Today at breakfast,
Student: Today, I will go to the Shadle Center.
Me: to go shopping?
Student: Yes, my chocolate is gone.
I like these kids.
Also, yesterday I taught them the phrase, "that's a bummer." I was sorely tempted to teach them "that's a bum-bum" instead.
March 5, 2013
February 26, 2013
Living at Mukogawa means I'm never in need of company. There is always a handful of students eager to practice their English or looking for help with their homework. It would be draining if I didn't have the mornings to myself. As is, I often find myself being used as a walking dictionary or pronunciation guide. Sometimes the questions they come up with are very difficult to answer. I should probably be writing them down so that I can research them for future teaching, but that would be a lot of work... Often they pump me for English information going to and from meals. The other night they asked me what the difference is between explain and describe, when to use this or it, and of course they alwayswant help understanding articles. The Japanese language does not have articles (a, an, the) and their usage is not easy to explain.
Occasionally I will say a word they don't know, and then either one of the other group members will define it or I will have to play dictionary. The best part, though, is when they want to practice their pronunciation. This also often happens going to and from meals and it is hilarious. Not because their pronunciation is bad mind you, but because I often have a group of six people following me across campus while repeating the same word over and over again. "Bird, bird, bird, bird, biiiird, birrrrd," or "girl, girl, girl, giiiiiirl, giiirrrrrl, grrrr." And of course I'm often coaching them,
Me: Almost, you need more of an R sound, Girrrrl.
Students: Grrrrrrr.
Me: Not that much, try to place it more at the front of your mouth. Your tongue should move like this (demonstrated with hand motions).
Unfortunately, sometimes I can't help laughing after being surrounded by a chorus of the same word for five minutes. For example, yesterday one of the girls pointed to a puddle and asked me for the English word.
Me: Puddle
Student: Puddle?
Me: Puddle
Student 1: Puddle
Student 2: Puddle
Students 3 & 4: Puddle, Puddle!
All of them: Puddle! Puddle. Puddle. Puddle.
Me: (Can't stop laughing.)
Students: Heidi! WHY!? Why you laugh?
Me: Because I feel like I have an echo.
Student 1: Echo?
Students 2 & 3: Echo?
Students 1-4: Echo? Echo? Echo? What is echo?
Me: (Laughing hysterically) An echo is when...(laughter)
Students: Echo? Echo? Echo?
Finally I was able to explain it to them and on the upside, I learned the Japanese word for echo: Yamabiko!
Occasionally I will say a word they don't know, and then either one of the other group members will define it or I will have to play dictionary. The best part, though, is when they want to practice their pronunciation. This also often happens going to and from meals and it is hilarious. Not because their pronunciation is bad mind you, but because I often have a group of six people following me across campus while repeating the same word over and over again. "Bird, bird, bird, bird, biiiird, birrrrd," or "girl, girl, girl, giiiiiirl, giiirrrrrl, grrrr." And of course I'm often coaching them,
Me: Almost, you need more of an R sound, Girrrrl.
Students: Grrrrrrr.
Me: Not that much, try to place it more at the front of your mouth. Your tongue should move like this (demonstrated with hand motions).
Unfortunately, sometimes I can't help laughing after being surrounded by a chorus of the same word for five minutes. For example, yesterday one of the girls pointed to a puddle and asked me for the English word.
Me: Puddle
Student: Puddle?
Me: Puddle
Student 1: Puddle
Student 2: Puddle
Students 3 & 4: Puddle, Puddle!
All of them: Puddle! Puddle. Puddle. Puddle.
Me: (Can't stop laughing.)
Students: Heidi! WHY!? Why you laugh?
Me: Because I feel like I have an echo.
Student 1: Echo?
Students 2 & 3: Echo?
Students 1-4: Echo? Echo? Echo? What is echo?
Me: (Laughing hysterically) An echo is when...(laughter)
Students: Echo? Echo? Echo?
Finally I was able to explain it to them and on the upside, I learned the Japanese word for echo: Yamabiko!
February 20, 2013
Life at Muko (and Valentine's Day)
 |
| My new digs. |
 |
| I worked really hard on this bulletin board. It makes me really happy. |
 |
| My Valentine's Day haul. Best ever. |
 |
| One of the girls in my group is quite the artist. She's actually done a pretty good job capturing the personalities in my group.The hamsters are kind of an inside joke. One of the girls in my group really likes hamsters, but she has a hard time pronouncing the word and her friend likes to make fun of her. |
February 10, 2013
Why I'm Doing This 1
Yikes. It's been busy. I started working at Mukogawa this week, which has meant a whirlwind of new information to process. My orientation was last weekend and I moved most of my stuff in last Sunday. I'm now pretty well settled and have an epicly decorated bulletin board to prove it. I spent Monday through Wednesday trying to keep up with school while preparing for my group's arrival. They flew in on Thursday and since then it's been non-stop.
