Letters from Japan: 10/24/02 "Masaki Leturns!"

Hey Kids,

I was going to feel guilty for spending my last 2 days
off sitting in an internet cafe instead of exploring
my world but it is raining today so that guilt
dissipated (unlike the crappy weather). Before I
continue with Amber's visit, I have to tell you about
Masaki. He is my student with really poor listening
comprehension who told me to have a nice life. Anyway,
I had him yesterday and he wanted to work on his
pronunciation instead of doing a lesson. Japanese
people have a difficult time pronouncing r,s,wh,and th
sounds so I told him that sounds that aren't used in
your language take practice. I wrote on a piece of
paper "tsu" and said that that sound is not used in
the English language so it is difficult for me to
pronounce and I asked him to pronounce it for me. He
looked at me sort of confused so I said, "say tsu" so
he said "tsu" and I tried to imitate him and say "tsu"
and he said "tsu" and I said "tsu" and he said "tsu"
and I said "tsu."(Are you getting the picture?) We
went back and forth, studying each other's
pronounciation intently until I realized that he
hadn't understood me. He thought I was demonstrating
the proper way to pronounce "tsu" in English so HE was
imitating ME while I thought that I was imitating HIM.
So I had a good laugh from that (he never knew why I
was laughing). Then we moved onto "r." We both got
the giggles so bad during this little session that I
didn't know if I could continue. I told him not to
move his tongue when he says "r" (Japanese people move
their tongue like an "l" when they say their r's.) So
he tried to say my name without moving his tongue and
it came out like he had just been thawed out from
Kryo-freeze. We both laughed so hard, it became hard
to even look at each other when he was trying to
imitate me. We would burst out laughing before he
could even get the first sound out. He said, "I will
remember this lesson because it is so funny." At one
point, I let out a big snort which put us both out of
commision for the next several minutes. I wish I had
our lesson a video. That's the kind of stuff I will
miss.

OK onto the Amber Chronicles...
(My favorite student, Masaki)

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