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).
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Monday 18 July 2011
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.
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.
Saturday 21 May 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
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.
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.
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.
Saturday 14 May 2011
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?
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
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,
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
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