Leap Year!

You know, it only happens once every 4 years, so I’m not going to get a chance to pointlessly write about it again for a while… February 29! Woo!

2月29日です！おめでとう！イエイ！次の2月29日は4年後だから、僕は書いています。ｗｗ

2 year anniversary!

Well, it’s not today, and it’s certainly not very romantic, but yesterday was my Japanese learning 2 year anniversary! The 27th of February! The truth is, it might be the 26th or the 28th, because it was about a week after I started learning that I decided to put it into my phone calendar. But hey, it’s probably right!

Well, yeah, that’s about all I have to say about that. Not very exciting, but significant to me. It’s also interesting to note that in the past few months after university finished, I’ve been learning at such a faster rate! I can only imagine how things will be from now on, especially once I’m living in Japan.

日本語で！
今日じゃなくても、ロマンチックじゃないけど、昨日は日本語の勉強を始めてから2周年記念日でした！　イエイ！2月27日です！実は、日本語の勉強を初めての1週間後に、その年月日を僕の電話のカレンダーに付けたから、多分間違った。多分26か28だったか分からないね、でも、大切じゃない！27はいいよ！

じゃあ、それだけです！あまり面白くないけど、僕には大切です！ もう一つのことは、最近、大学の終わりの後に、新しい言葉を速くて習っていて、嬉しいです！日本に住むときに、どうですかな、想像しか出来ません。

My New Pocket PC!

Ok, so some people might think I’m a bit of a gizmo geek with all these little electronic things I have. To my collection of electronics including a digital camera, iPod and electronic dictionary, I have added a pocket PC (PPC). Yep, that’s it in my hand in the picture! And as the picture suggests, I bought it so I can study Japanese on the go! Why can’t I simply do it at home, you ask? Well, when I start working for ECC in Japan, I will be doing a lot of commuting. I will probably be working at 3 or 4 different schools, and a couple of them might take a while to get to. Now, I’m a bit of of an efficiency nut! I love my efficiency! I especially love to maximise it with technology. As you can see in the picture, the PPC is running Stackz, which is one of the favourite programs I use. I actually use two… Stackz for short term memory and Full Recall for long term retention. I won’t go into the details, but if you happen to be into the details, I’m now taking appointments.

So, I still haven’t gotten to the point yet, have I? Well, it’s probably obvious by now. Time efficiency people! Instead of wasting all that time on the train doing nothing, I can get through my daily Japanese revision! I used to spend most train time listening to Japanese pod casts… lessons and talk shows, but now I’m focusing on flashcards for vocab, as speaking and listening is no longer a problem for me… it’s just my small vocab holding me back. Besides, I will be getting plenty of listening practice once I’m in Japan!

I didn’t really research much about what they can do to be honest, I just researched which to buy. How’s this for cool… if I’m in a wifi hotspot, I can connect to MSN and Skype and have voice chats for free with people from anywhere in the world as if it were a mobile phone . Yeah, just like any computer can, but it’s kind of cool to have a little portable device that you can carry around in your pocket! I could even use a Bluetooth headset and really use it like a mobile phone!

Go the tech! I highly support technology as an aid to everything. People who say it’s unnecessary just don’t know how to use it well!

新しい言葉。。。

固い・かたい 殺し屋・ころしや 投げる・なげる 固まる・かたまる 殺す・ころす 固める・かためる 定める・さだめる 設ける・もうける 更に・さらに 硬い・かたい 更新・こうしん 変更・へんこう 堅い・かたい 予定・よてい 固定・こてい 資金・しきん 花・はな 資本・しほん

資料・しりょう 投資・とうし 爪・つめ 設定・せってい 原稿・げんこう 元旦・がんたん 組・くみ 織る・おる 番組・ばんぐみ 組織・そしき 組合・くみあい 訳・わけ 模様・もよう 写す・うつす 追う・おう 掛ける・かける 掛かる・かかる 追加・ついか

