kodomo No Ie

Saturday Japanese Class News

June 2013

1: Class 1 - Ms. Ozeki
2: Class 2 - Ms. Takakura
3: Class 3 - Ms. Umehata
4: Class 4 - Ms. Yamada
5: Class 5 - Ms. Oota
6: Class 6 - Ms. Sakamoto

As Japanese parents who have raised our own children in Los Angeles, we included the following messages in the last issue of the Japanese Class Newsletter. We normally put the yearly summary in the June issue newsletters, but now thanks to our website, you can access all the back issues on the KNI website.

Class 1 - Ms. Ozeki

Class Description/Goals:
Class 1 is for children who learn Japanese as beginners; the target age group is five years old.

We had a variety of activities throughout the year, such as singing Japanese songs, dancing to the songs, and art craft projects for Japanese seasonal occasions.
The following are examples of our class goals;
- Learn how to use the school facilities and share toys with classmates
- Get to know classmates and play with them
- Develop an interest in Japanese
- Build hand strength and develop fine motor skills for writing
- Learn how to take care of animals gently

Message from Ms. Ozeki:
Did your child talk to you about the Japanese class? Did your child tell you if he/she likes learning Japanese?
I understand you may want your child to start writing hiragana ( Japanese letters ) as soon as possible, but it is not advisable for young children this age to use hard pencils before they build hand strength and develop fine motor skills for writing since they might develop bad habits of writing. At this stage, I encourage them to focus on activities that involve building hand coordination such as working on crafts and playing in the sand box. When the children practice writing hiragana, please make sure to have them write properly, especially with correct writing strokes. Also, using chopsticks can be helpful to develop hand coordination.


Class 2 - Ms. Takakura

Class Description/Goals:
Class 2 aims to improve the children's ability to listen, speak, read and write in Japanese

- Did your child learn how to greet as a store worker or buy something as a customer in Japanese through the Halloween candy store event?
- Did your child master special Japanese pronunciation such as long vowels and assimilated sounds through reading Japanese materials such as Karuta out loud?
- Did your child increase his/her vocabulary through activities such as word-collecting-games or learning antonyms?

Message from Ms. Takakura:
Children aged 5 to 8 absorb quickly whatever they hear, like sand in the desert absorbs water. Since they are learning Japanese at a young age, not later in life as grown-ups, they are likely to acquire native pronunciation. Even though their Japanese may recede when they enter the school system here in America and start learning to read and write in English, it is likely that they will still retain the Japanese language skills they acquired as young children. Please be sure to speak to your children in clear and proper Japanese, without skipping "は", "を" in a sentence.


Class 3 - Ms. Umehata

Class Description/Goals:
Develop the habit to listen to spoken Japanese till the end of the speech
Copy Japanese sentences from the original text
Learn Japanese alphabet (Hiragana), another set of alphabets used for words derived from foreign languages (Katakana) and 80 Kanji characters

From the make believe shopping experience at the Sweets Castle to the book making for Mother’s Day, the students learned Japanese through the activities that mark the Japanese and English traditional customs. We have read or listened to stories about Thanksgiving, Setsubun and Children’s Day. I hope their comprehension skills reflected in their own writing in the Mother’s Day book which should deliver a sense of appreciation for their mothers. We also wrote about a process of making colored water from the Four-O'clock flowers in the garden, incorporating words that indicate orders.
 
There is a difference between teaching a text book itself used in Japan and teaching Japanese WITH the text book. For example, we specifically used a story titled Baby Animals in first grade Japanese text book when our baby rabbits were born.
 
We hope the children can start writing sentences by the block of meaning instead of picking up letter by letter from the Japanese alphabet chart. For example, Kyou (today)/ Kodomono-Ie-Dene (at KNI)/Usagi-no (Rabbit)/Akachan –wo (baby)/Dakko-shitayo (held).
 
Message from Ms. Umehata:
Being educated here, the students are reaching the age at which it will become increasingly difficult to follow a Japanese sentence till the end because they tend to be caught up with the beginning of it. Please encourage your child to read in Japanese and feel free to use our library.


