Down to the real meat of the lesson, beginning to really memorize hiragana. My text breaks it down by groups of ten(ish). I used Anki flashcards and played a hiragana matching game with the first ten kana. I also did a worksheet by hand, and filled up a sheet of paper writing each one over and over. Hopefully, muscle memory will help me remember the stroke order. I'm planning to run through the flashcards a few more times, maybe play the game, and do the worksheet once more tonight. Then I'm going to set it aside and give my mind a break.
I really want to zoom through this stuff, but I know memorization is something that takes time.
If I can do the worksheet and flashcards tomorrow without looking at my chart, then I'll move on to the next ten. Otherwise I will just keep repeating these ten until I get them down. Must remember that a house built with a poor foundation is inherently unstable. I won't build my 'language house' on sand!
Working on: あいうえおかきくけこ
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Lesson Three
I know, I know, I told myself I was done for the day. This stuff is addictive though, especially when the alternative is studying for my upcoming Child Psychology exam. =P
I'm through all of the hiragana except the combo and dakuten. I was actually under the impression that I was supposed to have memorized all of the kana at this point, but apparently this chapter was mostly about pronunciation (sweet, having started memorizing, I'm ahead of the game!). The ら row is kind of hard, by the way, because I don't know if I am pronouncing it correctly. I think one of my cousin's wife is fluent in Japanese, maybe she won't mind letting me know.
Next covered was the dakuten. A dakuten kana is a hiragana with a tiny quotation mark to the right of it. Apparently, that little mark changes the sound of the hiragana. Interesting. The little mark is called a dakuten. Oooh, the は row gets two different kinds of dakuten.
Also, took a quick look at combo hiragana, and ran through all the pronunciations.りゃ and the like were still tough. I also struggled with the dzya column (having trouble making that one show up correctly now).
Onto the reading and writing tomorrow. For now, it is definitely bedtime.
I'm through all of the hiragana except the combo and dakuten. I was actually under the impression that I was supposed to have memorized all of the kana at this point, but apparently this chapter was mostly about pronunciation (sweet, having started memorizing, I'm ahead of the game!). The ら row is kind of hard, by the way, because I don't know if I am pronouncing it correctly. I think one of my cousin's wife is fluent in Japanese, maybe she won't mind letting me know.
Next covered was the dakuten. A dakuten kana is a hiragana with a tiny quotation mark to the right of it. Apparently, that little mark changes the sound of the hiragana. Interesting. The little mark is called a dakuten. Oooh, the は row gets two different kinds of dakuten.
Also, took a quick look at combo hiragana, and ran through all the pronunciations.りゃ and the like were still tough. I also struggled with the dzya column (having trouble making that one show up correctly now).
Onto the reading and writing tomorrow. For now, it is definitely bedtime.
Lesson Two
I spent a lot of time throughout the day yesterday working on memorizing the first five kana:
あ (a)
い (i)
う (u)
え (e)
お (o)
I think I've got them down pretty well to read/say, though I still mix up the first and last sometimes. Got to keep practicing!
The next lesson was about patterns in hiragana. Like na, ta, sa, ka, a row or na ni nu ne no column. I know, I know, I should have written that in hiragana. I haven't quite figured out how yet. So far I've just copy-pasted kana, but I will look that up after the lesson. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have it figured out somewhat. The next part of the lesson is about exceptions to the pattern.
I'm probably just going to repeat this last lesson over a few times to get it firmly in my head. Lots of memorization to do here. I wonder if there is a Japanese hiragana song, like the ABCs.
EDIT: Found a cute alphabet song for hiragana, so I've been listening to it. It is slightly addictive. Also! こんいちわ！ I can type in Japanese, so no more copy pasting the kana from my lesson. :P Of course, I don't really have much vocab yet. Back to the ABCs... or rather the あいうえおs.
あ (a)
い (i)
う (u)
え (e)
お (o)
I think I've got them down pretty well to read/say, though I still mix up the first and last sometimes. Got to keep practicing!
The next lesson was about patterns in hiragana. Like na, ta, sa, ka, a row or na ni nu ne no column. I know, I know, I should have written that in hiragana. I haven't quite figured out how yet. So far I've just copy-pasted kana, but I will look that up after the lesson. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have it figured out somewhat. The next part of the lesson is about exceptions to the pattern.
