How to not suck at Japanese

Aiming where exactly

2011-01-02T16:07:00.001-08:00

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what exactly it is I aim to do. The more I study kanji, the more the gap between what I can recognize and what I can actually pull out of my brain and put to paper widens. In the scheme of things, though, writing by hand is not a very important skill. Really, it's sheer vanity. It's something to brag about. Of course, things like your address are probably good to know, things like your friends names, maybe, if you like to handwrite letters, but the truth is most of the time you want to write (not type!) something, you can just look up the characters on your favorite (no doubt electronic/web) dictionary and copy them. Which yes, at that point it would be good for you to know the procedure for writing them, but then I'm sure there are also people who are able to do away with the entire writing thing entirely and just focus on recognition. It would be typical to point out that even Japanese people have trouble remember exactly how to write some of the characters they certainly KNOW, but it would also be true. Even my pro Japanese tutors would look stuff up.

And then there's just the whole challenge of projecting your personality on a mindset that is so different. The image gets distorted as you manage to acclimate to different bits of etiquette more elegantly than others. Being polite is a full-time job; if you can only do it half-way then you still feel inconsiderate and rude half of the time, or at least concerned. And it's harder if there are certain things you just don't agree with, sort of like attending church as a non-believer. I'm attending Japan as an American. It's not like we can't get along; we do, of course. I have so many cool friends here; it's really not so bad. I'm just trying to explain the fringe anxieties off the top of my head. Do you study Japanese in an attempt to become Japanese or in an attempt to show them who you are?

I think working on faster, smoother, more accurate consumption will not be hard. Producing is the hard part. Sure you have to commit to both, since it's always easier to do anything in your native language. Doing anything a foreign language is like walking up a steep hill when the next block over is flat. What makes it worth while? I actually like walking uphill, for the exercise. I guess foreign language is the same.

In Japan

2010-06-28T05:36:00.001-07:00

This blog is sad now, because it has nooooo attention.

But this blog is happy: beyondthepuddle.blogspot.com

or at least happier.

I'm happy because I'm in Japan. Going to try to learn a lot while working at the same time.

JLPT Study so far

2010-04-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm trying to get caught up on kanji, mostly. That and vocab is where I hurt. I retain grammar the best, although it's been a while since I wasn't straight up reviewing, so we'll see how I fare. I think I can do it.

Also, the choice to go with N3 is the right one. I did example test questions for N5 (which I never doubted was too easy) and N4 (which I figured would be doable) and they were both a piece of cake, pretty much. I think the only times I messed up were times where I just hadn't paid enough attention.

One thing I need to be careful of is to not get too sucked into Anki. Flashcards are great, but in the end, flashcards are going to make you good at flashcards, and not Japanese. (Of course, people say that about the JLPT, too, that studying for the test only really makes you good at taking the test, or that it only tests your ability to study for a test...)

I have a LOT of textbooks. They all have example sentences and some of them have drills. Cross studying (out of order, heavens!) goes totally against my "chonology tic," but in this case the most important is really to just cover material. I definitely err on the overly systematic approach, so it's time to just study whatever is relevant.

Also, it's time to study. This blog has been giving me some grief lately. Some of the posts are super valuable (to me, at least) but some of them are just drama or boring. I might clean it up. I don't really want to start a new one just to "get serious." I think I can do that here :)

世間体

2010-04-10T09:44:00.001-07:00

This word means "appearances."

From the dictionary on my Macbook:
for the sake of appearances 世間体のために
that would look bad/be bad for my reputation それでは世間体が悪い

But these kanji readings seem kind of crazy to me. せけんてい
せmakes sense since it's the same as 世界
but けん is pretty different from かん like 間 is more commonly pronounced
and てい is different from たい like 体 is usually pronounced.

It's almost like the vowels for the whole word shifted to match the first one.

Anyways, it's hard for me to remember, but then I realized that if you get a little philosophical it's not so hard, based on the meanings of the kanji.

Think of 世 as world, 間 as a length of time, and 体 as body/phyisical.

So appearances are only valid in this life, the brief time your physical form (appearance) is on this planet.

あの世ではどうなるかな。

#makingshitup

Anyways, I hope that taking the time to write this post will help me remember the word.

I've been trying to think of what I can do to make this a little more functional for other people, since it's called How to not suck at Japanese, but really, as I think I have said, the key is just to take the time. Me writing whatever I write in here is meant to show that. Of course, I don't update all that often, but I'm working on it :X I HAVE been studying kanji and vocab in Anki. Semi holding off on grammar until I get the N3 books I ordered (textbook junkiiiiiie).

I always feel more compelled to study while out of town

2010-04-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow the change of scenery drives me. Or maybe I feel like I have something to prove.

Anyhow, I've been studying from NJ. Working from/on Anki flashcards from/for Kanji in Context vocab. So, not much to report, except that I'm trying to get on track. I can't decide if I'd like to study in the morning or after work, but I'm beginning to think mornings. The only thing I don't like about studying first thing in the morning is that I don't want to stop. When I get tired, or I feel like I have accomplished what I would have liked to for the day, then I stop; stopping to go to work, as much as I love my job (literally, not sarcastically), is sort of depressing.

For this week I think may try out studying in the evening, though. I have been on the East Coast, so I feel like my potential for getting a swim/work-out in early in the morning is high. If I can get in that habit and make it work, I think it will be a good thing. If it's not ideal (which it may not be, food-schedule-wise) then, I will switch back to studying in the morning. Gotta give it a shot.

I'm back, finally + JLPT goals revealed

2010-03-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

God, what was wrong with me anyways? I'm trying really hard. I decided to take a look at what exactly I have to learn and make a more long term view. Basically, I think I can pass the N1 exam after three years if I actually apply myself and quit slacking like a poser. In fact, I know I can pass the N1 exam after three years if I actually apply myself and quick slacking like a poser. So that is great. It's also very empowering to think that way. After all, it's me who is running this show.

I think in order to be properly prepped I might as well take the other exams, too, with the exception of N5. N4 I could probably pass now, but I'm not sure if I could do N3 by December. Level 2 was ~1,000, where Level 3 was ~300 as far as kanji goes. So if it's really right between there, I might actually be EXACTLY ready for N3 when the test happens in December. In fact, if I signed up to take that one, it would be pretty hefty motivation. Better to challenge myself? I would hate to sign up and then fail : / Theoretically, I could start with N4, skip N3, and do N2 the next year, the way the old schoolers did it; that might fit my schedule better, but by December, N4 will be really easy for me.

I guess I have until at least July to figure this out. I can see how I'm doing by then. I should be way further along so I can see how I want to split it up. It's funny, I've never much been interested in the JLPT, but somehow now I feel like it's the right thing to do.

Anyhow, I think the next three years, I will take an exam each year. That is the executive summary. N4/N3, N2, N1. That means that by 2012 I should be pretty freaking awesome at Japanese, but anyways, it's day by day here so I gotta get studying.

Being a quitter

2010-02-16T20:41:00.000-08:00

I've decided I've had enough of both of my Japanese classes, which is unfortunate, but also....if you haven't noticed I haven't been studying lately. It's really awful to feel like you have to cram homework rather than enjoy yourself just...working through things and having fun.

It's making me feel like a quitter, especially in light of all the other things I've started and stopped over the past several months. It's not like I'm quitting Japanese, I just need to keep trying till I find a method that is what I want. I was settling into something really good right before I decided to try these classes, so I'm going to just keep exploring on my own.

I need to translate some more songs!! My guitar lessons are going well, so I need to make sure I can still sing はっぴいえんど!

I dunno. There is so much I want to do and I feel like spending six hours a week in class is keeping me from them. If I quit I just have to promise myself I will spend my time wisely and I think I can do that.

Another weekend goes by with no new translation : /

2010-02-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy one. And I did do all my kanji homework for tomorrow.

Mrrf.

Homework

2010-01-31T15:23:00.000-08:00

Mmmm as it turned out this weekend was exactly as busy as I thought it would be so I'm not sure if I'll get a translation in or not. I need to make sure I am taking the time to properly completely and study my homework for the classes I am taking or there is no point, right? Thus we'll be studying kanji this afternoon...

Translation: 朝　ー　はっぴいえんど

2010-01-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

This is one of their songs that get me every time. Original lyrics.

Morning

Morning leaks in from a gap in the curtains
and gently wraps you up as you lie there.
The light plays on the white wall and you're so sleepy
it makes you look beautiful. Now inside me
morning is passing through. I hang my head and
lived alone. I didn't see anything.
I didn't hear anything. I have the feeling that
the times up to now are like ancient history. Your awake but sleepy voice; you open your eyes a little, smiling. Without replying, I breathe in.
I'm warm. Outside the window, there is winter.

There are some little doubts about the above. I waffled a bit on the subject, like always. I don't want to get into it, though; just want to listen again.

Update: Actually, I know that 顔をそむく can't possibly mean what I said it does, the way the particles are. Got a little glib. I dunno what it should be, though. Do you betray your face? I wonder if it's just a difference in the figure of speech. If anyone knows I would be interested to find out. Ok wait I just updated it. I found the verb 背ける and it makes WAY more sense. Glad I looked that up. The kanji is the same as 背くbut it seems like the character has changed since the time the song was written (one of those).

Update: As I'm singing I realized I totally whiffed on 冬. Heh, it's "winter" not "snow." Fixed.

One week of class down

2010-01-17T20:52:00.002-08:00

I guess I should've have written this sooner, but my second week of class starts tomorrow. LET'S REVIEW:

Kanji 2

I think I'm going to like this class. When I went last week there were 5 people (including me) all doing our best to remember the kanji we were supposed to have learned in the last class (which I did not take, but one would freaking hope that after a B.A. I would know SOMEthing, for the sake of our higher education system, if not for me). As it is, there were some that I did not know, and although I thought I had reviewed up to the point where we would be in 2, I missed about...6 chapters. Ugh. So I'm going through them. Luckily it is a lot of stuff I recognize, even if I can't necessarily pull it out of thin air with a pencil. Good review is good after all.

Intermediate 4

I have some problems with this class and they don't stem from what the 3 of us (including me) did as far as material (easy grammar, though it maybe—I really need the vocab work), but as far as learning to pronounce things. Not to say I'm not happy I signed up, but I'm just really worried about picking up horrible pronunciation habits. They teach this super basic elementary-reading-speak that just irks me. It feels like the equivalent of spoken romaji, honestly. Let's see if I can demonstrate in writing.

We worked on あげる、くれる、もらう and the honorific/humble equivalents. A sentence like:

お母さんは妹に本をあげました。

turns into:

お母さんは？妹に？本を？あげました。

NOTE THE QUESTION MARKS AND SPACES.

Not that it really sounded like a question per se, but it was the easiest way to indicate the annoying upswing in pitch on the end of every particle with a little pause as if the grammar had to digest. I understand this might be the way you teach 5 year olds how to read, but we're not 5 and we want to sound like really human beings. Japanese 5 year olds speak it alllll the time so they even out. We mostly speak English and come to school to speak Japanese, so give us the real deal and don't baby us.

