Lesson 4

Lesson Four with Kayoko at Financier
Jan.11, 2011

Kayoko sensai (teacher) asked me whether I’ve learned about the week days, because if I haven’t then she can teach me that since she has already prepared that lesson for her class. I haven't got a chance to master the "conversation at a restaurant" that I envisioned in mind as the project was first proposed, but I thought I should learn what she had already prepared so that I did not create extra work for her.

This time the location was at a dessert place. We each had a dessert first before we started. 

We covered the 7 days of the week, how to ask "what day is today/tomorrow/the day after tomorrow?", and negation, such as "Today is not Sunday."

Materials

Kayoko brought her big and heavy laptop, which provided critical resources for today's lesson. Because of the laptop, we were able to watch a slide show, some youtube videos that she saved before.

This reminded me of a Chinese saying, "to do a good job, it is essential to have the tools sharpened (well-prepared)," and that was exactly what Kayoko did.

Learning Strategy

The days of the week are named after elements (except the sun and the moon), Kayoko told me. However, I think a more precise description would be the days of the week are named after planets plus the sun and the moon. Nevertheless, in Chinese (and Japanese I assume) the planets in our galaxy are named after the elements.
Monday = Getsu yoobi (Moon) (Getsu = moon)
Tuesday = Ka yoobi (Fire/Mars)
Wednesday = Sui yoobi (Water/Mercury)
Thursday = Moku yoobi (Wood / Jupiter)
Friday = Kin yoobi (Gold / Venus)
Saturday = Do yoobi (Soil / Saturn)
Sunday = Nichi yoobi (Sun / Sun)

How do you remember the seven days?
After we watched the slides Kayoko prepared, she told me to chant "Getsu, Ka, Sui, Moku, Kin, Do, Nichi" in a rhythm. She said that was how Japanese children were taught. However, I told her to memorize the first word in sequence only helped me with the sounds but not the meanings. In fact, I think it would be too slow to chant the words and count which one is which.

I told her how I memorized the meaning. It was not that difficult for me since I've already know all the Kanji characters. It was like playing a matching game. I just had to match the correct element/planet to the corresponding day.

I used a naturalistic approach. I did not try to memorize any of it, but I noticed how Wednesday really stood out because the fonts were blue (like water) on the slides. I read a book called " Wednesday is Blue (in Chinese)," before. (The book is translated from English; it's original name is "Born on a Blue Day"). Wednesday is about the middle of the week. So I just remembered the middle is blue, is water, and is Wednesday.

The rest just followed. Monday was moon because the slide was yellow.
Tuesday was fire because the slide was red.
Thursday was wood, because wood comes slow.
Friday was hard to remember because it was gold, yet it was hard to associate gold with Friday. I guess I could make up a connection between gold and TGIF: both makes people excited.
Saturday was soil. Saturday was kind of outdoor, hence soil fitted the image.
Sunday had the "Sun." Self-explanatory and easy.

That was how I remembered the seven days of the week. Kayoko sensei (teacher) complimented me, said I had good strategy.