For the record, I did study tonight. Per Koichi-san's directions, I went back over the exceptions noted last night before moving forward with TextFugu. Afterward, it was all actual practice of ひらがな pronunciation. I watched several videos covering a few of the ひらがな lines at least 3 times a piece as instructed. Not too much to note tonight... I have a pretty good understanding of ひらがな and it's hard to take notes when you're focusing on making sure the sound of the 仮名 are correct.
Tomorrow night will be at least partially more of the same.
またね!!
10.05.2011
10.03.2011
Japanese alphabets - Part 二.二
ひらがな Exceptions to the pattern
Picking up where I left off last night, there are a few exceptions in ひらがな pronunciation that don't *exactly* fit the magical pattern.
They are:
し (shi): Second かな in the S-line. Pronounced like 'she'
ち (chi): Second かな in the T-line. Pronounced like the 'chee' in 'cheese'
つ (tsu): Third かな in the T-line. Pronounced 'tsoo' (TextFugu mentions there will be more on this pronunciation going forward because it is virtually unlike anything in 英語)
ふ (fu/hu): Third かな in the H-line. Can apparently be pronounced fu or hu, most of the time will be fu (TextFugu mentions that when just reading off the ひらがな chart, it's best to pronounce as 'hu' and there will be notation going forward as to which way something should be pronounced)
The entire Y-line starting with や (ya): The exception exists here because 二 かな are missing - there is no yi or ye
The entire R-line starting with ら (ra): Not really an exception but column that is most problematic in terms of pronunciation. (This will be covered in more detail later according to TextFugu)
The entire W-line starting with わ (wa): Like the Y-line, there are missing かな in this column. There are only 二, わ (wa) and を (wo). を is *ONLY* used as a particle. Also, the 'w' sound is not pronounced so when using を and sounds almost like just simply お.
ん (n): Only single-consonant かな in ひらがな. Sounds like nnnnn, like the 'n' in 'man.' Easy to pronounce but an exception since it doesn't really fit the magical pattern
Those are the exceptions. I definitely learned a few new things or possibly a refresher on things I hadn't remembered. Either way beneficial.
Until next time...
またね!
Picking up where I left off last night, there are a few exceptions in ひらがな pronunciation that don't *exactly* fit the magical pattern.
They are:
し (shi): Second かな in the S-line. Pronounced like 'she'
ち (chi): Second かな in the T-line. Pronounced like the 'chee' in 'cheese'
つ (tsu): Third かな in the T-line. Pronounced 'tsoo' (TextFugu mentions there will be more on this pronunciation going forward because it is virtually unlike anything in 英語)
ふ (fu/hu): Third かな in the H-line. Can apparently be pronounced fu or hu, most of the time will be fu (TextFugu mentions that when just reading off the ひらがな chart, it's best to pronounce as 'hu' and there will be notation going forward as to which way something should be pronounced)
The entire Y-line starting with や (ya): The exception exists here because 二 かな are missing - there is no yi or ye
The entire R-line starting with ら (ra): Not really an exception but column that is most problematic in terms of pronunciation. (This will be covered in more detail later according to TextFugu)
The entire W-line starting with わ (wa): Like the Y-line, there are missing かな in this column. There are only 二, わ (wa) and を (wo). を is *ONLY* used as a particle. Also, the 'w' sound is not pronounced so when using を and sounds almost like just simply お.
ん (n): Only single-consonant かな in ひらがな. Sounds like nnnnn, like the 'n' in 'man.' Easy to pronounce but an exception since it doesn't really fit the magical pattern
Those are the exceptions. I definitely learned a few new things or possibly a refresher on things I hadn't remembered. Either way beneficial.
Until next time...
またね!
10.02.2011
Japanese Alphabets - Part 二.1
ひらがな Continuing the Pattern
Picking up where I left off, oh so long ago, ひらがな has that magical pattern effect where you learn the pronunciation of the vowels and then the rest of the characters are cake.
Most ひらがな characters (all of them except the vowels and 'n') consist of 二 components:
consonant - k, g, s, z, t, d, n, h, b, p, m, y, r or w in most cases; and
vowel - the 五 (go - five) 仮名 learned previously.
To copy directly from TextFugu regarding the magical pattern and the K-line of ひらがな:
か → ka → This is just K + あ (a), therefore it has a “kah” sound.
き → ki → This is just K + い (i), therefore is identical to the word “key” in English
く → ku → This is just K + う (u), therefore has a “koo” sound, like “kublai khan” or cool.
