月: 2024年3月

Today is the twenty-sixth day of the spring semester 2024, if I count days correctly. It was two weeks ago when I got a cold. I haven’t got recovery well. Today, too, I spent several hours on the bed. I tried working to make PPT slides for coming week, but I couldn’t do much.

Since there was leftover of Miso-soup of yesterday, I threw Udon noodle into it and ate it for lunch. So, I didn’t go to campus cafeteria for boiled dumplings which I usually eat for Saturday lunch.

I went outside campus after 30 minutes nap in the afternoon. On the way to a grocery store, I saw people were selling strawberry along the road. Those strawberry must have grown in greenhouses.

Several years ago, I planted and grew strawberries in my garden. My strawberries were planted on the ground, not in greenhouse. The fruits of strawberries were harvested in the end of May. I thought growing strawberry was labor consuming through a year. It is under cover of snow in winter, so I did nothing during winter, but other than winter, I needed to take care of strawberry through three seasons. It was difficult for me to grow strawberry. But I think, when I retire, I will grow strawberry just small amount in my garden because they are expensive on the shelves of stores. Uh, strawberry thing has nothing to do with my current life, here.

I bought 1KG of pork. I told shop person to sell me 1KG, but he cut it by his hunch. Thinking about my health, So far, I had bought pork of less fatty part. But such pork was hard to chew and didn’t taste good. So, these days I buy a little fatty part of pork that is soft and easy to chew. I try to cut other oily and fatty food from my meals.

In my room, I cut the pork into small pieces and boiled. I wrapped a small portion of boiled pork with vinyl wrap. 1 KG pork were divided into six small portions. One went into refrigerator; this one is for Sunday. Five went into Freezer, they are for Monday through Friday. This means I eat small amount of pork every day. As for today, Saturday, I don’t eat pork but use boiled water that I used to boil pork. That boiled water can be a soup.

I want to write 400 words for each post. These days I couldn’t reach this target. But today, it seems I have done.

Today is the twenty-fifth day of the spring semester 2024. I have only one class in the morning, The class is conversation course for the first-year students. After the class, I just have been working in my room until the night. I graded answer sheets that I made my students answer yesterday. The test was about distinguishing transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. Not only for distinguishing, the test intended to tell my students that differences between transitive- and intransitive verbs affects when choosing particles. I found a problem from the test results. But I won’t write about it today.

Since it is Friday, vegetables remaining in refrigerator are almost running out. Moreover, there is no snacks, no sweets that I could eat at 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. I went to the campus supermarket at around 4 p.m. I bought two packages of potato chips, one long snickers, soft cookies, one litter of Coke and so on.

I cooked supper as usual at 6 p.m. When I tried starting eating at seven, I got to know that I forgot to turn the rice cooker on. I couldn’t start my supper at the same time as usual. I turned on switch of the rice cooker, and worked my job while waiting until the steamed rice became ready. I sent feedback about the test to my students. I asked them to answer again for the questions that they made wrong answers.

Some students believe that the particle “-o” used for transitive verbs, and the particle “-ga” is used for intransitive verbs. The former is right, but the latter about “-ga” isn’t so right. It is just there is a tendency that “-ga” is often used in an intransitive verb sentence, especially in short sentences. Transitive verb sentences can also use “-ga”, and intransitive verb sentences use not only “-ga”, “-wa” is also used in a lot of situations. In fact, many students have not learned that very basic foundation of Japanese; “-ga” is used for a subject of the sentence.

Today is the twenty-fourth day of the spring semester 2024. I have three classes. I always think that just one class is enough to make me exhausted. These days I teach adjectives to the first-year students.

There are two types of adjectives in Japanese; I-adjectives and Na-adjectives. Both conjugate in different ways. So, Japanese learners must distinguish the two and know conjugation patterns in each adjective. I-adjectives have the following traits; Its short ending form ends with “i”, and “i” is the connector between an I- adjective and a noun when the adjective modifies the noun. And Na-adjectives have the following traits; Its short ending form ends with “da”, and “na” is the connector between a Na-adjective and a noun when the adjective modifies the noun.

Here is a problem. Just one Na-adjective confuses all Japanese Learners. Because of that Na-adjectives, many learners don’t understand conjugation of I-adjectives. The word is “Kirei”. This word looks like as if ending with “i”. This letter “i” makes Japanese learners think this is an I-adjective, but actually which is not. I have repeated zillion times in front of my students, saying “’Kirei’ is not an I-adjective but Na-adjective ‘Kireina’”. Every time I shout this, I feel like I am “a cracked record” (although I don’t think 21st century people know what a cracked record is).

Today I made my students answer quizzes that contains a question about the word “Kirei”. Many students wrote wrong answers by thinking Kirei was an I-adjective because of the letter “i”. They believe their own interlanguage firmly that any adjective ending with letter “i” is I-adjective. This is not correct, Kirei, Kirai, and Yukai are examples of Na-adjectives that end with letter “i”.

