My birthday was quite recent, so I got a bit of money to spend (so I bought myself a nice drawing tablet and a few books to help me study Japanese), but I also got a sweet present from my boyfriend. He knows I love the Japanese language and will read any and every book on the Japanese language that there is. I will read through any Japanese study book, and this one I like.
I’ve gone over a bit of the Japanese counting system by myself before, but it’s a little difficult to grasp the concept of (for me, anyway). So, there is a general counter (~つ) , but if you know the specific counters, you’re supposed to use them.
みんなさん、こんにちは！
Hey guys, it’s been too long! I don’t even know what happened, I guess I just got busy and distracted after the house flooded.
It has been so busy lately, school coming to an end and our local anime con ans whatnot.
Honestly, I haven’t improved on my Japanese, but I found I can get around some websites in mostly Japanese with some ease.
Now that summer’s here I should have a lot more time on my hands so I’ll be studying 日本語, surfing the web and posting on here more often again. As well as reading the blogs I’ve not been keeping up with.
Until next time
-Katori
Hey guys! Life’s been a bit all over the place, but I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I last posted. Not much has changed though. I’m just still trying to find a comfortable balance between everyday life and studying Japanese (as well as other things I do).
Well, I guess that’s really all I had to say. See you later!
-Katori
I am quite excite to add the “newest” manga to my collection soon.
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So I got some money for my birthday (from my wonderful, considerate parents…I guess that’s what you get when you turn down an expensive gift 😛 ), so I decided I’m going to use some of the money for premium Crunchyroll so I can watch anime on the go on my phone and kindle.
I was studying my grammar today when I came across something interesting. An i-adjective meaning good. As you may or may not know, the Japanese word for “good” is 「いい」. There’s something interesting about the word 「いい」.
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So as you probably know, my birthday is coming up and I want some Japanese learning software or books. My parents seemed to have gotten the hint, because after probing my mum after a while I realized I’m probably getting some Japanese learning material.
Then it dawned on me.
My birthday’s coming up soon! Maybe finally make some birthday Japanese curry for myself and family.
Even after my last post, I kept looking at my Japanese work with fear. Finally I gathered my courage and dove into the deep, and I didn’t drown 🙂
I felt so guilty that I wasn’t doing it. Finally I just saw the reviews and I knew they wouldn’t go away, so I just took a deep breath and went through them. Needless to say, there were plenty that I missed. That’s my fault for not keeping ontop of it like I should. Learning a language takes so much self-motivation.
Ok, so honestly I’ve gotten behind on my WaniKani. I had gotten overwhelmed, and didn’t do it all day yesterday. I know I’m only hurting myself… I guess I have a bunch of reviews to go through.
I should probably start balancing everything out starting with my Japanese studies, since that’s obviously hurting the most at the moment.
The best solution would probably be to get into a good habit of when and where to study. It’s not really great for the “where” at the moment, since I was just about to get a new desk when the house flooded. Even so, I should at least start with “when.”
So I’ve just had surgery on my foot (spent a lot of time sleeping). It’s keeping me off my feet today, so I thought I might as well post something.
I have finally made it to level 2 on WaniKani (haha). I need to gather spare change from under my couch and in my jeans pockets. To unlock above level 2 you can choose two payment plans. I’m going to try by month, if I can gather enough money. Its a decent price ($8/month), but learning Japanese isn’t cheap. WaniKani only teaches kanji, I need to also find good, understandable grammar guides and whatnot, plus baby books & kids magazines to practice with.
I need to learn to balance my money as well as my time!
Well, that’s all really. Time to eat a nice warm bowl of ramen and keep studying my kanji & what I do have for grammar.
-Katori
Balancing classes, interning, being a TA and self-teaching Japanese can be a handful. I felt like I was getting behind on actual Japanese (especially grammar), so I ended up staying up rather late researching Japanese grammar. At least I’m doing well with my kanji on WaniKani. I had a few reviews lined up this morning and this evening, I got 100%. It is a good resource for learning kanji (though I suggest using some other resources with it. Something like Kanji De Manga is good, as each volume has the kanji for each level of the JLPT).
I’m going to try not to stay up late tonight. I want to learn Japanese, but it’s not worth throwing everything else away for. I can’t wait to balance my studies out and make my life easier.
That and my crochet business. I crochet amigurumi and sell it at local farmers markets and craft fairs. I hope to set up an etsy soon. That will probably have to wait until after I get my studies in balance.
I do want to have Japanese for future careers. Giving it up is not an option for me, but neither is throwing away what I need to do in the other areas of my life.
Time to get started balancing. (Might take a while to post again.)
-Katori
Today, when I had nothing better to do, I was reviewing kanji and kana as much as I could. It seemed I was doing ok, but for some of the katakana I had written down I may have been tricked into thinking I was doing well by that pesky romaji/translation next to it. So I was going to get flashcards to see if I really knew what the katakana was trying to say (well, really I just wrote “make kanji and kana flashcards” on my hand. Same thing).
When I went onto a WaniKani forum it was about Anki. “Anki, what’s that? And is it in any way like WaniKani to begin with?” Turns out the only similarity is that they use Spaced Repitition. I only used Anki a little bit, and it seems okay… the flashcard sets are shared, so human error can come into play a lot. I downloaded one flashcard set the was missing ケ / け and had シ and し backwards. I also came across another flashcard set that wasn’t exactly what I wanted. You can also make your own flashcards, and share them. It’s a good way to have flashcards without wasting paper or losing them. (And you can’t cheat by seeing the answers on the back when holding it up to the light!)
There are still some upsides to paper flashcards though. They’ll be more randomized, you can check that they’re all there before they get randomized, you can easily add to the deck and you can take paper flashcards everywhere (which is good if you’re in a place where you can’t use electronics or has bad cell coverage). Either way, you’re just improving your memory with them.
I’m probably going to use both, I like to take flashcards along with me and study when I’m bored.
-Katori
Katori's Japanese Log 