/end vent

I dunno. Maybe it's selfish and I don't mean to sound like an arrogant jerk, but one thing people have always noted about my Japanese is that I have decent pronunciation, so I really don't want to mess it up by getting this drill-speak in my head. In fact, I'm a little terrified of it. Hopefully if I supplement with lots of native exposure I'll be ok.

*worryworry*

Translation: かくれんぼ　ー　はっぴいえんど

2010-01-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend I decided to do かくれんぼ, but next time I'm definitley doing 朝. I realized I should have probably done them in the reverse order after I started, but all these songs are so great that it doesn't matter too much. This one will be harder to learn to sing because the melody is so meandering, but that is part of why I love to listen to it, so I'll do my best :) Japanese lyrics are here.

Hide and Seek - HAPPY END

The cloudy sky's early twilight
I'm making a cloud of smoke puffing on a cigarette [1]
Unfortunately the wind has completely died down
I'm drinking hot tea.

I'm trying to say "I want you" or something
A lie like a sigh slipping out the back [2]
is like a flower petal.
I'm drinking hot tea.

There was no thawing of snow etc.
The left over time in a ovalish warped coffee cup shivers. [3]
I'm drinking hot tea.

Oh, don't say anything. Yes, if you just be quiet it's better.
Because I can't hear your words.
The snowy landscape is outside. Inside the two of us are playing
hide and seek.
You smile as if it's painted on. [4]
I'm drinking hot tea.

[1] The parallel is so much more beautiful in Japanese.

[2] 滑り落とすis a tricky word that doesn't seem to want to come up in any of my dictionaries. Obviously the line after this one is very connected to it, but I'm not sure I got this metaphor right. And as usual, it sounds horrible in English. Luckily, no one expects you to (god forbid) sing or even really think about these songs in English. This is just a reference and it helps to sing the song if you have an idea of what you're saying.

[3] 瞬間: You can clearly hear him say とき here, so I'm guessing that this is just (now) outdated kanji. In the dictionaries I tried it came up as moment/second/instant, which you could also use here, I suppose. I really like the idea of "dregs of time" which I think is what they are getting at here? This is a really pretty song. I hope I understand it correctly : /

[4] This is a really a key line and it's hard to say whether I translated it right here. It seems like it should be this bitter interpretation, since they are playing hide and seek with their feelings and having a rough time of it (at least the way I'm seeing it). He could also be ADMIRING her smile, though. That said, it might not even be "her" smile. *sigh* Anyways, yes, so you could also say something like, "The very picture of a smiling face..." but I just don't get that vibe. In English you wouldn't really compliment someone by saying their smile looks like in a painting, so I'm not sure how I would translate it if it were a positive thing. If anyone has any insight into this line, please let me know :)

Translation: 暗闇坂むささび変化　ー　はっぴいえんど

2010-01-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

I sort of want to start a HAPPY END cover band. How cool would that be? These songs are so fun to sing :) This one has been my project for the weekend. On the tribute CD, Happy Parade, this song is sung BEAUTIFULLY by　つじあやの with ukulele :) Lyrics are here.

The Giant Flying Squirrel Monster[1]

The place is Tokyo, Azabujuuban,[2]
just then the early afternoon.
In the dark hills, an outburst of crickets chirping.
To my shining eyes in my black coat [3]
In broad daylight, appeared a monstrous apparition.

Flying squirrel,
Flying squirrel,
Oh-oh flying squirrel.

Butterflies go flap flap flap
Bats go whoosh whoosh whoosh
A suspicious cloud streams by
To my ears in my black hat, from a torn mouth
comes a worn out voice saying, "You never write..." [4]

Flying squirrel,
Flying squirrel,
Oh-oh flying squirrel.

If I try to remember,
in grandma's old stories, since I've met one of these I should say [5]
"Let me hear one or two of your tales of woe"
and take its hand even if it's just a dream [6]

Flying squirrel,
Flying squirrel,
Oh-oh flying squirrel.

Notes:

[1] This is a more or less literal translation. As far as I can tell, though, this song really is about a fying squirrel "monster."

[2] Thank god for name and place dictionaries.

[3] This was probably the hardest line in the song (well and the one about 黒ソフト, but once you decide the first one the second one works the same way. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be more metaphor or he was actually just describing the clothes he was wearing. I mean, I could be entirely wrong. I think it's the に that really through me off, since that should indicate direction, not location. Unless it's with ある, at least. See? It's hard. I'm not sure.

[4]草疲びれる　This was pretty interesting. It took me a while to figure out this word, even though I knew right away what it meant because of the kanji for 疲れた (which means "tired"). Unless the dictionaries I use are mistaken, this: 草臥れる is the current kanji spelling of the word. Another of the dictionaries only seems to register the kana くたびれる.

[5] 以来, here, through me off. It's supposed to mean "since" in a time sense, not a "because" sense. I almost want to assume they botched the kanji, because 依頼 (also いらい) means "request," which totally makes sense, but I would have to change the rest of the verse, too. It'd be something like ,

If I try to remember
in grandma's old stories, the request from one of these when you meet is,
"Let me tell you a tale of woe or two..."
and it takes my hand even though I'm dreaming.

Orrr....something. But you get the idea. It would change from you offering to help it out (to save your skin!!) to it requesting your help (because it's a sad lonely spirit). It's hard because I understand the situation and even have a general idea of how a yokai encounter works, but I just can't get through this grammar.

This sort of runs into point [6] by now, but that も is sort of hard to parse. Normally も is something like "as well" or "too" but in this case I don't think he's been talking about any other "pipe dreams" (which I refuse to translate as pipe dreams because...well...we just wouldn't say it. I could maybe do it as "hallucination," but that seems a little too far from the original.) I guess I just took some liberities in this case and said "even though" because that seems to be the sentiment they are trying to convey. Like, "It's probably a dream, but this is what happened, so...what can I say?"

UPDATE:

This past week a friend from Twitter sent me some notes on this blog post! I was very surprised and excited by this development :)

The main gist is to confirm my hesitations in [3] where I wasn't sure what to do with the black clothing mentions. The context is murky enough that it seems like you could go either way, but this translator went with the metaphor, which maybe does make more sense. Anyhow, I highly recommend checking out the notes!!

Dates and Classes

2009-12-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

I had no idea you could write １９８５年　（千九百八十五年）as 一九八五年.

Literally, no idea. How come I haven't come across this before? Was I just not paying attention? Maybe it was rash to be a skeptic of this kanji textbook (Bojinsha's Basic Kanji Book) that we are using for class.

Yes, I tested into Intermediate 4 and Kanji 2, so I did buy MORE textbooks. Honestly, though, Situational Functional Japanese seems pretty great now that I'm spending some time looking at it. Doesn't look like they baby you on the kanji front, either. Going to try and get through at least some of the material they covered in the previous class (the stuff contained in the books I bought, since we are starting part-way through each of them) but I don't think I'll get to it all.

I'm really strong in grammar, but weak in kanji/vocab, it seems. This makes me want to just start over every time I study, but I can't do that...have to press forward. I'm really excited to have a completely objective idea of how I'm doing (the teacher's). Just gotta keep trying.

Which class(es) will I take?

2009-12-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Took the placement test today. I FEEL like I rocked it (which I realize is a very un-Japanese thing to say), but I don't want to congratulate myself too much until I know what they think. What I'm hoping for is Practical Communication and Reading Comprehension, but I'm guessing that is too much to hope for given the neglected state of my kanji knowledge.

What I'm NOT hoping for is landing in an intermediate class, just because I'd sort of like to avoid buying more textbooks. I'm almost wondering if I should just really focus on listening and kanji for a while (i.e. this semester) and then sign up for Spring classes. (That way the timing won't interfere with my beginning wushu, but that said, I have a feeling Monday, Tuesday might be a bit much in a row when I'm just starting anyways, and a Monday night Japanese class seems like the right way to start the week.)

I mean, if I could get halfway to 2級 by April, I think I could test into those classes. Halfway is only 500 kanji and I know a bunch already. That said there is always the depth vs. breadth debate. I don't want to cram only to realize I didn't learn much at all. (Something, anything; something, anything!)

Come to think of it, maybe that mantra is the way I should look at these classes, too. So what if I have to buy MORE books and review a bit? If it'll get me to where I want to be then that's what I'll do. Just waiting on their recommendations...

Their kanji courses go

0-100
101-370
371-500

I'm guessing I'm somewhere in the realm of number 2. I'm guessing I could safely sign up for number 2, which is definitely shameful, ugh...(after all these years) but what are you gonna do? Take Practical Communication and Kanji 2, I guess. I just really like the Kanji in Context books that I JUST got. Hrm hrm hrm. Craving classroom interaction while simultaneously craving an empty room.

Know what is more productive? STUDYING. It's been a while :X

Crap, has it really been a month?

2009-12-27T23:11:00.000-08:00

I can tell you that for some of that time I was studying.

And then for some of that time I was not.

I did just start this today, though: http://www.murakamiculturemap.com

So that is good. Also, I'm strongly considering (pretty much decided on) signing up for actual Japanese classes. I haven't been in a classroom in just over 3 years, at least not to learn. I was inspired by this blog post, which I heard about via @whiterabbitjpn; as you may have guessed, that is White Rabbit Press's Twitter account—exciting!

Anyways, I e-mailed Sokogakuen about classes today and they responded quite promptly with a link to a placement test type dealie, but the site has apparently gone down. Hoping there is an alternate I can take soon.

This, I think, is the only way I will be able to build speaking confidence. So...I'm gonna give it a shot.

Shadowing Update

2009-11-29T09:27:00.000-08:00

それから、韓国語がわかります。

I can say that a lot better than I used to be able to. This week I'm doing the first half of Unit 2, intead of the whole thing. As the sentences get more complex it will be better to do more repetitions...

Man, I was going to attempt another song translation today, but I have a lot of stuff to study. Might be better to do it tomorrow? We'll see. There is a crisis of laundry building. I wish I had a bigger laundry bag so I could just take everything to the laundromat at once and read Haruki Murakami allllllllll afternoon...

Lazy Friday

2009-11-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

Not sure if I'm going to have the stamina for 敬語の金曜日 after all...

but I got a lot of other stuff done! And then I read comics ;)

Thanksgiving Check-in

2009-11-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

Just had a super productive and wonderful study session. Maybe it's because I had the day off and had the time/energy, but really, I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping at it all week. I feel like I'm improving, which is always good motivation.

Shadowing

Unit 1 is getting a little old, but I've noticed that I can keep up better with phrases like 私は十七日です。(That sentence looks really funny, btw—she's talking about her birthday.) As expected, repetition is the key.

Kanji

I feel like I have the vocab down for this lesson, which is awesome. I guess that means I could add some of the harder vocab to the mix if I wanted. The plan was to go through all the plain ones first and then go back and sweep for the ones marked as not immediately essential or specialized afterwards...

