1/20/11

日記:新しい学期

今日から新しい学期が始まった。 
二つクラスがある。 
コングラ学と数学だ。 
数学が大嫌い。 
つまらない。 
面白くない。 

それから友達に会った。 

嬉しかった。 
ランチを食べてお喋りをした。 
私は友達のiTouchをたすけた。 
楽しかった。 
テクノロジーが大好き。 

新しいアルバイトがある! 
あしたから始めまります。 
でも、明日吹雪です。 
運転は。。。心配します。 
今、2つアルバイトがある。 

明日: 
大学は11じ30分から12時20分だ。 
一番
目のアルバイトは1時から4時。 
それから、二番目のアルバイトに行く。 
6時から10時。 
わああああぁぁぁ 
疲れる。

1/19/11

My Study Method Part 3- Reading

On Wednesdays I focus on reading.
There are 8 things for this agenda.


NOTE: It is very important to read out loud.
This will help your mouth get used to the language.
Think of it as physical exercise for your tongue. 
You will find that speaking and reading will slowly become
easier and easier.
It is also important to read in a quitet setting.
So you can focus on what your reading.
Even if you don't understand every single word.


1. Kid Book
My Japanese teacher has tons of children's books.
I borrow one once a week and read through it.
Her son is only 3 so all the books are still hiragana level.
It is great practice for me though because I still read slow.
The books are fun to read and the art is interesting to look at.
Plus children books have many common phrases you can pick up.


2. Manga
I only have one manga and that is my Japanese picture Bible.
Since I know the stories I figure out what is going on through the pictures.
It's fun to act out the dialogue with my voice. 
It makes the difficult reading bearable.


3. Book
This can be any adult level book.
I use my Biligual Bible.
I read one chapter.
First I read the verse in Japanese, then in English.


4. Review writing
The the things I wrote on Tuesday I read it on Wednesday.
It is good review and makes your memory turn its wheels.


5. JLPT books
I have two JLPT books I crammed with for the exam.
Now I am simply reading them out loud to make my brain
remember what sounds right naturally.


6. Quizzes
I read out loud all the quizzes I've taken so far from my lessons.
Good review for upcoming quizzes/tests.


7. Genki Kanji
I study the kanji from the chapter I'm on with these flashcards I printed out.
Genki Kanji

8. JLPT Kanji
I use these online flashcard sites.
JLPT flashcards 1
JLPT flashcards 2

I hope this gave you some ideas or tools to help study.
Remember this is not the only way.
This is the way that helps me.
I'm always tinkering with my methods to make them better.

How do you study reading?

1/12/11

Sometimes you need some

inspiration now and again.
When I'm feeling discouraged about Japanese, my hopes, my dreams, anything;
I turn to Kiyuku-san.
A girl in a documentary that reminds me with hard work, ambition, discipline, and with time that you can
achieve your goals.
The motivation she shows motivates me too.
It makes me excited to work hard.
And let's me know that it's OK to shed a tear now and again.


To watch her documentary click below.
Becoming a Geisha

1/9/11

Before bed method

One of my favorite little study methods I like to use 
is studying a small vocab list before bed.
I either study my core vocab list
or one of my kumon decks.
I like to sit in bed and just go through them
for about 15 minutes.


It becomes sort of a game for me cause
I like to see how many I can get right that night in one go.
I go through them till I get them all right.
With every night that goes by the pile of correct cards gets bigger
and the incorrect pile smaller.


One great affect from studying before bed for me is that
when I wake up. The first thing that pops into my head is a word 
or two from the cards I studied.
It always shocks me cause I don't try to drill them into my brain.
I just have fun with it.


And that's the key.
Just have fun.

1/6/11

Total Study Time for December

So a new month has begun which means I get to look back and see how much time I put into Japanese.
For the month of December I studied in total 3 hours and 2 minutes.
Since I lost my record for November I compared it to October.
In October it was 1 hour and 37 minutes.
So I beat my first score :D
If someone asked me how long I've been learning Japanese I can now say 4 hours and 39 minutes.
Won't that confuse them haha
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