Japanese Teaching – Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning

Japanese Learning (A4 S44): Intentionally Changing a Condition that is described by I-adjective, Na-adjective, and Noun; [Object to be changed] o [I-adj] ku shimasu / [Na-adj/N] ni shimasu.

The verb “Suru/Shimasu” is most of the time a transitive verb. Actually, sometimes “Suru/Shimasu” is used as an intransitive verb as introduced by the example sentence number 5 in the section 47. But let us just put aside “Suru/Shimasu” as an intransitive verb now. We are focusing on “Suru/Shimasu” as a transitive verb. Then, today’s sentences are to be compared with the exercise A4 in the section 19, in which the intransitive verb “Naru/Narimasu” is used.

(1) Sentence Constructions in A4 S19 with “Naru/Narimasu”

– [Subject] wa* [I-adj]+ku Narimashita.

– [Subject] wa* [Na-adj]+ni Narimashita.

– [Subject] wa* [Noun]+ni Narimashita.

(* “ga” is also used.)

(2) Today’s constructions of A4 S44

– [Object] o [I-adj]+ku Shimasu.

– [Object] o [Na-adj]+ni Shimasu.

– [Object] o [Noun]+ni Shimasu.

There is a difference between the sentences of (1) and (2), at the sentence ending. The sentences of (1) end with “-mashita.” which means perfect tense, in other words, actions of changing have already happened. On the other, the sentences of (2) end with “-masu” which means actions of changing will happen near future, or strong will of the subject. But rather than this difference of tense, there is an important difference between (1) and (2).

The sentences of (1) express that the subject itself changes. Therefore, the subject needs to be mentioned and the verb of changing must be the intransitive verb “Naru/Narimasu”.

The sentences of (2) express that the object is changed under someone’s intention. Therefore, the object needs to be mentioned and the verb must be a transitive verb, in this case, “Suru/Shimasu”.

Then, let us compare (1) and (2) with example sentences.

(1) [Subject] was {I-adj+ku / N-adj+ni / Noun+ni} Naru

1. Tenki wa Yoku Nari mashita. (The weather has become better.) — Yo+ku Naru

2. Machi wa Nigiyakani Nari mashita. (The town has become busy.) — Nigiyaka+ni Naru

3. Satou-san wa Daigakusei ni Nari mashita.

(Sato-san has become a university student.) — Daigakusei+ni Naru

The sentences 1 to 3 mean that the subject has got changing of its own to the current situation. The intransitive verb for change “Naru/Narimasu” is to express this kind of change.

(2) [Object] o {I-adj+ku/N-adj+ni/Noun+ni} Suru

4. Zubon no Suso o Mijikaku Shi masu. (I am going to shorten the hems of my trousers.)

5. Daidokoro o Kireini Shi masu. (I am going to clean the kitchen.)

6. Ofuro no Oyu o Yon-juu Ni doni Shi masu. (I will set the temperature of hot water 42 Celsius degree.)

where; Ofuro is a noun meaning a bath, Oyu is a noun meaning hot water.

Sentences 4 to 6 express that the subject, in this case “Watashi (I)”, intentionally bring a change onto an OBJECT that is marked by the particle “-o”. This is of course due to the function of the transitive verb “Suru/Shimasu”

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This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 of Section44 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”

Japanese Learning(S23): Difference between {[A]toki,[B].} and {[A]to, [B].}

In the section 23, you learned two types of sentence constructions;

[Conditional Clause A]+toki, [Main Clause].

Exmaple: Douro o Wataru toki, Kuruma ni Ki o Tsukemasu. (When crossing a road, I pay attention to cars.)

[Conditional Clause A]+to, [Main Clause].

Example: Douro o Wataru to, Kombini ga Arimasu. (If you corss the road, you will find a convinience store.)

Is the difference between the two clear to you?

(1) Freedom about Main clause

{[A]+toki,[B].}

— When A is happening, someone does B. The “someone” has freedom to do B to some extent. “Some extent” means that B is limited to be what an ordinary people usually do. If B is what an ordinary people usually don’t, different expression needs to be used. But it is not what we are focusing on now.

– Example: Uchi ni Kaeru toki, Osake o Kaimasu. (When I am on my way home, I will buy Sake.)

There is a freedom about what you buy on your way home. Someone wants to buy Alcohol, another person packages of ready-made food for night meal.

{[A]+to, [B].}

— When A has happened, then B happens, or B is caused as the result of A. A tends to be a hypothetical condition, but once A has happened, there is not much freedom about occurrence of B.

