Letter to Tanaka-san

サンクスギビングの休み

みなさん、こんばんは！

サンクスギビングにりょうしんにあいましたか。私はうちにかえって、かぞくとばんごはんをたべました。うちのりょうりはいちばんおいしいですよ。それから、かいものをするのがあまり好きじゃないですが、くろい金曜日にはモールにかいものをしにいきました。ワウ、たくさん人がいましたよ！とてもにぎやかでした。土曜日はひとりでうちでゆっくりしました。そして、日曜日はプリンストンにかえって、せんたくをしました。いい休みでしたね。


じゃあ、
ケニー

Study Tools for Japanese Learners Pt. 1

みなさん、こんばんは！

Today I'm going to share with you one of the tools I've been using to study Japanese outside of class. In later posts, I'll be talking about other programs, as well as apps for Android and iOS. Most of these are meant to help you memorize vocabulary/kanji, which is a nice supplement to all the grammar we've been learning in class. じゃあ、はじめましょう！Let's get started!

Memrise

...should study Japanese with Memrise!

The learning tool we're going to be looking at is Memrise, a website that uses spaced repetition to help you retain vocabulary in long term memory. You have probably heard of the spaced repetition technique, but in case you haven't, the basic premise is that the software asks you vocabulary questions and records metrics such as correctness and response time to determine how long to wait before showing you the same question again. This is nice because the program can automatically tailor each review session to the words that you find difficult. For example, if you can consistently answer questions about the word うち (home) but sometimes forget the word まど (window), Memrise and other programs like it will adjust its algorithm to show you the easier word less often and the harder word more.

From the JLPT N5 course

As you can see, the website is quite feature-complete. It includes the hiragana, English meaning, and kanji for each word, as well as pronunciations by a native Japanese speaker. いいですね。Quizzes go both ways: first, you will see English meanings and will have to answer multiple choice questions by choosing the corresponding Japanese word. Then, you will have to type the correct Japanese word for a given English meaning. After that the questions and answers will flip-flop, and you will have to figure out the correct English meaning given a Japanese word.

To start using Memrise, I recommend the JLPT N5 course. This introductory vocabulary course will take you through the 675 most commonly used words in Japanese, including kanji and pronunciations for each one. I am currently following this course as well as another one for the Genki textbook that I used over the summer. I would recommend a course based on Nakama, but unfortunately there are none. Happy mem(o)rising!


じゃあ、
ケニー

ぼくのあきやすみ

みなさん、こんばんは！ヾ(@^▽^@)ノ

あきやすみはどうでしたか。ぼくのあきやすみはとてもよかったですよ。ぼくはうちにかえり、ガールフレンドとえいがをみました。それから、ひとりでたくさんアニメをみました。そのアニメのタイトルはきょうかいのかなたです。それはあきのあたらしいアニメです。スタジオはきょうとアニメーションですから、そのアニメはとてもきれいです。そして、オープニングテーマのアニメーションはきれいですが、おんがくはあまりよくないです：

でも、エンディングテーマのうたがだいすきです：

みなさん、このアニメをみてください！(´∀｀)♡


じゃあ、
ケニー

Pronunciation Exercise Halftime Report

こんばんは！

Today I am going to reflect on my performance regarding pronunciation exercises and create new goals for the rest of the semester. I feel that I have done very well in my recordings, and my problems with word pitch and sentence intonation are getting a lot better now that I have more practice. I still have to be careful with special moras, but for the most part I think my pronunciation is in a good spot right now. However, my original goals emphasized sounding natural in normal speech, which is something that involves more than just being able to produce the sounds correctly. I will need to continue working on my original goals of speaking/responding quickly and learning casual speech patterns/frequently used idioms.

My goals for the second half of the semester include the two original goals mentioned previously and a third, new goal: to be able to recognize when a sound should be "omitted". For example, I want to be able to recognize that the い sound in a word like きょうしつ should be very short without hearing it spoken first. I think this kind of analysis will give me a better linguistic understanding of the underlying reasoning behind the production of Japanese allophones.

