Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: September 24, 2019

Language and Level: Advanced Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:
Onomatopoeias and Slang

Goal of the class:
Learn casual vocabulary and phrases

How did you structure the class?

  • Warm-up: Greeting and announcements
    – Ghibli Movie Night on Sep. 26
  • Activity I: Match the onomatopoeias (= sound-based words)
    I ask students to make groups of two or three and give each group a table of onomatopoeias and picture cards. I ask them to place each picture on a corresponding onomatopoeia. When all groups are done, I tell them the correct answers and explain when to use the words.
    I introduce other common onomatopoeias and ask students if they know even more.
  • Activity II: Guess what these slang words mean
    I give a handout that lists slang words and ask students to choose the closest synonym from the options. Students work in pairs, and when they are done, I tell them the correct answers and explain when to use the words.
  • Activity III: Names
    As the newly-invented slang term “kira kira name” (millennium kids’ untraditional names) was mentioned in Activity II, I give a few examples of kira kira names (I first show students the Chinese characters and have them guess how to read them).
    Next, I ask students to make groups of three and talk about their name origins.

What technology, media or props did you use?

  • PowerPoint slides
  • Drawings from the internet
  • Picture cards
  • Web articles

What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students talked a lot in Activity I. I thought the vocab was too easy for advanced students but they were not familiar with all of them, which led them to discuss with their group members.

How could this class be improved/ modified?
I think this class went well and the amount of content was good for a one-hour class.

Note:
I told students to avoid using slang words to professors and in writing; I made it clear that I talked about slang in this lesson because they might hear/see it sometimes in Japanese media but they are not supposed to use it in formal contexts.

Picture cards (Activity I):

Handout (Activity II):

Slides:

Sep.24_AdvJP_Slides