kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4844 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese
| Message 321 of 420 20 February 2014 at 1:39am | IP Logged |
You are quite brave, cathrynm! I wouldn't even know what to talk about at a meetup. I can't imagine what I'd do if I went to one. "Hey, uh, I'm Herman, and... yeah, that's right, nice to meet you, too... uh... the walls are white, aren't they..."
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 322 of 420 20 February 2014 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
I went to a German meetup once and I managed to follow almost everyone just barely and jump in some but
it gave me a super headache. I would like to try it in Japanese although I know I would get more out of it after
I learned more... I probably wouldn't get anything but a headache lol.
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6122 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 323 of 420 20 February 2014 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
It's not that bad really. Japanese people seem to be totally cool with me just sitting there like a statue and listening
to the more fluent people chat away. Sometimes I'll try to chime in, though not today, and if I say something weird,
it can switch everyone over to English, and that's not good. It's the Americans who are more uncomfortable with
this and get anxious when some aren't talking, but if they start in English I just try to answer briefly and try to get
the conversation to end as fast as possible and get back to them in Japanese.
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6122 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 324 of 420 01 March 2014 at 7:43pm | IP Logged |
Well, I'm trying again to get off the flash cards, and on the train to work I'm trying to get in a few pages from my Japanese novel. This book, though, seems to be doing a lot of ruminating, with not much actually happening and since I'm slow and confused I'm not totally picking it up, though my frequency of words to look up isn't too bad. Mostly I'm looking up stuff that's not jouyou, and quite often I'm guessing and looking up and then confirming, or I know the reading but not the meaning. Japanese books seem to have no concern for characters being difficult, has been my experience.
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6122 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 325 of 420 30 June 2014 at 6:11am | IP Logged |
Well, I've been kind of on low gear for Japanese, I've still been taking the class and that forces me to read and practice drawing Kanji but I haven't been super active otherwise. Life is going well otherwise, and I'm making 6 figure income and I've also lost over 50 pounds now, no longer 'overweight' in terms of BMI, which is a good thing. I may want to drop a few more pounds for aesthetic reasons, but as far as health is concerned, I'm done. I have been exercising pretty regularly, and I'm at the gym maybe about 5 times a week, so that does eat into study time.
Anyway, now coming up here I'm looking to take the N2 again this December and I'm starting again on the JLPT class at the Sokogakuen. I'm getting some reading in, actually the game I'm working on has a Japanese translation and I can play that at work. (Though all translation work is done off site by contractors.) Do see some Facebook friends write in Japanese. Kind of falling behind on my anime watching lately. I still have the paid subscription for CrunchyRoll, and I started on Hunter X Hunter, but I kind of got distracted and drifted away from that. I'm kind of massively busy, really, so I try to squeeze in time here or there, but often I'm tired and just fall asleep during any attempt at TV watching. I'm better at internet these days than TV, I think.
Also wrote my class presentation, and put a fair amount of effort into this. Thanks to lang-8 people I was able to shake out all the grammar bugs.
So, anyway, here we go about 5 months left until the N2 comes around. (I'm almost tempted to take the N3 cuz', I kind of blew N2 last time, but I don't know, I think I'll just keep at it.) We'll see. Trying to get more focused and feel like getting back into more focused studying.
That's a little bit rambling, but that's how it goes. Hanging in here.
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6122 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 326 of 420 30 June 2014 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
And here's the essay I wrote for the class. Edited with the help of people from lang-8, as usual.
cathrynm wrote:
James D. Phelanは20世紀初頭のアメリカの政治家 した。 1897年から1902年までサンフランシ コの市長、5年から、1921までアメリカ 上院議員を務めました。現在ではこの近所 phelanと呼ばれる場所を見つけられます。マ ケット道にphelanというビルがあります。サ フランシスコCity Collegeの近くにもPhelanという道があります。Un iversity of SFにはPhelanという寄宿舎もあります。
なぜ、私はその政治家に興味があるか、説明 しよう。 どうしてこのクラスでPhelanのことを話すので しょうか?
PHELAN上院議員は日系人に反対でした。 ニ ューヨクタイムズで日系の記者は「日本から の移民にたいして否定的な意見」と「Phelanism ]と呼びました。実は20世紀の初頭ではカ フォルニア州においては日本からの移民は しい論争の的でした。 カリフォルニア の住民は日本からの移民に反対でした。 19 13にカリフォルニア州外国土地法「California Alien Land Law]とい法案が可決され、そして1920にカリフ ルニアの住民は「California Proposition 1]も可決しました。
そういう訳で、日本に生まれた日系人を不動 産を持つことは禁止されていました。Phelan上 院議員はこの話題でよく引き合いに出されま す。1919年には”Phelan would Bar Japanese Entirely"
というニューヨークタイムズの記事で日本人 とイナゴを比べることがありました。 ”The Japanese must be eliminated like a swarm of lucust."といいました。Phelanさんの意見は日系 、日本人を追放することでした。
そのとき、日本の政府はカリフォルニア外国 人土地法に抗議しました。しかし、Phelanさん は東洋人を平等に扱うことに反対でした。” Phelan Cables Protest on Japan”新聞記事で東洋人の権利に反対する意 をかきました。。”cablegram ...protesting against racial equality for Orientals" と書きました。「ほかの上院議員も同様の意 見」も書きました。
けっきょくJames D. Phelanは1931年になくなりました。1952 年にカリフォルニア州の最高裁は外国人土地 法を廃止裁決をだしました。 その年から日 本の移民も不動産を持てるようになりました 。Phelanは資産家だったので、慈善団体を作っ ていました。毎年Phelanの慈善団体が奨学金を 給付しています。しかし、現代のサンフラン シスコ市民はPhelanのことをあまり知りません 。、
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6122 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 327 of 420 30 June 2014 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
Oh oh, wait, wait, I keep forgetting, they never fixed that glitch with Japanese and this website. Oh well.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 328 of 420 30 June 2014 at 6:42am | IP Logged |
cathrynm wrote:
Oh oh, wait, wait, I keep forgetting, they never fixed that glitch with Japanese and this website. Oh well. |
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glitch? err what are the question marks I'm seeing. Is that on my end or the website?
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