Manga: Improving Little by Little

In my previous posts I have mentioned that I've started reading manga and have moved from children's books. While I still like using kid books, I felt it was time to try something harder.

I hesitated for a very long time to graduate to manga.
I still am not able to understand sentence by sentence in a children's book, and so I figured I wouldn't understand whats going on in a graphic novel. I would get tired at first after reading a few pages. (I try to read aloud to exercise my mouth muscles) After sometime, I was able to finish a children's book in a few minutes. So I felt it was time to take a step forward.

At first I began reading Saiunkoku. One aspect of reading that I had to get over is to stop worrying about what each word meant. Looking things up would make the progress slow and boring, and take me out of the story. And then I'd never want to read!It felt frustrating and taking the time to read felt painful. But after a few weeks I could I could understand the gist and even some jokes! Instead of feeling frustrated, reading made me feel relaxed. But the story felt a bit overwhelming. So I stopped half-way. 

I finished my first manga, DBZ, and it boosted my confidence. It's an easy read since it's mostly action. After reading it, I went over and started transcribing all the words I didn't know and making an Anki deck. Once the words become familiar, I hope to go back and re-read and see how much I'll comprehend.

Since January I've been reading Hakuouki. I feel very excited to read. Usually I can only read a few pages every sitting.

I reached another accomplishment: I was able to read 32 pages in one sitting! I can see myself slowly progressing. Even if I still don't understand everything I am improving. Slowly but surely.   

My January Fun Study Materials

 

On JALUP's website there is a series where you share what materials you've been using during the past month. I thought it was a fun idea and decided to answer them here. 

1. What are you watching?

I've been watching しろくまカフェ (Panda cafe), and I really enjoy it! It has talking animals going through mundane life. Slice-of-life genre with a lot of jokes. The characters are funny and the show is light-hearted. The Japanese used in the show is very basic and I can understand a lot of the words and sentence structure. Each episode is cut into 3 parts so the stories are short and easy to follow. There's also a lot of puns!They also talk very slow compared to other anime. This is a great show for beginners, and come on... cute talking animals! 

I've also been watching アムネシア (Amnesia) which is based on an 乙女 (otome) game. The show is really confusing, and would make more sense if you've played the game. It deals with a girl loosing her memory and every time she wakes up  she finds that things have changed, and time rewinds. Unknown to her she is constantly thrown into different dimensions where she has different relationships with the people around her. Every time she gets into an accident she wakes up in a new dimension. It's not my kind of anime, but I am watching to support the 乙女 industry. 

2.What are you listening to?

I'm still listening to my Hakuouki drama CDs. Every time I think I've picked up all I can understand from them I pick up another word. Little by little I'm understanding the plots a lot more. 

I still listen to Shukan Soine, but I listen to them as I fall asleep. So I'm not picking up much since I'm sleeping through them. I should try and listen to them during the day...

3. What are you playing?

I'm still playing Hakuouki since there's many story lines. When I notice a phrase I write them down in my memo so I can practice. This game is heart-wrenching though. I've had to stop playing many times. For days! It has given birth to the phrase「エモ―ショナル切腹」(emotional seppuku)

 

4.What are you reading?

I stopped reading 彩雲国(Saiunkoku), even though I was half way through it, and started reading Hakuouki. I think it's best to let yourself read what you'd like to instead of forcing yourself to finish another. It's not that I don't like Saiunkoku anymore, it's just that at the moment another series has my interest. 

So that's what I've been using for my fun materials. I hope it was interesting and helpful. Let me know what you've been using! 

My December Fun Study Materials

On JALUP's site there is a series where you share what materials you've been using during the current month. I thought it's an interesting idea and thought I'd answer the questions here.

1.What are you watching?

 I've been re-watching 彩雲国物語(Saiunkoku Monogatari). It's one of my favorite shows and I know the the jist of what's going on without subtitles. The voice acting is fun to listen to, and the plot of a girl trying to follow her dream in a male-world is a bonus too. 

I also began watching (and finished) 薄桜鬼 (Hakuouki). It's a series based on the historical events of the Shinsengumi with an added twist. The thing that I really like about this series is that it branches off to other forms of media. 

2.What are you listening to?