The activities I want to participate in remain the same: talk to Japanese speakers, go to the language table, and watch anime. I have been conversing in Japanese with a few native speakers as well as second-year students, which has been very helpful so far. I have not been going to the language table since it has always been at an inconvenient time, but I will make an effort to go next week. As for watching anime...well, let's just say that particular activity is とてもやさしいです。

じゃあ、

ケニー

だいがくせいのにちじょう

みなさん、おはよう！ヽ(；▽ ；)ノ

はやいですね。ぼくはたいていごぜんさんじごろねます、でもときどきろくじねます。きょうはたくさんしゅくだいをしましたから、おそくねます。たいへんですね。。。

ぼくはだいがくせいです。だから、ぼくはあまりねません、あまりあさごはんをたべません、そしてあまりゲームをあそびません。まいにちはたくさんしゅくだいをします、たくさんべんきょうをします、そしてたくさんコーヒーをのみます。いいですね。。。(╯︵╰,)

でもしゅうまつはたのしかったです。もくようびにかのじょとイタリアのレストランにいきました。たくさんパスタをたべました。それから、きんようびにこうえんにいきました。どようびにともだちとすしのレストランにいきました。ワウ、とてもおいしいでしたよ！

ぼくはこのしゃしんをとりませんでした。

じゃあ、ぼくはフリストからりょうにかえります。またね！ヾ(*´ー`)ノ

ケニー

Pronunciation Exercise Goals

こんにちは！

Today I'm going to be writing about my goals for pronunciation exercises. My overall goal is to sound like a native speaker (albeit with a very limited vocabulary) by the end of the year. To get there, I will need to:

• Improve my word pitch and phrase/sentence intonation.
• Improve my ability to speak quickly and respond quickly.
• Learn casual speech and frequently used idioms.

To reach these goals, I'll need to get as much practice speaking Japanese as possible. I will talk to Japanese friends, go to the language table, and occasionally, watch anime. I also want to continue choosing interesting bits of dialogue to shadow. This week I shadowed a section from 男子高校生の日常（だんしこうこうせいのにちじょう）a.k.a. Daily Lives of High School Boys, a hilarious "slice-of-life" parody show that deconstructs a whole lot of tropes used in anime. I've included the video I chose below:

I have a bunch of clips lined up that I'm dying to share with you guys, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait for future posts. ごめん。¯\_(ツ)_/¯

じゃあ、また！

ケニー

じこしょうかい (Self-Introduction)

はじめまして。

はじめまして。わたしはKennyです。あめりかじんです。にゅうじゃあじいのえじそんからきました。ぷりんすとんだいがくのにねんせいです。せんこうはこんぴゅうたあかがくです。どうぞよろしく。

こんにちは！

Hello and welcome to my blog, 日本語と私 (Japanese and me)! I will be using these posts to talk about my journey in Japanese 101, at first in English but soon in Japanese, or so I hope.

I've wanted to study Japanese for a very long time, but I never had the chance to do so until my sophomore year of college. I tried twice in high school to pick up the language on my own and gave up both times. I like to think that it was because the nature of the subject matter didn't lend itself well to self-study, but in reality it was probably because I was just really, really lazy and never even made it past hiragana/katakana. A classroom environment forces me to learn, so thanks for taking JPN 101 with me, みなさん.

Why Japanese? Well, I'm interested in learning more about Japanese culture and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to visit Japan someday, but the main reason I want to study Japanese is for the language itself. It is the most beautiful language I've yet come across to listen to, much cleaner and more elegant than my native Chinese (which, to be honest, can sound pretty barbaric depending on the speaker). I chose French over Spanish in middle/high school for much the same reason, and while I'm sure everyone has his or her own preference for the world's most beautiful language, this is mine.

After the first three days of class, I'm excited about getting to know my classmates (that's you!) better and helping each other improve our language skills. I'm especially excited to practice speaking and listening. As for difficulties, I'm apprehensive about memorizing kanji, but I'm sure it will come with practice. What I actually find most difficult so far is remembering all of your names. But that'll come, too. And then we'll be best friends.

じゃあ、またね！