Kana Game of the Month: Pandachan’s Creation

Hey everyone, I was trying to find a game that my friend and I could play with our limited Kana knowledge (though she’s whooping me bad now and is far ahead of me! Good Job!).

I came up with a concept similar to hang man. However, because we can’t spell full Japanese words, we’re spelling English words with Kana. This may handicap us, but it’s really a game to improve not only recognizing kana, but writing them properly as well.

So, lets begin with the explanation of how you play.

The black is filled in by the person who created the word. The orange is what is guessed by the partner. You can start of using just the vowels, as this example uses, or you can use the more advanced groupings. The creator needs to check that 1) it’s the correct kana, and 2) it’s drawn correctly. If they draw it incorrectly or used the wrong kana, the hangman’s head is drawn, and so forth. When in doubt, (as the creator) look up the correct stroke order.

Take turns being the creator and the one guessing!

Let me know how you enjoy it and any suggestions to improve the game!

 

Kanjirific Game of the Month (February)

Another month, another game for kanji!

This game is more of a learning aid, but it feels like a game to be, testing me and giving me happy music when I am successful. This game is also in Japanese from Japan! What better way to get that good ol’ Japanese in?

DS陰山メソッド 正しい漢字かきとりくん 今度は漢検対策だよ!

Kageyama Method: Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-Kun – Kondo wa Kanken Taidaku Dayo!

  (image from playasia’s website)

I stumbled upon this game a long time ago when I was simply looking for Japanese games for my DS. This game came highly recommended for learners and I couldn’t pass it up. When I first put it in, it was a little intimidating because I didn’t know much beyond kana and some kanji. It didn’t prevent me from doing a lot in the game however, and it has aided my ability to produce good looking kanji and more importantly correct stroke kanji. This game also gives you lots of practice filling in blanks type of questions for kanji and their associated sounds.

You can purchase the game easily in Amazon.jp and playasia’s website. I personally used playasia at the time due to extreme lack of Japanese skills at the time, and must say was very happy. I got the game quickly and had no issues with their site for all the games I’ve purchased so far.

Sporktacular has a great deal of videos about this game and you can find them starting here. His is the older version which has almost 1 thousand less kanji, so I would get the 2nd release linked above. Though from what I can tell about his videos, they still look very similar.

What I personally like about it you get:

Kakitori (かきとり):

This section has all your kana, and kanji from the official jouyou kanji (1,945). I’m sure it doesn’t reflect the most recent changes to the jouyou actually now that I think about it because the game was released in 2008 I think. You come to a calendar that lets you know when you’ve practice last, and the little professor dude says things like hi, take breaks, and study well sorts of things. Then in the main feature you’ll have a grid on the left and tabs filled with kana/kanji on the right. You can see your percentage grade on each attempted kana/kanji with a click of a button.

If you click on a character you will have these options for both kana and kanji. You can write the character from memory, or you can view the stroke order on your left. You can also choose a shadow version on your drawing side to help you out. You can erase the character if you feel you could have done better, if not you hit the button to move forward to grading. It grades based on a lot of things, stroke order, spacing and proportioning, and so on. You can view tips and actions that will improve your writing and choose to redraw or move onto the next character in line. At any time you can leave this section.

The difference between kana and kanji however is that you will see a small book icon on the kanji character’s screens. This basically opens up a little mini menu that gives you helpful information about the kanji. You get readings, meanings, and vocabulary words in sentences. Its a pretty helpful tool if you’re still learning about kanji.

Honestly I’ve used this section more than any other section to start off with, due to the fact that at the time my Japanese was not advanced enough to move onto the other sections. Navigating to this section is really easy and does not require you to know Japanese at all. Fiddling around with buttons will not mess you up in this section either.

Drill (どりる)

I’m not sure if these sections are the same in both versions, so I will be explaining the version that I specifically linked. This section starts off with 6 options.And then within each option you have the chance to get a tutorial, or to begin. From there you will have additional options. They’re basically school levels, the top is the lowest school grade and last in the top school grade. So the more kanji you know (if you base it on school level) the higher student level you’ll want to pick.

