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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 65 of 706 24 January 2013 at 9:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh I am so going to put on Stan Getz when I get back from work tonight. I haven't listened to that song for years either, and it's so lovely!
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| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 66 of 706 30 January 2013 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
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KUJI'S WEEK IN REVIEW - 21 January - 27 January 2013
Another quick review... again, busy. I actually have a little more time at work this week, but I've been using it to catch up inputting new words/sentences into Anki. I'm still plowing through Chapter 6 of IAIJ for my Japanese studies. That, SRS reviews, and listening practice are the only things I've done this past week. I think that, if all goes well, I'll be done with Chapter 6 by the weekend, then I can move on to Chapter 7. It's basically the same for my Portuguese studies. I finished up Lesson 8 of DLI, and now have moved on to Lesson 9. I've been doing listening practice, too, and Anki reviews. All in all, an uninteresting review. Should I even review my studies weekly? They're always along these lines. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 67 of 706 04 February 2013 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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KUJI'S WEEK IN REVIEW - 28 January - 3 February 2013
What a week. This week was very trying for me mentally, physically and emotionally. Midweek, I was hit with the flu for the first time in 10 years in Japan. I had a nearly 39-degree fever, and I did nothing but stay in bed for nearly 40 straight hours from Wednesday to Friday. Even after the fever was gone and I was out of bed, the flu sapped almost all the energy out of my body. On this Monday morning, I'm still not 100%, although I am at work. Most of my flu symptoms are gone, but I still have fatigue and a nagging cough. Before I was attacked by the flu, I was verbally attacked with racially insensitive comments from one of my students in a class on Monday. I am rarely angry at my students when I teach ("I'm amazed you don't become angry at this type of school," other teachers always tell me), but I was understandably angry that day. Now, I was pleased at the response to the incident by the school staff. Countless numbers of teachers, including high-ranking ones, have come to me in person and apologized, even though they had nothing to do with the incident. Some teachers want to work with me to make a special "human rights" lesson that they will teach to all students, educating them about why it is bad to do things like joke about someone's skin color. One teacher even offered to have the offending student suspended, an offer that I refused. But the racial incident opened up in me a flood of emotions related to the students at my school, especially the freshmen (first year students). Let me put it simply: these students are bad. B-A-D. Actually, "bad" is too nice of a word. How bad? Students that sleep in our classes are considered "good students," because when they are sleeping, they are not talking or disrupting the class. Sleeping students are not standing on top of desks or hanging out of windows or throwing books. There have been a lot of bad things happening in my freshmen classes this year. None of them were racially offensive like last week's incident, but that incident was just the latest and worst in a long line of incidents that have happened since the school year started in April. Usually, I try to keep calm, keep "cool" and keep my emotions hidden, which I consider a strong trait. But as I learned this past week, you can only contain so much emotion inside before it bursts out. Anyway, I know this is a language learning forum, so let me get back on track. Because of the racial incident and the flu, I hardly studied this week. I missed three whole days of doing anything language-related (other than watching Japanese TV, which I don't count because I live in Japan). Even on the other days I just did Anki reviews. It is really hard to sit down with some books or PDFs and study when you are physically and mentally tired. But I probably should not be too depressed about that. Before last summer, missing whole days of study was the norm, even when healthy. I've had an amazing run of consistency the past eight or nine months, and I should be happy about that. So, once I'm feeling healthy enough (probably today), I'll "crack open" the books again. As for my freshmen students... I have only two classes left with them before the school year is over. Then I don't have to see them again for another two years, or ever if I get transferred to a new school (which I'm hoping for!). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 68 of 706 04 February 2013 at 7:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe you need to try Great Teacher Onizuka's disciplinary techniques.
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| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 69 of 706 04 February 2013 at 7:26am | IP Logged | ||
Hehe... that would be quite useful, I must admit. Wow... they just did a remake of GTO on TV back in the fall, starring one of the EXILE dancers. I didn't know it was a remake, though, and that the original GTO was way back in 1998. It seems that all Japanese TV dramas either a) come from manga, b) come from books, or c) are remade. Nothing is truly original. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 70 of 706 07 February 2013 at 2:54am | IP Logged | ||
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What, we can't let a few months go by without another language crisis, now, can we?
For the past two days, I've been wondering if it is a good idea to put my Portuguese studies on hold and just crank up the intensity with my Japanese. It boils down to this: I am improving my Japanese, and I am getting better at Portuguese. But how much faster would I reach basic fluency in Japanese if I used my Portuguese time for Japanese and just did Japanese only? I estimate that I have about 2 1/2 hours available for language study per day (on weekdays). But not all that time is the same. I probably have at least 30 minutes for sit-down-with-a-textbook-and-study time. The rest is used for listening when I am walking or on the train, doing Anki reviews during breaks at work, making new Anki cards, etc. So, with that in mind, I made a system where I study Japanese on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Portuguese on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On weekend days, I study Japanese first, and then if any time is left over, I'll do some Portuguese. But what if I just did all Japanese seven days a week? How fast would I progress? Faster than now? These are questions that I'm asking myself. But then there is the flip side. When I was studying only Japanese before... well, I wasn't studying much. I would do a lot of Japanese studying for a few weeks, then burnout and not pick up a pen for several months. Contrast that with the past year, when I studied both Japanese and Esperanto, and later Japanese and Portuguese. Even though I wasn't doing full study every day, my Japanese studies have never been more consistent. Now that I write that, it seems clear to me that studying Japanese every other day, in tandem with another language on my "off days", helps me improve my Japanese faster than studying Japanese alone everyday, if for the single reason of avoiding burnout. Okay, then. Crisis averted. It would be a shame, too, to put Portuguese on hold, as it is so much fun, even with learning at a slow pace, and even with it becoming harder to listen to Brazilian internet radio and even harder to watch Brazilian TV. (hmph!) Plus, I found out that another native English teacher at another school in the area, a Canadian, taught himself Portuguese so that he could watch Brazilian soccer matches. (Sounds like another Serpent!) I gotta meet up with him sometime. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 71 of 706 07 February 2013 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think if you're making progress in both, just keep doing what you're doing - it's obviously working! I envy your ability to multitask. I'm so single minded I find it really hard to do two at once!
The original GTO was one of the first dramas I ever watched. I enjoyed it at the time but now I'm so bored of the "eccentric teacher solving students problems one by one" format! I hope all goes well with the human rights lesson too. One of my friends is a high school teacher here, in a school with a pretty good reputation, but she is sometimes shocked at things her students say. I don't know if it is just ignorance, or something much uglier. Good luck tackling it in your school. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 72 of 706 08 February 2013 at 2:31am | IP Logged | ||
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@g-bod - Thank you. The human rights lesson will not be an easy task, but hopefully it will be successful.
I really need to find a drama that I am interested in, somehow make some time for it, and watch it. That might benefit me a lot. But first, I need to find a website where I can get some old dramas. The ones on TV this season are not very interesting to me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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