Chinese Class
I went to a Chinese class today first time ever in my life! I've tried to learn Chinese myself, but never able to stick with it even for days... always ended up in failure after I started to learn it. So, finally, recommended by my older sister, I set up my mind to go to the Chinese class. Since the class is offered by a culture center, the tuition is not as high as in a language school. Besides, the class meets only once a week on Saturdays, so I was kind of sure that I can manage to continue to attend the class without frequent absence.
Then, what the first class was like was... it was fun! The class was mainly on the practice of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, so still as easy as I can handle with, and studetns were instucted to pronounce each letter with loud voice after teacher's lead. Although I am usually in the place of teacher teaching English at a high school, I found it really fun to learn a foring language as a student. It really made me feel "learning" something. Then I came to think that we, humans, are fond of learning something by nature.
Carrie's mother will come to Okinawa in October, so hopefully, I will have learned some basic expressions by then, and can talk to her in simple Chinese...(^^)
Oh, by the way, after practicing pronunciation of Chinese letter or words for hours, I came to think that learning more than two foreing languages will help us alot to acquire better pronunciation in either language. We will pay closer attention to, let say, the position of our tongue inside our mouth in articulaing a letter or a word, when we learn a foreign language, which requires us to consciously do so. So, if you've already gained a knowledge of a foreign langague when you try to learn another, you can actively approach to a new foreign language with previously acquired knowledge, which even enables you to compare both differences and similarities in between two languages. This can explain why Carrie can speak Japanese with less Chinese accent... (^^)
Then, what the first class was like was... it was fun! The class was mainly on the practice of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, so still as easy as I can handle with, and studetns were instucted to pronounce each letter with loud voice after teacher's lead. Although I am usually in the place of teacher teaching English at a high school, I found it really fun to learn a foring language as a student. It really made me feel "learning" something. Then I came to think that we, humans, are fond of learning something by nature.
Carrie's mother will come to Okinawa in October, so hopefully, I will have learned some basic expressions by then, and can talk to her in simple Chinese...(^^)
Oh, by the way, after practicing pronunciation of Chinese letter or words for hours, I came to think that learning more than two foreing languages will help us alot to acquire better pronunciation in either language. We will pay closer attention to, let say, the position of our tongue inside our mouth in articulaing a letter or a word, when we learn a foreign language, which requires us to consciously do so. So, if you've already gained a knowledge of a foreign langague when you try to learn another, you can actively approach to a new foreign language with previously acquired knowledge, which even enables you to compare both differences and similarities in between two languages. This can explain why Carrie can speak Japanese with less Chinese accent... (^^)
posted by Naoto at 8:50 PM
