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.

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.