Up late, learning some katakana

So, I'm becoming frustrated with my inability to read katakana yet. Only because I learned the hiragana so quickly through my computer lessons. I can't realistically expect katakana to be thoroughly covered any time soon, as I have learned that it is generally used to represent words that aren't native to the Japanese language. I've found, so far, that items of clothing and some technological items (computers, televisions, etc.) are represented this way, and most are closely comparable to their English counterparts.

To combat this frustration I've started teaching myself the katakana system tonight, with the flashcards I got some time ago. They helped solidify my comfort with hiragana, and I hope that they will do the same for katakana. I've only set myself 9 cards to remember tonight. Hopefully I'll recall them in the morning! :)

• ア - a
  
• イ - i
• ウ - u
• エ - e
  
• オ - o
  
• カ - ka
  
• キ - ki
  
• ケ - ke
  
• ク - ku

-ブレンダン

Genki desu.

It's been quite a lengthy weekend! I've been struggling to do any studying for the past few days as my schedule has been uncharacteristically busy for me. I've followed through, however! I started a new core lesson yesterday, and split it between last night and tonight. I did this because there was a LOT of new information covered and I felt that I would not retain any of it past where I stopped last night. I've rarely felt my brain become "full" before! My hectic schedule this weekend has left me rather mentally exhausted anyways, and I'm sure that contributed to my inability to finish last night. I followed through with no problems tonight, however.

-Brendan

Things I learned today (and yesterday)

Some more clothing items

• seeta = sweater
• jiinzu = jeans
• beruto = belt
• suutsu = suit
• kutsushita = socks
• nekutai = necktie

Some more colors

• haiiro = grey
• murasaki = purple
• chairo = brown
• pinku = pink
• orenji = orange
• iro = color
  

Physical characteristics

• kami ( 髪 ) = hair (kanji included, as I know kami can also mean 'god' and 'paper')
• shiraga/hakuhatsu = grey/white hair
• akage = red hair (redhead)
• kinpatsu = blonde hair
• takai = tall
• hikui = short
• se = height

Physical conditions

• samui = chilly/cold
• atsui = hot
• nodo ga kawaku = to be thirsty (nodo = throat, kawaku = become dry)
• onaka ga suku = to be hungry (onaka = stomach, suku = become empty)
• Watashi wa guai ga warui desu = I am feeling bad (guai = condition, warui = bad/wrong)
• daijobu = all right
• genki = healthy/fine/energetic

A few common phrases/sayings

• Ogenki desuka? = How are you?
• Genki desu. = I'm fine.
• Tadaima! = I'm home!
• Okaerinasai! = Welcome home!
• Ittekimasu! = I'm leaving!

Parting practice phrase

Se no takai otoko no hito wa kuroi suutsu o kite imasu. せのたかいおとこのひとはくろいスーツをきています。The tall man is wearing a black suit.

Another Day, Another Lesson Finished

Just because I haven't been posting blogs doesn't mean that I haven't been doing lessons. Frequently now, I am constantly reviewing material I've already "Learned Today" in posts below. In fact, when I do a new core lesson, it covers all the material that I'll be expanding on over the next few days.

I approach my lessons sort of like a school class. I devote around an hour a day, and if I feel like I've absorbed a lot of information during a week then I will not feel guilty in taking a day or two off from my active studies (computer lessons). I will almost always read some of a book either pertaining to the language itself, or Japan in general just to keep myself immersed. I do this out of genuine interest, though. Not out of self-discipline to keep myself in check. I also try to listen to (kiku!) or watch (miru!) something in Japanese everyday as well. This is usually nothing that I have to go out of my way to do however, as you'd probably deduce from my last post. More and more I'm finding myself recognizing words and parts of sentences. Even if I'm not able to understand an entire sentence, I'm able to identify the subject and single out the words which are the actions, and look them up (sometimes, this is still a rare thing).

I mentioned Ayumi Hamasaki previously. I've been listening to certain songs of her since early 2004, some of them I even learned phonetically just to be able to sing along every once in a while. Now I'm finally at a point where I can understand what some of it means. It's like having a jigsaw puzzle for a really long time, being able to see the picture on the box, but when you open it it's a jumble of pieces with which you don't know where to begin. With each word and phrase I learn, I'm putting pieces together in little patches, gaining small views of the real picture inside the box. Sure I've read translations of the lyrics before, but people always say that translations are an approximation. There are rarely times where you're going to directly translate a sentence from Japanese to English (and vice-versa) word for word. So when you're reading a translation, you're getting the translators' approximation of what is originally said. And when it comes to song lyrics some huge liberties can be taken.

