じゃ、また。
Monday, September 28, 2015
An Introduction in Hiragana
はじめまして。ロックウッドです。どうぞよろしく。プリンストンだいがくのがくせいです。いちねんせえです。せんこうはまだわかりません。わたしはミズーリ州のHallsvilleからきました。
じゃ、また。
じゃ、また。
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Who Am I? What Is This Blog All About?
こんにちわ!
My name is Jared, and I've started this blog as an aid for learning Japanese at Princeton University. Why did I choose to study Japanese? Aside from what little I've gleaned from a casual interest in manga and anime, I know essentially nothing of the Japanese language and culture--and perhaps that's exactly why I chose to enroll in a Japanese course at Princeton. To me, it's something new. It's something foreign. It's a complete mystery.
I come from middle-of-nowhere Missouri, where my nearest neighbors are cows and corn. My high school was located in a town of about 1,500 people and was primarily Caucasian with a smattering of African-Americans and Hispanics, and a single Cambodian. Thus, opportunities to interact firsthand with someone experienced in Japanese language or culture were very few, and very far between; I was inevitably led to ponder about this culture of which I knew so little.
Of course, by this logic I could have just as easily chosen to study Chinese, Korean, Arabic, or really just about any other language one can think of. Knowing I'd have to--or rather get to--study a language once I arrived at Princeton, I deliberated all summer about which one I'd choose. At times I leaned towards Russian, at other times Arabic, and at other times yet just about any of the other languages Princeton had to offer. Couldn't I just become fluent in all of them? Ultimately, though, I settled on Japanese, and to be perfectly honest, I'm still not entirely sure why I chose Japanese. Maybe it's because from my outsider's point of view, respect seems to be central to Japanese culture, and I find there to be something very--for a lack of a better word--respectable in that. Or it could have simply been because of that last episode of Attack on Titan I watched before selecting classes.
Regardless, I'm stoked for just about everything to do with my Japanese class. I can't wait to reach some level of adequacy in this different language--to speak, to write, to think in Japanese! Even so, I'm also somewhat terrified about what's to come. After only two days of class, I already feel challenged by the course material. The sounds and conventions are all so foreign to me that they often blur together and I forget the proper pronunciation of words. The ひらがな are very hard to keep straight. Despite the challenges, though, I'm committed to this. I committed the moment I tore the shrink-wrap off my copy of Nakama 1 in class on Thursday. Indeed, I can learn Japanese, and I will learn Japanese!
My name is Jared, and I've started this blog as an aid for learning Japanese at Princeton University. Why did I choose to study Japanese? Aside from what little I've gleaned from a casual interest in manga and anime, I know essentially nothing of the Japanese language and culture--and perhaps that's exactly why I chose to enroll in a Japanese course at Princeton. To me, it's something new. It's something foreign. It's a complete mystery.
I come from middle-of-nowhere Missouri, where my nearest neighbors are cows and corn. My high school was located in a town of about 1,500 people and was primarily Caucasian with a smattering of African-Americans and Hispanics, and a single Cambodian. Thus, opportunities to interact firsthand with someone experienced in Japanese language or culture were very few, and very far between; I was inevitably led to ponder about this culture of which I knew so little.
Of course, by this logic I could have just as easily chosen to study Chinese, Korean, Arabic, or really just about any other language one can think of. Knowing I'd have to--or rather get to--study a language once I arrived at Princeton, I deliberated all summer about which one I'd choose. At times I leaned towards Russian, at other times Arabic, and at other times yet just about any of the other languages Princeton had to offer. Couldn't I just become fluent in all of them? Ultimately, though, I settled on Japanese, and to be perfectly honest, I'm still not entirely sure why I chose Japanese. Maybe it's because from my outsider's point of view, respect seems to be central to Japanese culture, and I find there to be something very--for a lack of a better word--respectable in that. Or it could have simply been because of that last episode of Attack on Titan I watched before selecting classes.
Regardless, I'm stoked for just about everything to do with my Japanese class. I can't wait to reach some level of adequacy in this different language--to speak, to write, to think in Japanese! Even so, I'm also somewhat terrified about what's to come. After only two days of class, I already feel challenged by the course material. The sounds and conventions are all so foreign to me that they often blur together and I forget the proper pronunciation of words. The ひらがな are very hard to keep straight. Despite the challenges, though, I'm committed to this. I committed the moment I tore the shrink-wrap off my copy of Nakama 1 in class on Thursday. Indeed, I can learn Japanese, and I will learn Japanese!
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