Beginners II on 4/26/10 (Spring #8)

Number of students: 7
Summary: The 5th (last) session of Lesson 7.  Dialogues and review exercises.

(1) Dialogues of Lesson 7 (textbook p. 132-133)
     - Listening comprehension
     - Pronunciation practice
     - Role play
(2) Review Exercises (textbook p. 147) VII-A and B
     We had fun with Exercise B (describing your own family showing a picture of your family members).
(3) Castine brought a cake and Mimi-san brought some rice crackers to share with the class today. So we enjoyed them together after the class.  Thank you, Castine and Mimi-san!


This lesson was the last class of my Japanese class at the Asian Culture Center this year.
Thank you very much for coming to my class this semester (and others, for some people), I really enjoyed the class with you all.

I hope you will continue studying Japanese either on your own or with a self-study group, and hope to see you again sometime next year, when I come back to teach.

Have a great summer and rest of the year!

Beginners II on 4/19/2010 (Spring #7)

Number of students: 6
Summary: The fourth session of Lesson 7.

(1) Review of the last class (combining more than two adjectives using Te-form)

(2) [destination]に／へ[verb stem]に行きます／帰ります／来ます
　movesto a destination in order to do something

(3) How to count people 「ひとり」「ふたり」「さんにん」「よにん」etc.
It is also very important to remember that in Japanese language we usually say "how many" after the noun (object/person) you are counting.
[ex.] There are 5 women in this room.
この部屋（へや）には女（おんな）の人（ひと） が５人（ごにん）います。
　（＊Pay attention to the order of the words.)

Exercises:
(1) p. 145 IV-C
(2) p. 146 V-A, B
(3) p. 146 VI

Next week is our LAST CLASS in this semester, and I will try to finish Lesson 7. We will look at the dialogues of Lesson 7 first, then do review exercises.
Please don't forget to bring a family photograph to the class next week, to do the review exercise p. 147 VII-B. You can also prepare for the exercise by thinking of what kind of things to say to describe your family members.

Beginners II on 4/5/2010 (Spring #6)

Number of students: 4
Summary: The third session of Lesson 7. Introduced a new grammar item: combining more than two adjectives using Te-form of adjectives.

(1) Exercise p. 144 III-B (review of last class - describing people)
(2) 「この大学（だいがく）は、あたらしくて、きれいです」
この大学は、新（あたら）しいです。This university is new.
この大学は、きれいです。This university is clean.
→この大学は、新しくて、きれいです。This university is new and clean.
For details of this grammar item, please read p. 139 of the textbook.
(3) Exercise p. 145 IV-A, B

There is no class on April 12th (next week).

So that leaves us only two more classes in this semester - 4/19 and 4/26.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to open the course next semester (Fall 2010, which starts in September), since I will be having a new baby in September.

I hope to see as many of you as possible in the next two classes left in this semester!

Beginners II on 3/29/2010 (Spring #5)

Number of students: 8
Summary: The second session of Lesson 7.

(1) 「～ています」(review)
(2) exercise p. 143 I-C (Charades game) We had fun with this exercise!
(3) New Grammar: Expressions for describing people
(a) 着（き）ています／はいています／つけています／かぶっています　etc.
(b) 太（ふと）っています／やせています
(c) [person]は[body part]が[adjective]です
　　ex. アニーは目（め）が青（あお）いです。
　　　　ニックは背（せ）が高（たか）いです。
(4) exercise p. 144 III-A

Beginners on 3/8 (Spring 2010 #4)

Number of students: 6
Summary: The first session of Lesson 7.

(1) New Grammar:「～ている」
(2) Exercises p. 142 I-A, B
(3) Exercises p. 143 II-A, B

Beginners II on 3/1/2010 (Spring #3)

Number of students: 8
Summary: The last session of Lesson 6. Review exercises and a brief review test.

(1) Exercise p.129 VI-B
(2) Useful expressions regarding asking/giving directions (pp.130-131)
(3) Exercise to ask and give directions using a real map of Bloomington downtown
(4) Review test of Lesson 6

Next week we will start Lesson 7. I will send you some audio files of Lesson 7 by email. Please check your email!

Beginners II on 2/8/2010 (Spring #2)

Number of students: 8
Summary: The 5th session of Lesson 6. We mostly spent our time on the review exercises and the dialogues of Lesson 6.

(1) New Grammar: 「～ましょうか」 (=Shall I ～?)
(2) Dialogues of Lesson 6 (pp. 114-115)
(3) Review Exercises p.128 VI-A, and p.129 VI-B from no. 1 to no. 3
*We will continue from no. 4 and finish the exercise next week.

Homework:
I am going to give a brief review test. It's not too difficult, so don't worry about it too much - but please make efforts to be prepared. The questions will be both about vocabulary and grammar items we studied in Lesson 6.

Beginners II on 2/1/2010 (Spring #1)

Number of students: 12
Summary: The first meeting of the Spring 2010 semester. The 4th session of Lesson 6.

(1) Review exercise of て-form using 「～てください」expression.
(2) Review of grammatical items which use "て-form"　（「～てもいいですか」「～てはいけません」「～て、…します」）
(3) New Grammar: 「～ます。…から。」

Exercises:
(1) Expansion exercise using 「～てください」
(2) p.125-III-A & p.126-III-B
(3) p.126-IV-A

Homework:
(1) Review what we did in today's class.
(2) Learn & master the vocabulary used in Lesson 6 (textbook pp.116-117)

Homework:
(1) Review exercises of Lesson 6 and Dialogues of Lesson 6
(2) If we have time, I may give you a brief review test of Lesson 6 (both vocabulary and grammar). If not next week, the week after - so please be prepared!!