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Last Friends
ラスト・フレンズ
Episode Three
First Aired: 24th April 2008
Carlie’s Rating:
Rate This Episode: (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Ruka and Takeru see Sousuke about to abuse Michiru - so her secret is out. Takeru gets an unwanted phone call, and becomes the newest member of the share house. And the cups become a pair…

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When I do something, I usually do it to extremes until I can no long stand to do it any more. For instance, when I was younger I stamp collected to death. All my spare time was devoted to collecting stamps until I could do it no longer - I’m not sure what happened to that awesome stamp collection, now I wish I still had it, but I haven’t looked at a stamp that way in many many years.

The same is true in most of what I do, including language learning. I do it to the extremes sometimes, which can be a good thing and a not so good thing. One side effect of this is that I often burn out.

I define burning out as not being able to find the motivation to do something, feel as though I’ve done it too much. But if I give up then my Japanese learning journey is over.

Learning a language is not fun and easy all the time. If it was we all know multiple languages by now. Unfortunately we sometimes need to push ourselves to just get that bit further. Here are some ideas on how to overcome burn out.

First things first, the most important thing to remember, no matter what you choose to do, is to not give up. If you give up you’ll never know Japanese. You can try blaming the language “But Japanese is too hard” - but ultimately it was you! Millions of other people can learn Japanese, so you can too. Continue Reading

I’m not sure about the rest of you, but from the first time I saw the opening theme of Last Friends, chills went down my spine. I thought it was awesome, perhaps the most awesome opening theme I’ve seen. I don’t know what it is about it, but the song, the symbolism… everything! It just really stirred something in me.

So I have to share the video and the lyrics! And please, if you love it, do buy the CD, and support Utada Hikaru!

The full song, romaji, kanji version and translation follow.» Continue Reading

Zettai Kareshi
絶対彼氏
Episode 3
Aired: 29th April 2008
Carlie’s Rating:
Rate This Episode: (4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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Now that Riko owns Knight, she is paying him off on a simple payment plan. Of course she can’t afford him, so Knight has to get a job… we all know where he goes. Meanwhile, Soushi is trying to get cream puffs into the company, but they look ugly. Knight is getting jealous of Soushi and Rika, no thanks to Mika. It’s all very thrilling.

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Lately I want to learn a lot of vocab in a short space in time, using a “divide and conquer” type of method like Heisig uses. In Heisig’s remembering the kanji, one does not learn how to use the kanji, just how to recognise and write them.

Same with learning vocab in isolation. You don’t learn how to use the words, only to recognise them. For instance, 仕事　－　しごと and 働く　－　はたらく　both mean work. By learning only the word I wont learn in what situations these two words are used. However, when I encounter them in other situations it will:

Firstly, it will cement my knowledge. It will reinforce my memory of the word. When you encounter things you are learning in different situations, it will be more likely that you will remember them.

I will have more of a chance of understanding the sentence. Even though I haven’t seen the word used in context, I will “know” the word and a basic meaning, even if the meaning doesn’t exactly correspond. It means that as I use the word, and encounter it in many situations, I will gain a deeper understanding of it and will eventually be able to do away with the English “keyword”.

Building on the last bullet point, as I encounter the word in other situations, it is then that I will understand the word itself. Does that mean that memorising vocab by itself is a waste of time, and I’m creating more work for myself? I would say no. Now, when I read a text, I can’t understand anything because I don’t know enough words. By memorising vocab in isolation, I can learn a lot of words in a smaller amount of time than it would take me to go through many sentences. And so when I do encounter these words in the “real world” I will be able to build on knowledge that I already have. Opposed to now when I have no knowledge!

Occasionally I’d like to post some of the vocab I am attempting to learn. To give you ideas for your own studies as well as to record where I’m at. The following vocab words are taken from the first paragraph in The Assassin’s Apprentice - one of my favourite books.

Vocab - The Assassin’s Apprentice - 1st Paragraph

And here is a bonus word: にじみでる　- to ooze out. I like that word!

I have to admit, in the first paragraph I had 35 words I didn’t know. However, knowing the meanings of the words, I could understand, for the most part, the grammar. I would have to say though, at this stage, without the original text, I probably would not understand it completely. It is easier to reverse engineer than invent. It also took me two hours to read and somewhat understand the whole paragraph. Strangely, it was fun, and the time flew by. But here’s hoping it gets easier - and quicker - as I go along!

