Japanese Studies - 1st and 2nd May

I really wish I would post more often about my Japanese language studies, I just never seem to have the laptop for long enough before my wife steals it back, so this post is coming to you from the Blogger android app instead! (i apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes, I am now at the mercy of autocorrect on a touchscreen Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray)

I've finally started to get back in to studying on a daily basis, which I haven't successfully managed to do for a few months now. The amount of study I have completed has not been anywhere near it should be for a 'serious' self-studying student (try saying that a few times quickly :-P) which is something I am still working on.

However, only yesterday I installed the AnkiDroid app on my phone and can now use the anki JLPT cards that some kind people have uploaded, and this is already proving a brilliant alternative to standard notebook based revision.

Anyway, back to the studies, 2 lessons completed today (with maybe one more crammed in before I go to sleep tonight), one being a continuation of a previous dialogue about Japanese voicemail systems, and the second teaching a valuable grammatical lesson of how to say "please do not".
As I cannot really check everything on this phone that easily I shall end the description here and leave you with the pictures of my studies:

Japanese Studies - 17/04/2012

I can't believe just how long it has been since I last posted about my Japanese studies! Although, it does have quite a lot to do with me not studying anywhere near as much as I usually do.

One of the main reasons that my Japanese studies almost stopped was due to my most recent Tae Kwon Do grading, which I managed to pass with an A grade for my efforts, but I had been cramming all of the phrases prior to the grading for at least 2 weeks. As a result of all this cramming I had barely any time for Japanese studies, and the time I did have to my studies were just for revision to make sure I didn't forget anything when I did start studying again.

Anyway, enough with the backstory, I finally completed a new lesson today. The lesson was another Japanesepod101.com podcast, with the lesson being about the Japanese voicemail services and the options that you would face if you ever left a voicemail message for anyone.
All of the phrases in today's lesson were new to me, so I may have to go over it again today or tomorrow just to keep everything in my memory, but I know that I would be using a few of the words again in the future (like connection, within or message) so would no doubt remember them quite easily.

Without further ado, here are my notes of today's lesson:

Japanese Studies - 11/04/2012 (and the past couple of weeks...)

I can't believe how long it has been since I updated you all on my japanese studies. To be honest, I haven't studied anywhere near the amount that I used to, but this is due to all of my studytime being transferred to learning Korean phrases for my Tae Kwon Do grading (which I passed with an A grade, and it makes me a 1st Kup Black Tag in the art). Now that the grading is out of the way I am starting to get back in to studying Japanese, but I seem to be getting in to it slower than usual.
There have been a few other distractions in the last week or so, such as Easter, a family wedding, family get-togethers, and finally reaching one of my favourite parts from the Naruto manga in the anime series and being absolutely hooked on it! (oh, and the new Rock Lee spin-off series).

Anyway.... As my studies had taken a bit of a knock back I started a little slowly getting myself back in to the swing of things, so most of my time has been filled with revision of vocabulary and kanji. Thankfully for the most part I remembered everything that I had studied, but had forgotten a few words and a couple of Kanji (it's annoying just how well I remember the kanji characters, but seem to forget some of the less commonly used words...).
My focus for the last couple of days though has been Kanji, and as things are going quite slowly at the moment I have only learnt a few (some of which I forgot the same day... then relearnt them the following day lol). The kanji I am currently learning are all N4 characters in preparation for either the JLPT N4 or N5 at the end of the year depending how far along my studies get.

Here are the Kanji I have been learning, one is a standard picture and another is me trying out the new Android version of Instagram (I have joined the fad, and must admit I quite like it at the moment, but the novelty may wear off, only time will tell).

I FINALLY received my JLPT results...

こんばんわ！

Well, I have FINALLY received my JLPT results, the exam that I took in December, on Friday so at least I know how well my studies have been going. And after much anticipation I can reveal to you....

Japanese Studies - 13/02/2012

こんばんわ　みなーさん！

As you can no doubt tell, I have FINALLY got around to installing Japanese on my new laptop. It was actually a little easier on Windows 7 than previous operating systems, and a whole less painful than installing it on the Blackberry i used to own (you had to wipe the standard OS and install a custom 'East Asia' version instead, which was really buggy and kept wiping the OS from itself....). That problem is now solved though, as the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro i now own was unbelievably easy, and i can see why people buy Android phones because of it.

Japanese Studies - 07/02/2012

おはおう ございます！

Welcome to another of my posts about my studies of the Japanese language. よろしく おねがいします。
For yesterday's studies I decided to focus on some of the Kanji I will need to know for my JLPT N4 examination in December. The reasoning behind this is that I haven't studied any Kanji for over a month and was getting a little rusty.

