Today in class I had a couple of interesting observations. At one point, the teacher I was teaching with, Mr. Harada, asked me to pronounce “aunt” for the students after telling them over and over how to pronounce it. He pronounced it the British way, and so when I pronounced it like “ant”, he was a little surprised. In that situation, we just went through it, and he was a good sport about it. I certainly wasn’t going to pronounce it another way, so it was up to him to adapt. Maybe he should have checked with me beforehand.
Another observation was that the students on a couple of occasions have had to translate English into Japanese, and they seem to prefer translating into katakana English – that is, words borrowed from English and adapted for use in Japanese. In many cases there are traditional Japanese words available, but the students prefer to use the ones borrowed from another language. Does this mean that the original Japanese words could be lost in the future by falling out of general use? I like the idea that the Japanese language is gradually sounding more and more like English.
I did some recording of listening tests in between classes today, and I think we’re all ready to go for the big test day tomorrow. I have no classes – so I’m going to go to work and just hang out and get paid. Nice!
Tonight we ate chicken tacos for dinner, and now we’re just chilling out around the house. Kuniko is in the middle of one of her long stretches without a holiday – she has to work both days this weekend – so I’m just trying to give her every chance to rest up when she’s at home.
I’m off to study kanji – I’m still not brave enough to bring the Nintendo DS to work and study there. When I’m punching away at the DS I’m sure everyone will think I’m playing Super Mario or something. That’s the big drawback to using it as a study tool for adults. There is a little bit of a stigma about using it. But in the comfort of my own home, anything goes…
