I thought I'd spend a moment in tribute for the guides who I've had as a second language learner and what it was that made them great.
The first were my teachers at the Missionary Training Center, Shinji Fujioka and Amber Kamoe, both from Hawaii originally. I think their modeling was the most important factor. They returned from their time in Hokkaido and Fukuoka and continued to learn and behave like missionaries. Part of this is loving those you teach and their patience and concern extended to us. They were constantly innovating and finding ways of teaching us in fun and authentic ways. Neither of them felt they were finished or fluent and they corrected us often in a way that showed their interest in our progress, but spoke to us like we were one of them. Their separate personalities influenced their teaching style.
The next would have to be my training missionary, Sister Matsumoto from Kurume. When it came to studying during our months at the training center, I was known as the battle-ax for focusing on studying. I met my match. SIster Matsumoto was very strict and kept me from making excuses and told me that "the time after the mistake is important time." She held herself to the same standard, though she was in Japan and didn't need another language to communicate as much as I did. She constantly wrote down English words she heard from missionaries and diligently practiced speaking, listening and reading at every opportunity. Befroe her time as a missionary she didn't speak English and the progress she made was astronomical. She helped me develope a study schedule and to use my extra minutes while waiting or eating or walking to improve my language. When I would practice long presentations of material she busily wrote pages of all the mistakes I made and then gave it to me to study with a note on the top that said: "Sister Powell, don't get discouraged." She helped me enormously, though I didn't always appreciate it. The other missionaries she trained had to pay her 100 yen every time they spoke English. I smile to think of her no nonsense
approach and yet her ability to laugh often and make me laugh.
The next guide who I still think of often was Sister Kawano from Miyazaki, another native Japanese speaker. She was optimism itself and I found it so contagious. Much of my growth during my time with her was due to just wanting to talk to her so much and her tireless patience and interest in me and what I thought. She was always careful to make sure I understood and helped me laugh at myself. She filmed me once, trying to write Kanji becuase she said it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen. Then she showed me many tips for making it look right.
The list goes on and on with people like Sister Eguchi, who forced me to speak to her in polite Japanese when I was beginning to fall into the habit of always speaking in plain form. This helped in emergency situations when I needed to polite word to come out without thinking about it too much. Many missionaries gave me tips about just believing that I could and trusting it would happen, about finding opportunities and finding out what I wanted to say in English and then making the transfer instead of being frustrated when I couldn't express myself but didn't know what I wanted to come out. There were many American companions too who helped me udnerstand what the patterns were that I was hearing and dear Sister Mortensen, who, though sick as a dog, helped me understnad the first pages of teh Book of Mormon. Thanks to the many who helped me learn how to read the Book of Mormon in Japanese and how this opened up my world and upped my interest in never losing the ability to speak Japanese.
I wonder if it took as many people to help me speak my native language. The answer is of course it did. Independent language learning--the kind without a classroom, ironically enough, takes a village. Language facility comes when we bounce it against as many others and their language as possible. What a great collaborative creative effort!
The first were my teachers at the Missionary Training Center, Shinji Fujioka and Amber Kamoe, both from Hawaii originally. I think their modeling was the most important factor. They returned from their time in Hokkaido and Fukuoka and continued to learn and behave like missionaries. Part of this is loving those you teach and their patience and concern extended to us. They were constantly innovating and finding ways of teaching us in fun and authentic ways. Neither of them felt they were finished or fluent and they corrected us often in a way that showed their interest in our progress, but spoke to us like we were one of them. Their separate personalities influenced their teaching style.
The next would have to be my training missionary, Sister Matsumoto from Kurume. When it came to studying during our months at the training center, I was known as the battle-ax for focusing on studying. I met my match. SIster Matsumoto was very strict and kept me from making excuses and told me that "the time after the mistake is important time." She held herself to the same standard, though she was in Japan and didn't need another language to communicate as much as I did. She constantly wrote down English words she heard from missionaries and diligently practiced speaking, listening and reading at every opportunity. Befroe her time as a missionary she didn't speak English and the progress she made was astronomical. She helped me develope a study schedule and to use my extra minutes while waiting or eating or walking to improve my language. When I would practice long presentations of material she busily wrote pages of all the mistakes I made and then gave it to me to study with a note on the top that said: "Sister Powell, don't get discouraged." She helped me enormously, though I didn't always appreciate it. The other missionaries she trained had to pay her 100 yen every time they spoke English. I smile to think of her no nonsense
approach and yet her ability to laugh often and make me laugh.The next guide who I still think of often was Sister Kawano from Miyazaki, another native Japanese speaker. She was optimism itself and I found it so contagious. Much of my growth during my time with her was due to just wanting to talk to her so much and her tireless patience and interest in me and what I thought. She was always careful to make sure I understood and helped me laugh at myself. She filmed me once, trying to write Kanji becuase she said it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen. Then she showed me many tips for making it look right.
The list goes on and on with people like Sister Eguchi, who forced me to speak to her in polite Japanese when I was beginning to fall into the habit of always speaking in plain form. This helped in emergency situations when I needed to polite word to come out without thinking about it too much. Many missionaries gave me tips about just believing that I could and trusting it would happen, about finding opportunities and finding out what I wanted to say in English and then making the transfer instead of being frustrated when I couldn't express myself but didn't know what I wanted to come out. There were many American companions too who helped me udnerstand what the patterns were that I was hearing and dear Sister Mortensen, who, though sick as a dog, helped me understnad the first pages of teh Book of Mormon. Thanks to the many who helped me learn how to read the Book of Mormon in Japanese and how this opened up my world and upped my interest in never losing the ability to speak Japanese.
I wonder if it took as many people to help me speak my native language. The answer is of course it did. Independent language learning--the kind without a classroom, ironically enough, takes a village. Language facility comes when we bounce it against as many others and their language as possible. What a great collaborative creative effort!
No comments:
Post a Comment