Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning

Monday;

I got up at 6:30 and uploaded last week’s log. It is good to upload in the morning because the internet connection is very weak and slow in daytime and evening. I had to summarize students’ scores of the final exam. Since my eyes were tired very much, so not by computer but by my hand, I drew several tables on sheet of paper. I made those tables as check sheets in order to input scores correctly onto the intranet of the university. In the afternoon, I went to the teachers’ room to learn how to input students’ scores. Some people helped me, but we realized that university had not prepared for me to input. I could input only two students’ scores. I got back to my residence without finishing the input. That meant I still had not completed my first semester.

 

Tuesday:

I took a rest on the bed in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to the university office and asked whether or not the input screen was ready for me. The person told me to use another ID and password. I thought that if it were ready in the morning, the person should have contact with me by phone, email, or something. But anyway, I left the university office because it was chilly to work for inputting scores. I wanted to do it in my room.

 

Wednesday:

I checked two times the screen of score input. And clicked the submit button. I also printed the score sheet on paper, signed on it, and brought it to the university office in the early afternoon. So that is the end of my first semester. I barely got through it. I came back to my room and took three hours of nap. Since I will teach a conversation class for 2^nd grade in the second semester, I started preparing for teaching in the evening. The first thing that I need to do is to analyze the textbook.

 

Thursday:

I got up at 7:00, had a breakfast, took shower, and resumed preparation for conversation class. But I was so tired that I could not concentrate on my task. I often went to bed and slept. It was not effective by any means.

 

Friday:

I went to the teachers’ restaurant for my lunch. It was the last day for the restaurant. The university was almost empty. I tried working to analyze the conversation textbook, but I couldn’t do it well. I just slept on the bed, or just wasting my time to look at internet things.

 

Saturday and Sunday:

Both days were just like Friday. I am sure that coming second semester will be tougher than the first. There are two classes in Japanese course. If I could teach two classes of 1^st grade for listening, it would be much easier for me. But the university assigned me to one class of 2^nd grade for conversation and one class of 1^st grade for listening. This simply means that my preparation workload increases as much as twice. Plus I have to continue my composition class.

Lying on a bed, I thought about two situations. One: I have to prepare hard for the second semester during this winter break. In this case, I will not be able to get rid of my fatigue accumulated in the first semester. Without curing from the fatigue, I will be devastated in the middle of the second semester. Second: I need to take a rest first in order to recover from the fatigue. Probably I will not be able to prepare well during this break. Not ready for the second semester, I will have to work very hard once the semester starts. In this case also, I will be devastated in the middle of the semester. Ouch, in either case, the conclusion is the same.

 

The week was 19^th week of the first semester, and it was for the final examination.

 

Monday;

I uploaded last week’s log onto this blog in the morning. After that I graded answer sheet of listening test for 1^st grade students until noon. It was the fourth day of grading because I was doing the second check by myself. I continued the task in the afternoon, but I took a big nap for two hours. I went to the teachers’ room in the evening to meet another teacher. The room was chilly.

 

Tuesday;

It was the last day of 2019. I washed two white shirts by hand in the morning. I took morning nap? for an hour. I calculated scores for composition classes of 2^nd grade in the afternoon. Students’ grades are calculated as summation of 50 points from scores of final test and 50 points about a student’s activities and attendances during the semester. Since the final test had not come yet at time of Tuesday, I calculated the latter scores. In the evening I went to the teachers’ room again and returned the textbook that I borrowed on Monday.

 

Wednesday;

It was the new year’s day. I could say that the day was the first holiday since the first semester had started. I sent a lot of emails to my friends to say wishing them a happy new year. Later I found that email was out of date as a communication tool, because the replies didn’t come soon. I spent most of the hours of afternoon on the bed. I wanted to have the day a holiday, but I worked for two hours in the evening in order to analyze the textbook that will be used in the conversation class in the second semester.

 

Thursday:

The final examination for composition classes was held in the morning from 8:30 to 10:30. As soon as I came back my residence I started grading the answer sheet.

