Learning Japanese: Is it better to start with Hiragana or Romaji?

There are two popular approaches for learning Japanese. One is using romaji, with everything written in romanised words, which means you don't have to remember the Japanese characters. This seems to be popular among the learners who are English speakers.

Another approach, which is popular in Hong Kong, starts with Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). With this approach, learners have to remember all the Japanese characters before they learn to use the language.

There are both pros and cons with each of the approaches. Many learners who are not good at remembering things often find the Kana approach stressful. Even if some manage to remember the words, many can't see why they're remembering, as the learning is mainly about learning how to write the characters and the related words correctly, leaving little room for communication.

The romaji approach, on the other hand, is often very communicative. The learners learn the phrases and do simple conversations easily as the text now looks very much like English, except a few unique sounds of Japanese like "tsu" and "hu". However, when can the learners read authentic Japanese materials? They will still have to learn the characters and kanji (Chinese words) later.

To me, a combination of both approaches should be a good way for learners in Hong Kong, as we are not entirely foreign to both English and Chinese. We can introduce kana like 2-3 rows in each lesson while teaching some simple conversation and expressions with the help of romaji, including self-introduction, numbers, classroom instructions and some greetings in Japanese.

With the mixed approach, students will still get to learn the kana (maybe at a slightly slower pace that they can handle) but they can also learn how to use the language for communicating with others. This does not only make learning more dynamic and interesting, but also helps students develop listening and speaking skills, apart from the initial kana reading and writing.

After a few lessons, the beginners will find themselves being able to produce not only the written kana but also know how to say something in Japanese including the numbers (very important if they enjoy shopping), self-introduction (good for making new friends) and responding to simple instructions like "mouichido" (once more), "wakarimasuka?" (do you understand?) and so on (help them get used to lessons conducting only in Japanese later).

Conclusion: Why I've become and teacher and whether I'll become more stupid

I didn't start teaching full-time until two years ago. There're a lot of contrasts inside me, especially the feeling of old and new.

OLD AND NEW
If you talk about just teaching, I'm not new to it. In 2006, I first started teaching part-time, accidentally. I just left a crazy yet high-paying job which required everyone to work around the clock with an i've-to-work-overtime-into-midnight-even-if-it's-my-own-birthday sort of attitude. All of a sudden, I had lots of free time after work with the new job and simply didn't know what to do and I just searched on mingpao jump by chance and got two part-time teaching offers, with one just 20 mins' walk from my office!

General English, Business English, Elementary Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Advanced Japanese, Business Japanese for Project Yi Jin... I taught a number of courses. I did all that at first to make myself busier and do something different for a change.

At first it was very difficult. I didn't get any teacher's training and I forgot how secondary teachers talk to their students in English. Some of the housewives told me that I was speaking too fast, but when I tried to adjust my speech and dumbed down the course, the students around my age started to drop out. Teaching wasn't that enjoyable until the school invited me to teach another language, Japanese. 

The students taking my Japanese course came from all walks of life. Instead of burdened with the pressure that they had to learn the language well in order to survive, these students were there mainly for fun, wishing that one day they can travel to Japanese and communicate with people there in Japanese.

I started to design my own speaking activities and got my students to do some writing in Japanese only a few months after they started learning the Japanese characters - but they were excited about all the hurdles that I put in front of them. Month after month, the 8-week short course finally became an 18-month regular course. I was still pretty inexperienced but there was one student, who turned out to be a famous writer who I respected very much, kept telling me that I was entirely different from all the teachers that she met in the past, that I was very engaged as I taught and made her feel very interested in the language. At the same time I spent a lot of time in the university library reading books about education, which gave me a lot of stimulation for teaching ideas and helped me improve my English lessons a lot... and I started to think about switching to teaching.

A few years later, I got offered a full-time GM teaching post, accidentally. When I thought the previous part-time experience would help me become a good teacher, I actually started to panic when I got the textbooks and course outline the summer before school began. I spent the last two weeks in August staying home preparing for materials and turned to friends for advice. In big panic, I asked one of my friends, "how would you teach this chapter if you were me?", while showing the textbooks to her. The intense preparation did make me feel slightly more secured, but during the first week of teaching, my heart was racing before every single lesson.