One thing I've learned, especially from reading a book I just got; Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You, is that the entire meaning of a sentence can change very easily and unintentionally to a non-native speaker. Here is a great example the author, Jay Rubin, uses;

Here is a sobering anecdote to illustrate how potent a little wa can be in differentiating a topic from implied others. [...]

I and a few other American scholoars were at a party and one of us tried to compliment our Japanese host by saying, Konban wa oishii mono ga takusan arimasu ne. By this he intended to say, "What a lot of tasty dishes you're serving us tonight." The host laughed and remarked, "You mean I'm usually stingy on other nights?" By putting wa after "tonight," my colleague had in effect said "Tonight, for a change, you're serving us a lot of tasty dishes."

 An amusing story amongst friends, but I'd hate to be in that situation with a stranger who might take it as an insult! I certainly have a long way to go!

However, this book has been very valuable in "making sense of" things that I wasn't too sure about thus far. Such as the differences between wa and ga in sentences. On a -very- basic level, when wa is used after a word, it puts the emphasis on the rest of the sentence containing the important information, whereas when ga is used after a word, that tells the listener/reader that the subject before ga is the important part of the information.

• Watashi wa ikimashita - "I went." Being the answer to the question "And what did YOU do when you heard about the sale?" "Me? I went."
• Watashi ga ikimashita - "I went." Being the answer to the question "Who went to get help after he hurt his leg?" "I went."

Non-textbook explanations like this are a big help, especially since I'm taking such a personal approach to learning the language. These are things that will stay with me forever.

-Brendan

I've been doing my homework!

My last couple days of lessons have been composed of refining my skills with the material that was presented to me in my last post, the big core lesson. I've been diving a bit into the mechanics of the sentence structures, as I've stated in the past, as well as doing more combining of elements I've learned earlier on in these lessons.

To supplement my learning of the language I've been doing what I've done for the past seven years, which is listen to Japanese music, and watch Japanese movies and television shows (including both anime and live action shows). Now if I'd been studying the language in depth for as long as I've been listening/watching to these forms of entertainment I'd (hopefully!) be WAY farther down this road I've just started! I'm not sure I could have tackled learning a language on top of school, though. I was frightened enough that my French classes in high school wouldn't have been enough to cover my Foreign Language requirement to get my Bachelor's Degree as it was! Not that college, nor pursuing a degree in Illustration was particularly challenging, but being intent on honestly learning a new language on top of my workload would have been pushing it.

I really do owe my returned interest in Japan to anime, as cliche as that may be. No, it didn't spawn my interest in the country and the culture, but let's face it, if you aren't exposed to something how are you supposed to gain an interest in it? I do believe that I would have found my way to this point without anime somewhere down the road, but who knows where life would take by then? Would I be able to realistically pursue this?

I started with watching a few series here and there in the late 90's. I never paid close attention to them, but I enjoyed them. Then I was given Cowboy Bebop to watch, followed by Neon Genesis Evangelion (both solid staples in any anime lover's library, whether or not you like them). I loved them both, and I still do. These were the series that opened my eyes to the fact that "anime" wasn't a genre, but a medium, really as broad as the word "cartoon". And much like the word "cartoon" here, carries a connotation of immaturity or childishness. The "anime" reputation, or "Japanimation" as it was called, when I first heard about it, was mostly due to a loss of meaning in translation. I really only had Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and Pokemon to go by, and frankly I do not enjoy any of those series. But they had such prominence here that I assumed all anime was like that. How wrong I was.

After I had seen Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion, I decided to research some other series that were available and popular in the USA. I was about to move to England for a year, and I wanted to bring with me a couple of series that I could watch on my laptop during my spare time, while I was there. I settled on Vision of Escaflowne and Berserk. I was easing myself into anime by putting myself in familiar territory, Fantasy and Science Fiction. My less than legit method of obtaining Berserk and Escaflowne back in those days left me with a mix of episodes both dubbed in English and others in Japanese with English subtitles. Until that point, I had only seen Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion with the English dubs, and I guess I had lucked out that those two series had wonderful English voice casting. I've heard horror stories of some terrible English dubs, though I won't jump on that bandwagon.

