emm2341

I decided I should create a journal entry on this since it's really been on my mind lately. A lot of people who are learning languages, Japanese specifically, are really holding themselves back. They are so eager about learning but they don't jump into some of things that would really help their language skills. I often recommend to the first year Japanese students at my college to read manga in Japanese for practice. Manga isn't the best way to learn Japanese but it is good for getting familiar with some speaking patterns in the language. Not to mention a good source of slang. The first reaction for everyone has been that their Japanese i

I've decided I want another short summer project and I'm juggling ideas for lessons and helpful things I can put up here. I can't make up my mind though and I don't want to put up anything that is already widely available. I don't see much motivation do provide something that is already found on dozens of other sites. Things like this include grammar lessons, kanji lessons, etc. The ideas I've been juggling include: -More Lists of helpful learning sites -Learning and memorizing through Japanese music (a learning technique that I've been working out in my head) -Finishing Hiragana workbook -Katakana lessons (wont be as detailed as the hir

There is no shortage of Chinese/Taiwanese people in my area. Every year I make friends with at least two and every year I feel incredibly alienated in their mandarin infested conversations. I'll sit and wonder why I seem to find friends from everyone country except Japan and I'll ponder over the fact that I might be learning the wrong language. Now that I've decided to learn Chinese I've realized that I've been incredibly spoiled by picking up Japanese as my first foreign language. I mean I had a hard time with pronouncing Korean sounds but really! Do Chinese sounds need to be so complicated to learn? I'm just glad that I have such patien