Language Audio Files: Japanese I

Before reading this post, note that this is a response to a previous post called "The Need To Speak". Read that if you'd like to know the reasoning behind this.




田中：私は田中です。どうぞよろしく。
アリ：私はアリです。どうぞよろしく。
田中：アリさんはマレーシアの学生ですか？
アリ：はい、私はマレーシアのがくせいです。
田中：あなたもマレーシアの学生ですか？
マナ：いいえ、私はマレーシアの学生ではありません。タイの学生です。私はマナです。どうぞよろしく。

田中：あの女の人はだれですか？
アリ：あの人はマリアさんです。マリアさんはフィリペン人です。あのかたはどなたですか？
田中：あの男のかたは山本せんせいです。日本語の先生です。

田中：まなさん、このかたは山本先生です。
山本：山本です。どうぞよろしく。マレーシアのアリさんはどの人ですか？
アリ：私です。

山本；それはあなたの鞄ですか？
アリ：はい、これとこれは私の鞄です。
山本：それもあなたの鞄ですか？
アリ：はい、これも私の鞄です。
山本：あのカメラはだれのカメラですか？
アリ：あれはマリアさんのカメラです。

山本：アリさん、それは何ですか？
アリ：これはレコードです。
山本：マレーシアのレコードですか、日本のレコードですか？
アリ：マレーシアのレコードです。

山本：マリアさん、これはあなたの部屋の鍵です。どうぞ。
マリア：どうもありがとうございます。
アリ：先生、私の部屋の鍵はどれですか？
山本：あなたの部屋の鍵はこれです。どうぞ。
あり：どうもありがとうございます。

The Need to Speak

I love to learn languages.

Well, honestly I love the concept behind language - bits and pieces of sound from our mouths, coming together in some masterful order that relays messages of any sort. And then, there are so many different ways to attach the sounds to each other that it just leaves me in awe. But I've noticed something just a few minutes ago:

I don't use them!

Really, all this time learning French and Japanese yet in the end I use English because its what I need to use. There aren't enough French and/or Japanese outlets for me into interact with on a constant basis. And because of that, all my effort slowly start to unwind themselves and I end up forgetting what I learned.

Now what is a boy to do? Is he to run away, abandon his dreams of traveling to faraway lands and actually understanding the natives instead of depending on hastily brought phrase books to get him through the trip? And heaven forbid he ever gets lost, for he won't know heads from tails, much less how to read a map.

No, he will not run away. Instead, he will create avenues to interact with the languages in a more hands on manner.

Now, I'm the type of person who when learning a language likes to only read. Reading is easy. Its personal and you can take as much time as you need to look up words and the such. But now, I'm sick of simply just reading. It doesn't help me when I need to speak, which should be most of the time. So, here is my plan to fix this:

As I look around my room right now, I see a good amount of books in French and Japanese that I've collected through nothing less than unusual means. Most of them are in a bookshelf just watching the days roll past. Now what I would like to do is once or twice a week, take a passage from one of these books and record myself reading it. Then allow for full public humiliation by posting the audio files right here on this blog.

Why would I be so willing to send myself up the river like that? Well, its because this is the area that I am lacking in - speaking in another language. I am far too bashful for my own good and my speech is choppy at best. By putting the files online, I'll have a record of my progress so I can see how far I've come and how far I still need to go.

Here is what I hope to be the most interesting part. In every post with audio, I plan to have a copy of the text I'm reading typed out for all to see. This way, not only can people who actually do speak the langauge properly can point out where I made mistakes and maybe even make audio files of their own for me and anyone else to listen to and repeat after, working on the sounds we mercilessly massacred. Matter of fact, I want anyone who is learning the language the post is in to post audio of what their reading so that they can get feedback as well.

Of course, there are some flaws I see in this. One is that its going to be seriously painful for me to go back and listen to my own files since I completely detest the sound of my own voice when recorded. Second is that no one will upload files with me. But even if that does happen, its still ok because what matters is the practice I'll get from it.

Anyways, I plan to get the first file up, if not today, then by Friday. I still can't believe this never occurred to me before...

Upcoming Library Forum + Language Group Update

I got out of work and dropped by the library today to help them with their preparations. Next week they're holding a forum for one of their volunteer groups that is specifically geared towards technology. Something of which is right up my alley - so much so, that I decided to spread the word about the XOs via a presentation.

One of the planed key points that I wish to emphasize is the ever growing importance of the open-source community. The XOs are a great testament to its power and I feel that it would be a wise way of keeping in check with the theme of the forum - showing the kids there how much opportunities they have in the world of technology.

