Wah. Neglect, neglect, neglect. Nothing but neglect is shown in this blog. D: TSK. However, I’m back to show that I have not given up on learning the language. Most of what I’m currently doing is listening to podcasts for my daily dose of Japanese learning, but I shall be back to practice here. WHEEE.
I bought a new Japanese book today–Japanese For Everyone. Now, I’ve already seen what’s on the inside even before buying it (c/o the wonders of the internet XD), but the book itself is pretty nice, seeing as the paper quality is excellent.
The cover doesn’t look that nice compared to other Japanese textbooks, but what’s inside definitely makes up for it. I think the older editions come with cassette tapes to hear the conversations in Japanese for every lesson, but the copy I bought off my college bookstore didn’t come with it. Also, this book is used for the upper Japanese levels in my college, which surprised me, seeing as it looks to me like an entry-type beginner’s Japanese textbook.
The price of the book is not so bad, either. Compared to the Genki textbooks which are priced at around $40-50, this textbook is pretty cheap. I’ve read a lot of people say that the textbook is too rushed, meaning that it bombards you with so much information in one go that it’s hard to digest a chapter, but I really think it’s a well-paced book.
Yesterday was my birthday. Now, I’m incredibly happy that I’m still alive (and kicking) for the past 2-0 years, but I still haven’t gotten over the fact that I’ve lived for 20 years and it seems like I’ve yet to accomplish anything remotely big in my life. D:
Anyway, because I already asked for a nice Wacom Intuos4 as an advanced birthday gift, I couldn’t possibly get anything else on my birthday, but I happily did. I bought five tankoubons of Bleach, hurrah! I bought the Viz releases, of course, because I wanted to at least enjoy the manga for its entirety–drawings, dialogues and all, but I’m still not used to the English releases. I’m definitely more used to seeing the ヴァイザード in English as Vizard or Vaizard and not Visored, but the term completely makes sense. O.O I guess it’s just me then.
Also, while I was studying some vocab using smart.fm, I noticed that there’s とても as well as とっても. This confused me for a bit, since both mean very, so I did some searching. The two words have the same meaning, but apparently とても is kind of the formal way to write the word; とっても on the other hand, is usually used to emphasize something. Hmm…and it has a kanji form (迚も), but I’m not sure if it’s used a whole lot more than the kana form.
I’m happy that I’m not losing interest in learning Japanese. I know I once forgot how much I loved Japanese and went on to other things (the other thing mainly being Korean), but it’s great to be back. I’m the kind of person who gets sidetracked and distracted easily (a bad trait, I know), so losing focus has always been the issue. My love for the language has increased tenfold, and hopefully it won’t fade as time goes by. One thing I found helpful is watching lots of anime. It helps maintain my interest because it reminds me of one of the reasons why I want to learn the language in the first place: to be able to enjoy anime without bothering for subtitles. It’s not the only reason, but it’s big enough to remind me that if I practice and study diligently, I can and I will do it in the future. 
はじめまして。
私はカトリナです。十九歳です。フィリピン人です。
私は大学生です。二年生です。
漫画とアニメが大好きです。日本語もとても大好きです。
よろしくお願いします。
Making an introduction is the composition practice my Spanish professor made us do back in school, so I made use of this very same composition practice for myself–this time, though, in Japanese (and a lot shorter than what I wrote in Spanish, hahaha). I hope I didn’t make mistakes here–I’m bound to, since I’m a beginner, but there’s really no harm in trying, right? XD
Japanese has four different writing systems: hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romaji. Most people who watch anime and other Japanese shows see romaji incorporated with the Opening and Ending themes of each anime or J-drama episode. However, knowing romaji alone is analogous to being illiterate in Japan, and there comes in the other three.
Hiragana and katakana syllabaries are easy enough to learn; there are various sites out there that would help you memorize these in no time. I have to say, though, katakana is harder to memorize. Because most of what I read in Japanese in the beginning stage is written in hiragana, my eyes have “adjusted” to these characters and I can read them and write them no problem. However, because katakana is only used for onomatopoeic and borrowed words, although my eyes have adjusted to seeing them and reading them quickly, my hand still hasn’t gotten the feel of writing katakana. My hand quickly forgets that the katakana for ho is ホ, or chi is チ.
I do have some reminders for myself, though. Being someone who’s addicted with anime and manga, I know that many manga/anime titles use the katakana syllabary in their titles. I make use of these titles as a way to remember how to write one syllable or another.
Examples:
Detective Conan’s title in Japanese is 名探偵コナン (Meitantei Konan), hence I remember
ko = コ
na = ナ
n = ン
or
Prince of Tennis is テニスの王子様 (Tenisu no Oujisama), so from there I get
te = テ
ni = ニ
su = ス
Making use of charts and the like also helps. I just keep in mind that the key to learning hiragana and katakana is just memorization: as long as my brain gets used to the characters, there really is no reason to fret. All it takes is practice, practice, practice.
