Study Lapse

I've had a little bit of a lapse in my posts this past week. However, I'm back up and ready to keep at it! In order to make the posts more accurately spread out, I'm going to put a "fake" time stamp on the posts. This means that starting with Day 10, the actual posted days are inaccurate, but I feel it will be better spread out in that way. I'll be making up all of last weeks posts with "fake" timestamps. I'm hoping that by next week I'll be back on track again!

がんばりましょう！

Day 11: Anki

JLPT 4 Kanji List:
上 - top
下- bottom
東 - east
左- left
中 - center, middle
生 - origin

Everyday Phrases:
ラジオ - radio
お手洗い - bathroom
部屋 - bedroom
明後日 - the day after tomorrow
一昨日 - the day before yesterday
コンピューター - computer

Day 10: Anki

This is a make up done 7/29/09.

Upon opening Anki, it listed 45 cards due today with an additional 5 new cards for the JLPT Level 4 Kanji and 58 cards due and 10 new cards for the Everyday Phrases deck.

左 - left
先 - before, ahead, precedence
下 - down
プロボクサー - pro boxer

Day 9: Anki

Words that I remember:

ホーク - fork
居る - to be
読む - to read
飲む - to drink
流し台 - sink
大 - big, large
雨 - rain

Day 8: Human Japanese

Chapter 12
This chapter dealt with the question marker か. This was pretty simple since I already knew about the function of か and how it turns a sentence into a question when added to the end of the sentence. They also introduced そう in this lesson which means "that way/so" as a way to respond to a question. The third thing introduced was 何 (なに / なん) meaning "what."

Chapter 13
This was a vocabulary lesson titled "A Stroll Through Town."

Vocabulary:
店 - みせ store, shop
レストラン - restaurant
スーパーマーケット - supermarket
スーパー - supermarket (abbr.)
ゆうびんきょく - post office
えき - train station
コンビニ - convenience store
こうばん - police box
ぎんこう - bank
-や - store suffix
パン - bread
パン屋 - bread store (bakery)
やさん - person who works at store
ほんやさん - bookseller

き - tree
くさ - grass
はな - flower
かわ - river
みずうみ - lake
やま - mountain
そら - sky
たいよう - sun
くも - cloud
あめ - rain

じてんしゃ - bicycle
バイク - motorized cycle
オートバイ - automatic bicycle (motorcycle)
くるま - car
たくしい - taxi
バス - bus
バス停 - ばすてい bus stop
電車 - でんしゃ train
ちかてつ - subway
みち - road

Chapter 14
We switch back to grammar in this chapter. HJ talks about the は particle.

Vocabulary:
わたし - I/me
あなた - you
ともだち - friend
ひと - person
そのひと - that person
-たち - pluralizer
-さん - polite name suffix

Normally, any noun in Japanese can be interpreted as one or many. For example 犬 could be one dog or many dogs. However, there's a special case for people. You can use たち after a type of person to indicate more than one. For example せんせいたち means "the teachers."

In the case of さん, you would attach it to any person's name. However, for friends and coworkers (in the same company), you need not use the さん suffix as coworkers are considered a sort of family.

"You" is not commonly used in Japan. More often, the Japanese use the persons name instead of a pronoun to refer to "you." あなた is usually used when you don't know the person's name or you just met them and forgot their name.

And then the lesson goes into the conjugation of です which I already know.

Cultural Note: Trains
In this lesson note, it talks about how the Japanese commute to school or work via the extensive train system. Bicycles are seen all over Japan as a way to get to trains, and some commuters even have two bikes, one to get to the train, and one waiting after getting off to get to their workplace.

The biggest train in Japan is the JR and the fastest is the bullet train (しんかんせん) that can travel at 300 km/h. As a tourist, you can purchase a train pass that lets you ride any of the trains for an unlimited amount per day until it expires.

Day 8: Kanji Practice!

The words I did today were:
社 - シャ office
空 - そら sky
読む - よむ to read
外 - ガイ, ゲ outside

Day 8: Anki

Words that I remember:
読む - よむ to read
畳 - たたみ tatami
床 - ゆか wooden floor
お箸 - おはし chopsticks
障子 - しょうじ sliding paper door
冷蔵庫 - れいぞうこ refrigerator
布団 - ふとん futon
カウチ - couch

Day 7: KeyHoleTV

After talking to someone on palabea, I started watching KeyHoleTV. It's a program that lets you watch free live Japanese TV. I think it's good listening practice, but unfortunately I haven't been picking up very much. Hopefully as I learn the sentence structure and gain a larger vocabulary, I can watch the TV and learn some new words!