But I digress. These mixed episodes gave me my first real taste of listening to the Japanese language for an extended period of time. As I had always felt when I listened to it in the past, I found the language poetic and soothing. I say this often, but even when I hear an old woman berating her good-for-nothing husband for messing something up, I still find it pleasant to listen to! It never struck me enough to want to learn the language, but I also didn't expect my interest in the country and culture to grow as much as it had. This was merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. One of my flatmates overheard me talking about one of the series one day, and recommended a film by Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away, or as she knew it translated from her native French, The Voyage of Chihiro. I borrowed it, watched it and instantly became a fan of Studio Ghibli films (I have a rather sizable collection now, as well as many books of artwork from the movies, one being a thoughtful gift from my mother).

Needless to elaborate any further, my interest exploded. Once I got back from England I certainly needed something to take my mind off how much I missed my friends over there, so I began to search for more series. Only I wasn't content to sift through the limited selection we had here at the time. The popularity of BitTorrent was on the rise, and the world of fansubbing was introduced to me. I dove in and never came up for air! Through my trial of different genres of shows I took a liking to slice of life series. That is, series that were about everyday people in everyday circumstances. It gave me a chance to look through a foreign window and see a lifestyle I only knew a little bit about, in Japan.

Through cultural references and music used in the shows I began to learn about popular music. Quite by accident, actually, I stumbled upon a singer who I know I would have found out about eventually, given her popularity in Japan. One day, I mistakenly downloaded a video which was a collection of Japanese music videos, instead of a latest episode of an anime series I was following. I decided to watch anyways, and was introduced to 浜崎あゆみ, Ayumi Hamasaki. I was instantly smitten, and have been following her music ever since!

There's obviously much more to how my interest evolved. My class on Japanese Culture, the art projects I did in relation to Hokusai and his ukiyo-e prints. My minor study of Shinto and my lifelong love of the historically artistic visual distinction of Japan. Popular culture these days fortunately offers many avenues to learn about foreign places and I feel fortunate that I can now gain real insight into the things that I love about Japan. But it just goes to show you how a spark of inspiration can come from anywhere, and if you take the opportunity to run with it, it can lead you down a fascinating and possibly life-changing road.

-Brendan

Things I learned today (well, within the past few days)

• yoroshiku = nice to meet you
• douitashimashite = you're welcome (thanks to my friend and part-time translator Takao!)
• de = in, or at (in reference to a place, for example ; daidokoro de ryorishite imasu, in the kitchen, cooking)

Questions on my mind

• Another little grammar question. I will give two example sentences I want to compare.

1) Otousan wa musukosan o daite imasu. - The father hugs his son.

2) Oneesan wa otouto ni kisushite imasu. - The sister kisses her little brother. 

My question now is, why does sentence 2 have 'ni', に, which I am used to seeing now in sentences relating the location of people and objects, as opposed to sentence 1 having 'o', を. What is it about kisushite that makes ni appear? Is it because of shite denoting that it's an action being done and thus that person is "in" the action? Or do I not fully understand the meanings of the sentences yet?

Practice parting phrase

Otokonoko wa ie no chikaku ni imasu. Neko wa shinshitsu ni imasu. おとこのこはいえのちかくにいます。ねこはしんしつにいます。The boy is near the house. The cat is in the bedroom.

Who I am, and where I'm from.

こんにちわ。わたしのなまえはブレンダンです。わたしはあめりかのコネチカツトにすんでいます。 Konnichiwa. Watashi no namae wa Burendan desu. Watashi wa Amerika no Konechikatsuto ni sunde imasu. Hello. My name is Brendan. I live in Connecticut, in America.

It took me quite a long time to get to the point to be able to introduce myself! Additionally, I doubt that I could recite that all from memory just yet. I just finished my core lesson this evening and it covered a LOT of new material. It's quite nice to be graduating from simple vocabulary to a bit more advanced grammar. These core lessons are overviews of what the next handful of exercises will be covering and generally take a half hour to complete. That is, if you're unlike me and just answer the questions and continue, not worrying about the new material covered just yet.

