Final Reflection

So here are the goals I had at the beginning of the semester:

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

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!

I feel that I made some solid steps towards these goals, although in reflection they were possibly a little ambitious. I think I did improve at understanding and reproducing fast Japanese, and I did a lot of anime shadowing and challenging PE assignments to help accomplish this. In therms of tonal work, that's something that plagued me throughout the semester. All in all, I found it very difficult. I made a lot of progress, and reasonably regularly went to office hours to improve. There's still a lot of work to do in that area! After all, there is always room for improvement!

クリスマスプレゼント

クリスマスはとてもよかったですよ。かぞくとあいました。そして、いっしょにおしいたべものたべました。クリスマスにたくさんものもらいました！くつしたをふたつとほんをさんさつもらいました。いちばん おもしろいプレゼントはボルトミタでした。（せんこうはでんきこうがくですよ）ちょとへんですが、わたしはそのプレゼントがすきです。

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.