Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

2012 was an awesome year, which I spent entirely in Japan. It started with a oyster grill and a trip to Oita to meet a friend's family for a traditional Japanese New Year, and it ended in Oita with my boyfriend cooking traditional Japanese New Year Foods, visiting temples to hear them ring the bells 108 times (a Buddhist Tradition), and visiting a Shrine to buy a fancy stick and watch some amazing dancing in kimono.

To give you an idea of some of the things I have been cooking, take a look at these:

-A website explaining New Year's Foods in Japan: http://www.bento.com/fexp-osechi.html
I used this to put together my menu. I bought Kamaboko (fish cakes), kuromame (sweetened black beans), and crab for the new years.
-Kuri Kinton: My favorite New Years foods, mashed sweet potatoes with chestnuts
http://ryourimeri.blogspot.jp/2012/12/kuri-kinton.html
-Daikon no Nimino: Boiled Daikon. I am making it without sake, so my boyfriend can eat it.
http://ryourimeri.blogspot.jp/2012/12/daikon-no-nimono-boiled-radish.html
-Renkon Pickles
http://ryourimeri.blogspot.jp/2012/12/renkon-pickles.html

How to Talk to Foreigners

After a discussion with an old high-school friend about things that should be taught in public schools in order to insure a well-informed citizenry, two big things were lacking from our public education experience: how to fill out important forms, such as job applications and taxes, and how to best communicate with foreigners. How to fill out forms is a pretty concrete subject, but speaking with non-native speakers is more open to opinion, interpretation, and an individual’s skills.

Then I realized I am in the perfect position to develop a lesson on the matter, being a second language learner as well as a teacher. I am also in a great community to develop this lesson.

Before I (sway) your opinion with my thoughts on the matter (and I have about 5 pages worth of stuff to say on the matter), I want to hear what you all believe are good strategies for speaking to foreigners (or, perhaps it would be best to say “non-native speakers”), and what should be avoided.

So, please leave a comment, or email me, or message me, or come have a chat with me! You can answer from either point of view: as someone speaking to a foreigner, or as a foreigner and how you'd like to be spoken to. My first lesson will be this Thursday, October 18th.

 

Pronunciation Practice

So, it's speech season.

Since a lot of the other ALTs are talking about practicing speeches, and some have requested explanations of what I do in class, I'm going to post a mini-lesson on pronunciation. 

Disclaimer: I am American and was trained in American English. Sorry to all your British and Australian and New Zealand readers-- I'm not sure how much of this (well, the vowel section) will apply to you!

Usually I am doing this as a warm up to speech competition practice. I teach 40 students in one class, and all of my students have to memorize the speech and then get tested on it.

So, I read a sentence or phrase of the speech out loud, the students repeat, if they didn't do it well (or we're just beginning) I say it again for a second or third time. Then, when we come to a word or sound of interest, I go into pronunciation mini-lessons!

I start with voiced and unvoiced sounds.

It's easiest to represent this with "s" and "z"-- try saying "sssszzzzssssszzzz" without stopping between the sounds. You'll notice the only thing that's changing is your throat-- your mouth stays in the same position. This is the difference between voiced and unvoiced: the sounds are produced in exactly the same way in the mouth, but the vocal chords are either turned on (vocalized) or turned off (unvoiced). (In this case, "S" is unvoiced, "Z" is voiced.) I've had my students touch their throat when doing this so they can feel the difference.  It's pretty easy for the Japanese to get this concept, because in the Japanese syllabary, generally if you add the ten-ten symbol ("), the sound becomes voiced. Thus, "sa" becomes "za," "ka" becomes "ga," "sha" becomes "ja," and so forth. (Note: Be careful with "ha", "pa", and "ba"! That little circle is weird! The unvoiced sound is "pa" and the voiced sound is "ba" and "ha" is linguistically very different, but the Japanese alphabet lumps them together oddly. I just skip it and don't talk about it.) I don't use the words "voiced" or "unvoiced"-- usually I say "のどを使う"-- use your throat. Sometimes I explain it with ten-tens ("). It really depends on the level of the students and how much linguistic vocabulary you want to teach them.

Okay, so now the students know voiced and unvoiced in Japanese. Time to teach them the sounds that use it in English: "F" and "V", "Th" (unvoiced: month, faith, cloth, etc.) and "th" (voiced: these, this, the, there, etc.).

