Saturday, December 8, 2007

日本語のクラス

みんなさん!We did it!!! We survived 日本語のクラス!!! For this semester that is.....

Just kidding. Ummm, tell me why this has been one of the funnest (is that a word, I ALWAYS ask that) classes EVER! Seriously, my other classes pale in comparison to this class. Let's see physics I have 250 people so I can't really have Clemons study groups or daily Pav lunches with 250 people....or can I?....no I can't.

I have NEVER taken such an efficient and intense language class, ever! I think I have learned more in the first semester of Japanese 101 that I had in about 2 years of highshool Spanish. みんなさん、what is really funny is when I go home to visit and my family members all ask me "Say this is Japanese" or "how do you say ___ in Japanese?" or my FAVORITE is when we had a Thanksgiving party and my mom's coworkers came over and she made me describe them!!!! Luckily, we had learned how to describe friends and family and I was successful. But, it is REALLY interesting the look that people get on their faces when you say "I'm taking Japanese." If I said I knew Spanish and English, no one would care. Arabic, maybe. But, Japanese is like no other language I have every encountered before.

Also, Sato-sensei is the BEST language teacher I've ever had!!!!! I don't even know HOW, but somehow we learn so FAST and so much!!!! And, you know what's weird? Iremember EVERY vocab word from the beginning of the semester effortlessly. With Spanish, I have strain to remember certain vocabulary words. I think Sato-sensei AND Kawai-sensei are a REALLY good team and I can't wait to learn more!!!!! I'm so anxious, I will most likely pour through GENKI I throughout the break....

Lastly, みんなさん。As Chen-san said in his blog, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! ("In a totally platonic way" - thanks mel). I have met some of my BEST friends at UVA through this class. I realized without JAPN 101, my schedule would have been really lackluster. I love ARCH students and all, but they're too serious...PHYS students are boring, MATH students are nerdy, ARH 101 students ARE THE WORST. Also, when coming to UVA I really expected to cling to my High school friends like glue; however, I realized that a lot of my new friends are much better individuals than my past high school friends. That doesn't mean I don't like them, it's just my eyes have been opened to new types of people. You know how people say ignorance is bliss? Well, isn't it quite the opposite? Do you want to be blind to potential friends and new types of people? I don't. I am SO glad I took this class. My family, sister specifically, wanted me to take Arabic and my father was really aggrevated when I signed up for JAPN 101 - I personally did not know what I was doing. But,I really feel like an 大人 for the first time ever because I've made future plans, and am taking actions to fulfill them.

No one can stop me.

Thanks guys, and thanks to our sensei's who are helping us impress/change the world!!!!!

ハマ

Good luck on your finals guys and see you maybe before the your finals guys and see you maybe before the final, during the final, and after the final!

Peer Editing/Speech Process

I just wanted to say that peer editing is really REALLY beneficial. Although my partners, and I am assuming everyone else's partners, did not catch every single mistake, that is only one aspect of the speech editing process. While it is important to catch mistakes, the best part was a) working on reading in Japanese (improving speed of reading) b) reading comprehension c) finding mistakes in our own writing while reading someone else's paper d) seeing the styles of other people e) developing our own writing style f) getting to be creative and exploring sentence structure alternatves not discussed in class g) use of new vocab among everyone (which words did people specifically choose and why?) h) Sato-sensei reading our second draft and pointing out glaring mistakes i) memorizing monologue (not skit dialogue) in Japanese j) fluency of speaking (natural speed and intinations) k) see other people's speaking styles

SO, as you can see, there are SO many reasons why the speech writing/editing/performing process was REALLY beneficial (10 REASONS ABOVE!!!). Also, I advice EVERYONE to be harsh when grading. Since we are not in middle school any more, we don't have to be modest and say "I'm sorry, you have a mistake here." We are all HELPING each other out by pointing out mistake and correcting them. And, if you point an error that is actually correct, then the worst consequence is learning something new. YOU HURT SOMEONE MORE IF YOU DONT POINT OUT MISTAKES!!!

Yamen Hama