The Big Adventure

Every time I think of my journey to Japan I become more and more excited. Soon after I talked to someone about my plans, and it soon turned out that she would also love to go. She almost made to it Japan once, but had to cancel, because she was too afraid to fly. Too bad, but I didn’t want to give up. Luckily, one of my superb followers commented in one of my other posts, and suggested she should take pills. I suggested it to her, and she agreed that she would try. So we were two. After some more talk in a chat channel with people I got to like very much, someone else heard about our journey, and showed interest in joining us. The more, the merrier! A party of 3 people, sharing their love in Japan, able to speak Japanese at various degrees, and the plan to go there for some time. It really can’t get any better, or so I thought. Then, a week or two later, yet another one joined our little party. As of now, we are 5 people, who will travel Japan next year, and stay there for some months.

Let’s Discover 源氏物語

The tale of Genji can be considered to be the oldest story in Japan. Besides other books I currently read, ショッピングの女王 being one of them, The Tale of Genji ranges on top of my current to read list. Thanks to the fact that I keep listening to various Japanese radio stations on a daily basis, I already know the story up to the end of chapter 23, 初音 (はつね). I also greatly enjoy the story, having the laptop on my couch table, and just listening while relaxing on my sofa. One of the stations currently airing a version of The Tale of Genji, read by 「リンボウ先生」 which is the nickname of 林望さん (のぞみはやし) 「謹訳源氏物語」, is 調布FM.

Japanglish

I bet you never heard of this coined word before. It could stem from me, but the truth is, it doesn’t. I like to make up my own words for some languages, for instance instead of saying Japanese, I would use Japan, or Frankreich, France. To give you a concrete example, instead of saying something like … 日本語を勉強して、歌詞が分かれば、映画の鑑賞が深まりそうで、漫画と小説も購入したいです。

Outlook

It is early autumn, the leafs are still green, but the weather and temperatures have dropped sharply. In other words, it is the perfect season for staying inside, spending some more time with books, and other Japanese related activities. Learning, surfing the internet, chatting, and reorganizing my life on top of that, have kept me from writing here. Since I received a request for the 日本語総まとめN２ deck, I thought to let you know that I still exist.

[Release] Quiz Deck

As promised, today is the release of one of my quiz decks. This deck contains 915 cards, with multiple choice answers, 4 per card. You can download it from the 4-shared website. The archive is password and the password is Nagareboshi. For questions, comments, or just for a thank you, please leave a comment.

I am very sorry that some of you visited my blog in vain in the search for the promised shared deck. I corrected the link and uploaded the file to a different host. I should have checked the accessibility before posting the link but now it should hopefully work. Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you.

検定集

Probably all Japanese language learners know at least one big Japanese tests. The 漢字検定 which tests a persons Kanji skills is one of them, another is called 日本語検定, but there are way more. In fact there are hundreds of tests of all sorts you can get your proficiency certified in. The 掃除検定, 日経検定, 日本ビール検定 which I wonder how this is one is carried out. Does a test taker have to drink blindfolded and then tell which brand it is? There is also the 歴史検定 which has two categories, 日本歴史 and 世界歴史, both can be taken and some parts can be certified if certain criteria are met.

Time

There are times when I ask myself this question. How old would I have to become, to be able to see it all and do it all? Through media, and Japanese blogs, I learned about many places that i’d love to visit, things I would want to try out, and places I want to enjoy hanging out with the townsfolk. Old people in particular, because they can be very patient, so I can learn a thing or two from them. For my trip next year, I need to decide on only a handful of places to stay and some activities, which I am very bad at. Japan is full of interesting places, for instance a cat town, that I think it would take at least 200 years, until I get to see even a fraction of everything the country has to offer.

An Announcement

I thought it would be a nice idea to inform you all of an upcoming release of some of my newly created quiz decks. You can expect to see the decks probably by the end of this month. The decks will contain both vocabulary quizzes, N2 and old 2級, with about 2300 or more cards in each of them. The decks are separated into levels, and % of correct answers, so if you have a high percentage number you should now that it is a rather easy card. The other decks will contain mainly grammar exercises, N2 only, because it matters.

Favorite Media

It is not always easy to find something to enjoy in the sea of media that has become available by now. Drama, Anime, Live Action, News, Variety Shows, a whole lot to choose from, freely available on the web. I tried them all out, Drama, Live Action, and Variety Shows are my least favorite. Anime, News, and Learning programs, videos and news about people and their lives are, what I enjoy most. Now you might ask what one can actually learn from Anime about Japan, social problems, customs, etc. Not so much if you aren’t paying any attention and just take them as source for entertainment. Take も～っと！おジャ魔女どれみ, a somewhat old Anime, about apprentice witches.

[Beginners Resource] Vocabulary and Dialogues

Here is another resource for those among my readers who just started out learning Japanese. At the Tokyo University of Foreign Language Study website you can learn Vocabulary, presented as a list according to topic, for instance 道　(みち), with a group of words like 橋 (はし), bridge、交差点 (こうさてん) crossing、車 (くるま) car、to memorize. After memorizing and a click on 次へ (つぎへ), next, you hear a word 3 times, and you can then have an example sentence for each of the words read for you. If you want to you can figure out the sentence by reading it first, and afterwards listen to the example sentence.