As I was running through a very bare draft of the powerpont document I was creating to help aid me during ten minutes of attempting to woo the audience - whom are in the same age demographic as I am - to the manager of the volunteer office that I worked with, the conversation found itself upon ways to expand on the topics I was going to speak about, outside of the just the presentation. The idea that came up was possibly holding round table discussions about current issues in the field of computers and such. I would personally enjoy leading this. For one it would be great content to podcast, which is something I would like to get into and second it would be good practice in leading any type of group in an activity, since I'm about to lead language oriented talks. Right now all of this is just thought, but one I'm planning to chase after so check back for more details later.

With that said lets segway into the language groups. It was decided today to move forward with the Japanese group rather than the French. While I would have prefered to focus on French since my school courses in start next week, there is already a pack in the library that deals with it. Also I may be able to draw in more people with Japanese - I think it has more of an alure to most people my age than French. Anime would play a large part in explaining why - most teenagers have come into contact with more Japanese than they have French.

As for the format, while I'm planning to see what I get and go from there I'm definitely going to teach hiragana and katakana, two of the three writing scripts used in the language. I don't care to make much of anything set in stone just yet - merely the basics.

The folks at the library want to see how fast we can have things set up - the goal is to hold the first meeting sometime in October, mainly to give myself enough time to gear up for this. Heres to everything going well. I'm interested in seeing just what I can pull off.*

*Hopefully it will be more successful than may ill-fated blog carnival....

僕の学生

いま、僕の学生は平仮名を勉強しています。明後日にテストがあります。２週間から、平仮名を覚えます。だから、知っていますでしょうね？

Reading and Comprehension

I've been thinking lately about my training in languages. My Japanese is slowly moving somewhere, though not as fast as I would like it to be, and I'm starting to forget my French (which mortifies me). So because of this, I've started to place this new idea into action. I've asked friends who speak the two target languages to assist me with this concept. Basically, I'm asking them to just glance over articles that I've chosen to read and create questions based off the readings for me to answer. This is nothing new - its a popular way of teaching languages in school. I myself remember being drilled in such ways. And remember that it did help. And now that my old ways aren't working as well as they once were, I need to change things up again. Hopefully I can get somewhere with this.

*Edit: I realize now that this would be something very interesting to research. The link between reading and comprehension. Know what? I think I will go poke around the web and then post my findings here. Save everyone else the trouble.

New Language Books and (Semi)Update to Guides

I recently ran into a bunch of books on grammar for Japanese and French. Some of which include the titles "Minna no Nihongo", "A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar", "A dictionary of Japanese Particles", and "Schaum's Outline of French Grammar". I've been looking through them, trying to come up with a method of study that would wield the most results. So far I've been most drawn to the Minna no Nihongo and the basic Japanese grammar book. They seem to have a lot of quality sentences for me to steal and enter into Anki (for those of you who don't understand what I mean by that, I'm sure to write a little something about it in upcoming days. Google "anki" in the meantime if you'd like...) Schaum's outline of French looks nice as well, but not as nice as the other books I already have. Hopefully I will still have a use for it.

The greater importance of this post is that I'm still figuring out how I should write the so-called guides I've been contemplating. Should they be a collection of notes or me actually doing lessons. I'm leaning towards notes, for I'm simply just not that good in either languages. But nevertheless, I'll figure it out. And soon. Spring Break type soon - tentatively.

Possible Series of New Posts ~ Plans for the Fall

At hunter college, I'm applying to take a new introductory class for the fall of my senior year. I can only get into one of my listed choices, so I'm gunning for a class in French or Japanese (and another subject that is outside of this post's focus). For French, I'm leaning towards an Intensive Elementary course that covers both the 101 and 102 classes, and in Japanese I'm fine with 101 class, though by now I should be able to handle a 102 class (hopefully).
Anyways, in any of the classes that I get into, so long as they are pertaining to these languages, I'm going to have to go over content that I've learned either on my own or in pervious classes. This, of course, is the point of me signing up for them - I want to go through content I've seen before to make sure that I still at least remember it. And that is what leads me to this idea; I want to start reviewing things now and while doing that, write little notes/guides for myself and post it up here for others that may be learning the same languages as well. I'm always being told that the best way to learn anything is to have to teach it to others, so this is my attempt at doing so. Finally, I must ask this: Is anyone interested in seeing such a feature brought to life? If so, tell me any ideas you may have. Same goes for if you don't think its a good idea.

