うわああぁぁ～
留学生がすごいです～
超嬉しいね～
Translation: I'm super happy because I'm finally getting an exchange student.
I've tried to convince my parents for three years. My mum was okay with it mostly, but my dad was against it.
But he finally gave in. In the nick of time ;)
I keep wanting to tell everyone.... except I've already done that, like 3403234 million times.
They're probably sick of hearing me talk about it.
So I'll unleash my excitement here.
I'm just sooo excited.
Her name is Kei. She's from Hiroshima-shi. She's a year younger -w-;; Like most of my friends.
She probably won't go to the same school as me :<< cello =" awesome,">_<; But this is more for me getting my feelings out than for people to read it.)
I don't know when she's coming yet, but it has to be soon - since school starts soon and all. And if she doesn't go to my high school, then the school she's going to has already had orientation. Hopefully they would let us come and tour her around the school though. I've only been there once to take the ACT I think. But at least I speak English and could help her out.
Gaahh~ Just thinking about it makes me all happy~lah!
I'll even learn Tennis for her owo;; Or at least maybe we can kick a soccer ball around outside. It'll be good for me -w-;; I'll probably spend less time online - another good thing for me. And my Japanese will get better I am hoping~ >///< I'm so excited I can hardly wait.
The contact person hasn't been able to get ahold of the schools yet. Probably won't be able to anymore today. I really hope she can tomorrow. I'm worried that she'll end up having to come after school has already started. That would really suck D; Especially with the way American schools are run. But I'll be there to support her >3
I can't even wait for meeting her at the airport. I'm gonna have flowers and a giant sign that says~"OOOOけいさん！アメリカへようこそ！” -w-; I forget her last name right now, but then again, it's probably better I don't post it here, neh?
On top of that, I've been emailing Rei-chan a lot. She told me my Japanese is getting better owo;; Of course I was like ah ha, no not really. but I have been studying REALLY HARD all summer - and that I've been studying too much (汗）. I've finally gotten down to working on my EE.
Ah lah~ I hope I can be a really good host sister to Kei T_T; I'm worried I'm going to over do it though >_<;
I'll probably come back and edit this if I want to rant more about Kei-san~
I can't call her Kei-chan just yettt ;P
2009-08-13
2009-08-10
Dzongkha, Tibetan, and other Related Langauges
Ever since a few years ago when National Geographic featured an article on "Bhutan", I've been thoroughly interested in the small Buddhist nation. For quite a while since then, my meager reserach has provided me with a few facts. The first of which was that I probably wouldn't be able to make a trip to Bhutan any time soon. While traveling to any country isn't cheap - Bhutan has an added fee of around 200 USD per day just for being in the country? (I'm not sure if this is only a tourist thing, or if you could get in without this fee by studying something). Up until now, my research revealed that "Dzongkha" was the national language - however, just today I read that Dzongkha isn't actually well established. In fact, students prefer English to Dzongkha, and I'm not actually seeing what is the normal language spoken. There have been mentions of Nepalese being outlawed. I've also seen that Tshala (spelling?) is spoken in the eastern regions. One of the more frustrating - but surely interesting if you have the time to study it - of smaller countries is the lack of uniformity. When you go to Japan, you know you're going to find Japanese speakers whereever you go. But you head to Bhutan and can't even find a clear langauge spoken.
So instead of seeking out Dzongkha resources (of which there are few), I think I'm going to stick with learning Tibetan first, which I read today is actually not that closely related to Dzongkha. However, both use the same writing system - which is what attracts me to the language in the first place.
Another stumbling block is that well, Tibetan is closely related with Buddhism. While this is to be expected, my curiousity strikes if it would ever be possible to study Tibetan without an intensive study of Buddhism, that is to say, I'm not against learning about Buddhism, but I don't practice Buddhism. I'm a Christian and I don't have plans to convert any time soon. Some of the few things I've glanced over that allow you to learn Tibetan are usually closely associated with Buddhism - such as a temple offering classes. I wonder how it would be viewed as a Christian going to a Buddhist temple to learn Tibetan? My purpose in learning Tibetan isn't for comprehension of Buddhist texts though, and I have a feeling that's what such a class would focus on.
This whole religon infused with culture is something to be expected. I've already faced some personal dilemmas about it. I love Buddhist and Shinto temples and cultural festivals, yet they're quite readily infused with the religon. Is it okay for me to appreciate such things without practicing the faith - and actually having an entirely different faith.
