Blog #13: My volunteer activity

Manami Hiramoto

   Hello everyone! Now I take part in a volunteer activity at an elementary school in my hometown. Actually I would go to this school named  the Honan elementary school . Then I belong to the support office since this April. The office doesn’t consist of teachers or students’ parents. It consists of only volunteers. But we work in close cooperation with teachers and parents, of course. We do something to help school activities. For example, we worked as staffs in a bazaar which was hold by students’ parents.

Then we hold some extracurricular classes for student such as a calligraphy lesson and an arithmetic class for students who dislike it. The students can take the lessons for free. I take part in the arithmetic class as an assistant teacher. Last Saturday, I gave a lesson to students with other staffs who are also undergraduates. I was very nervous before the class but it went off well.

By the way I like my students; they are so cute and full of vitality. And I can get precious experience for me. So I want to continue this volunteer.

I used this texts at last class.

Blog#12: German

Yuki Morita
   Hello! What language do you learn as "a second foreign language" now? I learn German. It is spoken in many countries, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It resembles English very much and it is easy to read aloud. I've learned it for a year and a half, but it is difficult for me to learn a language besides English.
   When I graduated from my high school, we sang "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony". In my high school, students sing "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven every year. The composition is very famous, so you have listened to it surely. The words were written in German. I like "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony", and I was happy to sing it, so I was interested in German. Recently, I listen to it conducted by Seiji Ozawa, a  Japanese conductor.

I think its pronunciation is very powerful. I can't pronounce it well, but I want to speak it, and visit Germany someday.

   Please tell me about the language you learn now!