Post by Otaku on Mar 21, 2008 9:43:31 GMT 8
I received an email on the forum this morning from someone who had a question about the 'No Clue Test' in the Phonics section of the website.
The email is as follows:
"I have a sentaku class today, I want to give them you're beginners test but I'm not sure how to explain the 'voiceless' and 'voiced' sounds.
1. Can you break it down for me?
2. In the test in part 3, the letters C P X S H are voicless. Can you give me a few examples?"
3. In the dot to dot part of the test, is that a spelling mistake under the spider?
Your answers:
1. Voice & voiceless sounds are really fun for me to teach because these are the lessons that show the students the difference between real English sounds and katakana. As you are probably aware, there are NO voiceless sounds in Japanese. So when you teach the differences you need to nail them hard.
'Voice' - translates as "koe ga aru" and 'voiceless' is "koe ga nai". However, when I teach it these lessons, I replace "koe" with "oto", which means 'sound'. In my experience, students understand more easily to this word change.
Then, I have the students put their hands on their throat and ask them if their throat vibrates when they make a certain sound of a letter. Vibrate = gugu ga aru. No vibrate = tsutsu ga aru.
2. The examples of C P X S H:
C = riCe (most people teach the C sound as a 'hard C', as in 'cat'. However, it really doesn't matter too much because both the sounds are voiceless)
P = maP
X = boX
S = buS (in case you're wondering, the S and C sounds are the same)
H = Hat
3. Yes, that is a spelling mistake. Thanks for the heads up and I will fix it tonight!
The email is as follows:
"I have a sentaku class today, I want to give them you're beginners test but I'm not sure how to explain the 'voiceless' and 'voiced' sounds.
1. Can you break it down for me?
2. In the test in part 3, the letters C P X S H are voicless. Can you give me a few examples?"
3. In the dot to dot part of the test, is that a spelling mistake under the spider?
Your answers:
1. Voice & voiceless sounds are really fun for me to teach because these are the lessons that show the students the difference between real English sounds and katakana. As you are probably aware, there are NO voiceless sounds in Japanese. So when you teach the differences you need to nail them hard.
'Voice' - translates as "koe ga aru" and 'voiceless' is "koe ga nai". However, when I teach it these lessons, I replace "koe" with "oto", which means 'sound'. In my experience, students understand more easily to this word change.
Then, I have the students put their hands on their throat and ask them if their throat vibrates when they make a certain sound of a letter. Vibrate = gugu ga aru. No vibrate = tsutsu ga aru.
2. The examples of C P X S H:
C = riCe (most people teach the C sound as a 'hard C', as in 'cat'. However, it really doesn't matter too much because both the sounds are voiceless)
P = maP
X = boX
S = buS (in case you're wondering, the S and C sounds are the same)
H = Hat
3. Yes, that is a spelling mistake. Thanks for the heads up and I will fix it tonight!