Actually, it's been pretty non-stop all week since, of course, everything has to happen at once. My niece's (4th!) birthday party was the same weekend as my orientation, which meant I was scrambling to get her a gift and get it wrapped etc. Then my classes just started amping up with multiple out-of-class projects and observations to juggle. And on top of it all I got sick the same day my group arrived. Not deathly ill, but I-have-a-sore-throat-and-lost-my-voice ill. Losing your voice the same week that you have to orient a group of non-native English speakers to a foreign country is less than ideal. For the last couple of days all I've been capable of is a croaky whisper. I think I'm finally regaining the use of my vocal chords, but talk about bad timing.
Today I took my group downtown. Seeing Spokane from a tourist's eyes (especially a Japanese tourist's eyes, if I may say so) really gives you a fresh appreciation for the place. Here is a normal downtown trip for me, sans Japanese students.
-drive forever looking for a parking place
-finally end up parking five blocks away from ultimate destination
-try to appreciate the walk while also trying not to be rude to the creepy people on the street
-meet friends for coffee/go to the park/whatever
Same old familiar, comfortable Spokane, appreciated, but not exciting.
Downtown trip with Japanese students
-Oh look! A squirrel! (Clicking of cameras).
-Oh look! A dog! So cute!
-Oh look! An American child! So cute! (Thankfully they refrain from taking pictures of people's pets and children.)
-Oh look! Geese! (Clicking of cameras).
-Oh look! Subway! We have Subway in Japan! (Clicking of cameras)
And that's pretty much how it went the entire time. It was the most exciting trip to downtown ever, and all we really did was walk by Riverfront park and go to the mall. Yes, we are in the honeymoon stage of culture shock. The first place we took them was Rite Aid, because it's a useful resource for them that's easily accessible from the bus plaza. Before today, Rite Aid was for me a boring convenience store. From now on I shall remember it as a wonderland of endless possibilities. I have never seen anyone get so excited at a convenience store. Let's face it, I've never seen anyone get excited about a convenience store period. But I think they could have spent an hour in there easily. I was kept busy explaining what my favorite snacks were, that the Spongebob Squarepants soap was indeed bodywash they could use in the shower, that Angry Birds is both a game and a candy, and why we sell such obscenely large bottles of wine.
When we moved on I took them past a few notable shops and down to Riverfront park. It was actually a pretty nice afternoon and I was pleased that they would have some good photos of the clocktower. I took them by my favorite coffee shop where I ran into my friend Katie (Elizabeth, be sure and ask her about this at Bible study). I introduced her to my group and of course they wanted to take our picture together. "Sure, let's have a picture!" Katie agreed. And suddenly we were faced with a wall of 12 cameras. Yep. When we arrived at the mall they again took a bunch of pictures... of... the... mall... I'm not trying to feed the stereotype that Japanese people take a ton of photos. I mean, they are traveling. I take pictures of random stuff when I'm traveling. Just maybe not quite as much.
I had them split up in the mall because we'd been attracting a lot of attention thus far. Then I took one group up to show them the Made in Washington store, which is right next to one of those big coin spirally things. Up until now I'd always thought of those as big rip-offs that essentially make you throw money into a hole. There was a little girl and her mom there though, and the mom was giving the little girl pennies to play with the thing. My group got a bigger kick out of it than the little girl did and I came to the realization that it's a fantastic way to get rid of extra pennies.
Tonight we sat in the kitchen and they taught me some Japanese games and we talked about Japanese and American culture. So I'm stressed out, and behind on my homework, and fighting a cold, and staying up way too late but days like this make it all totally worth it.
Actually, it's been pretty non-stop all week since, of course, everything has to happen at once. My niece's (4th!) birthday party was the same weekend as my orientation, which meant I was scrambling to get her a gift and get it wrapped etc. Then my classes just started amping up with multiple out-of-class projects and observations to juggle. And on top of it all I got sick the same day my group arrived. Not deathly ill, but I-have-a-sore-throat-and-lost-my-voice ill. Losing your voice the same week that you have to orient a group of non-native English speakers to a foreign country is less than ideal. For the last couple of days all I've been capable of is a croaky whisper. I think I'm finally regaining the use of my vocal chords, but talk about bad timing.
Today I took my group downtown. Seeing Spokane from a tourist's eyes (especially a Japanese tourist's eyes, if I may say so) really gives you a fresh appreciation for the place. Here is a normal downtown trip for me, sans Japanese students.
-drive forever looking for a parking place
-finally end up parking five blocks away from ultimate destination
-try to appreciate the walk while also trying not to be rude to the creepy people on the street
-meet friends for coffee/go to the park/whatever
Same old familiar, comfortable Spokane, appreciated, but not exciting.