My shouting “Kirei is not an I-adjective but a Na-adjective” is hardly reaching students’ recognition. I always think how I can open the doors of recognition that my students are closing most of the time. The doors help students shut uncomfortable information out, but also prevents from in-taking new knowledge. Some students eventually understand it, but some end up graduating from the Japanese major course without knowing that “Kirei” is a Na-adjective.

In the twenty-third day of the spring semester 2024

A lot of daytime dreaming.

Spending so many hours on bed.

Going outside only on lunch time break.

Foods were floating on the sea of oil in campus cafeteria.

My jacket and trouser has gone for two-day excursion.

Saw the old lady in a stationary shop was sleeping on the chair.

Bought a notebook from another shop.

No memory about afternoon other than making PPT slides.

Cooked my supper in dark kitchen.

Poured a spoonful SB curry powder into vegetable soup.

Sent 28 messages to my students and got 8 replies.

Soon I am going to bed.

Evey things are left incomplete.

Then I realized there is no 脚韻 in what I have written here.

Today is the twenty-second day of the spring semester 2024. There are not much things to write for blog post. I have just one class in late morning hours. It is for conversation course of the first-year students. There are two classes in one grade, I taught one class in late afternoon hours yesterday. In that class, one of two classes of first-year, so many students were watching their mobile phones. So, I gave a caution to another first-year students this morning, not to watch movies on their mobiles, but to concentrate on my teaching. The caution was effective for the class. I finished the class with satisfaction that I could teach a conjunctive particle “-kara” that expresses reason, an expression for purpose of transfer, and the past tense endings of verb sentences of Japanese.

Since I was told to check signatures on the bindings of final examination papers, I went to the administrative building soon after the lunch break. Actually, I had to finish checking before noon. But I had had a class. And I thought it was difficult to fulfill the requirement whose direction was on yesterday and the deadline is today. When I got to the teachers’ room and asked the chief, the bindings of answer sheets were already removed to the next process. I did nothing, and didn’t have to do anything. And then I went to the office of international exchange, talked a little about renewing of contract document for the next school year, and came back to my room.

I went outside again, went to the campus supermarket, and bought 12 litter of bottled water, two apples and seven oranges. I was tired. After carrying 12 KG of water to my room and eating two oranges, I took a nap at around 3 p.m. My fatigue accumulates most on Tuesday. From Friday to Sunday, I have kept making Power point presentation for the coming week. I have three classes on Monday and one in the Tuesday morning. That means I can do nothing in the afternoon of Tuesday. Today, too. When I got awake it was already 6 p.m. in the evening. It got dark outside. I started cooking my supper, and I uploaded a photo of my supper onto Dingtalk to show my supper to my students.

Today is the twenty-first day of the spring semester 2024. Since it’s Monday, I have three classes. During a class, standing at teacher’s desk is not my style. I walk in the classroom, get closer to the students, and try to extract students’ utterances as much as possible. Since I have three classes on Monday and Thursday, usually I walk about 14,000 steps on those days. The number of steps are recorded by my mobile phone which I usually put in my pocket in the jacket.

Dingtalk has a function to show a ranking of the day as to number of steps. In the night, at around 8 or 9 p.m., it shows a ranking of three persons who walked most, second, and third. But you can’t join the competition automatically. You have to register your number of steps manually. Even I walked 14,000 steps, it doesn’t mean I can be the first or second prize. Usually, I simply forget to register my number of steps in the evening, Today’s 14,471 steps should have been the second prize, but there isn’t my name on the ranking today.

Today is the twentieth day of the spring semester 2024. And it happened to be Sunday. There is neither weekend nor holiday in my daily life these days. I had been just making PPT for conversation class. I completed it a little after noon. I thought I would go to the campus cafeteria to eat boiled dumplings for my lunch, but I didn’t feel so hungry. So, I skipped my lunch. Then I went to the administrative building to use a printing machine in teacher’s room. I printed answer sheet for three quizzes; one for conversation class and two for listening classes. Since I printed four quiz answer sheets on one A4 paper. Though there are fifty-some students in each grade, I printed 14 sheets of A4 for one quiz. I wanted to save paper.

I brought printed A4 papers to my room. And then I went outside again to go to the same grocery store as yesterday. I wanted to buy 5KG package of rice. Besides, the weather was fine. I just wanted to walk outside under the spring sunlight in Sunday afternoon.

In the store, I found a carton of goat milk. That was what I was looking for, although I went there to buy rice today. There was a reason that I needed goat milk. I brought protein supplement from Japan because I thought food here lacked good amount of protein. Powder of protein supplement need to be mixed with some kind liquid to drink. So far, I have used milk because I couldn’t find goat milk in the Campus supermarket. But today I found it. I bought the carton in which 12 small packages were put. I also bought 5KG rice that is popular staple here. I just paid the money through electronic payment, and get out of the store. Then I did a small calculation. I deducted the price of rice from the total payment. I realized that the goat milk was more expensive than 5KG rice.

