"Unless she studied Japanese before she came to Japan, she might have a difficult time improving her Japanese. It's true. People just want to practice their English with you. But I think another reason is that most Japanese people aren't used to teaching Japanese as a second language. They're not use to trying to explain Japanese to foreigners"
She feels a little bit stress because everybody tries to talk to me in English.
Her English is, to be honestly, so-so, like mine.
To be surprised, if she can't understand the other Japanese English because she is not good at English, the other people thinks that their English is wrong though their English is correct.
So Yuki and I try to talk to her mostly in Japanese.
It is funny, because she "studies" Japanese, but it seems to be "MENDOKUSAI" (troublesome) to talk with us in Japanese, because we often let her to speak correct Japanese.
We put a big sheet on the wall in the kitchen.
This morning, it was cold.
So we said to her "KAZE NI KIOTSUKE MASHOU".
Take care so that you don't catch a cold???
Her question is MASHOU - what??
Good question--- I don't know. Let's ??? probably .
If KUDASAI , it means please take care.
We are not used to trying to explain in Japanese to foreigners.
4 comments:
I lived in Venezuela for a time and taught English to college students (most of their text books were in English). I learned more about English as I continued to teach it to non-English speaking students. It makes you stop and think when you try to explain your own language to someone trying to learn it. I think you will find this to be true as you and your husband "teach" Japanese to your house guest. Jan
Hi, Jan. Thanks your comments.
Now we try to speak "correct", " (a little bit) "polite", and usual (or adult) Japanese. It's really --- difficult.
Well, sometimes strange situation occurse. It is troublesome to speak "good" Japanese. so Yuki and I sometimes talk in English each other, though Lea doesn't understand the conversation well.
When I lived in Japan, I had to adjust my English very conscientiously so that my coworkers could understand me.
1. I had to speak SLOWLY.
2. I had to speak in simple sentences.
3. I had to avoid contractions. ("Do not", instead of "don't".)
4. I had to avoid idiomatic expresssion. ("Don't let the cat out of the bag.")
5. I had to avoid slang or regional expressions.
It was frustrating never to be able to talk English "naturally".
I got along best with a Japanese coworker who learned to speak Japanese back to me the same way. Rather than me trying to speak Japanese or her trying to speak English, we both spoke our own languages slowly and carefully. We had wonderful conversations.
Well, Well
1. I had to speak SLOWLY.
We do.
2. I had to speak in simple sentences.
We do
3. I had to avoid contractions. ("Do not", instead of "don't".)
We don't have (probably) contractions, instead of it, we try to put subject in our talking sentences.
4. I had to avoid idiomatic expresssion. ("Don't let the cat out of the bag.")
"we" don't know very well. What a shame.
5. I had to avoid slang or regional expressions.
she often came back to home saying strange slang Japanese. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what she said, and she didn't know the meaning.
It was frustrating never to be able to talk English "naturally".
Yes, our Japanese is getting stragne.
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