Reflection for week beginning 9/18

I don't really know what to reflect on. Nothing really felt especially good about my performance, nor did I feel that I did particularly bad in any part about my performance. It was nice being able to have translation come to me a little bit faster than normal since I now know the proper method of translating Japanese.

Well, now that I think about it, there is one facet of my performance that I wasn't so much a fan. When watching Momotaro, I was having a difficult time keeping pace with the video. I notice that happens a lot. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that my hearing is bad or that my listening comprehension is terrible. I think it'd be really helpful if we had some more listening exercises in the future. Reading exercises only help so much.

オノマトペ & Reflection

オノマトペについて

オノマトペが好きです。世界の音はとても面白いと思います。みんなは同じ音を聞くけど、違い単語があります。世界で日本は一番面白いオノマトペがあります。沈黙の音のオノマトペさえあります！すごい。悲しさのオノマトペがありますか。。。

Reflection

I don't really know what to reflect on thanks to my illness-related absence on Thursday. I can say that learning about Japanese onomatopoeias was really quite interesting. I wasn't expecting so many of them to come out of the woodworks! The thing that really stunned me was the fact that there was an onomatopoeia for silence, which is more of a concept than a sound. I wonder if there are sounds for other concepts. I wonder if there's one for the awkward silence that follows after someone says something stupid. If not, there should be.

Grammar

The format: N　が [onomatopoeia]　する。

Example: 赤ちゃんがすやすやしました。

This otter is adorable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wavh47RpLz4

Reflection

Hmmm...it's been a while since I had to do the reflection for Japanese class, so I feel like I may be a bit on the rusty side. But I suppose that's alright. Obviously I had the fun of learning all about grammar, but that's not that big of a deal since we all learned the same grammar. However, learning about Tezuka Osamu was a very interesting experience. I'm not that into his works, but I do know the lasting effect he had on anime and Japanese culture as a whole. Fun things...eh? Not much. First day and grammar are pretty boring exercises. As for success, I was pleasantly pleased that I could understand the Osamu thing that Tobira linked to. I had a little difficulty, but for the most part, I could understand it. As for challenge, not much. Once I buckled down and tackled the grammar, it made sense.

Grammar! I choose you ～くせに!

So, the point of ～くせに is to express the frustration the speaker has at something or someone. One of the example sentences in the book is兄は自分で料理しないくせに、いつも私の作ったものに文句を言う。This translates to: "Even though he never cooks for himself, my brother always complains about the stuff I make." In this case, the speaker is expressing her frustration over the fact that her brother complains even though she was nice enough to make something for him.