– Example: Uchi ni Kaeru to, Mazu Doa no Kagi o Akemasu. (When I get home, I open the door key first.)

– Example: Ame ga Furu to, Undou-kai wa Chuushi desu. (If it rains, the sports event will be cancelled.)

(2) Time sequence of the conditional clause and the main clause.

{[A]+toki,[B].}

— While A is happening, B happens.

Exmaple: Douro o Wataru toki, Kuruma ni Ki o Tsukemasu. (When crossing a road, I pay attention to cars.)

During crossing the road, you pay attention to cars.

{[A]+to, [B].}

— Once A has happened, and then B is caused.

Exmaple: Douro o Wataru to, Shoutengai ni Tsukimasu. (When you have crossed the road, you get to the shopping mall.)

When you got to the shopping mall, your action crossing the road has already ended.

<Quiz>

Choose “toki” or “to”. The answers will be shown tomorrow.

(1) Terebi o Miru { toki or to }, Megane o Kakemasu.

(2) Terebi o Miru { toki or to }, Iroirona Nyu’usu ga Wakarimasu.

(3) Ano Singou de Hidari ni Magaru { toki or to }, Yuubinkyoku ga arimasu.

(4) Eki ni Tsuita { toki or to }, Tanaka-san ni Aimashita.

This post was written with reference to the Section23 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”

In a few days, I can eat sweet persimmon (if successful to remove bitterness)

Dates on the tape show when I put the persimmons into plastic bags; Oct.14, 17, and 20. I think I will be able to eat one a day from Wednesday.

Now almost three months have passed since I retired my job and came back Japan. Probably I spend these days with a little bit of lazy life style. It’s like; wake up in the morning at 6, then cook breakfast, eat it at 7, read English book with a dictionary until 9:30, then usually I work in the garden to care vegetables and fruits trees through the morning hours.

Today, rather than to work in my garden, I went to a supermarket before noon, because rainfall was coming according to weather forecast. I took my lunch with a watching video sharing site (the famous one). And then I have been watching a DVD of Japanese teaching training course from 2 to 4. But I was sleeping most of the time. I started practicing a piano at 4, cooking a supper at 5, eat the supper at 6:20, and now I am writing this.

Perhaps I will not be able to teach Japanese again. I am still trying to study teaching skills for the next time I teach Japanese language for foreign people. But I may give up the career as a Japanese teacher. I am not sure for this matter.

Pictures of the Campus in which some Water Fronts are

Tonight, I don’t think of what to write. Instead of writing my bad English, let me upload the pictures which I took in September, 2019. I just want to keep the name of the university secret.

I had spent four years to be a Japanese teacher. When I took these photos in 2019, I thought my dream had come true. But at that time, I didn’t know what was coming after the first semester.

It’s Autumn; The air is cooling down, and Ginkgo Smells.

I went to Niigata today. I needed to use an Automated Teller Machine in the city. When I walked a pedestrian road along the wide street in front of the JR Niigata Station, I felt the smell of Ginkgo. It’s not a good flagrance, if not odor. But it is sure that smell makes me realize that the autumn has come.

Just under the JR Niigata station is the Bus Terminal

Many Ginkco Fruits were on the Ground, smelled.

After using ATM, I quickly returned home by getting on a Local train.

In the afternoon, I tried watching DVD in my house. The DVD was about teaching Japanese as foreign language. But I slept while playing it. Nothing was left in my memory.

Random Photos at This Time Around in Two Years Ago (September, 2023)

For the new second-year students, it is the time to change their major. Some of students leaves Japanese course for other majors at the beginning of new school year. Since most of them are usually good students, knowing a particular student is leaving Japanese major makes me disappointed in some extent.

But I think I should not complain or criticize those students who changed their major. Because, in most of the cases, their experience of learning Japanese for one year will no longer be useful into the future. And they have to study hard in order catch up other classmates in the new major they have moved to. it must be a tough decision to make, I guess.

I wish them a fruitful learning in the new major and a bright future to come with new knowledge. And if they will, it is possible to learn Japanese by themselves.

Learning how to teach after quitting the job as a teacher

Today, in the morning, I worked in my field. When it comes to growing vegetables in this autumn season, there is not much thing remaining. But I still have one thing to do. That is to plant onion’s seedlings and garlic’s bulbs. In order to plant them, I need to make one more ridge in the field. It will be five meter long; three meters for onions and two meters for garlic. What is tough is to get rid of roots of weeds from the place for the ridge and furrow. Since the place had been untouched for two years, now weeds’ roots in the ground are like spaghetti.