Grammar

Now that I am sinking my teeth into 初級から中級への日本語ドリル（文法）I am lovvvvving it. They give you really important pointers, like how when you're using 〜たまま the person doing both the action that is finished with a continuing state and the current action has to be the same person. This is actually the kind of grammar advice I REALLY need, so I'm thrilled. Also, since they have grammar explanations in Japanese AND English (and Chinese and Korean) it's really easy to pick up vocabulary like 過去否定形 (past negative form [of a verb]).

Casual Listening

Well, it's casual. I have to say this is the thing that I feel ok about dropping if I'm sleepy or dont' have time, but tonight I did listen to a story about a lady who lives with a crow. Whoo!

That's all. Just a progress report. I'm actually pretty sleepy now, for whatever reason. I kinda wanted to play some videogames, but not sure I have the attn span ;)

An actual study session -- wao!

2009-11-23T20:17:00.001-08:00

Check it out—I studied for about two hours tonight. Here is what I did:

Reviewed Unit 1 of the Shadowing book

There are ten lessons with ten SHORT dialogues. That sounds like a ton, but Unit 1 is the most basic stuff. Like I said, I'm pretty happy just confirming the patterns I know, right now. Plus there are some thing that don't exactly roll of the tongue and this is a great way to drill them. 失礼します will never be easy to say : / お先に失礼します。It's too bad, because this is one thing you will say ALL THE TIME if you work in Japan. It's really too bad that the bar to fluency is set so high right off the bat. しつれい is just...difficult as hell. HELL.

That and it's nice to have this book really moving your tongue. Some listening activities are pretty slowly spoken, but this CD just rambles right along, so you have to keep up. Numbers are the other hardest thing. 一泊３５０円です。That's a pretty expensive movie rental!

Got all of lesson 1 Kanji in Context must-learn vocab into Anki and gave it a spin

I did some of this over the weekend, but now all 26 of the easiest kanji in the universe* are in there. It seems there is almost more vocab you didn't know—八百屋, I had no idea, really— plus, of course, tons of vocab that will be nice to see to remind you that you do indeed know Japanese. The plan with this is to do a chapter a week. Once we get through the stuff they assume you know already (which I may...not...anymore) it evens out to about 10 kanji per chapter, which should be feasible as far as learning new things goes, which makes me excited.

*I know, I know. AGAIN? Haven't you been studying these for about 10 years now? (Yes.) It's not like I forgot them all, I know them. How many times do you have to lay the foundations? (Over and over?) I have to justify this somehow in a way better than a personality flaw (yeah, you really do) but I can say that the examples sentences are...really great. Just from the first lesson, I feel like I'm reading at my level in real things that might actually be said. I LIKE the context. I need the context. The context will help me learn. Putting my kanji in it!

Was indecisive about how to proceed as far as grammar goes

I'm eager to get into the blue 日本語ドリル book from The Japan Times, and I think that will do me ok. I'm a little nervous about not having answers available. I guess that is the one nice thing about 文法が弱いあなたへ.

Incidentally, kanji holds you back a lot. This is what the Kanji in Context intro was getting at with the # "sharply rises" thing, but man, it really does. It's very frustrating, esp if you can't keep the stuff you learned already in your head. Gonna try hard.

Gonna wait on the orange vocab book until the blue one is done

I had originally thought of studying these both together, but I think I will be getting as much vocab as I can handle out of the kanji study and just...song lyrics, etc. Randomness. I'm sure there will be vocab to learn in the blue book, too, since I am still so much a nubberduckie.

敬語の金曜日

This seems like a plan and a half, if I can actually find some time. I tend to go out on Fridays (to NEW PEOPLE), so it could be tricky to fit in depending on the timing of whatever I am doing. It can always spill over to Saturday, I guess ;) Actually, I get to go to work later on Friday, so maybe I can study in the morning. That seems ideal.

Casual Listening

As opposed to the hard-working Shadowing stuff, I'm going to use the 50 Days book to just relax a bit. I won't worry about understanding/remembering every word. I'll just chilllllll. Later I can go back and see how much more I understand, maybe. And the readings should be easier once I recollect some kanji.

So the short view of a week is:
Daily Shadowing (Shadowing!)
Weekly Kanji Lesson* (Anki, Kanji in Context Workbook)
Weekly Grammar Lesson (Blue book, with some Tae Kim as necessary) +
Daily Casual Listening (50 Days)
Friday Keigo (日本語の敬語トレーニング, 敬語すらすらBOOK)
Stress-free Saturday (Last Saturday of the month = cooking and conversation clubs.)
Sunday Lyrics (There are so many more songs to sing!)

*spread out over the week
+ Followed by Weekly Vocab Lesson (Orange book...although I half wonder if I should study some basic lists first)

I can't really come up with a more gorgeous study schedule than that. Sticking to it is the trouble, right? Maybe I can't study two hours every night, but if I can do at least one, that is something.

Translation: しんしんしん - はっぴいえんど

2009-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

Given that I really require the ability to sing this song, I am going to attempt to translate it. Also, I decided to start including a vocab list. The original lyrics are here (what a great site!)

Incidentally, as a side note: Is it Haruomi Hosono who sings lead vocals? In this song, he sounds like he has a cold. Maybe he always does. I will have to pay more attention ;) 端 sounds more like はじ than はし. And ごみ sounds more like ごび. Is this just me sucking at listening? I don't think so. I don't have THAT horrible of an ear.

Heavy Snowfall - HAPPY END (1)

My heart is a musty old flower (2) falling down onto dirty snow, mixing with garbage at the end of the treet. Mixing with garbage...

Just about everything has become horrible. If only I could disappear into the dirty snow. It'd be fine if it turned into sludge. It'd be fine if it did. (3)

Cars are driving, the white stuff is snow. People walking. The snow is white. (4) Snowdrifts at the end of town.

At that time, I saw something echoing profoundly. (5) The silent snow falls.

Snow and stuff is piling up in town, as usual, dirty. What stupid person got it all dirty? Who got it dirty? Who got it dirty? (6)

(1) To kick things off, しんしんしん is already impossible to translate ;) We don't have a sound for "heavy snowfall," do we? It's quiet! A special kind of quiet. I like that Japanese has "sounds" for stuff like that :)

(2) This is an awful translation, but I literally cannot locate a reading of those two kanji together except for here, which is ridiculous. Of course, he is not saying きしょく, it sounds more like きば, or きま, but I can't find anything down either of those routes. I even though maybe it was a compound verb that ended in む or ぬ, but I couldn't find anything there either. Bad bad bad. Someone enlighten me please :(

(3) I went with "fine" instead of "good." I'm feeling more resignation here than anticipation. Also for the なればいい repition I implied the verb without repeating it...since they didn't repeat the entire phrase.

(4) I wasn't sure if I should imply that cars are driving/people are walking ON white snow... Or why the snow would be white there if that were the case... These songs all seem so simple till you try to find out what they mean. English song lyrics can be pretty cryptic, though, so...*shrug*

(5) This was another case where I just couldn't find the kanji. "Echoing" I inserted based on the verb I thought he said, ひびく. Maybe it's an outdated kanji reading or something? You'd think the dictionary would have it. Is it also possible he miswrote the kanji? These lyrics are hand scribbled with the album, so I wonder if people just take those and write them exactly. Maybe he's making a pun? I'm not sure.

(6) I actually don't feel too bad about how this last part ended up. I was tempted to say, "Who was so stupid as to get the snow all dirty?" but I feel like the way I did it was closer to what he said, maybe?

New words (bold as I used it here):

Note that some words used in this song seem to have simpler kanji than exhibited here. Like まち. 塵 is usually written in kana these days. Also, I'm only listing words here that were pretty new for me AND for which I was confident in the meaning/interpretation.

古ぼける　to look old, become musty, wear out ふるぼける
端　end (of a street), edge, tip, margin, point はし
泥濘　quagmire, sludge, mud, slush, mire ぬかるみ
裏　bottom, rear, back, behind the scenes (etc.) うら
吹き溜まり　drift of snow/leaves, hangout for drifters ふきだまり
黙りこくる　to keep silent だまりこくる
積る　to pile up/accumulate, estimate つもる

Hey, if nothing else, we can sing along easier :) This is a really fun song to sing.

Hrm hum hrm: New Approaches

2009-11-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

Heisig has once again lost his luster. By the end of the book he becomes way less helpful, offering only some key terms instead of full breakdowns of stories. Obviously it gets harder the more complex the characters get, but studying kanji is hard anyhow, so you might as well be absorbing some actual Japanese along with it.

In the meantime, I've also discovered the limitations of learning from Japanese materials for kids. Not that they aren't obvious from the beginning, but basically, you're learning at a kid's level when you need to be gearing up to speak as an adult. It's a fundamental paradox of social venue (or something).

Enter the Kanji in Context books from The Japan Times. As it turns out, The Japan Times is my best friend. I think of all the textbooks I have used, theirs have felt the most targeted to my needs. I used the Genki books in college, and although the sitautional conversations are useful, I felt like for a beginner, themed vocab lessons work better (for instance, I still don't have a good grasp of "around the house" type of words). The intermediate --> advanced pair of books they have on grammar and vocab will be a big help, I think, and I'm finally almost ready to start using them. (It's been slow going, clearly, over the past year, but I'm intending that to change.)

*Vocab tangent* Think about a word floating in space. Say, 雲。So you have 雲 just hanging there, in the sky, say. This is speaking generally, not with specific reference to Genki, by the way... If you learn it with a bunch of random words like "chair," "lawyer," "puppy," and "DVD" (but 50 words instead of 5) you may not remember it as well. But if you learn 雲　with words like 晴れ, 雨, 天気, 空, then you have more of a picture (of the weather/sky). Then you can do lists for furniture, professions, animals, and movies. Incidentally, I think you can benefit from this kind of training no matter what level you are at. There are always gaps in vocabulary that can be filled in... *end tangent*

Anyways, I think I was going to talk about Kanji in Context. It's yet another book that I feel is intended exactly for me. Let me quote a bit from the introduction (bold is mine, italics are theirs):

"...created specifically for learners who have just completed a beginning course or have already learned a fair number of kanji at the intermediate or advanced level but would like to amplify their knowledge of kanji and kanji-based vocabulary in a systematic fashion."

Theoretically, I should know way more kanji than I do. I DID complete a beginner's course, and I used to be THE MAN when it came to kanji. What happened? Well, I didn't use them enough. I think this book will be a pretty big challenge for me, but I also am beginning to think that that is what I really need. I've done enough beginner style review to know that it isn't kicking my ass over the intermediate hump.

"At the intermediate level and above, the number of kanji needed by learners rises sharply. In order to effectively meet this growing need, it is not adequate to learn each new character randomly..."

Couldn't. Agree. More. This is one of my main problems, just the way that regardless of what goals in communication you are working on, regardless of what vocab you are trying to acquire, kanji has always sort of been its own beast. Hopefully this system will help give me some...CONTEXT ;)

"...traditional kanji textbooks have focused excessively on the study of characters one by one, providing only a sprinkling of vocabulary which , more than often , have little practical use for learners."

