Pessimism can be inspiration

The amount of complaining that I do in my own opinion consider to be dwelling in the range of A surplus. Thus, this being a skill that promotes negative energy (Which AJATT tells me "use the force Luke" *cough* "Let resistance fuel you") which means I can harness (for selfish gains, LIKE FOSSIL FUELS!!!!!) it and refine it to a point where the complaints change to more being of a more comedic means for my future.

When I would like to devulge to you a few of the my mental malices:

Japanese beginner complaints:

I can't read any kanji.

I can only read romanji I can't read any hiragana/katakana.

Conjugating verbs is too hard This song is gibberish.

I can't find any dramas I want to watch.

I can't think of what to say to a native speaker.

I can't find the Modivation to continue.

I can't get more than 1 one Srs done.

I can't visit Japan.

Japanese intermediate complaints:

I can't understand more than half of this kanji.

I can only read hiragana and katana.

I can't conjugate every verb.

I can only understand some of this song.

There are only a few shows I like to watch.

I can only say a few things to natives.

The Modivation happens only now and then.

I can't get more than half of my srs finished.

I can't goto Japan for longer that 2 weeks.



Japanese Advanced complaints:

There's not enough Kanji in this.

Conjugating is too easy.

These lyrics are too much about girls and Motivation.

There's too much shows coming at me.

Man, would they stop talking so I can focus on schoolwork.

Modivation is too overwhelming.

Srs deck too easy!

I can't get to Japan enough.



Notice how inspiring my sample complaints can be. As you notice it progressive from a whiny lazy person to an annoyed expert. So even your complaining can purge a wealth of memories to your journey. And since I couldn't think of anymore what are some escalating complaint you can think of?

Plan to Destroy Septembers tundras

Well, I'm now reset into the college enviroment for my 4th session. Today being the "Calm Before the Storm" and as the laughs of my classmates dance on the walls I am considering how to save my 日本語 appetite from the blackhole of irrelevancy.

"The answer lies in the heart of batte!":
First and for most, I reconize that reading is paramount to 日本語 aprehension. That being a fact I've made it my personal goal to read at least 10 of any thing Japanese lititure accessible to me with in the confinds of that day. I've alread trumpted the qualm of facebook by switching my social sites to Japanese. This too shall pass (go and collect 200 Kanji.).

Since I'm constantly immersed in Japanese music there is not a problem, however there is the delima of the Japanese movies. I'm purged to collect my anime from torrents because the inability to fin (Raw) Japanese material online. If you know of any raw links to areas where I may watch raw online (Youtube expecially) please let me know.

This is my plan to guide my Japanese studies through the murky river of college study. What are yours?

Tadoku Aftermath

Well Guys, We have just (I know it’s late I was studying more) finished another多読^_^. I hope it was as exciting for you guys as it was for me. I just became ecstatic as the positive reinforcement poured by taking in the instant (ramen) statistics of in while looking up kanji and reading 漫画 (most which was ヘンタイ. DON’T QUESTION IT. IT JUST WORKS) and getting to see how I rank now from 2 months ago. As this is a journey , there's always a quantity of things to work on, innovate and put into action. Thus if you have time to be my walking companion then I will tell you about experience.
(With only a tad bit of complaining. I promise).

This time competing in 多読 I feel that my greatest aids (Not that kind) were my IPod, laptop, and the mass amount of reading materials 先生 gave me (|^_^ |). When I was a neophyte my only access to words I didn't know was to use a辞書の紙 (nothing’s wrong with it but “There is an app for that!”(R)) to which some of the things I had to look up weren’t in there which caused frustration, but being able to expedite the process looking up 漢字 and the radicals (Yes I could do them on jisho.org, but I have a odd situation where I hate looking at lit computer screens too long.) and being
able to keep going was comfortable. (The dictionary app that I used is call Kotoba!) My own laptop that I got right after the first 多読 helped. Because I was able to avoid the bloody battle for the computer starring me (初心者な日本語の学生）Vs. Mom (The coupon Queen). However, you cant over look the fact of being able to store gargantuous amounts of 漫画 on the hard drive without slowing it down (Yep daddy 漫画が大好きです。) ,but to be fair my mom’s computer was blessing in its own time. The materials that 先生 gave me are right next to my bed every night (I try to keep them there.) now so some stuff might be hard ,but I know in time that I will get used to it. So that was the elegant and instead of saying the next things are bad perse I will just say they are unrefined portions.

What stopped me during my 多読 I would say are My diligence. All in all during 多読 I hit that wall of oblivion. Where you don't want to even touch another kanji or page of manga for as long as you live. The solution for this qualm is that I have purchased a daily planner which will allow me to be able to go through things a day at a Time which brings things to a point that I can handle. So that was my Tadoku experience and what I've learned to refine. Now how about you (in tadoku and daily life with Japanese?)

