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.