Many of them will have the book icon on the right hand side which will give more information about the kanji involved.

漢字（かんじ）- kanji – The explanation is pretty simple, you are given a sentence with a blank, and you will see the kana for it, you write the appropriate kanji. Sometimes you can even have multiple entries in one sentence to figure out.

部首　（ぶしゅ）- radical – Basically this one will show a kanji, and a part of it will be in red. You have to choose the name for the radical. I’m not sure if this is really helpful, unless you’re planning to be a guru of kanji.

類義語　（るいぎご）- synonym – This game is a stretch your mind game, it basically gives you a word, then you’re suppose to come up with a word that is similar in meaning when it only gives you a part of the word and the sounds. Sometimes I cheat and use a dictionary to help me!

対義語 （たいぎご）- antonym – This game is just like the previous one, except it deals with opposites. Lots of fun! These two really help create word combos in your head!

四字熟語 （よじじゅくご） – four-character idiomatic compounds – In this example you’ll be given a 4 character idiomatic compound with a kanji missing. with the provided kana, your job is to figure out the kanji that fits. This is difficult! Regardless if you get it right or wrong, you will get information on the compound.

熟語構成　（じゅくごこうせい） – idiom configuration – honestly, I have no idea what this is about! haha. From what I gather from the game, you choose one of 5 options, アイウエオ, and each are…explanations like, the two kanji’s conflict, or are the same, or so and so forth. Not sure AT ALL…so if anyone has insight on this section of the game, post away. I’ve never really played this section much at all.

Last you have the third option, as if those fun drills and information wasn’t enough!

Measuring Kanken (漢検対策)

This section is kind of a wrapping it up tester. If you select the bottom of the two options available you can set your grade level. Mine I think is set to 1. It basically reduces the difficulty of kanji (in terms of meaning for schooling in the Japanese system) and often has simple concepts. This testing is basically a review. It shows you the kanji in a sentence and you have to figure out the sounds (kana) associated with the red lined part. You can also view stats on the kanji you’ve learned and you can exit out with the bottom green option.

While I suppose some can argue that this game isn’t a ‘game’ I consider it a game since I play it on my ds. Nothing says lets get it on, Kanji! like a ds. If you didn’t know, DS is a non region coded device and can play games from Japan without any special requirements. You can also set the DS into the Japanese language. Overall this game as been a go to for fun. The stylus can be a little awkward if you’re not use to writing with one, but I got over that really quickly early on. I also noticed that knowing stroke order allows me to read calligraphy easier.

Hope you enjoyed this month review of a game for Kanji! Stay tuned next month for a prominent or made up game!

 

Kanjirific Game of the Month (January)

Hello all! On a side note, thank you for all those votes. At the end of the month I will share the results and tell you about the blogs coming up that reflect your votes. Every month I will be introducing a game that I’ve made up that helps me in my learning endeavors. I play lots of games because it makes a lot of fun. While for some the initial start up is a little time consuming, the over all fun in the long run is worth it.

As for this post on this wonderful Friday, its all about a kanji game that I created. Now there is a chance that someone already does this out there and all but as far as I know, I’ve never heard of it outside of my silly brain. So here goes!

Things you need:

• writing utensil
• something to write on
• your brain!

Optional:

• graph paper makes it a little easier to write nicer kanji
• kanji dictionary

I myself personally use graph paper or scrap paper when playing by myself. When my sister was in town we used her fancy Lenovo Thinkpad and OneNote (which has the ability to make the screen look like graph paper for when you write on it). But neither do you need fancy nor graph paper. I’ve played this game on concrete with chalk even so there is no particular do’s and don’t's when it comes to this game in terms of getting the kanji down. You could even do it in your head or on your hand!

You can play this game as a single person against yourself, or multi-player. There is no limit to the number of people who can play this game.