Having taught part-time for so many years, I still felt rather nervous when I started to teach full-time. The difference? One, I didn't get any pressure teaching part-time. The courses were often short and the students didn't have to come to my class if they didn't feel like doing so, whereas for full-time teaching, I'm often with the students the whole year and I'm accountable for what I do. Two, I didn't have to take care of any administrative work. Things were all ready for me but now I've to entertain lots of different parties and do many new things. Three, I've switched to teaching intentionally and I think I've the responsisbility to do it well.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT FROM TEACHING

In one of Dr Paul Sze's blog entries (http://paulsze.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/do-teachers-become-more-stupid-after-teaching-for-a-few-years/), he mentioned the issue "Do teachers become more stupid after teaching for a few years?".

After keeping this blog for two months, my response is both positive and negative.

Positive - teachers WILL become more stupid.
- Unlike a random office job that sends you to different places at home and abroad (or across the border to mainland China), teaching often takes place at the assigned place at the assigned time with the assigned students using the assigned curriculum. Physically most teachers are confined in a complex, learning little about the things outside the school. The exposure is limited.

- Teachers mark the same assignment for over 30 times over and over again as we assign the work to students. We're trained to cope with the similar and familiar, and it's possible that we gradually forget our own creativity. It's lucky to have some students who have original and great ideas and communicates their ideas clearly, but unfortunately they are often the minority.

Negative - teachers WILL NOT become more stupid.
- If teachers try to approach the students and talk to them (despite of our already busy schedule), teachers can actually learn a lot from the students, especially about what is popular these days, their travel experience, and the latest technology.

- Even if we don't have extra time for the students, if we're reflective enough, we can pick up something every day. It can be simple like "asking specific questions", "being thankful to others" and "becoming a benefit finder", but these are not easily learnt unless we "defamiliarise" our routine and make the effort to think back on what happens to us. I made myself update the blog every day, and honestly there were days when I hardly remember what I did during the day, but once I took the time and thought about what happened in that day, I could still come up with something.

The answer to whether we'll become more stupid lies in our hands and varies among different people. I would say it depends a lot on whether we're willing to reflect on our practice and improve.

Day 27: Don't use a metal spoon

During the break in a lesson, I had my honey drink. Then D told me it's not healthy to use a metal spoon with honey as it decomposes some of the nutrients.

As far as I know, stainless steel is a chemically unreative substance, but I'll take her advice. There're a number of traditional Chinese formula that haven't been proved (or proved wrong) by scientific researches anyway.

Day 26: Learn and change

Honestly, I've always been a procrastinator. Although I've become slightly better at time management now, I still like to put things aside and wait until I've the right mood.

K, on the other hand, is entirely different. She turned to me for advice yesterday, about the university study programmes and her personal statement. She was especially concerned about the organisation and cohesion of ideas in her personal statement so we spent almost half an hour revising it together. It was an enjoyable experience and K also said it was interesting looking at the piece in great detail.

Today she came over with another piece, borrowing the features that I had introduced to her yesterday. What an efficient learner! Her change was impressive and I gave her a bit of compliment as I returned the piece to her, along with some feedback.

So let's see if I can stop procrastinating and be efficient like K.

Day 25: Give constructive feedback

Yesterday I conducted a survey in class for my paper about writing feedback. It was an anonymous online survey so basically the students can write about whatever they want.

The results, however, was a bit surprising. There were both positive and negative feedback, but when students pointed out the limitations, they focused more on what else I can consider in the future. (Or did they learn it from my feedback to their writing? hahaha)

I feel thankful for their suggestions and their care for me, and I think in the future, when I have to evaluate someone, I'll also focus more on the strengths and give "suggestions for improvement", instead of pointing out the "weaknesses" as if it's some kind of sin.

Day 24: Attend to inspiring questions

S is quick and pretty good at the subject that I teach. She often raises issues that make me ponder. In the first semester, she asked about the difference between "most people" and "most of the people" as her secondary school teacher did not allow them to use "most of the people", and that started my exploration about these two expressions, as it seems to me that they refer to different contexts and there's nothing wrong with "most of the people".

Yesterday she asked about the use of articles "the" in front of place names. Is there any rule at all?

Mid-term review

I haven't updated this blog for a few days, since my days have been fully packed and I hardly have any time to sit down and think. My previous job in the business field was also busy, but it's entirely different from teaching at school level.

One, there were assistants who could help me with the administrative duties. Now I do everything from data entry to arranging photocopies.

