Ruri T

Today, Ruri 先生 and I started off our lesson with a speaking practice exercise that I wanted to try. I've recently been watching 深夜食堂 and I have really enjoyed the stories as well as the listening practice that I get from it. In class, we started with me giving a summary of an episode that I liked, which was the タンメん episode. I had a lot of fun doing this and felt like I was able to use the grammar that we had been studying and Ruri 先生 helped guide me when I needed help with vocabulary and clarifying some thoughts. I appreciate her encouragement when I get in a little over my head with longer or more complicated expressions, and I feel like with the notes that she left me I'll have a lot to study! I look forward to doing this again. After our speaking practice, we went over the next section in Genki II, covering ておく. It was fun learning how to combine it with other grammar that we've been learning. I always enjoy my time going through the exercise with Ruri 先生、ありがとうございました！

After a short break for the holidays, having class with Ruri 先生 reminds me how grateful I am to have her as my Japanese teacher. She's always energetic and is enthusiastic to share and listen to what I have to share. Class with her gives me plenty of opportunities to express myself and practice what we've been learning. Today, we went through our speaking practice by talking about でんとうこうげい (Japanese traditional crafts), it was really fun learning about crafts I feel like I otherwise wouldn't be exposed to. After speaking practice, it was nice to review what we had covered before the holiday in Genki II, volitional form. I enjoyed our time reviewing because it let me think about combining some grammar we've learned before. I really appreciate the way that Ruri 先生 helps correct and guide my speech during our class both during the speaking and grammar portions.

Today was my last lesson of the year with Ruri and I had so much fun while learning about Japanese traditional works!! Can't thank Ruri enough for her help and encouragement ever since I started taking classes with her at the beginning of 2023, I'm so glad I bumped into her profile back then! Now, onto 2025 with so much excitement 🤗 良いお年を 🩵🙇🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed my class with Ruri 先生, as usual! During our speaking practice section, we had a really fun exchange where we talked about Midnight Diner (深夜食堂). She asked me about my favorite episode and then followed up with asking me to give a short summary of it in Japanese. It was really challenging but I felt like I had a lot of fun trying and during my struggle Ruri 先生, was very encouraging helping me fill some gaps with vocabulary. Even though it was hard, I had a lot of fun and did recognize that over the last year with her I have improved. It's exchanges like this that remind me why I love learning with her.

I had a lot of fun in class today talking about お惣菜. I think that the topics that Ruri 先生 picks always give me room to talk. Sometimes I just get too excited and think too much about translating what I'm thinking in English into Japanese, but when I can using her advice of thinking in Japanese has always been really helpful (and something I should do more). The grammar that we covered today in Genki II, was the volitional form. I actually had come across some text on my own that used it, but I didn't understand why and for whatever reason had a lot of trouble finding good explanations. I'm really glad that I went over it today with Ruri 先生, as it helped clear up the questions I had about when or how it's used. I'm always really grateful for how patient Ruri 先生 can be when I have random questions.

Today Ruri 先生 and I went over a few different things that I think on my own I wouldn't have gotten the same amount out of. By doing some kanji study and reviewing counters, I feel like I really learned a lot that I didn't expect to. When we were going over some kanji, I learned the difference between 県 and 府. I thought it was really interesting because the regular translation both generally go to 'prefecture' in English, made it hard to understand the difference. I'm grateful that Ruri 先生 can provide the background for me that I wouldn't otherwise get.