How to Play! Single Player Mode

1. Think of a kanji, and write it down.
2. Say its meaning.
3. Now you must choose an element. As you can see with the picture to the right of the kanji chant, there are two available elements to use. If you do not follow RTK then it is perfectly fine to think of it in terms of Radicals instead.
4. Once you have the element of choice, (In this case we choose the element: Mouth) you then form a new kanji you know from that element. In this particular case you can either choose to think of it in three separate elements or just two. Either way is fine as long as you’re not dissecting the kanji down too far.
5. Simply continue this until you stump yourself and can no longer think of anymore kanji.  Tally your score of kanji written down and pat yourself on the back. Try to break your score next time!

Here is an example of how single player may look when starting out.

As you can see, you simply bring an element over to the next kanji in line, and go forth! Sometimes I’ve had to stop playing before I even get to stump myself. You do not need to worry about writing in super cool fashion but do try your best to follow correct stroke order. I’ll write a post on why I feel this is important for your journey in learning Japanese later.

How to Play! Multi-Player Mode

1. Decide by whatever method possible, who goes first, second, so forth and so on.
2. Player One: Think of a kanji, and write it down. Say the meaning.
3. Player Two: Pick an element from the kanji that player one wrote down. In this case both mouth and sun are acceptable options to choose from.
4. Player Two: Form a kanji from an element Player One used, write it down, and say its meaning.
5. Player One/Three: Pick an element from the kanji that Player Two wrote down. In this case there are two elements to choose from: Sun and Moon.
6. Continue to cycle through players until someone gets stumped. The player who stumps the other gets a point. See who can get the most points!

Here is an example of how multi-player with two players may look like when starting out.

As you can see, simply bringing an element over to the next kanji is all anyone has to worry about. You don’t have to be simple, but you don’t have to be complex either. Again, don’t worry about your handwriting as much as you worry about stroke order. When Pandachan and I play, we often do help each other out if our order or kanji is wrong, rather than being meanies who doesn’t accept the kanji.

I also highlighted the elements each of us used in the first 5 to help you if you’re still not seeing how we used elements. Pandachan has a significantly less amount of knowledge when it comes to kanji, because of that, I tend to make sure there is always an element in my kanji she can use. It doesn’t stop us from having a lot of fun either, so don’t worry if you and your friend aren’t at the same speed of kanji learned.

Dreaded Rules of the Game

1. No Repeat Kanji! If your game gets long (like mine) its especially important to not repeat. Its all about stretching those brain muscles.
2. Kanji should be written in correct stroke order if at all possible. (looking up stroke order is fine, since its a learning process, but if you can help it, try not to!)
3. Modification of elements allow. Here are some examples of what I mean:

There are more modification than this, but its just a handful to think about. Pretty much its a modification as long as the element is used in the story of the next kanji. (Heisig people know what I’m talking about, as for those doing official Radicals, I’m not sure how those are set up, and may be slightly different. Just keep consistent with your mod rules.).

You can also use drops and lines even if they are part of other elements

In the case of One (floor, ceiling) and the vertical line (walking stick) you can carry them across many kanji.

Have fun! And questions or comments about the game, post below!

 

Fail Boating my Tadoku

hurmph!

 

I suppose I really shouldn’t probably openly admit it, but I’ve been fail boating Tadoku so far this month. Its almost halfway through and I feel really disappointed in myself.

In one way though, I don’t! I’m back in school for those who can’t remember or don’t know. I’ve not been in school in lets just say a long time, so a lot of studying must be done to keep up with the young bloods in class and I guess I’ve just made it more important than reading here or there. Lately I’ve been having some more fun times with my daughter. I must figure out how to incorporate Japanese into outdoor play time too. I’ll think really hard, test some stuff out, then post up!

I’m thinking….chalk kanji time! I’ve devised a little game that I’ll talk about in another post, so stay tuned. Other than that I’m at a loss as to when I’m suppose to get reading in. I even woke up at 6:30 this morning to give myself some time and Vivian decided to wake up early too! Still getting in some Japanese shows with her, but she’s a bullet train and energizer bunny rolled into one!

