JP_Sensei

JP_Sensei Tutor Interview

Q. Hi JP, you’re good at speaking Japanese! You must know how difficult it is to learn other languages. Do you have any episodes of studying Japanese to share with our students?

A. Yes, I understand the struggle and the frustration that sometimes comes with learning a language over time. It’s like exercise because we get excited then lose energy or get discouraged, then something inspires us to start working out again. My funniest story happened when I was cooking with some friends in Chiba-ken. I wanted this older lady to peel a potato so I handed it to her and said, “じゃ、ぬぐぬぐして下さい。” I could tell by the look on her face that I had said something horribly wrong. Luckily, she was cool about it.

Q. Oh, you can speak Spanish also! You have some Spanish classes for beginners and intermediates. When and how did you study Spanish?

A. My hometown in California has a large population from a small part of Mexico so I heard it a lot as a child. When I was 17 I attended high school in Chile for a year. Nobody spoke any English so I was “thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool” and had to learn very quickly. Being in an academic setting helped a lot because I was constantly taking notes in class and trying to understand. I didn’t want to repeat the year back in the U.S. so I actually had to show my high school back home that I got good grades! That created the foundation of my Spanish and after that it was university classes and practice. I worked for the California Migrant Education program for two summers, which allowed me to use Spanish every day. We went out into the countryside and met with the children of farm workers to help them with reading and writing, math, etc. The families were great and I still consider that to be one of my favorite work experiences. I also understood that good teachers can truly make a difference in someone’s life.

Q. I heard you are not only a tutor but also an artist! Could I ask about your career as an artist?

A. I’ve been painting seriously since 2002. My son was born and my father died around the same time, putting a shock into me and making me realize that we’re not going to be here forever. I had always loved art as a child but stopped doing it. I started painting, taking classes, buying books, watching DVDs and painting every time I traveled on vacation or business. I love being in unique places throughout the world and trying to capture not only the place, but the moment when I was there. I started expanding into doing commission work for people, like portraits, and now I’m doing some graphic design. I’m signed up to paint the book covers for a series of crime novels in Europe. We’re starting the second book, called “Raw Material”, now. This is the cover and back of the first novel, “Behind Closed Doors.”

Q. Your lesson, “美術好きですか？私も。LET’S TALK ABOUT ART!” is quite unique! What is the main topic of this lesson? Can anybody who doesn’t know about art take it?

A. When I designed this lesson I wasn’t sure if anyone would request it but there are a lot of artists and art lovers out there who would like to have discussions about art in English when they travel. I believe we all have some way of expressing our feelings through different art forms but, unfortunately, when we are little kids we try to draw something and if it doesn’t look good we say, “I’m not good at art” and we give up. That’s really sad because it’s a great way of getting out stress and using our mind in a new way.

One of my students is an illustrator from Hokkaido and we have interesting conversations about the artists that have influenced us. Recently, we were talking about Hokusai’s influence on the impressionist painters in Europe like Van Gogh. I also have students who enjoy going to museums and collecting art. When we learn how to explain what we like and don’t like about a painting, for example, we can use those words and expressions to talk about movies, books, TV shows, live performances, and other art forms.

Q. I read your column, “日本人の間違いやすい英語表現”. I’m also not good at answering negative quetions, so it helped me a lot! Do you have any examples of other grammatical mistakes which Japanese students easily make?

A. When I taught in Tokyo it was very common for students to forget the S on their verbs, e.g. “My father work in Shinjuku.” I went to a toy store and bought a rubber snake. I had that in class and whenever someone forgot the S I would hold up my “S Snake” and they would say, “Oh, my father worksssssssssssss in Shinjuku!” Sometimes you have to do something dramatic to break a bad habit. Another example is “ほとんど” because in English we have to add another word to “Almost” in a sentence like, “Almost __________________ (everyone, nobody, everybody) likes ice cream.” Some languages match up closely and others are far apart. Foreigners studying Japanese often make the same mistakes over and over again. I remember our teacher trying to explain all of the counters, “If it is thin like a paper or a stamp you say, ‘一枚’, if it’s one minute you say ‘一分’, if it’s an animal you say ‘一匹’.” I remember thinking she was just joking because using different words to count the same number was just CRUEL!! I felt like 弁財天　was laughing at me from above, ”ばか。。。。JPできねえええええええ！ In our class we had students from Peru. I tried to explain everything in Spanish and they got angry with me because the grammar was complicated. Finally, I said, “It was not my idea to say ippun, ippon, ichi mai, and ippiki! I didn’t invent Japanese. I’m just explaining it to you!” We laughed a lot in Mogami sensei’s class.

Q. What do students like about your lessons?

A. I always type as I talk but I also type while YOU talk. I type fast.

Example:

A student recently said, “Last week I lose my laptop in train. I was so worried. I called to train station and they found the laptop. I felt so good.” I typed in Skype: “Last week I LOST my laptop ON THE train. I was so worried. I called THE train station and they found IT. I felt so RELIEVED.” The student can use our chat to study after class and the next time he tells his laptop story he can say it perfectly.

Before we finish, would you like to leave our students a message?

A. Thank you for welcoming me into the Cafetalk community. I’ve enjoyed the lessons I’ve had with all of the interesting people I’ve met. It’s fascinating to hear what people do for their work and try to help them reach their goals. I like helping each student by finding out what they need to make their job easier. If I don’t have a class that you would like to take, please contact me and we will find a way to study together. Thanks to my students and the Cafetalk support team!

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JP_Sensei

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