State of affairs

今日は。So I've been back from Japan for months now and I haven't posted anything. I didn't post anything while I was there. I was too busy taking it all in. It was the most amazing thing I've ever done. I was so elated. My studies have really suffered since I got back however. It's this mixture of increased desire to learn so that I can actually fulfill my dream of living there but being so damn bummed out that I had to leave. :(

As of today, I'm on an upswing with the study factor but need to be working harder still. Up to
レベル二十四、七百八十四漢字 and 二千二百十 vocab words. (Level 24, 784 kanjis and 2210 vocab words) I'm trying to do grammar work with Rosetta Stone in addition to the kanji.

I've recently come to the realization that with a recent job change I won't have enough vacation time to get to Japan in 2015. :(  Right now the goal is 2016 with the ability to converse with ease. I had a difficult time communicating in Japan and solidified the fact that I have an insane amount of work to do. I could ask simple questions all day but was easily overwhelmed by the answers I got. So much so that I really stopped asking questions. It was a very isolated existence for me. I think this would definitely continue to be the case for the duration of living there but this has not changed my mind. I feel extremely validated having finally visited and now I want a Japanese address even more than I did before.

Kyoto has my heart and I can't wait to see her again.

Until next time, またね。

29 more days!

Yea, so it's been awhile... again. Haha.

Well, I'm officially under 30 days until I leave for Japan. I've been keeping up with WaniKani studies (level 19 -- up to 六百二十八 漢字 and 一千六百九十五 単語 now) and I also enrolled and completed an online course in Conversational Japanese. I learned a lot of really handy things I think will be extremely useful on my upcoming trip! Things like how to buy things while shopping, how to travel by train, how to handle emergencies, how to find places and how to order and pay at a restaurant for example.

I'm so elated to get my ゆめ underway. Just wanted to get a post in about it. I plan to blog here during my travels as well.

Woohoo and またね!

Catch-up post - TextFugu update for week of 5/26

So, I've been hitting TextFugu pretty hard this last week in addition to my usual 毎日 WaniKani studies.
I need to put all the written notes I've compiled here in my language log so here goes!
Oh btw to continue the tradition, I'm up to 四百八十四 漢字 and freaking 一千二百九十四 vocabulary words! Gyeah!! Oh and now level 十五 on WK! I'm gonna be a second grade level kanji learner in no-time. Haha. :)

OK so for real, here goes:

５月２６日

• Reviewed section ニ.五
• Did some Anki reviews (I recently learned that anki means memorization. Haha it's one of those click into place little victory things. ^_^)
• Started section 二.六 - covered the first particle - は (important thing to note is that when used as a particle, は is actually pronounced "wa"
• Got some new vocab (I already knew most of them from WK but hey, now they're in my Anki decks so more avenues to study them. I'm going to include the kanji next to the ones I know from WK.)
• rain - あめ　（雨）
• snow - ゆき　（雪）
• summer - なつ　（夏）
• winter - ふゆ (冬）
• autumn - あき (秋)
• spring - はる (春)
• textbook - きょうかしょ
• job/work - しごと (仕事)
• medicine - くすり
• hospital - びょういん (病院)

５月２７日

• Finished up section 二.六
• Imported and studied new Anki decks for new vocab, kanji, kanji vocab and sentences

 ５月２８日

• Started section 二.七 - sense of identity
• Covered the various ways to say "I" and "you", as well as name-enders. Here's the breakdown:
• Always humble yourself and elevate others
• "I"
• わたし （私） - all-around way to express "I" - it's not too formal or rude
• わたくし (私) - same kanji (dammit), very formal when used by males, normal/formal for females
• あたし - very feminine, males shouldn't use, women shouldn't even use this one until they're more versed/comfortable with 日本語
• ぼく (僕) - really only need to worry about learning/using this one if you're a male. Slightly masculine and primarily used by (younger) guys
• おれ (俺) - very informal, sometimes considered vulgar, primarily used by men
• じぶん (自分) - almost never used today, very masculine, sounds 'militaristic', no need to use within TextFugu
• "You"
• あなた - "standard" way of saying "you" in 日本語 but the word "you" isn't the same as it is in 英語 - nor does it work the same. This is the best direct translation but it's much more natural to use the person's name in place of this guy.
• おまえ (お前) - can be considered rude though commonly used amongst ともだち's when joking around. Literally means "(my) front." The お makes it honorific (yea...) and 前 just means 'front.'
• きみ (君) - very affectionate, often used between boyfriends/girlfriends, sometimes used between people who are very close but not in a relationship
• てまえ - old fashioned and pretty rude, good to use when you're angry at someone. Literally means 'this side' so it's like referring to someone as an inanimate side of something. Seen often in anime/shows when someone is really pissed off at someone else. Usually pronounced more like てめえ
• こいつ - literally means "this person", used to talk down to someone
• Again, always best to refer to the person by name + さん, even if talking directly to the person. (Like third person in 英語 - which is totally weird when compared to 英語)
• Introduce yourself! - 私はBuritaniです. ;)
• Name-enders
• ～さん - "standard" name ender. You basically can't go wrong with this guy. When in doubt use ～さん.
• ～くん (君) - mostly used on younger men (even younger adults.) When you're equal with someone or a higher rank, ～くん is a viable option. Better to stick with ～さん when just meeting someone/when you don't know someone well. ～くん is often thrown around to kids or boyfriends too.
• ～ちゃん - mainly for girls or young children. Affectionate in a 'you're my kid/little sis' kind of way. Used too with people who have known each other for a long time or know each other really well. When using ～ちゃん, lots of names will be shortened. As a rule of thumb, shorten to one or two syllables. For example, こいちい would become こちゃん. Choose something that sounds good.
• ～せんせい (先生) - means "teacher" - when talking to your teacher, attach to their (preferably) last name. Sometimes also used with いしゃ's.
• ～せんぱい (先輩) - somewhat similar to せんせい, but instead it's for "peers" who are a higher level. You might add to someone's name who is a grade or two ahead of you in school or more skilled in a trade. Don't confuse with せんせい. This is more hierarchy between students/people who are not the teacher.