I also revised all of the JLPT N5 kanji that I had crammed ready for my exam last year. Annoyingly I am still waiting for my results from that exam, but they are due to arrive in March, so fingers crossed!
Back on topic, the kanji I studied yesterday were the first 7 kanji of the N4 level. They actually looked a bit easier than some of the N5 kanji, especially the later ones (like the kanji for 'week', which even now i still sometimes forget, or get confused on...)

Side note: As i started to write this post this morning, and only ended up revising the kanji again this afternoon and didn't manage to learn any new kanji, this also applies to what i learnt today. A little lazy of me to include it in the same post, but it's starting to get late and i have to be up early for work in the morning lol.

Without further a do, here are the kanji that i learnt yesterday/today:

Japanese Studies - 06/02/2012

Ohayou Gozaimasu!

Unfortunately I do not have Japanese installed on this new laptop yet, so the above phrase is obviously in Romaji instead of Hiragana. It doesn't take very long to install, but I don't get to go on here enough to actually install it...

This is just a quick post, as I didn't actually study any new words yesterday. The reason for this is because I realised I hadn't revised any Kanji in quite a while, the last time being a few days before my JLPT exam in December.

I only went through the JLPT N5 kanji yesterday, and intend to learn a few new JLPT N4 kanji today, and realised I had forgotten a few of the Kanji due to not studying them enough since my exam. Thankfully it literally was only a few, maybe 3 or 4, so I was happy enough with that. I was quite surprised I had remembered the majority of them actually, just because of the amount time that had passed since i last studied them i thought i would have forgotten about half of them!

Well, it's time for me to go to work now, but I'll make sure to post an update this evening (with a picture) of my studies for today.

Matanei

Japanese Studies - 01/02/2012

Ohayou Gozaimasu Mina-San! (Good Morning Everyone!)

As you may have now noticed, i have put the 3 basic greetings at the beginning of the last 3 posts. If you are intending to learn Japanese it is very important that you know them, and use them at the correct time. I remember watching a documentary a while back where an Englishman went to Japan and entered a Ryoukan (Japanese Inn) in the evening and said 'Konnichiwa' to the owner, who then really laughed and said '....Konbanwa' which he then repeated. I'm sure not all Japanese people will react the same, but it's definitely a beginner's mistake.

Anyway, on with the last post of the evening. This is a further continuation of the series of a male and female character meeting each other in the park. This lesson started with the female character saying 'look, my dog is cute!', something she had mentioned in the previous episode, but the male character effectively saying '...anyway' and changing the subject, which made me laugh.

This lesson i will need to go over again, as i studied it this afternoon but do not seem to remember all of the phrases, so this will be revised tomorrow.

For the final time tonight, here is the picture of today's studies:

Japanese Studies - 31/01/2012

Konbanwa Mina-san! (Good Evening Everyone!)

This is the second post that i mentioned in my previous post. This lesson is a continuation of the previous lesson, and starts with the male character from the previous lesson waiting in the park to meet a woman. One of the main points of this lesson is asking what someone is wearing (dona kakkou o shiteimasu ka?) and how to conjugate the 'te' form so you can add additional points to a sentence.
Whilst completing this lesson i did think it may have been an idea for me to know this before i took my JLPT examination, but it's a bit late to be thinking that now!

Here is the picture of today's studies:

Japanese Studies - 29/01/2012

Konnichiwa Mina-san! (Hello Everyone!)

This is the first of 3 Japanese Study posts that I will upload today, as I have been meaning to upload them for the last few days now. The reason i am uploading them as separate posts is that i like to have a record of my studies for myself, so that i know what i studied and when. Thankfully, the 3 posts I will upload are all part of the same storyline, that according to the actors in the lessons will last for quite a few weeks.

This new series is about 2 people who are going to meet each other for the first time. The first part set the story in motion, and was 2 male friends discussing one of them going to meet someone the following day. I am still revising these lessons, as i seem to be struggling to learn new phrases recently. I am putting it down to my work being more stressful than usual, which can affect people's memory, but i am hoping this will change soon so i can carry on with my studies as normal.

Here is a picture of my studies for the day:

Japanese Studies - 21/01/2012

Wow, I've just realised how late this post is, it should have gone up at the weekend, going to make this a quick one then...
This lesson was about an insurance salewoman cold-calling people, trying to get them to take out an insurance policy. As you would expect however, most of the people just hung up or said 'no thanks'.
The grammar note of this lesson was about talking to yourself, and that you should only use the plain form (which is quite obvious, as you would never talk to yourself politely!). Oddly, the plain form is one of the forms I struggle to use, but is quite a common problem for beginners to Japanese as it is similar to informal Japanese, which I really can't use!

