+1 Challenge Weekly Update #4

So the lesson of week 4 for me ... putting yourself into that state of exhaustion is definitely not good. This said, I've been keeping up with my Japanese language learning plan without much problem ... but last week was difficult to say no to social events etc ... and basically ... as much fun as it was, having an early night has to be done once in a while ... so this week ... hmmm ... sorry, but I'm washing my hair .... (oh, ok ... that doesn't take too long for me ... but you get my drift).

I'm actually not going to write too much tonight, as it's half-past ten now and I want to have an early night. I have created a whole load of resources and stuff as I've been studying the last week and a bit ... but will they find their way into this blog post ... erm ... not right now ... it's more important that I get my energy levels back up to where I like them .... superverykool. 

I will however write about the fantastic lesson from Monday 21st ... I had the most amazing time in and around a Tokyo convenience store ... although I was actually sitting in the comfort of my home in England. It was quite incredible really ... and the most fun I've ever had in Japanese to date. The tutor took me out via Skype video on his ipod touch ... so we did the lesson in the car park outside the convenience store ... which was just remarkable in itself. There I was with the occasional car, or random Japanese person passing by ... and oh my word ... really makes it easy to talk about stuff when there is so much of interest going on. 

Then for the last fifteen minutes of the lesson, we went inside the convenience store and when I could actually hold back from being somewhat like an excited puppy dog unleashed in a meadow of candyfloss flowers and flutterbyes ... I could take a moment to breathe and learn something new. That was the highlight of the week ... in fact, its certainly one of the highlights of my Japanese language learning journey thus far.

Anyway, like I say, I've kept up with my schedule ... keeping this blog updated should be easy, but I ended up doing lots of other things over the weekend and just got tired and didn't feel like I'd had a proper rest. But, you know what ... I'm still loving learning Japanese ... I'm still having a hoot with everything ... pooped as I sometimes get ... it's still fun. 

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #3

This week has been amazing. Following on from the last update, I began the week feeling slightly bruised by the difficult lesson I'd had. But, it wouldn't be a challenge if everything was effortless now would it! The fact is, having struggled to pronounce certain words, I remembered what the tutor and also a music teacher I'd had a lesson with had advised regarding doing vocal exercises to train my pronunciation towards speaking Japanese with flattened vowel sounds ... and promptly added doing this as part of my daily routine ... get up ... kettle on ... toast on ... a-i-u-e-o ... ka-ki-ku-ke-ko ... etc etc. I still had difficulty with the 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' line ... but found an awesome video on youtube by a girl who explained everything in a way that just made sense to me ... and very quickly ... I managed to get the 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' sounds coming out as ... well ... a lot nearer to how my brain had previously been suggesting to my mouth.

Miss Hanake ... I still need to practice more, but your advice has most definitely worked for me. The trick about using 春 はる）to get the mouth saying the "ro" sound was inspiring. My Japanese friends and tutors are all now smiling and giving me thumbs up when I go through the hiragana sounds at the start of my lessons. 

Then, I received news that Benny was inviting Japanese learners on the +1 Challenge to get involved with a fun little project singing English words in their Japanese katakana pronounciation. So with Brian and Benny getting this project underway ... I looked at my schedule ... gulped for a moment thinking ... I so want to do this ... but how ... well ... get up a bit earlier ... that's the answer ... eeek ... but I knew it was something I'd love to be involved with and so, I said, "count me in".  So the day came when I was waiting for the lyrics to arrive ... and I saw feedback from the tutor in regards the difficult lesson I had had.

Feedback from italki tutor

Bear in mind, that when I began the challenge, I felt very much that I'd acquired a reasonable amount of Japanese vocabulary, however, with only the most basic grasp of simple sentence patterns ... grammar if dare utter that dark mystery of a word ... well, I thought, "the key to me reaching my goal of speaking comfortably is going to be ... speaking a lot more Japanese ... and with a little more work on getting my head around the grammar, my creativity will be unleashed and I'll be having more interesting conversation". So, when I read that feedback ... I no longer felt so down about having to work harder on my pronunciation ... this feedback gave me a big fat motivational boost. Ten seconds later ... oh my ... now that I can already do a 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' a lot better than I ever could before ... I remembered that I was going to be involved in the English Words in Japanese song ... it was as if it was all part of some master plan ... it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

I loved the way it all came together. The day when all the clips had to be sent in, I'd sent mine off and then had to deal with an unexpected emergency ... little did I know that the codec I'd used has failed big time ... and that whilst I was out of contact Benny had found my video had ... well no video!!! I was about half a mile from home when I saw the message on my iPhone ... eeek ... what time is it in Spain ... 7:03 ... OK ... I'll get home ... and how long will it take to render ... hmm ... HD video ... ancient MacBookPro held together with gaffer tape etc ... this could be cutting it fine ... so one of my lasting memories of this fabulous week was running home to get the video rendered in time.

