Today is the eighth day of the spring semester. And also, today is Monday. I have three classes on Monday; Late morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon. Of the three, two are the listening course for second-year students and one the conversation course for first-year students.
I wanted to keep sleeping until 6 a.m. but I woke up at 4 a.m. Sleeping hours were not enough to start a week. So, I took short sleeping minutes twice today; from 7:30 to 8:00 after my breakfast and from 12:30 to 13:00 after my lunch. These things indicate that it is easy for me to fall asleep after eating a meal.
In the classroom for the second-year students, there are big tables. 6 to 7 students can have a seat around one table. Last time, five students committed cheating during a small quiz. They were students who seated around the same table. So, this time I made them have a seat on five different tables. I guess that they understood my warning.
Another small happening today was about my accent. The first-year students learned Japanese words about time and date today. When I pronounced “Shigatsu (April in Japanese)” in front of my students, I just remembered what I listened from radio recently. That radio show talked about the accent of “Shigatsu”. They introduced an episode in which someone in a studio was required to correct his or her accent of Shigatsu by the director. The radio personality expressed his empathy with Kansai people saying that they wanted to say “Shigatsu” with their accent.
Accent of Japanese is so-called “pitch accent” consisting low and high pitches. The standard accent of Shi-ga-tsu is Low-High-High. When I uttered “Shigatsu” as a model pronunciation in front of my students, I remembered the episode, and quickly I started worrying about my accent. I took my electronic dictionary out from my bag and checked the accent of “Shigatsu” by the accent dictionary of NHK. And I realized what I pronounced was different from the standard. I said it with High-Low-Low. I apologized to my students and uttered “Shigatsu” again with Low-High-High accent
I was born and raised in northern part of Japan. The region is not in western Japan. But through my life and career, I spent much time with Kansai people. Thanks to communication of many years with them, my Japanese pronunciation is heavily affected by Kansai accent. I try to pay attention to my accent, because I often speak Japanese words with Kansai accent.
Don’t get me wrong, I would never be denial to Kansai accent. Kansai people are a group in Japan with fabulous culture. I respect them. Historically they have been the center of Japan. It is NEITHER which is good or bad, NOR superior or inferior. Important thing is that I have to be careful about the difference between the standard and Kansai accents. The worst is being unconscious with such issue when I teach Japanese language to foreign people. I think I have to check my accent more often using the NHK accent dictionary.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 