Japanese Studies - 10/01/2012

I have just realised this post should have been put up last night, but I seemed to not stop last night/yesterday. It probably wasn't helped by the fact that I downloaded the PS1 classic 'Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee' which I have barely put down, and as such is ruining my japanese study (I didn't study yesterday because of being hooked by it lol).
Anyway, my studies this time was double what I normally do, as I completed 2 lessons in the same day (which I hadn't done since the run up to my JLPT). These lessons were part of the same storyline of a couple going out to a date and calling the babysitter, so the dialogue included both informal and formal tracks. I still have a little trouble completely understanding informal dialogue as, to start with, most Japanese students will learn the formal style of speech well before learning informal speech.
With regards to the vocab, there were quite a few words that I learned through these lessons, with surprisingly only a few that I already knew (recently it has been the opposite for most of the lessons).
Here are the pictures of my studies:

Japanese Studies - 06/01/2012

Once again, I am a day late with my post about my studies, but here is the nihongo that I studied yesterday.
Yesterday's lesson dialogue was a the third part of series where the two main characters were meeting again after not seeing eachother since graduation. The lesson had a few new words I was unfamiliar with, and one that I seem to be having a LOT of trouble pronouncing (damasareyasui / だまされやすい , or 'Gullible' in English) but I am starting to get the hang of it.
Today's main lesson point was how to say 'too much', which oddly enough my friend at my Tae Kwon Do club ('Bekkii-Sensei' as I call her) taught me the night before! At least I had a head start on the lesson thanks to her ^_^
Here are the pictures of my notes:

Japanese Studies - 04/01/2012

It's been quite a while since I last posted about my Japanese language studies, and it's also been quite a while since I actually completed some 'real' studies anyway, thanks to Christmas and New Year celebrations with family.
Also, I do release this is dated as yesterday, but I had forgotten to take pictures of my notebook which I like to upload along with the post.
Yesterday's lesson dialogue started with a woman whose daughter's goldfish has died. She then went to buy another one before 'running in to' a groper (ちかん) on the train, and then beat him up before calling the police. It sounded a lot funnier when they had the english translation alongside the native dialogue aswell.
There were only a few words I learnt from this lesson though, and quite odd ones aswell, namely 'scream', 'punch/hit' and 'step on'. It felt good to be learning new japanese vocabulary though!

JLPT N5 done

Hello All,

Just thought I would update my blog whilst waiting for my train (just missed one by about 30seconds and now have to wait 30mins for the next one due to Sunday service...). As the title of this blog suggests, I have just come out from my JLPT N5 examination and I feel slightly positive about it.

For those that don't know, the JLPT is an examination on your understanding of the Japanese language. There are 3 sections to this test, vocabulary, grammar, and listening.
The first section I found really easy, as it was effectively just a test of your kanji knowledge, which I have gotten really good at.
The second section tested your knowledge of Japanese sentence structure and particles. This onee I found a bit more difficult than the first section and by the end I was almost guessing the ones I weren't sure on (it's a multiple choice examination with generally 4 choices per question, had a good chance of getting it right lol).
The last section was a whole lot harder than I had anticipated. The language used seemed higher than JLPT N5 to me, but I may be wrong. There were a few easy questions there, and then I just tried my hardest to have an educated guess at the rest lol.

Unfortunately I won't find out until March 2012 if I passed, and I'm hoping the questions I was confident on are enough to get me through. Either way I'm going to take a few well deserved days off from studying and then prepare for JLPT N4 next year.

JLPT5 booked!!

おひさしぶりですね！

I can't believe I haven't posted in so long, I really should get better at that.

If any of you don't know what the phrase at the top means it is "it's been a while" (ohisashiburi desu ne). And obviously it has been too long!

I have now booked my JLPT5 examination. This will take place in December in the London SOAS university. I am already really nervous, and am slightly expecting to fail, but I am going to try my hardest and I will be happy no matter what.

The reason I am expecting to fail is that, although I know the majority of the JLPT5 vocabulary and kanji, I have never really tested my Japanese with anyone else as there is only one other person I know who is studying Japanese but she is at a LOT higher level than me, so I cannot understand the majority of it yet.

Another reason I feel like I may fail are that recently I seem to be forgetting some of the easier words, so am having to revise twice as hard as I used to. Maybe the adrenaline will kick in when I get in the exam and I will remember everything, but its really not helping my nerves at the moment.