Reflecting on the week, I definitely think that I need a solid grammar base in order to progress with my listening, writing, and speaking skills. Hopefully with gaining a new friend online who is at an intermediate level of Japanese, we can converse and study Japanese together.

Study Plan Day 8-14

I want to implement some study plan changes based off of some new web applications I found and the difficulty level and speed at which I'm learning Japanese in each of the learn Japanese resources I'm using. For this new week, I'll plan out each day separately.

Also, I've decided to discontinue including the Beb and Alex podcast with my formal studies. I'll still listen to their podcast, but I won't try to seriously focus on the new vocabulary or grammar. Mostly, I'll just listen for the fun of listening.

Everyday: 20-30 minutes
0. Review previous day's post
1. Anki review (BOTH decks)
2. Write Kanji from the JLPT 4 list
3. Katakana Practice

Day 8:
4. Chapter 12 through Cultural Note of Human Japanese (Write and +Anki)
7. Review Past JPod101 lessons (esp. grammar points)

Day 9
4. Chapters 15-18 of Human Japanese (Write and +Anki)
7. 100 grammar points Chapters 1-2

Day 10
4. Chapters 19-22 of Human Japanese (Write and +Anki)
7. 100 grammar points chapters 3-4

Day 11
4. Chapters 23-24 of Human Japanese (write and +Anki)
7. 100 grammar points chapters 5-6

Day 12
4. Chapters 25-Cultural Note of HJ (write and +Anki)
7. 100 Grammar Points chapters 7-8

Day 13
4. Chapters 28-31 (write and +Anki)
7. JPod101 Lesson 7

Day 14
4. Watch drama(s) or anime(s) of choice
5. Write about the drama or anime
6. Reflect on the week, revise as necessary

Day 6: お風呂 and 温泉 as well as everyday phrases

Between Chapters 10 and 11, the HJ lessons included an intermission with a cultural note about おふろ and おんせん. I already knew most of it from watching the Happy Hour Japan videos, but I liked how HJ talked about some of the history and included images of the private showers and public baths. The basic gist is that you must clean yourself before going to a public ofuro and you must strip all the way down. Virtually all the testimonials say that the onsen is a fantastic experience and recommend to go to one even if you're uncertain about the nudity factor.

Chapter 11 was common phrases that I often hear in anime and jdrama.
いってきます - I'm leaving! (lit: I'm going and coming back)
いってらっしゃい - see you when you get home! (lit: go and come back)
ただいま - I'm home! (lit: right now)
おかえりなさい - welcome back!
おやすみなさい - good night
しつれいします - Excuse me (lit: I'm being rude / I will commit rudeness)
さよなら - goodbye (for longer absences >year)
では - dewa well then...
じゃ、また - see you later

The chapter finished off with the "m" and "y" rows of Katakana.

Day 6: Dialects

Osaka
Lesson 7: Asking someone out in Osaka dialect
I definitely found the いかへん really odd sounding. Not only that word, but the inflection sounds so alien when we switch from Tokyo dialect to Osaka dialect.

Vocabulary:
買い物 - かいもの shopping
おもてたけど (Tokyo) or おもててんけど (Osaka)- I was thinking of....

Kansai
I decided to make this post all about dialects, so I've skipped Lesson 8 for now to look at their Fun Friday episode on the Kansai dialect.

ぼちぼちえんな - not bad
どうでっか - how's it going? (どうですか)
あかんわ - bad!

Miyazaki
Lesson 10: Miyazaki Dialect (prefecture southeast of Kyushu island)

To say "how are you?"
元気 に しちょっち？
元気 に しちょる？
元気 やじ？

To say "long time no see"
Standard dialect: さいきん ぜんぜん みてないけどどうしてるの？
Miyazaki dialect: さいきん　ぜんぜん　みちょらんけん　どんげん　しちょっと
あ、げんき　に　しちょるよ

Other common Miyazaki dialect things:
さみ instead of さむい (cold)
こせん instead of でしょう (isn't it)

Sometimes the verbs end in CHAWA or CHAGA.

Day 6: 家の漢字

Today, Anki gave me mostly the kanji for the house that I didn't remember and also a couple of words from the 応空春や story on JPod101.

