PE2 Reflection and PE3 Goals

I just realized that I started this a few days ago but never posted it. すみません！

PE2 Reflection
I made significant progress on my goal of increased fluidity, but it's still by no means easy. It doesn't help that we're continually learning new grammatical structures which I have to incorporate into my speech. By now though I think I'm pretty solid on almost everything we learned in the earlier chapters. I was not able to do all of the activities I wanted to but I did enough to have an effect.

PE3
Goals:

• Work on pitch patterns of overall phrases.

Activities:

• しばた先生のオフィスアワー once per week
• Shadowing 2 x 10 minutes per week
• Free-speaking 2 x 10 minutes per week

わたしのまち

わたしのまちはとてもちいさいです。スーパがあります。そしてコンビニがありますでもわたしはぜんぜんあそこにいません。わたしのまちでこうえんがありますそしてよくいきます。こうえんはクンケルパークといます。きれいですね？

クンケルパーク

みなさんのまちでなにがありますか？

せんしゅうのしゅうまつ

きんようびにりょうでしゅくだいをしました。ウィルコックスでばんごはんをたべまして。しちじにポーフィールドでアルティメットフリスビーをしました。ごぜんにじはんにねました。

きのうのあさおくじにきましたそれからシヤワーをあびました。たいていあさシヤワーをあびます。あさごはをたべましたそれからフリストにいきました。フリストとてもはおおきいたてものです。

きょうのひるにアルティメットフリスビーがありました。いましゅくだいをしますそれからごぜんいちじにねます。

PE1 Reflection and PE2 Goal

PE1 Reflection
Though I was not able to shadow nearly as often as I'd hoped, I think I met my goals. I can't speak at a native speaker's speed but now I can certainly speak much faster than I could. My pitch modulation also isn't perfect but has vastly improved.

PE2
Goals:

• Increase fluidity of speech (less time thinking before speaking)
• Increase ひらごな and カタカナ writing speed

Activities:

• Practice free-speaking with other にほんごのがくせい for 15 minutes twice per week.
• Go to office hours with しばたせんせい for 15 minutes once per week.
• Practice transcribing textbook audio for 15 minutes once per week.

Self Introduction Video

Sorry this took so long to upload. Computers can be annoying sometimes.
じゃあ、また！

PE #1

Goals:

• Increase speaking speed to a more natural rate while still maintaining proper pronunciation
• Get better at changing pitch rather than intensity
• Improve hiragana reading speed

Activities:

• 15 minutes of shadowing per day
• Read hiragana texts aloud for 15 minutes per day (to improve reading speed, not for comprehension)

はじめまして！

はじめまして。テンジです。どうぞよろしく。いちねんせいです。ニュージャージーから　きまして。
じゃ、また！

So, why Japanese?

When I tell my friends and family that I decided to take Japanese this year basically on a whim, they are surprised, and rightfully so. My high school offered only French, German, Spanish, and Latin (of which I took the last for four years), so Asian languages are a completely new realm for me.

As to why I decided on Japanese, I can't really say. I knew that I wanted to learn a new language that I could actually use to speak to people (unlike Latin) but I didn't really have any requirements other than that. I  landed on Japanese after a lot of deliberation for these reasons:

1. I've always wanted to visit Japan and it would be awesome to be able to speak with people there in their native tongue.
2. It doesn't use Roman characters and it seemed like a fun challenge to learn a whole new alphabet.

That was about all the reasoning that went into it, but so far it looks to be a great decision. The class is really fun and it's awesome to think that I'm on my way to being able to communicate with a whole new group of people.

This isn't to say that it's easy, though. Memorizing a whole new alphabet with foreign characters has been a challenge, as well as trying to speak using non-native phonemes. However, I'm sure that with enough practice it'll all become much easier.

Check back for more juicy details as I continue my foray into the unknown!

じゃあ、また！