十一月のせいかつ

十一月のせいかつはたのしくないです。わたしはとてもいそがしいです。まいばんさん／よじまでべんきょうします。そして、わたしはしいさいnon-profit organizationではたらきます。

ニューヨークはとてもさむいです。わたしはさむい

十二月にクリスマスにわたしはヨーロッパへいきます。

にほんごのクラス

きょうにほんごのクラスはコンピューターラブです。このへやはいつもさむいです。わたしたちはadjectivesをべんきょします。むずかしいべんきょうです。

ふかいせんせいのくろいとしろいドレスはこれい。ふかいせんせいはいいです。そして、しんせつなせんせいです。

もうクラスはおわりました。これから、このへやはしずかです。＾＾

わたしのたんじょうび

きょうはわたしのたんじょうびです。かぞくとばんごはんをたべました。わたしはごはんとにくをたべました。こんばんごご10:30 (じゅうじはん)にともだちにあいます。Koreatownへともだちのくるまでいきます。あしたやすみます。

さくぶん - Self Introduction

はじめまして。わたしはガーステインです。アメリカのニューヨークからきました。かんこくじんです。にじゅうごさいです。わたしはコロンビアだいがくのがくせいです。よんえんせいです。どうぞよろしく。

What constitutes a good blog?

I'm not much of a blogger (I tend to be more private), so I guess since this is a blog for Japanese class, a good blog would somehow hold some relevance to either the language, culture, something we learned, or a thought or idea inspired by something relating to the class. Since I appreciate honesty, whether good or bad, I would also like for the blog (mine, at least) to be honest, even if it's simply venting frustrations.

On a side note, ふかいせんせい、you spoke so much faster today than normal! (Or was it just me?)

Full speed

I've been so tired lately. I feel so worn out and it's only the beginning of the year!

As for にほんご class (does anyone know how to say "class" in Japanese?), I was so happy that I was able to follow ふかいせんせいの lessons during class, but then when we watched the excerpt of the video, I realized that Japanese at regular speed is going to be difficult to understand.

I guess that's true of any language. I've spent some time recently with a group of Danish people and when they speak, it sounds like one really long sentence to me. Figuring out where the word breaks are can be so difficult...Maybe that's what people from abroad think when I talk too (growing up in New York, I've heard that people here are known to speak quickly). Hehe...

First Impressions

こにちは、わたしはみひゅんです。かんこくじんです。にじゅごさいです。

I've forgotten how difficult it is to learn a new language. I remember it being so much easier to learn French and Korean as a child. The alphabet still looks like a mess of squiggles and lines thrown arbitrarily on a page.

I've always thought learning other languages was fun..."cool", for lack of a better word. It always amazed me how sounds form words that an entire society can understand, while to others, it still remains just a sound. I used to get such a thrill from speaking other languages, it was like a code or something.

After taking some time off from school and living in Korea, English itself is an adjustment. I'm excited to learn the basics of Japanese, purely out of curiosity, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester, but it's so much more difficult than I had thought.