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Kuji’s Krazy Log II

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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 297 of 706
10 September 2013 at 8:36am | IP Logged 
JAPANESE
JP - この頃 私は 日本の小説を 読んでいたが、 意外に 本気に 楽しいと思っちゃった! すごいね! この本は 「キッチン」 という有名な日本の小説だ。 吉本ばななと いう作家に 書かれていた。 この本が好き になるかな~と 私は思ったけど、 本気に 好きになった。 本は筋が面白くて、 他と比べて簡単だと思う。 他のフォーラム で 簡単こそから 誰かがおすすめをして、 私は読んでみるに決めた。 この本は 230ページぐらいあるけど、3週間読んで いて 65ページしか読まなかった。    それでも、私は日本語の65ページを読めて 、よくない? 私の鼻は高いよ。

EN - These days I've done nothing with my Japanese study time but read a Japanese novel called キッチン (Kitchen), written by Yoshimoto Banana. And surprisingly enough, I've come to enjoy it! The novel is famous in Japan. The book is relatively easy. Somebody on another forum wrote about relatively easy Japanese novels, and キッチン was recommended, so I borrowed it from the library.   The plot is interesting, and while I wouldn't exactly call it easy, the language is close enough to my level that I can read through it and understand the basic plot with minimal dictionary lookups. The book is about 230 pages long, if I recall correctly, but after three weeks, I've only read 65 pages!   What is that.... roughly 3 pages a day? (And I have to take it back to the library on Sunday.) But, looking at the glass as half-full, I think it is pretty amazing that I've read 65 pages of a real Japanese novel. That is something I have never done before. There might be something to this reading thing after all.

PORTUGUESE
PT - Meus estudos portugueses não mudaram. Eu ainda estudo "DLI Portuguese Basic", ouço os podcasts de "PortuguesePod101", e de tempos em tempos faço muitas outras coisas.

EN - My Portuguese studies have not changed much. I still study DLI Portuguese Basic, listen to PortuguesePod101 podcasts, and from time to time do many other things. I just finished Lesson 25 of DLI, which puts me halfway through Unit 3. There are eight units of DLI Portuguese Basic. I think that if you do the first two units, you are a solid beginner, and if you finish Units 3 and 4, you are low- to mid- intermediate. I don't think I've reached A2 level, much less intermediate level, but I'm happy about how much I'm learning. I'm in the midst of learning the imperfect, which is a bit tricky to master, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Edited by kujichagulia on 12 September 2013 at 2:03am

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g-bod
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5972 days ago

1485 posts - 2002 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 298 of 706
10 September 2013 at 10:05pm | IP Logged 
Kuji, sorry for not responding sooner with details about the history manga I've been reading. When I was away on holiday it was practically impossible to post here thanks to a wonderful combination of unreliable wifi and clunky forum software!

Anyway, the manga is a 2 volume ドラえもん manga called 日本の歴史がわかる, the first volume is on Amazon Japan here. As it's aimed at grade 6 students and crams several centuries of history into 2 small volumes, it's obviously quite light on details and analysis, but it's not a bad place to start to get familiar with key people, places and events.

Well done for getting stuck into キッチン too! I've tried to read it a couple of times (I read it many years ago in English...) but I can't quite get the hang of 吉本ばなな's prose in Japanese. I find 村上春樹 easier.
2 persons have voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 299 of 706
11 September 2013 at 1:39am | IP Logged 
g-bod wrote:
Well done for getting stuck into キッチン too! I've tried to read it a couple of times (I read it many years ago in English...) but I can't quite get the hang of 吉本ばなな's prose in Japanese. I find 村上春樹 easier.

Whoa... let me double-check... you find 村上春樹 easier? I've held back on reading Murakami because his works seem to be very popular. So I translated that as meaning "not so easy." It is definitely a lot of work to cut through Yoshimoto's prose and figure out exactly what is happening. But if Murakami is easier, then what am I waiting for? I'll try reading a Murakami book next time.

Thank you very much for the history manga information! I'll look into it.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5174 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 300 of 706
11 September 2013 at 12:34pm | IP Logged 
Your Japanese is very readable. I did get confused and think you read 65 pages in 3 hours though and skimming the English it was 3 weeks? (as I double check the Japanese I think you goofed =p) Well my ego feels better now lol. But even so, 3 weeks is pretty good. I've been reading Harry Potter for a couple of years now. Then again. It's easy to get bored with a book like Harry Potter when you've read it to death and well it got way over killed in the media etc. due to the movie and all.