Why I am Studying Japanese? (The reinforcement of an Public Oath.)

The anniversary of when I first embarked on this task of learning Japanese has long passed since it was on May 18^th. Thus, this has been long overdue for me to have that long nostalgic moment to ask myself “WHY AM I STILL LEARNING THIS?” and reinforce my belief that I can become fluent. Why I started learning this (BEING A SATANIST IS EASIER) fun and rewarding language.

My inspirations for adding this language to my memory banks are three vast, yet simplistic categories of Anime/Manga, Asian Women, and Japanese Culture.

In the minds of Otakus and I anime is the highest form of entertainment. Along with Manga it’s a double dose for the mind. However, When its conveyed to me that I’m missing out on an ubiquitous amount of Anime/Manga due to the inability to speak/read the language where it comes from?! That’s like telling a person’s that “you can taste bland ramen noodles or you can put the flavor pack in it and taste a bold flavor of ramen”. So why not put the flavor pack it? Because the Anime/Manga that gets over here becomes like bland noodles to the natives cause they’ve seen Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT and geeked out to it before it became a stamp of what Anime is in the American Culture.  So I would like to dump that flavor pack in this big soup that we call Anime/Manga so I can get it while its hot and ready.

Many of my friends know about my addiction to Asian women that started at 16. This comes from watching gargantuous amounts of Anime, Hentai (Yep) and Futanari :)~ that once I saw the actually form then the appetite started flowing. Not to mention that they are sexy and for this blog to remain G rated I'd have to leave this subject where it is.


On a more mature tone, Japan's culture is one of the most influential things that urge me to purse this language vigorously. It connect with me by one avenue by way of they're expression of  shyness since I too myself am of a shy persona. Further, since anime is part of the culture then I feel that there won't be as much prejudices against it and my love of it. However by no means am I trying to fine a paradise where nothing in my life goes wrong, but I am searching for a place where I will have a measure of comfort among the crime and etc that every part of the planet has.

In conclusion, the reasons for me absorbing Japanese may be common ,yet I am willing not to let them become fragile or fleeting as many before me have. At this moment I'd like to thank Anti-moon for encouraging its readers to write out the reasons that they are learning a language. Also I must thank Khatzumoto for perpetuating Anti-moons article via Twitter. Well this is the end of my explanation and I appriciate all of you for taking out time to read this :).

What are some of the reasons you are learning Japanese? 

Plans for June to kill July



This month is going to be about business and nothing but business, baby. This month for me will be like hyperbolic time chamber training (As long as I can focus lol ADHD you are my life's liquor) since school will be the last thing on my mind since finals are over. Yes, this is like a breath of fresh air to my Japanese studying life ^_^. With Tadoku coming up next month I am very excited for another round of competition where I can prove myself to myself. However, before I get to July I want to use this month to facilitate my path in the way how racers get used to the track then dominate the Preliminary races before they get to the Grand Prix. So here is my playbook:

Things that halt/drag

Since I've had some slacking in my studying I took time to analyze where my short comings are coming from.
1. My love of English music
Problem: I have abundance of english music that I love to have around me at any given time. This music ranging from being Hardstyle party music to Inspirational HipHop that helps me when I feel like crap. Which are all in English.


Solution: Drop my mass English music consumption to one English song on my Ipod that can be played only twice a day. Further, I will look desperately for Japanese Techno and Hardstyle mixes. The thing that will help me continue this will be the fact that that one English song will be inspirational and for the other time I will put my Ipod on shuffle and let it do what it does best in the way of giving me new songs that I've downloaded which keeps from getting bored since I won't know what is next.

2. Watching and Reading too much English

Problem: I've been looking at too much English whether it's on the screen while I'm playing SSF4AE (YUN AND YANG ARE BROKEN BTW) or its during the few movies that I watch aside from the Redbox ones that my mom gains by the free codes. Though enjoyable since I am use to the American formula for movies I am a Japanese learner and need to see Japanese movies as the norm.

Solution: Get cracking on that list of 42 Japanese movies sitting in my Netflix queue and push more Japanese no subbed anime in my face and make sure it stays there. That's all that's to it for that one.

The Short Term Goal Aspect

Problem: I haven't been setting short term goals for myself. This becomes a problem cause my Motivation for anything in life right now is pretty low.

Solution: I will start planning ahead using memory aids such as mind maps so that I can feel as if I accomplished something before I even get into the depth of the section of Japanese that I am tackling for that week.

So this is how I am going at Japanese for the rest of this month. Please wish me luck as I wish all of my readers luck in this conquest that we take in learning this "difficult" language.