I'm really excited to get some practical use out of kanji. That is the only way to keep them around.

"The frequent contact with a particular kanji or word will reinforce its acquisition, while at the same time relieving learners of the pressure experienced under the single-presentation approach."

It is really hard to learn kanji or vocab when you only see them in one example.

I also picked up "the" Shadowing book (that you may also see everywhere, tempting you, the one with green all over it), and from initial exposure last night, I am really exited. The speakers sound pretty energetic, but also follow the intonation patterns I know already. I'm especially psyched to get into more complicated conversations, because it seems like the longer the sentences get right now, the more my intonation breaks down (which makes sense, which is why the book is arranged like it is.

So, (...as usual) I am really really really ready to just study forever. More than anything, it's about time, and I have taken some additional steps to free some up (like quitting my last freelance writing job). I really believe that if I make this as high a priority as possible, that I can really accomplish something. I must be able to! Gotta just...do it.

Mistranslation: はいからはくち　ー　はっぴいえんど

2009-11-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

AKA Drink your #failsauce with a spoon

PLEASE IF YOU READ THIS POST, READ THE WHOLE THING—NOT JUST HALF.

So instead of continuing with the Wikipedia article for now (since you can't sing along to it) I am going to はいからはくち. As it turns out this is easier said than done (like any project), but even the title is problematic. Let's take a look...[at how badly we can fuck it up.]

Original Japanese lyrics, by the way, are here.

Cuz I'm high, I'm an idiot! - HAPPY END (1)

Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high, I'm drinking Coca Cola with you, appreciating the blood-stained sky. (2)
Cuz you're high, we'll roll up our sleeves and decorate the lively town —golden lace. (3)
Cuz I'm...
Cuz I'm high, I'm an idiot!

Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high, as I vomit blood, in spite of your "no," it's just the evening twilight. (4)
Cuz you're high, you look like a hippy turned blood-orange. (5)
Cuz I'm...
Cuz I'm high, I'm an idiot!
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
Cuz I'm high...
z...(6)
z...

Notes:

(1) 白痴 is the はくち I assumed they meant, which translates as idiot/idiocy. I guess that makes sense. I'm pretty sure they are, after all, talking about being "that kind of" high. You could also read this as, "Because I said yes, I'm an idiot!" But the rest of the song makes them sound pretty stoned ;) Incidentally, I used "cuz" because, well, they're high.
(2) 玩ぶ can mean "to trifle with/do as one pleases," but I took the "appreciate" meaning just because...well, I wasn't sure what you would really "do" with the sky. Plus I can imagine two stoned people sitting around drinking Coke and watching the sun set.
(3) We wouldn't say "tuck up the cuffs of our pants" to do work. I'm not even entirely sure that is what Japanese people say, but that is sort of the image that the dictionary gave me. I just localized it to "roll up our sleeves" to preserve the meaning more than the action. Maybe I shouldn't do that. Is it like naming a whole song "Sukiyaki" cuz it's easy to say? lol For some reason in this case I feel like recognizing the symbolic gesture is more important.
(4) This was definitely the hardest line of the song. Thanks to this page for explaining ("Advice for people who can't read" -- interestingly, 読み取る is translated as "read between the lines" but I don't think that applies when you're just trying to read kanji or hiragana that would normally be katakana, plus I think it's funnier that he offers this with a little star. Like, good job! Keep working at it! Someday you'll be able to read real Japanese! haha) that のお is actually ノー which is actually just "no."

And then that に was really throwing me off. I just wasn't sure how to parse this thing. In the end, I nearly almost went with "your "no" was only to the night" but I realized it wasn't 夕まぐれに, but ノーに　so that was out. Then I was thinking maybe the ni with the ノー was simultaneously a play on the conjunction (?) のに, which means "although." So it was like he was saying, "Although you said 'no', it was just the evening twilight" which I basically took to mean something like he's high so he's forcing himself on this poor girl. You know, though, I really have no idea. This could be so wrong. Anyways, in order to preserve ノー as a noun, I used "in spite of" instead of "although."

So basically, yeah, this line relies on a ton of assumptions. I'm gonna look up a real translation of this...

Oh hey, so this is interesting: "Haikara is a pseudo-English Japanese word from the Meiji period derived from the phrase “high collar.” (It originally had a long final a: haikarā, ハイカラー.) You might summarize its meaning as “fashionably Westernized,” but of course, the full story is more complicated."

Do you think that is what they mean? Maybe I'm coming at this song from too much of an American 60s/70s view. This song is insane, though lol I like how that author points out that はい also means lungs, so really the line marked as (4) could also read, "While vomiting blood from my lungs..." which is sort of gross. Let's return to this string of revelations in a minute.
(5) 蜜柑色 is the color of a mikan, but a crimson one I'm guessing would be reddish? We call those "blood oranges," I'm pretty sure, right? And in any case, it goes WAY awesomely with the rest of the blood-obsessed song, so it's staying in there.
(6) I don't even remember this part. I think it must be different depending on the recording. In Kazemachiroman it goes straight into the "Western fashion/high collars is/are beautiful" thing or "Because I'm high, I'm beautiful" thing. Anyways, the point I was going to make is that they are repeating the last sound from から in my original crazy American version, which I translated as the last sound in "cuz" instead of the last sound in the phrase.

OH GOD I have been doin it rong. Look here. The note about Bannai Tarao. He DOES say it in English, with the "is," I checked. Why would he do that if he were saying "Because I'm high..." unless the English were just really that bad (which I have never thought). UGH. So yeah, it's possible to misread every line in the song. Let's try that again...

High collar idiot (1')

High collar...
High collar...
High collar...
High collar...
I'm fashionably Western: I'm drinking Coca Cola with you, appreciating the blood-stained sky. (2')
You're fashionably Western: We'll roll up our sleeves and decorate the lively town—golden lace.
I'm...
I'm fashionably Western! IDIOT!

High collar...
High collar...
High collar...
High collar...
I'm fashionably Western as I vomit blood: in spite of your "no," it's just the evening twilight. (3')
You're fashionably Western: you look like a hippy turned blood-orange.
I'm...
I'm fashionably Western! IDIOT!
High collar...
High collar...
High collar...
rr...
rr...

(1') I'd rather keep in natural than say "Westernized Idiot" as Wikipedia does.
(2') The "so" in "I'm so Western" is an artistic flourish. Maybe that changes the meaning too much? I like it a lot that way, but...yeahhhhhh it might be considered some rewriting. I miss the "because" aspect. I don't know if I like the colon. I...ugh lol
(3') This may now be beyond reach haha No idea how vomiting blood is a Western thing. Also, are we accusing Western people of being racist?

WAIT

Scratch 2'. Let's change it to "I'm fashionably Western..."

That is at least a minor improvement. This is a train wreck. Where is the professional translation of this? I can't even find another amateur attempt. There has to be something somewhere, but I don't have time to scour the Internet anymore. Bedtime : /

Dude, though, screw me in the eye, I shoudl've known they weren't singing about being high. Why would they do that? Japan is super not into pot. Maybe San Francisco is a bad place to try to listen to this song. Or maybe being American is the complete opposite of ideal state to consume this song in. Ahahahahahaha. Too sleepy. Comments, people. At least come make fun of me!!

EDIT: So yes, always do your homework kids. Keep doing it your entire life!

Incidentally, one other potentially translation that I thought of for はいから was "high color."

So you'd end up with the intro reading, "High color is...beautiful." And then lyrics like, "High color... High color..." and "I'm high color" "You're high color" which seemed like some kind of cool slang for "super cool" or "interesting." Of course, once you learn that はくちmeans idiot, that is totally ruined ;)

Learning is pretty much the best. I only wish that after all this I had a decent translation. I feel like what is there is still pretty double-plus un-good.

Sick, First Impressions of the Smart.fm revamp, etc.

2009-11-05T19:14:00.001-08:00

Well, progress has slooooooooooowed due to fever and nose-blowing.

Smart.fm seemed like a pretty chill thing to do, except that they are buggy as shit right now (which is not meant to be as harsh as it sounds...just a set-phrase—I don't hate them!) and their interface is all new and bizarrely Twitter-like. Anyways, so I spend half of my time reporting bugs, but hopefully once they iron out it will become useful again. Anyways, I'm tempted to just make my own flashcards the old fashioned way. It's better for teaching yourself anyhow.

I am just very well aware how quickly those stacks grow, when you're trying to learn hundreds (thousands) of kanji.

But ok, yes, I could make my own digital cards.

Maybe it's time to give Anki a shot.

Waiiiiit, just kidding. "Reviewing the Kanji" also just did a site update. (PS - after seeing their url, how can you call them anything but 漢字コーヒー?)

This I like. You don't have make anything, you can just have them add it. It keeps track of where you are in the Heisig book and apparently there is a spot to ad your stories about kanji, but of course, mine will always go right here!

Sadly, no new kanji tonight. Too damned dead feeling. I'm going to bed. Of course, this is what I said almost an hour ago, but I felt like maybe updating this blog would be a good idea...

Night!

Personalize it (Heisig Super Alpha Turbo Remix)

2009-11-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

So I've been through a hundred Heisig stories now, which is enough to know that some of these stories really work, many of these early ones I no longer need stories for (I will never forget them), but also that for some of them, I may have better ideas for my own stories. If this blog is not a place to put them, then what is it? :)

Companion: Together for two months!

Stomach: You can put all the rice you get (from the fields) in a month in your stomach—yum!

Stubborn: I'm gonna read every page from the beginning (Me regarding 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 4th grade XD)

Mediocre: With that big enclosue and little drip in the middle it just looks sort of half-assed doesn't it? lol

Texture: He kind of touches on it, but a month of wind can really change the texture of something.

Bull's eye: This one is a weird story, but I sort of like to think of it as ladling the white paint onto the bull's eye....

Fish guts: Are squiggly. The end.

Tool: Keep your eye on your tools (or you'll lose them)

True: Use a (magic) needle as a tool—look through the eye and you'll see what's true.

Bribe: He goes as far as possessed by shellfish, but "clams" (a type of shellfish) is slang for dollars, so that can help even more.

Tribute: Support someone's craft by paying (clams/dollars/shellfish) tribute.

Paragraph: I know it's bad, but I sort of think of the thing on the side as an indent. So its' like you're indenting the page to start the paragraph.

Blade: It's a sword with a slash through it, like a blade makes...

Seduce/beckoning: Honestly, this makes me think kuchisakeonna. With the sword (slashed) mouth, she's beckoning to little kids...

Shining: Seducing of the sun! You don't need to think of a shoeshine to think that seducing the sun makes things shine :)

Village: Can be simplified to just the fact that rice fields plus streets = village.

Place on the head/humble acceptance: He explains all this stuff about nails and heads, but doesn't just say, "I humbly accept the fact that you are correct -- you nailed it right on the head."

