てがみ

山田さん、

はじめまして。リバスです。どうぞよろしく、おねがいします。私は大学いん生です。せんこうはフランスのぶんがくです。大学いんの一年生です。とてもいそがしいです。としょかんへ本をよみによくいきます。グラドカレッジにいます。私のへやはとても小さいへやです。山田さんは、アメリカと日本とどちらの方が好きですか。英語ではなしますか。日本語はきれいでおもしろいことばです。よろしくおねがいします。

リバス

Cycle 2 Reflection/Cycle 3 Goals

I don't feel that I fully lived up to my goals. I only did one "official" extra shadowing that I handed in, and I only shadowed for about 10 minutes for 4 times. I have made progress though and the shadowing is getting easier. Furthermore, I'm starting to hear and notice intonation. I still have problems hearing and understanding the intonation of a word, but it's getting easier. I find the shadowing more helpful then just listening, because even though it is very frustrating and difficult, it helps both with speaking and with listening. I have to hyper-focus on all aspects several times while listening to the speech before beginning to shadow and this is a really helpful way to internalize the minute details that might otherwise remain unnoticed by me unless I was trying to mimic it identically. After the test I realized that I need to work much harder on listening while continuing to work on pitch and intonation.

My goal is to continue to work on intonation and pitch while beginning to work harder on listening. I am going to keep my goal of shadowing 15 minutes twice a week. In addition I plan to come to office hours at least once a week. I also am going to continue with Japanese Table.

とてもきれいな歌！

その歌はとてもきれいな歌です！これだいすきです！

Goal Statement for Cycle 2

After reflecting on how I did things last cycle, I've decided that for this cycle I want to focus my efforts on one specific element. I've chosen to focus on intonation because I am concerned about developing bad habits; I've become more interested lately in Second Language Acquisition theories and based on certain things I'm reading it seems that as you acquire more vocabulary it can be extremely tricky to easily correct the pronunciation or intonation if you get too comfortable mis-pronouncing a word or using an incorrect intonation. I'm going to pay close attention to the symbols in the book, and try to really be conscious of tonality when I'm learning vocabulary.

Secondly, I'm going to be more intentional about shadowing. I'm going to do it at least twice a week for 15 minutes at the very, very least. I'm going to do the majority of them "formally" so I can get feedback. In addition, I'm going to try to watch at least one Japanese film per week so that I can hear the language spoken. I remember that when I was learning other languages that this was very helpful- even if I didn't understand much at all.

Vacation !

こんにちは。
うちへかえりました。(...literally just got back a few minutes ago)
せんしゅうフランスにいきました。(I had a really good time!)
ほんやにいきました。(I bought way too many books.)
レストランでレストランでたべました。(My favorite is a Cambodian place that is amazing.)
パリに Maison de la culture du Japonがあります。(I knew that there was a Japanese cultural center, but I didn't know it was so big! I want to explore it more the next time I go back.)
えいがをみました。(It was called "Polisse" and it was kind of like Law and Order: SVU, but French and with a dark sense of humor.)
I can't believe there's classes tomorrow!

Reflection Statement N°1

I was reasonably satisfied with my progress and adherence to my goals of shadowing and following along with the podcast 5 times per week. I was able to shadow (unofficially) about 3-4 times per week and I listened to the podcast at least 5 times per week. I don't necessarily know if it helped that much with my speaking and oral production, but I know that it DEFINITELY helped with my listening skills. I feel like I have progressed a lot in that respect. I think for next cycle I will try to focus more on shadowing and actually do it officially in order to get feedback. I think focusing on one thing might make it more tangible and do-able.

I was pleased with my oral exam performance. My partner and I spent many hours preparing and I think it paid off. I was unsure if I was supposed to address my professor as -sensee or -san because she was technically acting as someone else... but other than that it was great. I was very pleased that I was able to deviate effectively from the memorized script. I think my pronunciation and intonation were alright, but I definitely need to work on both of them. Coming from a background in French/Romance Languages I have spent a lot of time thinking about phonetic issues in French and Spanish and I am aware of the obstacles inherent in learning to speak a new language. While this is frustrating I also know that a lot of the issues can be resolved with hard work and guidance (which this course is providing). In terms of overall communication skills/fluency I think my partner and I did reasonably well in that we were comprehensible (I hope!!) but I of course feel that with practice I could do better. I think I made some mistake in terms of grammar at one point, but I don`t remember what it was. Overall I was pleased though, and I was very happy to have had the opportunity to prove to myself that I could speak Japanese (even if it was just a little bit).

リバスのげつようび

あさななじごろにおきます。

はちじはんにシャワーをあびます。

くじにほんごのじゅぎょうがあります。

じゅういちじにとしょかんでべんきょうをします。

じゅうにじにじゅっぷんにひるごはんをたべます。

ごごいちじはんにフラんスぶんがくのじゅぎょうがあります。

ごじごろにばんごはんをたべます。

はちじはんにほんをよみます。

ごごじゅういちにねます。

Goals!

My main goal right now is to really focus on intonation. As someone who has spent a lot, lot, lot of time working on mastering a foreign language I understand how harmful poor intonation can be to the overall comprehensibility of your speech. Also, if you have poor intonation from the beginning, it may be hard to correct later on.

In terms of concrete steps I am going to take for this "cycle," I am going to do 10 minutes of shadowing 5 times a week as well as work my way through the episodes of a podcast (http://japanese.libsyn.com/) meant for learners of Japanese. I'm going to pay particularly close attention to intonation, and hopefully this will make a difference.

Pour les francophones

Il me semble qu'il y en ait beaucoup... donc je veux partager cette émission que je viens de découvrir sur youtube. Elle s'appelle « Fourchette et sac à dos » et est une série documentaire télévisée qui a pour but d'explorer les cultures culinaires du monde. Voici l'épisode sur le Japon ! Après l'avoir régardé je me suis dit qu'il faut absolument que j'aille au Japon. Profitez-en !

[[Le beignet de poulpe montré dans la deuxième partie a l'air particulièrement délicieux... miam !]]

Introduction !

はじめまして。わたしのジョシュアです。どうぞよろしく。わたしはだいがくいんのいちねんせいです。せんこうはフランスごです。わたしはチリじんです。

Why Japanese?

I have always wanted to study the Japanese language (日本語), but I've never been able to devote enough time to make any sort of substantial headway. I'm just starting a doctoral program in French literature, and thanks to secondary language requirements set forth by the department I now have an excuse to finally learn the language I've so much wanted to study. Initially I met understandable confusion when I revealed my plans to study Japanese as part of my overall education in French literature. However, I feel that despite the fact that there is a significant (and seemingly under-researched at least from the Francophone perspective) Franco-Japanese cultural exchange, learning a non-Romance language will help me view language and expression in new and exciting ways that will only help me in my professional and intellectual development.

My first exposure to Japanese language (and perhaps culture) was watching Iron Chef obsessively as a child. My interest in Japanese culture has continued to develop; I consider Ryu Murakami and Yukio Mishima to be amongst my absolute favorite authors, and although it might be shocking to some of my most Francophile friends, I prefer the films of Satoshi Kon more than even of the best of the Nouvelle Vague. My goal in studying Japanese besides just being able to speak, read, and listen to a language that I adore from an aesthetic standpoint is to gain direct access to a rich culture that I have so far in my life only had the opportunity to experience in translation. With reading knowledge (technically) as my goal, knowing that the writing system is notoriously difficult to master makes me a bit apprehensive at times. I hope/believe that with enough study and patience I will eventually be able to read with relative ease. Overall I'm optimistic and can't wait to learn more.