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.

 

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 

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

Total Study Time for May

v__v I have a bad feeling about this one...

For the month of May
I studied 2 hours and 53 minutes.
Comparing to April (5:48),
I studied 3 hours and 5 minutes less.

</3
Me:3 Life:2

I am really disappointed in myself.
There is no excuse for this.

Must
try
harder.

My total study time now is 23:12.
v_v

Gotta Level Up!

Recently I came upon a blog called, "Japanese Level Up".
It's a really interesting and informative site.
It has helped me to get some ideas on how to improve my study.
One blog post I really enjoyed was "What Level Are You?".


I'm sure every Japanese language learner has wondered where they are on
the learning scale. I have always wondered since my lessons are private tutoring.
I might have passed JLPT N5 but it can't really tell me where I am.
It's a test after all.


This obsession might derive from video games for me.
It'd be great to always have words pop up and a voice saying,
"Congrats! You've leveled up!" 


For myself I would say I'm between level 5~10. 
I'm working on Genki II.
I don't keep track of how many kanji I know. ><


It's nice to have something to go by. 
I always felt I was level 1~4.
You know, that feeling that you haven't improved?
This has definitely boosted my confidence and am using the site a lot.


I recommend it. The blogger, Adshap, posts many helpful material based on level.
That way you're not trying to attack something that's level 40 when you're level 30.
And getting frustrated to boot.


He also posts videos based on level too. Adshap YouTube Channel


What level are you?

Total Study Time for April

I have a good feeling about this one. ^^

For the month of April
I studied 5 hours and 48 minutes.
Comparing to March (3:31),
I beat my score by 2 hours and 17 minutes!
^^v

Me:3 Life: 1

Even though I've been so busy with

school and work I was able to stay on top of my study. 

It really is about time management.

Just have to figure out how to make everything fit.

I'm thinking of posting some blogs about time management.

It's useful in every aspect of life.

I only have a week of school left.

So right now I'm not studying.

Which is driving me crazy because I'm craving to do so.

I rather sit down and study Japanese any day!

Since I can't study I've been trying to speak and think more

in Japanese. I'm always looking up words on my kotoba 

(Japanese dictionary on the iTouch) and tweeting in Japanese.

I also have been watching Japanese vlogs.

I've been talking to my dog in Japanese too hehe.

Once school is over I'm going to fill every hour of my day with Japanese.

I'm so excited!

I'm also going to start preparing for JLPT N4.

Though I'm wondering if I should just do N5 again...

Adding to the total time of the other months,

14:41+ 5:48 = 20:19.

Almost a day!

Total Study Time for March

Another month has passed.
I wonder if I did better this time.

For the month of March
I studied 3 hours and 31 minutes.
Comparing to February (3:06),
I beat my score by 25 minutes!
I'm so happy. ♪


Me: 3 Life: 1


I'm really excited to do better.
Last month was really busy,
but I was able to keep up with studying.
I feel the key factor is time management.
I was on top of my school work, work, and church.
So I had the time to study.


It's the end of the school semester,
which means more school work.
It's going to be hard but I'm going
to try my best.


Adding to the total of the other months,
11:10 + 3:31 = 14:41
It's slowly getting there.