 

Friday:

The first round of grading was finished in the morning. There was a test for my small class in the afternoon. But I didn’t have to supervise the test because it was done with another class in the same room and another teacher supervised both. I went to the teachers’ room at 3 p.m. to get the answer sheet. I graded them in the rest of the day.

 

Saturday;

I finished grading the final exam and scoring class performance for the small Japanese class. After that I went to the university restaurant to eat my lunch, and then went to a grocery store to buy vegetable. After one hour of nap, I got up from the bed at 3 p.m. I started the double check of test grading for composition classes. The second check for Thursday class was finished in the day.

 

Sunday;

I finished the second check for Friday class in the morning. I went to the university restaurant at noon, but most of the restaurants were already closed. So I went outside of university and ate a pilaf of beef and green pepper. After a long nap, I summarized results of scores. The last thing that I have to do is to register the grading onto the intranet of the university.

 

Oh, by the way, I think “Bic” means a bicycle in English, but “Baiku” in Japanese means a motorcycle.

Monday;

I taught the small class in the morning. Although still one class remained on Wednesday yet, I made it the last class to use that boring textbook. After the class I went to the teachers’ room to make photocopies for the last class of my small class. After the lunch, I evaluated compositions in whole of the afternoon. I couldn’t do it much, because I was tired and went to bed often.

 

Tuesday;

I wanted to teach Japanese honorifics in the last class of the small class in the following day. So I prepared for some PPT slides in the morning. In the afternoon I made another PPT that was for composition class. I wanted the last composition class to be a feedback for homework and summary of the semester.

 

Wednesday;

I continued to make PPT for composition class. From 10 to 11:30 was the last of the small class. I checked audio data in the afternoon because the final exam would be on the following day. Actually I found many mistakes on mp3 files. Fortunately I could correct them one day before. I could finish correction onto Mp3 files by 4p.m. After that I just continued to work for composition class.

 

Thursday:

I had done PPT making in the morning. In the afternoon was the final examination for listening class of the first grade students. Since the test used audiovisual rooms, it was done not in the final exam week but in the last week which was one week earlier. Two classes were tested simultaneously. There were some minor problems during the test, but the test was done almost successfully. I went to another building after the test to teach the Thursday composition class. I asked students if they got another class this week. They said no. So my class was the only class in the last week of the semester. They said that they had to come to class, but teachers released them soon after checking their attendance. I think that those seasoned teachers were doing 18 over 17 times valuable class each time. As a new foreign language teacher in the first year, I am not doing so well.

 

Friday:

I started grading the final exam of listening class in the morning. In the early afternoon, I corrected some of slides for the Friday composition class. I always correct PPT slides based on the results of Thursday class. So it is safety say I did the better teachings for Friday class than for Thursday composition class. Anyway I asked the same question in the composition class in the early evening if they had any classes this week. The answer was the same that there was no class but mine. They said they even did not have to come to class. I told them that I was happy to be with you students in the classroom, so let me do my class.

In the class I made the students write the last composition in this semester. It is a thing that is often done in a Japanese class. Students listen to the first half of the old tale “Kasajizou” and then write the second half of the story without knowing it. Actually I tired the same thing in Thursday class several weeks ago. But at that time the students said they all knew the story. I gave up making them write the second half of the Kasajizou. This time also it was expected that some students knew the story. I told Friday students not to tell the story to others if they knew it. It was just an old tale with happy-ending about New Year. It seems like most of students knew the story or could predicted the ending. I told them I wish them a happy new year at the end of the class. But some students didn’t hear what I was saying because they wanted to go dorm as soon.

 

Saturday and Sunday;

I graded answer sheets of the final exam that was 1^st grades’ listening. I couldn’t do it well because I was too tired. It was of 57 students with 100 questions each. If I could concentrate on grading, I could have completed it in just one day. But it is not yet finished. I took two hours of nap in the afternoon. Two final exams are coming in next week.

