I am taking Japanese in my senior year of college because I had always been interested in Japanese language and culture. Having spent my early years in Hong Kong, where Japanese goods and shows are very popular, Japanese culture has appealed to me for as long as I can remember. Since I spent the last three years studying Chinese for practicality reasons (mainly, I wanted to learn how to communicate with my family members) and am now somewhat proficient, I finally have the opportunity to take the language that I've always wanted to learn but never had an opportunity to.
In my free time, I really enjoy watching Japanese animations (with subtitles) and listening to Japanese music, and though I don't understand the content by listening I always liked to look up the lyrics so I could at least follow or sing along. I'm excited that now that I'm learning the language I'd finally have a better understanding of the deeper meanings behind what I hear or watch, and I'd love to be able to also communicate in Japanese in basic conversation.
In turn, I'm hoping that my inherent interest in the language would allow me to learn to utilize the language much more quickly and more fluently than my experience in Chinese had been. From the past 4 weeks, what I found most difficult about Japanese is keeping in mind all the exceptions to spelling and pronunciation in things such as floor, time, and money. I am also still making a lot of careless mistakes when it comes to spelling in Hiragana, and the fact that I am terrible at pronunciation and spelling of English words alone makes translating vocabulary from Romaji into the appropriate Hiragana spellings is even more difficult for me. I'm hoping however with enough practice, I'd be able to overcome these difficulties and become much more fluent in sentence construction when speaking and writing.
In my free time, I really enjoy watching Japanese animations (with subtitles) and listening to Japanese music, and though I don't understand the content by listening I always liked to look up the lyrics so I could at least follow or sing along. I'm excited that now that I'm learning the language I'd finally have a better understanding of the deeper meanings behind what I hear or watch, and I'd love to be able to also communicate in Japanese in basic conversation.
In turn, I'm hoping that my inherent interest in the language would allow me to learn to utilize the language much more quickly and more fluently than my experience in Chinese had been. From the past 4 weeks, what I found most difficult about Japanese is keeping in mind all the exceptions to spelling and pronunciation in things such as floor, time, and money. I am also still making a lot of careless mistakes when it comes to spelling in Hiragana, and the fact that I am terrible at pronunciation and spelling of English words alone makes translating vocabulary from Romaji into the appropriate Hiragana spellings is even more difficult for me. I'm hoping however with enough practice, I'd be able to overcome these difficulties and become much more fluent in sentence construction when speaking and writing.
ナタリーさん、it is great that you are passionate about Japanese animations and music. I myself also enjoy learning lyrics and trying to understand deeper meanings of it. I really hope you will enjoy exploring the world of Japanese songs as you learn the language---there are indeed many great songs out there! Have a wonderful semester. TAむらい
ReplyDeleteがんばってよ！The first step is always the hardest!
ReplyDeleteWhat you said about your "inherent interest" in the language hopefully helping you understand it better really resonated with me. When we have as many choices of language classes as we do at Columbia/Barnard we can really pick something that we are passionate about!
ReplyDeleteThe exceptions trip me up too! I'm so worried about messing up hiragana--because what will that mean when reach kanji? I'm nervous about that, I don't know about you.
ReplyDeletehaha, I've actually taken Chinese before so to some degree I understand how hard it is to learn characters, so I am also nervous about learning kanji >< Learning characters was always the most difficult for me.
DeleteI feel like that is one of the good things about having katakana and hiragana...at least you can piece together words if you can just remember how it sounds o_o
Natalie さん、just as you mentioned, I also have the same difficulties as you did. It takes me a lot of time to memorize different words that are related to numbers in Japanese, such as dates and months. But I'm pretty sure that as we practice, these will no longer be a problem. Btw, I didn't know that you had learned Chinese for three years. If you want, we can communicate in Chinese and Japanese after class:)
ReplyDeleteah it's true that I have learned Chinese for 3 years, but I don't know if I'm good enough to carry on a conversation haha...I have forgotten a lot of stuff ._. But yes, we should practice anyway because practice makes perfect :)
DeleteFor me right now, telling time is so hard...I don't even know why. I can write it and slowly say it okay, but when asked on the spot I just freeze up D: Maybe I should just tell time in Japanese always from now on just for practice, haha!