Another thing on my list of things that would be nice to accomplish is to walk on this path thing around Japan that connects a bunch of temples. I'm forgotten what its called, but it sounds like fun. I probalby would only walk part of the way, but honestly, so much fun, and so pretty I bet~
Aahh, anyways, I'm being ridiculous right now.
I need to get back to my reading "Words and Rules" and working on my EE...
So instead of seeking out Dzongkha resources (of which there are few), I think I'm going to stick with learning Tibetan first, which I read today is actually not that closely related to Dzongkha. However, both use the same writing system - which is what attracts me to the language in the first place.
Another stumbling block is that well, Tibetan is closely related with Buddhism. While this is to be expected, my curiousity strikes if it would ever be possible to study Tibetan without an intensive study of Buddhism, that is to say, I'm not against learning about Buddhism, but I don't practice Buddhism. I'm a Christian and I don't have plans to convert any time soon. Some of the few things I've glanced over that allow you to learn Tibetan are usually closely associated with Buddhism - such as a temple offering classes. I wonder how it would be viewed as a Christian going to a Buddhist temple to learn Tibetan? My purpose in learning Tibetan isn't for comprehension of Buddhist texts though, and I have a feeling that's what such a class would focus on.
This whole religon infused with culture is something to be expected. I've already faced some personal dilemmas about it. I love Buddhist and Shinto temples and cultural festivals, yet they're quite readily infused with the religon. Is it okay for me to appreciate such things without practicing the faith - and actually having an entirely different faith.
Another thing on my list of things that would be nice to accomplish is to walk on this path thing around Japan that connects a bunch of temples. I'm forgotten what its called, but it sounds like fun. I probalby would only walk part of the way, but honestly, so much fun, and so pretty I bet~
Aahh, anyways, I'm being ridiculous right now.
I need to get back to my reading "Words and Rules" and working on my EE...
2009-08-09
But I can speak ___, too!
>_<; First of all, not that anybody reads this - except for the friend I gave this link to, I apologized for second posting in a day. I try to avoid doing that.
But, competition really gets to me linguistically. When I heard that somebody my age speaks five langauges, my first instinct is to question what languages. Then, if they don't match up (i.e. it's not like Dutch, Norweign, and Swedish), to question how well they actually know those languages. Fluency is a term thrown around, especially when you're trying to make yourself look cooler.
If I really wanted to sound all great, I would say oh, I speak French, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai - or something like that, even though my Korean isn't even above reading hangeul, and my Thai is limited to hello (but nobody would know that since the number of people I've meet who can speak Thai is about 0).
But I don't even like to say I can speak French or Japanese or Chinese or Korean.
My French...is laughable. I had a desire once upon a time but a teacher destroyed that.
Japanese - my comprehension is probably less than a grade school student.
Chinese - I don't get far at all. My listening skills are about negative? My reading skills are a little higher because of Japanese, but still pretty low, I see characters and say, "Oh that means ALL" but I have no idea how to say them.
Korean - is the most laughable of any that I would mention. I can tell you exist, hello, goodbye, hi, nice to meet you, I'm a women, you're a man, very simple things. I'm trying not to learn it - trying hard not to give in. But then I hear that someone speaks five langauges and I say I'M GOING TO LEARN KOREAN TOO.
And then there's also that, "Well.... let's just go learn German". Which isn't easy, but since it is related to English, it's not necessarily as "hard" as my Asian langauges. It's not going to be as easy as learning Norweign for a Danish personthough.
I'm really wondering if these young people who speak so many langauges actually can? What do they qualify as being able to speak these languages?
My self-confidence doesn't allow me to say I'm good at any language I'm learning - perhaps theirs says otherwise?
I usually try and console my "slow pace" (which is better than the people who are nowhere), by saying, I'm young, I've got time. In fact, I just stumbled upon a book by Kato Lamb I think the name was. Famous polyglot - who learned at an older age, so I think I'll be fine.
I'm commited to my one language at a time thing for now, because I've got time.
But, competition really gets to me linguistically. When I heard that somebody my age speaks five langauges, my first instinct is to question what languages. Then, if they don't match up (i.e. it's not like Dutch, Norweign, and Swedish), to question how well they actually know those languages. Fluency is a term thrown around, especially when you're trying to make yourself look cooler.
If I really wanted to sound all great, I would say oh, I speak French, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai - or something like that, even though my Korean isn't even above reading hangeul, and my Thai is limited to hello (but nobody would know that since the number of people I've meet who can speak Thai is about 0).
But I don't even like to say I can speak French or Japanese or Chinese or Korean.
My French...is laughable. I had a desire once upon a time but a teacher destroyed that.
Japanese - my comprehension is probably less than a grade school student.