Complete: I just think it's hilarious that he manages to make a kid with no arms mean complete LOL That hilarity alone is enough to remember this by XD

Likeness: So dirty.

That's all for now. I have to go eat Mexican food with b-b-brown RICE!

Revisiting Heisig OR Don't Knock It Till You Try It

2009-11-01T10:13:00.001-08:00

Prompted one again by my new study buddy (Link in the sidebar, yo! It's swiftly becoming a vital one...) Victory Manual, I am taking a fresh look at Heisig.

Or that's what I was going to say except that I never really took a look at Heisig at all. I was aware of his method from the very beginning of studying Japanese because some people love him and some people hate him, but I had dismissed him out of hand because knowing the English meaning of the kanji seemed like a truly dangerous and destructive habit à la romaji. Hearing Alex's tale of a reformed skeptic caused me to think it over, though, and what I realized is...

"Something, anything." My mantra had been right there staring me in the face, but I didn't know it.

Language learning is all about exposure, right? So, actually introducing yourself to all the kanji with their core meanings is probably a BRILLIANT first step, because it puts them firmly into your head by using what you know already, building a great foundation on top of which you can later add word after word of vocab with what I assume now to be very little trouble.

Embarrassingly, I think had some misconceptions about the method that are now totally myth-busted. For instance, I had the idea that he WAS looking at the etymological history of the kanji, but in fact, the "stories" he tells about the characters really do make a lot more sense than that.

Incidentally, part of the reason this works, I think, is not even so much the stories as the way the stories force you to break the kanji down into easy to digest chunks. You know how when you are in a room with a lot of people speaking a language you aren't proficient in and your brain sort of gives up trying to understand? You might even start to get sleepy... It's the same thing with complicated kanji and this is something I have recognized for a long time but was not sure how to combat: when you're looking at a kanji with tons of strokes, you sort of see it without really understanding it, so even when you try to ascribe meaning you are glossing over the parts that you do actually need to remember in order to recognize it later. Forcing yourself to take the kanji apart by following to Heisig's mnemonics is, well, a huge breakthrough. I'm just sad that I am so late to the party. 24 years old...if only I could be 6.

The other thing I didn't know about Heisig's study course was the way it focuses on teaching writing. So it doesn't teach you the 100 "most useful" kanji first and it doesn't teach you them in the order that little kids learn them in Japanese schools—actually at first glance it appears to teach them in quite a confusing order, since it uses the same building blocks to make as many kanji as possible per lesson, which makes a lot of them easily confused. THAT IS, if you didn't have the stories to go along. I can't even think of mistaking "prosperous" for "risk" because I know that "risk" involves looking at the sun with your eyes and prosperity is sunny, so you get two suns.

The best thing, I think, is that I am extremely optimistic about learning kanji. 1,945 used to seem like a lot, and now it doesn't at all. That alone is priceless.

Study consciously

2009-10-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.victorymanual.com/study-slower-learn-faster/

This is my favorite post that I've read over there so far, mostly because as I commented, I keep thinking I need to start some diving strategies. Really thinking hard about what you're learning could be the key. (And it's also true that I wish I had all day every day to devote to this. Not gonna happen! ;p) but I do have long afternoons. Actually it just occurred to me that my schedule is almost school-like, except in high school I would wake UP at 6, not be at work by 6. Still, though, getting out at three gives me some open daylight that I need to start using to my advantage more.

For some reason I can't get the schedule vs. non-schedule thing down. I know that if I say everyday between 4 and 6 is Japanese time that I could attempt to do that, but...it seems unlikely that I would actually have every day between 4 and 6 free. That said, the way things are now, I seem to manage to WASTE all the time between 4 and 6 (or just not leave work ;p) soooooo, maybe I should try being hardcore and seeing what that gets me, if anything.

Honestly, I've found the most important thing is just to do something, anything. Anything is better than nothing. That sounds defeatist, but it's really empowering. I mean, it sounds sort of positive, but not positive enough, when really it is ultra positive because it means that the smallest thing can be useful and build you up.

For instance, today I reviewed some really easy kanji, but there were still words I didn't know. I wish I could remember them now, but that is why I will be reviewing them tomorrow, and maybe in a deeper way. There's always the question of how much time you should spend learning different words ("marbles" vs. "participation" vs. "paths between rice fields" whut), but like I said. SOMETHING ANYTHING.

I'm gonna get that on a t-shirt I think.

(You think I'm kidding.)

The L2 Linguistics Bug Returns Feat. Victory Manual

2009-10-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

I went to go see Matt Alt speak about yokai today at NEW PEOPLE and got really inspired to...well, study more. Everything inspires me to study more.

This blog, too, inspired me to study more and harder: http://www.victorymanual.com/

The guy who writes it, Alex, is a teacher in Korea, so he is dealing with L2 issues all the time, both his own and his students.

It's a little bitter-sweet to read such an awesome blog like this, because L2 linguistics and teaching were some of my main interests, which gradually morphed into translation/interpretation, which were more or less dismissed once the videogames journalism career materialized, which in turn was more or less abandoned for Twitter; I do a hell of a lot of not looking back for being the most nostalgic person I know.

I DO look back, though. I think I made this point already, but I COULD BE a translator on the side, the way I write right now. That thought is very exciting.

The fact of the matter is that I could be translating professionally right now. I could be doing a ton more in Japanese for work and the only reason I can't is that my Japanese is not there yet.

So what does this mean? Today it meant that I spent a while in Kinokuniya oogling everything from The Tale of the Heike (translated) to English textbooks for Japanese speakers (I was trying sort of hard to find a book about Japanese linguistics, but failed). I also spent a while reviewing. Actually, the first grader kanji review is very nearly completed. And I'm happy to say that it wasn't all review; I've been acquiring vocab for real, as well as a couple kanji that managed to slip by earlier.

Actually, in general, between conversing with the Japanese contract team at work and doing slap-dash review, I have been improving. I noticed the other night when I met a new conversation partner that I could actually put a few sentences together.

I'm still ridiculously nervous and shy in Japanese, just because I love it so much and want to do it right : /

But I did talk to him in Japanese a little bit and he seemed to understand me all right.

Other big news is that I get to attend the JP team meetings at work. At first this will involve me sitting in a corner quietly with a notepad trying as hard as I can to just understand, but I figure the more I go the more I will learn. More exposure can't be a bad thing.

Translation: 風街　（ウィキペディア）

2009-10-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Obviously there is some danger in translating wikipedia articles, as they are liable to change, but honestly, it's probably the best resource out there that I know of right now to learn about HAPPY END. (And yeah, I'm gonna go back and edit the English into the post before this post, too.)

Anyways, this is an article about their concept of kazemachi. You could probably translate this as "breeze town" or "wind town," but I think that sounds horrible and cheesy, so I refuse to do that.* It's a super amazing concept that you could almost say is very similar to Hayao Miyazaki's sentiments when he designs the scenery for his movies. Basically, talking about nostalgia in my last actual translation post hit the nail on the head -- this band is all about nostalgia. I'm in love.

Anyways, here's what I came up with to translate what I found here (today, so apologies if it has changed):

Kazemachi(1)

Kazemachi is a concept established by the rock band HAPPY END. It depicts the Tokyo scenery lost since the Tokyo Olympics, with old fashioned imagination. They are presenting impressions of the Aoyama, Shibuya, Azabu, and surrounding areas from the era before Tokyo Tower was constructed. However, since "It's Summer" from the recording Kazemachi Romance is a depiction of Matsumoto's boyhood memories of summer vacation spent at the Ikahon hot springs (the home of his grandfather), it's not the case that they limited it to just purely Tokyo scenery.

The work of manga artist Shinji Nagashima had such a big influence on these atmospheres that at HAPPY END's first concert when they played "It's spring, c'mon!" Eiichi Ootaki announced, "This is a song dedicated to Mr. Shinji Nagashima."

It can be said that all of HAPPY END's work is connected to this idea of kazemachi. Especially in works such as their masterpiece, Kazemachi Romance, they sing in a deep, detailed way about the appearance of kazemachi.

(1) I'm not gonna do super detailed notes this time. Just to sum up the experience, though, I would say that the second line was definitely the hardest part to translate, and you can tell, since it's sort of janky. ものis not the most concrete concept, since it can be a person or a thing or pretty much whatever. (Also janky is the font in the post, for whatever reason...I've been having weird font size/type issues this whole time...) Anyhow, other than that...I apparently really need to track down some Shinji Nagashima manga.

*In a similar way you could call 風街ろまん, "Breeze Town Romance" which sounds similarly awful. PS - This has been edited ;p Way to go anyone who clicked on this and saw me totally misread the album title.

Translation: Working on 10/24/2009

2009-10-24T08:34:00.001-07:00

This morning I was going to do laundry, but since some other early(ish) riser stole the machine as I was on my way to breakfast, I'm going to work on translating the はっぴいえんど wikipedia page.

I haven't decided if I want to post it section by section or just do the whole thing. It might depend on how far I can get today. Actually, wikipedia articles make for perfect weeknight practice material, since you can just do a section a night instead of going on forever.

That said it's not like that song was very long, but it took quite a while to do.

THAT said, it's a wikipedia article, not poetry.

We'll see. I'm gonna just get started.

EDIT: Wow, wait -- I found something else I need to translate first :) Pretty short, though, so it'll be up soon.

Translation: 夏なんです　ー　はっぴいえんど

2009-10-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I was out tonight trying to relax or something (which wasn't working because I was alone and hence drawn to check my e-mail on my iPhone) when I realized that I really couldn't wait any longer to try to figure out the lyrics to 夏なんです, my favorite はっぴいえんど track so far, which I will translate here as simply, "It's Summer."

You could arguably do, "Since it's summer" or "Yes, It's Summer" or some more explicative sentence, because of the ん thrown in there, but we wouldn't say that in English really, and I think "It's summer" can have that feeling they are trying to impart, although as you might know, we don't associate it so strongly with awesome cicada noises.

(One thing you may NOT know is how nostalgic I am about Japanese summers. This is one sentiment that somehow has seeped directly into me from Japan, so somehow I really feel like I understand what they mean when they sing this song.)

Anyways, it's a rough translation. Keep in mind that I am not a super pro (yet?) I think I will present it with number notes in parentheses which you can find afterwards. Feedback is completely asked for and encouraged. I didn't even look to see if I could find any existing translations of these lyrics anywhere, so it's all just me (and jisho.org with occasional help from goo.ne.jp) for better or worse. I'd love to hear suggestions/corrections.

Incidentally, the original lyrics I found here, although you can't copy and paste them, which made it obnoxious to look up in an online dictionary. That was half of the point of having them computerized; the CD booklet is hand-written -- charming, but a bit scratchy/hard-to-read for a non-native speaker...

It's Summer - HAPPY END

On the white footpaths between rice fields in the country, dusty breezes grow still. (1)

Squatting low to the ground, those kids shoot marbles. (2)

It's the sparkling, glittering

sun.

It's the sparkling, glittering

summer.

