Gotten is the past participle in American English. AmE vs. BrE.
Archive for the 'China' Category
Did some research after discovering Rudyard Kipling through Guardian Quick crosswords and found this really good lesson plan on Pourquoi stories. The lesson plan also included a link to National Geographic’s Xpedition Atlas which is an excellent resource for maps.
On practising the third conditional:
Why was Alan’s wife angry with him?
Because he hadn’t come [home].
On predictions using ‘must have’ given picture of a beach:
The bitch must be dirty.
I probably make pronunciation slips in Japanese myself. Anyway, I passed my N4!
| 考试级别： | N4 |
| 语言知识・阅读单项分： | 67 |
| 听力单项分： | 42 |
| 总分： | 109 |
| 词汇参考级别： | A |
| 语法参考级别： | A |
| 阅读参考级别： | A |
| 是否合格： | 合格 |
Not bad seeing how I had only studied up to chapter 35 of Minna no Nihongo.
Many years ago, I took the JLPT 4 in Singapore. I remember there was a massive traffic jam where they had only one test centre at the Japanese Association. Apart from that, everything else was very systematic: you bring the official proof of exam, leave your shoes and bags outside the classroom, put your ID and proof of exam on the table and do not turn the test booklet over until the test begins. Recently, I took the JLPT N3 in at the Beijing Technology and Business University and was infinitely put off. People flipped the test booklet incessantly before the test started, checked their mobile phones which were in their pockets during breaks, and you could practically scribble all the test questions on your proof of exam and bring it out of the classroom after the test. Irritated, I raised my hand and asked the invigilator if it was okay to look through the test papers before it began, he said no but did nothing about the evidently audible flipping of papers. 中国人はレベルが低い。
とにかく、it’s tough learning Japanese in China. For the months approaching the JLPT, I had two lessons with a native Japanese teacher instead of one and it set me back about US$250 per month, which could be half a month’s salary or a month’s rent for the locals. I was only at chapter 32 of Minna no Nihongo 2 when I took the test. The English-Japanese notes I brought from Hougang Japanese Language School in Singapore coupled with podcasts from JapanesePod101 really helped with my revision. Fingers crossed till the results in March/April!
What do you do when you have 30 eager adults and a deck of cards? Improv.
H.C. Andersen Playing Cards
5 groups of 6.
King rules: Make a rule for the class
Question Queen: Ask the class a question
Jack categories
10: Never Have I Ever
9 for Rhyme
8 for Mate: Started off with the A to Z wave but students upped the challenge to reverse the sequence
7 for Heaven: Stand up and put your hands in the air
5 for Hi-five
3 for Me: Answer a question from the class
2 for You: Ask somebody a question
4 for Whores and 6 for Dicks obviously ain’t suitable.
Stroke my ego:
- A student asked who the prettiest girl in school was and the class echoed “Teacher!”
- Someone made a rule to shout “Gloria is great!”
Bought a set of Jenga: Truth or Dare and made copies of the Scrabble board turning it into a multi-player offline game. I played Scrabble and Jenga since I was seven so it came to me as a surprise that the Chinese have never been exposed to these classic games. I must say that they worked really well and I’m proud.
Off-topic: Love The Way You Lie is on repeat on my playlist after strong recommendations from the students. You have to watch the music video.
Digging the latest WP update although I’m not big on the default typeface. First time reading about Matt Mullenweg after seeing his catchy blog title: Wrong Number Flirt. I often wonder what my life would be like if I had continued web programming and maintained my online moniker – keymistress. Too much catching-up for me I reckon, after I painfully incorporated some AJAX form validation into the last website I had to maintain (which was totally out of my job scope because I was supposed to be an assistant photography teacher).
Enough rambling. My English Corner (EC) was smooth sailing today, thanks to the snazzy flash website, YourSingapore.com. I thought my EC was tomorrow and hadn’t prepared for it yet, but I had been toying with the idea of doing one on Singapore. Food formed the main part of my presentation with really interesting questions from my students during the evening session:
What are the top universities?
Do the Malays get along with the Chinese?
What’s the military/defense like?
The class was on fire compared to my previous topic on Bhutan. I was rather disappointed with the lack of enthusiasm from them and judging from their response for the other feel-good theme on Earth Hour, the Chinese students really don’t give a shit about the environment or such. I’m now wrecking my brains for my next English Corner, suggestions appreciated.
Jinhan and I had a one-hour conversation over MSN, cracking our heads to find the difference between ‘in spite of’ and ‘despite’. Being the geeks that we were, we began to permutate positive and negative clauses after reading a suggestion on the web that they have different connotations. In the end, I checked with John Doe and confirmed that the British Council still wins.
The only difference between in spite of and despite is the ‘of’. – Learn English, British Council
Mark’s learning Chinese and was really pleased to learn the phrase mei ban fa which means I can’t do anything or tough luck. It’s a very common phrase in China handy in many situations, especially to shrug responsibility. I decided to ask my Satoyo-sensei what the Japanese equivalent is and she was quick to explain that the Japanese would never use mei ban fa on a day-to-day basis because it would be “too rude”.
Meanwhile, although my Japanese grammar is improving with the lessons, my listening and speaking are still bollocks. Mei ban fa…
I got a very strong reaction from a student the other day when I said I hope to work in Japan in the future. He told me that he hates the Japanese and Korean. “Don’t you know what they did?” he exclaimed. I was surprised to see how events that happened generations ago would be so deeply rooted in a 20-year old.
After some research on the internet and visiting a few schools personally, I finally settled for private tuition with a native Japanese teacher from Peace Bridge. The classroom is very small and the school is located near Dawanglu station, if you want to attend the group classes. I’m paying 236rmb for a 2-hour lesson at my apartment, inclusive of a 10-minute break in between. Satoyo-sensei seems experienced from the way she seamlessly ended the class on the dot; new teachers usually run over.
Newpower has many branches all over in Beijing, including one right next to the school I’m teaching at in Xizhimen. Looks legit but the receptionist didn’t seem too keen to enrol me and introduced herself as ‘张老师’ (teacher). Very low school fees but I find studying from 09:00 to 12:30 on Saturdays and Sundays before working till 19:00 not appealing at all.
ちび丸子ちゃん
Another school I shortlisted was Sakura Nihongo at Xizhimen. Very posh and centrally located. Got a nice DVD and other promotional materials when I went to inquire. The exorbitant school fees of 20,000rmb for three months says it all.
My ex-Japanese teacher from the Hougang Japanese Language School in Singapore very kindly sent me some notes for the next level so I could self-study. Meanwhile, Satoyo-sensei is helping me revise using my old Minna no Nihongo 1 before proceeding to book 2 in the same series. I’m currently keeping a simple Japanese blog and watching Chibi Maruko-chan; gives you a feel of how (very) low level my Japanese is at.
One of my colleagues reckons he’d leave China just so he could get away from English Corners. What is an English Corner? At my school, it’s a class with no capped student size with a teacher facilitating the discussion of a particular topic.
I was pacing up and down, jittery over my virgin English Corner. The turnout rate of my Sunday class was smaller than I had anticipated, turned out I probably don’t have that many fans in the school. Found myself shouting rather than speaking loudly as I tried to compete with the ongoing road show in the mall where my school’s located. I don’t have strong vocals and my voice breaks into a rasp when I try to speak loudly, gotta work on that.
Made a pretty IWB (interactive whiteboard) presentation; always gives me satisfaction and pride.
Started off with an Earth Hour video, also available on Youku for those in China. Got the students to participate in a little Be Bright pub quiz from the WWF in between an article and some discussions. Did you know that rhinoceros horn is made of hair?