Owen Says Things

We're finally coming to the end of a crazy semester! Here were my revised goals from the middle of the semester: 1. Improve conversational fluency! I am hoping to go to Japan this summer, so I need to become much more comfortable having simple conversations without pausing to think through grammar for every sentence. 2. Listen to pitch! A recurring comment is that I still make pitch errors in my speech, so I need to work on that. 3. Vocabulary! I need to learn many, many more words to expand what I can talk about. For 1, I can definitely say that I have gotten better at speaking and more comfortable in simple conversations, but there is still a lot of work to do. I said I wanted to go to the Japanese language table once a week, but I haven't been able to: I'm going to fix that! Every Monday for the rest of the semester, I will be at the Whitman language table to practice before I go to PII. For 2, I still need to improve my pitch. I still need to make it to office hours to...

みなさん、ゆめがあるんですか。もちろんたくさんあります。でも、私はすごく大きいゆめがありますよ。子供の時から、物理学のけんきゅう者になりたいです。大学を卒業したら、大学院に行きたいです。そこでプラズマの物理学を勉強したいです。 プリンストンに有名なプラズマのラボがあるけど、たぶんプリンストンの大学院生になります。プラズマはとても面白いですよ。プラズマの核融合(nuclear fusion)が上手になったら、クリインエネルギーがあるんだけど、プラズマは重要ですね。勉強が大変だけど、いつも頑張ります！

みなさん、季節の中で、何が一番好きなんですか？私は、春が嫌いですよ。アレルギーがたくさんあるので、外でぜんぜん行きたくないです。 そして、夏はまあまあです。もうアレルギーがないけど、ケンタッキーとてもで蒸し暑いです。でも、外に人がたくさんいるから、外で友達と遊んでいます。それはいいですね。 冬もまあまあです。悪い天気だけど、天気が寒い時はいいと思います。冬にうちがもっと快適になりますね。 それから、天気が涼しくて、アレルギーがないから、秋が一番好きな季節です。じゃあ、また！

Here were my goals at the beginning of the semester: 1. Improve conversational fluency! I am hoping to go to Japan this summer, so I need to become much more comfortable having simple conversations without pausing to think through grammar for every sentence. 2. Listen to pitch! A recurring comment is that I still make pitch errors in my speech, so I need to work on that. 3. Vocabulary! I need to learn many, many more words to expand what I can talk about. For 1, I can definitely say that I have gotten better at speaking and more comfortable in simple conversations, but there is still a lot of work to do. I said I wanted to go to the Japanese language table once a week, but I haven't been able to: I'm going to fix that! Every Monday for the rest of the semester, I will be at the Whitman language table to practice before I go to PII. For 2, I still need to improve my pitch. I still need to make it to office hours to work on that directly, and I will watch a few episodes...

こんにちは！みなさんは、どの祭りが一番好きですか？ 私は、サンダー・オーバ・ルイビル（Thunder Over Louisville）が一番好きな祭りですよ。ルイビルである花火（はなび - fireworks）の祭りです。毎年4月にルイビルでケンタッキーダービがあります。とてもゆうめいな競馬（けいば - horserace）ですが、旅人（たびびと - tourist）が多いです。ダービの一週間前に休みがはじめます。ダービの前の土曜日に多くて、きれいな花火があります。世界で三番目に大きい花火の祭りです。人が七十万います。そして、花火が五万六千本あります。子供の時、毎年サンダー・オーバ・ルイビルに行きました。でも、今ニュージャージーにすんでいるから、行けません。じゃあ、また！

Goals: 1. Improve conversational fluency! I am hoping to go to Japan this summer, so I need to become much more comfortable having simple conversations without pausing to think through grammar for every sentence. 2. Listen to pitch! A recurring comment is that I still make pitch errors in my speech, so I need to work on that. 3. Vocabulary! I need to learn many, many more words to expand what I can talk about. Activities: 1. Japanese language table - I need to go to the language table as often as possible to get conversational practice. I want to go to at least one table per week. 2. Office hours - I will try to go to office hours once every other week so that Shibata-sensei can critique my pitch and help my fluency. 3. WaniKani - I will use WaniKani for a few minutes every day to pick up new kanji and vocabulary words. Wish me luck!

みんさん、 こんばんは。 プリンストンでどのレストランが一番好きですか。私は、ホーギヘーベンが大好きですよ。 有名な店です。サンドイッチはあまり高くないですが、おいしいです。ダーティ・サンチェズにチキンとチーズスチックがあるので、カロリーがとても高いです。それから、あまり行きません。ざんねんですね。 じゃあ、また！

みなさん、 こんばんは。ふゆ休みはどうでしたか。私は、とてもつまらなかったです。私の親知らず(wisdom teeth)を抜いた(pulled out)ので、何もしませんでした。 ちょっと読んで、たくさん寝ました。でも、クリスマスはとてもたのしかったです。うちにかえって、家族（かぞく）に会いました。おいしい食べ物を食べて、たのしいくつ下をもらって、よかったです。 じゃあ、また！

みなさん、 こんにちは。 学期を終わりました。今、たくさんゆっくりしましょう。でも、しゅくだいがあります。 I made some goals in the middle of the semester, so it's time to evaluate how well I worked toward those goals. 1. I said I wanted to go to 日本語テーブル　every week... and managed to go a couple times? Turns out schedules are hard. Who knew? I still got a lot out of the times I did go, but one of my biggest issues is speaking speed/fluidity, and language tables are the easiest way to work on that. 2. I said I wanted to go to　しばた先生’s　office hours, and managed to go exactly zero times. This is another case of the semester slipping by. However, I did find the time to watch interviews and listen to songs in Japanese nearly daily, which definitely helped my comprehension and production. 3. I said I wanted to practice more with my expanding vocabulary... and I did! I found ways to use new words all the time in short conversations with some of my friends who know Japanese or are also in Japanese 101. As the s...