番・ばん 一番・いちばん 大昔・おおむかし 暮れる・くれる 暮らす・くらす 神・かみ 正月・しょうがつ 年の暮れ・としのくれ 一旦・いったん 投稿・とうこう 緑・みどり 写真・しゃしん 汁・しる・つゆ 決定・けってい 録る・とる 写る・うつる 撮る・とる

この間書いた時以来勉強した言葉。　頭。。。僕の頭。。。痛い～＞＿＜！　ｗｗ
じゃあ、今、例文！！　いいえ、うそ！　ははは。　ね、　この推理小説を勉強しています （推理小説じゃないけど、正しい言葉がまだ分からないｗｗ）。　読みませんか?　：Ｄ

さて：

ネコがネズミをおいかけるわけ

むかしむかし、人間も生まれていない、おおむかしのある年の暮れのことです。
神さまが、動物たちに言いました。

ECC

There is a reason why I started a new blog. This blog allows comments from people without an account here, whereas my previous blog did not. This is important to me because I will be going to Japan, and I want my friends and family to have a way to check up on my adventures

So, about that… Two years ago I decided to go to Japan. Over the two years reasons changed and interests evolved. I went for a job interview with a company called ECC (English through Communication for the Community). They have many schools throughout the Kinki, Chubu and Kanto districts, which are all next to each in central Japan. So I went for my interview which consisted of a group questions and answers session with a guy from the company and the two recruiting people, followed by a killer 1 hour English test with a minimum pass rate of 70% (that test knocked back about 40% of the applicants), a role play (pretending to teach beginner level kids), and finally personal interview. There were breaks in between each stage and it all lasted from 10am to 3:30pm. Talk about fast contact though, they called me at 5:30 to confirm that I was successful. After people failed the English test, there were only 13 people left, so they just talked about it afterwards, made decisions, and contacted us soon after.

So, in 3 or 4 months I’m expecting to go to Japan to teach English! It will be 29.5 hours a week. The pay is not amazing, but it’s enough. I’m going for the experience, not to get rich, and I’m really looking forward to it! I will be teaching adults and children, about 50% of the time on each. Well, that’s what I’ve been told to expect, but it could lean more towards adults or more towards kids depending on, well, a lot of things.

Well, the next step is to wait for placement info. I’m really hoping to get the kinki district, as that will mean Kansai, and very likely Osaka. Osaka’s dialect is very colourful and relaxed, very reflective of the people. Also, the only possibility for my own apartment (box) is if I am placed in Osaka. Well, wherever I end up, I will put my Japanese to the ultimate test, and see how living in a foreign country works out!

But before any of this happens, I’m going to CHINA for 10 days from the 23rd or March, where I’ll see Australia play China in a World Cup qualifier. It will certainly be interesting sitting in the green and gold army surrounded by tens of thousands of Chinese supporters. I’m going with my dad and brother, along with 3 family friends. I’ll have to brush up on my survival Chinese

日本語練習～！

はい！僕です！今まで、英語だけ書いたみたい！少し英語で書いたけどな～　さて、僕の日本語はちょっと変だそうだ。友達から聞いたね。それは、あいにく、本当です。－＿－；　だけど、ぼくはまだビギナーだから、大丈夫じゃないん？

じゃあ、皆の友達（それとも、友達の皆？わからないな～）、僕のへったくその日本語を読むときに、笑ってだけない（＜－変だったな～）えっと、言いたいことはね。。。 笑うかでじゃない。えっと、笑ってないばかり？いいえいいえ。笑うだけしてない？ああ！わからねぇえぇぇ～～！！！-_-;;

えっとね、僕の本当の言いたいことは。。。僕のへったくその日本語を読むときに、コメントする！　＾＾；　はは。はい！そうだね。コメントしてください！

まっ、いいか。。。この日記は僕の初めてずっと日本語のです。まだ上手じゃない分かってるけど、笑わないでよ！ｗｗ

じゃあ！ 又今度ね～また練習する！

o/

Japanese Update

Well, today is the 17th, which is exactly 10 days before my 2 year anniversary! So, huh? What anniversary? Yeah, I’m not engaged or married or anything. I’m talking about my Japanese study anniversary of course! Ok, I know it’s kind of geeky to know the date that you started, but hey, I’m a kind of geeky guy. So, how does one measure success and progress in a language? Fluency of speech? How comfortable you are in conversation? Oh, no no no! It’s all about NUMBERS! Right? -_-

So, according to my very reliable software (unless it has developed AI…) I know 614 kanji and over 1200 words. Mmm… eh… hmm.

