Lena, Makiko, Takeshi

Not much to say (but I have been studying kanji, reviewing grammar, listening to podcasts--w00t) except it's good to have a study buddy, conversation partner, and e-pal. I recommend having all three of these things, in fact. They are good for different reasons:

1) The Study Buddy

It's nice to have a fellow slogger. If you surround yourself with only natives (as ideal as that would be--ha!) you may get lonely/frustrated. Motivating your friend is also a good way to keep yourself motivated, and you can turn each other on to new study tools, funky vocab, and commiserate about kanji.

2) The Conversation Partner

To get over the shyness hump. Find a sweet and friendly native speaker to help get you acclimated irl. Do anything together, as long as you speak at least some Japanese.

3) The E-pal

It's not like there isn't enough reading material around, but processing quickly and typing prompt replies is good practice. Trade links, copy paste to ask questions, and maybe learn some cute emoticons www

So, don't suck--get some friends ;D

Revised Edition of An Integrated Approach...

The other thing I saw at the story today (but did not buy) was the new version of An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, which now has a separate (pretty, blue) workbook (that appears to be mostly the same stuff from the unrevised book--rip off? Can't say for sure since I didn't have the original, which I own, on hand to compare...), but comes with an audio CD (!!)

This is what makes me the most envious of people who are buying it now as opposed to back when I got it (and barely used it. I have a feeling, though, that I will mop up some grammar and vocab in there after I get through my new beef-up program of awesome):

Conversation and reading have been updated to reflect the current language style and trends of Japan. To facilitate greater in-depth learning, grammar note and grammar practice have been expanded with more learning points and explanations.

More explanations are SUCH A GOOD IDEA for this book, and of course, current language style and trends just makes me sad because that is definitely what I NEED. Will I go insane and eventually buy the updated version? I don't know. We shall see........

Drill books made especially for me

First up, 文法が弱いあなたへ　(which translates to something like, "To you whose grammar is weak" ha!) This one is pretty basic, but it's also all in Japanese. I'm convinced that you can't underestimate the value of not only fresh review material, but completely immersive material. How not to suck? Easy, grate off that coat of rust and polish up. This book is the grating. It's going pretty quickly, but that was kind of the point. Confidence building in an immersed environment. It's even just so great to have drills to do, especially since there is an answer key (although since when does 乗る　take を? That makes no sense to me, nor to the Internet as far as I can tell.) I'm really happy so far, and picking up useful vocab that I somehow had missed up to now. 運動靴? Got those for X-mas, yo. Also, having this review workbook to plow through gives me some time to likewise plow through my JLPT 3 and 4 kanji. That should get me plenty prepped for...


these 初級から中級への日本語ドリル (From beginner to intermediate Japanese drills) books. Pretty much heaven, I have to say. Brand new as of this past October, they were written specifically to address concerns such as those I express here PRACTICALLY EVERY TIME I POST. Mainly, that I feel stuck in intermediacy (which they seem to think is actually more like beginnerland--even worse) and am unsure how to proceed. This duo of workbooks seems like the perfect bridge. One for grammar, one for vocab. Note the COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME (holy shit lol) and also the fact that the complementary colors they chose are MY FAVORITE COLORS. Again, books made for me. How can I thank The JapanTimes enough? I'll write again when I get into them a bit more. Right now I'm just happy they're here.

Total spent? About sixty dollars. (Thanks go to Mikael.) TOTAL ZEN STUDY PEACE OF MIND? Priceless. Rock 'tf on.

Checking out the JLPT stuff

Well, I guess since I never really planned on taking the JLPT, I never really took a serious look at any of the study materials available. Today I started checking out JLPT Study site, and it seems like I would pretty much be able to pass the 4th level without any problem (which, I mean, you'd better hope so after a freaking BA ;_;) although I need to review transitives and intransitives.

I'm thinking about buying some grammar and JLPT books. If I do drills and stuff, I think my Japanese friends would be able to correct them, so it would give us something to do in Japanese when we meet up. Not that I don't like どんどんドリル (and in fact, it's great for vocab/kanji practice), but I'm never going to improve my grammar to the point where I can use complicated patterns in speech, unless I work on them more.

POP Jisyo

I know, I'm late to the party, but what a great party.

What POP Jisyo is, essentially, is...extreme laziness. I don't have extensive experience yet, but it's basically a supremely useful pop-up dictionary that let's you mouse over words and get not only translations, but kanji info, etc. Quite fancy.

I don't see it replacing jisho.org, but it's a healthy supplement. It doesn't always parce perfectly, so you have to pay attention, but you always have to pay attention when using a dictionary, so only the WAY in which you pay attention has changed.

I look forward to using this more.

How to not suck #42: Go to grad school in Japan

That's my plan, anyhow, if I can afford it. I've been looking at the interpretation program at Daito Bunka University quite seriously, talking with the guy who runs it, etc. Money is the only obstacle. They said I could be on campus as early as THIS April (barring, you know, being a fucking poor person ;D)

Anyways, I'm back in this thing for real now. The deluge of work won't end, but I've decided neither will my BURNING DESIRE for Japanese fluency. It's a face-off, for sure.

Been looking around for study buddies again. Actaully, I'm in a café right now waiting for one. I arrived obscenely early, as usual.

Also, HOLY CRAP it's SO MUCH EASIER to type in Japanese on a Mac than on a PC. It just works, all the time, without any weird button pressing. I canceled the "spotlight" shortcut in favor of a input language shortcut, which is pretty great.