“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – James Allen
There are a few things from this chapter worth practicing. They are:
- 〜てくれる
- 〜てあげる
- 〜てくれ
- 〜てやる
- 〜てちょうだい
All of them have pretty similar meanings. They’re either give or receive. So, the first thing I want you to do is write down the meanings of each, showing whether each one is “give” or “receive.” I want to make sure you know that part before moving on. Done? Okay.
Next, we’re going to use these items. As always, I want you to get up and try to use them.
- Start with the “receive” grammar. Can you name them all? Now, it’s time to ask something of other people. If you don’t have a real person to try it on, just pretend. I want you to ask actions of people. Make it as convincing as possible, so that even if they don’t understand what you’re saying, they’ll understand via your body language. This means you have to have conviction when you say it and say it like you’re actually saying it. You should probably practice before getting started.
- Now move on to the “give” grammar. Do the same thing, except this time you’re giving actions to people. Maybe you want to offer to your mother to clean for her. You could say これをそうじしてあげるよ！ When she gives you that “you’re crazy, kiddo” look, go ahead and do that action. It’s nice to do things for people, you know? As with exercise #1, you’ll want to make sure you do it with conviction and attempt to make the other person understand via your body language and confidence. This will mean you have to practice the scenario beforehand on your own.
And that’s it! This might take you a few days, but as long as you do it you can move on in the meantime. Just make sure it gets done. Speaking with conviction is an important skill to have, especially when you’re speaking another language!