火曜日 かようび
Start L4 Speaking Assignment
今日は火曜日です。Here's what to work on today:
- Contact your speaking assignment partner and start coordinating your efforts for this week's speaking assignment.
- Check the My Grades link and make sure your assignments for Lessons 1 - 3 are submitted. If you have overdue work, make your submissions today.
- Take time to start working on your Mid Term Project. Details below.
Lesson 4 Speaking Assignment - Please Read This Carefully
This week's speaking assignment is a little different. You will be reading lines from a script, but you will need to fill in the blanks with something that would be appropriate based on the rest of the conversation.
You can find the script in Course Modules > Module 1 > Lesson 4 > Assignment 4.2: Speaking. Click on the link that says J2_Lesson 4_Speaking Assignment.doc
Contact your partner and look over the script. Decide who will be Person A and who will be Person B. Choose only to do part A or B. You do not need to do both parts of the conversation.
Today, work with your partner to determine what should go in the blanks and fill these in your script. Over today and tomorrow you will want to practice saying the lines. When you feel comfortable, record your lines and make your submission by Thursday night.
I only need to hear your lines - you don't need to submit your partner's part too.
Please specify if you were person A or person B when you make your post.
If you already have a partner, you'll work with the same partner again this week.
If you still do not have a speaking assignment partner, you will need to find one. Ask at coaching if anyone is looking for a partner. You can work with any Japanese 2 student. Alternatively, you could ask a willing friend or family member to be your partner for your speaking assignments too, but please make an effort to work with a partner to earn full credit.
Extending Invitations
It's almost Valentine's Day! This week's lesson has perfect timing because we can review how to invite people (including your valentine) to do things in Japanese using verb endings like ~ませんか, ~ましょう and ~ましょうか Let’s look at how these work:
~ませんか is used to ask “won’t you…(do something)?” So to ask someone “Won’t you go to the movies?” say: えいが に いきませんか。
If we take か out of this sentence, we’d have えいが に いきません。 It would mean “I won’t go to the movies.” The ~ませんか ending without か is simply the PRESENT/FUTURE NEGATIVE tense. So by asking a question using ~ませんか we’re asking “won’t you (do something)” in the future.
~ましょう is used to say “Let’s… (do something.) Unlike ~ませんか and ~ましょうか which are used to *ask* people if they’d do things, using ~ましょう is more like making a request, suggestion or command.
So if someone says: すし を たべましょう。 they’re saying "Let’s eat sushi.” No one is really asking a question here, they’re simply suggesting/requesting/commanding me to eat sushi with them. (Don’t mind if I do! *nom nom nom*) ;)
Finally, ~しましょうか can be used to say “Shall we… (do something.)” If someone says: テレビゲーム を しましょうか。 they’re saying “Shall we play video games?” So here we’re back to asking someone to do something. This is more casual and informal than the ~ませんか ending that is more formal and polite.
So to ask your valentine out on a date, and do so in Japanese, I personally would recommend you use the ~しましょうか ending and say something like: レストラン に いきましょうか。(Shall we go to a restaurant?) followed by: ぞして コーヒー を のみましょうか。
The handy dandy chart below helps to illustrate the different verb endings we can use to extend invitations to others:
Tweet/Text me Tuesday!
TODAY ONLY for 1 bonus point, you can use twitter to tweet me @BoutinSensei or text me at 919-964-5227 and tell me how you would extend an invitation to do something fun to your valentine or someone you like in Japanese.
If you can't tweet or text, you can email or IM me your sentence for your bonus point.
If you choose to tweet, be sure you have permission from a parent or guardian to use social media!
You can also follow me on twitter @BoutinSensei for course tips and fun cultural related posts.
Mid Term Project
It's important to pace yourself and work on your Mid Term project ahead of time.
- You can find all of the information about your Mid Term Project by going to the Course Projects link on your left hand navigational toolbar in Blackboard.
- You will need to create a multimedia presentation that covers the course material in lessons 1 - 7 with one slide per lesson.
- You'll need 4 lines per slide and 1 slide per lesson.
I'd suggest creating the slides for lessons 1 and 2 this week. Make sure you include grammar and vocabulary from that lesson in the slide. Take a look at your grammar notes, vocabulary flashcards and old announcements from prior weeks to get some ideas on things to talk about in your slides.
Juan V.'s College Acceptance!
Juan V. found out yesterday that he was accepted into Norwich University! :D
おめでとうございます。Congratulations Juan!
Contact Boutin Sensei
I can also be reached by these contacts outside of office hours:
Email: sarah.boutin@ncpublicschools.gov
Website: sarahboutin.tumblr.com
Location: BBIM - Sarah Boutin
Phone: 919-964-5227
Facebook: facebook.com/boutinsensei
Twitter: @boutinsensei