May Overveiw

I have been able to limit my slacking down to an degree. This has purged my productivity up to an area where I can feel adequate about how long I have studied. In this month I will increase my exposure to Japanese ambience ,but it wasn't to bad this time so I would presume it was the lack of consistency that makes me feel like that except remember guys it's these moments where you judge yourself on doing something other people consider difficult which makes you genius＼(^o^)／. Now to some WとL
Wins:
1) Scoring some Japanese books buy using お金 (yep JapanNewbie said stop stealing.
2) Watching Deathnote (with subs) but not thinking in the English definition which helped me get my Takehiko on.
3) Skype chattin wit ma Japanese peeps and you if you have a Skype.
4) Having a cool girl ask me what my Japanese shirt said. Here reaction priceless.

Loss:
Getting two hot girls Facebook and already having a Asian girlfriend lol

Well before Anne sees me trying this and assume it's me inviting her to help me with はりかえい. I will check you guys l8ter

Just an appetizer: IPod Touch

こんにちは、みなさん。　竹彦です(たけひこ)。Recently I bought my 兄(あに) an Ipod touch and since I had some money left over the next day even though I'm not an apple fan I really just wanted it for the 8gb HDD and 日本語menus. So after transferring my 音楽 (おんがく) from the 2gb memory card on my phone to this now what seems like colossal space to fill up. I was astonished to the point that I search out all of Nobodyknows+'s CDs and reveled with glee, because I wasn't stuffed into the "Do I Realllly like this Japanese song?" syndrome. However, since my ultimate goal for the device was done I was satisfied. This was until my brother showed me that they have a flash card program in the app store for free by the name of Isrs which after I found out about this app then I went on a downloading tangent grabbing at anything that has 日本語 in its 名前。Afterwards I discovered that all of these applications though free cost half of my memory, which is rather problem since I haven't tested their worth yet. When I started process of elimination I found that many of them were crap till you buy, but some were good on the beginner level and really helped the beginners get to a higher point then made them pay. I'm ok with the latter because their helping people stay in the Japanese learning community so before I end this post I would like to name the great apps that I will keep using for now:

• WNJapanese
  
• JPhrases
  
• dNihongo Lite
  
• JLPTStudyFree
  
• Reibun Lite
  
• JLPTSelfStudy
  
• BunpouLite
  
• J Sensei
  
• I-Sokki V. N5
  

And some one tell them to make a commercial about that it would be good to hear "Learning Japanese , Well there's an App for that." またね

I have an Important Announcement!!

For everyone who read my last post on this blog I’m glad to tell you that I HAVE GRADUATED FROM THE FIRST GRADE!!! Since I already knew the mathematics needed to get into college they passed me on to the second grade ^_^. What changed from last time when I was shooting out a big game but didn’t add up? Well from my last post I expanded on how to work with my kanji studies.

First, I diligently worked on trying to put in to plans what Phantasm helped with about doing the simple kanji. From that I started plunging everything that was on the Grade 1 Kanji list (http://bit.ly/hAWgm2) which to my surprise was that I knew many of the kanji of that were on the list so I would urge anyone who is also a beginner to do this because it’s paramount to know these easy ones. Further it became a necessity to get the kanji in my muscle memory, but since I ride the bus in Atlanta to get places and 60% of the people are nosy and negative then it has to look like homework which is why Studyjapanese.org’s worksheets have become such an enourmous help in my life. (http://bit.ly/kXl2yn) . Since, reviewing is  imperative and something that I have to do, I’ve done it by looking up kanji as pictures and saving them on my phone and JPL (http://bit.ly/jUH2c8) lets you from the kanji and 4 different fonts and 80 different color which allows you to surpass the monotonous black and white colors of most kanjis that are pictures.

The second thing I would say that has helped is definitely doing AJATT. I have been in a nonstop environment of 日本語の音楽 and アニメ that has only been stopped by the invasion of English that’s by my teachers, family or friends :). And have been pushing futher to read more into my grammar book so far I’ve been able to do 2 pages a day which when I think about it will equal to 14 pages a week and 56 pages a months which for a 229 page book means I can finish it in 4 months and one week while still being able to focus on Kanji and vocabulary without overloading myself with too much at one time. In Addition, what allows me to track my progress on how I’m doing is what kanji are becoming easier to understand, how fast I can respond to a Japanese person on Skype when speaking Japanese, and how much I can feel my self-getting closer getting to my ultimate goal.

With these said I will gradually work with myself until I can get to the third grade of kanji and be able to surprise you guys with another accomplishment.