Two, when I had lunch, it was always my own time and I could do whatever I wanted. Now things are entirely different, leaving little room for recovery of energy.

Three, teaching involves a lot of routine. When you spend extra time preparing a lesson, you risk having little time left for assignment feedback and other duties required by the school. But then if you can manage to spend extra time researching for teaching ideas in the library, getting well prepared for lessons and marking all the assignments, it only means you have done your job.

It seems that if you take a macroscopic view, "learning" is everywhere, but if we look at the Bloom's taxonomy below,

it can be seen that most of the school admin tasks requires only the bottom two levels, whereas lesson preparation might involve the higher levels including "synthesis" and "analysis", but it all depends on whether a teacher has enough time to think over it. Evaluation of the effectiveness, on the other hand, can be luxury, as the lessons often come one after another.

As for stimulation, staying at the same place teaching the same subject for a long time can kill the creativity for teaching; therefore, it seems that doing plenty of travel and getting out of the school to attend talks and talking to the others seem to be a good way to stay refreshed. Reading can be another way. The only problem is: do we have the time to do all that?

So maybe one more thing that we can learn from teaching is, how to manage time and prioritize tasks well. haha

Day 23: Pay attention to the needs of others

In an award presentation today, a student shared her experience in voluntary services. She mentioned one important thing: pay attention to the needs of others; when visiting the eldery, she would play the role of a good listener, but when working with the kids, she would approach them actively and try to resolve the arguments that often occur among kids of different age groups.

As I listened to what she said, I was thinking whether we adopt similar approaches in teaching. In some cases we have to be excellent listeners, but in other situations we have to be proactive and even "control" what is happening.

Day 22: Weddings in Shanghai

Before the afternoon sessions, I had some time to chat with D, who just came back from Shanghai. When asked about her trip, D told me that she went to a wedding in Shanghai.

The banquet dishes served are different from those in Hong Kong (I wasn't aware that roasted piglet is uniquely Cantonese), and so is the music and the games. I told D about weddings I went to in other places and in Hong Kong and we laughed a lot about the strange bits.

It's nice to learn about the world outside through D. I'll try and talk to N who also went away during Easter later.

Day 21: Interview by reflective listening

Yesterday two students interviewed me for their final year project. It was supposed to be a stuctured interview, but they tried to ask extra questions when they found necessary.

It had a very good flow, and one of the students didn't ask a lot of open questions but with a lot of "it seems that you think... could you tell me more about it?", evidence of reflective listening.

After the interview, I told her that the interview was very fluent, especially the follow-up part. One of them also said she tried to not to ask too many new questions but to develop from the previous question.

I haven't done a formal interview for a while and thanks R for reminding me some of the good interview techniques.

Day 20: Be a "benefit finder"

I stayed up all night for some school work. In order not to look like a walking mummy, I tried to wear a vintage colourful one-piece minidress with a pair of colourful earrings that matches the outfit.

In spite of what I wore, I still looked tired and maybe a bit pale. A janitor noticed that too, but when I told her what I did, surprisingly, she said "then you can manage time well later and don't have to rush".

This made me feel much better. She's definitely a "benefit finder", as she sees the benefit in an issue, rather than the downside.

Now I've to take the benefit of quality sleeping. Bonne nuit!

Day 19: Feel free to make a lot of mistakes as we learn

I was addicted to Andrew Matthews' books like "Being happy" and "Making friends" when I was still a high school student, and I think it's probably where I was first introduced to the concept "learning to fail".

It's such a long time and I really can't remember very well how I learnt my second and third langauge, especially the tough part. And today, in the elementary Japanese class, I just asked my students about things they did during the Easter break. Instead of giving simple answers using phrases they have already learnt, many used their smartphones to look up some new expressions and tried to put together their thoughts in a foreign language.

Some of their "experiments" didn't work out, but they tried over and over again, as if they were babies who were learning how to walk and looked quite excited about the new ways to say something in Japanese.

So maybe I should try and appreciate the mistakes that we make as we learn, and then, think about what we can do to make things work.

Maybe this is what I should do about my own final paper too hahaha
"What can I do to make it work?" instead of "How come it doesn't seem the work the way I want it to be?"

Day 18: Listen more, speak more and write better

Some of my students have  a lot interesting ideas for writing. During the break in the lesson today, I asked N how she came up with so many great ideas in her article. N told me that she actually didn't learn how to write by writing or reading, but listening and speaking!

