I'm baaaaaack!!

Wow! Been a very long time since I've posted here!

Cool thing is that I haven't been on a complete abandonment of my 日本語 studies!
Since my last post, I've completed the Reading, Writing and Memorizing ひらがな piece of TextFugu (Hiragana 31-46: まみむめも、やゆよ、らりるれろ、わを、ん, Dakuten: がぎぐげご、ざじずぜぞ、だぢづでど、ばびぶべぼ、ぱぴぷぺぽ, Combination Hiragana: きゃ、しゃ、ちゃ、にゃ、ひゃ、みゃ、りゃ、ぎゃ、じゃ、ぢゃ、びゃ、&　ぴゃ Columns and finally Long vowels and the small　つ! I've also been utilizing drag and drop ひらがな quite regularly (even using the カタカナ version a bit too) as well as Anki when I'm here on my netbook in the study cubby and finally a few apps on the iPhone I got for Christmas to study vocab and kanji!

Wanted to make a few notes about the Long vowel and small っ section of TextFugu before I move on.

• Long vowels: Pretty subtle difference between regular/short vowels - just double the length of normal vowels.

• Here is a helpful pattern to follow as provided by Koichi - pronounced Kouichi - an example of a long vowel!):

• あ-Column + あ – examples: ああ、かあ、さあ、まあ、きゃあ

• い-Column + い – examples: いい、きい、しい、じい

• う-Column + う – examples: くう、じゅう、にゅう、りゅう、ふう

• え-Column + え – examples: ええ

• お-Column + う – examples: おう、こう、そう、とう、じょう、りょう、ぞう、どう、もう

• *お-Column + お – examples: おお、とお

• *Sometimes お-column kana can be extended with お as well (though you’ll see う extending お-column kana more often).

• Small っ: allows for double consonants
• For example, the word Japan (Nippon) written in ひらがな utilizes a small っ because the 'P' is doubled. So, it's written にっぽん. 
• The small っ is obviously written smaller than the normal size つ as you can see here. The small っ doubles consonant sounds while the full-size つ is just pronounced 'tsu.' The small っ always comes right before the consonant sound you want to duplicate.

Last thing regarding finishing the Reading, Writing and Memorizing section is that I went back and completed all the previous worksheets for this section, as a refresher and a way to push forward.

So, that pretty much sums up where I'm at now. Onward!!

またね!

ひらがな: Reading, Writing and Memorizing

I really breezed through a nice little chunk of TextFugu today and got a chance to see that I'm really quite comfortable with ひらがな. Even more so that I previously thought. Woo! It feels really nice.

To review, I started the real meat and potatoes of ひらがな in terms of TextFugu 今日 (kyou - today)! Koichi-san first mentions that a variety of resources will be utilized to teach the reading, writing and memorization. These include both TextFugu and outside (free) resources. (All the ones I saw today were awesome!)

You first are introduced to three common 日本語 words - sushi, sake and karate. With these examples, Koichi-san illustrates that reading and writing ひらがな is really pretty easy once you know the　仮名. He points back to the ひらがな chart to show for example that sushi is made up of su and shi or すし. It's really as simple as that. Koichi-san also mentions the common Western pronunciation of these three words and points back to all the pronunciation practice preceding this point so they will be pronounced correctly.

How to Study ひらがな

First 10 Hiragana: あいうえお、かきくけこ
From there, you are introduced to the first resource - Anki. This is a flash card program that utilizes card decks created by Koichi-san. Practiced the first 10 仮名 using Anki. (The vowels and the K-line.)

Next up was this really cool resource called Drag n' Drop Hiragana and again initially just got the first 10 仮名 in place correctly.

Lastly was the first 10 Hiragana practice worksheet (TextFugu) that quizzed first to write the correct Romaji counterparts given the 仮名 provided and then to do the verse - write the 仮名 for the Romaji provided.


Hiragana 11-20: さしすせそ、たちつてと
First was the start of another TextFugu worksheet, the Personal Kana Sheet. Initially put the first 10 ひらがな into place, then immediately added the next 10 which are the S and T lines.

Next was more Anki for the S and T lines.

Next was the site RealKana which I've used and visited before via ToFugu. It's really cool how you can add the different styles here to quiz yourself on recognizing multiple written styles of ひらあな (as well as カタカナ but that's for another time.) Anyway, quizzed only on first 20 仮名 this time around.

Lastly was the First 20 Hiragana Practice worksheet. (TextFugu)


Hiragana 21-30: なにぬねの、はひふへほ
First added the next 10 仮名 (N and H-lines) to the Personal Kana Sheet.

Anki for these 10.

First 30 Hiragana Practice worksheet. (TextFugu)

RealKana again for all 30 (V through H-lines)


I feel like I made a nice amount of progress today refreshing what I already knew. I was really surprised with my speed on the various worksheets. I also kept doing all 46 ひらがな on the Drag n' Drop site and the best time I've gotten so far for all of them is 1:15!!!!!!!

It was a great day for my 日本語 journey!! I'm feeling so jazzed about it, especially after 今日!

I'm overdue for bedtime again...

またね!!