beginners II/Intermediate class on 9/15/2008

Today we had 8 students --- hooray!

In today's class, we started Lesson 6 and started learning "Te-form".
As I said in the class, this is one of the most important part of Japanese grammar --- by mastering this, it is as if you have climbed the "Mountain of Japanese Language learning" almost by half, so get yourself motivated and enjoy learning this new grammar!

Your world of Japanese speaking will be much more expanded, I promise^^

Homework:
(1) Please start learning the new vocabulary of Lesson 6, and
(2) Read Grammar explanation of Lesson 6.

Please don't forget to make the most of the audio files I sent to you!

I will send the Battle Hymn of the Republic song recording as soon as I get to record it.

See you next week ~

Beginners II/Intermediate class on 9/8/2008

Today we had 4 students --- welcome back everyone!!

Today I had prepared a review test (from Lesson 1 to Lesson 5 of the GENKI textbook), so that I can see how much each student remembers and that each student can see how much and which parts they have to review.

It seems that everyone had a great summer --- and maybe because of that, everyone needs some (serious) reviews and blushing up!! ^^;

From next week, we start Lesson 6, the verb conjugation "Te-form".
Please start learning vocabulary and reading the grammar explanation of the textbook.

Let's enjoy our class this semester too ^^

Intermediate on 4/8

We had two students yesterday, and mainly did exercises on how to make a sentence into a qualifier of a noun.

ex. これは私が昨日買った本です。=This is the bookthat I bought yesterday.

Important points:
(1) You always need to use short form (plain form) when you turn a sentence into a qualifier.

ex. これは本です。＋私はこの本を昨日買いました。
　　　→　これは私が昨日買った本です。
　　　×これは私が昨日買いました本です。

(2) Don't add ”の” between the qualifier sentence and the noun which is qualified by it.

ex. これは私が昨日買った本です。
　　　×これは私が昨日買ったの本です。

　We had a lot of fun doing the exercises in yesterday's class, expanding the conversations a little for each exercise.

Notice: Next class (on the 15th) will be my last class at ACC during this term, so please try to make it!

Intermediate on 4/1

Today we had just one student. Unfortunately, it seems that March and April are very busy months for almost everyone... But anyways, we had a good class.

What we did today:
(1) Review of the last class: 「～ておきます」
(2) New Grammatical Item: 「京都で買った時計」(How to use a sentence to qualify a noun)
Ex:)　「京都（きょうと）で買（か）った時計（とけい） 」= the watch that I bought in Kyoto
　　「きのう買った本（ほん）」=the book that I bought yesterday
(3) Exercises p. 63 (Genki II) IV-A, B, and p. 64 IV-C

Intermediate on 3/25

Today we had 2 students and we learned "～ておく" expression (=to do something in advance as a preparation for something), on the textbook GENKI II p. 62.

And, as usual, we had a lot of free conversations (and a lot of fun) too. We also learned many new words and kanjis in the course of conversation.

Intermediate on 3/4

We had 5 students last night - one new student, two students who stayed after their beginners class (as their level is between beginners and intermediate), and two regular students.

Yesterday we mostly focused on studying and practicing the volitional form of verbs. The volitional form is a short/casual/informal form of 「～ましょう」(=Let's do ～.)

First we learned the conjugation for all the three types of verbs (る-verbs, う-verbs, and irregular verbs), and then did exercises on the textbook (GENKI II) pp. 59-60, I-A, B, and C.

We also learned 「～しようと思っています」（＝the volitional form + と思っています) , which you can use to tell someone about a certain decision that you have already made.

ex.
Q：今週末（こんしゅうまつ）は何をしますか。（If you ask〔何をしようと思っていますか」here, it makes your question sound softer. 何をしますか, in comparison to 何をしようと思っていますか, can sound a bit pushy depending on your tone of voice and context.)

A：友達（ともだち）と映画（えいが）を観（み）に行こうと思っています。

That's it for yesterday's class.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
＊Important Notice: We don't have class next week (3/11) due to IU's spring break.

　So I'll see you the week after next. Have a nice spring break!

Intermediate on 2/26

Yesterday we had just one student and so we did a free conversation exercise. We mostly talked about the relationships between a language and an individual's personality, and between a language and a society which was developed through the language. It was very interesting, and we learned some new vocabulary and Kanjis which came up in the course of conversation.

Intermediate on 2/19

Yesterday we had 3 students (all girls!) and had a fun class.
We studied pp. 45-47 of the textbook (Genki II), including expressions such as:
(1)「～たらどうですか」(review of the last class)
(2) counters (e.g. ～個（こ）、～冊（さつ）、～本（ほん／ぼん／ぽん）、～枚（まい）etc)
and
(3) expressions to describe your surprised feeling as to how many or few things someone has.
Ex.「number+も」(=as many as ～) 「メアリーさんはCDを50まいも持っています」
「number+しか～negative」(=only～）「ジョンさんはCDを２まいしか持っていません」

And we also had a lot of free conversation as usual, learning misellaneous kanjis and expressions related to the topics.

Intermediate on 2/12

Yesterday We had 2 students, and we did some exercises of an expression to make a suggestion, give an advice "～たらどうですか".

We did a part of exercise p. 45-IV-B (on Genki II), but we actually mostly had a free conversation using the exercise as a starting point.

We studied quite a number of kanjis and expressions on the way, and had a very lively and interesting conversations about various topics such as Japanese manga, anime, literature and music.

Intermediate on 2/5

Yesterday we had 2 students (Laura and Randy). We mostly spent on having a free conversation about each other's interests, background etc. for the two students met each other for the first time.

One of important grammatical items we reviewed in the course of our conversation is supplementary verbs.

During the conversation, we came across a few supplementary (=helping) verbs such as 「くる」in「出てくる」, and 「かける」in 「話（はな）しかける」.

So we studied the difference between usual verbs and supplementary verbs together. (That is, 「来る」in 「来週はクラスに来ます」and 「くる」in 「春になると、花の芽（め）が出てきます」are different, and also 「かける」in 「電話をかけます」and 「かける」in 「私は彼に話しかけました」are different.)

From next week, I am hoping to go back to Genki II textbook and review grammar items more systematically as well as enjoying and learning through free conversation.