Chinese - I don't get far at all. My listening skills are about negative? My reading skills are a little higher because of Japanese, but still pretty low, I see characters and say, "Oh that means ALL" but I have no idea how to say them.
Korean - is the most laughable of any that I would mention. I can tell you exist, hello, goodbye, hi, nice to meet you, I'm a women, you're a man, very simple things. I'm trying not to learn it - trying hard not to give in. But then I hear that someone speaks five langauges and I say I'M GOING TO LEARN KOREAN TOO.
And then there's also that, "Well.... let's just go learn German". Which isn't easy, but since it is related to English, it's not necessarily as "hard" as my Asian langauges. It's not going to be as easy as learning Norweign for a Danish personthough.
I'm really wondering if these young people who speak so many langauges actually can? What do they qualify as being able to speak these languages?
My self-confidence doesn't allow me to say I'm good at any language I'm learning - perhaps theirs says otherwise?
I usually try and console my "slow pace" (which is better than the people who are nowhere), by saying, I'm young, I've got time. In fact, I just stumbled upon a book by Kato Lamb I think the name was. Famous polyglot - who learned at an older age, so I think I'll be fine.
I'm commited to my one language at a time thing for now, because I've got time.
Common Misconception about Learning Another Language
This one is going to be short - and angry bear with me.
I'm so sick of hearing that people "want" to learn a language.
Every time somebody hears I'm learning Japanese, they say "Oh, that's cool. I want to learn Japanese too." I look them straight in the eye, and say, "No, you don't." If they question me, I just tell me "If you wanted to, you would be."
The only people I would accept an excuse from is someone who is already learning another language - this is why I can say I want to learn Korean, without having begun learning it. However, if their learning is school-based, i.e. "Oh, but I'm learning Spanish in school" - then it's not really an excuse. I started learning Japanese even though I had French class everyday. The exception to this is of course, if somebody is honestly interested in their school-based language. That is to say, they are actively pursuing knowledge of the language outside of a classroom setting.
Moving beyond all these exceptions, to learn a language doesn't require skill. All it requires is motivation.
If I wanted to learn Korean, I could, very easily. I'm already in the right direction - that is to say, I listen to Korean music, all the time (it's all I've listened to for ... eight monthes now?) - except this does nothing for my Japanese (I can't find any Japanese music I'm really into...).
I digress, my point here is, if you want to learn a language, you can. Don't make excuses. Don't say you don't have time - that means you don't want to learn the language, you're making excuses. Last year, I didn't particularly "have time" - I just spent every second of my spare time immersed or studying or whatever.
On a side, not as angry note, the RTK method has been going well so far. I'm not -that- far into the kanji, and I know some kanji outside of the ones presented, but today I found a kanji and I knew it's meaning from RTK. A lot of these kanji are seeming pretty useless - I've never seen them before (or if I have, I haven't paid much attention), but I'm sure they'll be handy when I'm tackling novels.
I'm so sick of hearing that people "want" to learn a language.
Every time somebody hears I'm learning Japanese, they say "Oh, that's cool. I want to learn Japanese too." I look them straight in the eye, and say, "No, you don't." If they question me, I just tell me "If you wanted to, you would be."
The only people I would accept an excuse from is someone who is already learning another language - this is why I can say I want to learn Korean, without having begun learning it. However, if their learning is school-based, i.e. "Oh, but I'm learning Spanish in school" - then it's not really an excuse. I started learning Japanese even though I had French class everyday. The exception to this is of course, if somebody is honestly interested in their school-based language. That is to say, they are actively pursuing knowledge of the language outside of a classroom setting.
Moving beyond all these exceptions, to learn a language doesn't require skill. All it requires is motivation.
If I wanted to learn Korean, I could, very easily. I'm already in the right direction - that is to say, I listen to Korean music, all the time (it's all I've listened to for ... eight monthes now?) - except this does nothing for my Japanese (I can't find any Japanese music I'm really into...).
I digress, my point here is, if you want to learn a language, you can. Don't make excuses. Don't say you don't have time - that means you don't want to learn the language, you're making excuses. Last year, I didn't particularly "have time" - I just spent every second of my spare time immersed or studying or whatever.
On a side, not as angry note, the RTK method has been going well so far. I'm not -that- far into the kanji, and I know some kanji outside of the ones presented, but today I found a kanji and I knew it's meaning from RTK. A lot of these kanji are seeming pretty useless - I've never seen them before (or if I have, I haven't paid much attention), but I'm sure they'll be handy when I'm tackling novels.
