Week 2

Nihongo Kon Kon!

Week 1 and 2 have seemed quite fast but I think I am retaining more than I thought I would. I spent a lot of time really thinking about how much Japanese I actually know just from watching anime and drama for the past 10+ years. It’s been surprising to note how many words and even phrases I can already begin to work with. I can honestly say that it’s entirely possible thanks to watching so much subtitled Japanese entertainment (thank you thank you anime and drama fansubbers out there!!!) as well as my own self study using the materials I mentioned in the previous post. I have more confidence! I wish that would be able to continue with Berlitz once the class is over but at $1300 a pop it’s SO NOT going to happen. I’m really hoping that I learn enough in Level One to be able to continue a semi-structured self study regiment and then maybe pick up another class once the economy gets a bit better. Based on the 2 weeks so far though, I feel like I will absolutely have a strong sense of basic Japanese conversation by the end of the 8 weeks.

Monika-chan and I continue to have a great time in class together and Rossi-sensei is really showing her true colors lately. She’s a seriously feisty and hilarious woman. I think she really enjoys teaching us a lot as well so that probably helps.

Watashi wa joshi ga suki ja arimasen! I don’t hate particles, I just really don’t like them too much. Understanding how and when to use particles (wa, ga, de, no, etc) is one of the most difficult parts of Japanese for beginners. I understand “wa” fairly easily, it’s some of the other ones that I have trouble with. The Berlitz class doesn’t really go into the “how” or “why” portion of learning Japanese. This first level is more about memorizing things and not really going in depth. Rossi-sensei is very open to questions though, but I think Level 1 is setup to just get your feet wet with being able to do basic conversational Japanese without really delving into too many details. For me, this is not always the ideal learning method. For me, I need to understand how the particle usage actually works and then it clicks in my head when to use which particle based on that understanding. The Internet has been a great source for information and explanation of these kinds of details in plain English. For example, this answer on Yahoo about when to use “wa” or “ga” I found very clear and helpful. However, this page better explains how to differentiate between the two when forming sentences. SUPER HELPFUL!

My Japanese class started out with the basics … kore wa pen desu (This is a pen), as most Japanese courses do, and I also learned a variety of words and greetings. What I love about learning a language, even with programming (Hello, world.) is that you really can’t express much at first and what you can express is nothing you can really use. Eddie Izzard does a great skit on this actually and I think of it often in class. I have been trying to supplement my vocabulary by looking up nouns and verbs that I can understandably conjugate. The short version is that I have learned, in the first four classes, the basics of how to form a variety of sentences and ask questions. Surprisingly, I can actually say a lot already. I can ask questions about things, I can say what something is and is not, I can compare objects, I can describe things in a variety of ways using colors, I can say whether I like something or don’t like it or whether it is hard or simple. It’s actually, when you think about it, quite a lot of conversational skills. What is really fun and exciting for me is seeing how, in my normal daily conversations, I can end up saying a whole relevant sentence in Japanese.

We also learned basic comparisons and words like tall (takai), short (hikui), long (nagai), short (mijikai), same (onaji), etc … There were a handful of basic nouns like phone (denwa), dog (inu), key (kagi), boat (fune) and some others. (I have some cool noun flashcards that I have been using to add to my vocabulary. I have learned about 40 in the past few days.)

But in a basic sense, after the first two classes I could say things like the following:

Yeah, that’s all I got. But after two classes that is pretty good, ne? *grin*

This past week in class we finished up greetings and started on counting, adding (tasu: i.e. ichi tasu ichi wa ni), subtracting (hiku: i.e. ni hiku ichi wa ichi), and learning some additional useful verbs like tabemasu (eating) and nomimasu (drinking). There was also a lot of review this week which I found very helpful to solidify things in my mind.