She enjoys listening to American talk shows and learnt most of the expressions there, plus the skills to create a climax in story, just like what people do when giving a humourous speech, and these skills are transferred to her writing and speaking.

Without N, I would have never thought about the miraculous relationship between listening, speaking and writing. We often think that when we read more, we'd naturally become better writers, but there seems to be an alternative for people who are not into reading.

This is such an interesting topic!

Day 17: Timing is important

It's the last day of my Easter break, a short one when compared with the primary and secondary schools but a rather long one for the post-secondary sector.

Today I hanged out with E, who took my Japanese interest class a couple of years ago. At first we thought E must be a housewife, but it turned out that she was a member of the management board in a famous bank! We didn't know that until one day when we had a hotpot gathering and happened to talk about investment. To our surprise, E was well versed with stocks and other investment products, in and out of Hong Kong!

Now I still meet E a few times a year, sometimes with Y, the writer. We often exchange our views about life and the current economy. I enjoy reading the news and just regurgitate what I read plus a bit of my own opinions, and E would give me her analysis. It seems that both E and Y are successful investors, but today E pointed out a very important point: the key is not just about what you buy, but when you buy it. As soon as everyone's getting crazy about something, it's too late, she said.

Does this resonate with Warren Buffett's famous quote, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful"?

Day 16: Look at things from another perspective

When teaching in the computer lab, I often put my screen "on show", which means the students can see the powerpoint slides and the videos easily, and more importantly, they wouldn't be distracted with other stuffs on their own computer, say, using facebook and playing games online.

But there's one strange thing that I failed to understand.

I often tell the students before putting my screen "on show" that "10 seconds later I'm going to lock your computers so please save your files and other important documents".

But the thing is, whenever I click on the button "teacher show", there comes a bit of strange noise like "argh...", as if they are feeling surprised about the "lock".

I told them in advance and gave them time to save things, so how come they are still sounding a bit surprised, as if it's a completely new idea?

I had no idea why until Wednesday night.

I didn't even know there's the same computer program in university - to put the instructor's screen on show. I always thought it's just a tool for classroom management for school teachers.

This time I played the student role and had my lecture in a computer lab. Some of the other students (who are supposed to be teachers!) became a bit distracted with other stuffs on their own computers and the professor suddenly put his screen on show.

"arghh....", suddenly I heard this on my mind. I was paying full attention to the lecture but when the screen changed into something uncontrollable, I felt as if some of my freedom was being taken away (this might sound a bit exaggerated... hahaha)

It was such a strange experience but it helped me look at things from the students' perspective. Now I wouldn't feel strange at all about their reaction.

I were in their shoes and I knew how it was like.

Day 15: Be ready for learning

There is a course that I enjoy teaching quite a bit, and it has a lot with do with the students. I'd say they are a bit different from the others. There are of course a few who are a bit detached or distracted, but whenever I went into the lecture room, they were always ready. Always.

I hardly have to say anything to help them settle down as I usually do in the other classes. Instead, what I often do in this class is smiling at the students as I walk into the room (and some smile back to me!), and sometimes even saying "it's nice to see you all again" from the bottom of my heart.

Not only me, some other colleagues also said that they enjoy teaching this particular group of students. There're a lot I can learn from them, particularly about their readiness for learning. Not everyone is great in this course, but the overall atmosphere is excellent.

I just wonder, why are they always ready for learning? What's the secret behind?

Day 14: Create surprises for others

The room was dark. The whole group of students were standing around something...

It was another birthday celebration!

There were not only the cake, but also lots of presents, including a large board with messages from everyone and photos they took together.

The birthday girl, obviously, was thrilled with all the surprises.

The presents are not expensive, but they all look like what a late teen would love to have.

Isn't it nice to make surprises like that once in a while?

Eさん、お誕生日おめでと う！

Day 13: My sources of motivation

There's no class but whole-day meetings these few days, and I've been thinking whether teaching is what I truly want to do.

On Saturday I was reorganising some backup files at home, when I found emails from Y, a former student of mine. I started to teach her Japanese for almost 2 years when I was still a fresh graduate, and she was already a famous writer (only that we didn't know) who had her own column in a popular newspaper in Hong Kong.

In her emails, she mentioned more than once that I should be teaching and mentioned how special I was, especially for...

