チョコチョコ

A comment I got today sent me to one of the nicest blogs I’ve seen in a while:

I haven’t really had a chance to browse through it, but I really like what I’ve seen so far and will be spending some quality time checking it out tomorrow…

But for now, I have to get to bed!

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土曜日

おはよう、ここでちょと寒いね。やっぱり秋が大好きだけど、夏休みは終る。

Today… I am feeling a little overwhelmed. I have my whole dining table full of books. Japanese books and papers… and not an idea where to start. I’ve been watching the J-Drama 「アイシテル」and it’s very sad. I love it though. It’s really helping me focus on spoken Japanese–something I’m not very good at yet. Eesh. There’s a lot I’m not good at yet… LOL

I don’t know what to do with myself today. Probably nothing. I feel so blah. Mixed excited and nervous for school starting. I looked at the workbook for Intermediate Japanese yesterday, and it’s a little… confusing (just like the main text). The audio CD really helps though. I guess we’ll get used to it in the class. I wish I’d get my disbursement back–then I could sign up for the ３きゅう。

Okay, well… more coffee is needed and an action plan…

それでは、またね。

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くそ！

Tonight I am very upset about my school. It’s podunk at best and I’m having a hard time getting the classes I need. I feel so stuck and so limited. I bounce around Japanese programs and find it so… off-putting. I really need consistency. I’d love to get into the Japanese program at OSU, but that depends on my husbands business and how that does and whether we can sell our house and move to Columbus. All in all, the options are limited and I’m frustrated. I was so excited for school – until I realized that only my Japanese class counts this semester (towards my foci) and that there aren’t enough classes to complete an area focus in Japanese. It’s so annoying.

I think I’m going to try and study myself… then take the JLPT exams and see how I can do. They’re more important for jobs etc, and if I can just get enough to graduate then I can go into an MA. Except if I can get JLPT 2 maybe I won’t need an MA to get a job. I was planning to take JLPT 3 in December, but I’m a little… unsure. I should register for it soon though. I’m just scared of failing. It seems so hard… yet I know people who’ve completed it with no knowledge of Japanese at ALL.

I should do okay, I hope!!

I was browsing YouTube also, and the number of people on there who are fluent is rather intimidating. I feel such a loser idiot for even trying, especially at my age. Most of em on there seem to have become fluent in their late teens early twenties (a lot of them are still in that age group and those who aren’t have been living in Japan for 10 years plus). I feel so doomed.

*sigh*

>.<

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すみません。。。

I’ve been neglecting this blog–and part of it is from fear and denial. I am feeling very… challenged right now with the whole concept of classes next year, plus the JLPT3, plus doing so much learning on my own. I was a little uplifted when the journal entry on lang-8 I wrote had more blue suggestions than red corrections though…

Still, I shall have to get back to this tomorrow!!!!

また明日！

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Quick Update – New Page

I just finished working on a new grammar page for this blog. I have my first post up “Women’s Language” and will be writing another one on the use of particles later today. Hopefully this will help me since grammar is my weakest point!!

Okay! Another edit! I’ve uploaded the second grammar page “particles-「は」and「が」” and it’s now accessible from the Japanese Grammar page!

頑張ってね。

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父の日

お早うございます！元気？私は病気だ。

I’ve been a bit busy these last few days–hence the lack of posting. I seem to have been busy with things for my son (play dates and so forth), work, study, and yard work.  Today it’s 8.30am and I already have two cakes baking for Father’s Day!!! (Fudge Swirl if you wanna know!!)

So, Japanese. I have printed out acres of Grammar and Kanji for the 3きゅうand I’ve also rediscovered a book I bought a long time ago that I haven’t used much. Called “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar” it contains, as you might expect, grammar listed in dictionary form. It’s GREAT!

I’m currently using it to refine my understanding of the particle 「が」which I seem to have the most problems with. The description given is REALLY useful and has already helped a great deal. (The book uses the comparison of “a” and “the” in English. When a subject (such as “Old Man”) is introduced first in a sentence we would use “An Old Man”. Thereafter we would usually say “The Old Man”. 「が」in this way is related to “a” or “an” and 『は』to “the”.

I’m sure this book will also help with the acres of grammar I’m unfamiliar with. Everytime I think about it I get so pumped. I really want to do well in the December exam. I’ve got all these study aids, so it’s about time I utilized them all!

