LINGUATHON!

Tomorrow is the LINGUATHON! :D And I am sooo excited!

The Linguathon is pretty much a language (learning) marathon where you pick your language to focus on and a target to reach at the end of the month. You can even find a study buddy to help you along.

Soo... my target language will be JAPANESE and I'm going to learn 80 "1st grade" characters in a month. I've had this book for, really, EVER and I've kept it until I thought I could understand how to properly use it because... it can't be simple. With the kanji -or the chinese-based, fancy script- you have to learn the individual meaning, how to pronounce it by itself, then in a compound, and then you must learn a couple of compounds.

The goal seems both reachable, but challenging... and incredibly exciting :)



Above is what the schedule looks like. The quizzes are after six kanji, and the test go over the last three quiz material. And then there's a finally review @.@ Obviously, I'll be rather busy for awhile on just this, but I'll pop in every now and then~ :P

Just to tell you all the new stuff I find, LIKE!

My favourite actors names translated XD
Robin Williams's name in Japanese reads Robin Uiriamusu - ロビン・ウィリアムス
Johnny Depp is Jyoni Deppu - ジョニー・デップ
And Jackie Chan is Jyakki Chen - ジャッキー・チェン - but his Chinese birth name was Chan Kong-sang (陳港生) , but, of course, he goes by Jackie Chan (成龍) now x)

Well, then, that's all for now. I'm going to go relax and play me some Neopets! :D

Update - Much Sooner than Expected

Yesterday, I worked on Japanese vocabulary and verbs.

Today, I read Spanish kids books.

-Le oruga muy hambrienta (The Hungry Caterpillar) by Eric Carle
-Huevos verdes con jamón (Green Eggs and Ham) Dr. Seuss

Interestingly enough, it's not "Sam, I am" or by any translation in the Spanish version, but it's that the bugger is Juan Ramón and the line is "No, no me gustan nada, Juan Ramón. No, no me gustan nada los huevos verdes con jamón" or "I don't like them, Juan Ramón, I do not like green eggs and ham." Hum...

I feel.. accomplished :)

flibabläsuuu NO MORE NUMBAS

-The above is only a word in the dictionary of Mad Girl-

I said I did another ASL language video right? See, I did that. And many other things that I'll never post up here from sheer laziness.

At the library, I snagged some Spanish books. The first was a romance novel - beyound me why I chose that. I was thinking it would be simple - but having no motivation for that, I checked out some children's books instead. (Seuss and that hungry caterpillar fellow)

And, recently, a friend of mine offered to give me Japanese lessons and we will be attempting to converse in Japanese ONLY.

As for today:
JAPANESE ONLY!

*I learned that my dog's name would be ローザ in Japanese. How cool is that?

*亜米利加　is The United States of America, but it is mostly written in kana (アメリカ). I was greatly amused by what each individual character read as: Asia / rice / profit / increase. Hmm...

*米人, by the way, is American, but pronounced べいじん　or Beijin. One letter off of Beijing... interesting... but it's probably more common to see アメリカじん or Amerikajin. The "jin" ending, by the way, shows nationality. :)

~ I also started a flashcard set from Anki with 1st grade Kanji and came across　阿　which essentially looks like the letters "BAJ" (if I have the right kanji ._.;;) Looks like it means Africa...

AND FOR SOME GOOD NEWS~
I just realized that I'm totally rocking Kanji with my stroke order and general appearance. Seriously... fucking beautiful x) It's not perfect, yet, but I feel like it's definitely not too bad for never having a formal class.

JAPANESE STUDENTS! Bookmark Tangorin, a comprehensive and free Japanese dictionary that I just found <3

IN FUTURE POSTS
Apologies!
Crying!
Narcissism!
And most importantly... LINKS!

Toodles and kisses and luff and hugs!

-sigh-

Okay, seriously, I couldn't even log into this account for awhile because, it... just... ARGH! DAMN YOU, GOOGLE!

But now is the time to atone for the sins of neglecting this blog. So, to catch you up...

