8/18/11

Reading Challange: Day 2 week 2

What a week!
I´m currently in Brazil visiting my family after 14 years.
I thought that I´d have plenty of time here to sit back and read.
I brought all of my Hiragana Times magazines.
I thought wrong.
I´m used to a quiet home but here it´s full of life, (not to mention noise).

My family wants my attention every second of the day.
And when their not I´m taking a nap.
I love that here everyone takes naps.
Of course I´m putting my family first.
I´m enjoying spending time with each of them,
but I alo realize that 2 weeks without ANY Japanese will hurt my progress greatly.

My family loves to watch novelas.
So I take the chance to read.
There was some topics I read about in the magazine.

Sign Language
There is a musical playing Tokyo that is using Japanese sign language.
I thought it really cool that they´re making more entertainment for a different demograph.

Exhibitions, babysitting, kimono book, baseball
I read it for practice but I wasnt interested in it.

Little Star
There was an article about a growing star named Ashida Mana.
It was interesting because she seems mature for her age.
I want to watch the shows she´s been in now.

Joshikai
I really dont understand this phenomenon.
Its basically women hanging out, eating, shopping, and chatting without men around.
Its a boom these days and women seem to be happy without the company of men.
Um... women have always hung out together. So why do they act like it´s something new...
Someone please explain it to me.ta
I think it´s just companies trying make something up to make more money.
i.e valentine´s day

I sadly don´t have a dictionary with me, so I can´t look up the words I´m reading.
I can´t have the interent on all day either. I think i´m missing out alot because of this.

I´ve been taking my time reading each sentence.
Pausing at particles, because I tend to fly through without much thought.
Now I´m paying attention to each part I read.
I´ve also noted sentences that end with a noun. A grammar point I´ve been studying in
my lessons.
I´ve also payed attention to easy phrases made more complicated.

I read 9 pages, but one was too short so I will count it as 0.1.
9=4.1pts. 3+4.1=7.1 pts in total.

 

8/8/11

Reading Challenge: Day 1 report

Day 1 (Monday, 8th):
This was the start of a very busy week.
I went to work with my mom, so since she was driving I took the chance
and read in the car. I will admit I was not in the mood to start my day reading Japanese.
Usually I rather listen to my music while I daze off during the car ride.
But it hit me. So many advice blogs about learning Japanese always mention studying when you have idle time.
There's not many times I have the chance to be the passenger.

I picked up a children's book my teacher gave me before she moved away.
「さるかにばなし」"The monkey and the crab".
I knew the story before. This book is bilingual so I enjoyed knowing what I was reading.
I also found interesting how phrases were translated.
When you've come know a phrase to the point of being natural it feels kinda weird to see how it would
be translated. I think that's a good sign when you're learning a language. It means you don't need things
to be translated word for word.

Since each page was half English and half Japanese I counted two pages as one.
So out of 12 pages I read 6. So my total points is 3. ^^

Packing up my luggage today is making me wonder what should I take to read on my trip.
I'm definitively taking my Hiragana Times magazines.
But I'm not sure how many I should take. ^^;;
I'm worried about packing too little or too much.

Have you entered the challenge?
Share your progress!
Don't know what I'm talking about?
Click here 

8/7/11

Reading: CHALLANGE

One of the important things when learning a language is to keep motivation.
With motivation you enjoy practicing.
So here's a fun motivation for all of us!
My friend has started a "Summer End Reading Challenge"!
I like this idea to get into the habit of reading different materials in Japanese.
I also like that you're doing it with others so we can cheer each other on.

Once a week I'll be blogging my progress and experience.
I'll also try to tweet a daily progress.

I'll be going on a 2 week trip but I'm gonna take some reading material with me.
I'm going to try and stuff as much reading as I can while getting from point A to point B.
Especially since I'm going off to Brazil and will be practicing Portuguese.
I don't want my Japanese ability to fall behind again.

Come join me!
To enter: click on the link