Words I remember:
家 - いえ house
屋根 - やね roof
お風呂 - bath
お風呂場 - bath room
窓 - まど window
冷蔵庫 - れいぞうこ refrigerator
台所 - だいどころ kitchen
椅子 - いす chair
居間 - いま living room
床 - ゆか hardwood floor

Day 6: Making up day 5 みゆの父ははるやさんがすきじゃないです

That is to say, Miyu's father does not like Haruya-san.

今日は土曜日七月十八曜日。ええと、Journey to JLPTによおこそ六日！！
Today is Saturday July 18.  Um, welcome to Journey to JLPT day 6.

My grammar was probably completely off on both counts (the title and the above sentence), but I feel like it's important to try to actually use the Japanese I know.

As you can see from the title after the last Jpod101 lesson, Miyu's father hates Haruya.  He talks with a co-worker about the problem in this lesson (lesson 5).

Vocabulary
お子さん - おこさん (someone else's) child
実は - じつわ as a matter of fact, by the way
娘 - むすめ daughter
息子 - むすこ son
早く - はやく early, soon
孫 - まご grandchild
本当に - ほんとうに really, truly
二番目 - にばんめ second
独身 - どくしん single, married
変 - へん strange, odd, eccentric (na adjective)
考える - かんがえる to think about, to consider (class 2 verb)
心配 - しんぱい worry, concern (na adjective)

Grammar point:
-たくない
This is the suffix for the negative of -たい (want) and forms an -i adjective.

Formation:
Take the masu form of a verb, subtract the masu ending and add たくない.
For example:
食べたあい - want to eat...
食べたくない - do not want to eat...
行きたい - want to go...
行きたくない - do not want to go...

Points to consider:
To get the adverb out of an adjective, just take off the -i and add -ku

-ばんめ - suffix for ordinal numbers:
四番目 - 4th
なんばんめ？ - ?th


Lesson 6: The Plot Thickens
This is where Miyu's father and his coworker discuss meeting up and playing golf with him and his son. There was a lot of new vocabulary and grammar in this lesson. 

Vocabulary:
有名（な）- famous (na adjective)
ゴルフ - ごるふ golf
ゴルフコウス - ごるふこうす golf course
プロゴルフアー - ぷろごるふぁあ pro golfer
苦手 - にがて poor (at), weak (in), dislike (of)
パター - ぱたあ putter
サラリーマン - salaryman
上手 - じょうず skilled, good at
呼ぶ - ようぶ to invite, to call, to call out (class 1)
プレーする - ぷれえする to play
教える - おしえる to teach (class 2)
歩く - あるく to walk (class 1)
下手 - へた unskilled, poor at
週末 - しゅうまつ weekend
走る - はしる to run

末 - まつ end
男 - なん man
次 - じ next
次男 - じなん second son
長男 - ちょうなん oldest son
三男 - さんなん third son


Grammar point: nominalizers
We use の or こと to the dictionary form of a verb to nominalize (make it into a noun) a verb.

So...
私は走るのがすきです。
I like running, I like to run.

Otherwise, it's not grammatically correct:
走るがすきです。
I like run.

Day 6: Making up Day 5 (grammar)

I joined palabea.net several months ago, and I dug it out of my inbox and started browsing around to try and talk to people in Japanese. I'm still waiting for replies to the threads I've posted, but I found some great videos in the video lecture section of the site.

The lecturer FXDL2007 introduced どれ and どちら (eng: which) in the first video that I watched. The difference between the two is that どちら is used for a choice between two objects whereas どれ is normally used for a choice between more than two objects.

- 私の切符はどれですか。= わたしのきっぷはどれですか。 = which is my ticket?

In his other series he introduced:
どう - how
- お仕事はどうですか = おしごとはどうですか = how was work?
- とても忙しいです = とてもいそがしいです = I'm very busy.

どこ - where
- 車はどこですか。= くるまはどこですか。= where is the car?
- 駐車場です = ちゅうしゃじょうです = it's in the parking lot.

いつ - when
- あなたの誕生日はいつですか。あなたのたんじょうびはいつですか。= when is your birthday?
- 一月一日です。 = いちがつついたちです。＝January 1st.

誰 - だれ - who
- あの男性は誰ですか。= あのだんせいはだれですか。=who is that man?
- 彼は鈴木さんです = かれはすずきさんです = He is Mr. Suzuki.

何 - なん - what

Miscellaneous vocabulary to add to Anki:
誕生日 - たんじょうび birthday
携帯電話 - けいたいでんわ mobile phone
駐車場 - ちゅうしゃじょう parking lot
難しい - むずかしい difficult
お仕事 - おしごと work (polite)

One of the reasons why I like his video series is because he hand-writes the Japanese in live time so I can see how the kanji and kana are written by a native Japanese rather than than the computer-generated stuff which is unnatural as far as handwriting is concerned.