Ah, yes, but I said if you're unlike me! I, however, pick apart every sentence and try to make full meaning of what's presented in front of me every time. There are certain things I will resign myself to not fully understanding until we cover it in a more elaborate fashion. For example, I'm learning the terms for near and far.  Watashi wa hashi no chikaku ni imasu. I am near the bridge (chikaku meaning 'near').  Watashi wa hashi kara tooku ni imasu. I am far from the bridge. And this is where I get slightly stumped, as thus far I've not been introduced to 'kara', although I know it is a suffix sometimes, or as an adjective it can mean empty or vacant (thanks to my dictionary). And considering tooku means 'at a distance', what is it's relation to kara? From the few examples I've seen, kara is always present next to tooku. I know I shouldn't dwell on things such as this so early in a lesson, as I believe it will be covered later. But something in me wants to crack the code as soon as I see it, hehe.

-Brendan

Things I learned today

Places

• Burajiru = Brazil
• Nihon = Japan (even though I already knew this, hehe)
• Itaria = Italy
•  Ejiputo = Egypt
• Furansu = France
• Chuugoku = China
• Rooma = Rome
• Pari = Paris
• Mosukuwa = Moscow 
• Nyuuyooku = New York 
  

Vocabulary

• toori = street
• kouen = park
• hashi = bridge
• machi = town
• kuni = country
• sumu = to live (reside)
• shusshin = birthplace, hometown, where you're from
• kono = this (kono toori = this street)
• chikaku = near
• tooku = far

Questions on my mind

• Just the question posed above. What is the meaning of kara when paired with tooku when someone is describing themselves as far away from something? Why is it not present when someone says they are close to that object? I hope to discover this soon :)

Parting practice phrases

Onnanokotachi wa hashi no ue ni tatte imasu. おんあのこたちははしのうえにたっています。The girls are standing on the bridge.

 Kono kuni no namae wa nihon desu. このくにのなまえは日本です。This country's name is Japan. (yes, I actually learned the Kanji for Japan!)

 Doko no shusshin desuka? Watashi wa Ejiputo no shusshin desu. どこのしゅっしんですか？ わたしはえじぷとのしゅっしんです。Where are you from? I'm from Egypt.

 Doko ni sunde imasuka? Watashi wa Pari ni sunde imasu. どこにすんでいますか？　わたしはぱりにすんでいます。Where do you live? I live in Paris.

Harking back to School Days

Just a short entry today. I've decided that I don't want to overwhelm myself by typing long anecdotes everyday or the idea of writing may become daunting and I may put it off. This is something I want to keep doing, and perhaps over time I will come up with more thoughtful posts, should I wait a few days per 'story'. I'll still update what I learn though!

That said, I have started revisiting my Japanese history books. I have one in particular from my Japanese Culture class I took during college a few years ago. I'd been itching to read it again as I know I've forgotten a lot about what I learned in the class. It's a great book though, entitled Japan - The Story of a Nation. It was written by Edwin O. Reischauer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan. I've only just started and am merely 20 pages in, however many bits of information from my class are flooding back. Most prominent of these facts are the existence of the tumuli or kofun. Large, keyhole shaped mounds which are tombs to ancient leaders.

 

Nintoku's Tomb 'Daisen-Kofun' - the largest in Japan

Things I learned today

• Apparantly, to answer my "Question" from my previous post, the 'no' in a sentence describing something's location is used when specifically stating the items relative location to the other item (in, on, under, etc.) and that applies to multiple items as well. Otokonokotachi wa beddo no shita ni imasu. "The boys are under the bed." Kappu wa nagishi ni arimasu. "The cup is in the sink." So I -think- in my example from yesterday, it would be "Ringo to tamago wa teeburu no ue ni arimasu."

• コート = coat (in katakana)
  

Questions on my mind

• None right now! :)

Parting practice phrase

Watashi no kooto doko desuka? Kooto wa isu no ue ni arimasu. わたしのコートどこですか？ コートわいすのうえにあります。Where is my coat? Your coat is on the chair.

Learning by association

The first half of today's lessons focused on a more in depth look at certain hiragana, while the second half touched more on the position of things (the cat is under the table, the computer is on the table, etc) while taking a subtle step and adding an additional descriptor to each sentence towards the end.

