Just another Manic Thursday

“I’m not sure I’m looking forward to Sean’s teaching style,” said Laura. “He’s kind of manic, and I think that’ll annoy me.”

And it was true. Whirlwind! Speedy speedy speedy! We dashed through lots of information about approaches to English Language Teaching, which was rather confusing for me – we were using linguistic jargon that, whilst probably commonplace in the field, left me feeling like I was outside of the party looking in, rather than a part of it. Is a mechanic expected to know the names of the parts of an engine on his first day? “PPP… blah de blah… lexis… waffle waffle…”

Confusing, but not impossible. We worked in groups. We discussed. We summarised. We shared. We struggled to start with, but we got there. Taxing, but within our capacity. Stretching us. Testing us. Pushing us. A heavy lesson, but a good one too. As I left, my head was spinning, but a smile was on my lips.

Magali

Paying for the course took nearly an hour. We spent part of the session getting to know each other, and part of it finding out more about the course. Magali has a very easy manner, and will – I think – turn out to be a great teacher. She is calm, measured, well-prepared, and soothing. I like her. Our reading list is long, but not all of it is compulsory. TESOL is a thrilling subject, and one with a lot of academic study around it. All three of us realised that the course is going to be a lot of work. I think we’re ready for that.

We shared the bus home with Magali. She shops at my supermarket, and rides past Kath and Laura’s on the way there. What a small world.

Crisis!

MMU are out of parchment paper! Laura can’t get her degree reprint!
Kath didn’t know she needed an academic transcript!
My referees haven’t got back to me to say “yes” yet!

Disaster! Disaster! Disaster!

Well, not exactly a disaster, but a good warning to us all nonetheless. How much of our individual application have we each sorted out? And how much more do we have to do? The application form hasn’t been released yet, but that’s no excuse for slacking.

We met, as normal, for our Tuesday night study group. We started with writing exercises, using some Post-it notes to practice our katakana. We then moved on to the Collins Easy Learning Japanese Audiobook for some speaking and listening practice. We covered:

watashi wa igirisujin desu - I am a British person
Brown-san wa, nujirandojin desu ka? - Mr Brown, are you a New Zealander?
hai, so desu - yes, that’s right
iie, chigiimasu - no, that’s incorrect

Lastly, so went the plan at least, was a session on the personal statement of the application. Unfortunately, that was when the crisis became apparent. And that was when the panic started! Well, not panic exactly… but we were quite concerned.

Hajimemashite Katakana!

The lesson today was partly fun, and partly terrifying.

The fun part came first. We learned hajimemashite! and we learned douzo youroshku! and then we practiced them by introducing ourselves to every single other member of the class. All nineteen of them. It felt like being in a room with a colossal echo, hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! We started to learn bowing too. I wonder how long it will take to be able to do it solemnly, and without wanting to giggle.

The terrifying part came when we wrote out the forty-six katakana characters that make up the basic – basic only – katakana syllablery. Overwhelming? Yes. Humbling? Yes. Challenging? Undoubtedly, yes. Impossible? No. Not much is.

Did Kath and Laura pass their TESOL interview?

Yes, of course they did! And in their test, they both got the stationary / stationery distinction wrong at first, but then corrected it. Weird!

"You're the third person on the course who's also doing Japanese at Aquinas," Sean said to Laura, "what an odd coincidence." Hardly Sean! We're all friends!

Is "boring" an adjective?

Yes, in the main, I suppose it is. But it could also be a regular verb - "termites are boring through the floorboards" - and subsequently a derived gerund too - "We estimate that boring occupies four-fifths of the termite's waking life."

Kath, Laura and I went through the seven main parts of speech in my classroom bedroom. Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Prepostion, Conjunction, Interjection, Adverb, Adjective. I gave examples, and then invited Kath and Laura to complete a couple of exercises. The lesson went well, but it went on and on too. We stopped for chips.

Hopefully the grammar will equip us well for our TESOL interviews. It's me on Thursday, and then the ladies on Friday. Good luck to us all!

Emi-san! Konbanwa!

Our first Japanese lesson was today. Our teacher, Emi, is very good: lively, enthusiastic, smiley. Is this what Seb meant when he said that most of all we need to be genki? We covered the aims of the course, and learned some phrases - konnichiwa; konbanwa; ohiyo gozaimasu; arigato - and a little bit about grammar - introduction to particles o; wa; ka.

We were given our names in katakana, and asked to learn numbers one to ten as our homework: ichi, ni, san, yon, go, rocku, nana, hachi, cu, jui. Laura's colleague Kris came with us. That makes yon of us. How exciting!

Kath's got an interview too!

Kath has heard from Magali, and she's got an interview. 30th September. Great news!

Two out of three ain't bad

I’ve been offered an interview to get onto the TESOL course! And so has Laura! No news yet for Kath though. Fingers crossed Kath!

My interview is on the 30th of September, which suits me fine. Laura's is scheduled for then too, but she's in London for a conference, so she'll have to rearrange for another day.

Goosebumps!

Registration

Laura, Kath and I have registered for the Beginners Japanese course at Aquinas College Stockport. We start on Monday 27th of September. This is in addition to the work we’ve been putting into the Collins Easy Learning Japanese audiobook. That’s quite exciting!