So my plan is to humbly finish out the contest with much more modest goals, that are perhaps a ton more realistic given my situation.

I can’t wait till Vivian is old enough to start cooking. I have devious plans for Japanese good fun for you guys at that point!

 

End of Tadoku Summary and Update

This session of Tadoku was way more successful than my previous ones. As my daughter is getting older she doesn’t want to participate in reading Japanese with me. She doesn’t seem to mind English as much, but she likes to pretend to read herself or pulls the books from me mid way through to say she’s done reading that particular book. I enjoyed this round more though and I found that I could read a lot faster than before. This was kinda of encouraging and made it so that I read more I think. I think I also did my best to not read to difficult text and not get hung up on things I didn’t know. Finding out though that I knew more than last time was also a great boost.

I was really surprised by my enjoyment of this really ugly drawn gory manga. I just happened to stumble upon it and decided to read it for kicks and giggles. I think the genre was more comical to me than it was intended to be, but I enjoyed it a good bit. There is still a lot left but it is really heavy in the kanji department and takes me time.

Lately it has been a lot harder juggling the balance of playing with my daughter, getting things done, wanting to study, and now soon school stuff to boot. I’m not sure if I’ve lost my mind trying to do all this, but I’m going to try haha! I’ve also decided that I wouldn’t teach Japanese to my daughter. While I’ll still use a phrase here or there with her, I decided it would be best for her to learn from more native sources. She might learn a handful of vocabulary but that will probably be it. I’m kinda sad that a good portion of the videos my daughter liked to watch on youtube have been removed. They were her favorites and there has not been any other versions of the same nursery songs that she’s liked as much as those. I think I’ll try to find them through amazon, since it was apart of a series or something to that effect.

Well off to do household craziness.

 

謹んで初春のお慶びを申し上げます to RMOD!

Happy New Year!

This year we get to kick it off with some awesome RMOD! If you’ve not heard of this cool cat before you need to jump on board. Contest is simple: Read Japanese! Here are some links to information to get you started:

RMOD Official Page! and Twitter!

For those who are AJATT + members Here is a Post!

LordSilent has been working harder than ever to make it all streamline and easier to keep track of, plus the rules have been changed a little here and there, but overall the contest has the same reasoning behind it. Spark up your Japanese, gain some confidence, beat the pants off of others! Brag about it and trash talk, then walk away better than you were before! repeat 3 months later .

Last time my goal was a measly 100, which I slammed by 60 more points! This month I’m doubling my ante to 200. There isn’t any holidays and family outings or such that will get in my way, besides the normal day to day stuff. So time to break out the big guns!

I must admit though I am excited about the July Tadoku, because I’ll have gotten a good amount of books from my crazy Book Trip to Atlanta, GA! Well anyhow, I’ll be utilizing the web like nuts and enjoying lots of NicoNico! Good Luck Everyone and lets kick some reading butt!

 

 

Mikoto’s Music Madness…yeah :D

MMM…yeah, Okay, so perhaps it might be a lame name for a contest, but I really couldn’t think of anything more snazzy, so You’ll just Have To Deal.

I really enjoyed ReadMOD contest hosted by Lordsilent, and it made me think, how about using a similar concept to and apply it to music? So that’s exactly what this contest is about.Though I also recommend doing the every few months ReadMod contest too.

So MMM is a contest meant to help people get Japanese under their thumb by learning to sing their favorite music, running the whole month of November. You get to learn idioms, phrases, and its a lot easier to remember things to tunes that invoke great emotion.

Also as a plus, for all those planning to go to Japan, Karaoke is a huge pastime, and what better than to have a slew of songs under your belt! In fact, that’s the ultimate goal you’re shooting for, is karaoke or a Capella version of your song! So now that you got the idea, lets show you the points system.

