Audio Lessons

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

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

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

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

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

1) The Study Buddy

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

2) The Conversation Partner

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

3) The E-pal

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

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

Revised Edition of An Integrated Approach...

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

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

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

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

Drill books made especially for me

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


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

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