Konnichiwa, minasan!
Today I'd like to summarize your comments on the course that you have written on the last day.
1) General Comments for the Class
Most of you said you enojoyed the class in a relax mood and that you were interested in learning Japanese. As a teacher, I am very happy to hear such a positive comment! Some of you wrote you worried at the beginning whether you could follow the class. In my opinion, all of you (honto desu) did a good job. Maybe it is good to have a little bit of worry when you learn something becuase that makes the person hardworking.
Some of you wrote the lesson was sometimes too dry or boring, and requested me to make it more lively. I guess one of the reasons is that we spent a bit too much time for pattern practice based on the textbook. In the next semester, I will do my best to provide you with more materials from other books and media to make classroom activities more fun. In addition, I expect you to raise more questions for our discussion. You know I LOVE students to ask questions in the class, right? That is one of the things that you can contribute to make the class lively. You can ask not only about the language but about culture, etc. And maybe I should not be the only one to try to answer to your questions. For example, I am not an "authority" of Japanese culture (just being Japanese will not authorize me to discuss it dominantly.) Actually I often wonder what is "Japanese culture", and often feel annoyed when I hear people, especially Japanese people, talk about Japanese culture holistically in a manner of "I know better than you because I am Japanese." I guess what you perceive as "Japanese culture" should be also considered a reality of Japanese culture. That's why I welcome your opinion to share idea and mak our understanding of those issues deeper.
2) Popular Activities
No. 1 Blogging
No. 2 Drama, interviews, roleplays, movie watching, etc.
Yes, blogging is your most favorite activity and we will continue blogging in the next semester.
Many of you said you liked interviews because you could learn a lot of expressions and structures when you were preparing it. The same thing can be said about dramas, and in addition it seems fun to act with friends.
3) Unpopular Activities
No. 1 Listening Test
No. 2 Pairwork
No. 3 Kanji
Regarding the listening test, one of the students wrote:
"I really do not know how to improve it (my listening skill ), because reading and listening are so different. .... Even if I do badly in a listening test, it doesn't really reflect my listening ability. In actual life, we can request people to repeat again if we don't understand."
I agree that in actual communication with someone, we can ask him/her to repeat if you don't understand what was said. Maybe asking in a proper manner when you don't understan is more important skill that you need to acquire. However, there are occasions where you need to understand one-way communication, such as news from TV, radio, announcements at public places... Regarding how to improve listening skills, I think it is important that on top of knowing vocabs, expressions and how they are pronounced, you aquire the skill to guess overall content from key words and expressions which mark the flow of conversation. Therefore, not only just listen to CD of the textbook and watching movies, participating in conversation activities inside and ouside class is also important because you will learn how oral communication is constructed by participants.
As for kanji, one of the students suggested we use a website in order to learn kanji in more fun way. I think it is good idea because using web materials, students can learn kanji at her/his pace and can focus on the knowledge or skills that s/he needs. This is important because the level of kanji ability is different between Chinese educated students and those who are not, and even among the Chinese educated ones. Thank you for the suggestion. I'd like to make use of web-based materials in learning kanji from the next semester onwards.
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There are many requests from you that I should consider seriously (some, I am not sure I can realize before you graduate, like , organizing a trip to Japan). Anyway, thank you so much!
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