week 10

The topics for this week were booking train tickets (times, prices etc) and habits (verbs in the present tense)

We completed the exercises on pages 80 -81 of BBC talk for buying train tickets.
See also the handout in the Kanji folder on BB for names of Japanese cities in Kanji.

Masu form verbs:
I gave out a grammar sheet about conjugating verbs in the present tense - or as it is known the masu form. So called because the verbs all end in masu.
We have seen the masu form before but haven't looked more carefully as how to form it and hpw to use it.
eg. arimasu, imasu, mainichi aiteimasu, nani ni nasaimasu ka etc.

See the sheets on BB in the Grammar folder for more details.

Next week is your last chance to have a tutorial if there is anything you'd like to ask regarding the assessment or anything else.

If you are interested in continuing next term, the classes will begin again late Jan/early Feb. Same time, same day of the week. Please get your application in as soon as possible as it helps the admin people not to have a great rush at the last minute. It also helps us get a good idea of numbers. (If there are too few the class may be cancelled, so please get your name down early!)

Week 9

This week we covered:
shopping - asking for bigger/ smaller/ cheaper things (adjectives)
making reservations in a hotel

We did all the exercises on pages 63 and 72. There is a power point of adjectives on blackboard, take a look at that for extra vocabulary input. I also handed out a worksheet about adjectives which is on BB.
Make sure that you complete all the exercises for ch 7 and the checkpoint 2.

We have 2 teaching sessions left, then the oral assessment will be on Dec 16th. Portfoilios due by 12:00 noon on the Friday of that week.

If you would like a tutorial to talk about the portfolio or any other aspect of the course, email me and we can arrange a time.

Asssesment: Last night we completed 2 parts of the final assesment - a reading exercise and a listening exercise. If you were absent, please contact me to arrange a time to come and do these exercises. They both form a required part of your final work and you will lose marks if they are not completed.

week 8

Topics for this session were:

• talking about families
• talking about hobbies / expressing likes/dislikes
• counting/ shopping

We completed the section from the green book on page 62 about buying things at the post office.
As is explained briefly in the book , Japanese has a system of counters which vary depending on the size and shape of the object being counted. See these articles for more detail: http://japanese.about.com/library/bllesson11.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word
I liken this the collective nouns in English " a charm of swallows" " a flock of sheep" - not exactly the same but the similarity lies in the fact that there are loads of different ones and pedantic people take pride in getting the right one for the right noun! I handed out my worksheet counters in class but the version on BB has had the mistakes removed!

Families and hobbies
These are topics that will certainly come up in the oral exam so worth getting to grips with.
The power points and worksheets are on BB.
See the Vocabulary building folder - describing relationships and how many in your family.
Also Hobbies, likes, dislikes and Hobbies, verbs.
Try writing out a paragraph on these topics for your portfolio. This will be a good reference when you are preparing for the oral exam.

Assessment:
Next week (week 9) you will have a small part of your final assessment during class time. This will comprise a listening exercise and a reading exercise.

The reading exercise will be similar to the reading we did a couple of weeks back - extracting information from a sign or notice, and also reading a short paragraph or some sentences and answering questions in English. There are some passages written in hiragana on BB for you to practice reading sentences. The assessment passages will NOT be that long!
The listening will involve listening to me read a passage and you have to write down as much information as you can from it.

If you are absent, there will be a chance to do it again the following week. If you don't do these parts of the assessment, you will lose marks as they are requirements.


Tutorials:
As assessment time draws closer, this is the time that people start thinking they want a tutorial - if you have any worries or just need reassurance that you are on the right track please book a tutorial.
Please come along to the tutorial hour next Tuesday 3-4 in skell 130 and bring your portfolio. If you can't make it, email me for an appointment either before or after class time.

Week 7

The topics for this week were mostly based around numbers so if you haven't got your head around the numbers, that is something you need to work on.

We did exercises about days of the week, times, dates and prices. There are sheets on blackboard with all the relevant vocab on them in the dates times numbers folder

We reviewed giving directions - see DirectionsEx in the Asking the way folder.

