I’m in Japan right now! My husband and I are calling it our delayed honeymoon which was originally scheduled for May 2020 to Malaysia (We were going to have a Malaysian wedding with his side of the family). Instead during that month due to covid, I unexpectedly ended up speaking with over 250 students across Canada through our free French chats. What an unexpected turn!
Being in Japan is a dream trip for me. Through our Japanese Cultural Centre here in Hamilton, I actually began studying Japanese in grade 6 on Saturday mornings. I was one of those kids who was brought to Japanese culture through anime, back then it was less common than it is today! 🙂 At lessons, I remember thinking right away, “Wow, Japanese doesn’t have as many exceptions to the rules as French!” when they would explain a rule and that’s just how it was. It was awesome! I later took elective courses in high school and university.
Since I don’t have as many study hours put towards Japanese as I do French and don’t get to practice as much, I’m still at the stage where my comprehension is much better then my ability to speak. This is always a humbling stage to remember as a teacher since so many of our French students are at this same level. I have to say though, I haven’t encountered much frustration at all with this because if there is something I’ve needed to communicate, my husband and I just use google translate or the store clerks have their mini translating devices already on hand! While some old school thoughts of education frowned on the use of things like google translate and these translators, I like for myself and my students to know all the tools that help us thrive in real world situations. Combined with learning grammar and proper pronunciation, these tools provide some extra rocket fuel!
So far we’ve spent time in Tokyo and Kyoto and are headed to Osaka soon! Some highlights have been temples and shrines like Sensō-ji, Kyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari, seeing snow monkeys, going to an actual grand Sumo tournament, seeing Mt.Fuji, visiting a manga and anime fair and of course the food!
Back at home, John and the rest of our team have been diligently working on completing assessments for our new tutoring students, completing new year goal setting meetings with our current students, preparing for our DELF classes starting in October, sending our new French Levelled Readers stories for final editing and on developing our new website! Lots happening at Les Petites Pommes!
I can’t wait to share more of my adventure with you, happy language learning!