I bought a book on Turkish food /with cultural notes/ and a book on Thai Grammar. A few weeks ago, I also picked up a cheap guide to the Arabic language. So off I go, now adding in Arabic, and trying to also commit Hindi into my brain. I also watched another Signing Time video today... apparently the library has the entire set ^o^

And! GOOD NEWS! I took a last minute Spanish placement test - and scored into class 201! Yush! For studying a day beforehand, not too shabby, eh? (And I had to relearn even the present verb endings, not to mention preterite, imperfect and present progressive - YAY ME)

So, to make a nice little list, I'm pursuing:
-Japanese //I know the kana alphabets, I'm learning kanji and grammar
-Spanish //reviewing, perfecting
-Arabic //the alphabet
-Hindi //the alphabet here too
-ASL //whatever I can get out of those kids' videos.
-Italian //through IM sessions with an Italian friend

I also intend to learn a little bit of Russian [pretty much the alphabet], Swedish -I want to visit my friend in Sweden, and stay for 3-6 months-, and, well, I guess Thai, and I definitely want to learn the Greek alphabet... And maybe even Croatian, because I even have a book on THAT. Someday, I plan to brush up on the year of French I have, just so it doesn't go to waste, but I'm not really interested in it. And as for Portuguese, the one romance language I seem to have neglected of the group, I don't have much of a pull for that one, but... we'll see.

Toodles!
[And thanks to Layla for her kind comments! When I learn how to reply back, I shall!

007

Thought you'd catch me with my pants down? Well, HA! I did something today, too!

I checked out a DVD on ASL - we seem to have the first three volumes in our library.

Words I've learned~
Volume One
eat, milk, water, ball, more, bird, cat, dog, fish, car, airplane, want, shoes, flower, mom, dad, baby, sleep
Volume Two
friend, play, train, bike, bear, please, share, your turn, my turn, thank you, book, read, socks, yes, no, thirsty, drink, dirty, clean, potty, wash hands, bath, hurt, sorry, stop, go, wait, grandma, grandpa
Volume Three
hungry, apple, cookie, cereal, banana, bread, cheese, cracker, ice cream, candy, help, full, hot, cold, wet, dry, like, don't like, day, sun, night, moon, stars, happy, laugh, sad, cry, boy, girl

YAY :D

Also, this is how you say Happy Birthday according to Winnie the Pooh:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHPTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.

006

Whew! I've been so busy studying that I couldn't post (._.;)

Well, seriously, I've (secretly) printed out more Japanese song lyrics:
-"Teru Teru Momiji" (Fruits Basket)
-"Shining Collection" (Gravitation)
-"Sleepless Beauty" (Gravitation)
-"Soramimi Cake" (Azumanga Daioh)
-"D-technolife" (Bleach)
-"Silent Wind" (Argentosoma)

The Drill:
1. Pick songs from Anime Lyrics that don't annoy me.
2. Print them when no one is looking
3. Mark in highlighter in the romaji where HIRAGANA is used, where KATAKANA is used, and where ENGLISH is used. Assume all else is kanji.
4. Mark a dot over words that are familiar. Look up the rest.
5. In blank space, attempt to draw the newly learned kanji; label with romaji and meaning.

That's not all:
I've *secretly* printed out my kanji chart; kanji/english/hiragana to study on the go.

And then I rented a couple of movies~
01. Aitraaz/ ऐतराज़ ((I can only recognize the word "dostana" and "aitraaz", but immersion supposedly helps, so there...))
02. All Thing's Fair/Lust och fägring stor ((Swedish. Immersion always counts.))
03. Whisper of the Heart/耳をすませば ((one of those Studio Ghibli movies))
[note that it's the English title first, then the original. #2+#3 are not direct translations]

As it so happens, one of the phrases I've got down pat in Japanese is:
此れは猫のステエです。
This is a cat steak.

But that's just one of them ;D

~Séthe

005

I've accomplished nothing more, but read French subtitles for the movie I'm watching (<>) BOO!