Parting Thoughts

Looking back, it is pretty crazy how much we've learned in only one semester. Sometimes when my friends would see me doing homework, they'd remark how crazy it was that I could read any of the Japanese symbols, and we covered that in what, two weeks? Still, looking ahead, there's so much I don't know. If I listen to any actual conversation or music or anything like that, I can only pick up a stray word here and there (Hey, he said watashi! I know that one!). Hopefully, before my time at this university is done, I'll at least know most of the grammar so all I have to do is fill in the blanks with vocabulary.
As for my thoughts on the layout of the class, I think it's about as effective as you can get. I can't imagine going at any faster a pace while taking other classes concurrently, but it's still a reasonable speed. I guess an analogy that fits would be that we're going at a brisk walk, which requires some effort but isn't unreasonably fast. The only thing that I would change is probably to add more opportunities for "thinking on your feet" situations before the oral interview. We had to hit the ground running with that. Even though we were told to practice the weekend leading up to it, it was the last week of classes so I, the procrastinator that I am, had some other things to deal with. Very big things.
On the whole, I liked the speech project, although I definitely wouldn't want to do more than one per semester. It was a good chance for all of us to review the material that we've learned and think of creative ways to use our limited vocabularies. It was a bit more difficult than skit memorization, though. Although there were no stage actions to deal with, there were also no breaks or lines from your partner to cue you as to what to say next. Thankfully, the topics in my speech tend to have some sort of transition to the next one, so I don't think I stumbled all that much. Any time you have a topic jump where the flow isn't quite apparent, though, you run the risk of forgetting what to say next. Well, moreso than usual. I also hope that the questions after the speech didn't have too much of an impact on the grade since I noticed that some students got hit with some harder ones thatn others. You know who you are.
Anyway, hope to see most of you next semester. じゃ、また。

Peer Editing Thoughts

Although I doubt peer editing would be something I'd want to do on a regular basis, it has been a learning experience. Looking at the errors others make hones my critical eye for my own writings. Also, I can see some creative uses of our limited vocabulary to add to my own repertoire. Peer review can also be helpful in a way that a seasoned Japanese speaker's perspective cannot provide. While Sato-sensei can easily tell us if something is grammatically incorrect or just awkward, I'd imagine it'd be difficult for her to in an attempt to rephrase what we are trying to say restrict her mindset to the words that we have available to us this early in our studies. Our classmates, on the other hand, can simply try their best to manipulate what we know to try to say something. Naturally, sometimes this is impossible, but often some creative thinking can get around it. Lastly, peer editing helps to open communications between the classmates. We should always be able to and try to help each other when needed and this assignment makes that a more natural development.

ヅラフト一

私のこどもの時はたのしかったです。しゅくだいじゃあまりありませんでしたから、クラスはとてもやさしかったです。しょうがっこうの時に私のせんせいはたのしかったです。おもしろいビデオをみて、よくおしえました。私はかがくが一ばんすきでした。でも、れきしはすきあまりじゃありませんでした。つまならかったでしたから。私はスポツがあきじゃありませんから、スポツをあまりしませんでした。それから、よくおいしい食べものがだいすきでした。だから、私は元気なこどもじゃありませんでした。ひまの時によくおにいさんのスパーニンテンドをかりて、あそびました。時々ともだちとあそびました。あつい時によくプールでおよぎました。十さいの時まで一人でおよいではいけませんでしたから、たいていともだちとおよぎました。ちょっとつめたかったですが、よかったです。やすみの時にくるまにのって、ともだちとうみに行きました。ともだちといて、とてもたのしかったです。一しょにでかけてもよかったですが、よるおそくねてはいけませんでした。こどもの時はせいかつはとてもやさしかったです。

こうこうの時

私のこうこうはヌジャージーのモウレッスタオンにあります。私のまちです。一ねんせいと二ねんせいの時はクラスがあまりむずかしくありませんでした。私のすきなクラスはかがくとすうがくでした。ひまの時にたいていヂアッブロ二をしました。あのゲームはたのしかったです。しゅうまつはよくともだちにあいました。たいていビデオゲームをしました。二ねんせいの時はアルバイトがありました。私はまいにち十五時かんぐらいスーパーにいました。三ねんせいのときはちょっとむずかしでした。えいごのクラスはとてもむずかしかったです。カールクラスもむずかしかったです。しゅくだいがたくさんありましたよ。だから、私はひまの時があまりありませんでした。でも、私のグレーヅズはよかったですよ。それから、四ねんせいの時のクラスもむずかしかったです。でも、四ねんせいの時に私はいいがくせいじゃありませんでした。だから、あのねんはやさしかったです。よくともだちとでかけました。たいていともだちのうちに行きました。時々レストランで食べました。こうこうの時はたのしかったですが、私はだいがくの時がいちばんすきです。

As an aside, apparently there was an error the first time I tried to post this on Friday and I didn't notice until today. My mistake.

