せんしゅう and Cycle 2 goals and exercises.

せんしゅう　プリンストン　大学で　じゅぎょうが　ありませんでしたよ。　メリーランドの　うちへ　かえりました。ぼくは　そふと　そぼの　くるまの　なかに　いきました。　ぼくは　かぞくを　みました。　そして、　わたしは　うちで　おいしい　ばんごはんを　たべました。　ごはんが　だいすき　ですよ。あまり　ばんきょうしませんでした。　きんよびに　メリーランドの　大学へ　いきました。　メリーランドの　大学に　ぼくの　ともだちが　いいます。　あした、　プリンストン　大学に　かえりました。

Goals for Cycle 2:

I want to be able to be able to hear what the syllables are in medium-slowly spoken Japanese.
I also want to start being able to be comfortable enough with speaking in general to pay attention to the proper tone for sentences and words.

To accomplish this task I will:
Shadow for at least 20 minutes every Monday and Wednesday.
I will also watch an episode of anime every weekend while paying attention to the sounds I hear.  If someone speaks too fast for me to understand, I will go back and listen to it again until I am able to discern the mora.

Reflection on My First Pronounciation Cycle

Well, to put it bluntly it didn't go that well.  Although I'm sure I should have been able to fit it in if I had enough time, I never seemed to get around to my shadowing exercises.  I always put it off to the next day or did some other homework instead.  In the end, I only did shadowing twice, and neither time for as long as I had hoped.  I did manage to go to language table twice though.  I think for the next cycle, instead of saying "I will practice shadowing three times a week," I will be more specific. "I will practice shadowing on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday" for example.

As for my oral exam, I honestly have no clue how I did overall.  I was so focused on getting the right words out that I didn't even try to get the correct accent, but on the other hand, my speed, if not as fast as in recordings I've heard, was at least regular and didn't drag.  As for the gramatical usage, I don't think Peng and I used the past tense enough overall.  We probably should have tried to include a few extra sentences relating to the past.  Finally, I had no clue when to use the particles ね and よ.

きょう、 わたしの かよおび

Warning: the narrative you are about to read is extremely boring.
Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this post.

こんばんは。
よく　はちじごろ　おきます。　きょう　はちじさんじゅっぷんに　おきました。　じゃあ、　はちじさんじゅういっぽん　ねました。　はちじごじゅうに　おきました。　フリスト　ホールに　いきました。　くじに　フリストホールで　にほんごの　じゅぎょうが　ありました。　じゅうじじゅっぽんに　あさごはんを　たべました。　マクドネルホールで　わたしの　ぶつりがくの　じゅぎょうが　ありました　けど、　いきませんでした。
わたしは　うちで　しゅくだい　しました。　いつも　ひるごはんを　たべます。　にじごろ　うちで　ばんきょしました。　ろくじはんに　ばんごはんを　たべました。　ぶつりがくの　テストが　ありました。いま　じゅうじよんぷん　です。　こんばん　ねます。　あした　なにを　しますか。　わかりません。
しつれい　します。

（；_・）

かわくありません

Well I messed up.  テストは　おととい　ありました。But I forgot about it.  So of course,　べんきょうしませんでした。I didn't do well.  きょう　テストは　ありました。　わたしは　べんきょしました。But I think there may have been a backside to the quiz which I didn't notice...  ＼(>o<)／
 Well better to know the words and get a bad grade than the other way around I guess.  I'll get this down eventually.

Goals for First Speaking Cycle

My Goals:

I want to be able to reliably be able to pronounce the l/r sound in らりるれろ and also be able to keep up with shadowing in slower speaking cases without having to listen to it many times.

Activities:

I will practice shadowing with provided exercises, anime, and Japanese songs at least 20 minutes for at least 3 times a week.

I will also go to the language table at least twice in the next month.

 

Introduction

おはよう　ございます。
はじめまして。
ハンセン　です。
みて　くだちい　おねがいします。
いちねんせい　です。
どうぞ　よろしく。
じゃあ　また。

First Post, or Why to Never Let Thomas Choose Titles for Things

おはよう　ございます、こんにちは、or こんばんは！

So why study Japanese? With my language requirement out of the way, and so many interesting classes, why dive into a difficult language in which I have no experience?  The simplest answer is I am very vulnerable to reverse psychology.  Seriously though, I came to college hoping to challenge myself and didn't want to avoid learning another language just because I didn't have to.  I didn't want to take another romance language, and I don't think I could ever learn the massive number of icons required for Chinese, so Japanese seemed like a nice option which I might be able to use from time to time.

It's hard to say I'm particularly excited about any part of the class, but if I had to choose one, it would probably be learning a whole bunch of letters entirely different from the Roman one typically used.  うぁちろゔぇ is complete nonsense, (as far as I know) but it still looks cool.

The hardest part I've run into so far is remembering the exact combination of letters in something long like しつれい　します.  I'll mess it up in some way like しすねい　しもす, which doesn't sound different enough to me for me to realize my mistake, but is still wrong.

So until next time, しつれい　します！ (triple checked that, got it right this time)