Tip: Is the Kanji too small on my page for you to really see it properly? Hit “ctrl+” on your keypad a couple of times to enlarge the text, then “ctrl-” when you want it to get back down again - these keys are for firefox, which is what you should be using!

On All Japanese All The Time, Khatzumoto has posted about how much he knew after 18 months of learning Japanese. I am comming up right now to the 18 month period, and while I don’t know nearly as much as Khatzumoto knew, I am very pleased with my progress.

I know more than what is in Genki I. Way back when, Genki was the original material that I bought to learn Japanese. This time last year I was probably not much past the first couple of chapters. Now I know all the kanji from it, and all the grammar points.

I’m 3/4 of the way through Japanese for Everyone, and I will be finished by the end of the year. In terms of grammar, I think that Japanese for Everyone gets you right into an intermediate level. It is really good and has a lot of bang for what you pay for it. I have started reading some books and I so far understand (most of) the grammar, even for longer, complicated sentences.

I am still getting through learning all the Kanji. Because of university I have had to utilise many different methods of learning the Kanji. If I could start again, I would have completed Remembering the Kanji before I started at university. I hope that I can get through this book by the end of the year.

I am understanding more and more of what I hear. Watching a lot of dramas definitely has attuned me to the language.

The biggest let down for me is my lack of vocabulary. I don’t have a large vocabulary which makes it hard to read or listen and actually understand what is being said. I am at the moment experimenting with some vocabulary learning exercises.

My speaking is also probably not very good. I haven’t had an opportunity to speak much Japanese besides following along with tapes and talking to myself aloud. I am going to Japan in November which will be my first real test of speaking and conversing.

I am very happy with my progress, I don’t think that I could progress any quicker. Even if it is not possible for me to be in All Japanese All The Time enviornment like some people can be, I engage myself in a Japanese language activity every day. It is very much a part of my life now and I will get to Japanese fluency. If you want a more “slow and steady” approach to Japanese learning compared to the AJATT method, I recommend my method: Procrastinating and Looking At Japanese Boys. It seems to be working for me!

The Hana Kimi website has updated with some videos of the new special that is coming soon. It looks like they are having a lot of fun filming (but I haven’t watched all of the videos yet). I can not wait for the special to air, I really enjoyed this show!

Last Friends
ラスト・フレンズ
Episode Two
First Aired: 17th April 2008
Carlie’s Rating:
Rate This Episode: (2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Michiru is bullied at work on top of being harassed by her boyfriend. Eri meets up with a workmate whose wife is having an afair and he’s too chicken to do anything. There is something wrong with Ruka - perhaps she wants a sex change, perhaps she has a bladder infection. And we learn a bit more about Takeru. But not much.

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Fantastic news! Arashi’s Riida, Ohno Satoshi, and awesome sexiness Ikuta Toma, are both going to star in an upcoming drama called “Maou”. Here’s a video:

This drama is a remake of the popular suspense drama that was aired in Korea last year. Ohno Satoshi will be playing the role of a two-faced lawyer, one of which is a kind hearted soul and the other who is plotting revenge, using his brilliant mind, on the person who killed his relative. On the other hand, Ikuta Toma will play the double lead role of the man, who has become a detective due to his dark past, who is pursuing the mysterious series of murders and fighting against the devil (maou). - from Dramawiki

I like Toma’s hair! - Why does the weather report have to be in the way! And are tarot cards going to be apart of it? (revealing one of my other hobbies here ) I am looking forward to this!

It’s カタカナ time!　

Lesson 5 - ナ to ノ。

ナ - NA
A nut cracker.

For me, it was always easy to remember that hiragana “na” means nun. And here is her cross!

二　- NI
These are two needles.

Of course, for those who know your numbers, “ni” also means two, and there are two strokes here. Infact, this is the same is the kanji for two, also pronounced “ni”:-
二　ニ　 can you tell which is the kanji and which is the kana?

ヌ　- NU
A noodle stuck between your teeth.
The フ shape is the mouth with the noodle stuck in there.

ネ - NE
You’ll never find your way on these roads.

ノ - NO
A needle and no button.

This ties in with ソ and ツ stories with the buttons and needles. However, the way I always thought of it was like saying “NO!” and putting a stroke through what was wrong.

I hope your Katakana studies are going well. To be continued in our next exciting episode of Writing Katakana.