I've started to listen to Drama CDs. Each time I listen to them I pick something else up. What I love about these CDs compared to listening to a rip of a show is that it was made for listening. So no second of the listening time is wasted since there are no visuals. There are 乙女 (otome) CDs like 主観添い寝 (shukan soine). This is probably my favorite series to listen to because it is soothing enough to fall asleep to. It also has my favorite voice actors: Midorikawa Hikaru, Kousuke Toriumi, Morikawa Toshiyuki, Kuroda Takaya, and Morita Masakazu. They also have an app in the apple store where you can listen to clips from the CDs. (Soine Kareshi or sleepy boyfriend) Each CD has a different story and a "free talk" where the voice actor just talks. The free talk section is advanced for me since it's very natural pace of speech.

The other type of Drama CDs are based on anime series or games. One that I have is from Hakuouki. They came in a book I ordered. The dialog is hard for me to follow, but the positive thing is the book has the script. This series is very good listening practice for me, because every character has a different way of speaking. Some of them I can't understand at all, while others I can kinda follow. It also has numerous humorous scenes. These CDs also have a free talk section, but with the whole cast together. This is great to listen to because it's very natural. As in everyone is talking over each other. 

3.What are you playing?

Recently I have fallen into the world of 乙女ゲーム(otome games or visual novels). There are many for the iPhone which I will talk about in another post, but I've been playing Hakuouki. The game is in English but the voice overs are in Japanese. I really like it because I get to see how a line is translated. (And it's translated very differently in my opinion!)

4.What are you reading?

I finished my first manga! （やった！）This one was a nice way to ease into reading manga because there isn't much dialogue, and I knew what was going on since I had already seen the movie. I am currently in the process of transcoding it and adding the vocab into Anki.

I am half-way through 彩雲国 (Saiunkoku) vol. 1. I read it first in English and then in Japanese. But I read the English version so long ago that I don't remember it. This volume ties closely to the anime plot so I know what's going on. Sometimes I even get the jokes!♪

Even though I am reading Saiunkoku right now I really want to start reading Hakuouki. Though I am not sure if it's a good idea to read two series at once or bounce around. Should I go back to reading DBZ then?

I hope this entry was interesting or useful. I want to leave you with some examples of Drama CDs. Enjoy!

A Hakuouki Drama CD

Hakuouki Live Drama CD

Hakuouki Anime Clip

Shukan Soine

No More Guilt

I really missed blogging!
I'm sorry to everyone who reads my blog.
My blog is for fun, I'd rather not schedule my entries.
Quality over quantity, right?

After my trip from Utah I felt pretty horrible about my Japanese abilities.
I had the goal of only speaking Japanese while I was there.
I felt frustrated with myself. I felt I failed.

When I came back I was pumped in trying the Tofugu 30day book, and see if
my studies would improve. The rule is that you MUST do whatever activity the chapter for that day requires. I loved it. A step-by-step guide. 
But if backfired.
Realistically, there will be some days that you can't study.
There was also chapters that built on other chapters. For one of them I needed replies on rhino spike. Since I wasn't getting any it didn't work.
How could I continue if I was stuck on a chapter?!

I felt even worse. From the jblogging community I got the feeling that you don't really love Japanese if you don't study everyday. I didn't want to blog because I didn't want to admit I don't have time to put into Japanese as I would like. 

Then school began. That meant making a new schedule. Usually I dread re-working my routine, but I was actually pretty excited. It should be a chance to see what to throw out, set aside, or focus on. I had it all figured out.
But I wasn't expecting the unexpected. 
I'm taking 2 production classes and the amount of outside class work is unbelievable. So the time I set aside for Japanese is now taken over by production work. 

I felt like a huge failure. Why bother even trying?

It wasn't till Rachel pointed me to a blog that my mind changed.
It's about not putting yourself down because you couldn't follow the plan.
Not letting yourself feel bad because your day isn't focus on Japanese all the time. 

One piece really stood out to me:

the mindset that spending 10 minutes a day on Japanese is awesome.  This is a huge project and we all deserve a pat on the back for spending any time on it.  Therefore, thirty minutes is extra awesome.  An hour is super extra awesome and several hours is super duper extra awesome.  Then we know without question that working on it all day is super duper extra awesome fantastic.

Reading that made me realize that it's OK. As long as you keep going and keep learning it's great. Even if you can only put in a few minutes. I have been putting in a few minutes everyday. I should feel pretty awesome about it!

So I'm going to keep going at my own pace. Doing what I think is fitting for that day. I'm not gonna hold on to a strict schedule. I have to be realistic. School comes first. 

But as long as I keep putting in some time it's OK.

Next few posts I want to share more of my manga, my new tutor, and I plan to share my experiences with the different chapters of Tofugu 30-day book.

Please share any thoughts below!