５月２９日

• Continued section 二.七 - Job Board Part 1 & 2
• New vocab relative to jobs (又, I knew almost all of these dudes thanks to prior 日本語 endeavors/WK)
• いしゃ (医者) - doctor
• せんせい (先生) - teacher
• しょうがくせい (小学生) - elementary school student
• ちゅうがくせい (中学生) - middle school student
• あかちゃん (赤ちゃん) - baby
• さっか (作家) - author/writer
• かしゅ (歌手) - singer
• こうこうせい (高校生) - high school student
• うんてんしゅ (運転手) - driver
• せいじか - politician
• けいさつかん - police officer
• べんごし - lawyer
• てんいん (店員) - shop assistant
• かいしゃいん (会社員) - company employee
• Imported and studied Anki jobs and occupations deck
• Practice describing people's jobs/asking questions about people's current/past jobs re: Job Board 2 exercise
• New set of common noun vocab (You know the drill by now. ;) )
• くうこう (空港) - airport
• ひこうき - airplane
• たてもの - building, structure
• とり (鳥) - bird
• さかな (魚) - fish
• にく (肉) - meat
• やさい - vegetables
• がくせい (学生) - student
• かぞく (家族) - family
• いしゃ (医者) - doctor

So this concludes all my efforts with TextFugu this week. I feel like I've busted my ass. Gotta keep it going all the way up until I get on that ひこうき in a few months!! It feels nice that things are falling into place. Hopefully they continue to stay that way. Goodnight!!

Oh and またね!

I'm going to きょうと!!!

Shit has gotten real. I'm scheduled to step foot in the land of the rising 日 on 9月11日. In only 六 months, I'll be living my ゆめ, at least for a few days. So so stoked. Lots of work to do with my
日本語 to prepare. Sitting at 三百八十一 漢字 and 九百二十四 vocab words as of right now. Gotta put the pedal to the metal on the grammar/conjugation piece now. Anyway, just putting it on "paper." Almost doesn't seem real. Viva la ゆめ!!

に.三 review and に.四 - Past Tense nouns

Tonight I finally got back in touch with TextFugu.

Have been meaning to for awhile. I am still avidly continuing WaniKani (level 八 今!!)

So 夜, I re-read the last completed lesson (に.三) to get a refresher and then continued into the following lesson on past-tense nouns.

Basically, the past-tense form of です is でした. I learned that this is really pronounced 'deshta' because you should drop the i from the し hiragana.

This was really pretty easy, except for when you try to combine it with a word like でんしゃ and ask a question! (でんしゃでしたか?) That was so hard for me. Kept seeming like I had a 口 full of mush.

Anyway, I created a new Anki deck for Vocab which contained these common nouns and studied them:

    ともだち (friend)
    みず (water)
    でんしゃ (train)
    せんせい (teacher)
    ねこ (cat)
    いぬ (dog)
    じてんしゃ (bicycle)
    くるま (car)
    りんご (apple)
     しんぶん (newspaper)

Then こういち-さん introduced some two stroke kanji that I was already familiar with both through previous TextFugu studies and WaniKani. I created a couple of Anki decks for these (the kanji themselves and the associated vocab):

一    (一人, 一つ)
二    (二人, 二つ)
七    (七人, 七つ)
九    (九人, 九つ)

Then did a lot of practicing with でした with the nouns above and also with some previous vocab both just on screen and with a new sentences Anki deck.

All in all, it was a very productive evening, despite Blogger's new post interface pissing me off royal.

I still have a little bit of に.四 to finish up but it's getting late so that's for another time.

