Ima nanji des ka

Years and years ago, there was this Japanese lesson on TV and from that single episode, I learned a little bit of Japanese that I still remember today. It was the question, "Ima nanji des ka." It means "What time is it now?" This question perhaps exemplify what I think language lessons should do to be effective. I think language lessons should offer the learner a way to associate some action or event to what is being thought. This way we can practice by doing the action to recall the associated words.

Imagine this. You wake up in the morning and you ask yourself, "Ima nanji des ka." You look at your watch and then, you answer yourself "Rokuji des." (It's six o'clock.) And then, you say, "Mai asa rokuji ni okimas." (Every morning, I wake up at 6 o'clock.) "Soshte. Mai ban juji ni nemas." (And every night, I sleep at 10 o'clock.) From one question, you can associate (or link) several sentences and practice them all at the same time.

You can even expand this further to include the act of eating (tabemasu) and drinking (nomimasu) as well as breakfast (asagohan), lunch (hirugohan) and dinner (bangohan). Isn't it easier to learn this way? Of course, this is a rhetorical question, but I think this deserves further exploration.

So, why are language lessons not doing this? I don't know. (Wakarimasen.)