PE Reflection: さいご

Let's look back at my aspirations and compare it to my situation.

Speaking:

1. Fluency in speech.
2. Office Hour 
3. 日本語のテーブル

1. Polite speech has become more fluent, but casual speech is still very hard to do quickly. I have become a little more aware, especially through the スピーチ assignments, of my errors in pitch. Awareness is the first step to improvement, right? 
2. I went to Office Hours occasionally, and the times that I went were very helpful, in an informative sense (I did not spend much time practicing). As many people say, Spring Semester is certainly jam-packed. I should not make excuses; I simply did not prioritize office hours. 
3. At 日本語のテーブル at the beginning of the year, I did not talk much at all. So, I never practiced speaking. What しばた先生 taught me during office hours one day was to intentionally talk, to bring up conversations that I have the ability to speak about (and to not have long silent pauses in my speech, but to continually make filler noises while I am talking). That lesson, combined with a bit of familiarity with まきの先生 and some other 日本語の学生, allowed me to utilize Japanese tables for much more speaking practice.

Listening:

1. 日本語のテーブル - Understanding. 
2. Memorize Poems
3. TV

1. I continue to slowly understand the conversations at language table better. It helps to understand the commonly used grammar points that we are learning in Nakama 2. 
2. + 3. I did not memorize any extra poems outside of the PE assignments, and I did not watch any TV. It is hard to do things that are not for grades when a graded deadline for another class is on your tail. Again, I should not make excuses. I did not prioritize this extra exposure to the Japanese language. 

I am progressing. I am so happy to see this progress. 先生、ありがとうございました。

夏休み

夏休みにプリンストン大学に八月までいます。ここで物理学（ぶつりがく）のけんきゆうをする予定です。

プリンストンにいるためにアパートをさがしておきます。どこかキャンパスに歩いて行ける所はいいですが、じてんしゃで行ける所もだいじょうぶでしょう。そんなアパートがなったる、電車で行ける所がいります。

それに、本が読みたいリストを作っておいています。たくさん休みに本を読みたいです。去年の十一月から読みたい本を夏休みに読むつもりです。学期（がっき）に授業がない本をあまり読みません。神さまをよく知りたいから、たくさんキリスチャンの本を読みたいです。

もちろん、来年の日本語の授業ために夏休みに日本語を勉強しておくつもりです。日本語が大好きだから、楽しいでしょう！

両親が来た

週末はスペシャルな週末でした。というのは両親が来ましたから。両親があまり来ませんけど、先週末はグリークラブのコンサートがあったから、両親がコンサートを見に来ました。

コンサートはすごくよかったよ。

 コンサートの前の晩には両親とフーリハンズで食くじをして、トマス・スイートでアイスクリームを食べました。月曜日の朝、両親に「さようなら」と言いました。まだ二か月ぐらい後に会う予定です。まだ会わない時に勉強したり、けんきゅうをしたりして、がんばりたいです！

Midterm Reflection, and Revising My Goal/Activity Statement

二学きは六週間おわった？？？早そうだね！

It seems like it passed by very quickly, but it has been a good semester so far for Japanese. What has helped me a lot: 日本語のテーブル！A couple times I even went three times in one week! For weeks I had seen no progress, but now I can see how my speaking and listening are both much stronger.

Speaking:
++ It is becoming more natural for Japanese to roll out of my mouth. Some phrases and phrase-endings, come out automatically, such as "～かった", or "～ですね". It's fun!

++ I memorized half of 雨ニモマケズ when I shadowed it for PE, and I often quote it to myself throughout the day.

-- FLUENCY: I still have a long way to go in fluency. I often pause, stumble, stutter, and grope for words when I am in conversation. This is a big problem, still.

-- PITCH: The professors have told me that my pitch is unstable a lot when I talk--I change the way I pronounce the same word when I am talking. This is something I don't recognize in myself when I talk, so I need more practice with OJAD or with careful listening to native pitch patterns.


 
Listening:
++ At the dinner tables, I am able to understand much more of what people say, maybe about 50% of what I hear. The repeated patterns I recognize more now, and I am able to sort out some of the inflections from the stems much more automatically now.

-- I have not practiced listening to Japanese materials at all, such as audiobooks or TV shows.

+- I still do not understand many things at what people at language table say when they speak quickly or use words I do not know, but this is giving me practice with trying to understand the general meaning of what they are talking about.