2009-08-04
日本語レベルアップしました！
While in some ways I feel like I'm making absolutely no progress on Japanese - and it's become a game of vocabulary overall, I'm starting to feel more adapt. Even though there's still a lot of glancing over texts because I only know .1% of the words, I think I'm moving more up to .2%. (This is all an exaggeration of course.)
Most of the time I'm too lazy to pull out a dictionary - unless I'm reading something online that allows me to hover over it with Perapera-kun (oh, it's so bad). So when reading manga I usually just skim over it. Reading it in my head, happy that I "know" readings (because they're given there for me with furigana), but I miss alot of the meaning. And I get tired after 5 pages - or 10 depending on how long the text is. Yet I keep pushing myself to keep reading. Not all at the same time and I take breaks sometimes, but I am constantly giving up. That is to say, I read, give up, but come back read, give up. The key here is that I am constantly coming back.
About the only time I'll pull out the dictionary is when I've gotten sick of seeing the same thing over and over and having no idea what it means.
My listening is still pretty iffy. Sometimes I get things, sometimes I don't. I definately always get the really simple stuff - the go betweens, introductions. But once they start discussing the stock market I'm gone. Granted, even if it was written it would go over my head if it was about the stock market. But, for example, I understood Shouichi talking about his past in relation to Byakuran in the last chapter of Reborn. If I heard that being said, I wouldn't have understood much I think. So I need to improve my listening. For now, I've got a text and audio version of the first Harry Potter book. I'm going for it because I already know what happens so it helps me understand things through context. Looking at it written really helps out though. Hopefully I can move on to things that I haven't heard before, but can read and listen and then just listen and understand.
In other Japanese news, I'm going to attempt to try out Remembering the Kanji, again. I think I've tried it a few times. But I give up at SRSes too easily. But alas, I'll try it again anyways. And if I give up, oh well.
That's about all the news I have. Except that I just started reading a book called "Words and Rules" by Steven Pinker. I'm only a few pages into it, but it's interesting.
Most of the time I'm too lazy to pull out a dictionary - unless I'm reading something online that allows me to hover over it with Perapera-kun (oh, it's so bad). So when reading manga I usually just skim over it. Reading it in my head, happy that I "know" readings (because they're given there for me with furigana), but I miss alot of the meaning. And I get tired after 5 pages - or 10 depending on how long the text is. Yet I keep pushing myself to keep reading. Not all at the same time and I take breaks sometimes, but I am constantly giving up. That is to say, I read, give up, but come back read, give up. The key here is that I am constantly coming back.
About the only time I'll pull out the dictionary is when I've gotten sick of seeing the same thing over and over and having no idea what it means.
My listening is still pretty iffy. Sometimes I get things, sometimes I don't. I definately always get the really simple stuff - the go betweens, introductions. But once they start discussing the stock market I'm gone. Granted, even if it was written it would go over my head if it was about the stock market. But, for example, I understood Shouichi talking about his past in relation to Byakuran in the last chapter of Reborn. If I heard that being said, I wouldn't have understood much I think. So I need to improve my listening. For now, I've got a text and audio version of the first Harry Potter book. I'm going for it because I already know what happens so it helps me understand things through context. Looking at it written really helps out though. Hopefully I can move on to things that I haven't heard before, but can read and listen and then just listen and understand.
In other Japanese news, I'm going to attempt to try out Remembering the Kanji, again. I think I've tried it a few times. But I give up at SRSes too easily. But alas, I'll try it again anyways. And if I give up, oh well.
That's about all the news I have. Except that I just started reading a book called "Words and Rules" by Steven Pinker. I'm only a few pages into it, but it's interesting.
2009-08-01
The Curse that is Summer
So I mentioned before, I have enough time to blog, and blog daily.
But summer also comes with one of those "too much time" curses, where you can just put everything off, and keep putting it off, until you... feel like doing it, which pretty much never comes - there's a reason you put it off in the first place.
So I have this paper to write over the summer, right?
4000 words max. Fishing for about 3500 words or more ideally.
The topic is... elasticity of demand for textbooks in Japan. How fun and exciting.
I picked it because... I was looking at chemistry textbooks to purchase and had already decided I was going to do something related to economics. Bad, bad idea. I think it's going to turn into more of an analysis of the market structure.
I have about two weeks to write it now because i've put it off so much.
I've done a little research, but I need to figure out a way to not site wikipedia for where I got my textbook companies from. Since everything is pretty much in Japanese, it makes life so much harder.
I picked it BECAUSE it was Japanese, but ehhh, I'm almost regretting it now.
