I was flat out teaching (languages) today and I've been thinking about how and what to do to improve people's language skills. I always want all my clients to enjoy learning and speaking the languages I teach. I personally speak two and a half (or quarter, rather...) languages, and I'm qualified to teach two of these languages.
When I was on teaching courses, what I was told was that you have to use the four skills that are involved in learning languages - two productive skills (writing and speaking) and two receptive skills (reading and listening). This is very important, I always tell this to all my clients, and I try and do this myself when I'm learning the 'quarter' language.
What I also would like to add to this list is to have something to talk about. Languages, you see, are just tools to communicate. If you don't have anything to say, then what's the point in learning the language? The reason I say this is I can tell from my limited experience that people who's got stuff - hobbies, opinions, interests - to talk about always improve quicker.
Suppose you have two foreigners in front of you - one who's fluent but no particular interests or opinions in anything and the other who's not fluent but is interested and knowledgeable in something. Which person would you like to talk to and listen to?
Another point about speaking foreign languages is that you have to be prepared to become a different person from who you are. You have to 'become' a foreigner in a way. It's all about acting. If you want to learn to speak Italian, for example, you have to know how to use arms and hands as well as the language. Mind you, these are just an opinion from an opinionated person...
This is a special Japanese 'pestle and mortar' for sesame. We have these only for sesame seeds and we use these only for sesame seeds. This tells you how much we use sesame seeds. Before this 'mortar' is baked in the oven its inside is scratched with a comb type of thing. It has grooves in it so that seeds get trapped without escaping the pestle.
Then I put about a heap tablespoon of sesame like this and grind with our wooden pestle to however you like - coarse or fine, or complete paste. This particular sesame I use is called Kin Goma (Golden Sesame). They are plump sesame seeds that are roasted until golden. Much nicer than the anaemic ones from health shops...
Then I put about a dessertspoonful of soy sauce (shoyu) and a teaspoonful of sugar and mix well like this. Boil very very briefly or steam about 200-300g of spinach, squeeze excess water, and mix with this paste. Then you have what you see at the top. Nice, clean, no oil salad.