Points:

3 pt for each song you already know sung along with while looking at words
5 pt for each song you already know sung along with while not looking at words
15 pt for each song you already know Karaoke or A Capella style

1 pt. for each line new in a song, sung while looking at the words *
5 pt for each line in a new song, sung while not looking at the words*
10 pt. for each new song sung along with while looking at words.*
30 pt. for each new song sung along with while not looking at words.*
50 pt for each new song sung with Karaoke version or A Capella*

Points stack, so you can defiantly get some good points going. Of course those with a * can only be earned once per new song. A new song is any song that you’ve never attempted to learn by reading the words for. So, if you have a song you’ve listened to a lot, but you never looked the words up for, then yes, its considered new. If you’ve looked up even one line, its not considered new.

All reading must be done in Kanji and Kana. No lines count if learned through romaji. English lines do not count, sorry. I highly recommend using an srs to help you, and looking up meanings here and there so you know what you’re singing.

This means you’ll earn quite a number of points trying to reach the Karaoke/A Capella style, and then even more if you sing it again and again. (which just makes you better )

For the sake of the contest, honor system does hold. Though we’d love youtube type videos of your efforts to show! There is no glory prize save for your grand abilities shining through, some confidence, and of course, karaoke magic abilities!

Please sign up in the comments here or on twitter. I might get a hashtag setup, not sure at this point, but those details will be wrapped up before the start of the contest. I hope that even if you feel busy, just 1 line is better than none!

If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know! Otherwise, I hope to see ya in the Contest!

 

Halfway(ish) Read More or Die Contest

Hiya everyone, I know I said my next post would be about mental play, but well, I LIED! The Horror! So anyhow, I really wanted to talk about what’s been happening as I’ve progressed through the contest and my days here of late.

For all those who aren’t up to speed on the RMOD contest, well shame on you, check it out and its not to late to start participating!

I started the month out strong. I was excited as it was my first time really hankering down for reading. Then I got sick. Man, what a looser I am! haha, Not! anyhow, sick and then my daughter caught it from me. Luckily papa was spared the horribleness of sick land. Afterward it seems like my reading hasn’t picked back up to that excitement, but that’s so not the case.

When I first started out there was a lot I didn’t really get. Hey, that happens when you’re doing something new. But as I was getting about 60 pages, I was noticing more patterns and things were starting to click with things I learned through listening immersion. This was exciting for me, those little pathways connecting and making so much sense, and funny enough, I’ve learned new connection phrases by reading alone, even though I’m not sure what they mean exactly, I’m getting the general gist.

I’ve also picked up a lot of new vocab, even while forcing myself to NOT look up much, I’m still picking up a lot. It seems this helped fuel more motivation. When I got sick, my brain went all fuzzy, and I kept reading. My speed overall has tremendously picked up. The same page takes way less time than a mere 100 or so pages ago, so I wasn’t to sad that I slowed down while sick.

After I got better, all that motivation and excitement rolled back into me almost immediately. It rolled into the form of intense studying! I am not reading as much technically in the sense of from a book, but I’m reading a lot from studying (though it doesn’t count!) and as I read more, and see more, and connect more, man, I’ll be darned if I don’t find myself rearing for more studying action. I take advantage of this like a fat police man takes advantage of doughnut sales!

OH HECK YEAH BALL OF MOTIVATION!

I’m not sure if this will happen to you guys (or is happening if you’re participating) however, if you maybe like me possessed a great love of reading to begin with, might. I’m reading right now a book intended for maybe middle/high schoolers, its not causing me trouble. I recommend you read something that will interest you over something that wont. I also recommend furigana if possible. It really helps keep speed when moving along, and keeps the ball rolling.

So yeah, here on this 18th day I find myself a highly motivated reader. I hope that you all have reached the same success and happiness from your reading. I know I’m only in 17th place at this moment, but its great to know that the purpose of this contest has already started working for me! My friends laughed at me when I told them that there was no prize one was aiming for (like a gift or whatnot), however I’ve already gotten a surprise considering the large motivational bundle of joy I’ve received!

