ホストフアミリのてがみ！

サンクスギビングの休みは

よく ともだちと ゲームをします。サンクスギビングの休みに League of Legendsを あそびました。そのゲームがすきです。


とてもきれいでたのしいです。たくさんしゅくだいをしてゲームをあそびません。それから、サンクスギビングの休みは とてもよかったです。

にほんご Reflection and Revised Goals

Hard to believe that the semester is already more than half over! I think I've made a good deal of progress towards my Japanese speaking goals. My listening comprehension, and speaking speed are both light-years beyond what they were at the start of the year.

I'd still like to improve upon my speaking in terms of coming up with complete correct sentences on the spot. Essentially, I can speak a lot faster than I can think in Japanese, and both are important! My tonal correctness still has a ways to go, but I think I'm making some progress.

What I'm changing:

Actually going to office hours. For whatever reason (read: excuses), I never made going to office hours a priority in the last months, and that is going to change! I'm already signed up for my first!

じゃあ、また！

ベデオブログ！

はじめまして！ぼくのなまえはサミュエルですよ。プリンストンだいがくのにねんせいです。そして、せんこうはこうがくです。「むずかしいですでもおもしろいです。」アメリカのバーモントからきました。きょねんのなつににほんのきょとうにいきました！りつめいかんだいがくでべんきょうしました。ぎおんまつりをみました。まいにちおいしいたべものをたべました。とてもたのしかったです。またいきたい。じゃ、また、そして、どうぞよろしく！

One of my first experiences with にほんご was in music. See if you can catch it in this song (one of my all time favorites!). Definitely worth a watch if you haven't heard it before.

PE Goals!

Over the course of the year, I'll be practicing actually speaking にほんご a lot! Some things I would like to improve:

1) I'd like to not only understand fast natural speech (as mush as possible anyways!) but also reproduce it myself.

Bakamonogatari つばたキャット Tongue twister!

2) I'd really like to get my tone patterns down! Its one thing to memorize the phonetics of certain words, but  getting the tonal and rhythm patterns (mora) correct is also really important!

To accomplish this, I have a number of activities in mind:

1) Watch anime! To be fair, I would do this anyways, but now I'd like to pay special attention to not only the English translations, but how the voice actor actually pronounce works. I'll try and focus on words I know, as well as watch some anime (children's anime/ slice of life) that use less complicated or more common language in order to understand more. I'll try and watch around an hour minimum each week.

2) Work on the Tongue twisters in the PE sound files and choose fast complicated examples for shadowing! By challenging myself with each pronunciation exercise, I hope to become more comfortable with fast paced natural speech.

3) Go to office hours once every two weeks, or when I have pressing questions / need help.

ぐでたま！

Everyone should be aware of this beautiful creation.

The theme song speaks to me.

Now that my class is learning basic introductions in Nihongo, here's mine!

はじめまして、 サミュエル です、どうぞよろしく！わたしは Princetonだいがくの にねんせい です。せんこうは でんきこうがく です。

Movie Night!

Watched となりのトトロ the other day! 株式会社スタジオジブリの 魔女の宅急便は みたいです。I shamelessly copy-pasted those kanji names by the way.

Introduction

Hello! わたしの なまえわ サミュエルです。Princeton だいがくのにねんせいです。I'm studying Japanese because of my love of Japanese culture (anime especially) and because of my experiences in Japan this past summer in Kyoto through a Princeton Global Seminar. (I visited Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Himeiji, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kumamoto over 7 weeks!) I absolutely loved my time in Japan, and am looking forward to learning more of the language. (although I'm a bit worried about kanji, which I've never learned before)