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。

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!!