Day 5: Anki

I feel as if every day, my Anki review with the JLPT 4 kanji gets worse and worse. I remember fewer and fewer words while Anki introduces me to more and more. Perhaps I'll try practicing my recognition of kanji using KanjiPop and maybe with the new study plan where I'll be writing the kanji, I'll be able to retain it better.

Kanji that I remember:
上 - うえ up, above, top
学 - ガク education, study, science
左 - ひだりleft
小 - ちいさい small, little
先 - さき front
間 - カン, ケン interval, space
出 - でる exit, leave
生 - いきる birth

Day 5: Implementation of new study plan!

Another late night. I wanted to get started on Day 5, but it's so late that I think I'm only going to be able to finish Anki and maybe one or two JapanesePod101 lessons. And if I do finish the lessons, I probably won't write them up until the morning.

I'm excited about the new implementation, except that now that I look at it, the amount of things I need to accomplish seems a bit unwieldy especially for the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. I'll see how it works through these two days (Day 5 and 6) and maybe revise it again on Sunday.

Also, I think I'll start off each day with the day of the week in Japanese and maybe some phrases from the previous day, just so that I can actually use what I'm learning in a meaningful way (rather than just keeping it on note cards and Anki).

I've been thinking about going back to the older lessons of Japanesepod101 to the Nihongo Dojo series since it seems to be more structured and for those newer to Japanese. I think I'll go back to that series once I've completed lessons 1-25 of season 4.

Day 5: Making up Day 4 (Kanji Practice)

I have no idea why this came out backwards. Anyway, I got some proper gridded paper with little rectangles to put in the furigana. I didn't practice as much today, but I got in some pretty tough kanji here.

I practiced:
結婚する
緊張する
流し台

Day 5: Making up Day 4 (Beb & Alex)

In today's lessons from Learn Japanese with Beb and Alex, they had a video of the days of the week which I had learned just yesterday from the Human Japanese course.

Lesson 4 was on counting and they did talk about telephone numbers and age too.
I'm not going to list the numbers since I've already learned them (from Human Japanese too).
電話 - でんわ telephone

電話番号を教えてくれる？
でんわばんごをおしえてくれる？
Can you tell me your telephone number?

何歳ですか？
なんさいですか？
How old are you?

しつれ
That's rude

I've also learned that you can say 電話番号はなんですか？from the Japanese for Busy People (Volume 1). Although I bet the one that Alex and Waka-sensei introduced is more polite or natural.

Lesson 5 was about asking someone out (not necessarily romantically).
ひま - available, free
行かない - won't you go. (かない - won't you)
のみ - drink
いっしょに - together (already learned)
しょくじ -
ちょっと - a little

一緒に映画を見に行かない？
Issho ni eiga o mini ikanai
Do you want to see a movie with me ?

一緒に美術館に見に行かない
Issho ni bijutsukan ni mini ikanai
Do you want to go (see) to an art gallery with me ?

一緒に散歩しない？
Isshoni sanpo shinai ?
Would you like to go for a walk ?

I wish the lesson explained the grammar a bit more, but I guess that's why I added the grammar session into the new study plan. I like how this lesson also reinforced some of the vocabulary I had previously learned from my other study materials like 久しぶり. Overall, I'm going to have to look up the phrases elsewhere to break down each of the sentences.

Lesson 6 was about ordering coffee
This lesson included natural conversation between a customer and a waiter.

いらっしゃいませ - welcome (used by shopkeepers/restaurant owners to greet customers)
あいてます - open, available, free
おせき - seat (polite)
どちらでも - anywhere

ごちゅうもんは　よろしですか？
is the order ok? Are you ready to order?

かいしこまりました
yes sir/ma'am (used by the waiter after taking your order).

Overall, I feel like this session with Beb and Alex wasn't very productive and I don't feel confident with adding any of these phrases to Anki until I've verified their translations.

Day 5: Making up Day 4 (Anki)

I was adding in the Anki phrases from last night and thinking over my new study plan, and I thought it would make more sense to add both the kanji and furigana on one side and then the translation on the other for the Everyday Phrases list.  Before, I only had the kanji-inclusive version and the furigana on the other side.   This way I'll be exposed to the kanji, but more importantly associated the sound with the meaning instead of the kanji image with the meaning.

