This is the third week of my nihongo class. It is an interesting class and 8 of us are having fun! Ya rite...With a funky Shimizu sensei, kireina Kumai sensei, kawaii Toyosawa sensei and shizukana Kanako sensei, I am bestowed the fundamental arts of hiragana and katakana and lots of kanji that I picked up along the way.
I always thought that recognizing katakana is hard after forcing my already limited memory into accepting hiragana. But some of the katagana if you realize are almost the same as the one as hiragana. All you need to do is to square it. And some are ehem...bad. They are part of a mandarin character and that makes it hard for me to memorize it. I need to transfer the katagana into mandarin pronunciation and the nemonic of it later...sigh...
Another observation is the use of katagana. The way things are spelt are predetermined. Although borrowed from foreign languages, it can only be spelt just one way! dang it... it is worst if it is not English. Example, restaurant, but 'ent' sound is absense in French. Our Japanese friends followed the French and thus it is spelt resutoron. I was expecting resutaronto. Other non-English word that I could remember now is alberto?? (which means part time). In katakana it is spelt as arubaito. Why is it not patotaimu?? Not to mention su-pa- (supermarket), depa-to (department store).
Final observation, kanji. Number one thing I learned, not all kanji are the same as chinese character. They are similar but not the same. Some meaning are different at all as a matter of fact. There is one time I so wanted to just write in Chinese character and be done with it. However I realize that flipping the coin, what would I think if a Japanese write mandarin character using their familiar kanji instead? So I forced myself to write the weird looking mandarin character. Similiarly, would you be angry if a French writing English but spell the words in French instead? Or in Spanish?
Still, I like kanji. I asked my friend why they have so many characters, now I think I can answer part of the questions. It makes life so much better after that. Whatever that is in katakana, it is some foreign object. Most likely a noun. Hiragana is normally particles or adverbs. Kanji, nouns. I actually find it weird to read foriegn names or stuff in hiragana. Unlike chinese, everything is chinese character, so it is hard or even weird when there is something foreign appeared in that. However, most of the foreign stuff, chinese have a substitution for it. And sometimes, just written in pure english. Well, the diversity of language. If I could learn and be fluent in one language within 3 years, and I live for say 75 years...I could be fluent with 18 more new languages, minus the first 21 years that I'd wasted. Hahaha.
Finally school starts next week. I have been taking a month long break and if you ask me what have I done, I couldnt answer a lot. Not that life is not exciting, I have been doing lots of stuff, well, maybe not that much. Rather I dont feel that much of the spices.
Let me give you a runthrough of my life in 4 weeks month: First week- went to Cedar campus in Michigan for a Summer Retreat, 1 week away from internet... dang it! but that was the best moment! Attempted to read the books that I want to but only finish a book and a few chpters. Second week- Cooked chicken rice on Tuesday. Nothing much but read, sleep, play PC games, drink beer, play darts...ya, called home. Minor depression due to unknown hormones. That weekend went to Minneapolis/St Paul for Midwest Games. Thrid week- went movie, watched Harry Potter. Rotate eat out at Friend and Neighbor's place. Highlights of the week, played a game of monopoly. Suffer from minor derpession type B again, syntompt aggreviated by unknown events. Fourth week- Grocery shopping and my turn to repay their kindness, chicken rice day declared on Tuesday. Went and watch a comedy- Day After Ttomorrow, yes it is a comedy if you know what to look out for, Watched a Gamelan/Jazz Performance. err...till today.
So, it is still very eventful as you can tell but I dont really feel too much of the excitement. Felt kind of guilty. The last entries was in early May, it is a month since I last wrote something in it. Maybe I dont feel too much of writing. Ya, it is guilt that drives me writing. I promise to write something, a reflection thesis of my 4 week's life. Ya darn rite I am going to do it.
