Challenging My Real Time Listening Comprehension

Sensei and her teaching assistants have started to play CD's containing Japanese conversations in real time. Our task has been to see just how much we can pick out. The answer? Not much.

Nothing makes it so blatantly clear just how far we have to climb than listening to that CD. It made it obvious just how much sensei and her assistants have slowed down their speech for us.

On the first pass, we caught the odd word. By the third pass, we were able to catch phrases - so long as the CD was paused after each phrase!

The question now becomes, "How to practice this at home during the week?" Here are a few ideas that sensei, my classmates and I have come up with:

• listen to Japanese radio shows

• listen to Japanese music

• watch Japanese shows - raw, or without looking at the subtitles

The trick is to listen to the track several times, to see if you can pick out a little bit more each time. むずかしい です ね？

Incorporating a New Language into Daily Life

They say that one of the best ways to learn a new language is to completely immerse yourself  into the language and the culture.  I would  love be in Japan for six months to learn Japanese, but I can't. For many of us, it's impractical to drop everything and go live in another country for an extended period of time. The challenge then becomes "How can I immerse myself here?" For me, I've found some success with  writing more "everyday" items in Japanese. First, I started by writing short, simple notes to family and friends who were taking Japanese classes with me. Then, I tried writing my students' names in Katakana on my schedule and planning lists. I've graduated to writing out my "To Do" List and grocery list in Japanese.

The "pièce de résistance " is my waterproof keitai. I labelled all my folders in Japanese.