Home Forums 自己紹介 (Self Introduction) はじめますて! コケリ です。どおぞ よろしく。

This topic contains 8 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Eihiko 10 years, 6 months ago.

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  • #45307

    Hello everyone!

    My name is Cokelee. (COKE like the drink, LEE like the name in English. Ko-ke-ri is how I think my name could be pronounced. Let me know if you have a better suggestion!). I’m 22 years old, a native English speaker from the US of A, and a very recent self-taught Japanese student. I graduated this past December with a B.A. in English literature and composition, a B.A. in philosophy, and a minor in Women’s Studies. I have no foreign language knowledge aside from simple self-taught French. While I am able to read (or derive general meaning) from simple French, lack of a language partner made it difficult to speak French easily or understand the language spoken at natural speed. I hope to find a speaking partner for Japanese so that I do not make the same mistake.

    I began to study French in January because I will have to take French in graduate school. I wanted to 1) get a “leg up” and 2) it looks good on my application if I already know at least a little of a foreign language. I started studying Japanese mid-April for fun After I graduated college, I did not have anything intellectually challenging to do. I was tired of reading philosophy and working on graduate school applications.French was a laborious chore. Studying Japanese was an intellectually engaging task that was separate from my other work and a relief from a dull job. I found myself procrastinating on French in order to study Japanese instead. When I began to get the languages messed up (whew boy did I make some interesting sentences…), I decided to self-study the fun language and wait until I can/must take actual French lessons in graduate school before taking up French.

    Also, I am applying for PhD programs in critical theory this December. Over the past year, I have become increasingly interested in the work of Japanese theorists on transnational cultural criticism. I do not have plans to study Japanese metacriticism in graduate school because I am so new to non-Western writers, but I am extremely interested in this work and I want to learn more about Japanese language, history, and culture so that I can enjoy studying this kind of research in my spare time. I know this goal is at minimum at least a decade away. My “goal” with Japanese is maintaining a daily routine rather than meeting a certain “point” at a certain time because I’ve learned through trial and error I cannot force a deadline or goal with language acquisition.

    I spent the last two weeks of April thoroughly learning hiragana and katakana without beginning vocabulary or grammar. Then first week in May I began to self-study Genki 1 and Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji. The RTK method works extremely well for me, provided that I go a bit much more slowly and steadily than he recommends. (20-25 kanji a day?? I usually do about 5 now that I’ve gotten past the easy chapters. How does someone finish that thing in 6 weeks? Am I just slow?). I dislike Genki because I found the content disorganized, grammar points poorly explained, and the chapters crammed with too much information at once. So I am “starting over” with Textfugu to go more slowly and thoroughly. I plan on supplementing TextFugu lessons with Tae Kim (in the order I learn it in Textfugu, not the order Tae Kim presents it) and I’m continuing with RTK rather than learning the Textfugu Kanji.

    So in short, I am very new to Japanese and I am excited to meet you all!

    #45315

    Joel
    Member

    Welcome!

    My name is Cokelee. (COKE like the drink, LEE like the name in English. Ko-ke-ri is how I think my name could be pronounced. Let me know if you have a better suggestion!).

    Is this a nickname or a pronunciation guide for “Colclough”? Because Google translate is suggesting ゲイル… don’t ask me why. If you share your name with a famous person, one trick is to look them up on the Japanese wikipedia and see how their names are written – sadly in your case, even though there’s fourteen Colcloughs on the English wiki none of them have a Japanese counterpart…

    #45318

    Is this a nickname or a pronunciation guide for “Colclough”?

    Both :) “Colclough” is pronounced “Coke-LEE” and I go by my last name to everyone outside my immediate family. I usually spell it phonetically online. ゲイル…hmm, not sure where Google translate got that. コケリ,コーケリ or maybe コキリ were going to be my guesses.

    Thank you for the suggestion to check out the Japanese wiki for name pronunciation! I shall keep that in mind for future reference.

    #45321

    Joel
    Member

    So apparently the name comes from that of the Parish of Cookley in Surrey (England), though there are also some who pronounce it “col-cluff”. There’s no indication of any pronunciation remotely approximating ゲイル though, which is odd, because Google Translate is generally fairly good with proper names. That said, it’s apparently also a famous brand of pottery, so maybe Google Translate is translating it into something else rather than actually transliterating it.

    #45322

    Interesting, I had never heard of the connection to Cookley. We always assumed it was a Welsh thing, because of the numerous landmarks in Wales that share the name. I knew about the pottery because every time I’ve googled myself out of curiosity the pottery is the only thing that shows up :)

    I tend to avoid Google translate for precisely that reason. It’s good in a pinch, but I’m especially wary of using it to decipher loan words and certainly never for kanji.

    #45325

    Joel
    Member

    Nah, Google Translate is generally pretty good for names. Kanji names too. That said, I’ve found me a better option for transliterating Japanese names into English, so…

    (If you’re curious: http://kanji.reader.bz/ )

    But enough about your name. =P Any plans to visit Japan?

    #45328

    Someday, yes. However I am incredibly poor right now (which is why I’m self-teaching Japanese instead of finding a tutor tbh) so such a trip is a loooong way off. Have you ever been?

    #45329

    Joel
    Member

    Yah. Went with a friend in 2010 (before I actually started learning Japanese).

    #45334

    Eihiko
    Member

    こんにちは、コックリー!

    Do you enjoy creative writing, by chance? Also, what is it about Japanese that makes it so much more captivating than French, in your opinion? I’ve studied French for many years and I find it somewhat boring, linguistically. Too structured, not quirky enough to have personality, in my opinion.

    Oh, right, my name is Eihiko! はじめまして! I’ve tried learning Japanese many times and have usually given up because I would complete a tutorial/resource without feeling like I had learned how to speak Japanese. TextFugu is my most recent endeavor, and I’ve been sticking with it more consistently than in the past. To be honest, TextFugu isn’t really better than other guides (like Tae Kim), as it turns out, which was somewhat disappointing. But TextFugu gives a pretty big discount on WaniKani, which is TOTALLY AWESOME, in my opinion. Also, I like saying hi to all the people on TextFugu who want to learn. It inspires me to keep going, myself ^_^

    As for your name, I would suggest Kokkurii (コックリー). ‘E’ sounds in Japanese are usually fully pronounced, whereas ‘U’ sounds are sometimes glided over or omitted entirely. Western speaking is a lot slower than Japanese speaking, which Japanese native speakers interpret as long vowels (vowels held out twice as long). In this case, holding out the last syllable twice as long makes sense because the second syllable of your name is emphasized. The kk is there because of the abrupt, bouncy ending in “coke” before you start saying LEE. (ie it’s Coke-LEE, not Co-klee)

    Anyway, I hope to see you around the forums!

    よろしくおねがいします!
    -Eihiko

    • This reply was modified 10 years, 6 months ago by  Eihiko.
    Not from the desk of Eihiko. Eihiko's boss took his desk away from him.
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