Archive for the ‘Japanese’ Category

I use the internet for various things, learn new things from methyl 1-d side effects to the body, or how to bake banana cake, connect with friends or buy the latest novels. But so far I’ve never tried online lessons.

I’ve been contemplating to sign up on YesJapan or not to sign up. I used their books – Japanese from Zero series – and love them a lot. But they just stopped at book 3 so far. When I asked them a few years ago they say that the books will come out in 2010. But 2010 came and left, still no sign of the books. However, the good news is, the writer of the book mentioned in YesJapan forum that book 4 will be published latest in June this year.

If they only publish up to book 4 then for book 5 I may still have to sign up. That is for $20 a month. We will see though, I don’t even know whether I would have the energy to sit in front of my pc everyday for that later on when we have more kids at the daycare.

Sometimes, after a long day at work, the only thing I have enough energy to do before I go to bed is read a few mangas. I am not particularly a fan of those mangas that is more than 50 chapters due to my lack of time but there exceptions as well. If the manga is entertaining enough – Romance, comedy and not about school life – I don’t mind if it is more than 50 chapters. My current favourite on going manga at the moment is Kuragehime.

I just love this manga. It has also the anime version but only one season so far and no news yet of a second season coming out.

Talking about manga I remember a high school friend of mind who had and obsession for mangas and comics. I mean, I like reading them but it ends there. If someone who is obsessed with playing electric guitars, I can imagine the person would have posters of guitarist on the bedroom walls, guitar Budda Amps or wah effect pedals etc. For a manga lover like her, she would collect the figurines and have posters all over her wall of manga and comic characters. Mangas and figurines that would cost hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars.

I’d love to be able to collect and afford to have a collection of things I love, but being obsessive of certain things can be a little expensive.

We visited the Japanese garden at the zoo that we visited yesterday. Spring seems to be the perfect time to be visiting this spot. Serene and beautiful. Even the pictures don’t do it justice in my opinion. The place is not that popular to the visitors (because people go to zoo to look at the animals) that’s why it is empty except for one or two people.

It is a personal dream of mine to have a little Japanese themed garden. A small koi fish pond, a tiny bamboo gazebo/hut, lined with 4-5 cherry blossom trees. Though I know that the dream may be a little far away to come true, if ever it will happen, but it still would be nice to go around and check out the available real estate and do a little bit more dreaming or visualizing (which ever one would like to call it). They say if you know what you are aiming for, dreams won’t be too far fetched.

I can imagine sitting in the garden in Summer nights, listening to the crickets and the small water pond in the garden, while enjoying the stars at night. At least when the time comes to really make the dream come true, I would know exactly what I want to have for my little dream abode.

I just finished watching the Japan Foundation’s Yan san’s series – well basically I cheated, I fastforwarded most of the videos to see what happened to Yan san. .

To be honest, after watching a great series, be it on television or through learning dvd’s like this one, you would get yourself a little attached to the main characters. Wanting to know how they are these days. I bet, if you are like me, you may have even tracked down Yan san. To Japanese students who have seen the series, he is like celebrity.

I’m glad that he is still alive and kicking, enjoying life in Japan. I even get the chance to play Mafia wars with him on Facebook.

When we started to subscribe to the cable television, NHK was one of those channels that I would watch all the time. However after a year or so they cancelled the channel – most probably due to low demand. I wasn’t too happy. Good thing I saw NHK app on itunes.

The only problem here as you can see, they only stream certain programs. Most of the time they only show the newsline, or a few documentaries. But at least they do show one of the shows that I like on the channel – Cool Japan. It’s a show where people from around the world discussing what’s interesting in Japan. Like the wacky inventions, to the fascinating social culture – from self cleaning suit to cute hello kitty nursing uniforms.

Though it would be better to have the channel, but I’m still grateful I can watch it anywhere on my Ipod.

With work, and all the changes going on in my life, I simply didn’t have the time to really concerntrate on Japanese studies. It is indeed unfortunate. It is just one of those times when I wish that we have more than 24 hours a day and 3 times more energy. Japanese books in the drawers waiting patiently for me to take them out for review and study.

But what to do? Work and saving money for rainy days is much more important at the moment. Money for living everyday life, money for savings, money for pension and soon perhaps money for senior life insurance if need to work in old age even.  Nothing left in the end for Japanese classes. Well, for now at least. However, once many things are settled and work has become a lot like routine and stable, perhaps I can start back doing the things I really like – studying Japanese language.

I am so glad that I finally figured out how to upload .pdf files onto my Ipod. Using the iBook app that is. There are a few pdf books that I’ve been wanting to read but just didn’t because I don’t like reading books from my computer screen since I cannot lie down and read.

I got my Genki books with audio files on it too. So while using the book I could listen to the audio that comes with it anytime anywhere. I got it mainly for the Japanese language dictionary and videos. But since it can do even more than that, I am indeed very happy.

My ipod is getting chock-full of things in it I must admit – Japanese videos, books, music, dictionary apps, guitar app, steel drum app, garden app, and loads more. I used to joke about the only thing you can’t do with an iphone/ipod is make coffee. I spoke to soon, since there is an app that makes coffee. But not the one that you can drink though. Well, at least you can tell people it does everything including making coffee.

For the past one week I’ve been watching one anime after another. I guess most probably because it has been rather stressful for me the past week. Even my eczema flared up. I needed something to take my mind off the things that are bothering me for a bit. Anime seems to be a good way for me. Not only because they are fun, but I practice listening to Japanese as well.

Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever get tired of anime. Not even when I have agespots and wrinkles all over. ( Well, not that so much likely with all the age spot and wrinkle treatments these days ) Further, it makes me real happy when I understood some words without reading the subtitles. Hopefully I can ditch the subtitles all together after sometime.

I got my ipod few weeks ago and I got the KOTOBA dictionary and a few other Japanese learning Applications as well as a few other Hungarian language learning applications. I can say goodbye to all those bulky dictionaries. Is it worth it? Yes. Compared to getting an electronic dictionary, it is so much worth it to get an ipod/iphone and get these great apps. Just by getting them won’t get me smarter, I know, but it makes life easier.

The camera is just a big plus. The pictures don’t turn out as good as those that what digital cameras would come up with, but I can take decent enough pictures for blogging and twitter. What more can one ask for right?

I even drafted  study plans for my Japanese and Hungarian lessons on it. With this I sure save a lot of paper and time spent searching for words from the paperback dictionaries.

Sent the little one off to kindergarten earlier today so we could do our shopping early and go back home early too. While standing at

the cashier, eyeing one item after another going through the barcode scanner, I thought about how I would spend my day today besides doing the normal household chores.

It has been ages since I last watched an anime. Months actually. I saw only one Japanese drama couple of weeks ago. It is essential that I watch some Japanese programmes just to sharpen my listening skills as a Japanese language student. I still don’t understand a lot, but once I managed to pick up some words I’d feel pretty happy that I learnt something at least in class.

So it is settled then. After lunch and doing the household chores and cleaning, I’d make myself comfy and watch some animes.