My Experiance as a Living-in Nanny (for a Japanese Family)

 I might have mentioned in a previews post that I was going on working holiday to Utah.
Which is why I've been absent these past few weeks.
 I am still here until June 12th.
 I'm here to take care of a 3 year old for two weeks.
 (My previous teacher's son)
 He only speaks Japanese and understands very little English.
This forces me to speak in Japanese, but really just the basics.

 I have however, memorized words from constant use. Either new words or a conjugation of an old one I studied but never used. For example, I now have no difficulty to remember how to say 「上げて」
 I hear Japanese all day long between him and his mother.
I can understand a lot more now then when I arrived, but I still feel my speaking ability is just the same.

My flow of my reading-aloud ability has improved a bit from reading to him at least 30 minutes a day.
With some of the books I understand what is going on, while with others I'm not sure.
That's still a big improvement!

I don't think I'm learning as much as I could for a couple of reasons
. I can't always ask or look up words I'm constantly hearing.
 I don't have time to write them down. I hesitate to speak only in Japanese to his mother.
 I planned to study grammar and vocab with Erin's challenge while I'm here, and review Genki in my short breaks. My laptop went bust so those things are inaccessible. (I'm writing from an iPad)

 As important and great as it is to be immersed in a Japanese environment, I feel it can't work fully on its own. At least not for me. I need to study grammar and understand sentence structure.
And I always need to review. I need to look things up when I write in my journal.
I suppose I'm a little frustrated that my pre-study plans back fired, and that I will feel more behind when I begin my summer challenge when I return home.
And that I rely heavily on books. (and that I can't afford a new laptop)

 One cool thing though is that I've been going to a Japanese church here every Sunday.
 The meeting is a mix of Japanese and English, and the church community is made of not just Japanese. There's a lot of interesting people there. From people that experienced being in the Japanese camps, ni-sei and san-sei, Japanese major students, exchange student, and interracial couples.
I can see that even though most have forgotten how to speak Japanese, they are still very in-tune with their Japanese heritage.

 Everyone here is also very nice! I've been able to make a couple of new acquaintances, and have similar interests beyond Japanese. Yai!
 Tomorrow I will be meeting another Japanese.
I feel I won't speak out of hesitation. (story of my life)
 I have filmed my stay here so in some distant future look forward to that.

日本語のブログ９（ののちゃんから誕生日プレゼント）

Preparation for Summer Challenge: MANGA!

One of the important aspects of immersion is having material that you really enjoy. I had children's books and a couple of manga before, but I wasn't really in love with them. So I decided to stock up on reading material that I would enjoy this summer. At first it was hard to find anything that I was interested in, and if I did find something, it was too expensive. But to my delight I got series I've wanted to get my hands on.

The first series I bought is the Emma light novel. This is based on Kaoru Mori's manga Emma. I always wanted to own a light novel series. 

At the moment I think the novel is above my level, but I think it's still good to have something advanced for when you to enjoy in the future. 

Of course I had to buy Emma! I have the anime series and the English version of the manga. So reading it in Japanese is just natural since I love the story so much!

The manga has no 振り仮名（ふりがな）so I plan to use it as 漢字 practice. I know the story well so it won't bother me that I don't understand the conversations 100%. 

A Bride's Story is a series I haven't read. So I don't know the story at all. This also has no 振り仮名. I think this manga will be good to read when I'll be able to understand what I'm reading. (Though that's if I don't buy the English version by then...)

The Story of the Land of Colored Clouds is an anime I had found accidentally, and I'm so glad I did! I just finished watching Season 1, and love it so much I just had to get the 漫画. I only got 4 of the 9 in the series and I hope to complete my collection. The manga is based on the light novel series which I hope to purchase as well. 

This series has 振り仮名! I'm really glad at least one of the series I purchased has it. This means I can take it along with me and enjoy just reading without worrying about looking up 漢字 readings. I might take these with me on vacation. (I'm afraid of loosing them though T^T) I won't understand everything word for word, but I know the story so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm interested to see the similarities and differences in translation from Japanese to English. 

As I mentioned in the vlog, I purchased these on ebay. I found a shop that specializes in printed Japanese material. I will definitively be purchasing from there again. The seller also takes requests for manga series you're looking for! Awesome! http://stores.ebay.com/fromnippon

You can buy all items mentioned at this store. I also saw some of this stuff on yesasia. Whichever you feel most comfortable with. 

I hope you enjoyed this entry and found it helpful. Where do you shop for your Japanese books? Let me know! Any series you're dying to read?