[NON BLOG] Randy Tries Japanese
Jul. 27th, 2004 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldAs I noted yesterday, I managed to get signed up for a half-hour trial lesson in Japanese. I did go, of course--it was free.
I'd left the Toronto reference library late, and had to walk quickly (south on Bay, west on Bloor) to get to the school. I did have an entertaining brief conversation with a slim man in his 60s who wore an army khaki jacket with what I thought was East German flag decal sewn on. It wasn't, as it turned out, but he did emigrate to Canada in 1959 from West Berlin.
The school itself is located on the "grand concourse" level (that is, second floor) of the Global Village building on 180 Bloor Street West, sharing space with, among other institutions, a LSAT prep course and the Consulate-General of Israel. The school itself was a small collection of rooms. I was met after a brief delay by a petite teacher, who gave me a detailed and somewhat intrusive form to fill out. Once I was done, we went into the classroom. I was alone.
The school's basic philosophy is that of total immersion. The instructor tld me at the beginning of the session that I could only speak in Japanese, no English. For the next half-hour, we proceeded through a quick session acquainting me with, among other things, five Japanese vowels, the names of some common objects (beer, buses, cups) and how to refer to them. and basic terms of conversation (yes and no, thank you). I learned by imitating; I picked things up reasonably quickly. At the end of the session, the instructor tried to sign me up for a September two-month course; I begged poverty and got her to send me an E-mail for the October class, when it became available.
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lautreamontg was right, I think, in being skeptical about the efficacy of this school. I enjoyed the trial lesson, and I do have an exceptionally basic grasp of the spoken Japanese language. I doubt, though, that I'd acquire a working fluency in Japanese after 23 more hours of this. Even so, the idea of learning Japanese remains an attractive sort of project.
I'd left the Toronto reference library late, and had to walk quickly (south on Bay, west on Bloor) to get to the school. I did have an entertaining brief conversation with a slim man in his 60s who wore an army khaki jacket with what I thought was East German flag decal sewn on. It wasn't, as it turned out, but he did emigrate to Canada in 1959 from West Berlin.
The school itself is located on the "grand concourse" level (that is, second floor) of the Global Village building on 180 Bloor Street West, sharing space with, among other institutions, a LSAT prep course and the Consulate-General of Israel. The school itself was a small collection of rooms. I was met after a brief delay by a petite teacher, who gave me a detailed and somewhat intrusive form to fill out. Once I was done, we went into the classroom. I was alone.
The school's basic philosophy is that of total immersion. The instructor tld me at the beginning of the session that I could only speak in Japanese, no English. For the next half-hour, we proceeded through a quick session acquainting me with, among other things, five Japanese vowels, the names of some common objects (beer, buses, cups) and how to refer to them. and basic terms of conversation (yes and no, thank you). I learned by imitating; I picked things up reasonably quickly. At the end of the session, the instructor tried to sign me up for a September two-month course; I begged poverty and got her to send me an E-mail for the October class, when it became available.
lautreamontg was right, I think, in being skeptical about the efficacy of this school. I enjoyed the trial lesson, and I do have an exceptionally basic grasp of the spoken Japanese language. I doubt, though, that I'd acquire a working fluency in Japanese after 23 more hours of this. Even so, the idea of learning Japanese remains an attractive sort of project.