Downtown trip with Japanese students
-Oh look! A squirrel! (Clicking of cameras).
-Oh look! A dog! So cute!
-Oh look! An American child! So cute! (Thankfully they refrain from taking pictures of people's pets and children.)
-Oh look! Geese! (Clicking of cameras).
-Oh look! Subway! We have Subway in Japan! (Clicking of cameras)
And that's pretty much how it went the entire time. It was the most exciting trip to downtown ever, and all we really did was walk by Riverfront park and go to the mall. Yes, we are in the honeymoon stage of culture shock. The first place we took them was Rite Aid, because it's a useful resource for them that's easily accessible from the bus plaza. Before today, Rite Aid was for me a boring convenience store. From now on I shall remember it as a wonderland of endless possibilities. I have never seen anyone get so excited at a convenience store. Let's face it, I've never seen anyone get excited about a convenience store period. But I think they could have spent an hour in there easily. I was kept busy explaining what my favorite snacks were, that the Spongebob Squarepants soap was indeed bodywash they could use in the shower, that Angry Birds is both a game and a candy, and why we sell such obscenely large bottles of wine.
When we moved on I took them past a few notable shops and down to Riverfront park. It was actually a pretty nice afternoon and I was pleased that they would have some good photos of the clocktower. I took them by my favorite coffee shop where I ran into my friend Katie (Elizabeth, be sure and ask her about this at Bible study). I introduced her to my group and of course they wanted to take our picture together. "Sure, let's have a picture!" Katie agreed. And suddenly we were faced with a wall of 12 cameras. Yep. When we arrived at the mall they again took a bunch of pictures... of... the... mall... I'm not trying to feed the stereotype that Japanese people take a ton of photos. I mean, they are traveling. I take pictures of random stuff when I'm traveling. Just maybe not quite as much.
I had them split up in the mall because we'd been attracting a lot of attention thus far. Then I took one group up to show them the Made in Washington store, which is right next to one of those big coin spirally things. Up until now I'd always thought of those as big rip-offs that essentially make you throw money into a hole. There was a little girl and her mom there though, and the mom was giving the little girl pennies to play with the thing. My group got a bigger kick out of it than the little girl did and I came to the realization that it's a fantastic way to get rid of extra pennies.
Tonight we sat in the kitchen and they taught me some Japanese games and we talked about Japanese and American culture. So I'm stressed out, and behind on my homework, and fighting a cold, and staying up way too late but days like this make it all totally worth it.
November 7, 2012
My housemates - I like them
 |
| From left to right, Katie's fiance Quinton as Robin Hood, Katie as a turtle, Pam the Pirate, and nobody's really sure what Elizabeth is supposed to be... Betty Crocker meets Laura Ingalls Wilder after a recent trip to REI? |
July 24, 2012
Summer Snapshots
Summer has been a wonderful time of relaxation and preparation. I've been hired as a seasonal employee for Cooperative Agricultural Producers and am waiting for harvest to start. I'm also gearing up for grad school at Gonzaga in the fall where (have I mentioned it in a blog post?) I'll be getting my MA in teaching English as a second language. Here's what I've been up to in the meantime.
I swore to myself that I would never take the natural beauty of the Northwest for granted again, and thus I have been trying to take advantage of the many great hikes in the area. Here's my friend Karen on a short hike near Couer d'Alene.
I've been hiking a lot with family too. Here's my sister and her fiance near Liberty Lake. My sister's engagement has been one of the big developments of the summer and we are all looking forward to her wedding in June.
My sister also went on a short visit to Mexico for the first time since her return to the States, leaving us to look after her cat. Here he is sharing the fruits of a hunting expedition with us in our kitchen. Blech.
Our annual summer book club spent some great afternoons eating pastry at "Petit Chat" bakery in Spokane, as evidenced by my friend Elizabeth here. We read Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper," and tackled Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," but mostly we just talked about life.
I've also been able to go on a couple of family trips to the lake. Here my brother is initiating my nephew into the solemn rites of lake veneration.
It's been great to spend more time with my niece. She doesn't look to thrilled at her overly-affectionate auntie, but she'll just have to deal.
July 7, 2012
A collection of ESL moments I have used as facebook status updates
(and a YouTube video)
"Today in class we are doing locations. I show my students a picture of a jail (I don' know why, it's just part of the curriculum). Me: Where is this? Students: Office."
"According to my students, bowels are very important."
"So we are studying the seasons and weather in class. I hold up a picture of a snowy landscape complete with snowman and ask, "what is this?" The students look at the snowman's broom and say, 'clean?' Which brings me to the question: why do snowmen have brooms?"
"ESL sentence for the day: Yes, I am very understand."
"ESL Question for the Day: Are you marred?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)