Walking along the road I was thinking; perhaps goat milk should be expensive. Cows are big. They can produce a lot of milk from their big bodies. But goats are small, mother goats must be spending hard times to produce milk for giving it to human kind. Besides, now the season is still early spring. Grass for goats to eat is nowhere. That must be a reason that I cannot find goat milk in Campus supermarket. Actually goat milk smells a little if comparing to Cow’s milk. But it’s okay. I will shake it with protein powder and drink it imagining voices of mother goats.

Today is the nineteenth day of the spring semester 2024. I got up in the morning and started checking the records of my electronic payments since last September. At the time of fall semester in 2019, I was still using cash. But since last September, I have been using only electronic payment via my mobile phone. It is very convenient; it loses my consciousness that I am paying money. I have long wanted to write down my payment on notebook. I did it this morning. Amount and times of payments are not so much, but I think it important to know when and how I made a payment. I want to make it under my control. Taking a look at payments in September, October, November, December, and March (I was in Japan in January and February), I can see that month’s payments are going to increase little by little. I have to use my money wisely and sparingly.

After breakfast, I was just making PPT for the coming week. Also, I took a lot of nap during the day. That is because I still haven’t got better from cold that I got last week. At noon, I went to campus cafeteria and ate Ramen with discount for teacher. Then I went outside campus to buy food. I bought carrot, green leaves, green beans, mushrooms, radish, apple, oranges, and pork as usual. Meat fat is not good for my health, but this time I chose a little fatty pork, because it tastes better and softer than pork that I buy usually.

I continued to work until 9 p.m. I didn’t have any time for my pleasure, I mean the time that could have spent for my hobby, leisure, and/or fun. But I played listening materials of English all day. It is like a background music. I couldn’t get what they were saying exactly. But anyway, I wish I could learn English more.

Today is the eighteenth day of the spring semester 2024. I have one classes on Friday. Since the class is the first class in the morning, I can start my weekend at 10 a.m. The class was conversation for the first-year students. I made them answer a small quiz at the beginning. Students had to answer if a verb was transitive or intransitive, and to fill the blanks for particles. Of course, these two steps were related to each other. If you answered the verb is transitive, you end up use particle ”-o” for the blank in the sentence. I hoped my students figure out such relationships.

The target of today’s class was to know what I-adjectives are. Last time I taught Na-adjective. I checked in the class, whether or not my students know difference between I-adjectives and Na-adjectives. When you modify a noun with another noun, you put “no” between the two, when you modify a noun with an I-adjective, you put “i”, and when to modify a noun with a Na-adjective, you put “na”. It is so systematic, but probably it seems quite weird to my students that there are two types of adjectives in Japanese.

After the class, I slept on my bed one hour and started grading of the quizzes for two classes. I continued over lunch time, until 3p.m. Verb “au” is similar to “meet” and “see” in English and Verb “asobu” is a kind of “play” and “having a fun” in English. Since English verbs “meet” and ”play ” are transitive verb, I can understand many students answered that “au” and ”asobu” are transitive. The right answers are; “au (meet)” and “asobu (play)” are Intransitive in Japanese. But what I cannot understand was that some students answered that “iku(go)” and “Okiru(get up)” are transitive verbs. Does one say “I go me to the school”, “I get my consciousness up in the morning”? It is likely that many students haven’t got an idea about what the action is like yet.

Finishing grading, I went shopping to campus supermarket. It was rainy outside, it’s rare because there has been blue sky these days. Back in my room I started making PPT for Monday class. A PPT for one class was completed by 9 p.m., and then I went to bed soon.

Today is the seventeenth day of the spring semester 2024. I have three classes on Thursday.

The first class on Thursday is the listening course for second-year students. I taught a conjunctive particle “-to,” in the class. It was a kind of experimental because I hardly used the textbook. I wanted to measure the effectiveness teaching if I concentrate on just one topic.

I took 30 minutes nap in lunch break. I haven’t got full recovery from cold. I feel always sleepy.

The second class of the day was the conversation course for the first-year students. I taught I-adjectives. There are two types of adjectives in Japanese. Last time I taught NA-adjectives. There is a just one word that confuses all Japanese learners. It is “Kirei”. The third letter “i” makes Japanese learners think it as I-adjective. But it’s not, but “Kirei-na” is Na-adjectives. I always emphasize the matter when teaching Na-adjectives.

The third class of the day was the listening course for second-year students. I taught the same thing as the morning class again. In order to measure if the students had learned the conjunctive particle “-to,”, I make students answer to small quiz at the end of the class. “-to” itself was an easy on because “-to,” was just added after dictionary form of a verb. But I found that some “not-so-good” students were writing “Kirei” as an I-adjective. If I repeated “Kirei is a Na-adjective!!” zillion times, some students keep believing it I-adjective.