Hello and welcome to you, I'd like to introduce myself and start off what I hope will be a useful resource for you in your studies of Japanese.
My name is Mike Sharp, I'm a Japanese and English as a Second Language teacher from Perth, Western Australia. I'm currently living in Kobe, Japan as an exchange teacher. As you may or may not know, Western Australia and Hyogo Prefecture are sister states and we visit one another quite regularly on trips and longer exchanges. In 2010, I'm representing WA over here at two schools and a Japanese teacher will be doing the same in Perth.
Hopefully there'll one or two things in this for you, which I'll try to explain now.
Firstly, I'm going to be keeping this blog updated as often as possible. I'll be posting lots of photos, explaining some interesting elements of Japanese lifestyle and culture and trying to give a bit of context to the language that you're learning. I don't think you can really sink your teeth into a language unless you're exposed to the culture so I'll try to enrich what you're doing in the classroom as best I can. A little of this sort of knowledge goes a long way, particularly if you're going to Japan on an exchange, a school trip or just a holiday.
Secondly, I've placed some resource links on the right hand side of the page which I hope will help you, particularly rikaichan. If you're viewing Japanese webpages or I put in some kanji that you can't read, it will spell out the reading and meaning for you, which should hopefully be useful in following what I'm on about. I hope to add to this list throughout the year and would welcome any suggestions of things you find useful.
Finally, I'll be available for questions, comments and suggestions through the comment link at the bottom of each post. If I make a mistake (and that will definitely happen!), if you're not sure of something or if you have a burning question, I'd love to hear from you (teachers and students). I don't pretend to know all the answers but I'll do my best to find someone who does.
If I can get you more interested in visiting Japan, show you a few things you didn't know about and give you something to think about by the end of the year, I think I'll have done a good job. Please don't hesitate to contact me through the blog at any time (anonymously is okay too) and I'll see what I can do!
頑張りましょう！Ganbarimashou! Let's give it all we've got!
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you have any questions or additions, I would love to hear from you. I may not know the answer, but I'll do my best to find out in any case! You can post anonymously if you like, but abusive/unintelligible/inappropriate comments will not be published.