Since I had taken it upon myself to study hiragana further on my own, I feel very self-assured in my answering of these questions in my computer lessons. I try not to be TOO hasty, because I know there are some symbols I can mix up if I don't take a good enough look. For example, chi and sa are mirror images of each other ( ち and さ), and the symbols for ro and ru are also very similar, save for a minor loop (ろ and る).

From the very get go, I used picture association methods to remember what hiragana stood for. This connection let me recall, with a little thought, what sound I was to say when I saw it. My first hiragana was 'to'　と　pronounced like "toe". I made the (very painful) association that と looks like a toe with it's toenail being bent upwards. Although mildly unpleasant I was able to easily recall what it stood for and now can recite it without the imagery. So it was for most of the hiragana. Thankfully I can manage to picture scenarios for most of them, it's been a great aid.

Tonight was also one of the first nights where I really felt an idea being taught click in my mind. As hard as it is for me to describe the components of a sentence, especially a Japanese one, I find that I just know how something works, what each word represents. While I knew that ue meant 'on top of', and naka meant 'inside' in the contexts of the sentences, it wasn't until tonight that the other words around the noun and the position made complete sense. Onnanoko to obaasan wa daidokoro ni imasu. The girl and grandmother are in the kitchen. ni being the word placing them at the kitchen (daidokoro). And from what I gather, when talking about the position of a single object, 'Neko wa shatsu no ue ni imasu.', the "no" is added, though for what particular reason I have yet to deduce. (I know this revelation contradicts the point of the first half of this paragraph, but I just noticed it while verifying what I wrote two sentences ago! That's the fun part about this whole process :)

-Brendan

Things I learned today

• More about the structure of sentences and the usage of particles in designating the physical position of people and things relative to each other in a situation.
• My grasp of hiragana seems to be remaining fairly firm

Questions on my mind

• As stated earlier, I'm not sure why, when stating the relative position of a single item, whether it be a cat or an apple, 'no' is added. I know 'no' can be possessive, like "Boku no imouto desu." means "My younger sister". What does 'no' designate in "Ringo wa teeburu no ue ni arimasu." (The apple is on the table). If I were to say "The apple and the egg are on the table", would it be "Ringo to tamago wa teeburu ue ni arimasu."? Or would 'no' still belong in there?

Parting practice phrase

Musumesan wa ima ni suwatte imasu. むすめさんわいまにすわっています。The daughter is sitting in the living room.

I don't need to date these titles!

My practice tonight consisted entirely of review, but dove more in depth into the mechanics of the sentences I've been practicing over the past few weeks. Rather than just learning the nouns and verbs, I'm learning the way the words relate to each other. The why as opposed to the how. Although doing so without any explanation in English (something these lessons leave out entirely, which is both beneficial and frustrating sometimes) can make coming to the correct deductions rather difficult. However, I find if you put the puzzle together yourself (and then verify, of course) rather than get hand-held through the process, a) it's more rewarding, and b) you've got that mental map that you can retrace your steps with should you ever come across the same obstacle again.

These exercises have caused me to appreciate the English language as well. I never have been, and will never claim to be an expert of the English language. I do not consider myself a great writer and I'm sure this blog is full of many grammatical errors. That doesn't mean that I'm not able to appreciate the workings of the written (and spoken) word, however!

I still struggle with some of these exercises, but I wind up thinking that I may be expecting too much of myself too soon. Perhaps because I'm so anxious to understand everything. At face value, what the exercises show me, I do rather well. I average 2 or 3 questions wrong out of 150 at a time, quite often my mistakes are made because I answer too quickly and I mix up easy words (like man and woman, otokonohito and onnanohito), and then I go back and correct myself. But I like to take the time to sit an analyze the sentences I'm given, seeing if I understand the construction of the sentence and not just the key words (like I mentioned in a previous post, deducing answers from familiar words, if I see boy and bike in a phrase, I'll know that picture is the one to click).