またね!

Let's try this 又

OK, so I'm trying to get my shit together when it comes to this damned b-log. LOL.

I took 一年 off from 日本語 while I was studying for and obtaining my CCNA certification.

I resumed my WaniKani studies the day after I passed my test (9/28) and have been playing catch up / moving forward ever since. I had nearly 八百 reviews when I signed back in!!

So, I'm caught up and currently working through level 七.

So far I've learned 二百十四 漢字 and 四百八十五 vocabulary words using those 漢字.

So again, although I haven't posted here in 近い 百万年 so to speak, I have been taking care of business since frying the cisco 魚.

I am going to try very hard to get TextFugu going again alongside the WaniKani studies, because although I can recognize a bunch of 漢字, I still need a ton of work to read sentences.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. Hopefully posting here going forward will feel less like a chore and more like a 火 under my arse.

またね!

ダッミト!! (Lol, that was my attempt at DAMMIT! in 日本語)

Yea, so I haven't sat down here in forever. Last time I did, I did the third lesson in Season に called 'Before You Learn Kanji.'

Although the content was heavy (も), I was excited at the end because I was under the impression that kanji would be next. Only to find out that wasn't really the case. I took a bunch of notes on that lesson though and I want to document them here tonight. On a pretty positive side note, before I get started with those notes, the next time I logged into TextFugu, I saw that I could sign up to alpha test their new kanji learning tool, WaniKani. I did and IT IS AWESOME!! So, although I haven't been here in awhile, and although I was a bit disappointed after the last lesson (I mean c'mon, I was sort of excited instead of frightened of kanji!), I've actually been learning quite a few kanji (and more radicals of course) using WaniKani. It's really cool. So, in essence, what I'm trying to say is that I haven't been a totally bad kid when it comes to my 日本語 quest. In fact, I've been all over the WaniKani, so at least there's that!

Anyway, about those notes. . . Here they are. . . Verbatim! (It's kind of scary. LOL)

Before You Learn Kanji

Know the first set of radicals well. It's going to suck - period. However @ least with TextFugu it's going to be less hard.

(おん) On'yomi - Original Chinese readings

• Long story short due to Chinese history, kanji have multiple おん readings and many of them are used. Fortunately, for each kanji, most use a single on'yomi 80-90% of the time. (Think 80-20 rule - sort of)

(くん) Kun'yomi

• Quite a bit different from おん reading. くん are actually native 日本語 words that have been associated and attached to kanji as it was being imported

• *In order to make kanji accessible to [those] who didn't speak Chinese, ひらがな got attached to kanji. Ex: the kanji for "eat" or "food" is 食 / しょく (on'yomi)
• The on'yomi is the original Chinese pronunciation but his on'yomi isn't (usually) used on its own to say    "eat" or "food." You often have to combine kanji together to form jukugo (combo kanji) in order to create a word using on'yomi pronunciations. For example, 夕食 (ゆうしょく) means dinner. You can see how the kanji are combined to create a word. (Ha! I guess...)

• The kun'yomi is different. (Yay!) Since it is the Japanese pronunciation of a word or concept, the Japanese figured out their word for eat and applied it to this kanji. The word for "to eat" in Japanese is たべます, but that's too long to stick in one kanji (plus when its on its own, you already pronounce it しょく.) So by adding hiragana to kanji, it shows how to read the kanji. When written in Japanese, and kanji, it looks like this: 食べます. (た.べます)
• When you learn the kun'yomi, you learn the whole thing - hiragana, kanji and all
• *Think of kun'yomi as new vocabulary you learn with the kanji*

• Because Japanese words didn't fit w/ kanji perfectly, some duct-taping had to happen i.e. often times, hiragana will be attached to a kanji to "complete" it and show the kun'yomi reading.

When to Use the On'yomi and Kun'yomi (O_o)

• Pretty difficult.
• General rules which might help.

1. When a kanji is sitting on it's own, often times you'll use the くん reading. (There are exceptions to this--aren't there always??!)
2. When a kanji is combined with another kanji, and no hiragana is attached, you'll probably use the おん reading. This is jukugo.
3. A lot of the time, you'll have to have prior knowledge of a particular word before you can know the pronunciation of it. Often times, you can guess the pronunciation of a word/kanji, based on your studies/a few indicators, but in the end preparedness and experience is key. Even Japanese speakers can't always figure out the pronunciation of a word they haven't learned in context before. It's not like English where you can just sound it out, after all!!

So, yea. After digitizing those notes, I think I might be just as confused if not more than when I wrote them. No freaking wonder why most students of 日本語 quit. This stuff is tough. If I hadn't learned several kanji and their readings (even though I couldn't tell you definitively whether the readings I've learned are おん or くん honestly -- I guess likely くん based on general rule 1 above) via WaniKani, I think I'd be pretty depressed right now. LOL.

Goodnight and またね!