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.