みなさん、 こんばんは。私の手紙です。読んでください。 じゃ、また。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

みなさん、 こんばんは。先週の木曜日はサンクスギビングでした。That got me thinking: does Japan have any similar holiday? It turns out the answer is yes, and it's right around the same time! 勤労感謝の日(Labor Thanksgiving Day, pronounced きんろうかんしゃのひ) is celebrated every year on November 23 unless that is a Sunday, in which case it is celebrated on November 24. Labor Thanksgiving Day was established in 1948 as a celebration of human rights as codified in the new constitution. This picture shows children making pictures to thank firefighters and police officers for Labor Thanksgiving Day. The root of the holiday goes back to ancient Shinto traditions, dating to the seventh century A.D. if not even earlier. 新嘗祭（にいなめさい）is a harvest celebration in which the people thank the かみ (spirits) for a good harvest. To this day the emperor still offers the first rice of the year to the gods and eats it himself as a ritual meal. I would love to hear from any Japanese people what their favorite holidays are and how they are c...

みなさん、 こんにちは。火曜日のじゅぎょうに書道（しょどう - calligraphy）をしましたから、私のアジア研究のプロジェクトを思い出した（remembered）。My group put together a timeline of the development of writing in East Asia. For my part, I focused on the development of Japanese writing, which starts with the introduction of Chinese characters and goes on through the evolution of kana (both hiragana and katakana) and the integration of kanji. Take a look: 私のプロジェクト じゃあ、また！

みなさん、 こんにちは！Now that we're halfway through the semester, it's time to re-evaluate my goals for Japanese learning. I posted earlier that I wanted to learn ひらがな　and カタカナ as soon as possible - mission accomplished! Now it's just all about かんじ, and I'm making good progress using WaniKani to help me study. My progress in speaking is a little bit harder to gauge: 1. Fluid speech - I want to sound as much like a native speaker as possible. This is difficult when we are learning the formal register of the Tokyo dialect first, but that doesn't mean I can't work on fluidity and speaking speed. I have gone to a couple language tables, but I have decided that I want to go once a week from now on so that I can improve my speed and ease of conversation. 2. Rhythm and intonation - It's one thing to sound "fluid" in my opinion, and another for a native speaker to think I sound right. I want to improve my rhythm and intonation by shadowing a full scene from an...

みなさん、 私のビデオブログです。It's very short and just meant as a brief introduction, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! じゃあ、また！

みなさん、 こんばんは。I would like to introduce you all to a lovely bit of Japanese culture. Ceramics have millennia of history in Japan, but the art form has grown and transformed as a result of Buddhist and Chinese influence throughout that time. Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is the art of mending cracked pottery using gold resin so that the damage that has been done to a piece will become part of its story and, ultimately, make it even more beautiful. Check out this explanation:

なつかしい means "nostalgic" in Japanese. I got to learn a new word and hear some great music, which strikes me as a pretty good deal.

Goal Statement: 1. Fluidity of reading: Currently, I have difficulty translating what I see into speech even though I recognize all of the individual hiragana. By using games like KanaMind and WaniKani for twenty to thirty minutes a day, I will improve my recognition of kana and kanji. 2. Natural speech recognition and reproduction: As a non-native speaker, it is hard for me to parse a series of syllables at conversational speed and recognize them as discrete words. I will shadow a scene from an anime once a week and attend a Japanese language table once every two weeks for conversational practice with other learners. 3. Intonation: Some of the subtleties of intonation are lost on me. I will converse with native speakers and advanced learners and incorporate their corrections whenever possible.

こんにちは。わたしのなまえは Brown です。Kentucky の Central City からきました。いちねんせいです。わたしのせんこうはぶつりがくです。ありがとうございます。さようなら。

こんにちは! Brown です. I am excited to learn Japanese so that I can directly interact with one of the great cultures of the world. That includes consuming media like anime and video games and reading original novels by the likes of Haruki Murakami, but also (hopefully) traveling abroad to experience a new sense of place through interactions with a thoroughly modernized but foreign people. I am also taking East Asian Humanities this semester to build a foundation for understanding Japanese philosophy and traditions. I want to use my Japanese to further that understanding. After the first couple days of class, I am primarily worried about the writing system. I'm not quite sure how to go about studying hiragana and katakana, let alone kanji. It is a daunting task to grasp three scripts and integrate them all into the same sentence. I have heard repeatedly that Japanese grammar is starkly different from that of English, making it especially hard to translate and learn as a native English s...