Pronunciation Exercises: Final Reflection

As my first semester at Princeton draws to a close, it's time to reflect on one of the most challenging and invigorating experiences I've faced so far in college: my pronunciation exercises in Japanese. Below is a quick recap of the revised goals I set for myself for PE back in November:

• Recognize changes in pitch
• Speak and comprehend speech up to speed
• Remember words and phrases correctly

I think I've really started to get a good grip on the first and last of my three goals, especially after I spent a good amount of time during my winter break reviewing vocab and the pitches of words. I still seem to struggle a bit with speaking and comprehending speech up to speed, although I feel as if I have made significant improvement in this area as well over the past few weeks--during our last dialogue practice on Tuesday, I was actually able to follow nearly the entire dialogue for what may have been the very first time! 

As for the methods I said I'd follow to achieve my goals, I've adhered to them a lot more closely than I had up to the reflection I posted back in November; I still watch an episode of anime every day (and I've been paying extra close attention to the dialogue to understand as much as I can, rather than merely reading the subtitles), I've created and reviewed flashcards for every chapter's vocabulary and their pitches, and I've attended office hours nearly every week since midterms. In short, I've done everything that I said I would in my revision to some extent, and I can certainly tell the difference; I seem to be improving at least somewhat in just about every facet of my Japanese-learning!

Although Japanese 101 has been extremely challenging for me and I often struggle, I can't help but look back and feel proud of all that I've learned. I can't wait to start next semester, and, ultimately, to someday reach fluency in Japanese!

クイズボウル。とてもたのしいです！

こんばんは！今日, クイズボウルのれんしゅうがありました。しゅみの中でクイズボウルが一番好きですよ。クイズボウルで一人はしつもんをします、そして二チームはこたえます。一チームは４人がいます。クイズボウルのトピックはれきしやぶんがくやすうがくやかがくです。おもしろくてたのしいので、私の専門はぶんがくです。アフリカとヨーロッパのぶんがくは大好きです、でも私はすこし日本のぶんがくをしっています。たとえば、むらかみはるきやみしまゆきおやけんざぶろうおおえをしっています。来週もクイズボウルのれんしゅうがあります。きて下さい！たのしですよ！

てがみです。

サンクスギビングの休み

こんばんは！先週はサンクスギビングの休みです。サンクスギビングの休みはとてもよかったですが、ちょっとつまらなかったです。毎日、じゅうじかんぐらいねて、にじかんぐらいアニメをみました。アカメが斬るとコード: ブレイカーをみました。コード: ブレイカーはすこしおもしろくありませんでした。でも、私はアカメが斬るすきです。金曜日、ともだちとフリスビーであそびました。それから、ともだちと中国のレストランにたべにいきました。金曜日はとてもたのしかったです！ぜんぜんしゅくだいをしませんでした。でも、今たくさんしゅくだいをあります！たいへんですよ！

Improving My Japanese: Reflection and Revisions to Goals and Methods

I'm now in my eighth week of Japanese at Princeton, and things have been progressing pretty well. Japanese is still by far the most challenging course for me, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. That being said, the goals I posted in October are still a major focus for me:

• Recognizing changes in pitch and distinguishing between similar sounds.
• I think I've started to get a pretty good handle on the latter part of this goal, but I could still use some work on distinguishing changes in pitch.

• Speaking and comprehending speech up to speed.
• This. Right now, I think this is my biggest struggle with Japanese. When listening to the せんせいs talk, I can usually only pick up on part of what they are saying, which makes it really difficult to respond properly to questions. I seem to be getting better at picking up on speech, but I could still use a lot of work.

• Remembering words and phrases correctly.
• I'm getting better at this, too, but I could again use more practice. Many words are coming more naturally to me than they were a few weeks ago, but there are still quite a few words that simply refuse to stick in my head.

Perhaps I would be doing better if I'd followed the methods in my original post more closely; from the list I posted in October, here's what I have been doing:

• Watching an episode of anime with subtitles every day.
• Well this part's easy; anime is fun to watch! I've also been paying more attention to what the characters are saying and how they say it. I can actually understand some of what the characters are saying without reading the subtitles now!

Unfortunately, that's the only thing from my list that I've truly stuck to as much as I intended. Although there is one bit that I've kind of been doing:

• Flashcarding
• I have made flashcards for all the new vocabulary terms we've learned, but I haven't practiced with them every single day. To be perfectly frank, I don't think I will be able to, either. Many days I get consumed by other homework and extracurriculars and don't get around to using my flashcards. I will try to use them more frequently than I have been, though.

Of course, that means I haven't been doing the rest of the things on my list:

•  Watching an episode of anime without subtitles every day.
• Again, I don't think I'll get around to doing this, so I'm going to have to drop it from my list of goals.

• Attend しばたせんせい's office hours on at least a biweekly basis.
• I fully intend to start attending office hours next week; I'm going to alternate attending しばたせんせ and さとうせんせい's office hours so that I can get some extra practice every week, not just every other week.

Hopefully I can stick to my revised goals a lot more closely than I did my original ones. I think this revised version is more manageable than the previous one, so this time I will try exceptionally hard to stay on track!

ビデオブログ！

Improving My Japanese: Goals and Methods

I've really been struggling with Japanese; we're only a couple weeks into the class, and learning にほんご has already been by far the most challenging experience I've faced at Princeton. I could certainly use a lot of improvement in just about every aspect of speaking, reading, and writing the language, but that being said here's a couple specific areas of speech and listening in which I can improve:

• Recognizing changes in pitch and distinguishing between similar sounds.
• Even in English, I sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between sounds like ま ("ma") and な ("na") and と ("to") and ど ("do"), so it's all the more crucial for me to start distinguishing between those sounds more accurately. Pitch changes are also rather difficult for me to hear, and that could potentially become a big barrier for me if not addressed.

• Speaking and comprehending speech up to speed.
• Right now, my comprehension of Japanese speech is extremely slow, which makes it difficult for me to respond to questions in a timely manner, let alone speaking at a natural pace.

• Remembering words and phrases correctly.
• にほんご sounds very foreign to my rural-midwest-American ears, which has made it exceptionally challenging for me to wrap my mind around Japanese words and phrases; often times, I will hear a phrase, repeat it several times, and already have forgotten how to say it within a few minutes!

Of course, it doesn't do much good to have goals if I don't have any way to achieve them, so here are some ways I'll go about accomplishing what I've set out to do:

• Watch anime every day.
• I'll watch at least one episode of anime every day with English subtitles. Then, I'll re-watch the episode without subtitles so that I'm forced to really focus on comprehension and the sound of the Japanese language.

• Attend Shibata-sensee's office hours on at least a biweekly basis.
• I'll attend Shibata-sensee's office hours at least every other week (if my schedule allows me to attend office hours every week, that would be even better) to focus on improving my pronunciation of Japanese speech.

• Flashcarding.
• I'll make flashcards of every new vocabulary term or phrase we are expected to learn and then I'll practice, practice, practice! I'll review my cards for at least forty-five minutes per day, extending that time as necessary so that I can really learn the new content.