my sensei!
January 7th, 2006 by heatheri have found a teacher!
this is very exciting, since i have been self-teaching for a while, and not sure if all the pieces are fitting in, and not sure what i know and don’t know. i got a trial lesson yesterday, for about 1.5 hours.
i think she was pretty much establishing what i knew and didn’t know. she had sheets with simple illustrations on them, and as she pointed, i spoke.
first, we went through basic greetings. おはよう、おやすみなさい, etc. then we looked at a sheet of common objects you see in the ‘japanese for boring people’ book. like newspaper, and pen and stuff. then we did locations like on top, under, beside, etc. this took then entire time! it was fun, and she was very encouraging and patient. she also spoke in japanese entirely, which was excellent.
when she was demonstrating concepts, she didn’t explain them in english, she just repeated demonstrations and made comparisons. for example in demonstrating dochira. it was great, because the lightbulb goes off, and you haven’t translated, you just understand.
i was pleasantly surprised that i knew more than i thought i did. ah, and then i got HOMEWORK! 
it may seem strange, but i’m excited about it. when i heard about the teacher i was told she was very tough, and didn’t budge. i said that’s exactly what i wanted, i want my butt kicked. so i’m looking forward to that.
for my homework, i have a sheet with little objects and people in various locations, and i have to write sentences. i might try to get some kanji in there.
January 7th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Sounds fun, indeed! It’s really nice to have some external motivation, for a change. Just curious, it this a teacher in your area? Or online?
By the way, I’m sure you probably know this, but it’s おはよう rather than おはいお. I bet your Japanese will jump by leaps and bounds
頑張ってね！
January 7th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
heh, i’m always making spelling mistakes. thanks for the correction!
this is a teacher in my area. i’m in japan now, so it’s much easier than when i was in ireland.
there IS a teacher online though. she offers classes… and i emailed her. she did say she would give a free trial lesson. i was so busy with preparations for moving that i never had a chance to take her up on it.
check out the site:
Japanese Lesson with Harukosensei
http://harukosensei.fc2web.com/
she also has a cool blog 3 minutes for japanese:
http://harukosensei.blogspot.com/
January 7th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Congratulations, Heather! I’m sure your Japanese skills are going to grow like a weed! I hope some of that knowledge gets to trickle down to use readers!
January 8th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Ah, yes, I can imagine it would be easier there
Thanks for the info!!
January 10th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
こんばんは。 Heather。
日本語勉強してるの？
私は日本人で英語を勉強してるよ。日本には英会話学校が氾濫しているけど、真剣に教えてくれるところは少ない。だから自分で勉強してる。
今日はじめてあなたのブログをみつけました。これからじっくり読みます。またコメント書きにきまーす。
Coming to you from the most mountainous prefecture in Japan
January 10th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Haruko-sensei is a guy? That’s weird…
January 11th, 2006 at 2:42 am
doh! is that a woman?
i didn’t know the name haruko. i’ve fixed the comment.
that’s terrible of me. i should google names before i gender them. especially because my last name is a man’s first name: ‘james’, and often in japan/taiwan people have assumed i am a man. (until they meet me, of course!)
my regrets to haruko.
January 12th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Konnichiwa,
Harukosensei desu.
heather-san, it’s ok!! I am a woman! hahaha! I uploaded my picture on my profile, so please visit and see how I look like. (Click “view my complete profile” and then you can see my picture!)
And my name is “Haruko”, which means “Spring child”. “ko”ending name is very tipical name for girls in Japan. but bit old style, I think.
January 12th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Oh dear! ごめね！
I’m glad you’re not mad (*^_^*)
~And that’s a very pretty name. How are the classes going? I keep on recommending your site. There’s a wee-tiny picture of me on my site in the sidebar. I should put a bigger one up so there’s no more confusion.
Good idea!