Results from the two weeks

 It took me a while to write this cause I didn’t want to look like a fraud not fulfilling the words of my previous post by not putting as much in my kanji practice as my vocabulary. I have been stabilizing my vocabulary ability which as ta132 says “maintaining more important that going ahead” which made me happy to continue with that. Though since  this is something of a problem I asked Phantism how did he learn kanji when we was a 初心者 and was blown away by the practicalness of his idea when he said “I started with the simple kanji”. I had to take a moment to think because this was profoundly genius due to I was just mindlessly gathering any kanji that was thrown to me in Japanese Skype conversations. However what was so genius about this was the kanji I was trying to write/understand was kanji that even children in Grade 1 Japanese weren’t even bothered by to understand or to even write (since their parents are a walking dictionary. Or they have furigana around the signs). Now my plan is to study all of the Grade 1 kanji first which was hilarious while anki’ing them because most of the Grade 1 kanji is what I understand right now which means this is the right path that I will be on and this will be the experiment that I will be doing.

No excuses!!

Well I've finished my second quarters of classes. Which means I'm free to dive into my Japanese for as much as my family will allow me to ^_^. My plans for these two weeks is to start writing out my kanji while I SRS them because I've been doing well on my hirigana to english (ひらがなtoえいご) vocabulary deck so my vocabulary is increasing steadily. As I'm writing while listing to Drake-Unforgettable it makes a fitting expression since my New years resolution was to put my all into Japanese. The goals that I want for these two weeks are

1. Start a Kanji writing regiment.
2. Work on my vocabulary sentences.
3.  To be consistent with it.

I'll let you know what was the result of my endevors so please stay tuned ^_^.

Reasons I study Japanese

1. アニメ　(Anime)

2. 女の日本人だよ。 (Japanese Women)
.
3. これ語はむずかしです。 (This language is difficult)

4. みな　日本人 (all Japanese people)

5. For all of the people who stopped studying it.

6. 私の友達たちです。 (My friends)

Back from MOMOCON!!

Momoconは一番だよ。 Yes I am back from momocon one of the best free conventions that is in the south ^_^ (even though I'm from Michigan. ^_^.) However it was an excellent convention. The only things however I didn't like was that they switched the building and didn't let anyone know about it until you go to the building that you think that its supposed to be under so that sucked. In addition I didn't care for the overpriced drinks ,but I digress.


There were exciting moments in the convention that made it extremely fun. First, off being around a bunch of otaku is always comforting and a majority of the conversation was funny including when me and my friend Josh was trying to meet girls and 90% of them were taken already XD. Second I did enjoy the larger building this year which provided us with more food choices outside of the con, the ability to visit the Barnes & nobles which allowed you to buy more manga and DVD at a reasonable price than the dealers room, more activities in the same building which cut down on the trafficking from building to building and allowed you to keep up with your friends more. So to the momocon officials we thank you for doing this for us since its a great help to all otaku, building mangers and staff. Lastly, the rave that you guys had was excellent I danced for 5 hours that Saturday and am still pleasantly from dancing. XD One more last thing is I met a guy who spoke Japanese and said he was studying for 6 years and will take the JPLT 2 exam this year which gave me so much inspiration that when I continue there might be some place for me to tell a しょしんしゃ (beginner) that I'm doing some thing that he/she can accomplish too. Funny huh? I could have stopped studying for the fear being called a slave of the past ,but my reasons for learning Japanese change constantly which is why I'm still learning it :) ありがとうかみfor日本語です。

どう

  
My Japanese learning is mostly centered on using the AJATT Method and many other resources to be able to learn my way. I would be able to push the AJATT method to the fullest but having a PHD in laziness halts my efforts in trying to become better. So instead my biggest tools are using Skype aided by live mocha (http://bit.ly/EMgx), lang-8 (www.lang-8.com), and Rosetta stone’s free social site to find natives and learners of Japanese. Also from the AJATT method I use the web version of Anki (www.ankiweb.net) which is greater than the desktop cause if you use a netbook (like I do) because on netbooks your decks are prone to get corrupted fast. Other than that one thing that I have done is  take the words that I’ve failed on Anki and put them into an old cell phone and set the timer for 5 minutes which aids my studying by putting the words that I need in my face  faster. Further as an emergency plan I make a paper cheat sheet and fold down the middle and have the ひらがなform on the left since as Americans that’s the side we subconsciously look at first. It has been working so good that I’ve learned the parts of the body in 2days (still need to work on the kanji forms of it, but knowing the words nonetheless is paramount to my learning.). Finally that’s how I’m learning it so I’ll probably add more things to this blog after I comeback from momocon ^_^.

またね皆さん

Hello all

Welcome to my blog, I am Jamison, however while I continue to further the expansion of this blog I will use my chosen Japanese name （やすし）Yasushi. My aim with this blog is to use it to show my highs, lows, and some techniques that I use all while becoming a fluent speaker of Japanese. I hope to inspire and possibly be inspired by others since there is not one Japanese learner in the world but all of us who make what seems to be like a community that serves to each individual by passing around what works for one person to another. J See you guys later. みなさんまたね。