So Lame

I have been completely lame. I have not been practicing any Japanese. I have not done any new Kanji or reviews nor have I done any hiragana or katakana review. I have no excuse really, but I doubt I am going to make my goal of having Heisig finished by August. I have been listening and watching tons of Japanese Dramas and PVs on youtube. Yesterday the hubby was watching Ponyo in Japanese with English subs on because he loves me and I was blogging on my other blog and I kind of knew what was going on just by listening here and there. I am not sure if all Japanese dramas use the same phrases over and over again on purpose or if the language is just like that. I love it though, Yay Panda! I am just sitting down to do some Kanji now though. Something is better than nothing right.

Seriously Bad Handwriting

I have been going through my kanji only writing each character a few times like Heisig suggests, but I cannot read anything I write. I don't feel like I am getting the stroke order correct on some of the more complicated ones like Dr. and Measuring box. Also I am fairly sure that the proportion of all of the characters I am writing are incorrect. How on earth is the best way to get good Japanese handwriting. Do I need to go out and buy the lovely grid paper I always see at Kinokuniya or can I practice on my computer with my lovely wacom tablet? I would love that because then I could save a lot of paper. Maybe I should look for some kanji work sheets or something. I must figure out something quickly before I learn to read 1000 kanji and then have to start over with being able to write them.

Beginning Remembering the Kanji

I got my kanji underway as of yesterday. I have now done 40 Kanji and started reviewing them in Anki. It doesn't feel like a lot so I am guessing that that is a good thing. I am in fact thinking I may go back and do a few more. The deck that I downloaded from the site doesn't have the stories on the front so I am not sure if I want to add them or not.

Well I was sitting with my 3(almost 4)year old daughter trying to help her spell her name today and I realized that she is learning very similarly to the way I am attempting Kanji with Heisig's RTK. She is learning the names of the letters without any idea how to pronounce them. A B doesn't make an Bee sound it makes more like a buh sound. I don't know but something about it makes me feel a bit comforted that this may work just like so many people say it will.

It's Here! It's Here!

My Heisig Remebering the Kanji is here! Hooray! It arrived with All About Particles by Naoko Chino and the Oxford Beginners Dictionary which are 2 books that are sort of recommended over on AJATT for sentences. Which means it is on. I have a goal of finishing the book by the 31st of August. That is 2042 Kanji by the end of summer. I am not sure that it is a reasonable goal being that I am a mom and have lots of other things I probably should be doing instead of studying japanese flashcards on Anki. However if I don't finish by the end of this summer I am going to get way behind with all that fall brings. I have 130 Days. That is about 17 Kanji a day. I believe I can do it. When I was attempting 25 a day and that was a little hard some days. Maybe if I round up to 20 a day that will be a good number for me to achieve my goal. Well we shall see. The first 200 or so should be pretty quick since I have done them already.

I have learned all 104 of the Hiragana Goal on smart.fm. I am now reviewing. I am still irritated by the typing part of the program. I always spell them wrong even though I know how they are supposed to sound. I have still not "completed" any. I am not sure if I should start the Katakana Goal or wait until after I finish the Kanji. Will I kill my brain doing both at the same time?

On another note I have finished watching Ohitorisama. It was cute. I liked Real Clothes the best so far though. I just need to get them without subs. I am deciding if I should pay the hundreds of dollars to get them from YesAsia.com or not. What to do? I started watching My Girl which is not bad but a little sad.

Day 6, Making Kana Progress

I am having some progress with smart.fm. I am now at 84 out of 104 new items and 35% completed on my hiragana Goal. I am sort of hating the romaji part though I don't think the letter chosen match the sound I hear in English so I keep getting silly errors. I am going to buy tons of kids books at Bookoff once I have finished both sets of kana. Then I will get much better at remembering them by reading to my daughter. I am trying to decide if I should hold off on starting katakana until hiragana is complete or if I should start after I have learned all of the new characters in hiragana.

Day 1! Yay!

OK, technically today is not my first day of ever attempting to learn Japanese but it is the first day I decide to move beyond flirting flirting. I almost have a plan. I am counting today because it is the first day that I attempted a goal on smart.fm. I am learning the Kana starting with Hiragana. Up until now I hosted 5 Japanese exchange students while I was in school, took a quarter of Japanese back in University, made a feeble attempt at Remembering the Kanji and Remembering the Kana, and watch a lot of Japanese Doramas for a bit of "input."

I have wanted to learn for ages (at least 15 years) and decided now is the time. I am an under employed freelancer so I am not overly busy. I also found a Japanese immersion school for my daughter and am planning on her getting in when she starts kindergarten in fall of 2011. My goal is to be able to help her with her homework by the time she gets there. I am also going to be able to greet her teacher in Japanese without being embarrassed by my mistakes. That is almost a year and a half to work hard. I can do it. Expect me back to ramble again soon.