Sebby Learns Japanese

Bright Future

2008-09-01T09:00:00.005-04:00

Another film recommendation for those of you who enjoy unconventional (and Japanese!) cinema. I'm talking about Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future (アカルイミライ). I found this film to be fresh and interesting, but, truth be told, hard to follow at times. I think I will need another screening (or two) to work out all the symbolism etc. Well, more Japanese listening practice for me! It's a win-win! Anyway, I strongly reccomend it!

Here is a spoiler-free (I try) intro to the film: "Two young guys work in a plant that manufactures oshibori. Their weird bond is based on uncontrollable rage, something neither can articulate or control, and the strange jellyfish that they keep as a pet. A bizzare turn of events soon changes both of their lives." ~ Adapted from IMDB

University classes start tomorrow, my first ever Japanese class is Wednesday!

QOTD: How to ace Japanese 101? :) hmmm...

Learning By Listening

2008-08-28T14:16:00.005-04:00

Recently I've been browsing through information online about learning Japanese. I found the advice of Khatzumoto - who was mentioned to me by Bahia (domo arigatoo!) especially interesting and not to mention, entertaining!

Anyway, on his website he strongly urges all "learners" to submerge themselves in the language they are studying. That is you need to LIVE your target language 24/7 (or very close to it). He even mentions sleeping while listening to Japaneses audio!!! While his method seems extreme... well, it sure payed off for the creator (Khatzumoto supposedly became fluent within 18 months!)

And thus, following Khatzumoto's advice... I got a bunch of Japanese films from Netflix and started watching them. It might sound silly, but although I don't understand a thing, I actually feel like I am getting "used to" the sounds.

The cool part is... this isn't a chore, it doesn't even feel like learning. Quick example, today I saw a very interesting film that (by the way) I strongly recommend to all fans of unconventional cinema. The title was "After Life." Here is a brief and spoiler-free summary (in case you are interested).

"After people die, they spend a week with counselors, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity. They describe the memory to the staff who work with a crew to film it and screen it at week's end. 22 dead arrive that week, assigned to three counselors and a trainee." ~ From IMDB

QOTD: What Japanese films would you recommend me? All I seem to find is 60's sword slashers and thrillers (isn't there more to Japanese cinema?)

Ta-Ta For Now

2008-08-24T01:00:00.006-04:00

So, I'm slowly but surly building up my Hiragana list. I'm up to 20 letters with the addition of the T-family. Do you all think I move much too slow? The thing is I want to have these letters MASTERED before I move on to do more. When I look at a page of Japanese... well, I want to instantly think "KI!" not "Umm... I'm pretty sure...umm... that that's... kiiii(???)" And that is my explenation (in case you were wondering). I think going slow for now is a good aproach. Lots and lot of repetition. Once I master hiragana I will also go back to using Rosetta Stone (I'm kinda looking forward to that).

In other Japanese Learning related news. Thanks to awesome people online I found out about this (supposedly) great book. "Remembering the Kanji" I am wondering if parallel to Rosetta, as well as University Classes, I should invest time (and money) into this book. Ever heard of it friend?

QOTD: What's your personal experience, or the word of mouth you hear, about Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" series?

A Small Break

2008-08-21T23:50:00.008-04:00

I haven't really practiced in a few days and I feel kinda bad about it. I'm having a really busy week. Still working on getting the S-family of Hiragana symbols down. I need to devote more time to this. :[

On a lighter note: going to NYC on Wednesday was really enjoyable!

QOTD: How many days a week do you practice Japanese?

Hiragana Brainwash!

2008-08-18T01:00:00.000-04:00

I found this very cool video on YouTube. It might seem like brainwashing at first, but it actually helps one to memorize Hiragana. Props to GenkiJapan!

QOTD: Do you know of any other cool Japan or Japanese-Learning related videos floating around the internet?

Textbooks

2008-08-17T17:02:00.009-04:00

Yesterday I got 2 books I will need for learning Japanese at my Uni during the fall semester. They are called... Genki(?). Anyway, I looked them over a bit, and my initial reaction is that they seem a bit confusing. I see a lot of Japanese submersion right from the get-go and I can't really follow along much (as I don't know what the heck is written).

Are they any good? I sure hope so.

Hiragana Update: Still working on the 15 first symbols.

QOTD: Did you use Genki to study Japanese? If not, what textbooks did you use?

