にほんごの ゴール に

In the next few weeks of my study of Japanese, I've got another set of goals that I'd like to work on in order to focus my effort.

Goals:
I would like to really work on my intonation throughout various aspects of the Japanese language.  First, I need to make sure to really focus on learning the intonation of vocabulary when first learning the word, since I tend to make a habit of the wrong pronunciation if I start off wrong.  In addition, I would like to make sure not to raise the pitch of the end of a question, since this is an English phenomenon and isn't reflected in Japanese.  I do my best, but I often forget, especially when I'm focussing on the vocabulary. In terms of listening, I would like to work on increasing the speed at which I process the incoming information, since I occasionally get caught up in one part of the sentence and then misunderstand or forget other parts.

Activities:
In order to work toward these goal, I intend to listen carefully to the way in which my 先生　pronounces each vocabulary word in class, and to then repeat these to myself when studying.  In addition, I shall continue to go to the Japanese Language table every week to further build up speed of speaking and recognition.  I will continue to shadow every week, although I will be more modest in my goal this cycle, aiming for two ten to fifteen minute sessions per week.  While watching the little anime that I do, I will focus on extracting vocabulary and phrases that I understand and then shadowing these parts of the anime.

I'm really happy with my progress in Japanese so far and I can't wait to do more!

にほんごの ほんせい いち

Now that I've completed the first major part of Japanese 101, it's about time to reflect on how much progress I've made toward the goals that I set out a couple of weeks ago.  As far as the pronunciation of the r- and g- mora goes, I believe that I made substantial progress toward a more natural pronunciation.  My r- group now sounds much closer to the Japanese pronunciation rather than a mi of English r's or l's.  The g- moras are also more natural sounding.  In addition, double consonants no longer sound like a full break, but I still occasionally forget and unintentionally break the word.  By this point I also feel pretty confident about which vowels are dropped, although it seems that there are some words where both pronunciations are acceptable, and this occasionally confuses me.  When doing listening exercises, I am now able to better distinguish the breaks in words, although I listening is still probably one of my weaker points.  In making progress towards these goals, I think that my previously set out activities were pretty helpful.  I went to the Japanese Language Table every week（おいしいです）, which was a fantastic opportunity to speak in an informal environment and get more comfortable with the language.  I've also made some good friends there and enjoy fumbling around with expression that we don't quite know how to say yet.  Shadowing was also helpful, but way more time consuming than I had originally thought.  I ended up only doing one or two sessions per week, instead of my intended three, but they still proved really useful.  Shadowing anime is fun（いいです）, but is also really hard (むずかしいです）, and I was only able to catch certain key phrases that occurred often, or that I had learned in class.  Overall, I feel that I kept up with my activities reasonably well, even though I probably should have dedicated more time to shadowing.

Having been really nervous about the oral midterm this morning, I think that everything actually went pretty well.  I definitely paused and said um a couple of times, but it was rather minimal and I don't think that it detracted too much from my speech.  The parts of the conversation that I was able to prepare went really well, and I was able to express a lot about myself and Princeton's campus.  There were a couple of words that I think that I may have mispronounced (としょかん）, but I think that I did well on the whole.  I made an effort of being an active listener (ああ、そうですか, いいですね, etc.) and tried to interact as much as possible with my parter and すずきさん.  I made several small errors (such as saying どれ rather than これ) but there weren't any major missteps.  However, listening proved to be a bit problematic, as I misunderstood one of すずきさん's questions, and spoke about the wrong day.  Anyway, I think that I presented myself well, but also learned some places to work on in the future.

あきやすみが だいすきです！わたしは　げつようびから　どようびまで　キャんぷに　いきます。

キャンピ

わたしは　よく　キャンピングを　します。　わたしは　OA Leader　です。　らいしゅう　キャンピに　いきます。ALTTって　いいます。　キャンピは　おおきいこうえんで　ありまあす。キャンピが　だいすきです。

This was on OA Frosh Trip 2011.  It was totally epic.

The lakes of the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, near the border with Canada.

The Colorado River in Utah.  This might have been a bit posed...