I only did 17 cards or so today.  The ones I remember are:
台所 - kitchen
お手洗い - bathroom (polite)
トイレ - toilet (less formal)
出身 - hometown

Study Regiment 2

After considering all my research on different topics and reading about new and improved things, I've decided to change some things around in my study regiment. No doubt I'll change it as I improve and gain new habits. The new study regiment will begin with Day 5 (not including the make-up sessions).

Everyday:
Katakana practice

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
o. Review the previous day's post.
1. Anki Review (List: JLPT4 Kanji)
2. JapanesePod101 (2-3 lessons at a time)
3. Write about the podcast lessons
4. Add to Anki (List: Everyday Phrases)
5. Japanese grammar (100 Grammar Points)
6. Write about grammar
7. Practice writing JLPT 4 Kanji

Optional:
KanjiPop review
Read Manga

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
0. Review the previous day's post.
1. Anki Review (List:Everyday Phrases)
2. Japanese with Beb and Alex (1-2 lessons)
3. Write about lesson.
4. Add to Anki (List:Everyday Phrases)
5. Human Japanese
6. Write about HJ.
7. Add to Anki (List: Everyday Phrases

Optional:
Other Japanese Podcasts +Anki
HJ Review
Practice Writing Kanji

Sunday
0.Review the Past week
1. Write Kanji from Everyday Phrases list
2. Watch Japanese Drama
3. Study Cultural Notes
4. Write about Cultural Notes & Drama
5. Reflect on the week and revise as necessary.

Sunday was not changed at all since I haven't yet implemented it. Also, I thought that a grammar lesson was important to include. While I only found two grammar websites, I think they should suffice for now. Also, I think that for the JLPT 4, it's more important that I know how to write the kanji for the 100 or so characters that I'm required to know. However, the 800 or so vocabulary phrases that I'm required to know is only for spoken language recognition and not for writing purposes, so that's why I took away the Everday Phrases writing practice and put the JLPT 4 kanji practice in instead. Also, I think it's important that I learn the Katakana syllabary, so I added it to my everyday practice until I finally learn it. Because it's a rather simple matter, I won't be blogging about my katakana progress.

Day 4: Making up Day 3 (Anki)

This day's Anki was from the JLPT 4 Kanji deck. The problem with coming from my background is that I know what most of the characters mean, I just don't know how they're pronounced and if I do, I only know one pronounciation.

Let's see the ones I remember this time:
左 - left
生きる - life
間 - space
後 - back, behind
小 - small, little

I think I reviewed 17 and learned 5?

Day 4: Making up Day 3 (HJ)

This chapter of Human Japanese (chapter 10) focused on times and seasons. Some of the vocabulary was already familiar to me such as 今日 (きょう today), 昨日 (きのう yesterday), and 明日 (あした tomorrow). This was a pretty long and in-depth lesson I would say just because of how comprehensive it is in all the different types of telling time and frequency.

Day time:
一昨日 - おととい the day before yesterday
明後日 - あさって the day after tomorrow
今朝 - けさ this morning
よる - night
ゆうべ - last night

Days of the week:
日曜日 - にちようび - Sunday
月曜日 - げつようび - Monday
火曜日 - かようび - Tuesday
水曜日 - すいようび - Wednesday
木曜日 - もくようび - Thursday
金曜日 - きんようび - Friday
土曜日 - どようび - Saturday

Week/Month time:
先週 - せんしゅう last week
今週 - こんしゅう this week
来週 - らいしゅう next week
先々週 - せんせんしゅう the week before last
再来週 - さらいしゅう the week after next
先月 - せんげつ last month
今月 - こんげつ this month
来月 - らいげつ next month
先々月 -せんせんげつ the month before last
再来月 - さらいげつ the month after next

Months of the Year:
-がつ suffix for month of the year
一月 - いちがつ January
二月 - にがつ February
。。。
四月 - しがつ April
。。。
七月 - しちがつ July
。。。
九月 - くがつ September

Year Time
去年 - きょうねん last year
今年 - ことし this year
来年 - らいねん net year
お年 - おととし the year before last
再来年 -さらいねん the year after next
まい - "every" suffix
毎日 - まいにち every day
毎週 - まいしゅう every week
毎月 - まいつき every month
毎年 - まいとし every year

Seasons:
冬 - ふゆ winter
春 - はる spring
夏 - なつ summer
秋 - あき autumn
お天気 - おてんき weather
いい - good
公園 - こうえん park

This lesson reminds me of what I heard in Happy Hour Japan about how the Japanese talk in the elevator and the safest route of conversation is the weather. In HJ, they explain to use the ね confirmation marker so that the sentence isn't so authoritative when you say something like: いいおてんきです。The chapter finishes off with learning the "na" and "ha" rows of katakana syllabary. I have yet to learn all the katakana still, but hopefully it will be easier than learning hiragana.

