わたしたち は かんじ を べんきょう しはじめました！

わたしの　にほんごの　じゅぎょうは　学び　はじめました！
Each major step in this class excites me to no end. First was signing up for this class, then going to my first class along with my first assignment, first quiz and then first test! When we transitioned to strictly using hiragana, I was pumped. Then when we incorporated katakana... Well, I was happy about the idea of it, but I don't particularly enjoy writing it. Plus, now occasionally when I am trying to write in hiragana I'll accidentally write in katakana.
But! Most importantly! We are now incorporating KANJIII!!!! Soooo exciting! This is the moment of truth. We finally are utilizing all three components of the Japanese writing styles.
わたしの　にほんごで　 てがき　よく　ありません。でも、わたしは　かいぜん　します！

せんしゅうまつ

おひようございます！

せんしゅうまつの　どようびの　あさの　じゅういちじに　わたしは　おきました。シャワーに　あびません　でした。でも、　きにょうびの　ばんに　シャワーに　あびました。わたしは　ABPに　いきました。そして、　チキンシーザーラップを　たべました。
それから、　わたしの　ともだちたちを　まっていました。そした、　わたしたち　ともだちの　テールゲトに　いきました。そして、　バンドハルに　いきました。　ベーンドを　みました。わたしは　ほかのともだちと　あいました。　でも、　ともだちは　あいません　でした。　ともだちと　わたしは　 スタジアムに　いきました。　そして、　ゲムを　みました。　わたしは　ハーフタイムに　ゲムを　わかれました。さむい　でした　ねえ！　りょうに　いきました。　おふろに　はいりません　でした。　でも、　シャワーは　あびました。　そした　ともだちの　へやに　いきました。　サッカーリクールトが　ありました。　かのじょの　なまえの　イザベル　でした。　そして、わたしは　ごせん　いちじごろ　ねました。

せんしゅうまつの　にちようびの　じゅういちに　おきました。　ABPに　いきました。そして、　チキンシーザーラップを　たべました。　まいにち　チキンシーザーラップをいつも　たべます！　おいしい　です　ねえ！　そして、　スチンサンラーグビフィルドで　ともだちの　ラーグビの　ゲムを　みました。　そして、　アラムアイスタジアムで　ほかのともだちの　サッカーのゲムを　みました。　そして、　ひるねを　しました。そして、　しゅくだいを　しました。　わたしは　ごぜん　にじはんに　ねました。　

いいしゅまつが　ありました？
　

Studying for the Oral Exam

Sooo I'm studying for my oral exam hard core because speaking in other languages has never been my thing. I'm literally awful at it.
But perchance you all may be in the same situation as I am. Which is, you all want to practice speaking Japanese but you don't have a native speaker readily available to you.
If you do, then good for you! But read no further because this is useless information to you, except tactic #3 will probs still benefit you.

So I have a few good approaches for studying and I want to share them with you guys.
***I have a Mac so some of these may only apply to Macs. Sorry.****

1. Audio Flashcards
• First off, this app costs money so you may not want to use it. You can just skip this and read on to my next study tactic. Quizlet works just as well.
• This is a computer app on the Apple App Store that lets you create flashcards in a question/answer format that you can have read to you. 
• You can even have them exported to you iTunes to listen to whenever you want. 
• I personally haven't done the iTunes thing, but maybe you are a believe in the whole "learning while you sleep" thing or simply just want to listen to vocab while you are walking on campus or working out.
• In order to get this app to speak Japanese sentences to you, you need to download the Japanese speaking dudes in your System Preferences. 
• To do this you go to System Preferences then Dictation and Speech then Text to Speech then System Voice then Customize... and then if you go to the Japanese voices you have the option of downloading a female (Kyoko) or male (Otoya) voice. If you choose to download only one, I advise you download Kyoko, because it is my understanding that Hanabusa Sensei will be delivering our oral exam so no harm in sticking with the same gender.
• There are two ways to use this app well, in my opinion.
1. Have your "Questions" be Japanese words, then the "Answers" be them in English
2. Better yet! Let "Questions" be Japanese questions that you should know how to answer, then let "Answers" be what your answer would be in Japanese.
• You can choose the amount of time that the speaker will pause in between the question and answer. I set it to 10 seconds to give me time to respond out loud.
• I personally thought of various questions I expected to be asked and typed them up in hiragana/kanji then I typed what my response would be applying to my personal life. This helps me with the pronunciations of the sentences I expect I'll have to say.
• You could choose to only type them in hiragana but Kyoko's speech flows much better when you use the kanji. 
• If you type は where the "wa" particle should be or を where the "o" particle should be, they will be pronounced as "wa" and "o" not "ha" or "wo." Computers are so smart nowadays. :)
• This app is made to work well with Quizlet. If you don't understand the mechanics of Quizlet then read #2.
• When you have a "Set" of questions/answers that you like on Quizlet, go to the "••• More" button, click export, under "Data" click "Select All", then copy it. 
• Then, go to Audio Flashcard, create a new batch thing, open it, in the corner it says "Import", then click "From clipboard" then paste it in the box that opens up. Do nothing more except hit "Import."
• Cool. Now the questions and answers are there for you to use. 
• At the bottom it shows you who you have as the speaker. It's default is Alex but change it to Kyoko or Otoya. 
2. Quizlet
• Guys, Quizlet rocks. I've never used it for a language before. I only realized how superiorly awesome this website is rather recently. 
1. Go to quizlet.com 
2. I'd make an account. It's free and lets you stash sets that you like in a folder you create on your account. Super convenient.
3. Search practically anything you think will benefit you.
• Search for our vocab lists or for basic questions, etc.
• It's better if they aren't in romanji. 
• I'm not really sure if these links will work but if they don't just search these set names. These are sets of our vocab lists. 
• Nakama 1 Chapter 1 Vocabulary
• http://quizlet.com/32941539/nakama-1-chapter-1-vocabulary-flash-cards/
• Nakama 1: Chapter 02 EV
• http://quizlet.com/50658010/nakama-1-chapter-02-ev-flash-cards/
• Nakama 1 Chapter 3 Vocabulary
• http://quizlet.com/32944647/nakama-1-chapter-3-vocabulary-flash-cards/
4. Once you have the sets you want, you can click the Japanese phrases/words and they will be read to you. Once again, beneficial for pronunciation.
5. You can also do what I suggested for Audio Flashcard, and just create your own set and type up questions/answers that you want, et cetera et cetera.
3. PRACTICING TIMES!!!
• You all cannot deny the struggles of fluidly saying the time and here's a tip on practicing it.
1. Go to Excel.
2. Click on A1 and type =RANDBETWEEN(1,12)
3. Click on B1 and type :
4. Click on C1 and type =RANDBETWEEN(1,59)
• It should look like this