Aikido

When I was younger I took some type of martial arts lessons. I believe that I first started around 4th or 5th grade, switched dojos, then continued learning till my 7th grade year. I've really always regretted leaving and every year when my school hold their after-school program performances, I always begin to really miss it. Watching those kids up there make me think about how far I could have gone if I'd stick around. And so today, during my little Japanese lesson, I was reminded of this fact. It would appear that my teacher use to study Aikido when he was younger and started to show me some videos of different techniques. It was all in an effort to show how language is more than something that is a set of rules for sounds that convey a message. Rather, it incorporates itself into the people and their ways. The culture and language reflects each other in their values. Especially in Japanese. I've never dealt with a language, and consequentially culture much like it before. Amazing how it all started from me repeatedly writing certain kanjis wrong. But now, there is something in me gravitating towards the idea of learning Aikido. There is some sort of peacefulness that, at least to me, comes along with the art. Plus it would make for great physical exercise that is oh so important nowadays. Yet still I think that if I really am serious about all of this, it would be best for me to make plans to start next year or when I'm finally settled in college. That way I should have a lot more time seeing as how I'm expecting things to have calmed down by then.

日本語を教える

二人は僕から日本語が習いたい。僕はまごまごですから彼らの理由を分かりません。日本語がまだ上手じゃない。それは自明でしょうか？　じゃ、手伝ってします。僕には、訓練です。



As always, I'd love to have corrects, for I know it must be riddled with errors...

Other blogs of interest

In many ways, this blog was created in response to my then growing interest reading other blogs. Particularly blogs about learning languages, or that are actually in my target languages. Because of this, I figure that writing a small list of sites that I frequently visit or find delightful would be useful in some way or form.

English blogs and/or sites:

http://cocoablogs.com/ - a directory of blogs dealing with people who program in cocoa. I still have plans to learn this programming language and all, but for now I can only put in a limited amount of time to it.


the linguist - Interesting blog. This guy seems to have some really cool ideas on learning languages, many of which that make sense.

French blogs and/or sites:

Alive in Paris - This is a bilingual blog about little events and things going on in Paris. I find that I sometimes go to rely upon the english when the words get to hard, but its still good practice.

Les photos de Moune. - Lots of pictures. Great for when I just want to look at something. The pictures are nice, plus you have French underneath. Only this time, no english to help you out.

Naked Translations - Another bilingual French and English blog. The woman behind the site is a translator and writes about some of her translation woes, among other things. Once again, great practice for anyone learning French.

Japanese blogs and/or sites:

Japanese Wikipedia - Reading articles from Wikipedia in any language is really helpful.

Crunchyroll - Something a friend of mine just recently showed me. The name itself is a bit silly, but the site is a youtube for japanese shows. With subtitles. Really, really nice to watch when you have the time.

So thats it for now. I may do this again sometime into the future but this should be a good start.

Japanese grammar book - chapters 5 and 6 questions and answers

chapter five
１。アリさんは休みの日にどのぐらい勉強しましたか？
２。夕方（ゆうがた）から何をしましたか？
３。山田さんは休みにどこへ行きましたか？
４。なんで行きましたか？
５。東京から京都まで何時間ぐらい掛かります（かかります）か？
６。京都で何をしましたか？
７。アリさんの学校の夏休みはどのぐらいですか？
８。夏休みは長いですか？

１。アリさんは休みに五時かんぐらい勉強しました。
２。体育館で運動（うんどう）しました。ざっしや新聞などを読みました。
３。山田さんは休みに京都（きょうと）へ行きました。
５。バスで行きました。
６。六時間か七時間ぐらい掛かりました。
７。七月（しちげつ）に十一（じゅういち）日から八月（はちがつ）二十（はつか）日までです。
８。学校の夏休みは長くない。

chapter six
１。ビルの一階に店がありますか？
２。アリさんは店でどんなシャツを買いましたか？
３。アリさんシャツを何枚（なんまい）買いましたか？
４。ピンポンのボールをいくつ買いましたか？
５。さとうさんもそこで何か買いましたか？
６。アリさんと　さとうさんはどこで休みましたか？
７。公園の池（いけ）の中に何がいますか？

１。はい、ビルの一階に店があります。
２。アリさんは店で青いシャツと白いシャツを買いました。
３。アリさんはシャツを三枚（さんまい）買いました。
４。六つ買いました。
５。いいえ、さとうさんは何も買いませんでした。
６。アリさんとさとうさんは公園で休みました。
７。池の中に魚がたくさんいます。

Japanese grammar book - chapters 7 questions and answers

So some more Japanese practice....