Then we did page 55 about what day of the week things are open.
We also looked at the Opening times exercise (dates, times folder) which is a reading exercise. The purpose was to show how you can get information from a poster (for example) by guessing the meaning from context without actually being able to read every kanji. You will need to recognise days of the week and dates (month and day) in kanji to do the exercise.
Staying with the kanji we learnt the kanji for 1 to 10. This is also on BB in the kanji folder.

We then moved onto ch 7, page 60 working with larger numbers. Make sure that you can say any number up to 9,999.

HOMEWORK
Your second piece for assessment is due next week - the topic is shopping or eating out, write a dialogue using as many different phrases as you can, not only what we have covered with the book but using other resources as well.
If you are reasonably confident with hiragana, please write it in hiragana ( see the notes on writing conventions on BB) if not, write it in romaji but also submite at leat part of it written in hiragana.
Use the square writing paper (also on BB) to write the hiragana version on.

COURSE DATES
I have only just realised that this semester we have a total of 12 weeks - 11 weeks of teaching and oral assessment in week 12. So the oral test will take place on Dec 16th (times to be arranged at a later date)

As part of your oral assessment you also have to do a listening test. This will take place in week 9, so please be sure to come to that session. If you are absent, we can do it after class on week 10 or 11. It is worth 10% of the mark so quite a big chunk (the difference between an A and a B grade!)
We will practice the week before just so that you know what to expect.

Week 6

Last night we covered most of chapter 6 - talking about hotel factilities and asking the way.
We also had a look at the kanji in chapter 6 and days of the week.

Handouts are on blackboard - look in "times,dates, numbers" and then "Dates-romaji" for the handout about days of the week and dates - take a bit of time to learn these words.
Also see "Hotel facilities" in the "Vocabulary building" folder.

If you were absent - make sure that you do all the exercises in that chapter at home.

If you haven't yet handed in your written piece for feedback let me have it next week.

Try to start writing your dialogues in hiragana/katakana - see the notes about "Writing conventions" in the hiragana folder on BB for more info about writing sentences. Have a look at the Hiragana reading file for some reading practice.

Ganbatte kudasai.

Week 5

Last night we looked at chapter 5 of BBC talk - saying where things are (in relation to other things) and covering some vocabulary about things you find in a town. See the power point on BB for vocab.
Saying where things are
The key words were:
tonari - next to
mae in front of
ushiro - behind
mukai - opposite
naka - inside
chikaku - near

EG: York wa Leeds no chikaku desu. York is near Leeds.

Useful phrases

There are also some useful phrases in this chapter for saying "I don't understand" "Please repeat that" "Please speak more slowly" - they are worth learning!

Adjectives
We have already come across a number of adjectives in the book so I talked a little bit about the use of adjectives both modifying a noun and also as a predicate:

Modifying noun --> hot coffee --> atsui kohi
Predicate --> Kono kohi wa atsui desu


There is also a negative form of adjectives:
atsui --> atsukunai
samui --> samukunai

See notes on BB (under grammar notes) for detail. Also check the link http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa040101a.htm for finding out more about adjectives.


Homework

Most people have already handed in their homework for feedback, I will look at them and get them back to you next week. If you haven't handed it in, make sure you get it in next week.

Week 4

The topics for this class were:

review of last week - introducing people
ordering in a restaurant, offering/ accepting and refusing food/ drink and also set phrases for eating and drinking.
Please make sure you have done all the exercises in ch 4 of the book.

The main grammar points covered were:
This and that
This - kore
That - sore
That over there - are

Counters
1. hitotsu
2. futatsu
3. mittsu
4. yottsu
5. itsutsu

Particles:
wa - topic marker
ga - subject marker
o - object marker
mo - replaces wa to add the sense of "aswell" e.g watashi mo - Me too.

After ch 4, there is a section called Checkpoint 1 - have a go at that and then identify which areas you need to work on.

