A new video series about the Silent Way
Laurence Howells
こんにちは (Hi!)
日本語のクラスのビデオを見て下さい。(Watch the videos of Japanese classes please)
Hi Everyone,
We've just started another series of videos which you might be interested in. The video series will track the progress of one student (ie me) learning Japanese with the Silent Way over a substantial period of time ... the first videos we've published just now boil down the first 35 hours of progress with Japanese into just over 20 mins. More to follow.
You can find more details about the project here:
https://silentway.online/2022/06/29/learning-japanese-with-the-silent-way/
Or watch the series on YouTube at the playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqZwlD0KSWWzRnrQhPrsENd84GdBRL0U
If you know anyone else who would be interested, please share the links with them.
With especial thanks to Silent Way Tokyo.
Best wishes
Laurence
don cherry
Just watched the first six videos of Laurence learning Japanese, and just loved them. Some points that really stood out for me, in no logical order (but probably corresponding to the order of their appearance on the videos):
* Nice comment on the intranslatibility of Japanese “wa”. I am sure this holds true for many function words in every language, and it’s best people understand the folly of trying to translate every word into their mother tongue.
* I love the comment on how you found it interesting that you were able to get people to do your bidding simply by uttering words. I remember Fusako referring to this sort of power once after she watched a lesson of mine where the student mispoke and said something like, “take the rod off plate and put on it the table,” and instead of correcting the last bit to “put it on the table” I took the rod off the plate and placed it beneath one of the legs of the table to show the student what he had said. Not especially clever, I thought at the time, but Fusako commented on it afterwards with the kind of Fusako-enthusiasm that was just one reason for loving the woman, saying that it showed the student what power (but she said POWER!) there is in language. Language has power and meaning and consequences, she helped me understand more deeply.
* I like the comment on how something can seem so unnatural to you, but completely natural in the target language, and this is what can be thought of as the “spirit of the language.” Nice.
* I like the stuff about how you talk about your various hypotheses during your learning, specifically the use of Japanese “ni” “wa” and “ga”. I think all language classes should be that fun and playful, and I’m glad someone has said it out loud like that. Nothing more boring than some know-it-all prattling on about how to use “ni.” Much more fun trying to figure it out on your own. I’ve got some very interesting hypotheses about French. Probably about half of them are terribly wrong, but I don’t mind in the least.
* Just want to note, I notice a huge improvement in Laurence’s pronunciation in Video #5.
Finally, just a note about how I find the personal nature of this learning diary so interesting. Laurence, for example, at one point telling us the melody of Japanese is, at that point, the most challenging for him. And then later, him telling us how he’s becoming more confident in one aspect or another. Just a really great project, and I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you Laurence, Yoko, Sumiyo, and Carl!
Laurence Howells
新しいビデオを見て下さい。(please watch the new videos)
Laurence Howells
Luigi Magnano
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don cherry
Laurence Howells
Dear All
Please check out the latest episode in the video series Learning Japanese with the Silent Way. It’s an update after 18 months of learning Japanese with Silent Way Tokyo … actually, what is REALLY embarrassing is watching this one and number 1 in the series one after the other …
… it is embarrassing (for me) but it is also salutary to have a ‘before’ and ‘after’ record.
Please share with anyone you think might be interested.
And thanks to Silent Way Tokyo … they really are the most exceptionally good teachers … and if anyone wants to try, Silent Way Tokyo are running an intensive Japanese beginners course next week … maybe there are some places left?
Laurence
yoko yasuda-Rainbow labo
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