Keep up the reading and Good luck fellow and future RMOD participants!

 

How to Study When You’re Ill

We’ve all been there. Tired, runny nose, sore throat, groggy head, lack of energy, or whatever else that may be ailing you. Its really hard to get studying done when you’re sick. Its hard to even think about wanting to study. But if you’re one of those guilt ridden people who just has to study, here are some tips that can give you at least something of a fix.

If you’re dead or dying: My mother only allowed me to miss school if I was dead or dying. In her eyes this meant that you had to be puking your brains out, or so nauseous you couldn’t stand up and walk straight (and maybe if I was really dying she wouldn’t, who knows!). Anyhow, this is the most difficult state to work with. It’s the “you’re so bad off, you wish you were offed” state. When in this state, kiss anything like srs goodbye. You’ll only hurt your brain trying to read when reading itself would make you feel worse. When in this state, you can also kiss anything drill or higher function off. This would also apply if you’re simply having a hard time using your eyes (like having swollen or pink eyes). So what types can you do?

Try music, tv in the background, a radio statio, ect. For the most part you can just sit there and be pitiful while it does all the work. This may require you to get up a moment and put on some headphones, or maybe you can even pout to Mama and she’ll do it for you. The great thing about this is you can go from passive to proactive whenever you feel you can reach that higher level of brain function with some games.

Name it Game

Ha Ha! Marvel at my ingenious naming of a game! ( /cough ). Ehem, anyhow. When ever you’re feeling up to it there are various games you can try out while listening to things. Try to listen to as many words you can that start with “x” sound. You could also make it into how many words with “x” ending do you hear. です。まして。ます。and so on are really common endings and listing for these types of words can help you start breaking apart what you hear. You could also listen out for words you know, or have heard before during your immersion. Its a really simple way to just lay back and enjoy your immersion without having to bust a sweat when you’re not feeling well. This can also extend to items in your room. Name some objects, if you don’t know what any of them are, tuck that away in your brain and look it up when you’re able to read without the world spinning.

Imaginary Japanese People Love Me

If you’re advanced enough, or even if you wanted to use very basic Japanese with some grunting, then you can play another really easy going game. Try not to think too hard either. But imagine some Japanese hottie (male or female depending on what you want, or even a talking fuzzy cat thing! ) leaning over you, taking care of you, and pretend to talk to them. Imagine questions they’d ask, or visa versa. Do you know how to tell them you’re feeling ill in Japanese? Aha! If you don’t, then tuck that away for later on. Its important that if you plan to go to Japan, you might wanna know how to tell the doctor what you’re exactly feeling. You don’t wanna walk away with foot ointment when you need stitches!

I Ain’t Dying, but I Sure Don’t Feel Like Trying:

You can probably figure out from now I am from the south. Whenever you’re in that in between state where you can’t bring your brain to think clearly as well when you’re 100%, or you’re lacking energy to do much, or maybe you’re just sneezing out of your mind in frustration and trying to write kanji down is trying to draw circles with an Etch A Sketch, really hard (unless you’re an Etch A Sketch god like George!). Chances are you can play the first two types of games discussed, but  you can normally take it further, like looking things up that you might not know for fun. Don’t look up what you really don’t care about and don’t worry about remembering it if you don’t want to. When you’re sick, obligation just makes you want to do it far, far less. Really try to stick to FUN ONLY activities, otherwise you might make studying after you get better seem worse off than it really is anyways.

You’re a Frumpy Grumpy

Chances are you don’t want to bothered much, so lay off stressful conversations with real Japanese speakers, unless they totally can handle muffled sick sounding gibbering that wont stress you out. If they go “huh?” “what?” or the likes more than a few times, then I’d probably just hold off for then. Chatting online can still be stressful, but if you’re feeling up to it, then why not? You can try to turn that Frown Upside Down though with video games. Get something that’s fun, easy, simple, and can be paused/stopped at any time. This isn’t time to bust out your long time play RPG game but rather something cute and simple like this spot the difference game, or ぽろろんっ！ドコモダケDS. You don’t have to know a lot of Japanese to get by in these games, so you can do more enjoying while still getting some immersion in there.

