Beginners

During today's Orlando Japanese Language Meetup, we discussed the topic of jobs/occupations 仕事(しごと)/職業(しょくぎょう). For the meetups I host, I tend to focus on grammar lessons. Though after introducing many grammar concepts, I felt that the group is at a knowledgable position where they can now read and speak with a clearer understanding. For this reason, I'm taking a small break from grammar. Though there's no one set formula for the Sunday beginner meetups when compared to Wednesday, which allows for freedom to change things up and explore different learning styles.

Renshuu Warm-Up

We usually start the meetup with Renshuu.org to get our brains flowing, ease into reading, and start getting our tongues accustomed to speaking Japanese. Typically, we do an N4 set, but for Sunday's lesson, I found an Occupations and Jobs set that felt on-brand with today's topic. After everyone got a chance to answer a vocab question twice, it was time to move to the PowerPoint.

Powerpoint: Vocab, Sentences, and Dialogue

I gathered materials for the power from an eikaiwa and pictures from Google Images. Having pictures alongside vocabulary terms helps create mental word associations connecting words with imagery.

I've been trying to wean the group off furigana, the hiragana reading aids you see above kanji. They help with reading unknown kanji but can be a crutch. I fall victim to this as well. Sometimes instead of reading kanji, Japanese language learners will read the furigana. Afterall it contains hiragana we already know. Defaulting to reading furigana can even occur with kanji we can read. But at the same time, I need to keep furigana for the words we may not know how to read or for those who can not read kanji.

Next, we read a dialogue between two characters that used the vocab terms and related to a conversation about jobs. Followed by a quiz about the contents of the conversation. I created the point system where if you answered in a complete Japanese sentence you received 3 points, reply with a Japanese word 2 points, and if you answered in English 1 point.

Afterward, we looked at a list of terms for different jobs in Japanese. Then I asked questions about their jobs, what they like about their work, how long is their commute times, and what they wanted to be when they were a child.

Level Up: Reading Articles

I've been mesmerized lately by the idea of reading articles in full as a class. I wasn't in the mood to create a grammar and vocabulary lesson two Sunday ago. The way I've kept myself motivated to make and introduce lessons was by doing subject matters that interest me and would benefit the group. Why spend time working on something you're not in the slightest passionate about.

The idea of reading a lengthy article could be intimidating to beginners, though I believed in the member's capabilities. I know there would be some backlash, but the same happened with most new things I've introduced. When I moved our vocab list from N5 to N4, I stayed silent about the change like a mother avoiding telling their child they're secretly eating vegetables. After that lesson, there were some grumbles about the words being more difficult than previous meetups. Fast forward a couple of weeks members now answer those vocab questions like its second nature.

Some grammar lessons, especially those in conjugation, seemed unbelievable. Sure we had to break the longer ones down into weeks, but now there's no doubt they can conjugate beautifully. Doing something new and challenging is scary at first, but once mastered, feels great. I love challenging the group and secretly enjoy their looks of shock that turn into relief weeks down the line.

“Doing something new and challenging is scary at first, but once mastered, feels great. I love challenging the group and secretly enjoy their looks of shock that turn into relief weeks down the line.”

Feedback

I like to take the opinions of attendees into account when creating lessons. There's also a chance I may reuse this lesson. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake, I ask for feedback. I asked two attendees if this week's reading portion was more digestible than the reading we did two Sundays ago. At that time, I wanted the group to read an article about Studio Ghibli's museum's actions during coronavirus. Though the topic was interesting, the reading level and amount of material to read might've been too much.

This time I divide the article in half. A portion read this Sunday, and the next we'll read next Sunday. I also created a challenging slide with an entire section exclusively for our advance members. If not in attendance, I would've summarized the slide. Next, instead of giving short paragraphs, I placed a sentence a slide. In time I should be able to gradually increase the number of text and fulfill my wish of the group reading paragraphs and articles. For now, let's take it a step at a time.

They also noted there were too many new vocabulary words. Not clarifying what was vocabulary to put to memory and terms just available for reading was my fault. I wasn't clear in my intension and reasons. In the beginning, were words I wanted them to focus on: job, occupation, office worker, and commute. At the end of the lesson, I placed lists of job titles with their Japanese equivalent, not because I wanted them to learn them all. Instead, I wanted to raise awareness of their existence, but I mainly wanted attendees to copy down and learn the jobs that appealed or related to them. I was going to ask attendees about their jobs and expected responses in Japanese. Not knowing everyone's occupations, I thought a list of options would be helpful.

My job in Japanese is easy, its a web designer in katakana. I prefer not to get into specifics about frontend development, UI, or UX, especially in Japanese.

Using chat for buzzing in to answer questions is a step up from our old system. The feedback was positive. It may not be a permanent solution, but it's a step up from our prior experience of buzzing in with our voices and fighting like competitive family members about who chimed in first. But this way, there's no arguing with whose name appeared first.

They also noted wishing the article we read contained more of the vocabulary terms. It'd help with reinforcing the terms that soon became easily forgotten. I had to explain that though that would've been ideal, finding an article with the vocab from the lesson proved to be challenging. The lesson and article came from two unrelated sources. Instead, for me, it was enough it kept with the topic of jobs and occupations.

Intermediate

As a bonus to help us remember the meaning of せい - blame/fault, we watched the music video 「The Peggies」- Kimi No Sei the opening song for Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai. Take a listen:

Well, that's all folks, thanks for reading.

*Since this is my word vomit dumping ground you can find my more refined written words on Medium. I love using this space to explore my journey as a designer and developer while not getting pressed to write in the most splendid manner. Proofreading, revising and consistently editing take up so much time personally. In the past, this has caused me to write less often something I to avoid. My aim is consistency.

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