F  (and V)

They need to know how to shape their mouths to get "F"-- I tell them they can bite their lip and it's fine. Or, once they are used to it, they can use just the back of their lip against their teeth. But it has to touch. The Japanese "ふ" is different because there's no contact. Once they get their F, it's easy to get them to V-- they just keep the same mouth shape and add the throat vibrations. I have them shift between f and v, going "fffffvvvvffffvvvv." It should tickle and feel uncomfortable. That means their lip is making contact with their teeth and vibrating-- they're doing it correctly!

Th

"Th" is difficult. First, I explain to my students that "th" is a very rare sound in the world, so it's a difficult sound for many people across the globe. But, even though it's a rare sound, it's not a very difficult one to make.

And then the work starts. The students find all sorts of creative ways to not stick their tongue out. (I find that when my students get embarassed, they pull the tip of their tongues back in behind their teeth, creating a strange "sh" sound. Sometimes it's hard to get them to just stick out their tongue.) Usually now, the first time I teach it to my students, I get them to stand up, close their eyes, tilt back their heads, and stick out their tongues waaaay far, and then make the "th" sound while shaking their head from side to side. Of course, I demonstrate first, so I'm the first one who looks silly (and I am unabashed about it, too!). Usually, distracting them with the other motions (standing up, closing their eyes, sticking their heads up) helps them not pay as much attention to their tongue, and I hear nice, clear "th"es, and I praise them very happily with clapping and cheers. And then, usually, they keep saying their "th"es pretty well.  After getting the sound out, I show them there is a different way it's pronounced (the voiced "th" at the beginning of "the" and the voiceless "th" at the end of "month").

To check their pronunciation, I have them say the word "months". And the two sounds at the end of the word have to be different. They have to say "Mon-th-s." If they say one sound at the end of the word-- "mons"-- they are saying it wrong. I say it with three distinct sounds. "Mon. Th. S." Then get faster, with the snake-like flick of the tongue out, pulling it in, and changing to "s". Sometimes I do this near the beginning of the "th" lesson, demonstrating how the sound changes from "th" to "s" as you pull the tongue into the mouth. I moved it to the end of the "th" lesson because "months" is a word in the speech my students memorized, and it was a nice way to wrap up the pronunciation lesson and move back into speech pronunciation. 

L and R

The most difficult sounds. "L" is closer to the Japanese ”ら” so I start there. The tip of the tongue touches the ridge behind the teeth. Unlike the Japanese R, it stays there, and you can elongate the sounds. (I'm pretty sure the place where the tongue touches the roof of the mouth is different between English "L" and Japanese "r".) In English, we touch the ridge behind the teeth-- I visually representing it by folding my fingers forward so they are teeth, and turning my hand up so the heel of my palm sticks down, forming the ridge, and the rest of my forearm is my soft pallet and throat. Then I touch the tip of my other fingers against the ridge to represent my tongue. I also invite them to stare into my mouth while I say "LLLLL~" because you can pretty well see the tongue sticking up there. I also tell the the air goes out from the sides of the tongue.

R is harder. The tongue pulls back towards the throat, without curling back on itself (a lot of students try to swallow their tongue by folding it back on itself. It's just the back part of the tongue that moves back!). I represent it by pulling my arm back from the top arm, usually bending my wrist so the heel of my palm can look like the back of my tongue pulling back. 

(Here's a good visual representation: http://beyondgrammar.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/lr.jpg?w=584)

The tongue is also lifted at the two edges, so the air goes down over the center of the tongue. The back sides of the tongue touch the back teeth.

I don't really know how to explain it better, but here's another visual: http://englishcafecdn.englishcafe.com/files/images/ec_8693_1263925372.post.jpg

Vowels.

Oh my god, Vowels. The Japanese are lucky. They only have five. Americans have 10 to chose from, plus 5 diphthongs. (Or maybe this makes the Japanese unlucky, because they can't pronounce five vowels that we Americans can!)

Our vowels are: i, ɪ, e, æ, ɑ, ʌ or ə, o, ʊ, u, and sometimes ɔ. *

And then we have the diphthongs: ai, au, ei, ou, and oi.

Examples of all:  i "feel", ɪ "fill", e "fell", æ "cat", ɑ "hot", ʌ or ə "America" (the "uh" sound), o "home", ʊ "book", u "moo", and ɔ (only sometimes used: as in Boston's accent for "coffee". It's like a mix between "aw" and "o." I don't think Californians say it often, but I know I use it in some words, and it's prevalent in Boston and New York accents.)