Then I ask myself, if I was put on the spot, would I be able to compose this sentence on my own? I know I could say simple things such as "What are you doing?" "Nani o shite imasuka?" without hesitation. And even some sentences involving newer material, such as "This is my older sister." "Watashi no oneesan desu.". But there are times where a sentence will appear and I'm quite certain if I were asked to translate it to Japanese, I'd be unsuccessful. Perhaps this program just hasn't begun to flex those mental muscles yet! It tests my spelling skills very rarely as of yet, anyways. And rarely does it ask me to speak aloud a sentence without it written in front of me. There are occasions though where it speaks aloud 3 sentences, all accompanied by photographs, and presents me with a fourth photograph which I have to speak the description of, using the previous examples as guidelines. Those exercises are scary but I feel great when I get them right!

Anyways, that's just me really figuring out where I'm at. I have to remind myself that I'm only about 5 or 6 weeks into all of this. I think for that amount of time that I'm doing pretty well!

-Brendan

Things I learned today

• dare = who
• ga = puts emphasis on the subject immediately preceding it, making it the focus of the sentence.
• wa = designates the subject of the sentence and places importance on the rest of the sentence.
• I also learned that I can spot typos in hiragana! At least I think I can... when reviewing numbers, and training myself on the correct suffixes to use when counting things, I was shown "eight chairs" and read aloud "hakko no isu", and I had to fill in the correct kana for は＿のいす。 I was given the choices of　っ (a small tsu - つ which puts emphasis on the following consonant sound in the next syllable), まい-mai, and はん-han (I think). None of them looked right to me, hearing "hakko" I expected to see はっこ. I did some investigating online and found no instances of "はっのいす。" existing anywhere, but plenty of はっこの as a preface to counting eight of various things. Things like this make me feel better about my earlier expressed doubts, at least I -am- making progress in some areas!

Questions on my mind

• Actually, the last point above was my single question of the day, but I answered it myself!

Parting practice phrase

Otousan to musukosantachi wa asonde imasu. おとうさんとむすこさんたちはあそんでいます。The father and his sons are playing.

09-05-2009 Uh-Oh, Katakana Time!

Today I was quite mentally exhausted so I made sure not to overload myself. It was a brief review of my last lesson from Thursday with quite a few pronunciation exercises. It finally clicks with me that I'm learning a new language when I'm hearing myself recite a sentence. According to the exercises my pronunciation is pretty accurate, and any discrepancies are generally due to the microphone not hearing me well enough. Japanese has inflections on a few certain sounds that are not very common in the English language, but given my long history of listening to the language and learning how to say certain things even before attempting to learn the language as a whole, I feel I have a solid grasp on the enunciation, but speaking it rapidly will be a different story when the time comes!

I must say that I enjoy the progress that I've made since I've started all this. When watching a favorite anime or listening to a song I am able to pick out words and phrases I understand, and that excites me. I've sung along, phonetically, to some songs for many years now while always wondering what they meant. Certain verbal repetitions that stood out to me. Bokutachi ぼこたち was always one of them. I couldn't tell you why, but I always noticed when it was sung in a song, and it was sung often enough for me to think it was a common phrase. A couple of weeks ago I learned it meant "we", boku meaning I (generally masculine in usage, I've gathered) and tachi pluralizing whatever it follows (musukosantachi = sons, kanojotachi=they (feminine) etc).

Another big leap for me has been my familiarization with hiragana. One of the syllabic writing systems used in Japanese. Thanks to my flashcards, and my ability to associate each symbol with some type of picture image in my mind, I have been able to memorize all of them (and the common conjunctions) fairly quickly. If presented with a word composed entirely of hiragana, if I take my time, I am able to read it aloud in a short period. If it's a word I know, it won't take me long to realize it (translating from hiragana to romaji is one task, translating from Japanese to English is the 2nd task and I'm still a newbie!). Whenever I watch a movie, TV (terebi!) show, or an episode of anime, I pause the screen whenever I see hiragana just to voice out the words and see if I can discern anything from it. Often I can't, but sometimes I surprise myself!

I did get my first taste of katakana today. It took me by surprise, and I wasn't expecting it. I've been doing my PC lessons exclusively with the kana word display option enabled as to reinforce my hiragana knowledge. So today, when the vocabulary I'd learned on Thursday popped up, I was met with unfamilar characters. For example トイレ for toire (toilet). Up until now, I would have expected to see といれ, the hiragana for to, i and re. As of right now, I have absolutely NO idea why this writing system is used for these words now instead of hiragana. But I also knew that I'd eventually cross paths with this writing system, and honestly, I'm looking forward to deciphering it as well! It's all part of the journey.