 

It was like sleeping all the time this week.

Monday;

I taught the small class in the morning, went to the teacher’s room for printing quiz and handouts for that small class on Wednesday, and got back my residence at 11. I slept for a while. I went to the teacher’s restaurant at noon to have my lunch and bought peers and small citrus at fruits shop in the restaurant building. The small citrus was “Kinkan” in Japanese, although I don’t know how to pronounce it in this country. It has good flavor of citrus and is sweet. There are seeds inside but no need to peel off. I like to eat them. In the afternoon, I tried to make PPT for Wednesday listening class, but most of the time I was just sleeping on my bed. I could not continue to work even for one hour because I was so tired.

 

Tuesday;

I was just making PPT all day long, but while doing so, I went to bed quite often to take a rest. I spent 8 hours on Monday and 12 hours on Tuesday to complete the PPT. It means 19 hours this week, but sleeping hours must be subtracted. So it was about 12 hours. After that, I prepared for the small class that was just after the listening class on the following day.

 

Wednesday:

There were two classes in the morning. I taught Japanese honorifics in the second class. Although the class basically uses a designated textbook, articles in it are terribly boring and uninteresting. So I use other teaching materials once in five classes. Since it was almost the end of the semester, I wanted to teach what was so important in Japanese communication. It is Honorifics, which is often said to be too difficult to learn. Yes, I agree, but I think there are some ways to learn them. There are two types; one is raising a person of the topic, the other is lowering down a speaker him/herself. For both types, wording can be done by three ways; the first is verb conjugation, the second is adding prefixes, and the third is replacing some basic verbs with honorific verbs. The reason why I wanted to teach honorifics to my small class was that it would surely be helpful when my students meet Japanese clients, guests, or whoever in the future. And I don’t think it is good if a foreign language class is only for reading. This week I taught “raising a person” type honorifics. I will teach “lowering down him/herself” type next week.

I talked to the chief of Japanese department after the lunch. I asked many questions about how to supervise the final examinations.

Talking an hour, I got back my residence at 2, and went to bed. I fell asleep like straight-down (?). When I woke up, it was already getting dark.

 

Thursday:

Fatigue had accumulated. I had decided to have a kind of speech contest in this week’s composition class so that I could minimize my preparation for PPT and evaluation of homework. But for just in case the contest ends early in the class, I tried preparing PPT that could cover up 10 minutes or so. It was about a type of adverbs of Japanese, which requires a certain expression in the end of sentence. I wanted to finish this PPT making in the morning, but I was so tired and had headache. I didn’t feel good when I tried moving the cursor and clicking something on computer screen by mouse. It was feeling like my nerve breaks down. Making just a few slides took more than two hours.

I taught two classes in the afternoon. Listening class went well on time. Composition class was so-so. 12 pairs made their speeches. One pair talked about Sakura (cherry flowers) in Japan. I commented that I had become 50 already and every April I saw Sakura flowers, I thought whether or not I could see Sakura flowers in next year. If I could survive one year I would be able to see it, if not, unable to see that beautiful flowers in spring. A Japanese thought like that. Anyway, almost no time was left for explanation of adverbs after the speech contest. I didn’t do that and let the students go dorm five minutes earlier to the end. After the class I went back my residence and prepared for the small class until cooking for supper.

 

Friday;

I taught in the small class in the morning and another composition class in the early evening. I forgot what I did between the two classes. Probably I had been on my bed. I was too tired to work. I could not use PPT for adverb things on Thursday compositions class. On the other hand, I could make a lecture about it in Fridays composition class because there were still 15 minutes when speeches ended. Students seemed to be tired and wanting to go dorm soon, but I was sure that what I was showing was very much helpful for them. I had a dinner with another native Japanese teacher. Two bottles of beer were not bad, but I ate too much.

