Izuku Midoriya: The Multitype Hero

Chapter 7: My Friend, Pony: True Friendship is Magic (Part 2)

(Continuation of the flashback started in the previous chapter)

(Also, any dialogue in bold means that is being spoken in English)

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It has been about one week since Pony, Izuku, and Raifort's picnic at the park, and just as they established at the end of that get-together, Izuku began tutoring the blond-haired girl in Japanese every day.

Similar to how Raifort assessed Izuku's proficiency in English during their second after-school meeting at Aldera, Izuku asked Pony to take a Japanese Proficiency Test using one of the computers in the library to see her current proficiency level in the 4 significant skills of Japanese: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Upon seeing the results of the test, Izuku found that Pony was at an intermediate level in listening, which Pony explained was likely due to her watching dubbed anime with Japanese subtitles. She was at a beginner level in all other skills. Looking over the test, Izuku realized that common source of error in the proficiency exam was incorrect vocabulary usage. So, Izuku decided that it would be best to focus on expanding Pony's knowledge of basic Japanese vocabulary and comprehension of how to use those words in spoken Japanese first before focusing on trying to improve Pony's other skills.

As a result, during the first week, Izuku mainly focused on helping Pony increase her Japanese vocabulary. During these vocabulary-focused tutoring sessions, Izuku concentrated on teaching Pony common vocabulary words used in everyday situations for teenagers here in Japan, such as shopping at a store, talking at school, or buying a ticket at a train or bus station. After learning said vocabulary, Izuku would help Pony practice speaking and writing out the vocabulary words they just learned to help ingrain the words into her long-term memory.

After about three hours of practicing different vocabulary words for various common scenarios, Pony and Izuku took an hour-long lunch break while also talking to each other in English to continue to get to know each other better.

After lunch, Izuku and Pony would spend another hour going over the vocab words they reviewed that day to assess which words Pony seemed to be understanding better and which words she was still struggling to master, any words Pony struggled, Izuku wrote them down so that they could go over them again during their next tutoring session.

By the time that hour came to a close, it was Raifort's lunch break, and it was around that time when Raifort would take Pony back to the train station so she could return to her living arrangement. When Raifort drove Pony to the train station, drove back, and ate her lunch, it was about time for her and Izuku's meeting, and this schedule repeated itself for the remainder of the week.

On Sunday or the final day of their first week of tutoring, Izuku asked Pony to take a vocabulary proficiency exam to see if her level had improved since she first started tutoring with Izuku. Izuku was not expecting much improvement since she only studied under him for about a week. Not that Izuku doubted Pony's learning capabilities, his low expectations were more due to his lack of confidence in his teaching skills, but much to Izuku's shock, Pony's proficiency level in Japanese vocabulary went up a whole level from N1 to N2 since the last test.

Raifort then went to the meeting room, wondering what had happened there to cause the blond-haired girl to jubilate.

Upon hearing how much Pony had improved in her Japanese vocabulary in just under a week, Raifort smiled at Izuku before saying, "I told you would be a great tutor."

These words from Raifort caused Izuku to scratch the back of his head with a slight blush on his cheeks as he was surprised at how quickly Pony had learned under his guidance.