S2 Day 2 Grammar Review

Since it has been about a year since I've studied any Japanese, I'm reviewing grammar points for today so that I can write sentences!

I'm starting off with Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese.

I went through the chapters through the i-adjectives.  I keep forgetting how to conjugate those ones.

There's also a publicly available Anki set for Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese which is an excellent study supplement!

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: 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 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 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: 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

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?

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.