Forcing students to learn

I often hear teachers say 'I can't force the students to learn, all I can do is help them on their way', and in many ways I agree with this sentiment.

However, as a learner of Japanese and, as of April this year, the piano, I disagree. I want my teachers to 'force' me, to establish expectations of what I should be doing between classes, and check to see that I am actually doing it.

If no-one is watching, I find it easy to get distracted by other things.

I am not sure how many of my students feel like I do, but it might be an interesting topic for a survey. Something to come back to once classes start.

Top Five Free Ways to Learn Japanese Online

I know a lot of people who despite living in Japan, just don't get the exposure to comprehensible input that they would need in order to really make significant progress.

This is a list of five free ways you can get started on increasing your input, and the best thing is that you don't even have to be in Japan to use them.

1. rikai.com (or rikaichan plugin for Firefox)

Rikai is a website or app that allows you to read Japanese online by giving you a small pop-up window with the pronunciation and meaning of individual words. Assuming you have a minimal knowledge of Japanese grammar, this is much better than a translation program because it allows you to choose the most appropriate meaning for each word. A few minutes a day reading sites on topics that interest you is sure to boost your vocabulary and reading fluency.

2. smart.fm

This is not a radio station, but rather a website that allows you to learn vocabulary in context, using a spaced repetition system to help you transfer the words to your long-term memory (something that takes between 20 and 50 exposures to the word in context). Including text, pictures, audio, and a really fun practice system, this site makes it easy to study for just five or ten minutes a day.

3. iTunes Store

I finally got my hands on an iPhone recently, and one of the best things I have been doing with it is listening to all sorts of podcasts in Japanese. There is a huge range of material available for free at all levels, and listening to podcasts while commuting or exercising is one of the easiest ways to improve your listening comprehension (with the added bonus that listening will also help your speaking ability).

4. LingQ (pronounced 'link', I think)

LingQ is another website featuring a learning system. It is mostly free (you can pay to practice speaking with a tutor online or to have your writing corrected) and offers an easy way to read texts, listen to audio, and learn vocabulary. I always think of it as the grown-up, more serious version of smart.fm (see above). It takes more time and effort to use, but you will make more progress.

5. 練習.org

This is a site made by a friend of mine, and it is one of the best I have seen for learning kanji or vocabulary sets, particularly if you are studying for the JLPT or the Kanji Kentei (which I thoroughly recommend, more on that in a future post). The site is free and well worth looking around. It is not as pretty as some of the others, but the mechanics are solid.

I am very lazy, so I haven't used these resources as much as I should have, but for anyone with some self-discipline, they should prove very useful to increase that all-important listening and reading input.

Free language courses from FSI

The US Foreign Services Institute has a whole bunch of language courses on their website. From Amharic to Yoruba (no Japanese unfortunately, but they do have Thai and Mandarin) you can find coursebooks and audio downloads. The courses are a bit dated, but they seem thoroughly put together and you can't beat the price.

Thanks to inZania for the tip, and for a cool iPhone flashcard app that I am using to practice JLPT vocabulary.

The importance of listening

I think the importance of listening input for students cannot be overemphasised, yet it is severely neglected in Japan, in both public and private teaching settings.

I myself have not really focused on teaching listening so far, for the following reasons:

1. graded listening materials are not as common as graded reading

2. it's hard to categorize listening materials at a glance, like you would with a written text

3. technical issues get in the way: you have to make the materials available to the students, and it's not as easy as just handing them a book or a handout

However, I have decided to have a go at really boosting my students' listening practice. I am going to investigate online delivery, lending CDs, and lending mp3 players pre-loaded with content.

I will post on any challenges and successes with the project. Comments on the subject are also most welcome.

Learning a foreign language

Learning a foreign language is not difficult, but it takes time and commitment.

Anyone can master a foreign language, and it does not require studying verb tables, memorising vocabulary, or buying a lot of books and resources. In fact, it doesn't really involve any of the things we did at school in our foreign language classes. To be honest, many of those things seem as if they were just busy work, things our teachers assigned to us because they are easy to check and evaluate, and give both students and teachers the feeling that they are actually doing something. This is the good news.

The bad news is that it takes a lot of time to master a language. Let's say you want to be in a position where you can understand pretty much everything people say to you in your daily life, as well as be able to watch TV, read a newspaper, and deal with any paperwork that comes your way. You will need a passive vocabulary of at least 5,000 to 10,000 words, and an active one of around half that.

In order to learn a word so that you know it passively (ie you can understand it when you see it or hear it) you will have to encounter it in text or aural input 20-50 times in context. In order to acquire it so you can use it actively (when speaking or writing), you will have to encounter it even more, as well as start using it yourself.

Doing the math (something I am not good at), you can see that you are going to have to read millions of words, or listen to hundreds or thousands of hours of audio, in order to get the exposure you need to the language.

Before you give up and go and take up a more sensible pursuit, such as counting grains of sand on a beach, however, there is a final piece of good news (I was saving it until the end):

None of this needs to be boring or a chore.

With the proliferation of free content on the internet, it is fairly easy to find interesting audio and text on almost any topic, as well as online translation, vocabulary learning, and grammar explanation websites, without spending a penny. I'll be introducing some over the next few weeks.

Here's the first one:

Lingq

A wonderful online system for delivering graded content that is mostly free (you can pay for tutors to correct your written work or speak to). The founder, Steve Kaufmann, has a blog that is well worth checking out.

