The new year starts a new quarter at Yamasa and with it some changes. We started the new term with only three members of our original 101-level class. Job opportunities cut our study-time short, so Madelynn and I find ourselves moving out mid-term. Therefore the review of quarter four will be from about two-thirds completion.
Class 201 continues with the New Approach – Intermediate Japanese textbook used at the end class 103. The lesson structure seemed to click with me better than before. There was a very clear roadmap for getting through each chapter of the book. First a day with vocabulary, then two with grammar, and finally a day focused on the chapter essay. Pre-lesson preparation was still a good idea. The addition of well-defined grammatical worksheets to compliment grammar lessons also helped with one weak point of the textbook. However, notes were still a must to retain any “gotchas” explained during lectures. For comparison, the 201 level feels like a middle school English class.
After completing a set of chapters, a couple of lessons were dedicated to review. These core lessons were interspersed with supplemental activities that emphasized vocabulary based around a certain topic, conversational idioms, short stories, etc. Teachers seemed to place less emphasis on listening practice in exchange for more emphasis on reading comprehension.
While the writing/listening tests basically remained unchanged from before, conversation tests saw some format tweaks. The first test consisted of teams pitching imaginary products to the rest of the students. The second test paired us off and had us do demonstrations of certain conversational situations. For example, one situation was to listen to a friend complain about school. The pair had to incorporate key grammar points into the discussion as part of the test. The third test format will remain a mystery since we didn’t make it that far.
The class schedule also changed a little bit. Gone were the two mandatory longs days with an extra period. Instead 200 level students choose four electives to fill out their remaining lessons. This gave students the opportunity to focus on things like test prep, conversation, polite-forms, and so on.
Although cut short, I learned quite a bit this last quarter. As expected, my Japanese ability seems to get better and better each term. Searching for jobs added to new challenge to the mix, which may or may not have affected my motivation to study. I’ll admit I wasn’t as studious as before, but even so class was manageable. One thing I noticed was a slow drop off of non-school activities, like attending festivals or going on trips. That was something I wish we would have done more of while still in Aichi.
It is a little disappointing that we had to end at the intermediate level, and early at that. You are getting the hang of the language, and some of the subtleties are starting to show through, so it is a really interesting time for learning. However, time and money set our priorities, and we had to leave a bookmark here for now. Now the next challenge will be keeping up with studying on our own.
Interested in our class breakdown?
Class 201
4 core teachers; 3 elective teachers (all Japanese women)
10 students
5 women (1 American, 1 Australian, 1 French, 1 Vietnamese, 1 Chinese)
5 men (1 American, 1 Canadian, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Brazilian, 1 German)