今、ケーキを使います。おいしそうだね！

>^-^<

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Grammar

I have been stressing over grammar ALL last night (and all day today). Grammar is my weakness. I find memorizing vocab and kanji relatively easy (though I aso forget a lot of them equally as quickly!) There are (I made a rough count yesterday) about 250-300 grammar points to know. I definitely know a large majority of them–but I wouldn’t say that I was “comfortable” with their use.

After an extended break from posting my  “日記ノート” on lang-8 I returned tonight. I love the idea of the site – an exchange of languages through journal postings and corrections. For example, I can post my thoughts in Japanese and have native speakers correct my grammar and vocabulary. However, sometimes I feel very defeated and discouraged. No matter how hard I try, someone always corrects something–and then someone else will come and post a completely different correction. So which is right? It’s kind of frustrating. So, I let it sleep for a couple of weeks. I’m not convinced to return on a daily basis yet.

I think I might add a page of kanji, grammar, and vocab for the level 3 to this site. I want somewhere to be able to arrange my resources and collect my data. That way, if I lose hard copies of things, I can print them out again. I was looking online at grammar books (specific to the 3 きゅう) but they’re too expensive to buy. (Of course!!) So, I’m going to try and arrange useful things here – since I know not everyone can afford that kind of stuff.

>^-^<

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Flashing!

So, today I’ve been hit with more of the flu… but it gave me a chance to sort through my “White Rabbit Press” flash cards for the Level 3 JLPT. These cards are AWESOME! Volume 1 is the complete set of Kanji required for Levels 3 & 4.

• Each card includes 6 vocab words/phrases including commonly used kanji compounds
• Contains all the kanji for JLPT Levels 3 & 4
• Includes each character’s on and kun readings
• Easy and fun to use—perfect for study and drilling
• Japanese all in kana and kanji, with clear definitions in English

Because the cards also only use kana for kanji readings it really allows practice of the essential aspects of Japanese. I was surprised by how many of the 300+ I already knew. I’ve had the cards for a while but haven’t really utilized them, which is a shame. Now they’re all sorted and ordered (they’re actually color coded, though I’m not sure around what since when I was sorting them out some of the green “easy” kanji cards were in the Level3 and not the easier 4 as I would have thought). I definitely recommend these though. Everyone I’ve talked to who has become fluent has stressed the importance of taking flashcards EVERYWHERE with you… on the bus, the train, in the line and the grocery or bank… anywhere and everywhere.

So, I’ll be flashing regularly @_@

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“Reading and Writing Japanese”

こんにちは！

元気？私はままだね。

Okay guys, here’s the review I promised yesterday. I bought “A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese” as a requirement for my Japanese class at University. It’s a fairly small book but worth it’s weight in gold.

The product description tells us that “This book covers all of the 1,945 characters in the General Use set of Japanese characters, with particularly detailed coverage of the 1,009 Essential characters that Japanese children must learn in the first six years of grade school. And since Japanese publications must, by law, provide supplementary phonetic readings for any character not included in the General Use set, this invaluable reference contains everything you need to know to start reading Japanese.”  I would definitely agree with this. It’s a very good book containing important Kanji–both ‘essential’ and ‘general use’ with stroke order, examples of usage, and number of strokes (useful–since an index also lists the kanji by number of strokes, so if you don’t know one, a quick count and you’re on your way!)

I especially love this book since it’s a lot smaller than the two “A guide to Writing Kanji and Kana” books that I have which follow the same premise but provide space for writing practice. This book, however, slips in any bag I’m carrying and is great to use anywhere.

All this being said, I better go and study some more. I feel as though time is slipping by and I’ll never be ready for the JLPT on time!

では、また。

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頑張る

今晩は！

I started work on the 3きゅう vocabulary today. I printed off lessons 1 through 10 on renshuu.org… and it came to 18 pages. EEGADS! There are 26 lessons in all, so it’s probably going to be about 50 pages in total. This is a good chance to improve my vcabulary though. So many of the words are different, though I was surprised by the amount I already knew. So I have my work cut out for me. I am up for a challenge–except for the fact that I’m heavily down with the flu at the moment…

気分が悪いね。

Later, I’m going to check the list I got from renshuu.org against lists from other sites and see if the vocab is more or less standard. I don’t want to learn so much and find out that I learned it wrong. <random thought> You know, they should really do a Japanese version of “Wheel of Fortune”… </random>.

Okay, that’s it for now… また明日

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