Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Japanese lesson
So, I've had two Japanese lessons so far. They're private and at this lady's house. She advertised herself as a "certified teacher." She speaks very good English. So good, in fact, that she doesn't like to speak Japanese at all. It's almost as if speaking Japanese is an imposition.
I picked up on this pretty quickly in my first class, but I thought hey, it's the first day, I'll let it go. But on the way out the door, I told her that the next time she could feel free to speak Japanese with me. But in the next class, she didn't. So I told her that I would like to speak Japanese in my JAPANESE class and she spent the next 25 minutes (really) telling me why that was a bad idea. I told her, well, just let me know if you don't wanna do it and I'll get out of your hair and be on my merry way. She said okay, I'll teach you in Japanese...if that's what you want. Then she finally started teaching me in Japanese. And it was great!... for a while, until she started explaining everything to me (in English of course). And man, once she started, she couldn't stop. Anyway, the good news is that the second class was better than the first one. Hopefully she'll get used to letting me learn and stop feeling so damn guilty about not being able to explain everything.
She's a nice lady by the way. Don't mean to diss. Just need to vent. Different cultures, different education systems, different views on what a teacher should be doing and what a student should be doing and all of that. yadda yaddah
Anyway, hope all is well and you're having a good week.
xxoo kelly
ps. we got our wedding pictures! they're great!
I picked up on this pretty quickly in my first class, but I thought hey, it's the first day, I'll let it go. But on the way out the door, I told her that the next time she could feel free to speak Japanese with me. But in the next class, she didn't. So I told her that I would like to speak Japanese in my JAPANESE class and she spent the next 25 minutes (really) telling me why that was a bad idea. I told her, well, just let me know if you don't wanna do it and I'll get out of your hair and be on my merry way. She said okay, I'll teach you in Japanese...if that's what you want. Then she finally started teaching me in Japanese. And it was great!... for a while, until she started explaining everything to me (in English of course). And man, once she started, she couldn't stop. Anyway, the good news is that the second class was better than the first one. Hopefully she'll get used to letting me learn and stop feeling so damn guilty about not being able to explain everything.
She's a nice lady by the way. Don't mean to diss. Just need to vent. Different cultures, different education systems, different views on what a teacher should be doing and what a student should be doing and all of that. yadda yaddah
Anyway, hope all is well and you're having a good week.
xxoo kelly
ps. we got our wedding pictures! they're great!