**********************************************************
Revisions on the Goal/Activity Statement
**********************************************************

• Area 1: Fluency in Speech 

I will focus my speaking practice efforts on 日本語のテーブル 

(2 to 3 times per week)

I will plan out when I can fit office hours into my schedule 

(Especially ask about pitch pattern-practice)

• Area 2: Listening and Understanding 

  Go to 日本語のテーブル

Look for poems to memorize

祖母に行き

私はミシガンから来ました。家族はミシガンの東の方にすんでいますが、祖母はミシガンの西の方にすんでいます。

東の方から西の方までくるまで三時間ぐらいかかります。中学と高校の時、一年に四回ぐらい家族と祖母に会いました。
春休みに祖母に会いたかったです。一人で祖母に会ったことがありませんでした。でも、一人でくるまで祖母へ行きました。
ミシガンの真ん中にスプリングアーバー大学があります。私の中学の時から親友がスプリングアーバー大学にいます。そして、祖母と会う日の前に親友と会って、りょうで寝ました。

それから、朝祖母と朝ごはんを食べました！クラカーバレールで食べました。祖母と話して、よかったです。

ケニアの友達

Goals and Activities: A New Semester!

やった～！I completed a semester of Japanese 101. Now, onto my goals for Japanese 102...

• Area 1: Fluency in Speech
  I have come a long way from September with fluency, but it's only upwards from here. I want to remove the painful pauses that plague my prosody. So... 

 

I will practice conversation throughout the week.
(日本語のテーブル, Meet with Students, Office Hours, etc.)

I will shadow fluent speech. 

(PE, Japanese Audio Book, etc.)

•  Area 2: Listening and Actually Understanding It
  Last semester, I never followed up with watching Japanese TV. It is entertaining, but I couldn't convince myself that it was worth the time. So, as strategies...

 

During homework, I will first listen before reading the script.
(PE, Lab Exercises, etc.)

I will find a group of friends to watch Japanese stuff

(Old Movies, etc.) 

• Area 3: Kanji
  I love learning kanji. If I have the time this semester, I may start up again on Wanikani (a great online program from Tofugu for learning kanji). If not, I will just learn the textbook kanji.
  

中休み

先週の休みはとてもよかったです。日曜日から木曜日までリトリートに行きました。PEF (Princeton Evangelical Fellowship) と Manna Christian Fellowship とペンシルベニアのポコノに行きました。

ポコノでゆっくりして、ハイキングして、ゲームをしました。時々ゆきがありましたが、時々あたたかかったです。

 それから、友達とバイベルを読んで、レッソンを聞いて、いのりました。

木曜日にプリンストンに帰りました。昨日げんきで、学校はまたはじめました。

プリテレ Video!

こんいちは！
Here is a video that some classmates and I made for the "PriTere" ("Princeton Television") assignment. Enjoy our tour of some of Princeton's points of interest!

Final Semester Reflections (PE 12)

Here is a reflection on my Japanese learning goals over this semester:

For Listening:
I had wanted to be able to "get the gist" of spoken native Japanese. It turns out, this is much too ambitious for me. The difficult thing is that when I hear a string of syllables and I don't know the context, I am not sure how to properly break it down into words when I listen to it. For the in-class listenings, though, I am able to hear the patterns that I have practiced hearing, and normally I know the context. As I learn more contexts and more sentence structures, I will be able to understand more natural Japanese.

For my goal of watching Japanese TV, I must be honest: I rarely ever watched Japanese TV, because I rarely every watch TV! For next semester, I must find something that I already do in English and then do it in Japanese.


For Speaking:
My biggest goal was: Improve Speed! And I have made strides for improving my speed! The biggest help, I think was the Anime Shadowing. I imitated some fast voice actors, so my mouth is now a little more used to talking quickly　Having this fast-talking practice helps me talk a little faster on my own. My favorite anime to shadow was デュラララ！！

  

Additionally:

I am becoming more and more capable of reading Japanese candy wrappers, and it brings me a lot of joy! 

冬休み

冬休みのはじめに家へかえりました。プリンストンからフィラデルフィアまで電車で行って、フィラデルフィアからデトロイトまでひこうきで行きました。デトロイトで家族と会って、家族と家にかえりました。



それから、家にいたので、うれしかったです。家族と話しました。おとうとと音楽をつくりました。（すこししゅくだいをしました。）

クリスマスイブは一番良かったです。家族とりょうりをつくって、うたをうたいました。

出かけるの時にちょっとかなしかったです。でも、プリンストンに友達があります。大学でがんばります！

りょうしんに手紙

りょうしんに手紙を書きました。りょうしんは日本語を分かりませんが、いい書くれんしゅうですね。

サンクスギビングの休み

サンクスギビングの休みはとてもよかったです。うちにかえりませんでした。でも、きょうかいの家族とばんごはんを食べました。おいしくて、たのしかったですよ！私の好きな食べ物がありました。ターキーとグリーンビーンとパイがたくさんありました。

サンクスギビングの日にあたらしい友達を会いました。デラウェア大学の大学院生を会って、話しました。いっしょにサンクスギビングのばんごはんを食べました。

今週は、じゅぎょうがあります。さー、べんきょうしましょう！

Update on my Learning Goals (PE7)

Earlier, I posted about my goals for learning Japanese this year, and what activities I would do to accomplish those goals. Here's an update on how things are going.

