Exploring guide to Azumino/Hotaka launched

Avid readers will remember I taught a few classes very early in the spring, up the road in Hotaka, for the Azumino City Tourist Association. I was not the only one! There were also classes given in Chinese & Korean - younger, prettier, better teachers they were too...

Wednesday evening was the wrap party, but actually a lot more importantly it marked the launch of the English, Chinese & Korean language Exploring Guide. While the teachers hogged the limelight, the very hard work of a few local people seemed to go largely unnoticed. Step forward Whitney Conti in particular, who I know has been burning the midnight oil getting maps properly annotated, photos properly proportioned, full stops in the right places (been there done that, with Matsumoto & Norikura already!). Check out the good work here

Now, no matter the hard work of well intentioned volunteers & neo-natives, if the locals don't get their act together & get the basics sorted? I mean, the super simple stuff like menus, credit cards, sign posts? After that, even a little bit of imagination would go a long way - you know the social media dimension...get a fan club on Facebook, or Twitterise themselves? Think about Google maps & Doublesquare...

Something better than nothing? Yes, for sure. Late entries? Absolutely. Shinshu's best kept little secret for discerning travellers? Could be.

Azumino tourism class 105

My plan on Wednesday evening with the Azumino tourism group was to encourage some heads up communication. I think I achieved this goal nicely, with a very simple puzzle - actually intended as an "ice-breaker" - but which turned into a class defining exercise.

The ice-breaking plan, with about 13 students, was for pairs to match up very short conversational exchanges such as "I hope England win the World Cup" (a personal favourite!) > "So do I".  I had no idea about the level of people coming this evening, nor any guarantee on numbers, so this seemed like a sensible place to start. In the end, it turned out to be a very good place to start! Our average level was 'shy'!

In my experience, it pays to let an activity run if you have the time to spare; as a learner it can be very frustrating to have 'time' called before you are ready. The luxury tonight was actually having lots of time. I lent a hand here and there, but I didn't want to turn this into a 'firefighting' exercise; instead a nudge in the right direction eg OK, that is a yes/no question, but the answer is more subtle...

I was a bit surprised at how long this exercise took, but it showed that even very simple exchanges need activating. "How are you?", "Can I sit here?", "Can I help you?" are all the beginnings of international friendships...Everyone found this a bit hard but at the same time realised they have some work to do if they want to 'survive' encounters in English successfully.

After a quick break I asked students to work in pairs, giving each other directions on a simple grid. (One recurring request has been to practice directions). Simple is best, as is the need to avoid over complex maps right now. Very simple imperatives (commands), nevertheless demanding clear delivery & checking skills - when was the last time you stopped for directions but didn't listen carefully enough & got lost again?! This worked rather quickly, because as expected there was a degree of 'cheating' going on - looking over each others' shoulders, pointing & translating...OK, first time is a bit 'wobbly' as they probably have not done something like this before.

The real fun began when I asked the group to break up into teams, with one artist to work at the nice big board at the front of the room, and two/three 'directors' per artist with the instructions, seated at the back of the room. Intended to be noisy and competitive, it worked. Each groups grid or finished product on the board was different, so cheating really didn't help! The artists did a fine job interpreting conflicting instructions, and most of the directors really got into the mood, gesticulating wildly and miming, trying to 'win'.

Ice well & truly broken, an intense and fun large group class finished with everyone tired & cheery. Well done everyone!

Tourism 101 in Azumino

Image via Wikipedia

Luna was asked recently to help the good people of Azumino get a step ahead in their ambitions to develop tourism locally. Jim has been involved with the Yokoso Matsumoto project for a couple of years now (as has Tana more recently), and is glad to be contributing to our neighbouring "city's" outreach too.

This evening 20 local business operators in the local tourist industry took part in a two and a half hour introductory workshop with Jim. All participants were self-declared "beginners" (some more so than others). The aim this evening was to give a lot of encouragement, as quickly as possible, in genuinely useful situations. For Jim, it was actually unusual to have a group of people in such urgent need of even basic English - and therefore very challenging to provide relevant, simple language.

How do you satisfy 20 people from different sectors of the tourist trade with little in common other than location and a large 'fear of English' factor? Not possible. What you can do is facilitate their latent learning (8+ years through school for a start) & in-service experience to speak up - with a template. Give them a pattern to form their language around, show there is a place to start and that they 'can do'.

Today, speaking was top priority - overcoming that "Oh my God. A foreigner has rocked up & wants to check in" syndrome. Name, rank & number. Observe, practice, do!

Some useful language - counting is 'different' in Japan. Foreigners don't know katakana (the most useless script ever) so "How do you spell that?" has to be Q1a at a hotel/ryokan, doesn't it?

Time flew; the Shimin Times lady came, flashed, and went. Everyone made new friends, English questions and answers in the air (Jim's threat to charge Japanese usage with a beer tax was taken seriously). Everyone got the chance to practice some simple exchanges, and it looked like everyone relaxed and got a lot out of the evening.

What do you think?