My passion for what I teach
My smile
My willingness to motivate and help students
My creativity

I should really thank Y for encouraging me to teach - and reminding me of how good I was.

All I need now is a bit of encouragement and recognition - but since when have I become a person with DEPENDENT self-esteem?

Maybe it's the conversation going around, officially and unofficially that reminds me constantly of the possible layoff?

Maybe it's the drive for the school to change that ignores the basic needs of the teachers?

Maybe...

Whatever it is, all I need now is just a bit of encouragement and recognition, and I should thank Y for giving me the motivation to teach.

PS In the Japanese drama, the employees would be really touched and cry when the boss or the manager says to them "あなたは必要なんだ！" (Our company needs you!) It looks a bit over the top to me, but sometimes maybe we do need some sort of recognition like that. Strangely sometimes the schools do things the other way round.

Day 12: Show the subtitles on youtube videos

I was about to show an interview about tourism, and the speakers had a rather strong accent. In order to help students understand what it's all about, I chose a version with English subtitles at home.

But when it's played in class today, the subtitles disappeared!
"The subtitles disappeared! When I watched this at home it was there!", I said. Then one of the students said, calmly, "Just clicked on 'CC'".

And there came the subtitles again!

Thanks M for telling me about the subtitle function on youtube.

Day 11: Offer help to those in need

I've twisted my ankle and can barely manage to walk... real slowly. At the end of today's lesson, a few students submitted their portfolio to me and S and C offered to help me bring them back to my office.

There were more than 30 students in the same room but without a second thought, S came over and said she'll carry all the files for me. I was really touched.

When I thanked S and C for their help, they simply said it's what they should do. Wow! What seems to be a small deed to them is indeed a big help to me!

Thanks S and C for teaching me to offer help to the others.

Day 10: Know what you want

I left school a bit late tonight, and happened to see W and R on the train. I'm rather curious about what teenagers like to do after school. 

Just like other teenagers, W and R like going shopping with friends and family when they are free, but when I asked whether they're going shopping from now, they said they're actually on their way to work - 4 hours every day after school! So why are they working this hard while their classmates are having an easy life thinking about what to do to have fun?

R said, "I'd rather be busy and sieze the opportunities to learn and work, than having to do something to kill time". I'm a bit surprised having heard this from a 17-year-old, who is very clear about what she wants.

What do I want? This can be a difficult question.
It's nice to have some inspiration from R.

Day 9: Learn about what students want to learn

I like to say hi to the students whenever we bump into each other at school. A simple "hi" might eventually bring about a chat, questions from the students... and even some teaching ideas.

On Friday I saw N and M in the common area when I was heading to the elevator. We started with "how are you?", which later developed into a sharing about things that they want to learn for presentation.

It turned out that they want to know how to do away with the "set phrases" in their presentation, which is something I've never thought of.

Thank you for such an amazing idea. I'll go to the library to search for books about presentations and work this out.

Day 8: Be creative

In a Japanese conversation practice, students were encouraged to change some of the words in the original script and play the roles themselves. There was quite a bit of improvisation.

I think I'm a rather creative person but I'll learn to be creative at all times, even for the routines.

Day 7: Make some effort for things that you really want

My college has a scholarship for students who are taking the initiatives to help the others and serve the community. Recently a lot of students have been asking the teaching staff to write recommendation letters, and S and T approached me for that last week.

S is a very efficient student. She told me what makes her a good candidate for the scholarship and her past experience orally, and asked if I need further details immediately.

T was a bit shy and asked if I could write the recommendation letter for her. Afterwards, she sent me an email giving me a list of voluntary work that she has done over the years together with a number of pictures. Later she came over to my office to see if I would like to learn more about her stories and share with me the satisfaction that she had by helping the others.

Thanks S and T for showing me two entirely different approaches to go for things that you want.

Day 6: Do something before it is too late

K came over to hand in her assignment when I was in the office earlier today. As she passed it to me, I couldn't help saying 'Wow! It's short!'. All of a sudden, K seemed to have realized something and asked if she could hand in the assignment later today.

A few hours later, K came again, with another piece - handwritten this time, but with good quality. Indeed I didn't say anything else in order to make it fair to the other students, but K was quick enough to have spotted the problem and managed to fix it.

It was a last-minute rush, but K taught me to be sensitive about the hints around and seize the chance to improve before it's too late.

