The Acquisition of Language
things i am being called lately
ribu-sensei* da ‘ittle one* shouku-chan* blissfully naive weirdo *personal favorites
Ribu-sensei
… how staff members refer to me when telling parents that I will be taking over such-and-such other teacher’s class. Yesterday, in one of my children’s classes, my lesson plan focused on the vocabulary for “moon,” “star,” “planet,” etc and the staff suggested I do this arts and crafts project to make it more fun: […]
summatto
Yesterday, I taught a student who couldn’t hear the difference between “straight” and “street.” Since our lesson focused on Western hospitality – “how do you take your coffee?” “street!” – this issue came up several times. First, I attempted to correct his pronunciation to no avail. Then, on a piece of scrap paper, I drew […]
status
after 6 weeks in Sakiio i have: signed up for my internet account, through the magical help of my Japanese friend Carnitas (cheaper than yahoo bb and supposedly will arrive in about 3 weeks) arranged for my first Japanese class (tomorrow!) I still not have: paid my phone bill (due the 25th) secured my health […]
I eat my pigeon!
Before I moved to Japan, I did a little Japanese self-study. I bought a (rather lame) book designed to help me learn Japanese in 10 minutes a day and a (rather good) book to help me learn to write hiragana and katakana. Peaches also gave me the gift of a seriously good book on katakana […]
things Japanese people can’t say
refrigerator* *this word sent two of my students today into an eye-bugging tizzy as they tried to wrap their tongues around the word. It was even worse because the word was tucked into the phrase: "the garbage can is between the refrigerator and the door." Madness.
neko
Near my school, there is a pet store. Between classes the other day, I snuck over there while the rest of my friends were at the Family Mart. Inside there were cages upon cages of kitties – Russian Blues, Siamese, Persians and even tiger stripey ones like my heifer – and they all wanted to play […]
too hot to handle
takoyaki for lunch today, bought from the stand outside Daimaru department store. 6 of them, on a flimsy styrofoam tray, the first skewered by two wooden toothpicks in case one hoped to share. in theory, they combine the best of two worlds – bits of octopus and warm, comforting fried batter – but fresh from […]
looova
British Steve (one of my fellow teachers and friends here) says all of his schwa sounds as “oooh.” “Say ‘lover’, Steve!” urges American Mike, his roommate. “Loooova,” Steve will say gorgeously. “I don’t have an accent. I don’t know what you guys are talking abOAT.” says Alan from Ottawa. “But that letter you keep trying […]