Been practicing pronunciation

Well no progress on dakuten yet, but, I'm fairly happy with my pronunciation even the dreaded ら り る れ ろ and I can recognise a few more kana now

When I've had a few moments to spare I've been working on a representation of an ema (絵馬 ）for a swap over on Swap--bot for the Shinto swapping group

We are also swapping omamori and having an e-swap to learn more about shimenawa.  It would be great if some more people were in the group as it seems to be just myself nd the founder swapping lol

So, even though my Japanese language hasn't progressed a whole lot, I have still been learning about one of the most fascinating (to me anyway) areas in Japan, the beautiful shrines.

Tracey xxxx

Stickers and dakuten

Well now I have a good idea (I think) of the pronunciation of らり る れ ろ it's time to move on to dakuten which looks like fun. Will update once I know what it is properly.

 Got some stickers for the keyboard so I don't have to guess which I press for a certain kana. Might help my memory of them too

 Tracey xxx

Pronunciation problems are over

Yay I think I may have cracked it thanks to a lovely person on textfugu forum chat sending me a link to this amazing video

So fingers crossed I can move on.

Any fellow scousers reading this? Just wondering if you will be at Etsu  for the Japanese fun day/fundraiser tomorrow. Looks like it will be worth a visit so hoping to go with little miss and the hubby, maybe even the sister.

Tracey xxx

Aaargh evil pronunciation

Yes I'm having great fun trying to say　ら り る れ ろ even though Textfugu has really clear instructions and is a great help (season 1 chapter 3:8) All I've managed is to bite my tongue several times. Maybe if I get my tongue pierced it would help (seriously do you think it would?) So I've left it today. Kinda doesn't help that when I try practising pronunciation either hubby starts goofing off or either of them start shouting 'What's up? Did you call me?'

 Off to bang head against brick wall and see if I can say anything resonably coherent after that

 Tracey xxxx

 P.S hubby is generally pretty good but has his moments of dorkness

Added fun links and still have more but I need a cuppa so will have to wait 

Nothing much to say

I have been practicing a lot and can recognise a few more kana now. I'm finding it harder to blog about it than actually study.  Did have a look and see if I could take JLPT here (in the distant future) but it is only offered in London so I guess that is out. Not like I need to prove to anyone but myself anyways.

 I'm off to get some interesting links for my sidebar

 Traceyxxx

Easter Sunday here

So had to be a good daughter and go see my folks but managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of study, was trying for 1 hour but my darling little girl decided she just had to tell me how much she dislikes something (never mind she greeted me with the same rant this morning)


Anyway I feel quite happy with the pronunciation of 　あ　い　う　え　お　now and can even recognise a few more. Need to work out how to type them yet though (damn I think I need to shop *yay*)


Tracey xxx

First 5

Well I'm pretty sure I can deal with the pronunciation of these so I guess putting it in my blog would be a good idea.

 あ - a  which is said ah like in car

い - i  which is said ee like in key


う- u which is said  oooh like moo

え - e which is said eh like in edge

お - o which is said oh like in Joe

Finally I can persuade my laptop to type hiragana as well. Might make life easier 

Tracey xxx

4 Alphabets (faints)

Ok technically only 3 since 'Romaji' is pretty much useless and I know it already (clever me lol)

I knew there was 'hiragana', 'katakana' and 'kanji' but couldn't work out what the hell each was for and why anyone would need all 3. I have learnt a few things though.

Hiragana is curvy and really quite pretty to look at (I tried writing it by hand and it's a b***h though). It's the basic alphabet for learning pronunciation and for useful 'joining' words (and etc)
It's used when the kanji for a word is really difficult (in my case always then lol) or there isn't a kanji for the word.
It's used for suffixes and context for verbs and adjectives.

Katakana is the angular style but with the same pronunciation (I'm thinking male cousin of the pretty hiragana silly I know) and is used for foreign words (I guess they don't often have kanji for them either)
Can be used to show emphasis and for onomatopoeic words. Is also used on menus (sometimes) So long as I can recognise plain rice and noodles I should be fine (way too picky an eater)

Kanji will no doubt be my arch nemesis whilst I am learning. Right now it scares the crap outta me and it's pretty much essential too since most vocabulary uses kanji.

Right now I'm thinking will this really be worth it or should I go the route of stereotypical Brit abroad and rely on shouting. Damn scary kanji. Well Imma beat the crap outta you and learn this damn language, what do you make of that?
Not too good at shouting anyways so I guess learning the language would be best.

Tracey xxx

I really will keep up with this one

Well I hope to visit Japan one day and I rally would like to have a reasonably sentient conversation when I go, so I need to learn Japanese. That's only part of my reason for learning Japanese I have several others but I'll get to them one day (maybe)

The main reason for this blog about my learning is so those folks in the blogiverse can give me a much needed kick up the rear when I slack off (I'm a typically flighty gemini at times) So send me threatening messages if I don't post weekly asking what the heck I'm doing (please). This may not be a problem as http://www.textfugu.com seems to have a rational and down to earth way of learning


I will pretty this up soon but I just wanted to get it started today.

Tracey xxx