The following day, I went to a Japanese meetup in London and had a great evening out ... one thing I remember speaking about in Japanese was "Black Adder" ... and I also remember saying that I'd learned another way of saying everyday (日々 ... hibi) and thus, a the first two lines of the Morrissey song, 'Everyday is like Sunday' might be sung as:

毎日は日曜日のようにです。
日々は無声とグレーです。

Then on Saturday, Benny shared the video with us ... and oh my word ... every single one of us had performed brilliantly ... every single one of us was an utter star ... and I realized, that my elation didn't stem from participating in this project as an individual ... it was all about feeling connected with the other people involved ... the other +1 challengers ... it's a beautiful thing ... and I wouldn't hesitate to get involved in another one ... even though my schedule is crazy ... I'd make time for it ... it's so worth it!

I shall end this weeks update post with the videos (the song and the bloopers). I've kept on track with my schedule ... but as yet, I haven't gone though the schedule ticking off what I've achieved etc ... I've been a little busy with studying and making my update video etc. But I'll post those later in the week ... an update of the update ... but this is the way I wanted to end this weeks update ...

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #2

So this week has been another successful stampede into unknown territories. As opposed to my initial approach to learning Japanese, which seemed to be treating the language like a precious porcelain doll, now I'm pretty much speaking Japanese like I'm driving the language without the recommended due care or attention for grammatical perfection, pronunciation and yep, even making up Japanese vocabulary words to slot into the missing gaps.

Of course, that's not to say that understanding the grammar, pronouncing words correctly or even using the right words isn't important ... it is important ... however, it's not AS important as speaking, playing, throwing it around to see what happens if I try to do something I haven't done before ... cast myself out of my comfort zone ... scare myself from time to time (the brain loves the occasional scare!) ... and that's what I need to be doing.

So rather than carefully navigating around these obstacles to my progress in language learning ... I'm just saying, "I'm learning new stuff ... and whenever I learn new stuff ... I want to try it out ... see what happens if I use it this way ... what happens if I disobey the rules I've just learned but don't yet fully appreciate or understand". Because what happens is this ... firstly, I have an absolutely fantastic time playing in the language ... secondly, I record my tutored sessions, so whilst I've got time to practice talking with a native speaker, it doesn't seem very efficient to spend that time going over and over the pronunciation of a word I'm finding difficult to understand ... neither does it doesn't seem efficient to spend the vast majority of speaking time breaking the spell of immersion by hopping out of the target language for an English explanation of something ...  so poo to delicately tippy-toe-ing around in this the language ... I shall go forth in my Ronald McDonald sized boots trampling all over the place and getting myself into a right old mess ... so that later on, in my free time, I can reflect on what happened, where I trod in the biggest proverbial dollops of language-dung ... clean myself up ... and have another go next time!

For anyone who's a fan of the series Red Dwarf ... I've imagined how Arnold Rimmer would approach learning a language ... and taken completely the opposite direction. Am I studying hard? ... heck yeah ... am I putting in the hours of practice? ... abso-flippin-lutely .... am I having a good time? ..... I'm having a ball!!! Will I be successful? ... well, watch this space ... but even though I'm still very far from my goal, I've gained momentum and I'm skiddlydiddlyling along, wheels spinning as I push my foot down on the accelerator ... and it certainly seems more probable that I'll get there than if I sat reading an instruction manual from cover to cover before getting into the vehicle. Again, I'm not saying don't read a manual ... I'm doing that ... Tae Kim's Grammar Guide for example ... it's an instruction manual ... and thus far, I'm finding it to be a pretty good one. But rather than just read it and blindly accept that I must know where the brake peddle is ... crashing is so much more dramatic ... hence ... off I go, crashing Japanese into metaphorical walls, hedges ... occasional fruit and vegetable stands ... you name it ... I'll crash into it ... and the faster I go, the more likely it is that I'll get airbourne ... and its at those moments ... when you're "in the language" ... yeah ... that's when the brain gets really turned on and starts doing the work for me ... the work that Arnold Rimmer and his kin would do by rote learning verb tables perhaps.

Have I learned any other languages this way ... well, I was going to say, "nope" ... I'm a monoglot ... but when I think about it ... this is how I learned to talk my native language. Does it work for learning a second language ... I don't know ... some folks would argue that I deserve a smacked bottom ... well, they'll have to catch me first .... but hey, I'll have much more experience in driving stolen vehicles won't I!?

