Overall Course Reflection

Wow, what a trip it has been.

I guess I'll break it down according to my opinions on the book and the class.

Book: I'll say it. I hate Tobira. Hate it. Hate hate hate. I understand the concept of "higher level thinking" that the book tries to teach by, but I have honestly found myself lost so many times in this book it wasn't even funny. I will admit, this is in part due to the fact that I did not have the time to devote myself to completely mastering the material. The lack of furigana and kanji definitions is a bit troublesome at times as well. For instance, when reading one of the informational sections, occasionally one will stumble upon an unknown kanji. Said kanji was not in the vocabulary of any chapter and is not given furigana to guide the reader toward a definition. That gets real old, real quick. Kanji sections could also give the definition of the kanji. If my phone weren't capable of character recognition, I don't know how I could have survived the course. I miss Genki. Genki made sense and presented the material in a fun way that was easy to comprehend.

Class: Class was either really fun or really boring. I felt like I noticed the boring more often than not. And this complaint stems primarily from the fact that I didn't see much of a difference between struggling to read the book at home and struggling to read it in class. But, this struggle is amplified by the struggling of others. It doesn't do wonders for confidence, that's for sure. However, on the other hand, when we actually got to do something fun and creative, I was having a blast. The photostory, the newspaper, the history research, all of that stuff was really fun and really helped to reinforce what I was supposed to be learning. I feel the book failed in that regard. And as for quizzes, I have no complaints. But I would have liked to see a little more time on the super quizzes. Those can get pretty rough.

Too long; didn't read section

Beneficial: Projects! I love creative projects. Those actually help me learn the material completely.

Not beneficial: Reading from the book. It did nothing but frustrate me to the point of stress.

How to learn: Well, I got better at memorizing long kanji lists if that counts. I didn't learn anything new about my learning style.

アメリカの歴史上の人

セオドア・ローズベルト

ローズベルト：アメリカの二十六番大統領

 　　　　　誕生日は1858年十月二十七日。子供のとき、彼は病気だった。喘息とがいたので、家で勉強しなくちゃいなかった。でも、喘息がいるので、難しい趣味があった。例えば、彼はボクシングや搬送を学びました。為政家になる前に、ハーバード大学で生物学を勉強しました。
　　　　　大統領ながら、ローズベルトは世界を違った。彼はパナマカナルを終える助けていました。もっと、Square Dealを作りました。Square Dealは大企業からアメリカの人々を保護しました。最終、彼は世界に海軍を 披露しました。
　　　　　

自動販売機

I.N.G.V.A.R.

名前：I.N.G.V.A.R.

何ができる：時々、君の電話はいい音楽がない。そして、I.N.G.V.A.R.は君の電話にメタルな音楽をアップロードします。毎日はメタル日。

なぜ：どうして、人々はメタルな音楽を聞きません？神様は音だったら、この音はメタルです。I.N.G.V.A.R.は毎時メタル音楽を再生する。そして、ある日、メタルな音楽が好きだ人は少なくない。

面白い自動販売機

これは自動販売機。自分でコカコーラの自動販売機はとてもつまらない。でも、この自動販売機はロボットです。ロボット。とてもすごい。でも、見る時、質問がある：どうして歩いて自動販売機がありますか。便利じゃないと思います。

Reflection for week 10/1-10/5

Not much to say for this week.

I definitely enjoy getting to do the Hyogen Photo Story. It was an interesting experience that I felt expanded my understanding of the lecture material. I also felt a little more comfortable with the language because I was no longer constrained to the structure that grammar worksheets go for. I understand their importance, but I feel without the creative flow, it just becomes another pointless exercise.

And to that, I feel that the way the grammar worksheet was handled this week was actually quite interesting and a little more helpful than the normal sheets. Perhaps I'm just not in tune with the voice of the grammar worksheets, but when it came to translating the works of my classmates, it made a lot more sense to me and I was actually able to translate with ease. It was quite a refreshing change of pace from the absolute punishment that I feel grammar worksheets normally are.

I still echo my though that more listening type exercises would be extremely beneficial for me. Movies and the like, not conversation with classmates. It's nice working with the classmates, but sometimes there is a tendency to lapse into English when doing so. And I know that I'm guilty of doing this.

I must also say, I wasn't able to locate a Japanese student for the questionnaire. I know it's due later on today, but due to schedule problems, I wasn't able to go to coffee hour or meet with the Japanese tutor. Hopefully there's something else I can do.

Hyogen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URBTwM2b-Xw&feature=youtu.be

So, thar it be. In all its "glory."

Week 9/24-9/28

Reflection: Yeah, I've got nothing to reflect on. Parking is really terrible at Kent State. And so are my roommates. If at all possible, I will never live with someone ever again. Or at the very least, do a trial week if that's possible. Not related to Japanese, but I don't really have anything to reflect on.

As for my Kyogen...uhhh...maybe something about an overlord making an idiot of himself due to the actions of a lowly crew member? I'll come up with something better than that though...inspiration has just yet to strike.