• Obviously the ":" is not necessary, but I like it. :)
• To randomize the numbers again, hit your F9 key.
• If this isn't working, I know for my Mac at least, I had to go to System Preferences then Keyboard then check the box next to Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys then it should work.
4. Focusing on what you'll need!
• I am under the impression that this oral test is meant to be like a conversation. So the questions should be about you. Think about what questions you may have to answer, and know your answers. 
• For example, if you are asked, "きのうなにを　しましたか。" And you have to think, "Well... what did I do yesterday?" You could be a stud at Japanese, but a pause is a pause. And how is the teacher supposed to know that you're pausing because you have to think to remember what you did yesterday? They'll most likely assume that you are just taking forever to register what it is they just said. Or that you are struggling in translating your answer from English to Japanese.
• All I'm saying is know your life. It'll make this thing a lot easier.
• And if this test isn't us being questioned about our life... weeellllll then I really don't know how to prep for this thing, but this practice will still be good for you!
5. Find a friend and practice!!
• Maybe you have a super awesome nonJapanese speaking friend who is willing to read some questions written in romanji to you. 
• They may totally butcher the sentences since they have zero clue how to speak Japanese, but that is not important! What's important is that you practice replacing all your "uhhh..."s and "ummmm..."s with "anooo" or "soo desu need" or "eetto." 
6. REMEMBER YOUR EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES!!!
• Learn how to properly use "soshite" and "demo." Some extra credit could literally do you no harm. In fact, it may help you. :)
• And "to" I don't think is extra credit but is useful! It means "and" but only use it to connect nouns!
7. Have no shame!
• Lastly, I hope all of you remember the phrase "Moo ichido onegaishimasu." There are no rules against you asking for the teacher to repeat what they said. 

Okies! That's all, I think. I wish you all the best of luck! :)

げつようびにまいにちのせいまつ

これは　わたしの　まいにちの　せいまつです！


ごせんろくじごじゅっぷんに　おきます、　それから　シャワアを　あびます。

ごせんしちじはんごろ　オートミールを　たべます。

ごぜんしちじよんじゅうごふんごろ　ジョーダンハルに　いきます。

はちじにじゅっぷんに　かがくのじゅぎょうが　あります。

くじじゅっぷんに　デバートルに　いきます。

じゅうじじゅうごふんに　にほんごのじゅぎょうが　ありません。わたしは　ラークニに　いきます。じゅうじにじゅっぷんに　もくそうのじゅぎょうが　あります。

じゅういちじにじゅっぺんに　NDHに　ひるごはんを　たべます。それから、わたしの　ドルムに　いきます。

たいてい　じゅうにじごろ　かがくの　ノートを　めおとうします。あまり　ねむません。

いちじはんごろ　ハイスヒーリに　いきます。

にじに　すうがくの　じゅぎょうが　あります。

よじに　わたしの　ドルムに　いきあす。それから、　かがくの　ラブを　めおとうします。

よじはんごろ　ジョーダンハルに　いきます。

ごじごふんに　かがくの　ラブが　あります。

わたしは　ごごしちじごじゅっぷんに　じゅぎょうたちが　ありません。


はちじはんごろ　にほんごの　しゅくだいを　します。
わたしは　ほかの　しゅくだいを　しません。
たいてい　しゅうまつに　ほくの　しゅくだいを　しました。

おひようございます！

おひやう！

Honestly, morning isn't really my thing, but it is always a joy to go to my Japanese class each morning! (Unfortunately, preceded by another class on alternating mornings.. too early.)
I am very excited that we have reached the point where we no longer use romaji! It's just us getting one step closer to being studly fluent speakers/writers of the language.  :)
Now I can't wait until we start learning some kanji characters. I imagine that will speed up our writing assignments. But kanji has always concerned me, given it's different pronunciations and meanings depending on the context. But that's alright! That's a worry for another day!

