Intermediate on 1/22

We had only one student (Laura) today too, the same as last week.
We had a good class mostly having a free-style conversation and learning some new kanjis which came up in the course of the conversation, as well as reviewing some "keigo" (=honorific).

But at the same time I missed other students who haven't been able to come back yet --- I hope to see more of you next week!

Intermediate on 1/15

Today we had only one student - she (Laura) is a new student to our intermediate class.

We did some exercises of Genki II, and after that enjoyed a free conversation (of course in Japanese!) about fantasy literature, favorite films and some Japanese classical literature (such as The Tale of Genji) that she is studying at IU. It was quite impressive that she is studying and reading such Japanese classical literature because old Japanese is really far from the modern Japanese we are speaking now and there are very few people who can really read such literature even among Japanese.

I missed a lot of students in my intermediate class today --- I hope all of you can come back to our class from next week.

Intermediate on 12/4

Yesterday we had 2 students (Mayumi and Randy), and we studied the expressions using "あげる", "くれる", and "もらう".
These three words can be a bit confusing for English speakers, but once you get used to them and start using them by yourself frequently, it is actually not so difficult.

We will start our next class (in January) from textbook (Genki II) p. 45.

Have a nice Christmas & New Year break!!

Intermediate on 11/13

Yesterday we had 3 students, the same members as the last week, and we continued the same-style lesson.
We reviewed 「～かもしれません」「～じゃないかもしれません」, and 「あげる」「くれる」「もらう」, mingled with some free chats here and there. Among many things we talked about, I found it especially interesting to hear about how West Germany and East Germany has been becoming one country from Ayumi-san, who is from Germany.

Intermediate on 11/6

We had 3 students (including 2 newcomers!) yesterday.

We did exercises D and E on textbook (Genki II) p. 40, and had some free conversation related to the topics of the exercises.

*The grammatical item practiced in these exercises are:
（１） ～ がほしいです
（２）～がほしかったです
（３）～がほしくありません／～がほしくないです
（４）～がほしくありませんでした／～がほしくなかったです
（５）＿＿＿さんは～ をほしがっています
（６）～よりも＿＿＿の方がほしいです


＊「＿＿＿さんは～ をほしがる」is used when you are makine a atatement about not your own, but someone else's feeling. In Japanese, we tend to avoid direct statement about someone else's private feelings, from the notion that you can only observe/guess someone else's inner feelings. Therefore we use 「＿＿＿さんは～ をほしがっています」instead of 「＿＿＿さんは～がほしい」. Alternatively, you could also say:「＿＿＿さんは～がほしいと言っています」. Please note that the marker used with ほしがる is "を"

We also went through useful expressions related to the bank on textbook p. 27 (Genki II).

Intermediate on 10/30

Yesterday we had 3 students, including one newcomer.
We had a fun class, doing exercise on the textbook (Genki II) p.25 VII. Using the exercise cue questions as a base, we had quite a bit of free conversation and learned some new Kanjis which came up in the conversation.

We will continue this style exercise/free talk session next week too.

Hope you will have a happy Halloween.

Intermediate on 10/23

Today we had just one student, and together we did some reviews of what we had studied in previous lessons. I think it was a good opportunity for him to review and practice more of what we had studied before, in a kind of private lesson setting.
But I hope to see other students as well next week!

Intermediate on 10/16

We had two students yesterday, and did exercises IV and V on pp. 22-23 in the textbook (Genki II).

The expressions we practiced are:
（１） ～てみます
（２）～てみたいです
（３）～なら・・・しましたが、～はしませんでした。
　　　～ならしますが、～はしません。
　　　～になら興味（きょうみ）がありますが、～には興味がありません。
　　　～になら行（い）きましたが、～には行ったことがありません。

＊「は」in the expressions (sentence patterns) above is different from an ordinary topic marker. This 「は」, when followed by a negative verb, implies that you are comparing the topic or subject to similar things, and that even though you don't/didn't do (or are not interested in) the given topic or subject you do/did (or are interested in) other similar things.

＊Another important thing we learned is the fact that with markers 「に」and 「へ」, you cannot omit these when you replace the usual markers with 「なら」and (the comparison makrer)「は」, and so you need to say 「になら」and「には」and 「へなら」and 「へは」.

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

Intermediate on 10/9

There was no intermediate class on 10/9 as none of the students could make it.

Intermediate on 10/2

In intermediate class, we had just one student today.
We had some free conversation together and learned new vocabulary with new kanjis which came up during the conversation.