I worked in the field from 8 to 9:30 am. and then I got shower. From 10, I was watching a DVD that is about teaching Japanese as a second language. Actually, I had brought those DVD with me to the campus during the years I was teaching in a university. Watching the DVD today, I regret that I should have watched while I was teaching in the university. There are a lot of tips for teachers to teach a foreign language. For example, there is a concept of MMC for beginner’s level; the first M is mechanical training, the second M stands for meaningful training, and C for communicative activities. Did I do that? Usually, I didn’t extend my teaching to communicative activities. And there was no clear distinction between mechanical and meaningful trainings in my teaching. I would like to improve my teaching skill, but I don’t see any chance to apply improvements to my teaching in the future. I have already retired from the job as a Japanese teacher.

I had planned to go shopping in the afternoon. But it was hot like 34 Celsius degrees. So, I didn’t go to a supermarket, but continued to watch the DVD about teaching Japanese in the afternoon. I practiced my piano from 4 to 5 pm, cooked a supper from 5, had the supper at 6:30, and then I went shopping. I got back home at 8 pm, and started writing this.

Sometimes I Receive a Message from my Students.

I bought a new smartphone last month. Before I went to the mobile phone store, I hadn’t known that a google account was necessary for android. So, I had to make another google account in the shop. If I had known this matter, I would have brought ID and password of existing google account of mine. In addition, I installed “LINE” for my mobile phone, which also increased number of Accounts. Now I have so many accounts for emails and SNS. I am not sure if I can handle all of them.

This morning, I found an email in one of my mail boxes. Actually, I haven’t noticed it for several days. I wrote a reply and sent it. If a message comes, I will write a reply. That is okay. But sometimes I also want to send a message from me to my students. In fact, I am not sure they are happy with my message. Some are happy and write a reply to me soon, but some students perhaps are unhappy, think it troublesome, and are reluctant to reply to me. They may feel it difficult to write a reply to a person who is thirty years older than they are. Basically, doing communication is good, but I have to be careful how I communicate with my students; who to send, how often, what to write, and so on.

Some day, most of my students will forget about me. It is okay for me. They will grow up as an adult, and devote to the day-to-day life in new circumstance. As for my side, too, it is impossible to remember all the students I taught. Time flies and memories will be gone. But for now, I think it is not so bad to send messages to my students, while I remember them well. Now I am thinking about writing one message to one student a day. I hope that my message would not be so troublesome for the student.

Rough calculation gives me the following; I taught students of seven grades (in six years). There were about 50 students in a grade. Therefore, approximately I taught 350 students.

September 9th in 2023 was the day I left my hometown for the Campus

Inside of Joetsu Shinkansen on September 9, 2023

I don’t think it is good to always looking back things in the past, but I found that today is the day I left my hometown two years ago in order to go to a university in foreign country. Until then, I had been teaching Japanese for that university on-line because of the pandemic. The on-line teaching lasted three and a half years. Finally, the pandemic had ended, I got my work visa from the consulate on September 4th in 2023, and then I got on a Jo’etsu Shinkansen (Bullet train) to go to Narita International Airport.

Niigata Plain from the Window of Joetsu Shinkansen

Since then, I had taught Japanese language in the university for two years. There were so many things happened during those two years, that I cannot write something in detail tonight about them. Although I think I had tried doing the best, I am sure that my teaching was not the best, especially for grade-23 students. I regret my teaching style in the listening course.

An Airplane in Narita Int’l Airport on September 11, 2023

If I teach one more year, could I be a better teacher, or I be able to teach more sophisticated way? This is a difficult question. And I’d say “NO”. When I made up my mind that I would not renew my work permission for another school year, I had already felt that it was too much for me. If I write like this, I may make some of my students sad. I am sorry for that.

An Airplane in Incheon Int’l Airport on September 12, 2023

The best thing to me was that I could meet some good students. Learning together with them was my sheer pleasure. Although I have already left the Campus and I cannot see them in person now, I hope that I can be able to keep exchanging with those good students into the future.

My Room in the Residence Building for Foreign Teachers in the Campus; September 12, 2023

Pictures of Five Years Ago; It seems to have had a Rainfall

I have got another hot day today. Highest temperature of the day was 35 Celsius degrees. I worked in my garden at 5 a.m. and planted seeds of green vegetable this morning, but other than that, I had spent most of the time in house, turning on the air conditioner.

Since some of my students take a look at this blog, I think it would be better for me to take pictures and upload them so that my students could know what my current life is like. But it was too hot to go outside to take pictures these days. The followings are photos that I took five years ago.

月	火	水	木	金	土	日
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30