Things I learned today

• ト = to (phonetically)
• イ= i   (phonetically)
  
• レ= re

Questions on my mind

• So far, I have yet to understand why the kana "は" is sometimes spoken as "ha" and "wa", when there is a kana specifically for "wa" (which is わ). For example, in my lessons, hana (flower) is pronounced HA-NA with the kana は and な. But when you say "I am" as Watashi wa (in romaji), the kana used are わたしは, which would read wa-ta-shi-ha, although spoken as described earlier. This is something that I'm sure will become apparent to me as my lessons continue, but it's something that definitely makes me realize how far I still have to go in all this!

Parting practice phrase

 Nani o tabete imasuka? Watashi wa gohan wo tabate imasu. なにおたべていますか？　わたしはごはんをたべています。What are you eating? I'm eating rice.

-Brendan

Study Buddies

My Tools of the Trade

09-03-2009 What I learned today

Things I learned today

I started a new "core lesson" today, and was greeted with much new vocabulary. 

Some words defining one item's relative position to another

• ue = top, surface/on top of  i.e. Neko wa shatsu no ue ni imasu. The cat is on the shirt. (A phrase quite apt for whenever I visit my mom and her cat makes its bed on my shirts)
• naka = inside i.e. Kagi wa kuruma naka ni arimasu. The key is inside the car. (Sadly, also a phrase which applies to me a few times in my past)
• shita = below/beneath/under i.e. Hon wa isu no shita ni arimasu. The book is under the chair.

Many words involving a house, it's rooms and some things within them

• ie = house/home
• apaato = apartment
• doa = door
• mado = window
• shinshitsu = bedroom
• toire = bathroom/toilet
• daidokoro = kitchen
• nagashi = kitchen sink
• ima = living room/family room

And a few others

• kisu = kiss
• ai =love
• daite = hold/hug
• daisuki = love/great fondness/I love you
• ojiisan = grandfather/elderly man
• obaasan = grandmother/elderly woman
• suwaru = to sit
• tatsu = to stand
• doko = where

I've also learned that arimasu/arimasen applies to inanimate objects, while imasu/imasen

applies to living things.

Questions on my mind

• Nothing, for the time being! I'm content with absorbing everything I learned today. Not to say I don't have any questions, just that none are springing to mind at the moment. :)

Parting Practice Phrase

• Watashi wa otousan ga daisuki desu. Watashi wa okaasan ga daisuki desu. わたしわおとうさんがだいすきです。　わたしわおかあさんがだいすきです。 I love my father. I love my mother.
  

Practicing Practices

I have yet to develop a particular routine for my studying habits. It's as general as making sure that I spend at least a half hour a day, if not a full hour, either reviewing my hiragana flashcards or using my PC learning software. That means that I may do my studying soon after I get up (harking back to my college days), perhaps in the middle of the day shortly after my daily exercise (another thing I'm keeping vigilant about), or even late at night before I go to bed (I'm also a bit of a night owl).

Honestly, I find that each of these times has benefits. During the morning I'm well rested, my brain isn't full of the happenings of the day, perhaps I'm able to absorb information easier in this state. During the middle of the day, I've just had lunch, just exercised, so my body is ready for a rest and my mind is ready for a workout as well. And at night the day is over, I've mentally packed my suitcase and whatever has happened over the day is a non-issue until the morning. There are no phone calls, no distractions, and the light of my desk lamp casts a cozy glow over my room, really letting me absorb whatever I'm doing.

I guess the point of all that is that I'm working to see if I glean any benefit from one time of day over the other, but at this point I don't. I suppose it comes down to what suits me at each time. Although I will say that I practice less often in the morning than either afternoon or night. Today it was the afternoon. I'm reflecting now, as I've absorbed a lot of new vocabulary. I don't expect myself to remember it all on the spot tomorrow, but the good thing about these lessons, are that they ease you into new words, by associating them with words you already are familiar with.

For example, I was greeted with the phrase "Otokonoko wa suwatte imasu." and four pictures.