SRS While Sick

If you’re one of those people who must do the srs, lives for the srs, and it is fun, then by all means do it. I tend to find I drift about 5 or 10 cards though, and my times in answering is a lot more sluggish. Its okay if you’re lagging, its okay if you completely miss. When you’re sick, it just happens that way it seems, even with things you know you knew. So it you want to chalk it up to sick, pass the card. Don’t be hard on yourself at this point and time. Passing it when you felt you knew it even though your brain didn’t pull it up isn’t going to hurt you anyways. It’ll pop up again soon enough again. I don’t recommend adding to your SRS while sick. I forget which studies I read, but they say that trying to learn knew stuff when sick just doesn’t work out well. You don’t want to force yourself if you’re truly feeling bad.

My Head Is Going to POP!

If you’re like my older sister and you suffer from migraines, wow, I feel sorry for you right there. Luckily, I don’t get them, so my advice here follows along what my sister tells me its like. You don’t want music, noise, no light, no nothing. Void feels just about right. Well, with nothing to do in that void but be in pain, why not use the brain? She never told me her brain stopped working, and distracting it might help you cope with some of that pain. You can play the pretend conversation game, just don’t talk aloud, since that’ll probably just hurt your head, instead keep it inside like you’re a mental person. You could even pretend to see objects and name them. Just name what you know, don’t try to be creative, don’t try to strain the brain and cause more pain. ooooh I can’t believe i just did that. Nerd rhyming moment there.

Speaking of Rhymes!

Just let Japanese flow over and through you in whatever way brings no pain, in fact, some people have told me they recite nursery rhymes slowly over and over in their head to cope with the pain. If that is your case, go learn those now! They’re so easy, so you can be prepared when the time comes. There are lots of them, so just do some searching around on google and youtube and you’ll be loaded down with more than you can handle!

I’m In Pain and It’s Not My Brain!

If your illness just happens to be physical pain, this can sometimes distract the brain enough to cause some problems. Whether it be a broken leg or Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, there can be some major issues. If you’ve lost the use of your hands, there are plenty of things you can do still. Standard immersion is still a go, but if you wanna really get to studying but the pain seems to get in your way, try taking a relaxing bath while doing the following:

Mental Play

I will touch on the subject of Mental Play a lot more in my very next article because this is so very important in life. I’ve been mental playing since I was old enough to establish thoughts in my head, and though I didn’t know it was called something, it lent  me the ability to do many things seemingly quicker than those around me. So in short, Mental Play for language learning is simply imagining using the language without the actual using it. I know that seems odd, but here’s a rundown example of a person who can’t write because of their pain and wants to practice some kanji.

You start out by imagining the kanji you want to write out in your head, its overall shape in full. In your mind imagine you’re grabbing a pen/pencil and about to write it out below/beside the one you’re already imagining. Feel the pen in your hand, how it always feels, (is the casing soft/hard/short/long?), and begin to draw it in your mind. Even think about the pressure you apply to the paper when you do it. After every step, admire your beautiful kanji and think about images that relate to it. You could think about a campfire if you’re doing the 火 kanji, whatever fancy that comes to you. Don’t think about the English, but if you’re doing Heisig then thinking about the keyword could be there for a moment just to help you with his method. You could even think about each of the separate elements/radicals, however you’d like. Once you’re satisfied in your mind that you’ve written the most beautiful looking kanji in the world, move on to your next one.

I know it may sound really looney, but Mental Play makes a big difference, and you don’t have to worry about hurting yourself if you’re in some serious pain. You may not be able to sit at your desk if your back is hurting, so you can just print out some kanji on a paper (or look at your poster) and just pick and choose at random what you want to imagine writing. I guarantee that your ability to write them will improve much greater when you do this, even over writing normally, if you do it thoroughly.