Enrolling: Japanese 101

2008-08-15T01:01:00.000-04:00

First, hiragana update! The more letters/symbols I know, the more confusing it becomes. I'll try to memorize the ones I learned extremely well before moving on to new ones. I hope this will eliminate the problem. Today, I finished K’s and moved on to the S’s. Here are the letters (again, are they called letters?) that I know so far:

Charts from About.com

I went to the Dept. of Asian Languages and Cultures at my University yesterday to see if I can sign up for Japanese 101 come fall semester. Unfortunately they weren’t able to tell me one way or another. As it turns out, even with 7 sections offered, classes fill up quick. I’m guessing it must be a popular course! And so, all I got out of the present administration was: “Classes are full… blah blah blah, and so on.” Well, all I can say is - thank god for my determination to be admitted into this program. After coming home yesterday, I e-mailed the professor directly and just now she responds telling me to come see her on Day 1; she will get me in. I’m starting official Japanese on September 2^nd! Should I celebrate or start to panic? Haha… I hear it isn’t an easy class.

Before I go, BIG shout-outs to Lunar, Sam, Akihiro, and Amy for reading and responding to this very young blog… and thus supplying me with (much needed) creative fuels to write more entries. It’s nice to know someone is reading this :)

Question of the Day: Did you ever take (or plan to take) official Japanese classes?

More Hiragana + History Lesson

2008-08-14T01:01:00.002-04:00

More Hiragana for me. Today I've learned E (え) and O (お), as well as KA (か) and KI (き). Only thing that bothers me is that depending on the website I go to, the style of Hiragana letters seems to be different. So, what is the correct way?

Also, browsing stuff about Hiragana, I have found some interesting facts about the history of this writing style in relation to gender. Very interesting as well as bizarre for me to find out:

"Historically, in Japan, the regular script (kaisho) form of the characters, so-called otokode (男手), "men's writing", was used by men; the cursive script (sōsho) form of the kanji was used by women. Thus hiragana first gained popularity among women, who were not allowed access to the same levels of education as men. From this comes the alternative name of onnade (女手) "women's writing". For example, The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively.

Male authors came to write literature using hiragana. Hiragana, with its flowing style, was used for unofficial writing such as personal letters, while katakana and Chinese were used for official documents. In modern times, the usage of hiragana has become mixed with katakana writing. Katakana is now relegated to special uses such as recently borrowed words (i.e., since the 19th century), names in transliteration, the names of animals, in telegrams, and for emphasis." ~ Source: Wikipedia.

So, let me get this straight... males and females used different writing methods for the SAME language? Wow.

QOTD: How long did it take you to learn Hiragana?

I Can Write... Auiii!

2008-08-13T00:54:00.006-04:00

あういいい! ...but I can't do much more than that right now.

So, after coming from work today I've decided to give Hiragana a try. Since it was/is already late I compromised on learning just 3 "letters". Hahaha... are they even called letters?

I've learned A (あ) I (い) and U (う). I can also write "auia" and "uaiu" ... gee I feel like I'm fluent already! Ha! あういあ!

That's my notebook above, first attempts :)
I've noticed that writing this takes some effort! It's almost like being back in 1st grade and learning how to write your abc's all over again!

This chart from About.com was very helpful during this initial lesson. Yoshida Institute is another good website I have found.

Question of the Day: What was your reaction to first writing in Japanese? Harder than you expected it to be?

Efforts to "Uncomplicate" Japanese Learning

2008-08-12T04:01:00.000-04:00

Day 2. Well technically still the same day, just after midnight now, hehe. I decided that Roseta Stone will not do alone in case of Japanese. It is still a great tool, but it was much more... how to say, self-explanatory of a language program when I migrated from a European language to another European tongue. Japanese, as I quickly found out last time, is a whole new ball game. And that is exciting as well as scary for me. After some internet research I have decided that Hiragana is probably the first thing one should master... naturally this assumption might be wrong, but how would I know mate? To my pleasant surprise I have also found many tools for learning Hiragana online! The one that stands out the most, as it teaches you the writing stroke order is this 3-part YouTube series by MasamuneJJ (see lesson 1 below!) ...I just hope that it is accurate, as again, I have no idea how good it really is. On another topic, I'm checking with my university tomorrow to see if I can get into an introductory Japanese class this fall. Will report on that shortly.

Question of the Day: Name some good tips on how to learn Japanese? What study habits or study methods do you use?

The First (Rather Scary) Lesson

2008-08-11T21:30:00.000-04:00

Okay, here we go... Day 1. Haven't had much time to learn anything today. I came back from work late and I'm not really in a learning mood when I'm tired. Nevertheless I felt like doing something/anything productive towards my goal of learning Japanese. Thus, I finally installed Rosetta Stone: Japanese Level 1 on my computer. The installation was painless, what came after... very. You see, I turn on the program (just out of curiosity) and in about five seconds thoroughly realise that learning Japanese will be TEN times harder than learning English! Even the very first lesson is very very hard, and using Rosetta for French/Italian before... I know that the first lesson was rather easy when it came to European languages. Question comes to mind, do I have what it takes to learn Japanese?

Question of the Day: What was your personal reaction after your first encounter with learning Japanese, inside the class or otherwise.