The diphthongs: ai (I love you), au (Ouch!), ei (hey!), ou (hello [have you noticed how Americans add a "u" sound to the end, while Japanese ハロー doesn't?), and oi (boy).

*The sounds that are present in Japanese I marked in blue. The sounds not present in Japanese I marked in red. The diphthongs are thankfully fairly easy for the Japanese to pick up, since they use them a lot, too. It's just getting them used to saying the diphthongs when only one vowel is written. (But, I won't get into spelling. English spelling is crazy, and has a lot to do with history. I liked one professor who said "English spelling shows the scars of language." I like to think it's the scars from when English beat up other languages and stole loose grammar from their pockets. [though, honestly, it was more the Brittish being beaten up by the Vikings and the Romans and the French, but shhhh.])

Sometimes this chart helps: http://clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonetics/vowelgraphs/USE_Diphthongs.html

The Vowel Chart: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/IPA/VowelChartLF.gif (This one is a little more complex than the one I use.)

I just have the students slide around the vowels. You can get the ɪ sound by sliding from "i" to "a". (Try saying "yyyyyyeeeaaaahhhhh" really slowly. Then stop when you've only said half. Yay, there's the ɪ sound!) The chart is designed so you can slide along the lines to different vowels. (It's actually a representation of the human mouth, sideways. It'd be easier if I could show it to you-- maybe if we skype sometime before Friday.)

I think, though, ultimately it just rests on the students being able to hear it. If they repeat, a lot of students will say the right vowels. Some never do. Just lots and lots of repetition-- listening to you, then repeating.

Here is an audio IPA chart. If you click on the symbols, you can hear the sound they represent.

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm

The chart is usually way too intimidating to show any but my most advanced students, but I sometimes find it helpful to explain the differences in the 'th' sound using the IPA symbols "θ" (voiceless, as in "month") and the voiced "ð" (as in "those," "the," and "this"). Then they can have a visual symbol to match with the different sounds. Some of my students are learning IPA at their juku.

Battle Animals

In classes, my second years are studying comparatives (more, better, faster) and superlatives (most, best, strongest).

I decided, what better way to use comparatives and superlatives to have a pokemon battle?

Well, okay, I didn't use pokemon. I used great white sharks, grizzly bears, Lady Gaga, and Jack Sparrow instead. But it was pretty epic.

So, students got to chose which team they wanted to be (Team Clydestale and Team Charizard [Oh! there is a pokemon!]), and then they had three-ish minutes to write as many sentences about their animal as they could. I told them it was certain that the Squirrel was the fastest, sneakiest, smartest, and most dangerous-- because squirrels are ninja! [Hey, nifty ways to model language! And teach them truths of the universe.] Then I told them they had to pick their favorite sentence and memorize it, and then race to write them on the board (relay-fashion, passing the chalk down the line).

There was one student had wanted to get President Obama (he had marked Obama as "the best of all" at the beginning of the class when I asked the students which they thought was the best animal), but his team had chosen horse. So he was writing sentences like "Horse is dirtier than Obama" and "Horse is not as fast as Obama."

I gave one point for each correctly written sentence.

Jack Sparrow and Obama had a pretty intense show-down, but the squirrel kicked all their butts!

Speech Season

With the cool air blowing in after the typhoon a week ago (which featured canceled trains and torrential mists), speech season has begun. I had forgotten how much I love tutoring speech contestants-- students who want to learn about how to properly pronounce a "th" and aren't too embarrassed to try sticking out their tongue. It is very enjoyable working with students who like talking English and are working hard to learn a performance piece. Being able to mention linguistic phonic rules and the students understanding and being grateful for the explanations also pretty excellent.

And, with cooler weather, we are heading into midterm season, so the workload has lifted for me (though it has become rougher for the other teachers). It is a nice relaxing time.

Also higanbana, red spider lilies that sprout up all over Saga during late September and early October, are in bloom. I remember them very fondly from last year, and it's nice to see them again.