You can use Mental Play for all sorts of things. You can imagine hearing people speak, and speaking back at them, reading and writing personal notes, ect. There really isn’t a limit.

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I hope that I’ve given you some good ideas to use when you’re down for count. I try my best to do at least a little something when I’m feeling sick. I am recovering actually as I type this. I had a head cold over the last two/three days that really put a stick in my studying, but I feel good that I didn’t give up trying to do at least a little something here and there to keep connected to Japanese. Good Luck, and Feel Better if you’re ill too!

And you don’t have to be sick to do these games either!

 

Day One of Contest is Here!

Read or Die! Day One

Welcome to August! what a great month right? I know its going to be great for me, as I’m starting it off kicking towards my simple bare minimum goal of 100 pages. If you’re not in the know, check out this post.

I started today with some article reading on Yomiuri Online. I have some guidelines for myself too, which a lot of people might not have considered for themselves. So here is how I go about reading.

1) I do an overall skim of the words, the flow. Sometimes I feel a little intimidated if there is a lot of kanji I don’ t know, so I try to use this moment to pep talk myself so I approach this with good positive feelings versus negative.

2) Either way, I get to reading and that’s aloud when possible. Since I’m still a newbie in world of sounds for kanji I use the English meanings (unless there is furigana or such). Since I know kana, I speak them. So overall I can get a weird effect, which will end as I learn the sounds for the kanji (and has ended for a few that I know). So a sentence “私が行きましょう”　is read like  “わたしが go きましょう”. Though I know that 行き is said いき, and I can read that whole sentence, I just want to show you how I read kanji I don’t know. If the kanji is completely new to me, I don’t worry about it, I just look at it, look at its shapes and such and then move on.

3) I refuse to have a dictionary attached to my hip. I do not allow myself to look up more than one word per page. This is important to me because I like to learn things in context, make my brain work. Plus I find that the more I look up, the more boring it feels, and then I don’t want to read anymore. This also allows me to value what I look up even more. I tend to look up something that I’ve seen a lot as well versus something I’ve only seen once.

That’s pretty much how I tackle reading right now. As for meaning, and understanding. Well, I don’t understand a good portion of what I’m reading as a native would and that’s fine. I don’t try to set some ridiculous goal for understanding while I’m still so new to the world of reading.

My favorite moments are when I’ve learned things through immersion and then I read them later on. Its fun when those little tiny moments click and there is no English involved whatsoever. This is why I also don’t look much up at this point. I’d rather be searching in mostly Jp only dictionaries when I do.

Also as a general outline I don’t skim just yet. I don’t really even skim in English either. I might not go through a book as fast, but I don’t mind that. I retain lots of details about what I read, and I do a lot of critical and imaginative thinking after I’ve read something. At this newbish point, I do not skim in Japanese because I notice that I don’t really read at all, I’m just looking at the characters as if they’re pictures, which is weird to me and only beneficial if I’m looking at Japanese in an aesthetic way.

But boy do I read a lot. It’s been the hardest part of AJATT to stop my obsessive English reading. I can’t wait for me to feel good in Japanese reading like I do for English because I know I’ll be hooked for good. Thank god for the internet right now, as it is my primary source for Japanese reading. I don’t possess the fundage to buy a bunch of books in Japanese just yet, so as it stands, go go internet! Don’t feel trapped just because you can’t afford bound books, though I admit I like reading them a lot more than the internet.

As for this contest, I’ll be doing a lot of reading from a forum listing. Sheetz, a user of the How to Learn any Language Forum, compiled a list of both audio and reading materials for studiers of Japanese. The reading materials is more classic in nature like “The Gift of the Magi”. Its a great way to hear and read at the same time, so go check it out.

Also the site かんこみえ has lots of Japanese stories with audio and pictures in flash form. Awesome way to kick off your first day in the Read Or Die contest! Good luck guys and lets kick some butt!