So what does one do when one gets up in the middle of the night?
Well, in our house, you could end up quizzing your 14 year old son on his first Japanese lesson. :)
I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd go downstairs and see what Alec was up to. He was farming on WOW (World of Warcraft). Farming on WOW means-- doing, finding, or killing something over and over to make money. His dwarf character does engineering and mining, so he was mining and doing some engineering. I sat with him for a bit and we talked and he mentioned that he had finished his first lesson to learn Japanese.
I had bought a "how to learn Japanese" CD/book set a couple of years ago for Abbi. She had wanted to learn Japanese. She didn't get real far, listened to the first CD and then decided to do something else. She might want to do it some other time, is what she's said, but not now, it's on to French for her.
But now Alec wants to learn. He's decided that it would be really convenient for him to know Japanese in order to play games right when they come out. You see, many video games that he likes come out in Japan first, so... there ya go.
A couple of days ago he said he decided to learn Japanese and I'm like.. "well, cool". I helped him find all the books and he sat down with the CD player and headphones and started listening. An hour or so later I didn't see him in the living room. I wondered where he was? Turns out he's up in his room studying the text and listening to the CD some more.
Now tonight he asked if I would go over the first section of vocabulary with him. Wow. He really is remembering it. I had to laugh though, (at me) I wanted to highlight some words in his text for him and he was vehemently against it. He doesn't want to write in his book. I explained to him that it really helped me, when I was studying the material later. Especially if something wasn't right in the list area, if it was kind- of hidden. I could just glance at the page then and find the info. I told him about how my Shakespeare book (from college) actually had notes in it from the previous owner that really helped me to understand some stuff. But nope, no jotting down notes in the side margins for him or highlighting points. He files it away in that brain of his and it's there.
He's also mentioned that he'd like to go to Japanese language camp, but I'm not sure that can happen this summer. I think there is one in August but I'm not sure if we could sign him up this late. We'll see....
sayonara for now :)
6 comments:
Wow. Those language courses look really cool! Maybe Jared will want to come stay with you guys sometime and attend.:)
Unschooled kids constantly amaze and amuse me. I don't think I'll ever get used to their wonderfulness.
How awesome! We do lots of stuff at night too, it doesn't matter what time it is when you are pursuing an interest.
what particular set are you using?
Nick might want to do that himself. He's always complaining about it being in Japanese.
Thanks
Tina
***what particular set are you using?**
It's the "Living Language" set. Titled-- Learn to Speak, Read, and Write Japanese Fluently: Ultimate Japanese
Then I also picked up a Japanese dictionary and a writing workbook.
The CDs have a companion text book that you can go along with as you listen and then it also has explanations and exercises you can do without the CD.
How cool. I lived in Japan for a year and didn't learn more than a few words. I am always impressed with others joy in learning a language.
You could mention the potion book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But I can clearly remember being disturbed at the idea of writing in a book. Simon and Linnaea both get upset when I dog ear a book to mark my place.
Sounds like that system is working for him. You made me thin of the Half Blood Price too with your Shakespaere text! We love Rosetta Stone immersion CD-roms for French (they choose to do for periods of time every once in a while). So cool the way in which he came to Japanese! Jesse wanted to learn Chinese after going to a Chinese new Yr. celebration and brings it up every now and then so we are looking at the Cninese Rosetta Stone CD now.
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