Let us receive more blessings.

“The universe gives us so many gifts but what we actually receive is only 2% of that.”

I can't remember where I heard that, but it had a real impact on me. I was first struck by the part that says “The universe gives us so many gifts”. Like “The heavens overflow with love” and “The gods send only their angels”, it's the kind of idea that scientists tend to laugh off, crying “Prove it!” As a result, lots of people are cynical about this kind of thing, but, without a shadow of a doubt, I'm in total agreement. I don’t know why, but whenever I come across people saying things like “the universe gives us so many gifts”, I feel so happy, like “I’ve always thought that!”  I get filled with this sense of everything finally making sense – this wasn’t in any of my textbooks and I didn’t get taught it at school, but finally, someone’s told me about this!

The gifts it talks about are the things that come right when you need them - a flash of inspiration, an opportunity, a chance meeting.... or perhaps the book you've been looking for, the car you're meant to buy or the house that's just right for you. But, I got to thinking about the part that says “what we actually receive is only 2% of that”. Does this mean  that the universe is offering us things with a “here you go” and “I've got a present for you”, and we’re turning them away, saying “I don't need it”, “Nah, I'm good” or “I'm fine”?

If we’re always so busy and we’re thinking about so many things and have so many distractions, we’re never going to notice that the “gifts of the universe” are right in front of our eyes. Even though the universe provides us with exactly what we need, we take no notice and keep on fretting and fussing, all for nothing. But the good news is there's nothing really that we have to do to receive these gifts. On the contrary, all we need to do is slow down, still ourselves and be looking out for the signs.

In English, they say “All you need to do is allow good things to come to you”. The key here is the word “allow”. It's not about desperately trying to make things happen or putting effort into bringing things to you. It's about just letting it wash over you like a river. The big “rocks” that block this river of blessings might be things like a hectic lifestyle and feelings of negativity, but a lot of them are our beliefs about receiving - “I can't be given this over other people”, “I don't have the right to receive such things”. Without knowing it, we really do seem to be putting ourselves down.

However, we can resolve all of these things within ourselves. If we examine each of them one by one and clear them out, we can break down the dam that was blocking that river and it will flow again.

The universe only gives us exactly what we need right now. So, like little children, let us smile, let out a big “thank you” and just accept these gifts with open arms. The joy which we are so blessed to receive becomes infectious and will spread like wildfire to those around us. We are all connected after all.

  [You can find the original article in Japanese 「もっといただこう」here. ]

The Power of Foreign Languages

My classes this year have all finished. In the southern hemisphere the seasons are the other way around, so the first semester in autumn begins in March. Consequently, the end of year exams are in November.

I'm always relieved at this time of year, having finished a year's worth of classes, but there's something special about this year and I'm filled with emotion. This is because it's the final day of a course that I have taught for over 15 years. The attendance rate of the course was higher than usual from the beginning, and even when the students were getting swamped with work for their other subjects towards the end, most of them still turned up. I've been very fortunate to be blessed in my final year with such motivated students.

At university, more than a few people are of the opinion  that “language learning is mechanical” and therefore “it's nothing more than acquiring a skill”, but foreign languages have a real power. People often mention the “cross-cultural understanding” effect. By coming into contact with a culture outside of your own, you broaden your outlook. Through learning a language, you learn the ways of thinking and values specific to that culture and break free from having a narrow worldview.

But more than that, language studies also become a chance to get to know ourselves.

By the time they reach university, a lot of students already have firmly set opinions and ways of thinking about things and struggle to deviate from them. Even though in reality they're still really young, they can still be like “I'm this kind of person”.

The same goes for their personal abilities – perhaps because of something someone might have said to them once, they become convinced that they can't draw, or that they're tone-deaf, or that they can't write well and resign themselves to not being able to do all sorts of things.

I want them to think more about questions like “who am I?”, but there really aren't those kinds of opportunities in a normal university class. But, in a foreign language class, there's mountains of material that allows you to do just that.

Good at, not good at, was good at, wasn't good at

Can, Can't, Could, Couldn't

In lessons on conjugating na adjectives and verbs, we use questions relating to people's abilities like “Are you good at singing?” or “Can you draw?”. So, even though I'm just checking if they can get the form right, if a student says “I'm bad at singing”, I ask them “Were you bad at it when you were a kid?” If they still answer “Yes, I was”, I throw in a “Did you like singing?”. No kid dislikes things like singing and drawing pictures, so they always say “Yes, I did”.

So, all that singing and drawing and dancing you loved so much, don't you do that anymore? Why? Don't you like it anymore? Or do you actually like it but you're bad at it so you stopped?

If they were getting hounded with questions like this in a conversation in their own language, what would end up happening is they would get annoyed and start deflecting - “I dunno... whatever...” But with a language they've only just started learning, they have to put everything they have into trying to answer even the simplest question. They can't just toss out “the answer they always give”, so they end up having to start afresh and take time putting together an answer to that question.

In a foreign language, you can't get away with the kind of answer that in your own language you'd automatically give without thinking. This kind of lesson, where they have to take their time and search for the right words and stitch the sentence together, presents them with an opportunity to re-examine their own answers and think “why am I so set in my thinking?”

In both my intermediate and advanced courses, I always include essay topics that allow for self-reflection and I give them tasks in which they can showcase their creativity. I design the courses in such a way that they might discover somewhere a “new” self, different from the self they thought they were up to now, or they might notice their own self-imposed restrictions and be set free from them.

The good old days of students being able to practise in a small class five times a week are over but I still hope I can give lessons where my students can discover new things and learn more about themselves. I'm teaching an elective course next year and I might even be able to go all out holistic with it–  I'm looking forward to that.

 [You can find the original article in Japanese 「外国語の威力」here. It was posted in October 2012.]