日本ごのクラスはどうですか。

クラスはちょっとむずかしですね。みなさんはよくべんきょうしますよね。わたしはかんじがとてもむずかしですよ。でも、たのしいです。とてもおもしろいですから。私のクラスはたいていとてもつまらないですよ。それから、さとせんせいとかわいせんせいはおもしろいです。シャロッツビルに日本人があまりいませんね。ちょっときびしい(strict)です。でも、日本語のせんせいはたいていきびしいですね。
私は一時のクラスがすきです。一時のがくせいはたのしいです。私はきらいな人いません。しずかなクラスじゃありません。それから、クラスははやくありません。私はあさのクラスがあまりすきじゃありませんよ。

わたしは日本ごをはなしますか。

わたしはこんしゅうなにおしましたか。そうですね。月曜日から金曜日までたのしいなにかをあまりしませんよ。しゅくだいがたくさなります。まい日たいてい五時かん半ぐらいねます。まいしゅうテストがあります。時々二つか三つがあります。でもしゅうまつはいいですよ。いまここでさくぶんをかきませんよ。でも、まい日いっぱいべんきょうしますけれどもわたしはさんえんせいの時がすきです。いまはしゅうまつによくともだちとたのしいなにかをします。でも、ことしまでにはあまりしません。だから、ことしはわるくありません。


Well, that's something I guess. I couldn't think of anything else to write about with our given vocab short of another Sakubun, so I found myself looking up some new constructions and grammar to experiment with. I probably butchered most of them, but at least now I know a bit more about them when we do get to them. Anyway, although most of my complaints are based on fact if you can make sense of what I wrote up there, I'm really not that whiny. I just couldn't think of anything else to write about.

Some things that I tried using in the paragraph:
けれども　- Although
XからYまで - From X to Y (Time)
たのしい　- Fun/Interesting
いっぱい　- A lot (Adverb)
までに - Until

Blog Musings

I suppose what makes a good blog depends on what the purpose of the project is. In my mind, the primary purpose of it is to have a network with which to share thoughts and sticking points that we've developed in the transition to a relatively difficult language. When I learned Spanish, there wasn't nearly as much of a total reinvention of how I express myself as it is with Japanese. It can be difficult to change the way we think, but I also find it fascinating how different it can be. In some ways, it's a much more streamlined and intuitive language; in other ways, not so much. For instance, I find the thought of having different conjugations being used to convey different levels of respect counter-intuitive and needlessly complicated, but I'm sure Japanese people learning English find themselves asking "what is the point of having verbs conjugate differently depending on the subject?", and they'd probably be right, too. I find myself feeling the same way about Kanji. It just seems to me like the language would be so much easier if everything were in Hiragana, although spaces would have to be used to be able to read anything, but I can't only imagine how overwhelming it must seem to try to deal with the Roman characters somehow being pronounced differently in every word that they appear, sometimes not even being pronounced at all. Having people with whom to discuss things like this can sometimes make things make a little more sense, or at the very least make us realize that at least there are others to share in the misery.

It can also help the strength of our class as a learning group to see each other as more than just a string of Katakana followed by "-san." A little bit of personal revelation in the blogs can make it easier for us to get to know our classmates, opening up the avenues of communication more and allowing for us to help each other more easily, whether by actually helping with the subject matter or by making the class more enjoyable.

By my interpretation of the blogs, then, the important things to include in a blog are primarily to discuss what our overall observations and problems with learning the language are as well as any significant events in our personal lives that seems worthy of sharing. It appears to me that one of the possible pitfalls would be to simply use the blog as, well, just a blog and posting about their day and skipping the subject of Japanese almost entirely. Although some people may enjoy doing that, I'm sure that's not what Sato-sensei quite had in mind with this assignment.

I took my cookies out of the oven before I started writing this, so they should be done by now. いまクッキおたべます。おいしいですよ。

Finally Friday

This has been the most hellish three day week that I can recall. Or, as one would say in Japan if they had the language skills of a 2 year old,　こんしゅうわいくありませんでした. And now I just spent like 5 minutes fixing my font. That'll show me for trying to type in Japanese. Anyway, test today wasn't too bad. There wasn't really much that studying in the classical sense could have done to prepare me better, since most of it was just practice to get a feel for word order and appropriate particles and all that jazz. I had to cut my dialogue much shorter than what I would have liked, though. I asked that Japanese girl to see a movie with me on Saturday about 15 seconds into the conversation. I guess I'm just a player like that. I had another test earlier in the morning that I was and am still a lot more worried about, both because the class is horrible and there are only 2 tests total for that course.