Class 4 - Ms. Yamada

Class Description/Goals:
Listen to a simple sentence, dictation, reading out loud
Develop the ability to speak clearly, coherently and correctly from beginning to end with details
Learn160 Kanji characters
 
Our goal was to develop the ability to read out loud, copy, listen to and transcribe Japanese sentences while their ears are still flexible. Also, I worked with children in expanding their vocabulary through their participation in various KNI events. 
This year, the students practiced grasping the meaning of descriptive texts such as “One Tree” or “What Do Pictures Say?” We touched upon “indicating words” and worked on copying original sentences. I am sure these educational goals have been met in their ability to compose sentences based on what they see.
 
Copying – it does not mean the students copy the sentences letter by letter; rather, they copy the sentences by the word or phrase unit from the original sentences.
 
Listening and Dictation – First, students transcribe a short sentence from sound then rewrite it using applicable Kanji characters and Hiragana. Here is a sample sentence for such activities:
Pankui Kyousouni Detaihitowa Nyujyoumonni Shuugouushitekudasai. (Those who want to participate in the Bread Grabbing race, please come to the entrance gate.)
 
As you know, the children have been writing journals throughout the year. The journal writing has been effective and instrumental in developing the students’ language skills in many ways. For example, in English, the verb ‘play’ can be used in all these situations: I play soccer, play the piano and was playing. But in Japanese the coinciding verbs for each scenario are different and it can be difficult to make distinctions. Through journal writing, the students became familiar with such usage. It also helped the students learn to combine words and connecting a word to a phrase or clause. For example, Hashiru (run) and Mawaru (go around) can be combined into Hashi-ri Mawaru. (Run around); Hashiru will be turned into Hashitte, or Hashi-ruto (if ~) so that another phrase or clause can follow. At the same time, the students can apply the Kanji character that indicates the act of running.

Message from Ms. Yamada:
It is my hope that the students master the usable Japanese slowly but surely. Please give your child support in their homework. If you have any questions, please let me know.
 

Class 5 - Ms. Oota

Class Description/Goals:
Practice listening, writing, and reading compound and complex sentences; develop ability to grasp kanji as ideograms; learn 200 new kanji; etc.

As the leaders of the “vertically divided groups,” were you able to unify various opinions? Were you able to exchange opinions in Japanese?

The number of kanji, which are introduced in Saturday schools, seems much fewer than the number which students in Japan learn: 80 in 1st grade; 160 in 2nd grade; 200 in 3rd grade; 200 in 4th grade; 185 in 5th grade; 181 in 6th grade; and about 940 in middle schools. However; it is more useful to teach how to identify sounds and accurately transcribe the phonograms in elementary level than to make our students go through a litany of unfamiliar kanji, which may even lead them to dislike learning Japanese. Instead, KNI asks its students to buy kanji workbook only up to 3rd grade level and to use it as homework. Please try to use words and kanji which are familiar, and make them part of the students’ everyday lives. For those students who possess higher Japanese language ability, we teach them to focus on the radicals and learn kanji as ideograms.

Message from Ms. Ohta:
Although it may make you happy when someone tells you how well your child speaks Japanese, I feel that few mothers know how to evaluate the level of their children’s Japanese language ability. It is not necessary to learn kanji if you are satisfied with your children being able to communicate with you verbally. Grades at the local schools become critical if their Japanese ability is evaluated at college or at work. Before becoming too busy with extra curricular activities, I would like the students to learn the basics of the Japanese language.


Class 6 - Ms. Sakamoto

Class Description/Goals:
This class is to help students deepen their understanding of Japanese culture in preparation for the AP Japanese Test (Japanese Language and Culture).

The content of the AP test is at the level of freshmen and sophomores in college, and therefore, only those who meet the following three conditions are allowed to attend Class 6:

1.Completed grade school;
2.Learned through third grade level kanji; and
3.Able to use Japanese on a computer at home.

Message from Ms. Sakamoto:
I’m relieved when I hear my students are busy with extra curricular activities. Because the mission of the American public school system is to raise citizens who contribute to society, many middle and high school students are busy with extra curricular activities. What we are trying to do in Class 6 is to help those busy students raise their GPA by receiving a 5 on the AP Japanese test. Please note that KNI is not responsible for registering the students for the AP test and that it is the responsibility of the students. Please also note that we stopped teaching for the Southern California Credit Tests due to a lack of high schools which recognize such credit.

Please visit http://jasakura.com/k/2012/ to find out what the students in Class 6 learned in 2012.


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