Diary

7th April It is Wednesday evening and I have had two full days here. The trip was lengthy – about 23 hours. Needless to say I was weary. The family gave me a warm welcome on my arrival. I met Harue-san (Mother), Yukiyasu – san (father), Masami- san (son) and Masayo- san (daughter-in-law), who is due to have a baby sometime this next week so she is home each day. Harue-san and Yukiyasu-san speak in Nihongo to me but occasionally there is a little English explanation. I am lacking so much vocabulary for general conversation that my dictionary will shortly be worn out. My first day here, Harue-san walked me down to the convenience store to purchase lunch, as it is agreed that they provide the breakfast and dinner meals only. We spent the remainder of the morning talking and sharing a few photos. Before we knew it we were rushing our lunch in order to leave in time to catch the train to take me to Yamasa. Little did I realise that once on the train I was on my own. It was an adventure just getting out of the station let alone finding the Institute some streets away. It was lucky that I had been looking at the maps on the internet before leaving home as I had some idea of where I needed to be but not the exact location. A very kindly disposed woman walked me the block and a half that was required to get me to Yamasa Institute. Coming home wasn’t too bad until I needed to find the exact street to the house. I didn’t recognise the house and must have walked past it at least three times. That won’t happen again. What I have noticed is the cleanliness of the environment and kindness shown by strangers. Out of the blue 4 people have turned me in the direction I needed to go. The houses are right on the street – no front yards at all. Some have space to park a vehicle and that is about all. Alongside the houses are plots being gardened for vegetables or small backyard businesses. Occasionally there appears to be a shop but I am not sure if that is what it is. Sometimes there are vending machines full of bottle drinks squeezed in to some small space. People walk these incredibly small dogs on a fine piece of string. Many others move around on bicycles even large tricycles – riders of all ages. I would suggest that NZ kids wouldn’t be seen dead on the style of bikes however, appearance doesn’t seem to override expedience and purpose. The city is very quiet and one wonders where everything is happening. There is no sense of hustle and bustle. The traffic is so well behaved. I suppose it has to be as pedestrians share the roads with all other road users, being separated by a white painted line only in many streets.

//**Yesterday I had three placement tests.**// The **reading test** I handed in without attempting it. There was little point in playing the odds as it would only disadvantage me by fluking what in fact I didn’t know. The test to **write** the hiragana and katakana I partially completed. The interview to assess **spoken language** asked my name, where I was from and something about whether I found Okazaki quiet. I needed to ask the interviewer to slow down and repeat the questions. 3rd May I have spent 4 weeks with my homestay family and we are able to communicate main ideas with assistance of dictionaries, miming and a little English. I have taken the opportunity to try out my limited questions with the grand children the eldest being 8 years old. This delightful wee girl was able to understand me and I her. I asked her if she found school interesting, her age and her name (unfortunately I have forgotten it). I am finding that although I have gained vocabulary and simple sentence patterns I need time to translate and formulate responses. Sometimes accents seem get in the way. I will say something that is not recognised initially and I think it is because of my pronunciation. I think ahead of sentences/questions I can use when I initially meet members of the family, require information such as what will the weather be today or to try and initiate conversation by asking how the day has been. The weather question is important as it can be quite extreme from day to day. The family includes me in social gatherings and activities so I am meeting new people. The Yamasa teachers teach from a text called Minna No Nihongo (Bk 1 for me). It has a companion text in English that provides the vocabulary list at the beginning of each chapter, sentence patterns, a conversation and grammar explanations. At the beginning of week two we were given 2 CDs. The teachers assume that you will work out how the texts and CDs align. It took me almost 2 weeks to work out how they align with each other. The initial difficulties were: the inability to understand the Nihongo text and CD; and the structure and sequencing of the lessons. As each vocabulary section was to be learnt prior to the lesson I spent a lot of time doing this and practising reading and writing both hiragana and katakana. To read the handbook it was a very slow, frustrating syllable by syllable process, therefore my understanding of the material before the lesson was very limited. I told the teacher I was haveing difficulty so she told me to listen to the CD. After and hour or two the pieces of the puzzle fitted together. The CD provides reading of the vocabulary, sentence structures and examples. However, the sequence of the recordings moves backwards and forwards within each chapter. After 15 days of lessons there was a listening and writing test. Each was of an hour's duration. I achieved 76% listening and 54% reading and writing (80% is a pass). Although I haven't passed, I know I show significant progress compared with the placement testing. I can now, albeit slowly, read the text, discern spoken language and write using both hiragana and katakana. I know I am having difficulty with the particles and confusing he/hi, so/tsu/su so I will have to review these. In a week there will be a speaking test, for which I am preparing. Each lesson is designed so that meaningful conversation can be developed. The grammar lessons focus on the structure and use of particles while vocabulary is introduced so that pronunciation and intonation is correct along with the reading and writing of both hiragana and katakana. There is absolutely no Romaji or English used within the class. It has become a little easier as one's vocabulary expands and as earlier vocab is revisited.
 * Family**
 * Yamasa - My Progress**:
 * Yamasa - Pedagogy:**

