First, some fantastic news!

Sophia gave me the JASSO Scholarship!

They just emailed me out of nowhere and awarded me it! Woooooooo!

In other news, my Japanese blog that was quiet over summer is being updated again. I’m trying to get used to blogging in Japanese so I can do some throughout my year abroad. You’ll notice the most recent updates appear in the navigation menu to the right. I’ll periodically post updates on here as well, as well as Twitter so that try as you might you can never escape.

Anyway since last time I’ve posted two updates so far:

• 辞書なしで日記 an update about my upcoming lifestyle in Tokyo which I wrote without consulting a dictionary (hence the title)
• もうすぐ日本へ行く！ which I posted yesterday which is me getting all excited.

People studying Japanese might be interested to know that I have everything I post on there checked on Lang-8 by native speakers, so the Japanese on there should be accurate. (Although there may be a typo, though I try really hard to avoid them!) If for some sick reason you want to see my mistake laden originals, check out my Lang-8 profile.

This was a boring update and I’m sorry. I will do another one next week, probably entitled ‘Oh no I forgot to pack!’ but to tide you over here is a picture of me looking cool as a cucumber! (Or not, you decide!)

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!

Alright, I’m writing this post because I am a *huge* fan of jisho.org – since I started second year at university I’ve used it countless times. Today rather than run through it’s features and so on, I’m going to explain what I’ve found it most useful for, and hope you guys might get some of the same results out of it that I did. If you know of any other funky things it can do, feel free to comment them and I’ll try them out!

Some really quick facts: jisho.org is free. There’s a forum if you get stuck. It’s updated pretty frequently and has more example sentences than you can even begin to imagine. Every single Jouyou Kanji, plus a whole load more, are on it. It’s also green.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you ask someone learning Japanese what their least favourite part of the language is. Some may sigh and explain they aren’t really fond of Kanji. Others will start to cry a little, and between the desperate sobs mutter something about those ’stupid symbols’. Others may start to froth at the mouth before shrieking and running out of a nearby window. That also means ‘the writing system’.

Of course, not everyone struggles with learning just under 2,000 different symbols, with multiple readings and thousands and thousands of combinations with each other. But I do, and thus I am justified in ranting senselessly about them. I am hoping that by writing angry blog posts, perhaps someone important in Japan will suddenly exclaim ‘hey guys just maybe we made this too hard let’s chill out for a bit, then invent a form of writing that involves pictures of animals’ or something.

So the following Kanji are pretty much jerks. Don’t associate with them or trust them with your money or keys as they will stab you in the back the second you drop your guard. You are running a risk just reading them on this blog! If it all gets too scary just forcefully punch your monitor! That’ll teach them! It’ll also teach me to write them! (disclaimer: I’m not replacing your monitor).

I mean look at that beast. This means ‘thanks‘ or ‘gratitude‘ as a noun. But who on earth would want to thank anyone for this Kanji. Look at the one on the right. The last thing I want to do after learning to write that out is thank anyone. Unless finding the original creator and sealing him in a cave counts as thanks.

This means ‘tourist’. If Kanji were real living things and they could talk and throw parties, this is how it would go;

山：Oh hey everyone welcome to the ‘Kanji that aren’t crazy hard to write or remember party’ how are you all.
信：I’m pretty good.
何：Hey is there any punch I am parched!
観：Hey everyone sorry I’m late I was busy strangling kittens! Sorry I’m alone but nobody likes me on account of all the kitten strangling! So what’s going on at this party? Oh hey punch! Well I’m just going to go ahead and drink it all. Oh sorry 何 did you want some? That’s okay I have plenty of kittens blood! Also I can associate on an intellectual level with Sarah Palin.

Yeah that’s right first kanji from tourist that is how you come across at parties if you were sentient. But you’re not, you’re just a symbol in the Japanese writing system. But you’re still a jerk. This one is crazy annoying to remember as it’s pretty important – tourism is big in Japan. Don’t worry if you can’t remember it though, apparently ツーリスト (tsu-risuto) is a real word! TAKE THAT 観!

Imagine if you were asked to recall this kanji from memory. How would you feel? Surprised? That’s fitting as this word means ‘to be surprised’ but I can understand if you thought it meant ‘To torture one’s enemies with crazy memory pattern tests.” This is one of the hardest Kanji I’ve had to learn for university and the most bizarrely annoying thing about it is it’s not that uncommon! You might actually see this in day to day life! Why can’t we just replace it with ‘ :o ‘ which does the same job!

Okay guys, time for an explanation: I started revising for my exams at full pace today, and all three of these Kanji caused me grief as I couldn’t recall how to write them. But now that I’ve written about them meanly, perhaps they will stick in my mind! They better do, because if they don’t I’m going to give up and become a professional unicyclist.

Expect a sane update in the coming week. Happy 2009, everyone.

大学の作文：

夏休みに、三ヶ月東京に泊まった。一年生の時に、両親の家に住んだから、学生の借金をためれた。たいてい日本に行く飛行機のチケットはとても高いけれど、僕が六ヶ月前予約したから、五百五十ポンドしかでわなかった。その上、働いたことがある学校は僕に留学生かいかんに払わないで泊まらせてくれった。

学生りょうが無料なのに、あまりお金がなかった。お金がなかったら、東京の生活は難しくなるけれど、来年の九月から日本で住む留学生になるから、お金をためることを練習してみた方がよかったと思う。 

卒業した後で、英語の先生になりたいから、英語を教えることを練習できるように、毎日学校に行って、先生に助けた。ほうきゅうがなかっくても、本当に面白かった。 

日本にいる間、学校の文化祭さいとたいくさいがあった。文化祭の一番楽しかったのは、学生が自分で作ったおばけの家に行ったことだ。本当にこわかった。

日本に着いたばかり、日本語を話したかったけれど、日本人と日本語で話し始めると、すぐドキドキした。でも、一ヶ月の後で、毎日日本語を勉強するようになったから、日本語で話す時に自信を持てるようになった。 

八月母が日本語に来た。母の休みの前はとても暑かったけれど、母が日本にいる十日は雨だけだった。友達によると、母が「雨女」だそうだ。毎日雨が降ったんだけれど、母が日本が楽しんだ。日本の料理を食べてみたり、東京の名所に行ったりした。母によると、一番楽しかったのは、温泉がある旅館に泊まることだそうだ。温泉に入る間に、大雨が降り始めた。きれいだった。 

母に東京を案内している間に、すし屋に行った。母が日本語が話せなくても、店員に「すしが好き！」や「日本の生活は楽しい」と言った。 僕は母のように自信をもりたい。母は外国語を勉強することが上手だ。いつも僕に「日本語の文法の授業に連れて行ってください！」と言う。 

九月二十五日にイギリスに帰った。飛行機で面白い日本人に会った。その人が二年間東京にある有名な水族館に働いた。動物があまり好きじゃなくても、本当に面白かった。その人がイギリスにひっこして、ロンドンの動物の美術館で働く。冬休みに、ロンドンに行って、もう一度その人に会いたい。

夏が楽しかった。

If anyone spots any mistakes, pop them in the comments. Much obliged :)

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。母に色々な場所を案内した。新宿とか日光とかお台場に行った。母がもう一度日本に来たいそうだ。よかった！

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).