanas. You can do this as a part of learning new words and expressions too, by writing (as many times as you think is necessary) the words and expressions in hiraganas and katakanas.

That's it for today. See you next week. Hapy Halloween!

IMPORTANT P.S. Please everyone bring your USB FLASH MEMORY to the class next week. I would like to give you some model reading materials.

Beginners on 10/23

Today we had just two students. I wonder if it was because of the very cold and wet weather, or exams for some students... maybe both. But I hope everyone can come back from next week.

Since we had just two students, we didn't learn new things very much, and instead did some reviews and introduction to Kanjis (Chinese characters).

I will move on to new things (new grammar items) next week regardless how many students are there though.