Listening Goal: "Getting the gist of native Japanese"

• On the bright side, it is easier for me to pick up on words that I know when I watch anime with English subtitles. 
• However, when real people speaking Japanese in real life, I get very lost almost every time. I can't even gather the main idea of what they are saying. 

      I said earlier that I would watch an episode of Japanese TV every week. I regret to say that I have not done this, except over Fall Break, when I watched the anime Cowboy Bebop with my brothers. My plan for the future is to set aside a little time every Sunday night to watch a bit of something like NHK.

Speaking Goals: Speed

• Positive: There are some practiced sentences that I can say fluidly.
• Negative: There are still very large, unnatural pauses when I speak (to a degree that is much worse than when I speak English).

     As for my activities, I have not been watching TV shows and shadowing them, and I haven't been learning songs, except for the intro lines to ぼくはくま and うえをむいて. I have gone to Office Hours, but not often enough to accomplish my goals. Every week, when I plan out my schedule, I will include Office Hours on my list of things to do, so I will be sure to make time and remember to do them.


** Update on Speaking Goals - Speed of Mind ** 

My earlier Speaking Goal Statement included various topics such as pitch, rhythm and "naturalness."  This semester, for pitch and rhythm, I will be mindful of those things as I talk and listen, but they won't be my focus. For me, my utmost priority in my speaking is improving how quickly I can produce the Japanese words that I am trying to say (speed of mind, not necessarily speed of tongue).
     In order to do this, I need to practice speaking with people a lot. I am getting to know my classmates better, so I will find opportunities to practice with them on a regular basis. Also, as practice for speaking quickly, I will find Shadowing exercises that stretch my abilities for talking speed.   

ビデオ

A little video so y'all can get to know me better!

Fun Japanese Song!

こんばんは！
Here is a fun song that has so far taught me how to say one sentence: エビはかにじゃない。 Maybe this will come in handy someday when... I'm differentiating between seafood? I don't know when it will be useful sentence, but it's still a great song!


Kitasono Minami has quite a few other songs on SoundCloud that I like, so you can go check him out.

Another tip: I learned about this song from http://www.tofugu.com/ , which is a really great blog about learning Japanese language and Japanese culture.

PE2: My Goals for Learning Japanese!

As I start out learning Japanese, I have goals for both listening to and speaking Japanese. I am very excited to learn more Japanese, so I will let that excitement help motivate me to reach these goals!

Listening Goal:
To be able to get the gist of Japanese speech produced at a natural speed.

As a beginner, I have to have people slow down a lot in order for me to understand them. I need to be exposed to fluent speeds more, and to have more practice parsing out the meaning of quickly-spoken speech. I want to be able to understand the general idea of what Japanese people are saying, even if I don't know every word.

• In order to help with this listening goal, every week I will watch one episode of either a Japanese game show, Japanese weekly show, or Japanese news. This will let me hear conversation between real-live people.

Speaking Goals:
To reduce my pauses and have a more natural rhythm.

When I speak Japanese now, there are always long pauses in the middle of my sentences because I am not sure how to finish what I want to say. This goal has two parts: The first part is having mastery of saying sentences (feeling natural with their structure, etc.). The second part is having an actual rhythm that sounds like native Japanese speech.

The second speaking goal I have is to have good intonation. For me, good intonation means that most of my sentences will have the correct overall pitch form. I might not be able to know the correct pitch for every word, but I want my questions to sound like questions, and I want to be able to control how I do the pitch in my sentences.

• For these speaking goals, I will practice shadowing a bit on the Japanese TV shows that I watch (see Listening Goal), and I will also practice with the "Let's Speak Japanese!" dialogues. 
• I will also go to office hours once every two weeks to get specific attention on my rhythm and pitch when I talk.
• I will learn a new Japanese song (or poem, if I can find a recording) every two weeks. This probably won't help with pitch, because songs have pitches of their own, but this should help me with syllable pronunciation (and vocabulary). 

 And here's to a fun year of learning Japanese!

じこしょうかい

はじめまして！わたしはじょしゅです。ぷりんすとんだいがくのいちねんせいです。みしがんからきました。にほんごのいちねんせいです。せんこうはぶつりです。
どうぞよろしく。 

はじめまして！
I am excited to finally take a course on Japanese! I have been waiting for this ever since I was in elementary school. In those days, I was primarily interested in Ninjas, Samurai, and Nintendo. Throughout middle school and high school, every time I saw something interesting concerning Japan, it increased my resolve to someday visit there. So, I will learn Japanese and someday go to Japan and see all of the different and similar things in that country.