The local deity's forest is dark green; (3)

a calm has descended. (4)

Someone dangles from the crossbeam (5)

of an old teahouse storefront.

It's the whirring sound (6)

cicadas make. (7)

It's the whirring sound

of summer. (8)

The parasol twirls, I'm bored.

loo-loo-looo-loo-loo-looo-loo-looo-loo-loo-looo-loo-loooo (9)

As I follow the cobblestone path, the weather runs its course (10)

Unfortunately, summer is accompanied by showers. (11)

It's the melancholy, fluffy (12)

towers of clouds. (13)

It's the melancholy, fluffy

summer.

The parasol twirls, I'm bored.

loo-loo-looo-loo-loo-looo-loo-looo-loo-loo-looo-loo-loooo...

(1) It did seem to me that the footpath was implied to be white, but the rice fields make more sense, right? Hard to say. 風 I translated as "breezes" here because it's summer, and 立ち止まるis literally "to stop/halt/stand still," but "grow still" seemed to fit the mood more. I guess I'm one of those translators who thinks it's fine to take a liberty as long as it's my liberty and no one else's ;) I do try to have a good reason, though.

(2) It took me a really long time to track down a translation for ペタンに partially because the word has a couple forms, but anyways, it means something like "flattened," which does not really describe the way people play marbles, at least when I think of it, so I said "low" instead. Also, I was really psyched that I learned ビー玉 earlier, from the kanji drills I was doing (reinforced with smart.fm training -- BTW, I made a list that will contain all the words I learn from はっぴいえんど songs.)

(3) We say "dark," not "deep." I suppose you could go with "deep" since forests can be "deep," and also "dark," but this not that kind of forest. I like that ふかみどり is literally "deep green" but it doesn't sound like fluent English. Now that I'm looking closer at the definition, though, it does include "heighten" and "intensify." I wonder if those are bi-products of "deep" or not.

(4) I originally had "stillness" instead of "calm," but when I edited the first verse to "became still" I decided to change it up. "Silence" didn't seem to fit. 舞い降りるis a very active verb (swoop/fly down, alight) for something that in English we think of as settling or, like I said, descending.

(5) This came out less awkward than it could have, but I'm still trying to think of a way to make it not sound like someone hung himself...

(6) As you may have seen in my tweets (@tora, and in the sidebar there) I was having some trouble locating an English onomatopoeia for cicadas. I'm not sure we have one. I googled and found it described as "whirring," though, and I consciously went with that as opposed to "buzzing."

(7) Literally this complete line would've been "It's the houshiitsukutsuku voice of the cicadas," seemed awkward sounding. Plus "voice of the cicadas" is really stick in the mud and formal or overly poetic-sounding in English. "The sound cicadas make," as in, "What sound does a cicada make?" is more colloquial (we're in the country, after all!) and more child-like (which goes with the nostalgia, especially after the kids -- oh, I translated 奴らas "those kids" even though it literally means "those guys" -- shooting marbles <---oh, I said shooting instead of "flip," "snap," or "repel." It is "shooting marbles" in English, right? I guess I could just say "playing" but I wanted to preserve the action if possible.)

(8)Actually, though, now that I'm looking at this revised English I just worked out -- "It's the houshiitsukutsuku voice of the cicadas" (earlier I was making an error and adding another "of the" where it's really not needed, I don't think) I can see the argument for using that. And then that would make "It's the whirring sound of summer" into "It's the whirring summer," which I sort of like. You would be taking pretty big liberties to call it, "the voice of summer" since 声 is only stated along with せみ, but...you could probably also get away with that.

(9) You may be tempted to go with ru-ru-ruu, but do not. No one in English would say that. "Loo," on the other hand, we would say.

(10) I thought the onomatopoeias would be the hardest part of this song, but it was definitely the first part of this verse. I THINK/hope I really nailed it here, though, in the end. "Paved stone path" would've been really stiff -- plus cobblestones are more nostalgic. I had to google for 縫い目を辿る to see how else it was used. At first I thought maybe it was straight up imagery, like maybe little rivulets of rain were rushing down the path after something happened to do with the sky (whut) but then I had the idea that the singer was the one going down the path (which is confusing since the verb there, 駆け抜けるcan be used to "pursue (a course)" but I didn't get the verbs mixed up, I promise) so I dug a little deeper on the "following the threads" thing and came up with "ran its course." I really hope I did this right. If anyone has any ideas on this in particular, I'm extra keen to know them :)

(11) Didn't feel the need to specify "rain" showers since we mentioned the weather. Also, translated 〜てしまう as "unfortunately." Hope that works.

(12) 悶々can be "worrying" or "anguishedly" and I went with just "anguished." This might be a bit dramatic, but the alternative seemed too whimsical. I wonder if I can think of something quick oh wait it was on the tip of my tongue..."brooding?" That seems really dark for summer, too. While I was working on it, I came up with "foreboding" but that is silly. Not that summer should be "anguished" either. Hrm hrm. This is in no way a perfect translation. AH HA -- do you think "melancholy" would be too much of a stretch? Oh I'm in love with it...I'm going to use that. Summer can definitely be melancholy, and that word fits the pacing really well (the strolling, the thinking, the nostalgia of the whole thing -- we're not worrying or anguishing -- we're just kinda...moping? A little bit? Bored and melancholy? I dunno! Feedback!)

(13) "Cumulo-nimbus" seemed a bit too sciencey and proper. "Columns" of clouds didn't do much better, so I used "towers" to be more poetic.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!

Boy, I really love doing this type of thing. Enough that it is quarter after midnight and I definitely have to be working by 6 am (although I can sleep in a tad because I'm having a work from home morning...) Very sleep now, though. Let me know what you think!! :)

UPDATE: OoooOOOooo, I just had the thought that maybe I should have gone with "twirls" instead of "spins." I'm ok with a little whimsy there. Deadpan is no good. Changing it. Feel free to fight with me over it later :)

UPDATE #2: Hmm, another thought. Tonight I saw the movie, Battle League Horumo, and in it one of the character's said, "You're boring!" and used the word たいくつ. So the question is, does this guy think he is boring, or is he bored? What are the usage rules for たいくつ? I'm too tired to look it up now, but maybe in the morning, but I will put it on my list of things to get done this weekend (which is getting rather long...)

UPDATE #3: Going with HAPPY END instead of Happiiendo.

UPDATE #4: たいくつis apparently used as both "bored" and "boring," so that is convenient. I'm going to leave it the way it is.

UPDATE #5: Realized instead "goes well with" it should be "is accompanied by" regarding summer showers. The line before that is still really bugging me.

Smarter fm

2009-10-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

So I've begun using the quiz feature and it seems pretty effective. Of course, you will still have to practice writing on your own, but for recognition and comprehension, these flashcards (like many others, but these won't get lost or have coffee spilled on them) are a good bet.

I made a very brief foray into my Twitter list last night (ツイッターの単語）and the accompanying list for words that are not necessarily considered "Twitter specific" (by me; JP Twitter non-essentials).

Since I've been fooling around with this so much I haven't had as much time for Kumon or audio or grammar or anything, really, but I've made tiny progress in those areas as well. Hopefully some more later today...

Had the exciting realization yesterday that if writing can be a side project, then so can translating. I don't have to give up on that goal just because I have a full-time job. I've been getting pretty interested in the publisher Haikasoru (under the Viz umbrella) after finishing Housuke Nojiri's Usurper of the Sun, and I feel like translating could also be a way to pick up some vocab if I pair it with smart.fm.

I may also start to do some English --> Japanese translation at work, but have it approved by someone more fluent. And I'm also learning some more skills so I can be of further use to the Japanese contract team. Glad I get to expand in these ways, but I'm hoping I can learn at a pace fast enough to really be super useful.

Someone has my domain

2009-10-10T12:54:00.001-07:00

I was finally going to register sucknot-japanese.com and someone has it already.

This makes me sad.

If you know who it is, tell them to contact me : / I really want it ;_;

Smart.fm

2009-10-10T12:47:00.001-07:00

This is a very useful study site for any flashcardable material. The thing that really blew my mind, though, was the audio samples for nearly every word I input. (I'm EmaWii -- so far I have made a list of all the words I am looking up from the first grader kanji くもん drill book.) It's pretty fantastic, actually.

Supposedly the unaffiliated (i.e. using the API) iPhone app allows you to download all your lists, sound files intact, and study them away from the computer -- although the fancy quiz feature (which I haven't really played with yet) is not available...

Looking forward to putzing with all of this more. It's ten times better than anything else I've seen, with all these audio samples just sitting around. You can even create and upload your own, so I could make a list of English vocab and upload me saying all of it in my perfect native English. Sort of interesting.

Doubly interesting is the Twitter Vocab list. That said, I think I am going to create my own version. They seem to be putting in a lot of stuff that is quite targeted enough for my liking ("time?" really? That's useful, but doesn't have THAT much to do with Twitter).

Translation project ideas

2009-10-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

This is one of the things I had wanted to translate -- I had forgotten. I'm really into the bands チャットモンチー and はっぴいえんど right now, and it seems like it would be a good way to spend some study time, learning songs I really like. That is even the kind of thing I could put in this blog.

Then I started brainstorming:

*I could also translate some of the books I have bought recently -- the Japanese ones, that is.

*Probably the best place to start, though, is Japanese tweets. They are short and sweet and presumably the way people actually talk in Japan IN REAL TIME ;) with the potential for slangy Internet stuff which is good to know for a geek like me, anways.

*Japanese Twitter-related websites

*Videogame articles (to the roots!)

*Recipes for cooking club

*Movie coverage (of Japanese movies that I need to be NEW PEOPLE to play)

*News

etc.

There is no shortage of material out there.

Well, I guess I'm done winding down because I'm really sleepy. Slowly clearing my schedule out for more studying.

Major update AND Hello again

2009-10-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

The first thing you will notice is that I have hooked up my Japanese Twitter account to this blog. Makes much more sense. When I started this blog, I didn't HAVE a Japanese Twitter account. Yay, progress.

The second thing you will hopefully start to notice in the future is me actually using this as a hub for my study activities. For starters, let me just expound a bit on recent happenings:

*I started a Japanese cooking club with a couple friends and one of the members is a pretty hardcore Japanophile, which makes me happy. He speaks conversationally quite well, it seems, and all from some close-watching/listening of J-dramas. Granted he is currently not working or in school, living at home, but I think we can all learn a bit from his dedication.

*NEW PEOPLE opened in San Francisco and I hang out there a lot. This will become apparently if I keep up with this blog like I intend to, because I go to see a lot of Japanese movies there, which is listening exposure, even if you do have the subtitle crutch.

*Bumped my tutor down from an hour to a half hour a week. Basically, I just want someone to chat with and whom I can bounce questions off of. I appreciated her efforts in personalizing a class for me, but I have way to many aspirations to be locked into a set schedule of quizzes and things.