Day 4: Making up Day 3

JapanesePod101 Season 4 Lesson 2.
Miyu, Ozora Haruya's girlfriend, is introducing her boyfriend to her mother.

久しぶり - ひさしぶり long time no see
つまらない - boring, uninteresting (used to present gift)
彼氏 - かれし boyfriend
犬 - いぬ dog
母 - はは mother
あら - oh, ah
こちら - this person, this direction

Overall, this lesson was pretty basic for me, the only words I didn't recognize were つまらない and ともうします (call, I am called ____ ). Although, I think つまらない might have been introduced in Kevin and Aaron's quickstart Japanese course.

Lesson 3
みゆの母 asks some questions about Haruya.

-才 - さい number marker (years old)
パパ - ぱぱ papa (used by children and girls)
いくつ - how many, how old
一人 - ひとり one person
兄弟 - きょうだい siblings
来る - くる to come
ご家族は - ごかぞくは your family? (how many people are in your family?)

I really like how this lesson enforced some of the vocabulary learned in the first episode where Ozora Haruya introduces himself. Things such as しゅっしん (hometown) and ことし (this year) came up.

Lesson 4
The father comes home in this episode. This episode was a little harder for me to pick up by just listening.

ぼく - I, me (for men)
俺 - I, me (for men, more casual & vulgar than 私 or ぼく)
ずっと - by far, all along, the whole time
お嬢さん - おじょうさん daughter, young lady
金 - かね money
それとも - or, either
一緒に - いっしょに together
欲しい - want, wish (adjective)
君 - きみ you

私はカナダに行きたいです I want to go to Canada
-たい indicates want to do something which is added when taking off the masu stem and adding the たい.
so in this case: いきたい means to want to go

They mentioned the -たい ending very quickly at the end of the lesson, but I think it's an important grammar point to consider. They also said to look back at the Nihongo Dojo series to review the classes of verbs. I might consider finding those in the future.

Day 4: Slacking

I guess I've been slacking a bit on updating the blog. I have been still listening to JapanesePod101, but I just haven't made a post about it.

So this week's Day 3 and 4 (Wednesday and Thursday) will have to be made up (as in I'll have to catch up on those two days, not that I'll have to create false entries about them).

On another note, I learned a few things from my friends. 自転車 - じてんしゃ bicycle and ＿＿＿＿は　日本語でなんといますか - how to you say ______ in Japanese.

The next few posts will be make-up of Day 3. Any other days I can't make up will be made up on Sundays as those are my "fun" days.

Day 3: Japanese Learning Communities

I've been looking to join some sort of Japanese language learning community. There are several forums that I'm considering becoming active in, and then there's also this thing I found called Smart.fm . It's a study tool where people create vocabulary lists, etc. It seems like Anki, but more social to me. I think it's amazing how many Japanese language resources there are out there on the internet today. There are also a lot of sites for penpals through Skype/IM. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough to talk to a native Japanese speaker or even just talking to any English-speaking stranger over Skype as I'm a bit self-conscious. However, in the future, I'll consider using these tools to help further my learning and exposure to Japanese.

Day 2: Kanji Writing Practice

Yup, so that's my kanji practice. I'll probably get around to obtaining proper, gridded paper, but for now I just doodled the kanji on a 4x6 index card.

お箸 - おはし
茶碗 - ちゃわん
時計 - とけい
お風呂 - おふろ
部屋 - へや

In the future I might consider doing more and/or adding it to another list on Anki to test my writing skills and skills and remember how to write the characters. I'm still new to Anki so maybe there's a way to change the front and back sides? I'll have to look into it.

Day 2: Learn Japanese with Beb and Alex

I started off with the first lesson which was fairly basic. お早うございます, 今日は, 今晩は, and お元気ですか were the main points of the first lesson.

The second lesson was about "basic questions" which was, again, very basic. 初めまして, です, エゴの先鋭, どこから北の.

They also talked about jobs such as:
お医者 - おいしゃ doctor
弁護士 - べんごし lawyer
学生 - がくせい student
会社員 - かいしゃいん office worker

I'll be adding all the words to Anki so that I can become familiar with the kanji.