け → ke → This is just K + え (e), therefore has a “keh” sound, like “kettle”
こ → ko → This is just K + お (o), therefore has a “koh” sound like comb.
If you look at this TextFugu Hiragana Chart, you'll see that the pattern continues pretty consistently for the most part. There are some *minor* exceptions to note which I will cover in Part 二.2, hopefully tomorrow.
I already know ひらがな quite solidly but I think it's important to document this stuff for my benefit down the line or maybe someone else's if anyone ever reads this. Trying to go through the different lessons on TextFugu with a fine tooth comb a bit.
Well, my 30 minutes is about up but in closing I'm going to throw out a few vocab words just to sort of test myself from the adjectives I've learned in My Japanese Coach lately.
あつい - hot, うつくしい - beautiful, よい - good, いたい - painful,
つよい - strong, さむい - cold, よわい - weak, みにくい - ugly
Wooo!!! I'm actually getting these committed to memory. Always happy when that happens!
またね!!
Picking up where I left off, oh so long ago, ひらがな has that magical pattern effect where you learn the pronunciation of the vowels and then the rest of the characters are cake.
Most ひらがな characters (all of them except the vowels and 'n') consist of 二 components:
consonant - k, g, s, z, t, d, n, h, b, p, m, y, r or w in most cases; and
vowel - the 五 (go - five) 仮名 learned previously.
To copy directly from TextFugu regarding the magical pattern and the K-line of ひらがな:
か → ka → This is just K + あ (a), therefore it has a “kah” sound.
き → ki → This is just K + い (i), therefore is identical to the word “key” in English
く → ku → This is just K + う (u), therefore has a “koo” sound, like “kublai khan” or cool.
け → ke → This is just K + え (e), therefore has a “keh” sound, like “kettle”
こ → ko → This is just K + お (o), therefore has a “koh” sound like comb.
If you look at this TextFugu Hiragana Chart, you'll see that the pattern continues pretty consistently for the most part. There are some *minor* exceptions to note which I will cover in Part 二.2, hopefully tomorrow.
I already know ひらがな quite solidly but I think it's important to document this stuff for my benefit down the line or maybe someone else's if anyone ever reads this. Trying to go through the different lessons on TextFugu with a fine tooth comb a bit.
Well, my 30 minutes is about up but in closing I'm going to throw out a few vocab words just to sort of test myself from the adjectives I've learned in My Japanese Coach lately.
あつい - hot, うつくしい - beautiful, よい - good, いたい - painful,
つよい - strong, さむい - cold, よわい - weak, みにくい - ugly
Wooo!!! I'm actually getting these committed to memory. Always happy when that happens!
またね!!
Work and Vacation
Well, it's been a long time since I've sat down here in my study cubby. :/
Things have gotten pretty intense with my job like I had previously predicted. The good news is that I got to take a much needed vacation and stuff has sort of mellowed out for the moment with work. Calm before the storm, if you will. All the prior stress was just a false alarm (?!?) sort of.
Anyway, for my vacation I went to Torrance, California with my boyfriend. It was our "As Close as We Can Get to Japan Right Now Tour." Most things we did were tied to 日本 in some way. Mostly eating, checking out Little Tokyo in downtown LA, eating and shopping. Did I mention that we ate? All of our meals except for one were Japanese or of Japanese concept. :)
It was a blast and it really has re-inspired me on this 日本語 journey. I've been back for about a week and although I haven't been here in the cubby, I've been using My Japanese Coach on the DS a lot, as well as some of the book Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day. Going to really try and keep up posting here and using the free chapters of TextFugu as much as I can despite the brain strain I'm going to be facing again at work. I really want this!
Here goes nothing!
Anyway, for my vacation I went to Torrance, California with my boyfriend. It was our "As Close as We Can Get to Japan Right Now Tour." Most things we did were tied to 日本 in some way. Mostly eating, checking out Little Tokyo in downtown LA, eating and shopping. Did I mention that we ate? All of our meals except for one were Japanese or of Japanese concept. :)
It was a blast and it really has re-inspired me on this 日本語 journey. I've been back for about a week and although I haven't been here in the cubby, I've been using My Japanese Coach on the DS a lot, as well as some of the book Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day. Going to really try and keep up posting here and using the free chapters of TextFugu as much as I can despite the brain strain I'm going to be facing again at work. I really want this!
Here goes nothing!
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