Finally I got to have another lesson with Kayoko. We reviewed the numbers and counting, and then had several lessons on months and days of the month, how to ask “when is your birthday?”, and how to address other people’s family members, and how to address my own family members.
In English there are only two ways to count: either one, two, three,…or first, second, third… However, in Japanese there are many different ways for counting. Counting dates is different from counting people, and counting people is different from counting hamburgers. At first I was shocked to hear there are so many different counting “systems,” and thought it is really weird because neither in English nor in Chinese have I encountered similar things. Nevertheless when I reflect on it after a while, I realize that Japanese’s complicated counting systems were probably influenced by Chinese. Kayoko told me that it is said that you can tell whether a person truly knows Japanese well by assessing whether this person have mastered the counting system. This saying reminded me that in Chinese it is said that the hardest aspect of Chinese to master is the measure-words.
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| 10 pgs of handouts at once! |
I received 10 pages of handouts just today! I liked to take home so many references because I wanted to learn more during the class session, yet it was impossible to remember everything. I really appreciated all the handouts Kayoko photocopied for me free of charge, and they were very helpful when I studied them on my own.
Visual aid and a fun class
Kayoko seemed to have a video clip for EVERY topic we covered. Short clips were a good way to provide a different stimulation to keep students from boredom. The youtube video she showed me this time was about two Australians speaking Japanese in a rap beat Rhythm.
My other journal entry talks about it, Visual Aid.
Student's Background/Mindset
My teacher asked me several times what rule or pattern do I notice. For example, when talking about the days of the month, there were 13 days that were unlike the rest and had to be said differently. Kayoko asked me what rule I notice. I noticed myself thinking of linguistic rules because of my linguistic background. In this case, the teacher's question was perceived differently to the listener's ears. In real life, we often encounter such miscommunication situations where the speaker and listener are using the same word but have a somewhat different definition in mind (or refers to different things, or evoke different frames) without realizing it. We do not usually reflect on our definition of a word, not to mention to double check it with another person's definition. We usually think a definition is absolute, but sometimes it can be helpful to be aware of this possible cause of miscommunication.Feedback
Recasts
"Day" is "nichi" when counting the days of the week (except the irregular ones). However, when it was used in a sentence or question, I somehow pronounced it as "niji." My teacher, Kayoko, noticed and corrected me once, "nichi". I repeated again, "nichi." A few minutes later, I encountered this word in a long sentence, and I still said "niji." This time Kayoko did not explicitly correct me, but she just said, "nichi" after me. Immediately I noticed that I made a mistake, and corrected myself, "nichi," I said. Then Kayoko looked at me, and said, "recast was one of my favorite." It was interesting learning from my fellow colleague exactly because of moments like this! Haha.
"Day" is "nichi" when counting the days of the week (except the irregular ones). However, when it was used in a sentence or question, I somehow pronounced it as "niji." My teacher, Kayoko, noticed and corrected me once, "nichi". I repeated again, "nichi." A few minutes later, I encountered this word in a long sentence, and I still said "niji." This time Kayoko did not explicitly correct me, but she just said, "nichi" after me. Immediately I noticed that I made a mistake, and corrected myself, "nichi," I said. Then Kayoko looked at me, and said, "recast was one of my favorite." It was interesting learning from my fellow colleague exactly because of moments like this! Haha.
Thinking as a language teacher
When I taught at Henry Street High School, I did not have a textbook I could go by.
Therefore there was no set way of teaching a phrase. When I learned that in Japanese they don't say "When is your birthday?" but "What month, what day is your birthday?" (Actually to be more exact, it was "birthday, what month, what day?"
This triggered me to think, how do Chinese people ask “when is your birthday?”
I thought of four possible ways:
Ni shenme shihou shengri? Ni ji yue ji hao shengri?
[You what time birthday (is)?] [You what month what day bday?]
Ni shengri shenme shihou? Ni shengri shi ji yue ji hao?
[Your birthday (is) what time?] [Your birthday is what time?]
But which one should I teach?
I still don't know.
How can I figure this out?
I don't know the answer to that question either
How come our Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language program did not teach us this?
I don't know.
Therefore there was no set way of teaching a phrase. When I learned that in Japanese they don't say "When is your birthday?" but "What month, what day is your birthday?" (Actually to be more exact, it was "birthday, what month, what day?"
This triggered me to think, how do Chinese people ask “when is your birthday?”
I thought of four possible ways:
Ni shenme shihou shengri? Ni ji yue ji hao shengri?
[You what time birthday (is)?] [You what month what day bday?]
Ni shengri shenme shihou? Ni shengri shi ji yue ji hao?
[Your birthday (is) what time?] [Your birthday is what time?]
But which one should I teach?
I still don't know.
How can I figure this out?
I don't know the answer to that question either
How come our Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language program did not teach us this?
I don't know.
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