Anyway, you're motivating me to read more and write in Japanese. I need to get so I can sit down and write an entry in Japanese even if it's 3:30 am and I'm exhausted XD.


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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 301 of 706
12 September 2013 at 2:02am | IP Logged 
kraemder wrote:
Your Japanese is very readable. I did get confused and think you read 65 pages in 3 hours though and skimming the English it was 3 weeks? (as I double check the Japanese I think you goofed =p) Well my ego feels better now lol. But even so, 3 weeks is pretty good. I've been reading Harry Potter for a couple of years now. Then again. It's easy to get bored with a book like Harry Potter when you've read it to death and well it got way over killed in the media etc. due to the movie and all.

Anyway, you're motivating me to read more and write in Japanese. I need to get so I can sit down and write an entry in Japanese even if it's 3:30 am and I'm exhausted XD.


Hehe, thanks, kraemder. And yes, I did goof.... sorry about that. It should be 3週間, not 3時間. 65 pages in 3 hours would be awesome, though!

Harry Potter for years?!? I sometimes think about trying to read Harry Potter, even though I'm not into stories like that. I still don't know, yet.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5174 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 302 of 706
12 September 2013 at 8:55am | IP Logged 
Yeah I started it before I had the skill to really get anywhere. Now I just get distracted by other stuff. I am reading random fiction stuff online and anime scripts now. I'd like to read an actual book however. Reading your 1st book is a nice accomplishment.
2 persons have voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 303 of 706
13 September 2013 at 4:11am | IP Logged 
kraemder wrote:
Yeah I started it before I had the skill to really get anywhere. Now I just get distracted by other stuff. I am reading random fiction stuff online and anime scripts now. I'd like to read an actual book however. Reading your 1st book is a nice accomplishment.

Yeah, I know what you mean by getting distracted. I'm already getting distracted from キッチン! Oh well, it's about time to take it back to the library, anyway. It's amazing that I got as far as I did with that book, so I shouldn't worry about moving on to something else when it becomes boring.
1 person has voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 304 of 706
19 September 2013 at 2:37am | IP Logged 
JAPANESE
JP - 「キッチン」は日曜日、市立の図書館に返し た。 返す前に71ページまで読んだ。 素晴らしい! 次は私はIAIJの第12課を 終えないといけない。 その間に、次の読みたい本について考えて、 私の働いている高校の 図書館に調べるつもり。 高校で働くのはいいね!

EN - Well, I returned "Kitchen" back to the city library. Before returning it, I managed to read to page 71. Not bad! I'm happy about that. Next, I really need to finish Chapter 12 of An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese. I've been sitting on it for too long. Meanwhile, I'll think about what novel I want to read next, then search for it at the library of the high school where I work. Teaching at a high school has its benefits!

PORTUGUESE
PT Li uma reportagem do sítio eletrônico de Global Voices, feito num texto bilíngue. Também comecei trabalando em DLI Unit 3 Lesson 26.

EN I read an article from the Global Voices website, made into a bilingual text. I also started working on DLI Unit 3 Lesson 26.

* * * * *
One thing I have noticed recently is that I really have trouble studying on the train. This wasn't the case before; I went for a year with a regimented study routine. But things can change, especially when learning a language, and what worked before can, all of a sudden, stop working. I understand that now, thanks to my Anki experiences.

Before, I could do things like pull out my Japanese textbook (if sitting down) and go through some exercises during the 40-minute commute home, or do some DLI Portuguese. Or I could write a journal entry or something. Or read an article intensively and scour it for useful vocabulary and phrases. I really have trouble doing that now. Basically, anything involving writing or typing on my Walkman, or anything requiring a lot of mental effort, has become somewhat difficult on my train commutes. I can still do very passive things like (Language)Pod101.com podcasts, or native-intended podcasts, or listen to music. I could review dialogs from previous IAIJ or DLI lessons.   DLI lessons are sometimes okay as well, but only if I have looked up the new vocabulary I need to look up, and gone over the grammar a few times - that way I can just concentrate on the drills. Anyway, there is still a lot that I can do on my train commutes, but I feel more limited as to what I can do.

The problem is that - perhaps foolishly - "train time" is the majority of my study time for both Japanese and Portuguese. Obviously, I don't have dedicated time for studying at work every day, other than the 45-minute lunch break, when I'm trying to, you know, eat. Can't really do anything intensively there. I could study more at home, and I would probably have more overall time at home, but I really need to make myself study at home, as there are so many distractions and it is easy to get off track and watch TV or visit some English websites or something. I didn't have those distractions on the train, so that is why I really treasured those moments. But I need to evaluate my current situation and figure out how I am going to study from now on.


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