Teaching your own language

[saifalshamsi]

Have any one tried to teach his own language even without having any experience in teaching? I've tried it and it was amazing!!

late 2002, i've been asked to teach Japanese Junior High school students the Arabic alphabets, I hesitated in the beginning but I said OK.

The results were amazing, the students interacted with me especially when I made a quiz game. It was fun!!

now, my future retirement plan is to teach arabic language for Japanese students here in UAE and there in Japan

the following are the photos of my experience, enjoy

www.saifrashid.com/Saif_Rashid_AlShamsi/My_Albums_maiarubamu_albwm_alswr/Pages/Chikusadai_J.High_School.html

[Mohamed A.M.]

Welcome to the board Saif ^_^. I'm really happy that the board is allowing for people to stay in touch even though everyone has a busy schedule.

I never officially tried to teach Arabic, but in the office where I work we usually help out expats learning new words and phrases which they find useful.

I believe that teaching the basics of language and useful phrases is both fun and a lot more useful for people who want to use language in everyday life. Especially since it is less structures and will not have to involve a boring textbook which can put people off. People want things they can use immediately (I guess as humans we all seek instant gratification) and want to see progress from day 1.

I remember a stand-up comedian who learned French when he was young making fun of how some traditional language-learning textbooks teach things you will never use in your life. The simplest example he used was learning how to say "The monkey is on the tree branch". If you think about it, originally people learned languages by living with the people and being exposed to daily life situations (kind of like how children learn languages). While structure can be helpful, the main driver should be motivation and living the language.

I think it is really great that you already have plans for after retirement that seem both fun and gives back to the community. Thanks for sharing the photos