Learning a Language with Hobbies ^^

Zoe O

Hello (^-^)/

It's a cold and wet Sunday today in Osaka ☔️.
How is the weather where you are??

I'm sat at my desk editing a new video for YouTube, and suddenly I started thinking about dance.

I started teaching dance professionally at a studio in London 16 years ago.
In Japan, I have been teaching dance for about 7 years.  My first 2 years in Japan were spent attending dance classes in Osaka.

I remember being completely out of my comfort zone ??
The style of class was Hip Hop but not taught the way I had learned in London and California and most importantly, everything was taught in Japanese!!

But, through love of dance, the more I attended classes the more I could match the language (Japanese) to my movement and the more I could understand what knowledge the teacher was trying to share with the students during class.

Looking back at the dance classes I have taught in Japan, I taught completely in English.  My students were in the same position I had been in.

They learned dance by copying my movement, however, lesson after lesson, they began to pick up even more English.  Soon, they were able to follow my instructions without me having to demonstrate a lot and were able to understand the story and emotion behind the movement I was teaching them.

The best parts for me is when they started copying my English and when they tried to talk to me in English ??

Learning a language alongside a hobby, or passion, keeps learning stress free and fun.  You have the bonus of doing something you enjoy (your hobby and passion) and mixing it together with another thing that you want to do which may be fun or a little bit, or very, challenging.

If you can, think about the hobby or hobbies that you have and see if you can take lessons or learn about them in your target language.

The most important thing is to come out of your comfort zone and push yourself to achieve your goals and be the best you can be (^0^)/

Have a lovely Sunday!

PS. To any dancers out there, or anyone who loves to move, try and dance along with this video.  I had so much fun teaching it <3  Also, let me know if you are interested in taking dance classes with me ^^ I may create an online dance class in the future ??


This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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