Week Two

This week, we began with a review of time and numbers.  I also added another term to the time sheet; -fun and -pun, which means "minute", and I asked the question "Ima nanji desu ka" (What time is it now?).  After we did a quick review exercises, I took the class on a short tour of the blog.  They were shown the "Word of the Day" feature, which is supposed to be seen every day to build vocabulary and for class use.  Once that was done, we began the new phase of the session; Introductions.  I gave everyone their names in Japanese and the first sentence;

 "A wa B desu". 

A=person, object, colour, location, occupation
B=object, occupation, colour, emotion
desu="is", "am", "are"

Occupations included: gakusei (student), koukousei (high school student), shufu (housewife), kodomo (child), kaishain (office worker), kyoushi (teacher), hishyo (secretary), daikusan (carpenter), Kanadajin (Canadian), Indojin (East Indian), seito (primary-middle school student), toshyokanin (librarian), haha or okaasan (mother), chichi or otousan (father).

We used "watashi" ( I ) in place of A, and everyone chose an occupation or age to describe themselves.  We practiced that for awhile, then moved on to the next sentence;

"watashi wa --- ga imasu (I have...)"

The blank could be a family member: imouto (younger sister), otouto (younger brother), ane or oneesan (older sister), ani or oniisan (older brother), obasan (aunt), ojisan (uncle), obaasan (grandmother), ojiisan (grandfather).

Everyone took turns practicing for a bit.  We went off on a couple of tangents after that.  We discussed Japanese food, some customs, feelings towards Westerners.  I told them about the term "gaijin", and a little while later we got onto the topic of having a little food festival in class.

Next week, we will be learning how to say "My..." and expanding our vocabulary.