Hello all! Welcome to my Japanese language blog. As noted in that little introduction, I'm an English major and Barnard senior, and as the very spare sentences probably indicate, I'm currently taking first year Japanese.
Because I'm graduating this May (aaaaah!) and because I've already fulfilled my language requirement, I've been asked why I'm taking Japanese a number of times already. The short answer is that I am very chatty. The more languages I learn, the more ears I can talk off! The long answer is that I just really love learning languages, and I wanted to take advantage of the great language courses offered at Barnard/Columbia while I'm still in school. I've always been interested in studying Japanese but never had the opportunity or time until now. And here we are!
Right now, I'm mostly excited to learn new verbs. It's really limiting not to be able to express more than seven actions! Also I'm curious about how adjectives in Japanese work, because I don't think we've touched upon any yet. As for difficulties, I find I'm still pretty slow when it comes to reading hiragana. While doing homework the other day, I spent five minutes trying to figure out why the particle "は" was in the middle of a sentence it had no business being in--until I realized it didn't signify the particle "wa" at all, it was a part of a word and actually meant "ha". So frustrating! I couldn't understand the sentence at all until I worked that out. I suppose nothing will help but reading and writing more hiragana! I think I'm doing fine with the grammar so far, although I do get a little jumbled when I have to formulate a question. I seem to have a nervous verbal tic where I just want to insert "は" everywhere to make sure all my bases are covered.
Deanna, thanks for the post! I really feel your passion to learn language all over the post. I smiled when you said you want to place はall over but I think it is really true that practice makes perfect when it comes to language learning. So keep trying! :) Have a wonderful semester! TAむらい
ReplyDeleteありがとうございました for your kind words むらいさん！
DeleteI have trouble distinguishing between words too! It's hard to know when one word ends and the other begins.
ReplyDeleteIt's frustrating! In class I always have to sound out sentences under my breath so I can hear where the words might separate. Oh well.
Deleteはじめましてたなかさん！I will definitely turn to you for Japanese help if I need it--I'm more than happy to offer the same to you in English, but I think you'd hardly need me at all! :) いつにほんへかえりましたか？
ReplyDeleteこんにちはDeanna! i also completed the language requirement and every one is asking me why i am taking japanese haha
ReplyDeletewhat other languages do you speak? :)
フランスご と ロシアご ならいました。But my Russian is very rusty, and my French is not nearly as good as yours I imagine :P.
Deleteフランスご と ロシアご ならいました。Korean does sound difficult! But I think it gets easier to learn a new language and alphabet when you've done it once before. I really want to answer your questions in Japanese, but I don't have enough words to properly express myself yet--わたしのともだちは、にほんごをべんきょうしました、and she was so passionate about the language that I wanted to try learning it as well! どうしてかんこくごをべんきょうしようとおもいましたか？
ReplyDeleteHello! My name is Kentaro Ando. I’m 18 years old and I’m majoring International business administration in Ritsumeikan University. My favorite sport is ice hockey since I used to live in Canada when I was 8-15 years old. I played soccer when I was a high school student. It’s been long since I came back from Canada, so my English is very poor. Please teach me English!
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