Sheltered
Initiation
Language
Learning Japanese
Lesson 2: practice fluency.
Preparation: Say the associations aloud,
what is a SUBJECT MARKER? (-wa is a subject marker) sense say the TEACHER can he toe the PERSON? Cocky must he be if he WRITES. Oh, Dorie must think before he DANCES. |
now say the words.
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Note 1: "The" and "a"
are not expressed in Japanese. But Japanese sentence
structure is a little tricky: The subject always
has
-wa as in the
sample sentence. To call the teacher, you say just
Sensei!
But when you say that the teacher does something, you must
say Sensei-wa
(odorimas). Note 2: The verb
always has -mas,
as expressed in the special association: Always use the
subject.
Step 1:
Word-Quiz Translate each of
the following words. 1.
teacher 2.
writes 3.
person 4.
dances 5.
I 6.
tea 7.
please 8.
meat 9.
chopsticks 10.
subject
marker
Step 2:
Pattern-Drill
Practice the
sentence-pattern by saying your own sentences. Practice until you
can say any sentence. Now say several sentences of the new
pattern, and thus "tell (simple) stories."
Of course, you
cant do much yet: But, because of the mathematics of
combination, when you know twenty words, you can say almost
a hundred sentences; and with 40 words, you can say many
hundreds of sentences.
Step 3: Talk
Now! For the
"narrative" and "descriptive" sentence-patterns introduced
in these lessons, you can use the situation of an imaginary
"party": What does everyone do there?
When
you talk with native speakers: Use what you
know, and avoid what you dont know. Say
what you can say, adjust your needs to your vocabulary.
Catch whatever words you hear, and guess meaning as
effectively as you can. Dont
self-correct. Ignore corrections: have
conversations, not lessons. If not understood, add more
sentences.
Take
the initiative: Talk first, take the lead. Avoid
saying "what?"
Thats the best way to
know whats going on.
COMPREHENSION EXERCISE: "skip-comprehension."
Word Search: Translate each word instantly if you know it, and say "zip" if you dont know it.
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1. |
sensei |
watashi |
kame |
hashi |
niku |
tera |
2. |
odorimas |
hito |
o-cha |
shobun |
kakimas |
kudasai |
(Hint: you know all but three of these words.) |
The lesson here is that knowing what you dont know is just as important as knowing what you do know. In real-world use of a foreign language, you will inevitably hear much that you dont understand. You must get used to picking out what you do know, and make your best use of it.
Never say "what?" !!! |
Dont be like the many "perfect" students of foreign language, who tour the world, dictionaries open, endlessly repeating, like robots: |
Throughout your studies, you should never ask for repetitions, or say "what?" (even in the foreign language): Just say whatever you can, making no attempt to sound logical. This trick may be artificial but not as artificial as saying "what?" all the time! If you follow this advice and never say "what?", you will soon find yourself speaking naturally. |