Anyway, thank you to all the people supporting me along the way; the tutors, fellow +1 challengers, Mikie-san, friends and acquaintances that I meet along the way. You are all amazing people and inspire me greatly. Right, so on that note ... Update for Week 2 ... here are my weeks notes etc

WEEK 2:

Monday
TKG: 54 – 58
3.8 Particles used with verbsを andにJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J

Tuesday
TKG: 58 – 61
3.8 Particles used with verbsへJ andでJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at large Japanese conversation meetup. J

Wednesday
TKG: 62 – 67
3.9 Transitive and Intransitive VerbsJ
3.10 Relative Clauses and Sentence OrderJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Thursday
TKG: 68 – 69
3.11 Noun-related Particles
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at Small Weekly Japanese Meetup. J

Friday
TKG: 70 – 73
3.11.3 The Vague Listing 「や」and 「とか」particles
[unplanned] http://japanese.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/031101c.htm
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Saturday
Test Vocabulary J (87/100)
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J

Sunday
Water vocabulary J
Make update  J
Review the grammar concepts learned.


Notes from this weeks study

the first example should be ' kanojo wa natsu no hana no youni desu'

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #1

We have lift-off ... the Kevin has cleared the tower and reports no major language learning malfunctions thus far. So, this week I've been uncharacteristically organized ... and whaddayaknow (that's a word I picked up in Australia by the way) ... having a plan, having the support and encouragement of my fellow +1 Challengers ... wow, what a difference it makes!

At the beginning of the challenge, I decided that seeing as I was being such a proper grown-up and being ever-so-organized, that I would make rough scribbleydoodle (that's not an Australian word btw) notes and then deconstruct and compress everything into neat little review cards that I can then review on my rest day (Sunday).  The plan for this week is shown below:

WEEK 1:

Monday
TKG: 36 – 40
3.3.4 The 「が」identifier particle J
3.4.2 The na-adjective J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Tuesday
TKG: 40 – 43
3.4.3 The i-adjective J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J


Wednesday
TKG:  43 – 47
3.5.1 Role of Verbs J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J

Thursday
TKG: 47 – 50
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at Japanese Conversation Group. J  (although not with Japanese people).
3.6.1 Conjugating verbs into the negative

Friday
TKG: 50 – 53
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
3.7 Past Tense J

Saturday
Water Memrise and Anki J
Speak Japanese for 60 mins.J

Sunday
Write stories for each word that I can’t remember from the new 50. [tbc]
Learn 2^nd verse of Taiyou no Uta.   [tbc]
Make update J
Review the grammar concepts learned. J

END OF WEEK 1: 
50 New Words Grown,
3 Hours 100% Japanese Spoken  and quite a lot of Japaddling.
21 Pages of Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide Studied

Notes from this week's st

na-adjectives

i-adjectives

ru-verbs, u-verbs and negative congregation

past tense congregation

Saying "What that [coloured] thing?"

Vocabulary

Whilst I've been using memrise.com to learn new vocabulary words, I've also created an Anki deck specifically for this +1 Challenge. There are still a few vocabulary words that I trip up over, so for these words, I write a sentence using the word and then read the document back to myself a couple of times. If I still can't recall a word, then I create "mem" cards for the ones that I consider worth spending the time on ... I mean, amusingly, I've been using the CORE 1000 course in the Japanese language section of memrise ... and I could never remember the word for "pickle" (see I would write it ... but nope ... haven't got a clue) ... maybe "pickle" is the key to understanding Japanese ... I mean, yes, I often find myself in a pickle ... but is it really a word that I need to know ... I say, "no thankyou, I'll abstain from knowing the word pickle for the time being thank you very much". 

Anyway, this is the current list of vocabulary words (shown in romaji).

このじょこの女れらるはとてもきたないだ。  (kitanai)
パソコンおそいを使う。(tsukau)
みどりのものはなんですか。それはとかげです。 (tokage)
どこにいきますか。ほいくえんにいきます。(hoikuen)
かれはりんごをうる。(uru)
でんしゃはえきにでる。(deru)
犬はかばんにいれる。(ireru)
くだものはここにおく。(oku)
かのじょはかににくれる。(kureru)
あとひとつきにいきます。(hitotsuki)
もんだいはにほんごをならいますがこたえるはなんですか。 (kotaeru)
はじめにやさしくなかったをしました。(hajimeni)
今日は曇りをならました。 (naramasu)
あしたは果物のあまいをたべたい。(amai)
かのじょはかのじょのいぬをみせる。(misete)
いろがどう思いますか。あかいとあお とみどりときいろいと銀と金とむらさきとくろとしろです。(iro)

I haven't needed to make 'mem's for any vocabulary words this week (not that I'm a vocabulary sponge by any means ... just don't know which words are going to need the special ... er ... kick into long term memory). But this is the sort of thing I make for those words that just go into my head and then find their quickest route to exit my head ...

Other Videos

On the first day of the challenge, I recorded a video of myself talking to Mikie-san. She very kindly agreed to let me share the video on youtube. I think it will be great to reflect on where I started when I get to the end of this challenge. I also think it's great to show all the struggle and tarzan-speak ... Benny Lewis and Brian Kwong have recently both inspired me by sharing videos of the early stages of learning Japanese ... it was such a relief to see that I wasn't alone!