Happenings in the Life of Mary

First, Fukuoka was featured in the New York Times, woo-hoo!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/travel/uncovering-the-secrets-of-fukuoka.html?pagewanted=1&smid=fb-share&_r=0

Next on the agenda: Saturday. Er, I mean Saga BBQ!
In Saga there's a tradition of having Big Awesome Barbeques pretty regularly throughout the year. I have heard of these Big Awesome Events, and many of my friends went to the Big Awesome things and talked about how Awesome and Big they were. The first one, I was very sick because I had just arrived to Japan and I had caught all of the sicknesses ever. And the same went for the second. And then the third I wasn't in Saga, oops.
BUT THIS TIME I MADE IT.
And it was Big and Awesome. XD Betcha didn't see that one coming.
About 70 people showed up, and quite a few bands from the ALT and local community (one was a high school band, woo!), and they rocked the place from about 4 p.m. until about 10 p.m.
I really wanted to sing. "Maid on the Shore," anyone? I think it would be better if I got an accompaniest. Or maybe I'll just haul my koto out there and look like a big dork.

Third, today my sister skyped (or, actually, Live-On-ed) with my class, while a newspaper reporter was watching. We had some issues with the microphone looping back the speaker's sound and making really strange alien noises, but other than that, it was a lot of fun! My students were super excited, and super nervous, and Jessie was super giggly and we had a lot of fun, and everybody wants to do it again! I am stoked, and maybe next time it won't make the Woo-woo-WHO-WOOOP-AAAARUGH!!! noises. Heh.

Anyways, that's it for today. Love you all!

Beautiful Sunsets After the Storm

I went on a singing walk run on Tuesday after school and saw the prettiest rainbow sunset combination ever.

Thunder Storms and School

Last night there was the biggest thunder storm EVER.

I swear, it was RIGHT ABOVE my apartment.

…one nifty thing I learned while I couldn’t sleep was that thunder has really awesome echoes when you’re living in a mountain valley. Every boom is very different, and you can hear the rebounding sound waves layering on themselves when it strikes in certain places.

Today I am so tired.

School Update: I only had one class today, but it was really enjoyable.

Two class periods with LL2 talking about what they did over summer vacation, playing a “Did you ____?” summer vacation bingo name (they interviewed other classmates and filled in the boxes when a classmate could answer “yes” to the question, then I had them stand up and call out students names and ask them a question one at a time, using the names to play bingo), and then I made them write 10 sentences about their summer vacation.

Also, my plan to make spider cup cakes with LL2 for Halloween passed (in English, of course!). I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Random Bit of Happiness: Yesterday, at Seiryo, I got applause when I walked into one class. These tiny little bits of Heaven in the classroom can move me to the point of tears.

Life, cooking, and travel

 Ha! And you didn't know this was a food post...

Here's my meal from last night.  The couscous salad and Japanese Eggplant is mine. I had a lot of fun trying out the eggplant. It's grilled in the small broiler in my stove, and then topped with grated ginger, soysauce, and a bit of sesame. I feel there is something missing from my dressing, so if you have ideas, let me know!

The couscous is dressed with lemon (I found them on sale! Also made sugar mint lemon water with the rinds afterwards, and it was delicious), black pepper, carrots, cucumber, and nira (a kind of flat Japanese green onion).

I ate it with two new ALT's in Takeo, and it was an excellent and relaxing evening.

 

Aaaaaand this is dinner tonight!

The zombie couscous salad returns! (and was not conquered)

I made hummus for the first time in over a year! It was amazingly delicious!

Ron added lentils (amazing!) and homemade broccoli ham macaroni. 

Next, our little friend at dinner. Isn't he ADORABLE????

I loved watching him chase the little bugs. He's my hero! Eat those mosquitoes, buddy!

Last, two pictures from my trip that I actually took! Yay! 

I liked taking a picture of a person taking a picture of a person taking a picture of a person taking a picture. Love you guys!

Sister's visit

For the past two weeks my sister and her friend have been out to visit
The first week we did a bunch of stuff around Takeo and Saga. It started out slow-- the girls enjoyed shopping at the YouMe Town, a mall just down the street from me, and seeing all of the Japanese produce everywhere. Then I introduced them to Okamura-san and Tatara-san with a kimono lesson, which Ashley in particular adored and wanted to try again, and perhaps buy a kimono. We also took koto lessons, and Ashley adored them and wanted to try again, and perhaps buy her own koto. (Perhaps I sense a clone in the making?)