１。学校のハイキングの日はいい天気になりましたか？
２。その日は雨や雪がふりましたか？
３。マナさんとタンさんはどこで休みましたか？
４。マナさんは川の水でなにをしましたか？
５。それから、どこで昼ご飯を食べましたか？
６。林の中はどうでしたか？
７。マナさんはだれのお茶（おちゃ）を飲みましたか？

１。はい、いい天気になりました。
２。その日は雨や雪が降りませんでした。
３。マナさんとタンさんは川のそばで休みました。
４。マナさんは川の水で手を洗いました。
５。木の下で昼ご飯を食べました。
６。林の中は涼しくて（すずしくて）、静かです。
７。タンさんのお茶を飲みました。

Japanese grammar book - chapters 1-4 questions and answers

Many times I said that I wanted to start writing more in my target languages but I did not really know how. But I realized that at the end of every chapter are a set of questions, thus i started to answer them. The questions themselves don't mean much to me but its the practice I'm after. These most likely have some problems within them, but it serves its purpose.

chapter one
しつもん：
１。アリさんはマレーシアの学生ですか？
２。マナさんもマレーシア人ですか？
３。マリアさんは先生ですか、学生ですか？
４。山本(やまもと）先生は女の先生ですか、男の先生ですか？
５。山本先生は英語の先生ですか？
６。アリさんのレコードは日本のレコードですか？

１。はい、アリさんはマレーシアの学生です。
２。いいえ、マナさんはマレーシア人ではありません。タイだ。
３。マリアさんは学生です。先生じゃない。
４。山本先生は男です。
５。いや、山本先生は英語の先生じゃない。彼が日本語先生だ。
６。いいえ、日本ではありません。マレーシアのレコードです。

chapter two
しつもん：
１。鈴木（すずき）先生の部屋はどんな部屋ですか？
２。食堂の食券はいくらですか？
３。大きいパンは四十（よんじゅう）円ですか？
４。日本の牛乳（ぎゅうにゅう）は高いですか？
５。病院は高いですか、低い（ひくい）ですか？
６。病院はどんな病院ですか？

１。鈴木先生の部屋は小さいです。大きくない。
２。白い食券は十円です。そして、赤い食券は百円です。
３。いいえ、大きいパンは六十円です。小さいパンが四十円です。
４。いいえ、全然（ぜんぜん）高くない。安いです。
５。病院は高いです。低くない。
６。病院は新しいと大きいです。
chapter three
１。マリアさんの部屋にどんな部屋ですか？
２。山田（やまだ）さんマリアさんの部屋で何を飲みましたか？
３。寮の食堂は何時に始まります（はじまります）か？
４。マリアさんは日曜日にどこで食事をしますか？
５。マリアさんたちは先週の土曜日に何をしましたか？
６。マナさんはパーティーで何をしましたか？
７。パーティーは何時ごろ終わりましたか？

１。小さい部屋です。大きくないです。
２。マリアさんの部屋で、山田さんはコーヒーを飲みました。
３。六時に始まりました。
４。日曜日にマリアさんはレストランで食事をします。
５。マリアたちは先週の土曜日にパーティーをしました。
６。マナさんはパーティーでピアノを弾きました（ひきました）。
７。パーティーは十時ごろ終わりました。
chapter four
１。五月（ごがつ）五日（いつか）は何（なん）の日ですか？
２。マナさんと　さとうさんは五月五日にどこへ行きましたか？
３。新宿（しんじゅく）の公園で何をしましたか？
４。マナさんはどこの国の留学生（りゅうがくせい）ですか？
５。マナさんはいつ日本へ来ましたか？
６。マナさんはいま（今）何才ですか？
７。マナさんと日本人の女の人の子供は同じ年ですか？

１。子供の日です。
２。マナさんと　さとうさんは公園へ行きました。
３。マナさんと　さとうさんは写真（しゃしん）をとりました。
４。マナさん、タイの留学生です。
５。今年の四月に、来ました。
６。今、マナさんは十八才（じゅうはっさい）。
７。はい、マナと日本人の女の人の子供は同じ（おなじ）年です。

Blogs and Langauges and (half) a Resolution

I've recently started to read blogs written in French and Japanese. Or at least, I'm trying to read. While I don't understand every thing, I try to get as much as I can, playing attention to how the words are used. So far, I've found some interesting stuff. For one, many of them are from people trying to learn English, so its cool to see how it is on the other side of the fence. There are even a few that I've read across which are people's attempts to practice their skills in English. Even though there are some mistakes, the thing is that they're not afraid make them. It makes me wonder why can't I put aside any pride I may be feeling and go for it. Which leads me to part one* of my first ever actual New Year Resolution. And that will be to read, write, and listen to my target languages.

*The second part is of no real relevance to this post.

New plan for language study

I've reached a mental plateau. In my French and Japanese studies, I've noticed that I've just leveled out. I don't feel like I'm learning anything new and because of this I need to shake up how I'm doing things. I decided to go back to Pimsleur and the FSI for one. Also I want to make time to start using the Rosetta Stone more often. Finally, I'm looking to take more opportunities to use them in. Because of that on Monday I'm going to a group meet-up in which I have to speak Japanese. There are no if and buts. I've also got into a French language class at Hunter College starting in January. At this point, if I truly wish to keep going in these languages I have to expose myself more to them more often. I can't be as shy as I once use to.