じゃあまた！

Love languages too much...

こんいちわ、先生たちと学生たち！

    Honestly, I'm not sure on the plural forms of those... I read somewhere that adding 'tachi' is for animals, but I know for a fact 'watashitachi' is 'we.' So I went with it anyway.

    Presently, I have mixed feelings about my Japanese class. I love it so much; I love 日本語, I love learning about the etiquette of bowing, I love listening to people speak 日本語, I love the antics of all the 日本人. If you haven't caught on, there is very little that I don't love about Japan. (except the food. I've tried hard my entire life to like sushi and fish, even vegetables! But I'm not a fan for any of them.)

     But also learning all these things about 日本 makes me very sad, because now there are so many things I wish I could have asked my おばあさん about. But she unfortunately passed away three years ago. She was very dear to me and I idolized her.

     When I was younger, I think it was her 63rd birthday, I wrote her a card in Japanese. I spent hours on it. I, of course, knew very little Japanese, but I went to google translate, and translated my letter over and over, changing the words to make sure it made more sense when translated in Japanese. I spent so long trying to get each character written properly. And while I know it had very poor grammar, my grandma read it with a smile on her face and told me it was perfect and that I wrote Japanese beautifully. In the letter, I had promised her that my sister Lauryn and I would become fluent in Japanese someday and we could all fly to Japan together to go see all her family.
    Even though she won't be with us, Lauryn and I still plan on doing so. A promise is a promise!


    I remember when the tsunami hit, my grandma's accent was horrible because she had spent so much time on the phone with her sister. We sent so many care packages. Aunt Chieko had been planning on visiting Grandma for quite some time, so why not now? By the time the arrangements were made for Aunt Chieko to come visit in a month, the large tornados hit Joplin, MO, which is where my grandma lived. Aunt Chieko cancelled her flight and said she'd take a tsunami over tornados any day.  Hahah, I thought it was pretty funny how poor the timing was.


   Either way, I am very happy that I decided to major in Japanese as well as engineering. It allows me to take classes for all my passions (math, science, and foreign languages). I've actually taken many languages in my life: eight years of French, two years of Spanish, one year of Japanese, one month of Chinese (only took in for the time I was in Taiwan), one year of Latin, four years of German, and now I get to take more Japanese, which is obviously my favorite. But these numbers only include my time in the class room. I did a lot of self-studying as well. I've always considered studying foreign languages as my hobby. It is what I did when I wasn't studying for school or playing soccer. I studied languages with no goal, only to because I enjoyed learning the new sentence structures, grammar, words, etc. I love to compare them as well!

    I always find though that the natural transition between taking new languages is hard. Took me about a month to stop responding to Frau (what we call my German teacher) with Japanese responses. I don't know how many times I used Spanish adjectives in my German essays.

    German is definitely what I am best at. It is very similar to English and, like Japanese, German is a phonetic language. My favorite German word is Backpfeifengesicht, which literally means 'face that cries for a fist' but translates to 'some who needs to be punched in the face.' Hahah, such a funny word.
    French, I didn't quite enjoy since it was forced upon me at age three. Shockingly, I know very, very little French.
    Latin, I loved since it was beneficial in dissecting English words, and since it is a dead language, there were never any mix up when I spoke other languages.
   Chinese, I didn't take for very long, but maybe after I become a stud at Japanese, I may try learning some Chinese. It was pretty cool that when we were in Taiwan my grandma could understand a lot of their signs since she know kanji.

    My dream language to learn though that I haven't studied yet is Arabic. That language is awesome! So cool looking! I don't think I have a chance at pronouncing it, (I have a lot of Arabic friends and can't say any of their names for the life of me!) but I absolutely would love to be able to read and write it. Plus they write right to left, which would be a nice change for a lefty like myself. :)

Hahah, okay. This has gotten too long. Got a bit carried away. Love languages too much. So I'm going to stop here.


かしこ,
パーズ、リンジイ

First post!!

はいじめまして！わたしのおなまえはリンジイです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。
わたしはUniversity of Notre Dameで１−ねんせいです。
I am from Leawood, Kansas, which is right by Kansas City. I have three older siblings, who are all still back in Kansas.
I am a double major in Aerospace Engineering and Japanese. I love all languages but Japanese has always been my favorite. For one reason, I am a quarter Japanese, but also when I was much younger my sister took Japanese and would always make flash cards to try and teach me Japanese as well.
During high school, I was a starter on varsity soccer as a freshman and we won Kansas 5A state all four years I was there. Due to bad knees, I no longer play though.
Other than soccer and languages, I really math. It is by far my favorite subject, hence my engineering major.