１２月１０日（月曜日）のアクティビティー

きょうはオーラルしけんです。

Please do the following activities before and after you take the oral exam.

1. Complete the course evaluation.

   Click HERE to go to CourseWorks.

2. Read two of your classmates' essays "二十年ごのわたし" (Me, 20 years from now) you find most interesting, and write comments on them. 

3. Reply to all comments you have received (if not done yet).

4. Let's check how your pronunciation has improved over the semester.  If you have time after activities 1-3 above, please take an intonation pretest in class. if you don't have time to take it in class, we encourage you to take it later. The link to the test is available on CourseWorks. Click "Japanese Intonation" and take "Intonation pretest" (18 questions in total).  If you already have taken the test before, compare the scores to see your improvement.  


みなさん、来がっきも いっしょに がんばりましょう！
" Congratulations for all your hard work this semester. Let's try our best next semester as well!"

１１月7日（水）のアクティビティー

きょうはオーラルしけんです。

Please do the following activities before and after you take the oral exam.
(If you do not finish all of the activities in class, the remaining activities must be completed for homework due next Monday.) 


1. Read and respond to comments on your blog. (25 minutes)

• Read comments others posted on your blog, and also check if others responded to your comments on their blogs.
• Respond to all questions and comments.

2. Write on your own blog. (25 minutes)

• Write on your blog in Japanese.
• You may choose any topic. If you can't think of any topics, write about what you did during last weekend and how it was.

じゅうがつついたち(10/1)のアクティビティ(Activity)

Today (10/1, Mon), we are going to learn how to type Japanese on a computer and make a blog post. Please do Activities 1-3 below.

 (If you do not finish all of the activities in class, the remaining activities must be completed for homework by the next day.) 

1. Read about the blog activity (5 min.)

Blog Activities:

Welcome to our blog community! For this class we would like you to keep a blog because it provides a place to communicate with your classmates and other people outside of class.

People use language for various purposes, but one of the main reasons we use language is to communicate with other people. While you can engage in many different forms of communicative language activities in class, class time is limited, so it is impossible to engage in all types. Using a blog as a communication tool will engage you in another form of authentic, real-world communication. Though a blog can seem daunting, this is something that you shouldn’t wait until mastering  a language to do, but rather is something that should be started right away from the very beginning of your learning a language. This will also help you track your own improvement in Japanese as you see your own expressions and explanations become more complex.

* We will share links from your classmates' blogs as well as blogs of students in other sections, other levels, and other schools, so you can exchange comments with those people as well.

* We know that your current command of Japanese language may still limit your ability to convey your thoughts fully, but we also encourage you to convey your intended meaning by utilizing other resources such as pictures and videos. Remember that people utilize not only language but also other means of communication such as tone of voice, music, body language, pictures, colors, font styles and font size for communication.

For the course requirement, you will be graded on the four entries scheduled on your class schedules. However, we would like to encourage you to post as many additional entries as you like in order to improve your communication skills. This blog will be a place for you to express yourself in Japanese, get feedback on your language skills, and interact with students from across different levels and different schools. We hope you enjoy it!

2. Type up your first composition or さくぶん１,  and post it on your blog. (30 min.)

• If you do not want to use your real name, you may use a pseudonym. If you have questions or technical problems, we encourage you to help each other. Instructions on how to change the language setting to Japanese on Apple computers can be found on today's handout, "How to type Japanese words in Hiragana and Katakana."
• After writing your self-introduction, form a group of 2-3 students and peer edit your self-introductions. (e.g., Is the hiragana typed correctly? Is it grammatical?) 
• To make the font size bigger, press the “Apple/command” key and the “+” key together (For PC users, press the “Control” key instead of the “Apple/command” key).

• After everyone in your group has read and corrected each other’s self-introductions, click on “Publish,” which will allow your post to be published on your blog.

3. Make a New Post in English (10 min.)

• Write about why you chose to study Japanese in English, 
what you are excited about, and/or what you found challenging after the first four weeks of Japanese class.

Welcome to the Japanese Community !! 日本語のコミュニティーへようこそ!!

Welcome to みつけよう日本語（にほんご） (Let's find our community by getting connected with other people and learning Japanese!).

This blog site is designed to help connect you with other students who are either studying Japanese or are native speakers of Japanese. Let's learn Japanese by communicating with each other.

Our blog activities will begin on Oct. 1(M). Please create your own blog by this day so that we can start the activities.

Assignment on Sep. 28 (F)

We will start our blog activities on Oct. 1 (M). In order to participate in these activities, you will need to create your own blog account. Please read the instructions below to get one ready for Monday.

How to Create Your Blog Account

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com and create a blog.

·       Do you have a Google account? If so, go ahead and log in. If not, create an account first.

·       Please login to your personal Gmail account (NOT LionMail). If you logged in through LionMail, you will need to sign out of it. Your LionMail account is completely separate from your personal Gmail account. 

·       Try to come up with a unique blog title. Avoid ordinary titles such as "My Japanese Blog."

·       In order to receive comments from as many people as possible, please go to "Settings," followed by "Comments," and choose either "Registered Users" or "Users with Google Accounts" under the "Who can comment?" section.

2. Send your blog address (URL) to your instructor.

·       Once you have created your blog, click on "View blog" located on the top left-hand corner, and send your blog’s URL address (e.g. example.blogspot.com) to your instructor’s gmail address:

• えぐちせんせい：shigeru.eguchi@gmail.com
• おかもと せんせい：mukuokamoto@gmail.com
• たつみ せんせい：naofumi.tatsumi@gmail.com
• なずきあんせんせい：fumiko.nazikian@gmail.com
• つだせんせい：asamicolumbia@gmail.com

       Should you have any trouble creating your blog or finding your blog address, please notify your instructor.

                                               Enjoy the video

                 JAPAN - Where tradition meets the future