Oh yeah, and I turn 21 next week. Yay.

I need this weekend

このしゅまつわたしわよくねます。べんきょうしません。

This break is so long overdue. I can't wait to get home and take a nap today. I've been staying on top of my workload at least...kind of. Kanji is making more sense to me now than it was last week now that it's had some time to sink in, but it's still intimidating when I think about just how many there are. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," as they say. The semester is going by really fast, though, which is both a good and bad thing because it's probably going to be my most challenging out of my four years here, but the thought of finishing here also implies entering that scary realm of the real world. All throughout high school, I never thought beyond getting into a college, it all seemed so far off. Right now, I can't even think past next week because I'm just trying to survive until the weekend. Maybe I'll travel. I can't think of a better time to do it before getting settled into a long term job. There's also grad school to worry about. I wonder how it will play out.

Kanji Is Hard

First and foremost, I think I'm going to have a hard time with Kanji. A really, really hard time. But I suppose if all those millions of people who actually live in Japan have learned to deal with it, it can't be that bad. It looks like verbs will take some getting used to, as well, mostly because of the variety of unconjugated forms, but hopefully some patterns will emerge with those.

On another note, hoping to pick up a copy of Guilty Gear:Accent Core when I go to Norfolk for the weekend. They're all sold out around here to the best of my knowledge. I wish my friend would send me a copy of IIDX DistorteD, too.

Thursday Night Update

It seems like everybody's gotten sick this week and not just me. In any case, I've been sapped of any energy the past 3 days or so, which has made keeping up with my workload more difficult than usual. It doesn't help that I need more sleep than usual, as well. The pace of this class isn't so bad by itself, but on top of my other work, I don't think I could handle much more than this. At least the weeks go by quickly. It's almost like skiing or something similar where I'm going so fast that all I can do is focus on keeping my balance to the point where I don't notice the distance I've covered.

As for the topics of the class itself, nothing sticks out as being too tricky or hard to understand, although I likely won't have the luxury of saying that in coming weeks. On that note, I should probably get started on whatever is due tomorrow.

First Post

So I forgot this was due until I was about to go to bed. Oops. I guess sleep will have to wait for a while longer.

For any who don't know, I'm Patrick O'Malley, currently 3rd year UVA student majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I've never used a blog before, so I think I'll just type what comes to mind for a while.

I suppose an appropriate enough topic to ramble on about would be why I'm taking a Japanese class as opposed to something a little easier. Although "saner" might be the better word to use there. Japan has always been a culture that's interested me since I got a Super Nintendo. Over the years, this developed as I had more brief exposures to this land of mystery. Some of this came from my friend's Japanese father, what little I could understand through his ridiculously thick accent anyway. Others came from things like watching anime after school in 5th grade or becoming a Pokemon Master when I was 12. And no, I haven't played any of the Pokemon since then. Anyway, this interest in the culture grew and never quite faded. I used to be into manga/anime quite a bit, but not so much anymore, although every now and then something will catch my interest. As an aside, I'm also into Bemani, which is a line of music games by Konami, but not too many people know what it is, much less share an interest in it aside from the popularity of DDR. Back on topic, I do want to visit Japan for an as of yet undecided length of time and I'd imagine that being able to speak the language could be of use. If I had Japanese as a language choice in Middle School, I would have taken it then for sure. Instead, I ended up taking 6 years of Spanish and gaining what I believe to be a reasonable proficiency with it. It was still worthwhile, though; I do want to visit Spain some day, hopefully before my Spanish completely atrophies.

As for the the class itself, I'm pretty happy with the pacing and content of the class so far. If I didn't find the language interesting and it was something that I didn't genuinely want to learn, though, I probably would have dropped it a few days in. At the rate we're currently going, I feel like I'm learning a good amount of new things every day without getting overwhelmed. The repetition and practice with dialogue can be a little trying when I'm not sure what Sato-sensee is getting at, but that's not really avoidable. One thing I learned from Spanish is that the repetition and practice is necessary to reach any degree of fluency. Those are my only thoughts for now. I'll be going to bed now so I can survive tomorrow and make it to the weekend. Been a long five days.