Frustration is the feeling of learning something.

[arisha]

Some days the only reason I post is because I notice I have been completely knocked off of athena_crikey's friends page. xD;

So today I was thinking about my high school language classes, and some of the weird things we were taught that I would do my very best to teach much more better, were I ever to become a high school language teacher.

Spanish: Stem-Changing Verbs
As much as I adored the teacher I had for Spanish 11, 12 and AP, taking her class was somewhat of an adventure. For example, one day, halfway through class, she decided I had missed a test and was going to write it RIGHT NOW. As I was the most hardcore Spanish 12 student you ever did see (99% on the provincial exam and a 4 on the AP exam, if I may brag for just a moment about my only bragable accomplishments so far), I was able to write it and do just fine on it, but at the same time ... what??? And that's pretty much how she taught us stem-changing verbs. One day, halfway through class, she decided it was time to tell us about their existence. And so she did. And then we moved on.

Hopefully this is not a common experience in high school Spanish classes, because dude. It's kind of important, don't you think? hahaha I love that I wrote the Spanish AP exam not even really understanding this stuff. xDDD; And yet I got a 4, and that's just how hardcore I am. <3

Spanish: "Me Gusta"
"Me gusta" does NOT equal "I like" and yet that's how we were taught it, and I strongly suspect this is how it is taught in most high school Spanish classes. And don't get me wrong, I can definitely see why it's done this way. "Me" is a direct object pronoun, and "me gusta" seems to usually be taught very early in Spanish classes, long before students have to deal with the more nitty gritty bits of grammar. Also, I had the rowdiest classmates my first year of Spanish, and I don't doubt for a moment that teaching "gustar" as "to please" would have caused giggles and comments galore. But I still think it's wrong to teach it wrong! I mean, oh man, all the problems my classmates were having with "me gusta" even into Spanish 12, it was ridiculous, and could've perhaps been prevented by better explaining the grammar of the phrase, or maybe even going so far as to not teach it at all until it's time to learn about direct object pronouns.

(Meanwhile there are kids like me who go home and look all this stuff up. The Internet was willing to teach me about direct object pronouns even when my teacher wasn't! xD; )

French: Preceding Direct Object
I know athena_crikey has heard me rant on this subject before, way back in grade 12 when I began to decide exactly how awesome a language teacher I would be. xD But man, I still can't get over this one! As Language Guide tells us, The past participle of the passé composé will always reflect the gender and number of a preceding direct object. Were we taught about this necessary agreement when we were taught about preceding direct objects? Uhm, no. Decidedly not. When were we taught it? AN ENTIRE YEAR LATER. That's absurd. ABSURD!!

Now, okay, I admit. When I was first presented with the idea that in French, direct object pronouns came before the verb, I definitely left class that day with a headache. It just completely blew my mind. So perhaps that was not the day to bring up this nasty agreement business. But it's ridiculous that they waited a whole year to inform us about it. I mean, I'm pretty sure that in the meantime I wrote sentences that were completely wrong. I definitely remember reading things in French and being confused by all the extra letters. Unfortunately this is one thing I didn't think to look up. :/

Japanese: "-masu" Form Before Dictionary Form
I was teaching myself Japanese for about a year and a half before I was able to get into a class that my school didn't cancel a week into the semester, and I knew there might be some weird little issues as I adjusted to the way my classmates had been learning the language during the time I was unable to join them. The only one I really remember (other than the fact that I was way ahead of everyone, oh man it was ridiculous - I was in Japanese 11 in the same classroom at the same time as the tiny Japanese 12 class, and on occasion they would lean across the aisle to ask me for help), though, is that every verb my classmates had been taught, they had been taught in the "-masu" form. My guess is that this was done because "-masu" form is more polite than dictionary form, but my opinion is that it's ridiculous. Two years into their Japanese studies and these guys can't even properly look up a verb in the dictionary?? And now they're being taught how to convert verbs from "-masu" form to dictionary form?? That's the most backwards thing I've ever heard!! Students in the Romance languages have to get used to conjugating ALL VERBS ALL THE TIME, so I don't know why our teachers felt it necessary to hide even the existence of the dictionary form from their students for two whole years. I mean, honestly.

(And let's ignore for the moment the many issues I have with the teaching of kanji. You just ... don't want to go there.)

IN CONCLUSION, were I to ever become a high school language teacher, I believe I would have a little speech to give on the first day of each of my classes, and it might go a little something like this. Learning a language is hard work. You'll memorize a lot. You'll practice a lot. You'll fill page after page with verb conjugations and kanji practice. And still you won't understand everything. You'll make millions of mistakes. You'll leave class sometimes with a headache. And I'm not going to dumb it down for you. Because learning a language is hard work. But it's never impossible, and it can be one of the most awesome and fascinating and rewarding things you ever do.

I daresay I would be the least popular teacher at my school. xD;

ahahaha YES I have been feeling like quite the language major lately, despite the fact that I'm not actually taking any language classes this semester ... ? xDDDD!

Comments

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

The teaching of the -masu form first really sticks in my craw. I once nearly brought a friend to tears when I argued fervently against it. (She taught Japanese to foreigners in Japan and, unbeknownst to me, had the complete opposite viewpoint. Yes, I felt like an ass and changed the subject immediately.)

The one lucid argument I saw in favor of masu-first stated that it was to protect foreigners from Japanese people prejudging them by their manner of speaking when they're beginning their language study, especially if they have to talk to authority figures like school principals and cops. (Um, I guess that's a really vague description of what was a multi-page essay, but maybe I'll translate it when my boxes arrive from Japan.)

[aurora-lime.livejournal.com]

I don't remember which way I learned it in highschool, the -masu, that is. I remember learning dictionary form pretty early, but maybe I'm going loony-bins. were we in the same class?

"I was teaching myself Japanese for about a year and a half before I was able to get into a class that my school didn't cancel a week into the semester, " I remember that, man, that sucked. I had to take japanese 11/12 at camosun, instead of moving forward. And then, again, more 100 level japanese once I got to uvic. You'd think after 5 years of study, I'd be actually past 200 level.

I've thought about continuing japanese study, and I eventually did well enough in 249 to take 311, but I didn't. Probbaly because i was so sick of Japanese for breakfast, lunch and dinner at that time that I wanted a break from feeling like I had no idea what I was talking about.

[lifty.livejournal.com]

I was determined before high school not to forget everything I learned in regards to foreign language, but right now the most I can recall from my year of French was that it was one of my easiest classes ever. 8D; The one thing that was difficult was participating in class, because I grew so nervous when I had to hold a conversation or translate something without checking it against my notes first. I do plan to start back up over the summer, though. I would actually love to attain fluency in multiple languages, but I don't know that I could. D:

Bzuh?

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

Man, that would be freakish. I mean, yes we learned masu form, like, right away, but the vocab lists had everything in dictionary form. Man, one of the most confusing things when I first started taking Japanese was how to tell the difference between -ru verbs, and -u verbs that just happen to end in "ru"! How do you even conjugate stuff if you can't take it to dictionary form? *is seriously confused*