مدونة عبدالله الشهراني

Accuracy vs. Fluency: Find a Balance and Keep Moving Forward by Andrea Murau Haraway When I was in my early 20's, I accepted a job teaching English in Japan. While I had never studied Japanese or lived in Japan, I did have experience learning other languages and living in other countries. When I arrived in Kyoto, I joined two other English-teaching colleagues -- also new to Japan. We spent our first few months teaching, and outside of teaching, struggling to get by in daily life. We soon realized that we needed to take language classes, so as summer break approached, we enrolled in intensive Japanese classes. It was very interesting to watch our different approaches to learning (and using) our new language. One weekend, we decided to take a day trip to Ryoanji, a famous rock garden, located in the outskirts of Kyoto. We took a train to the area, but from the train station we had to ask directions to the garden. Here is where I discovered our different approaches. One friend was ver...