Another nifty thing I did was bring Jessie and Ashley along to my ginei (吟詠）performance. It was my first performance! (A month after I started taking my lessons! I'm sensing a trend from my teachers...) I ran out of breath in the middle of the song because my lung capacity is shot after taking 6 years off of clarinet, but it was fun nevertheless. I really enjoyed the lunch afterwards, where we talked with a lot of the other singers and then had a free-singing. Basically, the good singers showed off their awesome songs. I really REALLY adored this old Japanese wedding song that one of the old men sang, and want to hear it again (unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it on youtube yet). Another woman sang this really adorable, more European-sounding song about tulips and other flowers. I recognized the melody, but couldn't put a title to it... it felt like a dance from Mozart's time. Jessie and I sang "Simple Gifts" together, and it was excellent singing with my sister again.

The highlight of their stay was a road trip of southern Kyushu. Since I wasn't taking many pictures and since Daniel put in a lot of time making a post about it, I will link to his description of the trip.
http://dhattem.blogspot.jp/2012_09_01_archive.html
He did an excellent time showing the highlights of the trip.

peace!
Mary

Welcome back, Mary. Why, thank you, Meri-sensei.

This is a brief recap of what has happened to me in May, June, and July. Also, this is the year marker for my time in Japan-- and what an excellent time it has been!
First, the BIG update is that Kirsten came to visit. We had a BLAST! I will hopefully make a photo-post about that soon, because we took many beautiful pictures of our trip to Kyoto and Nara, but first and foremost it as excellent to see a best friend again, and to show her around Japan. I even managed to cook food she liked! Either I'm a better cook, or Japanese food agrees with Kirsten's taste buds.

Next, I started 吟詠 (ginei) lessons with Tatara-san. I had no idea what I was doing, but apparently I was doing well, even though I had no idea what I was doing. Here is a version of the song I am learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvOXm8AxOY

Third, the new ALTs are coming. It is great to meet new friends, though it is sad to have to say goodbye to old faces. Last Sunday we went to Sakae no Kuni Matsuri in Saga, which is a huge welcoming festival in Saga. I haven't heard much about the history of the festival, but all of the JETs who came were dressed up in yukata (I helped dress 8 of them-- it was a ball!) and then danced with at least 1,000 other people along the main street in Saga. It was basically 8 blocks with people dancing in a circle, very traditional Japanese dances that is mainly choreographed arm movements and timed tiny steps. It took awhile to learn the dances, but they repeated a set of about four, and everyone was smiling even if we were awkward, and it was an excellent way to meet some of my new co-workers.

Lastly, ten days until my sister is here!

Cooking Blog

I started a new blog that organizes my recipes, so you can find that here.

Mukade

I.

Just killed.

A MUKADE.

IN MY APARTMENT.

AUGH.

Okay, so mukade are one of the few poisonous animals in Japan. They are a black and red centipede that can get rather large (the one in my apartment appears to be a baby, only about two inches long). They recommend medical attention if you are bitten.

I'm glad the one in my apartment was tiny, that I killed it easily, and that it came out in the light so I could see it instead of having it crawl on me while I sleep. But now I'm afraid I'm too psyched out and adrenalined up to sleep properly.

Oh well-- the good thing of this whole ordeal? It got me on blogger again.

梅雨*

Tsuyu

The churning of clouds and leaves--

cool winds bearing relief

from muggy summer heat.

Tsuyu

Torrents of rain--

a gentle shower on my head

as I hop over and weave around puddles,

on my way to work.

My pants are soaked to the knee.

Tsuyu

Silver clouds billowing across the sky,

gilting the landscape

and hiding mountains.

Tsuyu wind

Tossing papers in the staff room;

Run! Catch them! Pin them down!

Office life is so much more exciting.

Tsuyu monsoon

Lightening, and the thunderous boom

Make students scream, “kyaaaa!”

A chorus of high-pitched voices,

even the teacher ducks in sudden fear

of the clouds’ mighty voices,

and rises with a grinny blush.

Tyusu

All the hydrangeas in bloom.

*梅雨 tsuyu Rainy Season

Mary E. July 6^th, 2012

Parent's Visit, Kyoto: Kawai Kanjiro's house (a potter!)

I have finished my post second post of Kyoto pictures, so you can see the complete post here.
I got through about half of the photos mom took, so expect another post of about the same length sometime in the future.

In the mean time, here are photos of the potter's house. I will add text throughout the week, and make a new post informing you when the process is done.

: )

I'm thinking of writing poetry again