Day 5: Learning takes time

L saw my entry about M and suddenly thanked me. I'm glad that my own reflection helps the others learn something too.

L said sorry to me but in fact she doesn't have to. School is a place for students to learn so it's ok not to be having the best shape all the time. There are things that my teachers taught me but I never understood until I became a teacher myself. So L, you're way better than me because you've realised the importance to show gratitude when you're still in school.

I remember that in my last year of undergraduate studies, Dr C taught me a lot about the cohesion in a passage. It was my English translation which lacked the cohesion, and Dr C gave me specific suggestions for improvement in the one-on-one tutorials. At that time I had a rough idea what he meant but the idea of cohesion remained rather abstract to me.

It was not until earlier last year, when I started to give specific feedback to students' writing, then I realised what students lack in their writing was very similar to what Dr C taught me back then!

On Nov 18, 2010, the day that I made the big discovery, I emailed Dr C immediately and told him all about it, and thanked him. He wrote in response, "I am glad to know you are still your old lively self. Keep well."

This says that learning takes time, and not everyone is a fast learner. So L, you don't have to be apologetic at all, just keep going and give yourself some time.

Day 4: Show your gratitude

M is a problem student. She often comes to class late and is often distracted or even totally detached during the lessons. I found her a bit troublesome too, but I didn't dislike her or ignore her. Instead, I tried to involve her and gave her a lot of chances.

Last Saturday many of my students from M's class took IELTS. During the break today, many of them shared with me what they were asked, how they performed and so on. All the questions they got in the speaking test were within the 10 themes that I had picked for them and they were grateful having prepared in advance.

Then M suddenly came over with a big smile and told me how happy she was. She said the question she got was exactly the same question that I assigned in the first semester and she thanked me for that.

No one thanked me but M. It's a bit unbelievable.
M taught me not to be shy about showing gratitude towards other people.

Day 3: Make my expectations clear to the students

Today I didn't meet any student, but V, a teacher. She told me a lot about teaching in Mexico and the dysfunctional schools there. It made her so upset and I realised how important it is to have high expectations on the students and establish that through different classes.

Most students from V's school in Mexico come from the underpriviledged families, and students are playing, singing, laughing, running... doing virtually anything they want but learning. Not only V's lessons, but all lessons are messy. It seems that students are not aware of the reason why they are in school, and the teachers did not make it clear what is expected from the students since the first day.

While many consider that having high expectation on the students is good, how to make it clear to them?

Day 2: Ask specific questions

In yesterday's writing class, I gave every single one of the students some specific advice for improvement and told them what they were good at. Most of them nodded as they listen and did not ask anything. A few of them asked very broad questions like "What should I do about this?". Some thanked for my advice.

A handful of them asked me questions referring to what I had said, but A was different. On top of responding to my advice, she asked questions that were very specific and clear:

1) How can my answer here (referring to a specific section) be better organised?
2) How much time do you recommend for planning the writing? From analysing the question to organising my ideas...

Thanks to A's questions, I found it easier to give her suggestions relevant to her case.

So do I often ask specific questions like A?

Day 1b: We all learn from our students

In a long chat with two students, L and W today, I learnt that W is working as a part-time tutorial teacher. She shared with me some interesting things in her lessons and what she learnt from her students.

Through teaching, W had the opportunity to study again what she already knew, and discovered some new things as she taught. Her students learnt better, and so did she.

By taking a look at what teachers knew already, as though it were something new, we are likely to come up with something new. This is what W taught me.

Day 1: Be excited about changes

In today's elementary Japanese class, I taught the new sentence patterns and conversation in Japanese. It was the first time we did everything in only Japanese. 

The students tried their best to speak to each other in Japanese in the speaking activities and most of them looked really excited. It wasn't easy but they welcomed the change and made a huge effort to understand what they hear and got their message across in Japanese.

See changes the positive way and be excited. This is what I learnt today.

Kick off of an experiment

I teach.
I care about how well my students learn.
I think back on how I teach.

So who's learning?
Students? Yes.
Me? Hmmmmmmm......

After reading Dr Sze's blog entry
"Do teachers become more stupid after teaching for a few years? ",
I've got a flash of idea.

Why don't we learn from the students?
And this is what I'll do:

For the coming 60 days, I will put down at least one thing that I have learnt from my students during the day.

Two months later, let's decide whether I've become more stupid or not.