1000 words
It’s been a month since classes started now. So I’m going to review them a little more in depth now.
I’m taking a lot of language classes, so let’s take a look at that first. I’m helping out two different German teachers. Saeki-sensei and Monma-sensei. The first speaks decent German, the second, I don’t know, he never really speaks anything but Japanese. Of the first, I know he loves Germany and has lived there for a while, his daughter has a German name, too. Last week he invited us over to his house for dinner while one of my senpai was staying over there, too. We all had a very nice evening. His dog is just too cute, haha. And it’s actually a dog. Most dogs you see in Japan are really tiny and look more like fashion accessories of their owners.
The German lessons I visit are for 2nd years, so they’ve been studying the language for just a little over a year. But even for that, the general level is abysmal. I know when my kouhai come here for two weeks in September on the same study tour that I participated in two years ago, communication will be all in Japanese again. Sad considering that both parties will have studied each other’s language for roughly the same amount of time. One problem is that the Japanese are really scared of making mistakes when they speak a foreign language, so they stick to Japanese when they notice you understand them, the other problem is the lessons in general.
What we’ve done so far in Monma-sensei’s lessons… He’s printed out a German wikipedia article about tsunamis which we are now translating word by word. Awkward sentence constructions and some vocabulary that even I don’t ever use. I’m not really sure what the class is supposed to learn by doing this exercise. It reminds me of my old Latin lessons, and honestly, I never learned to speak Latin. It’s also very boring and doesn’t provide much motivation. The students prepare the text as homework and in class, when it’s not their turn, I guess they’re mentally very far away. Along with the wikipedia article, Monma-sensei also handed out a print with comments about the catastrophe in Japan which were written by children. I guess he thought it would be easy to read because children use easy language, but in reality, it’s just littered with grammar and spelling mistakes. I give him credit for trying to use authentic material, though.
Saeki’s lessons are better, but they’re not perfect either. But while Monma only ever asks us for help with vocabulary and reading sometimes, Saeki actually lets us converse with his students in an attempt to get them to speak. We are always split into three groups, one of us in each group, of about 8-10 students. The example conversations he plays from CD are very unauthentic and stilted, but I guess it’s still a lot more engaging than what Monma does. The students can answer my questions when they know what I’m going to ask, but there’s a lot of times where I can ask something as simple as “how old are you?” and they won’t get it if it’s unexpected. They don’t understand anything close to natural speech.
In addition to the normal lessons my friends and I are now offering voluntary lessons thrice a week. I had my first one this Friday together with Alex. At first we felt a little overwhelmed when 11 Japanese came, but in the end we had a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it, too. Some of them actually have a lot of potential and it’s now my new goal to actually make them converse in German before I leave here.
(Alex and JP using the self-study room of the library as classroom)
As for the English lessons I take… Half of the time, I don’t think my Japanese classmates understand anything their teachers are telling them. It’s a bit of a problem to be sure. Since this is university, the teachers have to maintain a certain level that in reality, very few of their students have. To counteract that, I guess you’d have to start revising the system from Elementary school.
For my French class, the same problem exists. The teacher, a French guy, is actually a pretty good teacher I think, but he’s teaching in English. And the Japanese take forever to grasp what he wants from them. Or maybe they’re shy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Active participation however, is something they’re definitely not used to. I see this in my English communication class, too. Each week they’re supposed to research about a certain topic so we can discuss in class. Even though forbidden by the teacher, most of them just write down a short paragraph or two and read that out loud when we’re supposed to ‘discuss’. And usually, that paragraph does not actually include an opinion. Sometimes it’s just ‘a lot of people say’ or something along those lines. It’s a little sad.
I’m also taking a class about teaching Japanese to foreigners. It’s more of a lecture, really, but it’s interesting. One time the teacher said, to reassure his students I guess, that it’s not necessary to speak a foreign language to be able to become a Japanese teacher. While that’s true to a certain degree, I do think that’s a little problematic. Sure, you can do you whole lesson in Japanese, especially when you have advanced students, but still… what qualifies you to teach a language when you’ve never learned one yourself? You just won’t be able to understand what your students are going through very well.
Oh well…
I can’t say too much about the classes I take that are actually aimed at us exchange students. They’re not very good. I quit the actual Japanese lessons, too. I just wasn’t getting anything out of them. I study on my own now, most of the time. Trying to get the N2 kanji down at the moment. When I run into problems, or I’ve got questions, there’s a circle twice a week made up of students wanting to teach Japanese that I can go to.
I’ve also joined a circle called “国際交流会” international exchange circle. But you should have seen their faces when actual foreigners walked in. Haha. I should do an entry about the general attitude towards foreigners I’ve encountered on my trips to Japan so far, but this weekend, I’m going to the 青葉祭り (festival of green leaves / Aoba festival). So I’ll guess I’ll be writing about that next.