March 23, 2017
Dear Virtual Diary,
Thought that I should take some time and talk about my latest findings with my work in studying Japanese.
In regards to speaking…
I have certainly improved over the last seven months and no matter how much I beat myself up about having to know more I know it will just take time and effort to learn more. I think the most difficult task right now is building the muscle memory in my mouth. Often times, when speaking Japanese, I stop or stutter suddenly because my brain has to process what type of pronunciation my mouth must do. Simple way of overcoming this challenge is more practice in speaking Japanese and practicing pronounciation.
In regards to listening…
This is probably the one area that I have improved and made the most headway. It helps that when I leave my house, Japanese is all I hear. Lately, when I hear Japanese I can piece together the topic of discussion. The lack of vocabulary is probably my biggest weakness but I know enough to catch certain phrases here and there and piece them and conjecture some kind of judgement on what is being said.
In regards to writing…
Hiragana and Katakana are all easy to write with no trouble. I plan on attacking Kanji very soon. We will see how that goes. I have been also meaning to pick up a book for practicing Japanese writing. This will help ensure that my current writing skills does not decay.
In regards to reading…
Reading hiragana and katakana are easy enough but the Kanji remains to be the most difficult challenge in the language. My constant reading of Japanese is no doubt helping. I think writing the Kanji out will also help with reading as well. I heard a Japanese teach once say, in regards to studying Kanji, that it was better to learn Kanji by learning vocabulary rather than solely focusing on each Kanji’s On yomi Kun yomi. When reading Shinya Tokkyu I write out any Kanji I do not understand, which is probably 90% of them and this helps with my memorization of Kanji. Many of the Kanjis I write down are often seen multiple times.
Reading Material Lately:
I have been reading a lot about Donald Keene. He is an American author who is mostly know for translating many of Matsuo Basho’s poetry into English. Matsuo Basho is probably the Shakespeare of Japan only instead of plays it’s Haiku poetry. Keene basically devoted his life to Japanese studies, whether it be the language, literature or history. He has been an inspiration for me as of late as if I can even accomplish a fraction of what he has, before I leave this earth, then I shall leave in peace.