Main study resources, currently:

*文法が弱いあなたへ is a great grammar review book. I have probably mentioned it here before, but since I have only just finally gotten into a good study habit, I'm still using it. To recap: it's perfect for an intermediate student (the book is all in Japanese) who wants to review some points.

*くもんの小学校ドリル, where have you been all my life? The 国語 kanji workbooks are KILLER. I wish I had had these in high school. TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TEACHING YOURSELVES JAPANESE: please go out and buy these workbooks. Oh. My. They are meant for Japanese elementary school kids, so not only are you learning the kanji in the order that Japanese kids learn them, but you are learning them along with the readings and vocabulary that Japanese society deems necessary for kanji n00bs. I went back to 一年生 for some review, but I am already learning stuff I never did before.

*Have been doing Pimsleur Japanese level 3 audio lessons, which are a decent mix of making me think a little and way too easy. I like that they are throwing in some formal language, but the scenarios are feeling a bit simple for the level of politeness they are throwing at you. That said, anything that gets me saying Japanese words out loud is a plus. I am shy and I think this sort of listen and repeat stuff is what I need to get my tongue all 日本語'd up and ready for action.

*にほんご敬語トレーニング has been my keigo book of choice, although I haven't delved too far in yet. Rumor has it there is some sort of ultimate keigo book out there that I must own. I heard it might be in the mail to me. We shall see :)

*The latest addition to my growing stack of extremely useful and practical (no joke) Japanese language books is 日本人の知らない日本語, which has been a huge best seller in Japan. No wonder it was so easy to find at Kinokuniya this afternoon! It's done in "comic-essay" form, and teaches, as the title states, "Japanese that Japanese people don't know." Seems very entertaining, and since it is entirely in Japanese, for Japanese people, about things that even they may not know or do correctly, I am really excited to prioritize this in my study sessions.

*Kotoba! for iPhone is a pretty decent Japanese dictionary. I figured something was better than nothing and this was free (if I remember correctly?) More often than not, the word I have been searching for has been in there and they have translations to multiple languages and even kanji details.

*iEijiro (iPhone) is a dictionary for more advanced usage and...whatnot. Haven't had much luck with this, honestly. It seems extremely useful, but for more limited purposes, maybe?

*Check out the latest Otaku USA for an article I did about iPhone kanji apps :)

*Japanese Flip is a great flashcard program (iPhone) for JLPT vocab.

*Mnemosyne is back in style with me and I'm actually in talks with someone to get an iPhone port going, or at least a comparable program. This is very exciting, especially if we can make it so you can sync your stacks and grade levels. Then I can take all the vocab I'm working on with me in my pocket, where it is far more accessible than on my laptop.

*KeyholeTV is a MAJOR discovery. Not much more to say besides that it is streaming Japanese TV and radio. We should all just let our jaws hang open in awe that this exists.

Main study tactics at the moment:

*Aiming for an audio lesson a day, but not quite making it.
*Doing three lessons of くもん drill at a time, which right now is around per day, but not sure how that will scale, especially since I want to try to absorb all this really good vocab.
*Thinking of how to work in more keigo practice. Might wait until after the audio lessons are exhausted.
*Very interested in looping in more work-related Japanese stuff. Might begin the pain in the neck yet very instructive task of going through all my Japanese language mail from the week and pulling vocab for Mnemosyne cards as well as just instilling proper everything from my Japanese co-workers.
*Also really need to look over the Japanese versions of the site, help materials etc. This is something I mean to do long ago, but I just need to set aside time.
*I'm also interested in doing a translation project now and then. I'm not sure what I would like to translate, but I will probably start with news articles about work, since that could prove to be doubly useful.

Luckily, since Japanese has been placed as one of my three whole areas of priorities in life (right up there with work and health) it has been really easy to find more time to do it lately, which has been making me very happy.

But now look how long I spent updating this blog when I could've been actually studying. We'll see, we'll see ;) Anyways, for now, hopefully someone will find all those recommendations relevant. I will try to update with some less obvious ideas (the ones that aren't "surround yourself with study opportunities" and "take them") as they come up and maybe log some progress/questions and answers from my tutor/etc. Or I could get too busy to update for another few months.

There's a lot of passion here, but I'm not sure it's for the blog. I'm pretty sure it's for the doing and the studying. This is a problem I have had with all my blogs lately, even the ones I bought domains for, so...

yeah. We'll see.

Audio Lessons

2009-06-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

I was having a good experience with Spanish audio lessons, so I decided to try some in Japanese, too. Pimsleur is pretty awesome, not only for the listening, but for the SPEAKING. Listening and repeating (and repeating and repeating) is a really good way to get your tongue and head wrapped around the vocabulary. You feel way more confident when you can just rattle stuff off. Plus it's real people talking, not anime characters ;p

がんばって

2009-03-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Someone said, がんばってよ to me today, and I realized that it actually has a pretty deep resonance with me. My reply to that part of the e-mail (he had asked about the transliteration, so I corrected him and then [transliteration REMOVED cuz this blog is not about ローマ字]):

"I would say ね instead of よ, but obviously both work. Maybe ね is the more feminine version. I just like it because it makes me think it's like a pact, almost. "Do your best, ok?" "Yeah, I will." Man, I know it's over-said (among learners, I mean, and anime nerds), but がんばって actually retains a ton of meaning for me. I love it."

Learning Spanish in Japanese

2009-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

In college I was learning French, Japanese, and Russian all at once. Alas, my French has devolved to barely passable and my Russian is pretty much nonexistent, although I can still read Cyrillic--Cyrillic, my love. Anyways, I don't recall actually studying any of them VIA the other one. While I was living in Paris, I had started sort of doing Russian via French (at the Sorbonne, but also from some books on my own) although most of the time it was Russian and French simultaneously via English, since I was advanced enough in my Russian (though not technically considered "advanced" by any means) that at least vocab-wise it was keeping pretty good pace with French at that point.

It has been suggested recently that I take up Spanish, and my thoughts have always gone in this direction considering I am a minority in my Latino neighborhood. I mean, I feel silly NOT speaking Spanish. This morning they took an interesting turn when I realized that I would be starting not entirely from scratch (I took some Spanish in middle/high school), but I'd need to refresh everything regardless, so I might as well be. What it seems like is a really great opportunity to exercise...my Japanese?

If I'm learning basic Spanish then they should all be things I know in Japanese, and if there are things I DON'T Know in Japanese that I come across in a beginner's Spanish textbook, then I should LEARN them, ASAP. I'm almost tempted to buy a Japanese Spanish textbook, but for a variety of reasons I see that not turning out very well. No, I'd have to make my own awkward pb and mint jelly (They don't go together do they?) sandwich, but it might be worth doing...

Really, though, I would rather get back to French or Russian lol

INCORRIGIBLE, that's what I am, and maybe just stubborn. Here I am immersed in Spanish and not paying attention to a word of it... (Ok, maybe a word or two, but no more...)

～ている pair o' ducks

2009-02-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

So you probably know that ～ている　is used as the progressive:

このとっても面白くて教育的なブログを読んでいる。　I'm reading this very interesting and educational blog.

でもやっぱり何も習っていない。　But as expected I'm not learning anything.

(I need to ask Makiko if you can use なんとなく　with a negative and then I could say, "But somehow, I'm not learning anything." I imagine this sentence also holds true, though ;D, first example sentence withstanding, hurr.)

Anyways, to make a point, yes, progressive, ~ing.

Want to know what ELSE you can use it for? The state after an action has occurred:

普通の男と結婚している。　I'm married to a normal man. (But only for the sake of example ;D)

映画が始まっている。　The movie has started.

So maybe you can already tell what the paradox is, but let's use a new example:

羽が落ちている。

What does that mean? Is it "The feather is falling" or "The feather has fallen"?

GOOD QUESTION! And one my current workbook has not posed, hence confusion. Context really is everything in Japanese.

Lena, Makiko, Takeshi

2009-01-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T23:01:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Still here (Mnemosyne, TBS Radio podcasts)

2008-10-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

and trying to study Japanese 2 hours a day.

It's in the schedule, so I think it's possible. Of course, it's the second thing (after fiction-reading) to get cut in emergencies, but I have a new kanji stategy involving Mnemosyne, a sweet flashcard program that spaces out repetition for you so you don't have to worry about when to review. Just spend some time in the program every day and give it accurate feedback on how hard you are working to answer the questions. I can already tell the difference from just flipping through flashcards on my own, and it's only been a couple days.

Note: This does not mean you should not have awesome hard copy flash cards. I still highly recommend getting the White Rabbit Press sets because of the extremely useful list of six compounds given for each kanji. You can feed whatever you want to learn into Mnemosyne, and keep the cards handy just for when you're on the road.

That said, I wonder if there is a mobile version of this. Could you imagine how awesome it would be to have it on your iPhone or something? o_o

My other new MOAR JAPANESE tactic is TBS Radio. (Incidentally, I got both of these links from All Japanese All the Time, a website by a guy who taught himself Japanese in 18th months or something, i.e. one of those guys we all hate because we are actually bitter and disappointed with ourselves for not trying harder. Fear not, you rock and so do I. Just steal his links and kick ass however you see fit.) I haven't done too much extensive listening there yet, but it's VERY IMPORTANT to listen to people SPEAKING JAPANESE who are NOT in character for an ANIME.

Game no Vocab

2008-08-14T08:47:00.001-07:00

Oh, hey, I can link you to my vocab blog now: ゲームの単語.

It's not the greatest thing in the world, but I'm trying to tag effectively so you can make "lesson plans" or something, and you can search the blog in English or Japanese for the word you need. That makes it at least half-way decent.

Studying on Vacation

2008-08-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

I've found I study really well when I shouldn't really be studying. For instance, I was just in the woods for a week and even though I should've been out kayaking on the lake or swimming or at least walking down the gravel road running past our cabin, I woke up quite a few mornings and just wrote kanji for a while.

I did the same thing when I first arrived in Paris, only with Russian. We were in our hotel rooms prior to arranging actual accommodations for the 5 month study abroad and everyone was like, "Why are you studying?"

I guess I must have some elitist streak that makes me feel good about myself if no one else in their right mind would be studying ;p that and I just really like to study...

The other thing, is that in the woods I had no Internet or videogames to distract me. It comes down to what hobbies you like vs. what you find important vs. what is available and the overlaps thereof.

A month exactly

2008-07-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

You can tell I've been busy, but I have an announcement! Finally.

Since I don't know of any good web-based vocab organizers, I'm going to start a vocab blog, yes with tags. About videogames.

That is all. I don't have a ton of time at the moment. But uh, look forward to that...maybe.