But then again, it really is more about fluency or speech and how comfortable you are in a conversation . But numbers tie back into that anyway. Can’t get far if you don’t know the words… Well I’m still learning new words every day. Trying to keep to an average of 5 a day from now on. It probably won’t happen for whatever reasons… but I’m not doing so badly. Some days are really easy, but some days bring like 5 new kanji as well. It’s mostly the revision that’s hard though. The weak words build up quite a lot, the software I use is relentless, it doesn’t let any words slip. At the moment I’m getting about 30 words a day to revise. I think this will get a bit higher over the coming months though.

Well, yesterday there were 8 new words with 6 new kanji. But they weren’t so hard so that’s good. They were:
部屋・へや – room
服・ふく – clothes
大臣・だいじん – cabinet minister
姫・ひめ – princess
様・さま – very formal high status title
屋・や – eee, can’t explain in a few words
パン屋・ぱんや – bakery
脱ぐ・ぬぐ – take off

Today’s words are:
殺す・ころす – to kill >:D
殺し屋・ころしや – hitman >:D
and… whatever other words present themselves before I sleep. Oh, there are always new words

You know, they say a child learns on average 7 words a day. But they do have the advantage of a sponge brain or course… Not that that’s any excuse to be lazy!!

Ok! Good to go!

English:
Ok! We’re good to go!  The blog is mostly set up and now all I have to do is… well, write stuff.  I wonder if I’ll keep writing here..  time will tell!  Well, I don’t want to have a lonely blog, so if you visit, please leave a comment!  My English speaking friend and Japanese speaking friends may visit, so I’ll write Japanese here too to keep practising!  Don’t be surprised if you see some Japanese comments around too, because not everyone I know is good at English ^^.  I wonder if there will be any language problems or anything.  It should be fine though I think!  Well, I’ll write some useful stuff tomorrow.  It’s too late to be blogging now!

Oh one more thing, 日本語 <– if you see boxes there instead of Japanese characters, then obviously you won’t be able to see any of the Japanese.  You also won’t be able to see the cool smiley faces people make with Japanese characters…  (´- `*)   but often people who are not used to seeing them can’t figure out what they are (¬_¬;)….  Here’s a fairly easy one though…   ＼(゜ロ＼)  Just a person holding their arms up.  The rest is self explanatory (^_^)!

僕のへたくその日本語 (My bad Japanese) :
さて、じゅんび出来た！このブログはもっとも構えて、書くだけしなくちゃだめ。　寂しいブログ欲しくないから、コメントしてください！お願いね～！僕の英語を話すの友達と日本語を話すの友達もこのブログに来るから、僕は英語と日本語で書きますぅ～！いい練習だな～　日本語と英語のコメントは入れ、びっくりしないでね！言語の問題が出るかもしらないけど、大丈夫だと思うよ！心配しないで！英語で、日本語でも大丈夫だよ！

さあ、今は遅いから、多分明日もっと書くの方がいいでしょう。
このブログ、また来てくださいね！　そしてね、訂正してもいいよ！　＾＾

じゃあ、お休みなさい皆！

My terrible Japanese has been exposed!

*Peter runs and hides*

Customary First Post

Well, first off, welcome to my blog! I just made it so I’m sort of welcoming myself to it as well. It seems to have heaps of features and customizability, so I’m gonna get to work on customizing it soon. I thought it would be nice to have a blog so I can write up about my life, especially now that I’ll be heading off to Japan, and people can check if they feel like it without me having to bother those who don’t with emails. Of course there are the other advantages of media, design, and comments of course! So far I’m very impressed with the features offered by this site, and I’ll be off now to start exploring it!

More later! Ciao for now!