Student Remarks

Before I start, let me just say that I put about 60 wedding thank-yous in the mail yesterday!!! We still have a few more to go, but we're almost done! Thank you for your patience!
I'm beginning to wonder when I'm busier, on work days or on my day off! I guess the main difference is I decide my own schedule on my days off (or at least on Thursday--Sunday is pretty much set each week for church & Daiju).
I got remotivated to study Japanese on my own. I still haven't started a class yet. I found one that's pretty cheap that I could take on Saturdays after work, but I have to call and see if they offer my level or not first (I think I might have Daiju make that call...). My motivation to study again came last night when I met one of my company's Japanese teachers. She was impressed with me and wants to be my teacher (though I'm not sure if I can afford her!). One of my coworkers told me this in an email, as I left early & didn't hear this straight from the horse's mouth. Any way, my coworker said the lady had been her teacher a few years ago, but that she wasn't very studious. The instructor seems to think I am, so I decided I had better get studying!!! So, I'll go back to that as soon as I'm done typing this. ;)
OKAY, so on to student remarks. Last night I taught a group of 3 businessmen who are on their way to the US. The topic of the chapter was travel, and we got on the topic of tourist spots in Japan. Words like "karate" and "samurai" came up a couple of times, so I thought I'd give them fair warning about American pronunciation of such words. I wrote the following on the board:
- tsunami
- karate
- samurai
- dojo
- karaoke
I explained that many Americans would know these words, but that they wouldn't pronounce them properly (as they are in Japanese). "Dojo" is the one that is the closest to Japanese pronunciation, I said.
But English doesn't have any words that begin with "ts," only words that end in it (like 'cats'). So, we say "sunami" instead. Jaws dropped.
When I explained that we don't say "kah-rah-teh" but "ka-ra-tee", they laughed.
The last one, "karaoke," is pronounced "kah-rah-oh-keh" in Japanese. When I told them we say "kair-ree-oh-kee," one them almost fell out of his chair!!!
That group is one of the funnest ones to teach. Each time I get to teach them (we rotate teachers), I end up teaching them an idiom. The time before last, I taught them "passing with flying colors." They repeated it sooo many times! They really enjoyed learning that one. Last night I taught them "that's a tough act to follow." Both of these are just things I ended up saying when I was in the room and when I got a confused look, I explained it to them. I guess a big part of teaching is being able to do stuff on the fly. Not that I wasn't prepared for the lesson though!!!
Any way, not all of my lessons are as fun as that one, but they keep getting better and better as I get more experience dealing with different levels and types of students and as I get more familiar with the curriculum.
Pray Daiju and I become GREAT teachers! Daiju has been working SO hard this week. It's summer break for the kids here, so he has a LOT more classes to teach than normal. He leaves here at 9am every morning and doesn't get back until 12:30 at night. It's a really tough schedule, and in addition to that he has to prepare for his lessons (he's teaching more than his 2 main subjects now, plus he's had to figure out how to teach English phonics to 5th and 6th graders!). His day off (other than Sunday) is usually Monday, but he had to work that too this week. Thankfully, he's getting this Saturday off, so he'll get two days in a row to recoup. But it's still tough.
Oh, one cool thing: we might get a TV next month! One of my coworkers is moving back to Canada, so she's selling hers for only like $40.00! We still have to check on the size and make sure no one else has claimed it yet, but it's a definite prospect!!! Daiju's Dad gave us his old PS2 and DDR, but we haven't gotten to use them yet, b/c we don't have a TV.
By the way, I got a haircut. It's pretty short now. But I'm not going to show you a picture yet, because I haven't taken one yet (good reason, eh?).
One last thing: going out to the French restaurant with Daiju & his family in Tokyo last Sunday night was GREAT FUN. It was a fancy buffet, and I got a lot of BREAD. They had jambalaya too. And the desert was superb! Plus the company was great. I love his family. His parents and sister were so sweet! His sister's English has gotten a lot better recently, because she's been chatting with a friend in the States online. His mom and dad got me a stamp with the family name on it (used as a seal for official documents), plus a really cute pair of bowls and spoons that look like frog faces!! What a great birthday... ^_^