Perfume

2008-06-23T01:20:00.000-07:00

It's like having a sweet tooth:

わあ～東京へ行くことになった！

2008-06-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

海外出張です。GAMEPROという雑誌とウェブサイトからこのチャンスをもらった。出発は６月９と思う。父がきゅうかをとれることを手伝ってくれるといったから、楽しいバケーションになれると思う。

そのほか、オレヤちゃんからすてきなプレゼントをもらった。誕生日は７月にあるのに、彼女がシアトルヘ引っ越すから、私とパーティーなんかをすることができないだろう。WHITE　RABBITのフラッシュカードです。すご～い。これから、オレヤちゃんのを借りることはいらない。

おひさしぶり

2008-05-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

そんなに忙しい？ブログを捨てたくないけど、仕事が多い。勉強のため時間がなちゃった。どうして？多分ＥＡへ行くときに教科書とかＤＳの教育ソフトとかもってくれば、いい。

そこの新しいバイトはすてきで、オフィスで働いているのが好きだ。

Arrrgh I don't even have time to write why I don't have time to write because I have to go catch BART before it shuts down. Yipe yipe yipe. Suffice it to say I haven't given up. I think, as I mentioned, that bringing study materials to EA would be a good thing, but then again you look all pretentious if you're studying kanji at lunch, and it might be easier to make new friends if I actually tried.

*shrug*

More mail

2008-05-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

So I think at some point I intend to put some actual effort into a post about my new study tools, obviously, but this will serve well enough to announce that the DS software has also arrived. I've been gathering initial impressions, but probably won't have time to make the actual post until the weekend. Or never. We'll see haha

I'm pretty happy so far, though, and I had some time this evening to study.

Oleya was over last night and let me oogle her (White Rabbit) flash cards. Let me tell you, they are some awesome. The best part is the six usages listed. You can learn some super useful vocab just by making sure you recognize your kanji. It just feels really good to have a finite amount of information there. Studying out of a kanji dictionary (even a super user friendly one like mine) is stressful and overwhelming since some kanji have meanings that go on for over a page!! Here you can get a really good pertinent chunk of meaning, things you will want to use--like 万引き（まんびき shoplifting） or 九州　（きゅうしゅう　the island of Japan）Therefore, huzzah.

No job, but at least the mail comes

2008-05-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

まあ、日本へ戻るのはまだ出来ない。英会話の会社のめんせつにしっぱいしちゃった。でもそれはあまり悪くない、いまの仕事が大好きだから。問題はお金だけ。

今日GTAIVで彼女を急に殺しちゃった。たいへんだった！車のばくはつ前におれ（ニコ）が自分を辛うじて助けたけど、彼女はまだ中に入ったんだ。あとで「病院へむかえにきてくれる？」と電話で言ったから、なんとかいきぬいた、ゲームが「ミシェールが殺された」と言ったのに。

もうおそい。いつも夜中に書いているね。ね～むい！

でも面白いニューズがある！けっきょくすごい勉強のための本を郵便でもらったんだ。あてでさいぶをとどける、ぜったいに！

Words I looked up or double checked or don't have a good enough handle on the kanji despite deciding to use it (if I really don't know it, I usually won't use it):

戻る to return　もどる
面接　interview めんせつ
問題　problem　もんだい
殺す to kill　ころす
辛うじて barely, narrowly, just managed to do something　かろうじて
郵便　mail/postal service　ゆうびん
細部　details　さいぶ

24 is not enough

2008-05-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm going to pop in here to say that I'm ridiculously busy. Partially, though, because I'm interviewing for Amity on Saturday. Maybe I'll get to go to Japan! My clothes are already being dry cleaned, so...now I just need to come up with a half hour lesson plan and be creative, etc. I think I can, I think I can...

In the meantime, I know you've seen this before if you read my other blogs, but check out ケロログ for voice blogs by Japanese people. I've half a mind to start one myself (in all sorts of bilingual glory...ooooorrrrr something haha) but it'll have to wait.

明日多分日本語を話すチャンスがあるんだ。日本から来たルームメートと彼のお父さんといっしょうに朝ごはんを食べるはずだ。眠そうな顔を消さなくちゃいけないよ。もう午前１時４０だけど、もう少し仕事したほうがいいかな。。。

Today I met a cool girl

2008-04-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

in J-town. Her name is Akiko, and we ate a mixed berry tart while discussing life etc. This week we did English, but next time I told her I will be brave and speak some Japanese, too. I'm feeling pretty energized after meeting her. Also, her English is awesome. She's been here for five years.

Anyways, I guess I don't have much to add. Just noting that I now have a serious conversation partner. If only I can just find something to talk about!

No other study news...

: /

and in fact you'll notice I broke every rule. I didn't mean to take the weekend off and I'm too tired to put any useful Japanese in here. If I just go to bed now so I can get up and be productive tomorrow that will be enough!

Logistics

2008-04-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

ロジスティクス*　-- interestingly, the original Japanese word, 兵站学　(へいたんがく), is the kanji for "army," "halt," and "learning." The middle one isn't general use. Maybe that is why they use English now? I sort of wonder how the change comes about.

logistics: the aspect of military science dealing with the procurement, maintenance, and transportation of military matériel, facilities, and personnel; the handling of the details of an operation

From those kanji, I wonder if they use it for the second meaning or not. Or maybe the English word is used exclusively for the second meaning? Now I'm sort of curious...

Ah well. The point is...this is going to be one of those posts that falls under the logistics category. I will point out features of the blog! Hurrah!

Not like it's so different from other blogs.

"Study Buddies" are websites you should go to. "Break it down" is going to be my attempt at tagging this thing. Tagging is not my strength. I'm going to try not to add too many more categories besides what is there.

logistics - Stuff like this.
grammar - Concerned with...grammar. Like sentence patterns and things.
vocab - Probably a list of words.
shopping - Stores to buy things from, things I've bought, books, etc.

Possible future tags include: audio, video, translation, ...Japanese?

Who knows? The...bandwidth...is the limit!

*Note the cheap cop-out involved in translating the titles of entries. This is a devious loop-hole for rule one. Of course, now that we recognize it as such we'll have to make sure it isn't abused.

Down the rabbit hole

2008-04-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

I've posted about this elsewhere already, but...

WHITE RABBIT PRESS

Can't really say it enough. I have also already commented on my first purchase, which hasn't arrived yet. That and my latest gamble on kanji software should arrive around the same time. And impressions will be here. I fully expect to be completely satisfied, especially with the readers.

Oleya, best friend and study mate, has acquired the first set of flashcards, but I haven't been able to examine them yet.

I literally quiver with anticipation.

But yeah, they're not only about flashcards (as the top half of the main page seems to indicate); in fact, as long as you give them a detailed request, they will ship you anything you ask for.

I wonder if they are hiring.

Some useful grammar words

2008-04-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

This seems to be a very huge guide to Japanese grammar with Japanese vocab included. (Although I still recommend Tae Kim's guide as a more friendly comprehensive look.) Well, I can't learn it all at once. It's nice to be able to ask questions that you'll have to ask often (Is this a -ru verb?) in Japanese.

The 文法用語 section is particularly useful. It actually goes further in depth than non-linguists probably need. Some of the words don't have translations for whatever reason, but many of them can be found in my favorite online dictionary.

So then once you start looking up words like 一段活用　(ru verb conjugation いちだんかつよう), you can look find different words made with 活用 (which is, itself a する　verb) like 活用語 (conjugated word　かつようご),　活用形　(conjugated form かつようけい), and　活用語尾　(conjugative suffix かつようごび--i.e. the part that you actual mix 'n match to come up with tenses, etc.)

代名詞　means "pronoun," and it's pronounced だいめいし, which makes you want to think "big noun." Instead, maybe think "noun for the ages" or something lol

I'm going to reproduce a bunch of things because doing so will help me CONCENTRATE and maybe I'll remember more. These are important words!

主語　subject　しゅご
目的語　object　もくてきご
名詞　noun　めいし
代名詞　pronoun　だいめいし
形容詞　ii adjective　けいようし
形容動詞　na adjective　けいようどうし
一段活用動詞　ru verb　いちだんかつようどうし
五段活用動詞　u verb　ごだんかつようどうし
不規則動詞　irregular verb　ふきそくどうし
副詞　adverb　ふくし
接続詞　conjuction　せつぞくし
過去形　past tense　かこけい
現在形　present tense　げんざいかえい
常体　plain　じょうたい
敬体　polite　けいたい
敬語　honorifics　けいご
肯定　affirmative　こうてい
否定　negative　ひてい

I guess this is enough for now. I'd sort of like to learn some other verb words (transitive, intransitive, volitional, that...other thing...causative, passive, yadda). I bet I can find them easier in my textbooks, although most of them are on that page.

Here is a good tip: LEARN THIS STUFF WHILE YOU'RE ACTUALLY LEARNING THIS STUFF. Don't just skip over the headings of your elementary Japanese book just because they are in Japanese and you don't speak it yet. If your book doesn't have them, ask your teacher. If you learn these words in the context of grasping the concepts, it's probably so much easier to get them to stick.

Rules are meant to be broken ;D

2008-04-22T23:51:00.001-07:00

Ok, it's still Tuesday right now. No matter what time I finish writing. It's still Tuesday riiiiiiight...now!

実は今日あまり勉強しなかったけど、友達とアニメを見たから、日本語をちょっと聞いた。

Well, blah, I was going to work on a vocabulary list, because I'd like to learn grammatical terms in Japanese. I know some already like 名詞 and 動詞, but I need to learn more. Subject, object, adverb... That can be my project for next time. And I'd like to take a look at Famitsu soon, as well. Hmm. And play more Mother 2.

I thought I had learned a new word from Descendents of Darkness today, but I couldn't find it in the dictionary. That doesn't necessarily mean anything except that I can't really find the kanji...

I suck at Japanese!

2008-04-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is the first step to not sucking at Japanese. Admit it, you suck! I suck! We try and try, but we are un-near to fluency. We are far. Knowing you don't know is much better than assuming you do. You can say まだまだ行きます and keep on plugging away.

Do you like videogames and anime and manga and all that crazy J-stuff even though it doesn't seem to help you learn anything? Me, too. Are you embarrassed because you started learning Japanese in high school after you saw a subbed episode of Slayers and though it was the greatest sounding language ever? Me, too. You can be a geek (or even *shudder* an OTAKU) and still be serious student of Japanese. Let's prove it!

I'm writing this post as a corny introduction to HOW TO NOT SUCK AT JAPANESE, which is my new study blog. I will post Japanese things here not ALWAYS related to studying, but I will try to somehow create studying out of them, if they are unrelated. I kinda hate posts like these because usually blogs that have them stop after like three entries, you know? If that happens, I promise I will just get rid of the blog and not leave it up here taunting people who thought it might have potential, and then cry when they see it hasn't been updated since 2004.

I think I will make some rules, because introductory posts deserve at least one, maybe:

Every post will have Japanese characters in it, and they will not simply say こんにちはor すごい. They will say things that maybe I haven't heard before, or maybe I need to review, or maybe I just learned. Maybe sometimes I will inflict whole paragraphs of horrible Japanese on you, or maybe I will translate game manuals...WHO KNOWS?

The other rule is that I will update at least every other day, and this I am SO not joking about. I would say everyday, but there needs to be an extenuating circumstances rule.

Also, I am late, so I need to leave. TO BE FREAKING CONTINUED!