Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 137 of 232 30 June 2009 at 9:20am | IP Logged |
1. 人形Puppet text
人形Puppet audio
2. 記念撮影photographic memory text
記念撮影photographic memory audio
3. 黒い影dark shadow text
黒い影dark shadow audio
4. 取り憑く possession text
取り憑く possession audio
These are the stories I'll be going over this morning.
oh yeah, I'll need the FURIGANIZER! (My favorite link at the moment.)
Thankfully my reading is getting better. I have to keep at it, though, because it's not getting better by me sitting here typing so I'd better get to it.
EDIT: I've gone over the stories and I have to take a break for a few hours.
Still have to do grammar today...
Edited by Sunja on 30 June 2009 at 1:17pm
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 138 of 232 01 July 2009 at 1:49pm | IP Logged |
the TAC Half-Way Mark was just posted. OKAY..
I've decided after some moments of careful consideration to stop this ponderous academic study and concentrate on --- getting myself to speak.
I'm just like my students! They've been studying English for years in school and can't form a proper basic sentence without (conversation-killing) mistakes. Time for me to change all that. I'm waiting for my (very impulsively purchased) webcam to come in the mail and then Skype has about 6 minutes left of download time. Dann kanns los gehen. I'm now a gold member at mylanguageexchange.com, so I gotta drum up some partners. I just finished my japanese "hello, I am.., please talk to me" message. (It was a bit better than that.)
Anyone interested in helping me out? PMs please. I can converse a bit and I'm improving by the hour.
I'll be going back to an old workbook and reading outloud. Really basic stuff that I should be able to just rattle off to any Japanese speaker, but I can't because I've never really practiced. Let's get to it.
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 139 of 232 02 July 2009 at 11:36am | IP Logged |
I was only able to contact one person on mylanguage exchange when I encountered a server problem on their side. -- man! Oh well. I'll keep at it. I've been practicing the basics each hour. I even set the egg timer to go off yesterday so as not to get too caught up in menial tasks. Every time the timer went off I picked up my book and read out of it.
This morning I had to do a bit of work on the house. It's so humid you could slice through the air with a knife. I have a huge headache...
i have to work tonight and then I have a school meeting. I already missed a meeting yesterday (they were a bit peeved..) so I can't miss the one tonight! *groan* It's one of those motivating sessions where we all have to bring colored cards and I'm sure they'll have something fun planned for us to do as a "team" this evening. ああ~ 頭が痛い..!
Edited by Sunja on 02 July 2009 at 11:37am
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 140 of 232 03 July 2009 at 11:15am | IP Logged |
No replies to my language exchange queries but I found a really big mistake in my sent message. I miss-typed "見つける" when I should have written "探し回る" --- *rolleyes*sigh* ---That would be rather crucial difference wouldn't it?
The three people I sent to yesterday got a very confusing message and are wondering "what tha..?
So I'm trying again. Three more mails today on three different Japanese, VERY carefully written and double-checked. My writing is not great but I think I got the message across this time.
I've been listening to some beginner-intermediate dialogue tapes. I try to speak after them, form my own sentences out of what was said. I'm hoping to prepare myself better for conversation.
I can't let my grammar or vocabulary slack so I need ot do that as well. I have to work tonight. I'll see what I can get done. I also have a new film I'd like to see "時をかける少女" but I haven't gotten the chance to look at it yet.
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 141 of 232 03 July 2009 at 1:12pm | IP Logged |
Wow, that was fast. I got two out of three responses in just 2 hours. Great!
I have to make lunch and then I'll start composing some responses. I'm going do written correspondence a few times until I'm a bit more sure of my speaking skills. I'm pretty excited. Something to look forward to!
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 142 of 232 04 July 2009 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
I wrote to six Japanese correspondants today. AAAAGGHHH! :) My email box at mylanguageexchange.com was flooded this morning.
I've been responding all day. There are a few problems. one is, half of the correspondants want me to use regular email channels and my email software doesn't recognize (and won't send emails that contain) kanji. So I had to write those emails in romaji (-- which I hate). I asked those "romaji partners" to give me a thumbs up if this was okay. I got one lengthy set of corrections back at mylanguageexchange.com and the japanese came out all garbled. too bad. There's technical gliches on both sides.
Still, they all report that my Japanese is excellent -- it would be since I check everything twice over with at least two online translator sources. That's why it's taken me until 3:00 to write 6 emails. Granted, 2-3 of them were long.
One person is ready for conversation and lo! I just got my new webcam this morning. It's still in the box so I'm going to see if I can get that up and running....
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6451 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 143 of 232 05 July 2009 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
Bzzz... bzzzzz... bzzzz... straight into your soup, er, log. I have no doubt you did an excellent job, however there's always this thing with Japanese people and compliments. Namely, they like complimenting abilities, shamelessly, and especially language skills. Sorry about that :)
I am very tempted to do the same with German. It would also take forever but sooner or later I'll have to do it. Producing language is like pulling tree roots (since you're into gardening etc.).
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 144 of 232 05 July 2009 at 4:29pm | IP Logged |
you're right to remind me about the all-you-can-eat level of compliments. Thankfully I'm not one to gush out with, "aw shucks, do ya really mean it? to a Japanese :) he-he-he. I was very careful to deny any compliment. I thought -- sonna koto nai desu yo! -- would be a bit harsh (do you think?) So I used a -- maa-maa desu! --
It's also interesting how they continue to humble themselves. I'm not quite sure how to handle that one. I may need to research that.....
I also like your analogy with the tree roots. I think I'm working on a 200-year-old oak!
Today I fixed my email so I can send Japanese. If I'd known it was going to be so simple I wouldn't have written all those romaji messages yesterday. Things seem to be working out. I keep sending and getting test messages like, "Can you read this これを読むことができるか -- yes I can, can you read this....? Funny.
I added two people to Skype and am eagerly awaiting my first conversation.
Edited by Sunja on 05 July 2009 at 7:39pm
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