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Currently going through the “Nouny Adverbs” on Season 4 Chapter 5.
I have arrived in Seattle and am no longer homeless! ;) Living out of a hotel for a week is definitely an adventure…
Before we started the moving process, I was unable to catch up on my Anki backlog. Unfortunately I am now even further behind! Oh, well. At least I have motivation to learn again. On Friday, we visited the Bellevue location of Uwajimaya (http://www.uwajimaya.com/). I picked up a Japanese Seattle newspaper and am both encouraged that I could read parts of it and discouraged that I don’t have full understanding. Back to the studying!
Today so far – 15 minutes of Anki and a Jpod101 lesson. Still to do – read a blog post in native Japanese.
Took a break from studying today because it’s Evo finals day, starting Core3k tomorrow!
Spent 45 minutes today knocking out a couple hundred overdue cards in Anki. Also read a blog post in Japanese and listened to a Jpod101 lesson. Good day.
http://lang-8.com/295072/journals/1573727
and on top of that I finally met a proper Japanese AKB fan that is willing to speak with me :3 so excited!
Maybe this has little to do with studying, but I wanted to share a small victory that made me feel good.
Today I went to my usual hangout to eat a little sashimi. If I’m lucky there will sometimes be Japanese customers that sit near me and I can, well, eavesdrop on their convos with the staff. Today was just such a day. Then the chef made a little small talk with me (in Japanese) and I decided to be daring and talk more than I usually would. Then the customer next to me got in the conversation and the three of us spoke Japanese for quite a while about a variety of topics (cars, food, work).
I spoke haltingly and there were some limits to what I could say or understand, though my pronunciation was, I’d say, very good. But it was the longest and most advanced conversation I ever had in Japanese and I was honestly surprised with how I did, considering it’s been years since I stopped actively studying. I felt like a million bucks.
It cemented my decision to try to go back to studying because for the first time I finally felt like fluency was something I could actually attain.
Mark, did he ever end up replying back to you?
Gigatron:
Maybe this has little to do with studying, but I wanted to share a small victory that made me feel good.Today I went to my usual hangout to eat a little sashimi. If I’m lucky there will sometimes be Japanese customers that sit near me and I can, well, eavesdrop on their convos with the staff. Today was just such a day. Then the chef made a little small talk with me (in Japanese) and I decided to be daring and talk more than I usually would. Then the customer next to me got in the conversation and the three of us spoke Japanese for quite a while about a variety of topics (cars, food, work).
I spoke haltingly and there were some limits to what I could say or understand, though my pronunciation was, I’d say, very good. But it was the longest and most advanced conversation I ever had in Japanese and I was honestly surprised with how I did, considering it’s been years since I stopped actively studying. I felt like a million bucks.
It cemented my decision to try to go back to studying because for the first time I finally felt like fluency was something I could actually attain.
Sounds good. You should feel great.
Gigatron – that is awesome!! Congratulations. :) :) What an awesome motivator to get back to your studies. Way to go!
@Missing and winterpromise: Cheers, mates. :)
I had gone in there expecting to blurt out a few short Japanese phrases and that being it, but everything went way better than I could’ve imagined. I must’ve sounded very patchy and made loads of mistakes, but the fact he could understand me enough to have a friendly chat meant the world to me.
Though it sounds a bit sappy to say this, it kinda gave me a quick and blurry glimpse of what my life could potentially become. It made my goal seem real, no longer a “theoretical” light that may be at the end of the tunnel, but an actual light that I can see.
Between the customer (whose name, sadly, I did not get) and the staff all talking to me in Japanese and me responding in turn, it kinda felt like being in Japan. It felt great. I wonder if he knows what a huge favour he did for me?
He probably doesn’t realize it but that doesn’t lessen his impact. How cool that you were able to experience that.
Today I spent way too much working through overdue Anki cards (40 minutes, but I’m below 900 cards due now!). I also read a blog post in Japanese, listened to three Jpod101 lessons, and wrote a Lang-8 post. A very short one. My writing skills are pathetic but I am determined to keep trying. I never know what to say that actually fits into the grammar I know so I end up saying nothing.
Yes he actually did lol. I was surprised haha. though he ain’t wota, he seems like a cool guy ^^
This pretty much sums up the reply, so yeah, he ain’t wota at all. He doesn’t even watch AKBingo :/
私は今本当に驚いている！！！
君はとてもAKB詳しいね！僕は熱いファンではないから、先週のAKBINGOを見てない！ごめんなさい！
僕がにわかファンであって、申し訳ない。
だから、マジレスOKだよ(笑顔)
I still don’t mind adding him on skype though. Not having kojiharu, yukirin or marikosama as your oshi means you at least know just a bit about AKB :P
@ giga
Nice work there. I hope you get more opportunities to speak to Japanese people. I can’t in my town as there’s no Japanese people here or any connection to Japan sadly.On the subject of AKB48, I took the plunge to see what they’re all about and watched an episode of AKBINGO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOhT1RQwb7s.
It was actually pretty good. The women are beautiful and I was able to read and recognise a few written and spoken words. So a win win situation :)
@kanjiman: Yeah I was pretty lucky to find a restaurant here that’s actually staffed by native Japanese (some of whom can’t even speak English at all). There’s a real dearth of native Japanese people here and a lot of them eat at that place. Sadly there’s really almost zero young people here, so making local Japanese friends is almost impossible.
The downside is that every time I want to speak some Japanese, I have to also blow some quid on food. Sometimes I simply can’t spare the money, so I don’t often get to practise. What I’d really love is to work there. Hell, I’d work for free if it meant daily immersion, lol.
I’d love to have a restaurant like that in my town. Annoying you have to spend money every time you want to speak to them, but ultimately you will get the most benefit from it.
That’s awesome, Gigatron!
I plan to finish season 3 today, and hopefully do a big review as well. I am also going to start Heisig’s RTK 1 once it arrives. From the research I’ve done on it and users’ testimonials, it seems like it is right for me. Plus, it works out well since it will probably take me around 2 months to get through it, and that’s how long I have before school starts, so I can just learn the readings there while already knowing at least one keyword meaning per Joyo kanji. I hope it works out.
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