Week 7

Topics for this week were:

• Offering to do something (lesson 16)
• Talking about future plans (lesson 17)

Offering to do something

The key construction when you are offering to do something is "shimashou ka"

Last week we used "shimashou" to mean "Let's/ shall we", but in this context it means "Shall I?"

for example: mado o akemashou ka - shall I open the window.

If you want to accept the offer: arigatou gozaimasu, onegaishimasu.

To refuse: Kekkou desu.

Talking about future plans

We've already covered using the +masu form for talking about future plans, but this lesson was focusing also on ways to talk about more than one event and show what order they happened in.

Phrases such as "(noun) no ato de" - kaigi no ato de - after the meeting

(noun) no mae ni - kaigi no mae ni - before the meeting

You can also use sorekara -

The +te form of the verb which we started to look at is also a useful way of putting events in order. See last weeks notes about the +te form and sheets on blackboard.

kaigi ni itte, chokoreto koujou o mite, sorekara Toukyou e kaerimasu = (I'll) go to the meeting, see the chocolate factory and then go back to Tokyo.

The +te form has no tense of its own so can be used in a past sentence as well as a present/future one

kaigi ni itte, chokoreto koujou o mite, sorekara Toukyou e kaerimashita = I went to the meeting, saw the chocolate factory and then came back to Tokyo.

Review of talking about hobbies and interests

In the last 10 minutes we did a very quick reveiw of how to talk about what sports/ musical instruments we like/ don't like/ are good at/ are not good at etc. This was partly to get you thinking about the topic for the assignment.

Assignment for feedback

I asked you to produce a paragraph on the topic of "Free time" - this is a deliberately broad topic area and you can write about whatever you like. Try to show off how much you know and experiment with new words and phrases - especially things that we might not yet have covered during class. I like to see that you are working independently and not just sticking to material covered in the class.

I will give feedback on how you could expand and improve on the passage, you should then put this in the portfolio but it will also form the basis of your 2 minute talk in the oral test.