Each day oral review takes place as students are asked such questions as: What did you do last night? How did you come to school? Who did you come with? What utensils did you use to eat your dinner? ... Each question, although sounds spontaneous, is carefully planned and reflects both the vocabulary and sentence structure covered in earlier lessons. During the lesson, if new vocab is introduced by a student it is passed over so that the focus remains on the given vocab that fits the sentence structures to be learnt. This may sound limiting but at this early level it isn't as the vocab list provides sufficient opportunity to innovate on the sentence structures and is already quite demanding.

Each lesson requires that you have previewed it and learnt the vocab. Usually a quick written vocab quiz is given at the beginning of a lesson (2 to 5 mins duration) and collected, whether or not all students have finished. Each teacher demonstrates patient wait time that allows a student to answer a question. If it becomes clear that an answer is not forthcoming the teacher simply asks a more capable student who models the response whereupon she revisits the previous student with the same question. The teachers clearly know the students who can model for less able students and they are accepting of student to student aside support. Activities include listening, practising, and reviewing by using choral speaking and partner practice. Some activities use the partner next to you while others require you to visit multiple partners to seek information. Each week the students are mixed up so that you do not always sit by the same student. To overcome difficulties where two students are not able to help each other they will be split this pair and turn them to be included in the the other partnerships along side.

Semester 2
We are now in week four of this semester. I have passed the first of the three tests - written and listening. This coming Friday there is the speaking and listening test.

This new class comprises of 5 students from the previous class and 9 new students. There are some very young immature students and the class dynamic is so different. This is in part due to the fact that one teacher, who is very young, seems to have certain behaviours in her class that the other 4 teachers don't. From my perspective it is an unnecessary distraction.

This semester there are many more opportunities to speak and some of the homework requires that the students go into the community and interview people. An excellent idea that nearly always works. Most of the people I have spoken with have been kind and very helpful so that I could practice my language patterns. Today the lady I approached spoke too fast and not at a level I could understand. Even so it was another experience that could not be replicated in NZ and shows the difficulty that some of our international students face.

In going to the library I visit the children's section because of the wealth of books that are at my level and of a good model of language structure. I have decided to try and interact with families that visit the library by sitting in as children read to their parents. I hope to get the children to read to me also. I will offer to read English in return. Last Saturday I sat in on a junior's session of story time which was excellent but highlighted my lack of vocabulary. I tried to offer my services as an English reader but the organisation has its ways and is not so very flexible. The management, however, is happy for me to approach parents and children. I spoke with my friend at international section of the library and she introduced me to the CEO of the library who will introduce me to two school principals that he personally knows. Schools at present are closed until September.

This next weekend I am going to stay with a young family so hopefully it will be a positive and ongoing opportunity. There is a 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son. Wonderful! I think I will take fresh fruit as a family gift - kiwifruit most likely. Fruit here is so expensive and it si something that most people like.

Well, I suppose it happens everywhere. The information about the family was not only 5 years out of date but the little girl was a boy. However putting that aside it was a relaxing weekend. Where I thought they would have gone to the ohanabi they didn't. Never mind.