 

Saturday;

I ate too much on Friday night. So I didn’t feel hungry. I didn’t eat a breakfast. It was like my stomach was also tired as bad as my brain. I graded quizzes of the small class and evaluated summary composition that were last week’s homework assignment of two composition classes. I took nap many hours but could not get rid of fatigue. I didn’t go outside all day.

 

Sunday;

I continued evaluation of compositions. But I slept a lot in day time. I went to the university restaurant for lunch and to a grocery store to buy vegetables for the week. I forgot to buy tomato. Price has gone up a lot for the vegetables because of the season. I could not finish the evaluation for two classes. But I was not in a hurry. Since I no longer have to prepare for the listening class, I had more time to spend for my small class and composition classes. Anyway what I found on compositions were a ton of errors that I had already explained many times to students. Good students learn and do not repeat the same errors. But bad students don’t learn and repeat the same errors again and again. It seems like there are barriers around their recognition. I told them to use post-position”-o” with a transitive verb. But no matter how many times I did say the same thing, this is not recognized by some students. I realized that repetition doesn’t work at all. What I am saying is just bouncing back by the strong barriers. Perhaps that strong barrier is useful to protect their self establishments in one way, but in other way it hinders their learning. I think I need to understand why this happens and to think of a way to make a “hole on the barrier” so that what I am saying can reach to their recognition.

 

Monday;

At the beginning of the small class in the morning, I asked them if they had already checked the class schedule of the second semester. Some said yes but they also said that they did not find my name there. I told them that I would not teach for them in 2^nd semester. As a native Japanese teacher, I am expected to teach students of Japanese major. So I said them that it was very rare for a Japanese teacher like me to teach students who were not Japanese major. After the class I went to the teachers’ room and corrected students’ drafts for the monthly newsletter. Since I was waiting for other teachers who had their lunch, I missed my lunch in the teachers’ restaurant. I was making PPT for listening class in the afternoon by 7:30p.m. I evaluated some compositions in the night.

 

Tuesday;

Once I ate my breakfast, I started corrections for drafts of monthly newsletter. I sent OK for the final draft to one of five students. And then I continued to work for PPT of the listening class. It was ended by 6:30p.m. It took 12 hours in total this week to complete PPT slides for 90 minutes class. As soon as I finished it, I started another PPT that was for composition class. I stopped working at 8 p.m.

 

Wednesday;

I taught two classes in the morning hours. Two hours in the afternoon were spent for newsletter thing. I sent OK to two students for their final drafts. I continued to work to make PPT for composition class on Thursday and Friday. At 9 p.m. I stopped working without finishing it.

 

Thursday;

Since the deadline was coming on Friday for the newsletter, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and sent corrections to two students in the morning. I needed to complete PPT in the morning hours, so I worked on it from 8 to noon. I taught in the listening class for the 1^st grade in the early afternoon and then in the composition class in the early evening. I regretted that I made students write short essays during the composition class. Writing takes time. So I usually make students write their compositions as homework. But this time I wanted to cover up my ill-preparedness by writing activity during class. It must have been boring but difficult task for the students to write an essay by analyzing a graph (bar charts). After the classes I got back my residence and tried reading and correcting as many as possible by 9 p.m. because I hadn’t finished evaluation of Friday class’s compositions that were homework assignment of two weeks ago.

 

Friday:

In the daytime I just evaluated compositions. I could finish by the class in the early evening.

 

Saturday and Sunday:

Of course I tried working, but I have been so exhausted by hard work. I have not taken any single holiday since the semester started. I wanted to evaluate 40 some compositions, to prepare for my small class, and to start PPT making in this weekend. But I have spent most of the time on the bed. I have taken several times of nap, but my headache remains.

I found that several compositions were written in Desu-masu style. This made me very sad. I have told them so many times to write their compositions in Da-dearu style. They just continue to ignore what I said. How can I make a caution for them? I was taught in the training course for Japanese teaching that a teacher was responsible for anything, everything. So I cannot blame them. Students don’t understand the importance of writing style in Japanese. It was my responsibility to tell them.

It was just like go and back between bed and computer in this weekend.