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[NinjaTurtle]

Cloa,

Have you tried having a Q&A with him on the topic of Kendo? I can think of a bunch of questions that you could ask him. First question: what is Kendo? Since he is an expert on the topic, this should be interesting for him. Ask him about the two Chinese characters, Ken and Do. What they mean? "Do" means the path, but the path to where? (It is the path to Enlightenment, "Satori".) Does he incorporate the striving for Satori into his lessons?

Ask him to explain how to write the strokes for the two Chinese characters (left-side radical, right-side radical, etc.) Ask him how to hold a "fude" (Japanese writing brush). Ask him how to grind an ink stone into ink using water. It is in this way that very short Q&A can eventually be built up to full-blown discussions.

Bring a fude, ink stone, ink-grinding stone, and Japanese writing paper to class. (Newspaper works great as practice writing paper for beginning brush-users.)

Watch how he reacts at every step. If you notice he finds calligraphy boring but the history of Kendo interesting, go in that direction. Ask him about his first ever Kendo teacher. Ask him about his first ever Kendo lesson. Ask him about his first ever bamboo sword and where he bought it. Ask him if he has ever practiced using a real steel sword and how well it went. (Was he afraid of slicing someone?) Bring a bamboo sword to class and ask him about it. Tell him to bring a Kendo helmet to class and ask him about it.

Give it a shot. I think you will find it interesting.

[cloa]

I have tried some question and answer about Kendo- not those particular questions. He finds that really hard- so easy to get to a word he doesn't know. The problem is not one of does he find the topic interesting- we are doing plenty of interesting topics. Rather that after one hour of lesson, he finds the English too much to handle. Hence if I did some Kendo related content at the end of the lesson then it would probably be one word answers filling in a worksheet and then we do the sentences together with him reading or repeating after me.

"Bring a fude, ink stone, ink-grinding stone, and Japanese writing paper to class"- don't have those myself.

"Class"- teach him one to one in his home.

[Tarheel]

I have tried some questions and answers about Kendo- not those particular questions. He finds that really hard- so easy to get to a word he doesn't know. The problem is not one of does he find the topic interesting- we are doing plenty of interesting topics. Rather that after one hour of lessons, he finds the English too much to handle. Hence if I did some Kendo related content at the end of the lesson then it would probably be one word answers filling in a worksheet and then we do the sentences together with him reading or repeating after me.

"Bring a fude, ink stone, ink-grinding stone, and Japanese writing paper to class"- don't have those myself.

"Class"- teach him one to one in his home.

[cloa]

This what I went with for him and his wife. She could do more spoken English. Her lesson was 3 hours- some of the time was talking about what she wants and he wants for the lesson and general lesson management. Her husband was there for a short time doing the patient role of a medical roleplay.

The husband's proper lesson was 2 hours- he could speak much less and understand less. He didn't understand did the 9th dan kendo talk about a fight that the other master did. He thought I was asking about what the other master said about fighting.
Kendo
What are the two kanji that make up the word kendo in Japanese?


What do they mean?


What does the second one mean to you?


How to draw those kanji using calligraphy?


Did you ever meet a 9th dan Kendo Master? Or who was the highest ranked Kendo that you met?

Yes, I did. No, I didn’t.

What was his name?


His/her name is ………………………………………………………..

Did you have a practice fight?

Yes we did. No, we didn’t.

What did you do? (draw if you like)





What did he do?



What was he like?

(happy, sad, thinks a lot)