Language Exchange
So my Japanese/English language exchange is fun, but exhausting. We met at 1:00 (I didn't get there til 1:30 cause I was a slacker) and the four of us, two native English speakers and two native Japanese speakers, worked on things for hours. We had snacks, because Kevin is a sweetheart, and we had materials because Ayako is also a sweetheart. But man was it exhausting. I didn't get home until almost 8:00 pm. And while we had a nice relaxed pace, swinging back and forth between English and Japanese, and having conversations about all manner of things, I felt like a limp rag when I got home, physically and mentally.
They want to meet twice a week, but I don't think I can manage that much work. Once a week if we spend that long working on things is plenty. But it's also a nice chance to be social, and I'm learning things. Except right now I'm so brain dead I can't remember them. We worked on very polite verb tenses, and on imperatives. I'll have to review my notes.
For Yayoi and Ayako, we drilled them on L/R sounds. The sentences "When I run my lungs hurt," and "Her heart hurts," and "Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins," were particularly difficult. Yayoi seems to have an easier time with R sounds than Ayako. It's weird, because when Ayako says "arigato" she says a clear R, but as soon as she tries to say "rings" it comes out as "lings".
Anyway, I guess we're mostly just making it up as we go along, which is probably stupid. I'm sure if I bothered to look I'd find all sorts of helpful advice about how to structure a language exchange, and how to help Japanese speakers pronounce English better. I suppose I should go look.
They want to meet twice a week, but I don't think I can manage that much work. Once a week if we spend that long working on things is plenty. But it's also a nice chance to be social, and I'm learning things. Except right now I'm so brain dead I can't remember them. We worked on very polite verb tenses, and on imperatives. I'll have to review my notes.
For Yayoi and Ayako, we drilled them on L/R sounds. The sentences "When I run my lungs hurt," and "Her heart hurts," and "Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins," were particularly difficult. Yayoi seems to have an easier time with R sounds than Ayako. It's weird, because when Ayako says "arigato" she says a clear R, but as soon as she tries to say "rings" it comes out as "lings".
Anyway, I guess we're mostly just making it up as we go along, which is probably stupid. I'm sure if I bothered to look I'd find all sorts of helpful advice about how to structure a language exchange, and how to help Japanese speakers pronounce English better. I suppose I should go look.