Katakana - I am pleased to see that many people are working hard to get to grips with katakana. If you are still not confident, there are lots of resources in the library (orange box in the langauge resource room) as well as online resources to help you. Also try copying them out again and again. At this point, recognition is more important than being able to write them all from memory so concentrate on that. Also check youtube for the katakana alphabet song.

ASSIGNMENT FOR SUBMISSION
This must be handed in next week, and I will return it the following week with feedback.

Write a dialogue either people meeting for the first time and introducing others/ people making small talk at the bus stop/ at a restaurant or pub

Try not to just stick to phrases and vocab learnt in class but expand on what we have covered. This is your chance to show off to me how much you know. Try to make it as long as possible without being repetitive.
If you already know hiragana please write in hiragana. Otherwise, write in Romaji, try writing any katakana words in katakana.

Week 3

We completed chapter 3 of the book. You should now be able to introduce someone and mention what their relationship is to you. Make sure that you have done all the exercises in the book including the Now You're Talking section. Use this section to build up material for your portfolio - either written out dialogues or recorded ones.

Try to expand on the topics covered by
a) finding out about words for various family relationships ( see blackboard for some reference materials)
b) finding out more about adjectives and how to conjugate/use them

Also keep practicing the numbers so until you can say any number from 1-99 in random order and also say your own phone number and age.

You should have learnt all the basic katakana by now at least to recognise if not to write out. Work on learning the kana with sound changes and combinations. Don't forget there are resources in the language resource room as well as on BB/ internet etc.
If you are having trouble with any aspect of the language, or just need support/encouragement, come along to the Tuesday sessions from 3-4.

Week 2

This weeks topics were nationality and occupation.
You should be able to ask and answer yes/no questions about nationality

America jin desu ka
Hai sou desu / iie. igirisu jin desu

And also wh- questions about both topics:
O-kuni wa dochira desu ka
O-shigoto wa nan desu ka

Nan and dochira are so-called wh- question words because in English they begin with wh- what and where respectively.
There are resources on blackboard with additional vocabulary for these two topics.

Make sure you have completed all the exercises in chapters 1 and 2 including the "Now you're talking section"

You should also have learnt all the basic katakana by next week - there will be a small test. Don't forget there are materials in the resources room in the library (orange box on the high shelf that I showed you last night) for practicing katakana.

I am on campus on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon every week so if you have any questions or would like to talk to me about anything, get in touch and we can sort out a time.


Don't forget next Monday there will be a training session in the language lab from 4.30 - 5.30. Chexk out some head phones from the library desk on the ground floor. You could use this time to practice the "Now you're talking" sections and learn more about the lang lab system.

Week 1

Konnichi wa.

This week we learnt how to greet someone for the first time and ask their name.
I introduced katakana and some loan words which would be written in katakana in Japanese - food vocab.

We also learnt how to ask what's this
Kore wa nan desu ka

Also yes/ no questions

Kore wa piza desu ka

Hai, so desu
Hai, piza desu

Or
Iie, piza ja arimasen.
Chigaimasu, donatsu desu

NOTE:
You will have noticed that Watashi wa Mary desu and Kore wa piza desu ka both have the ----wa------desu pattern. Desu is the equivalent of is/am/are (present tense verb to be) - it doesn't change according to number, gender or person.
The wa is a grammatical marker that marks the topic of the sentence -the most important part.
It is actually known as a "particle" Japanese has lots of these particles, ka is another one which makes a statement into question.

Kore wa piza desu - this is a pizza
Kore wa piza desu ka - Is this a pizza?

They don't use question marks in Japanese punctuation because the ka has the same function.(Someone once remarked that Japanese has audible punctuation, this is an example of that)

HW: Make sure that you have read and understood ch 1 thoroughly by next week, if you can't get the book in time, there are copies in the library (in the languages resource room on the 2nd floor)

Welcome

Welcome to the class blog.
Put the URL of this blog in your favourites and then you can instantly see what we have been doing in class and what you need to do to get ready for next week.
It should be a useful reference if you are absent or have a bad memory.

Feel free to add comments - especially things that will be useful to other students ( weblinks, etc)