We're back

Right, I'm back after an absence of about three years. In fact, I've been gone so long that blogspot actually lost my blog -had to poke around to find it and get it reassigned to my account.

I have some plans for this blog over the next few months, and I don't want to spoil the surprise, but expect to see:

-more practical content

-more regular updates

-more on education

I am looking forward to welcoming you here more regularly.

It's the end of the summer as far as I can tell...

Hey kids

Once again almost a month has gone by without me getting round to updating this beast. It is hot again (we had a weird summer that was hot at the beginning, cool in the middle, and is now trying to be hot again for the last few days) and there is not all that much to do right now.

Well, there is lots of stuff that has to be done fairly soon, but this office is a terrible place to try to concentrate, especially on stuff that could be done next week instead.

I'm taking tomorrow off and going for a drive with Chiho to celebrate my birthday. Feels weird having another birthday, I had pretty much forgotten about it until Chiho brought it up. Strange how something that was so important and exciting before can become so commonplace and unimportant!

So, the next time I do this I will be 29 :)

Hot hot hot

Okay, I give up. We have the air-conditioning on in the living room now, and I'm heading for my fourth shower of the day. Ugh.

Why hello there!

Okay, so it's been a while. Allright, it's been more than a while. In my defence, I have been busy recently.

The university classes effectively killed two of my days off (Monday and Sunday -for the classes themselves and preparation respectively) and then to put the icing on the cake I also got a corporate class on Monday evenings.

So the teaching has been taking over my life somewhat.

In other news, it is HOT in Sendai at the moment. Summer started three days ago, but it seems like it is trying to make up for lost time. Strangely it doesn't seem to bother me as much as it has in the past, and I am trying for a no air-conditioning policy at home (you adjust to the weather quicker if you are exposed to it).

Have the weekend off next week so very much looking forward to that. Wooh!

JALT madness and cat sadness

Just got back from the overnight JALT retreat. A good time, and got a couple of ideas for classes.

Tiddles got jumped by the psycho cat about an hour ago, and got her leg messed up. I took her to the emergency vet who gave her a shot and said she'd be okay with rest.

Got to figure out how to catch the psycho cat. I figure she's injured Tiddles and Meekay about a dozen times, three of them serious enough to require a trip to the vet. Damn stray has cost me almost 20,000 yen!

I have this vision of a big box trap, with food inside and a spring-loaded door. I'll see what I can knock up this week... keep you posted.

Hello! Chickens

Long time no see. How are you doing? Keeping well? Good, good.

I have been BUSY. Got a new job, "educating" university students. It's great.

They're just like senior high school students, except that they listen to you, do their homework, and follow instructions. Fantastic.

However, it does take up most of my former free time. Call it an investment ;)

More pain

Going to the gym, the pain never stops! Onto the second round of workouts, and my arms and shoulders are a mass of aching flesh. If I wasn`t so high on endorphins I don`t know if I could keep this up ;)

Played poker with Adam and Matt today. Good times. Yuki was also getting into it, and she came third by a whisker.

University planning meeting tomorrow. A new thing to worry about. The seminar went pretty well on Friday, by the way.

Seizing up

My new weights routine is killing me: one step at a time. I now have three distinct workouts, and starting each one is basically unleashing a fresh round of pain on me. Only one more to debut, then I can work on getting used to them ;)

This seminar on Friday is starting to worry me. I normally have a much better idea of how the thing is going to go by this stage...

It was snowing again today. Snowing.

New site, new music, new life

Hey kids

Found some cool stuff: website called youtube.com, hip hop artist called Immortal Technique, and more happiness about where I work.

We had the leaving party today and it was pretty cool for once: managed to talk to a few people and had a good time. Maybe next year will be a good one...

Lots of work tomorrow, so have to drink my water and process the alchohol ;)

Jedi cat

Jedi cat, originally uploaded by sendaiben.

The felon herself (claws retracted at this point, she`s in stealth mode).

Death Cat

I just got jumped by Tiddles. After suffering numerous claw wounds to the forearm, I am now quietly reacting allergically. Ow.

In other news, it looks like CEC may not be heading for the fifty students we were hoping for... Despite our advertising efforts, we have so far only got one new student (and even she`s not fully signed up yet). This business lark is harder than I suspected!

Ben out.

Sushi and strawberry cream cake

It was Yuki`s birthday today, so we went out for sushi and came back for cake.

The bummer is that it has started raining again :(

Ooops

I just left my Japanese homework at work (I`m at home now). My class starts in just under two hours...

All fine and dandy, except that it is freezing outside and I haven`t actually done the homework yet. So even if I went and got it I wouldn`t be able to finish it in time.

Dammit.

Back

Okay, I`m back. Although from the temperature outside, you`d never know any time had passed. It`s around 2 degrees Celcius today, with a biting
wind.

Today is "cut 10% from the budget" day at work. I overheard my supervisor joking to another member of staff about how they were going to have to cut my salary (he was joking apparently). That kind of joke I can probably do without.

Especially as I don`t have a contract for next year yet.

On a brighter note, this may make it easier for me to get this job
reduced to three days a week. Fingers crossed!

Happy New Year!

Greetings, my non-existent readers! I know it`s a bit late to be doing the HNY stuff, but I figured I would try to get it in before Feb. Hope things are going well for you.

Here everything is much of a muchness, the Mid-year Conference is over and things are settling down a bit. Sendai is still really cold.

We got through 140 litres of kerosene last week. Wow.