In other news, my lust for Korean is getting no weaker. Especially after adding those blogs. At least if I learn it now though I'll be learning it off of Japanese. So following a language laddering kind of idea. 한글 just looks too pretty to pass up. ... so did Tibetan a while ago. And the list grows longer. I'll probalby leave off Tagalog and Bahasa Malay or whatever it is until a long while off, just because they use roman letters. Everything is cooler when I have to learn a new writing system. It doesn't help that I found a way to stream Korean television. It's very nice quality streaming too. It's not a huge variety of channels, but it has the main ones. The ones to watch dramas on... Oh Korean dramas. I was watching a channel and super soap opera came on. It was soo soap opera-ie. I don't even know what they were saying, but I could just tell. It was the epitome of soap operas. Koreans are good at those.
On the other front, Japanese. I haven't been neglecting it. Share makes sure of that. I'm so addicted to share. Like I was when I first started using torrents. It just didn't feel right not to be downloading something xD; So I discovered my new query word, "日本語吹替" aka Japanese dub. While I love my Japanese dramas, I just haven't been into them lately. So instead I'm watching American dramas which I wouldnever watch in English, in Japanese. Well actually I watched Heroes in English and I would watch House if I happened to pass by. But now i'm watching Gossip Girl, definately not something I would pick out normally. There's also quite a few Stargates, but ehh, not into that. Right now I have the first episode of season 3 of Heroes playing in the background. I never watched all of Season 3, so might as well watch it in Japanese. Also, I found an audio version of the first harry potter book in Japanese. So that'll go really well with my text version I found. I'll have to cut it into chunks, but it'll be fun. Then I'll have read it in three languages! Too bad I can't find more Bradbury in all three and with audio. Oh well.
I'm not further than I was a few days ago in Puchimon. But it's alright. I can go at my own pace.
And Chapter 252 of Reborn! So intennsee.
And that's it for me.
But summer also comes with one of those "too much time" curses, where you can just put everything off, and keep putting it off, until you... feel like doing it, which pretty much never comes - there's a reason you put it off in the first place.
So I have this paper to write over the summer, right?
4000 words max. Fishing for about 3500 words or more ideally.
The topic is... elasticity of demand for textbooks in Japan. How fun and exciting.
I picked it because... I was looking at chemistry textbooks to purchase and had already decided I was going to do something related to economics. Bad, bad idea. I think it's going to turn into more of an analysis of the market structure.
I have about two weeks to write it now because i've put it off so much.
I've done a little research, but I need to figure out a way to not site wikipedia for where I got my textbook companies from. Since everything is pretty much in Japanese, it makes life so much harder.
I picked it BECAUSE it was Japanese, but ehhh, I'm almost regretting it now.
In other news, my lust for Korean is getting no weaker. Especially after adding those blogs. At least if I learn it now though I'll be learning it off of Japanese. So following a language laddering kind of idea. 한글 just looks too pretty to pass up. ... so did Tibetan a while ago. And the list grows longer. I'll probalby leave off Tagalog and Bahasa Malay or whatever it is until a long while off, just because they use roman letters. Everything is cooler when I have to learn a new writing system. It doesn't help that I found a way to stream Korean television. It's very nice quality streaming too. It's not a huge variety of channels, but it has the main ones. The ones to watch dramas on... Oh Korean dramas. I was watching a channel and super soap opera came on. It was soo soap opera-ie. I don't even know what they were saying, but I could just tell. It was the epitome of soap operas. Koreans are good at those.
On the other front, Japanese. I haven't been neglecting it. Share makes sure of that. I'm so addicted to share. Like I was when I first started using torrents. It just didn't feel right not to be downloading something xD; So I discovered my new query word, "日本語吹替" aka Japanese dub. While I love my Japanese dramas, I just haven't been into them lately. So instead I'm watching American dramas which I wouldnever watch in English, in Japanese. Well actually I watched Heroes in English and I would watch House if I happened to pass by. But now i'm watching Gossip Girl, definately not something I would pick out normally. There's also quite a few Stargates, but ehh, not into that. Right now I have the first episode of season 3 of Heroes playing in the background. I never watched all of Season 3, so might as well watch it in Japanese. Also, I found an audio version of the first harry potter book in Japanese. So that'll go really well with my text version I found. I'll have to cut it into chunks, but it'll be fun. Then I'll have read it in three languages! Too bad I can't find more Bradbury in all three and with audio. Oh well.
I'm not further than I was a few days ago in Puchimon. But it's alright. I can go at my own pace.
And Chapter 252 of Reborn! So intennsee.
And that's it for me.
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