Re: Tap Theory - April Instructionals
The_Afro_Circus wrote:
I've always felt that if you can't explain something to a 5 year old in a way that they can understand, then you yourself don't truly understand the subject you're talking about. That thought always pushed me to find simpler and better ways to get right to the core of a concept. I'm glad that comes across!
Josh, you've done a great job of breaking things down and explaining them simply. And that's an old teacher's trick (of any subject): if a student (or teacher) can't explain it simply to someone else, they don't really know it yet. I learned so much as a new English teacher just trying to put into words things I "knew" intuitively, as a native speaker. And many a time, I would try to explain something only to (finally) realize that I didn't really understand it myself. And it was waaaaay worse as a teacher of English to Non-English speaking children and also adults (3 years teaching English in Japan): time after time I would realize I don't know exactly WHY we say or do anything--we just do!
I know now why we say "Bless You!" when someone sneezes (Dark Ages Europe thought your soul left your body if you sneezed hard enough, since sneezy people in the Dark Ages died a lot..."God bless you!" and keep your soul (from leaving)). I asked Japanese students what they said when someone sneezed. "Etto (Err....) nani mo nai! [Nothing!]"
Random tangent; sorry! But I enjoyed the video a lot and your instructional method and thank you! "Explain it to me as if I were five..."
[Kenji Satou, 7th grader Japanese, asks "Why didn't you say 'Explain it to me as if I
was five'?"]
Well you see Kenji, there's the subjunctive verb case....