Friday, August 22, 2008

I'll teach you, you teach me

Tomoki is excited about learning English. There's no doubt about it.

The boy has come by my apartment and/or e-mailed me almost every day since I've been here, eager to practice. In one e-mail to me, he attached a picture of his room. I immediately noticed the American flag on his wall, which he called his star-spangled banner. He knows the words to the national anthem better than most Americans probably do! I know because he was more than happy to sing it for me.

He asked me if I speak Japanese, and I told him no, but casually added, "Maybe you can teach me." Well, he's taken that to heart! He came over last week with a chart of 50 hiragana Japanese characters and told me to study them.

While that's very nice of him to make me a chart, this is how I feel when I look at it...

Slightly overwhelmed!

The following e-mail from him made me chuckle:

Hi Dana, I'll come to your apartment. For me, meeting you is the enjoyment. The hiragana might be difficult. But I teach plainly to you. I bought camera. Because I want to take your smile and my smile. Hope you are well. Tomoki.

The picture he wanted of our smiles together :)

Because of the way he words things, it may come across like he's somewhat creepy, but he's really a cute kid who loves to learn. He just doesn't have perfect English....yet. ;)

Our first lesson last week went well. We were going over the difference between the pronunciations of "ear" and "year"; he pronounced both words as "ear." I also had him differentiate between "pool" and "pull," as well as "tool" and "tell." When I asked him if he knew what a tool was, he said, "Oh, Avril Lavigne! Tool me!" He was thinking of the song "Complicated," -- the part where she sings "Tell me..." I thought it was funny.

When his lesson was over, he asked me if I have laundry detergent. I have no idea why. Only he didn't know how to say detergent, so he acted it out, and I had to solve the mystery of what he was trying to say. Then he said to let him know if I have an accident. What?!? "E-mail me." Ummm...okay?

We've set lessons to be twice a week -- every Monday and Wednesday after school. I gave Tomoki a list of English words to review before his next lesson on Monday. And meanwhile, I have a chart of hiragana characters to memorize! Wish me luck.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daaayna,
Good luck on those Japanese symbols, they look very difficult to learn. Tomoki is not doing to bad with his English although that email does sound a little creepy lol.
Well I hope you know some Japanese by the time Amanda and I get there! Let that be your goal!
Love ya!

Unknown said...

Lauren~
Congrats on being first! haha. And about learning Japanese by June...LOL. Easier said than done!!

JodyAnn said...

Dana,
I love the look on your face in those pictures, looking at the Japanese symbols! LOL
And I trying to get together the "Care" package we talked about.
Billy Joel would YES get old after a while! Gary and I are trying to find some of our old tapes, they are around here somewhere!
Luv Luv Luv

Unknown said...

My love,

Can I just say that you are beautiful!! I think it is very interesting how foreigners say things in different ways....taking your smile instead of taking your picture. Specks for glasses and so on. I love you lots!

Amanda said...

Tokomi is cute. I cannot wait to meet him. I don't think he sounds like a creeper at all.

Good luck with learning the Japanese. I'm sure you'll be fluent by the time you leave. ;-)

I love you so much!