Sheltered Initiation Language Learning 

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Japanese Lesson 3: confront grammar.

Study as before, though in a partly new way.

Preparation: associations.

Lou cheats in the HOUSE.

Lou cheats neatly to go HOME-WARD.

knee-WARD, TO the knee

gawk, co-eds, at the SCHOOL

me say this is a good STORE

GO with the E. key, moss.

a yoyo could do WELL

uchi
HOUSE
-ni

-ni is translated as "-WARD", as in "home-ward, east-ward"; that is, it means "to-" but it follows its noun. More generally, Japanese has "postpositions" instead of "prepositions".

gakko
SCHOOL
mise
STORE
ikimas
GO
yoku
WELL

BEWARE OF "GRAMMARITIS"! Unless you can use the new ending appropriately most of the time, it is probably best ignored. In general, absence of endings is less confusing than wrong endings: The three child go tomorrow to many store is a lot more comprehensible than The three childs will went tomorrow to many storedren. This kind of "grammaritis" will destroy your ability to learn, as well as speak. You must speak confidently and continuously in order to be understood.


Step 1: Word-Quiz

Translate each of the following words.

1. store

2. well

3. school

4. teacher

5. go

6. house

7. -ward

8. dances

9. person

10. writes

11. subject marker

12. tea

13. I

14. chopsticks

15. please

16. meat

 


Step 2: Pattern-Drill

Sensei-wa uchi-ni ikimas.
The verb always ends the sentence. All complements precede it.

In SILL, all new grammatical categories are taught one at a time, "asymmetrically" rather than in tables (paradigms). Tables are used mainly to review learned categories. Each new category is, in a sense, "optional": Not using it is a "shortcut," which will maximize comprehensibility.


Step 3: Talk Now!

1. Tell what you do at a party, in comparison with what others do.

To continue studying the language:

Study five words at a time, following each study-step until fluent:

1 ..

Word-quiz,

2 ..

Pattern Drill,

3 ....

Talk now!

Also, do frequent Talkathons on your own (in the car, etc..): Talk to pets, pictures, friends, whoever, for as long as you can.

Talkathon

Practice by talking to a picture or a pet for as long as you can without stopping!

When no specific "Talk now! " is assigned, you should be able to make up your own topics, or just have a Talkathon!


COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

a) Responding

Each question contains one key-word that you know. Respond to the question by making up a new sentence (a statement, not a question) using the known word; follow with 2-3 other sentences. (If you don’t recognize any words, say any 2-3 sentences.)

1. Sensei-wa, ima nani-o shimas-ka?

5. Kodomo-wa, odorimas-ka?

2. Hito-wa, okaa-sama-to nani-o shimas-ka?

6. Sensei-wa, nani-o sh'te imas-ka?

3. Sensei-wa, Nihon-ni ikimas-ka?

7. Chisai kodomo-wa, gakko-ni kimas-ka?

4. Tomodachi-wa, uchi-ni ikimas-ka?

8. Kashkoi sensei-wa, nani-o shimas-ka?

b) Root-search

As you hear each word, translate it instantly if you know it, and say "zip" if you don’t know it. Many of these words are forms of words you know, with different endings, etc.: You may not know the meaning of the ending, but, if you recognize the "root", you have the most important part.

.
A
B
C
D

1.

odotte

ikiru

tabete

kakimashite

2.

ikite

gendai

kaku

odoru

(Hint: you know all but 2 of these words.)

The lesson here is that you can recognize many words even if you don’t know what form they’re in. In many cases, the form is meaningless; in others, it is still more important for over-all comprehension to recognize the word than to understand its form.

You can study two or more endings at once — but not for speaking: Learn them as "pencil grammar," for abstract grammar knowledge. As long as you don’t try to integrate all pencil grammar into your speaking, it will not threaten your developing fluency.

c) Write down (in English) each word that you know in the following story.

Amerika-jin-no ôkii sensei-wa chisai Nihon-ni ikimas. Nihon-no gakko-de mainichi eigo-o oshiemas. Sensei-wa soko-no atarashii gaksei-ni aimas. Soshite iyimas: "Gakko-wa, doko des-ka?" Gaksei-wa iyimas: "Gakko-wa, yama-no-ue des." Sensei-to gaksei-wa bas-de gakko-ni ikimas. Sensei-wa, eigo-o taksan hanashimas. Nazenaraba sensei-wa, Amerika-ga ski-des kara. Sensei-wa, ureshii des. Sensei-wa, okaa-sama-ni tegami-o kakimas. Chichi-ni Nihon-no yoi hon-o okurimas.

Now, write your own one-sentence story (in English), incorporating all the words you recognized.

Your one-sentence "story" is, in effect, a "summary" of the story. If you practice writing summaries in this way, you will find yourself improving their quality and accuracy.


Vocabulary Review

Below is the entire vocabulary of these three lessons. Can you translate each word instantly, confidently, and correctly? Practice these words until you are fluent.

tea

chopsticks

meat

please

I

Subject marker

person

teacher

school

house

store

-wards (to)

well

dances

comes

goes

Can you say your own sentence with each word? Practice saying sentences until you are fluent.

These few words can be combined into hundreds of sentences: This ability to combine (rather than memorize fixed sentences) is the key to creative and fluent speaking.


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