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.