• A picture of a girl sitting on a picnic table
• A picture of a man standing in an office
• Apicture of a boy sitting on a bench
• A picture of a woman standing in the subway

 To this point I had never heard or seen the word suwatte before. But I could make the logical connection that otokonoko means "boy", so whatever suwatte is, the boy is doing it. I click the picture, and am notified I made the correct choice. Good! Next, the phrase "Onna no hito wa tatte imasu." is given. Same thing, I know onna no hito means woman, and I've never seen or heard tatte before, but the woman is doing it in that photo. Now, like me, you've probably already connected the mental dots, and figured suwatte probably means something to do with sitting, and tatte has something to do with standing. Well, the next phrase will confirm or debunk that assumption. "Otoko no hito wa tatte imasu." The man is standing. I look at the photo depicting a man. Yes, yes he is. My deduction was right, and I've learned two new words by association with previously known words.

It really is like building blocks starting with the very foundation and building your way up. I'm still on the elevator to the first floor, but I'm not having to press the emergency stop button yet!

-Brendan

09-02-2009 - What I learned today

Things I learned today...

• Intonation plays a BIG part in the meanings of words, i.e.; SA-ke = salmon / sa-KE = rice wine
  
• Kazoku = Family
• Hiragana and Katakana are used to spell out words simply, but Kanji is used, in part, to represent words that can be confused as homonyms and heteronyms (see my sake example above)
  
• If I were to hear "Watashitachi niwa musuko ga hitori to musume ga sannin imasu." spoken in a conversation, I would need to ask the parents to repeat themselves at LEAST 6 times!
  

Questions on my mind...

• How does one determine the suffixes used when counting various objects? For instance, in my last point above, when counting daughters "musume ga sannin imasu." is the suffix -nin always added to a number (san in this case) when counting people?
  
• Are haha and chichi familiar forms of "mom" and "dad"?
• Why can seven be called 'nana' AND 'shichi', and what are the circumstances in which each is used?

Parting practice phrase:

Onna no hito to kanojo no inu. おなのひととかのじょのいぬ。 A woman and her dog.

An Introduction

Hello to all my non-existent followers! Or rather, こんにちわ！(Hey, I have to practice when I can). My name is Brendan, and I'm 28 years old. I fancy myself an artist, though I don't create works of art for a living just yet, I'm working on that!

I want to preface this entire blog by saying that I don't consider myself a stereotypical "otaku". I've had a budding interest in Japan since I was a child. My mother had old prints of geisha hanging in our dining room, and they are among my earliest memories of any type of artwork. In fact, I may have actually learned WHAT artwork was because of those prints. That said, I will admit I'm not an expert on Japan. I couldn't recite the history of the country, I couldn't name the lineage of Emperors, I couldn't tell you the names of the past several Prime Ministers. I'm merely a person who has always had a fascination with a country that remains faithful to its history and traditions, and maintains a certain aesthetic tranquility, harmony and artistic quality to it, even in its bustling cities.

For a few years now, I've toyed with the idea of learning Japanese. I've been listening to some Japanese music, watching Japanese TV shows and movies, and taking in a bit of pop culture for the better part of a decade now, and have recently come to the decision that I would like to spend some time living there. No concrete plans as of yet, just a planted seed that will hopefully grow into a new branch of my life. I love traveling, and I feel a calling to spend some time there, like there is a bit of myself waiting to be discovered. As a friend of mine put it;

Travel is not just about exploring the world, but also about discovering new things about yourself.

So, that is the current me, in a nutshell. Not terribly descriptive, I know. However, I wish to just make a log of the things I'm learning about the language as I take my lessons (through various resources, a PC based learning software, and a few choice learning tools, workbooks and flashcards, I've been learning hiragana quite swiftly!).

It's a real challenge, and I know it will be a long road, but one has to start somewhere! I've been learning for a little over a month now, so I'm still knee deep in the very basics. This is really a tool for me, so I can reflect on the things I've learned, post questions I have, which I will hopefully be able to answer for myself in the future. If I gain any followers, well, that'd be great! But I really just need something like this for myself. 

So... thanks for reading!

Arigatou gozaimasu!

ありがとうございます！

-Brendan

P.S. If anyone else DOES happen to be reading this, and can correct/critique any of my attempted translations, please feel free to do so! I'm merely a child in my stage of learning here :)