サイクリング

わたしは　げつようびから　どようびまで　サイクリングを　します。

So as a freshman last year I decided that I wanted to try out the Princeton cycling team.  I had run cross country in high school, but I ended up getting injured so many times that it wasn't worth it anymore.  It was all for the best, though, since I really do love cycling.  Last year I raced the Spring season, which was awesome.  The picture below is from my first race, at Rutgers.

Here I am in New York City, at a race hosted by Columbia.

This is the finish line camera in New Hampshire.  I actually ended up getting 2nd place in my division!

 Anyway, cycling is a great way to burn off the stress of school, and I try to go almost every morning.  It's a great sport and I can't wait for the season this upcoming spring.
サイクリングが　だいすきです！

きょう

きょうは　ビジー　です。　わたしは　ごぜんろくじよんじゅうごふんに　おきました　 そして　しちじはんに　あさごはんを　たべました。　バナナと　シリアルを　たべまして。　はちじから　くじまで　アイクリングを　しました。　そして　じゅういちじに　ぶつりがくのじゅぎょうが　ありました。そして　じゅうにじはんごろ　ウィルソンで　ひるごはんを　たべました。そして　さんじさんじゅっぷんに　にほんごのじゅぎょうが　ありました。ろくじから　しちじまで　にほんごのテーブルが　ありました。いま　ねます！

ばてる

(;´ρ`) ｸﾞｯﾀﾘ
わたしは　ばてる　です。いま　ねます。
But I don't really mean physically tired.  I'm mentally exhausted.  I really do love all of my classes this semester, but they're beginning to take their toll.  My engineering classes have a decent amount work, but aren't really that bad.  I'm taking a class on European Culture, which is really interesting, especially since we get to read a huge variety of both literature and history, but, as I said, we read a lot.  My physics class, unofficially known as Death Mech, lives up to its name.  Finally, Japanese is great, and I'm really excited about how much I've learned in the last four weeks, but it's also quite a time commitment.  I think that this week is just particularly bad though.  And, in any case, Fall Break is right around the corner.  In the end, all the work will definitely be worth it, since I really won't have another chance to learn so much cool stuff in such a short amount of time.  だいがくが　すきです。

きょう

きょうのあさ　わたしは　ろくじはんに　おきます。　しちじはんに　あさごはんを　たべます。　はちじじゅうごふんに　サイクリングを　します。　じゅういちじに　じゅぎょうを　いきます。ごじはんじ　ばんごはんを　たべます。だいがくが　すきです。

Forming Sentences

わたしは　きのうの　ばん　デスノートを　みました。　わたしは　きょうの　ひる　にほんごを　べんきょうします。わたしは　あした　としょかんで　えいがを　みます。
So, I'm really not sure how grammatically correct these sentences are, but I've made it to the point where I can really start forming more flexible sentences about things that I do in my everyday life.  This is where the language really becomes interesting, because we move beyond having a formula where you can change out a word or two, and instead can mix and match words and structures to suit our intention.  I can't wait to expand my vocabulary and really start speaking Japanese.

P.S. I've never really watched anime before, but some of my friends convinced me to try it out since I'm taking Japanese, and it's really quite good.  Shadowing off of it is hard, though.

Goals in Japanese: Part 1

I've got a lot of goals for this semester in Japanese, but right now I'll list some specific ones that pertain to improving my pronunciation and listening comprehension in the next couple of weeks.

Goals:
In the next few weeks, I would like to be able to correctly form each individual mora, working especially hard on the r- and g- groups.  In addition, I need to work on the correct way to fit a double consonant into a word so that it doesn't sound like a full break.  I would also like to further familiarize myself with all the times when vowels are dropped, so that I don't pronounce all words exactly as they are written instead of how they should be.  Finally, I need to work on distinguishing when one word ends and the next begins during listening, so that I can more easily make sense of longer sentences.

Activities:
In order to complete the above goals I intend to do Shadowing for about 10 minutes three times a week.  I will also attend the Japanese language table practice speaking and listening in an informal environment.  In addition, I will shadow one episode of anime per week to gain experience with a wider variety of speaking styles, beyond those posted on Blackboard.

Hopefully these activities will help me make progress toward my goals in the next few weeks.