Day 2: Some Thoughts

I've decided to break up the daily posts into manageable sections.

Also, I found ispeakjapanese last night and it is my favorite podcast/vlog so far. They talk about a bunch of cultural points to be aware of as a gaijin in Japan.

I added all the household vocabulary from Human Japanese onto Anki and "learned" 10 new words on Anki.

I think I might also add some voice recordings to the blog perhaps. They'll just help me to see how much my accent has improved and whatnot.

Off to a bad start (Day 1)

In my time zone it, it is past Monday technically. However, I'm making this post as if it is Monday and I will be making another one during the day after I wake up tonight. I wasn't able to make a post during the day today because of higher priorities, which means I'm off to a bad start in terms of studying Japanese on my own.

I was informed today by my friend that she could give me some Japanese study materials when we next met, so maybe I can add that to my study regiment. Also, I found my copy of Japanese For Busy People I today so I might also take chapters out of that to include into my daily routine. I also took a look at MIT OpenCourseware for Japanese. While the resource looks nice and I was thinking about following along with their syllabus, there are lots of holes that can't be filled while not in a classroom setting, so it's not likely that I'll pursue that course.

Anyway, 行きましょう！

Anki (JLPT Kanji)
I had already started Anki a few days ago, so my word count on the JLPT 4 Kanji is pretty high now. While I understand what most of the characters mean due to my Chinese upbringing, it's difficult for me to remember how to write and pronounce them. What I find most difficult about the kanji is the volume of different readings (On-yomi and Kun-yomi) that make me wonder how long it takes people to read or learn to read in Japanese. For now, I'll try to memorize one kun-yomi and one on-yomi reading. Of course, more would be better, but realistically speaking it would be hard for me to memorize them all.

After my Anki session of 9 kanji (5 new, 4 review), these are the kanji that I remember:
間 - on-yomi: ケン, カン kun-yomi:あいだ
見 - on-yomi:キン(?) kun-yomi:みる, みえる
食 - on-yomi: ?? kun-yomi: たべる
人 - on-yomi: ジン kun-yomi: ひと

JapanesePod101 Lessons
I'll be starting off with the Beginner Season 4 Lesson 1. I'm only doing one lesson today because of how late it is. I might try to make up for it by doing three or four lessons tomorrow.
The lesson was with OUZORA Haruya-san. He did a monologue introducing himself to the audience.

This is the vocabulary from the lesson, I'll be adding these to Anki.
皆さん - みなさん everyone
彼女 - かのじょ woman, girlfriend
結婚する - けっこんする to get married (class 3 verb??)
会う - あうto meet
緊張する - きんちょうする to feel nervous
名前 - なまえ name
プロボクサー - pro boxer
今年 - ことし this year

出身 - しゅっしん person's origins (hometown, country)
足立区 - あだちく Adachi ward
千葉県 - ちばけん Chiba prefecture (Kanto Region)
成田市 - なりたし Narita city
東京都 - とうきょうと Tokyo prefecture

Other vocabulary words not explicitly stated in the lesson:
父 - ちち father (casual)
居る - いる to be (for animated objects), to exist
母 - はは mother (casual)

So this is how I would introduce myself:
こっにちわ、ライラです、しゅっしんは　アメリカです。OR
こっにちわ、ライラです、アメリカしゅっしんです。

Human Japanese
I have already started using HJ for a few days now and I am on Chapter 9 now. This chapter is　easy since it's about numbers. However, the last chapter had a huge vocabulary section so I will be reviewing that as well.

Things I didn't previously know:
The hundreds! (百)
ひゃく
にひゃく
さんびゅく
よんひゃく
ごひゃく
ろっぴゃく
ななひゃく
はっぴゃく
きゅうひゃく

The thousands! (千)
せん
にせん
さんぜん
よんせん
ごせん
ろくせん
ななせん
はっせん
きゅうせん

Ten thousand! (万)
One hundred million! (おく)

I realize this post is exceedingly long. However, that is to be expected. After all, each day will consist of several lessons and several new vocabulary words to go along with those lessons. I'm anticipating that this lesson will be among the shorter posts for the days. Perhaps I will break up the posts into different sections so that they're more manageable to read through.

Study Regiment

I will be self studying every day for at least two hours.