As negative as I sound, I am sure I will do well, and I am normally a positive person so hopefully I will get that back before the exam.

My study routine has been taken up a notch aswell. Previously I would study the vocabulary and kanji maybe once a day, but now I am trying to do both of these multiple times a day so that I cram everything in by the exam. Actually, as I type this blog post, I am listening to a japanesepod101 lesson (it may be about culture, but there a few words in the lesson that I thought I had forgotten but I recognised them and knew what they meant!)

I will be posting a large, photo based, blog post hopefully later today or in the next few days of some of the studying I have been doing.

Thanks for reading!

Japanese and Taekwondo studies - Day one

Hello all,
Apologies for not posting for a little while, seems like i'm having trouble updating my blog as often as I would like.
Although I don't have a lot of picture evidence, which is something I always like to do when studying, I have been studying quite a bit recently but mostly revising. However, in the last couple of days I have been learning some new vocabulary and kanji.
The first pictures I took yesterday are the new vocabulary that I learnt, once again from a Japanesepod101.com Beginner lesson. The last picture is of my studies tonight, being literally surrounded by kanji study material and notebooks.
I learnt 10 new kanji tonight, which is the most I have learnt in one sitting as I tend to only learn them in blocks of 5. I am slowly getting closer to my goal of knowing 100 kanji, as only once I know that many will I even consider applying to take my JLPT5 examination.
The other part of my studying is for my next Tae Kwon Do grading, which is in around 4 weeks time. For this I only really need to study the theory, along with the Korean terms as I know the practical side pretty well. Fingers crossed I pass!
All of this studying has taken it out of me, so I am off to bed, night all!

Time to get back in to the swing of things

Hello all,

As the title of this blog states, it's about time I got back in to the swing of things with my studies. I gave myself a week off due to some issues at home that were making it very hard, nigh on impossible, to concentrate on anything at all, and most of all my japanese studies. Now that my week is up I thought it would be best to start over.

My studies for this morning was more of a revision class. I decided to read over all the notes I have with me before I go in to the office (i tend to get to work around 30mins early, so I sit in my car and study before work). Unfortunately for me it was only half of the notes that I had with me, so I am going to revise some more later with the remainder of my notes.

I cannot believe just how much I had retained in having a week away from my studies. In the past if I had not been studying everyday I would tend to forget most things straight away, but at least my memory has decided to lend me a hand with this and made things easier. I did however forget a few words, but ones that won't tend to come up in conversation very often...i hope... (let's face it, who uses 'economics' or 'psychology' in everyday conversations?)

Time for work now, but I shall study some more later.

Japanese - Mountain Climbing!

Hello All,

This post is one day late, so apologies for that. I did intend to upload this last night, but i started watching the Family Guy episodes that had been slowly filling up my Sky+ box and was some-what distracted until really late. Better late than never though...

The lesson i studied yesterday was another of Japanesepod's beginner lessons, this one being part of an occasional series revolving around one of the native language speakers, Natsuko, going on blind dates with 3 different men. This is the second of the 3 men, and this one is a mountain climber. I was actually laughing at various points during the dialogue for this episode as the man in the conversation did not seem to understand that Natsuko had never climbed a mountain, nor enjoyed doing so, and just carried on anyway.

I am still revising the notes from this lesson, but i have picked up the majority of the phrases, partly due to learning a few before, so am almost 100% confident on this lesson.

Without further ado, here is the picture of my studies:

I am going to my wife's grandparents for lunch today, so i will have a lot less time to study today, but i do intend to revise the Kanji i have been studying, as i haven't looked at them for a couple of days now, and then i will post the kanji i shall/have learnt today aswell.

Matanei

Japanese study - Types of Weather

Hello All,

Just a quick post to show a part of my studies for today. Once again I learnt some new vocabulary with a Japanesepod101 Beginner Lesson, and this lesson was mainly to do with different types of weather. Oddly, i did seem to know most of the vocabulary but did not know the word for 'sunny' (up until now, I had only been able to moan about rain, and not be happy about sun in Japanese lol).

I had also tried reading a manga that i bought from one of my friends, called Densha no Otoko (Train Man) that i had been having quite a bit of trouble with mainly due to my Kanji knowledge, but I now seem to be able to read a lot more of the book, so hopefully I will be able to read the whole book in the next few months.

And without further a do, here is a snapshot of my studies for today:

p.s. If you cannot read Katakana or Hiragana (or my hand writing ^_^) i may start posting some notes on these writing systems as it is a LOT easier to pick up the language knowing these while learning the vocabulary aswell.