Meagan CP#6

Another hang out at Starbucks for the week, Nishimura-san and I shared a pleasant discourse in troublesome areas of English and Japanese.  He had a hard time with listening as native English speakers speak too fast and he cannot always catch certain parts of the statements being said.  For example, he has trouble hearing and differentiating, "How long will you be there?" and "How long have you been there?" He always misses the "will you" and "have you" because native speakers usually speed over this part or slack on the enunciation, so someone who is learning English as a second language cannot properly determine what is being said in that statement.  My advice was to never be too shy to ask someone to repeat themselves.  Native speakers in their native country will not realize the speed or rate of their speech, so it is very easy for them to talk to international visitors or residents as if they are native speakers as well.  That being said, I told Nishimura-san to politely stop them and ask to repeat themselves slowly with proper articulation. That way, he can hear and understand every word. Furthermore, I advised him to listen to as much American media as possible. It sounds cliche (and it definitely is), but I explained that it would really help him with getting comfortable  to English spoken at a native speed, plus he will strengthen his ability to understand common American idioms and slang.  In CIES, the instructors may speak slower and have better pronunciation/enunciation, so it isn't as difficult to understand (they will accommodate students as much as possible).  However,  outside of CIES is where things can get super tricky for him, so finding media he enjoys can definitely help him with tackling the fast, native speaker's English.

As for my issues with Japanese, Nishimura-san helped me with determining context and managing sentences that don't use articles and has tricky, contextual grammar.  He explained that Japanese do not always explicitly state context, so you have to listen and understand very well in order to grasp the full meaning of the statement. Furthermore, to help with sentence structure, he showed me some great sites that let you practice and review common and rare Japanese grammar and phrases, so that you can build your writing and speaking skills. There is also a site he named called tofugu.com that lets you read various Japanese texts to help your comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary.  I have used this site quite frequently since then and it has helped a lot with understanding when and how to use Japanese particles in order for my statements to make sense.  Nishimura-san has also updated me and said watching a lot of sports game on TV is helping his listening comprehension.