I'm probably just going to repeat this last lesson over a few times to get it firmly in my head. Lots of memorization to do here. I wonder if there is a Japanese hiragana song, like the ABCs.
EDIT: Found a cute alphabet song for hiragana, so I've been listening to it. It is slightly addictive. Also! こんいちわ！ I can type in Japanese, so no more copy pasting the kana from my lesson. :P Of course, I don't really have much vocab yet. Back to the ABCs... or rather the あいうえおs.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Lesson One
I'm currently reading through TextFugu (and listening to Japanese Pod 101), and it suggests starting a blog to log (hehe) learning. That is what this is, though I can't promise I'll actually keep up with it. I've never been good at journaling.
The title supposedly translates to "Cool Japanese Phrase", but I'm almost certain that it isn't quite right. I used a Japanese dictionary, but using a dictionary certainly doesn't mean that the usage is correct. ;)
To get on with it, I just completed the first two sections of TextFugu, so my initial thoughts are on the alphabets. I already knew that there were four “alphabets” in Japanese, but I only vaguely understood them before. Well, I still only vaguely understand them, but it is less vague than before. ;)
I don't quite get the purpose of hiragana and katakana yet (if basically all vocab is made up at least somewhat of kanji?), but I'm hoping it will become clearer as I learn.
I'm not surprised that I won't be learning romaji in this textbook. I took Arabic lessons from a family friend for about 6 months while I was in high school, and she insisted that we learn the alphabet first, then learn words written in the alphabet. Writing an Arabic word with the English alphabet was a thing to be avoided at all costs. Certainly feels tougher to begin with, having to learn a whole new alphabet and new words all at the same time, but I bet it makes learning much easier overall.
The title supposedly translates to "Cool Japanese Phrase", but I'm almost certain that it isn't quite right. I used a Japanese dictionary, but using a dictionary certainly doesn't mean that the usage is correct. ;)
To get on with it, I just completed the first two sections of TextFugu, so my initial thoughts are on the alphabets. I already knew that there were four “alphabets” in Japanese, but I only vaguely understood them before. Well, I still only vaguely understand them, but it is less vague than before. ;)
I don't quite get the purpose of hiragana and katakana yet (if basically all vocab is made up at least somewhat of kanji?), but I'm hoping it will become clearer as I learn.
I'm not surprised that I won't be learning romaji in this textbook. I took Arabic lessons from a family friend for about 6 months while I was in high school, and she insisted that we learn the alphabet first, then learn words written in the alphabet. Writing an Arabic word with the English alphabet was a thing to be avoided at all costs. Certainly feels tougher to begin with, having to learn a whole new alphabet and new words all at the same time, but I bet it makes learning much easier overall.
Kakkoii Nihongo Kanyougo
I've spent a lot of time attempting to learn a second language through the years. The closest I've yet come is that I'm semi-fluent in ASL (though the sentence structure still throws me sometimes, and I have a lot of vocab left to learn). Took two years of Spanish in high school, but like many people all I really remember is hola, dónde está el baño, and tacos. ;)
Out of all of the languages I've tried to learn, I just keep coming back to Japanese. I just really love the sound of it, it is a beautiful language to listen to (and look at!). Previous times, I've stopped learning before even really starting because it doesn't seem as useful as Chinese or Arabic, or I'm afraid that people will think I just want to learn it because I occasionally watch anime.
Well, forget other people and usefulness! The only way I'm going to learn another language is if I actually enjoy it (hence why I'm semi-fluent in ASL, I LOVE to watch people sign). Goshdarnit, I'm going to learn Japanese.
Out of all of the languages I've tried to learn, I just keep coming back to Japanese. I just really love the sound of it, it is a beautiful language to listen to (and look at!). Previous times, I've stopped learning before even really starting because it doesn't seem as useful as Chinese or Arabic, or I'm afraid that people will think I just want to learn it because I occasionally watch anime.
Well, forget other people and usefulness! The only way I'm going to learn another language is if I actually enjoy it (hence why I'm semi-fluent in ASL, I LOVE to watch people sign). Goshdarnit, I'm going to learn Japanese.
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