Mixi Journals
So I took the plunge today and posted my first ever Mixi journal in Japanese. They are pretty scary to write, as all of your friends can see them, but I’m hoping people will point out my mistakes rather than just get t-shirts made with them written on them. Because that would be expensive and inefficient, as the chances of me bumping into my friends whilst they are wearing them are basically zero, so they would have to actually plan ahead and wear the t-shirt on a day we had pre-arranged to meet, and even then the chances of me appreciating the t-shirt and remembering writing what is written on it are slim to none. Wait, what?
そうだね。僕は六ヶ月に一回しかミクシィをチェックしない。なぜだか分からないけど、今から毎週ミクシィをチェックするようにする。日記を書いたり、友達の日記を読んだりするつもりだから、面白い日記を書いてね
。
今日本にいる。でもお金がないから、あまり友達と遊びに行けないけど、本当に楽しんでいる。大学で勉強した日本語を練習できるし、一年ぶり友達に会えるからだ。時々働いた学校で英語を教える。
二週前母は日本に行った。着く前の天気は毎日暑かったけど、母が日本にいる間の天気は雨だけだった。友達の西村さんによると、母が「雨女」だそうだ。。。
でも母は日本が大好きようだ。
魚料理が大好きだから、やっぱりすしとかさしみを楽しんだ。日本人のように魚を食べた。
先輩によると、二年生は一年生よりもっと難しそうだから、もっと勉強したほうがいいと思う。文法や言葉は大丈夫でも、漢字は問題だ。５００漢字を勉強したが、２５０しか書けない
。大学が終わったから、簡単な漢字も書かなくなった
。でもがんばっている！毎日２時ぐらい勉強したり、友達と勉強したばかり日本語を話して見たりしている。
マイク
Note the use of cute little icons. Very important in Japanese. Anyway, if anyone who reads this can help with any problems, that would be greatly appreciated, too! :)
I’m aware I haven’t done a proper update for ages, but I have a few coming… oh, like you’ve not heard THAT one before…
9/9/08: Corrected some mistakes, thanks to Tom and Tom in the comments. (or ‘Tom’ments).
“あまり友達と遊びに行けないが” Its not exactly a rule but you normally use が with the ます form, and as it is in this case けど with the casual.
母が日本にいる間の天気は雨だけだった。Since trying to emphasize the point that it rained all the time 雨ばかりだった or 雨しか降らなかった。 だけ is neutral.
大学が終わったから、簡単な漢字も書かなくなった － 大学が終わってから、簡単な漢字も書けなくなった。 Since University finished you have come to not be able to write even easy Kanji. (I can’t translate)
Tom: Curse you! I was agonizing over both the first two points you pointed out and though ’screw it’ and just went with them. Ah well, 0/2 ain’t bad!
大学が終わったから、簡単な漢字も書かなくなった is indeed “Since university has finished, I’ve become unable to write simple Kanji, too”, suggesting two things: I couldn’t write difficult ones all along (true), and that the change has been significant. Which it has. Today I forgot the kanji 従. GAAAAAH.
The last point I was trying to show that I changed the か from your 書かなく to a け (put into potential) and the た in 大学が終わったから to て。
Since in its current form I read it as “When University finished not write Kanji it became”
Sorry if you wanted someone with a bit more experience to try and correct it, I was just taking a break from my own studies for a bit and thought it’d be more productive to do this than have a nap.
Same here: reading Japanese from someone near my level is way more productive than a nap. :)
“2 weeks ago” is 「二週間前」, and 母 coming *toward* you is 「来る」, so:
二週前母は日本に行った -> 二週間前母は日本に来た
[[ crosses fingers that that's right ]]
Tom: Oh yeah, didn’t even see those mistakes :o Thanks :)
The other Tom: Yep, both correct, again, stupid mistakes.
I need to read my drafts over more.
Just a quick point, wouldn’t 「雨しか降らなかった。」 mean “only rain fell”, suggesting snow didn’t?
雨しか降らなかった would indeed suggest that nothing but rain fell. Using ばかり says it rained more than you expected (and it was a lot) だけ being neutral. So there is no reference to snow. Quite rare that it snows and rains at the same time though…
Tom: I guess. Sounds like one of those lovely contextual problems. I’ll show my Japanese teacher tomorrow and she what she thinks. I guess 雨が降ってばかりいた would make sense though? ‘It did nothing but rain’ ?
Wow. Today I just began learning with あ-い-う-え-お, I feel a long way off from actually being able to write a sentence :)
Alice: Things like Lang-8 are fantastically helpful for getting started once you’re writing sentences :)
I hadn’t heard of that before, I will check it out. Thanks for the tip!
It’s a good one. There’s a few good textbooks out there too. ‘Minna No Nihongo’ is probably the most popular. I’ve never used it, but I hear people get great results. Couple that with Anki (check the video on my Youtube page for that) and you have success!
hehehe. I like your intro to the post. I had never thought about Japanese people walking around with shirts written in funny Japanese.
You could (and really should) actually make these into shirts with zazzle.com
And then your friends can buy them :)
Tori: Maybe one day!