The JLPT site recommends 150 hours of studying Japanese in order to take the JLPT level 4 exam. In order to ensure that I understand the material, especially since I am not enrolled in a structured course, I will aim for 250 hours of Japanese study. In this way, I should be fairly competent at reading and speaking within two months and after over 200 hours of studying. Much of my time will probably be spent re-learning forgotten terms as well as trying to gain a better understanding of grammar points. Every two weeks I will try to engage in a conversation of sorts with any one of my Japanese-speaking friends and perhaps play a round of shiritori.

Each day will consist of kanji review, listening to podcasts, reading kana from manga or online, and/or studying particles and grammar.

Based off of what I read online in forums and blogs, the listening section is the most difficult section. In order to increase my listening comprehension and automaticity, I will listen to Japanese radio, audio blogs, or dramas on a regular basis.

Here's my weekly schedule:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
o. Review the previous day's post.
1. Anki Review (List: JLPT4 Kanji)
2. JapanesePod101 (2-3 lessons at a time)
3. Write about the podcast lessons
4. Add to Anki (List: Everyday Phrases)
5. Human Japanese
6. Write about HJ lesson
7. Add to Anki (List: Everyday Phrases)

Optional:
KanjiPop review
Practice Writing Kanji
Read Manga

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
0. Review the previous day's post.
1. Anki Review (List:Everyday Phrases)
2. Write Kanji from Everday Phrases list
3. Japanese with Beb and Alex (1-2 lessons)
4. Write about lesson.
5. Add to Anki (List:Everyday Phrases)

Optional:
Other Japanese Podcasts +Anki
HJ Review

Sunday
0.Review the Past week
1. Write Kanji from Everyday Phrases list
2. Watch Japanese Drama
3. Study Cultural Notes
4. Write about Cultural Notes & Drama
5. Reflect on the week and revise as necessary.

Optional:
Anki Review (Everyday Phrases list)

Personal Thoughts:
I'm not sure if I'll be motivated to get up and follow this strict plan. I think my motivation will come from being able to listen and understand little bits and pieces of the drama that I'm watching on Sundays. While the motivation to keep to the schedule will be difficult, I have been keeping myself exposed to Japanese language for the past few days and learning new words sporadically. Whether or not I can keep that up is really up to myself. However, I will try to focus mainly on this for the rest of the summer.

Why I Am Starting "Journey to JLPT"

For those of you that don't know, JLPT is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It's a good gauge of how proficient one's Japanese reading, writing, and comprehension skills are. The purpose of this blog is to document my process learning Japanese with aim for passing marks on the JLPT Level 4 (easiest). While I may not officially confirm my proficiency by taking the exam, I will take practice tests to see how far I've progressed.

This blog is purely for my own documentation purposes. If you, as a reader of the blog, happen to find it helpful, that will be a bonus. I will gladly answer any questions you may have concerning my process in learning Japanese. If you have questions about Japanese grammar or vocabulary, I will answer to the best of my ability. However, please understand that I am only a beginner and that you should consider asking someone more fluent in the language.

Please note that this will be one of the few posts about myself. This post is for anyone who stumbles upon this blog and wants to know why it was created or what it's about.

A Little Bit About Myself
As with many students new to Japanese, I started out with anime and manga about five years ago. I was exploring manga on the internet and got frustrated with having to wait for the scans to be translated and released. So I thought the easiest way to gain access to a whole new world of manga would be to learn the native language.

At the time, I wasn't seriously trying to learn the language as I was very young and it was more of a hobby and I hadn't even mastered the kana until a few months ago. My interest in learning the language had died down as I had my schoolwork to focus on. I continued to read manga and watch anime, but only on rare occasion. Instead, I moved toward the Jdrama scene where I encountered similar frustration with waiting for new fansubs to be released.

So that's where I am now! I sort of officially decided to self-study a few days ago. There are many reasons why I want to study it, but mainly I love to learn new languages and understand foreign cultures (I had studied a tad bit of Russian and a fair amount of French) and it would be nice to understand what I'm hearing in Japanese dramas. Not to mention that I have three friends who are essentially fluent in Japanese and it would be a shame not to utilize their abilities to help me in my journey.

I would also like to say something about my background. I am American by nationality but my parents are both immigrants from Taiwan. When I was young I was sent to Chinese school to study mandarin Chinese. Although my Chinese is quite poor, I still retained my listening skills as well as some reading skills, so many Japanese kanji are easy for me to pick up.

Alright, so enough of my ranting. I'll try to make an entry for each day that I study. I'll be including which resources I used and a summary of what I learned from each resource as well as different kanji that I learn each day. The next post will be about my classroom regiment--a study plan for the rest of the summer.

じゃあまたね！