Category: Learning

Long weekend!

Yah, so Monday was a holiday in addition to the delicious weekend break. I usually take a little break from Japanese on weekends, but this time I took a BIG break.

I still managed to watched a few episodes of “Erin ga Chousen” (I’d link to it but I can’t be bothered, check the usual websites for buying stuff) and I entered several sentences from Naoko Chino’s All about Particles book, but that was all on Friday. After that, banzaiiii!!

All English games! Almost done with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, and getting somewhere good with Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn. I told myself once I was done with those two games I would only play Japanese games, only go to right ahead and start Mana Khemia. What can I say, I’m a sucker for Gust games.

Also cheated anime-wise. Even though I have a lot of Chi’s Sweet Home and Amatsuki raws, I decided to watch Gundam Seed…even though I’ve already seen it once before. It sucks even more than I remember, why do I do this to myself?

So to cut a long story short, I have a lot of catching up to do this week. 50 sentences a day and only 1 Dear Abby column per 10 sentences. That’ll teach you to be naughty. Today’s websites:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88 「フルキャスト」
http://mainichi.jp/enta/music/news/m20080527spn00m200014000c.html　「安室奈美恵：さらに進化！40万人ツアー」
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/gourmet/food/shinagaki/20080526gr09.htm　「アニメと同じ　陰の努力」

Yomiuri is really, really, really boring but very good for learning new vocabulary. And that’s all for today.

Faithfully reading Japanese all the time…sorta

I’ve been very good recently. Still cheating a lot with Dear Abby, but not with anything else. I even cut out the non-essential newspapers for my morning media review (why must you get in the way, work!?). I managed to put 39 sentences in the SRS yesterday. I had set myself a goal of 50 sentences per day, but I think it’s better to take things easy, do as much or as little as I can in day. Mainichi Daily is great for sentences, and Wikipedia is good for learning new kanji, but now I think I need more listening practice than reading. Must buy mp3 player soon.

Today’s readings: http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/game/shinsaku/archive/news/2008/01/20080101mog00m200011000c.html　｢新作ゲーム紹介「ルーンファクトリー２」 I’ve played this game and it RAWKS. I need to finish it sometime.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde 「Hyde」
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arc%E3%80%9Cen%E3%80%9CCiel　「L’Arc~en~Ciel」

Also yesterday downloaded the Minami-ke Okawari drama CD (the anime sucked though, should’ve quit while they were ahead). Tokyotosho had raws of ep 1-6 of Amatsuki up, so I got those as well. I don’t even know what it’s about but it can’t possibly be worse than some of the things I’ve watched before. And that’s it for today’s report, see you on Monday!

Today’s Japanese websites

I barely managed 13 sentences in the SRS yesterday, mainly because of relentless cheating with Google. I was looking up sites about the All Japanese All The Time approach (I called it a method earlier, but it’s not like AJATT came up with it or anything), which was semi-motivating but mainly a waste of time. Instead of spending time reading English sites about learning Japanese, spending it learning Japanese. Which is why I have NHK running on the TV next to me as I type this out. Today’s sites, though I’m hoping to do a few more once I’m through with them:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%94%E6%9C%A8%E3%81%B2%E3%82%8D%E3%81%97 「五木ひろし」
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E3%81%97%E3%82%93　「おしん」
http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/game/news/20080521mog00m200004000c.html　「新作ゲーム紹介　ヘラクレスの栄光　魂の証明」
それぐらいで十分だろう？そろそろ新しいゲームをダウンロードしたいな。。。

Japanese learning progress

It’s like this: I’m not really a blogging fan. And I’m not the blogging type either. So I’m just going to use this as a log to track my Japanese studying progress. Basically I’m following the AJATT approach [previously: method] (google it, I’m too lazy to link) and getting as much Japanese input as possible. So every day I’ll just track here what sites I visited, what movies I watched or what games I played (there’s going to be a lot of that), that sort of thing. I’ll also mention any real achievenement I’ve made, but my goal is just to be able to read, write and speak Japanese like a native and I’m well on my way to getting there.

I’ll confess up front, I cheat a lot on my Japanese studying, especially with the Dear Abby website. I’m trying to switch to Yomiuri’s 人生案内 but it’s just not the same, you know? The answers are so non-confrontational and vague, no fun at all. Until I find a good replacement, I’m going to be skipping back and forth between Dear Abby and Japanese pages. Sue me.

Last thing to mention: I’m not a fan of exams either. So I don’t plan to take the JLPT or the kanji exam or anything. I also don’t plan to live or work in Japan any time soon (never say never though) so everything I’m doing is purely for my own satisfaction. So long as in the end I can read whatever I want and say whatever I want to say I’ll be happy.

And so, without much further ado, today’s website:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9_%28%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%97%29
(アリス　－フォークグループ）
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A0%80%E5%86%85%E5%AD%9D%E9%9B%84
（堀内孝雄）
http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/game/review/news/20080512mog00m200006000c.html
(ゲーム批評「花と雨と太陽と」

This weekend or the next or the next I need to buy: an mp3 player, earphones (preferably canalphones) wtih 4ft cable or longer so I can listen to Japanese radio online at work. Also a wireless card for my laptop so I can use the internet at home ‘cos this is getting ridiculous. Remind me, aight?