Hello, everyone. Yes, all four of you.
There is the question of why I decided to study this language, which I will answer in accordance with my assignment.
Primarily, I decided to study Japanese because it seemed fun.
While it would be nice to have a profound and deeply personal reason to study the language, the truth of the matter is that I could have also chosen to take classes on German or furthered my knowledge of Chinese if I were simply concerned about the utility of the language. Really, Japanese was appealing because it just seemed interesting—the grammatical structure is completely unlike anything I'd seen before in my studies, and the culture and history of the nation intriguing for a host of other reasons.
Of course, there are a few additional motives behind this decision: my decidedly incomplete knowledge of the Chinese language egged me towards studying it and similar languages (even though it and Japanese aren't technically "genealogically related" to each other), for instance. Ultimately though, I would say that the reason I want to study Japanese is because I want to study Japanese.
On that terribly lame note, I should briefly address the rest of the assignment.
What am I excited about?
I suppose that would be learning the language; is that not why I am in the class to begin with? Although, to be fair, I am not entirely sure what part of the language I am most excited to learn about, and of course there is the cultural aspect of everything (although, I suspect that this will not be a massive component of the first semester's lessons).
What did I find difficult up to this point?
With learning any language there comes the task of shoveling down pages upon pages of new vocabulary. Of course, this is not the easiest task in the world, but I feel as if it is easier to do in Japanese than, say, Spanish (another language which I have studied in a formal capacity). I would like to accredit this ease of digestion to the fact that a lot of the more complex words are made up of combinations of simpler terms and kanji which have their own, related meanings. However, it could also be that this is simply the easy beginning, and a world of pain awaits me beyond the next few weeks. I'd like to think that's not the case. (I hope that's not the case.)
At any rate, I look forward to studying Japanese alongside my peers.
It will be a time.
Hello, I'm Yuki Watanabe, 19 years old. I'm a first year student of Ritsumeikan University.
ReplyDeleteMy major is international business. I live in Shiga, which has the biggest lake in Japan. I'm glad to exchange a blog with you. My dream is to work with foreign people, so I study English hard.
Thank you.
Hello, Yuki! Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and comment. Your comment is pretty well-written, so I believe you when you say you're studying English hard. With that, as a fellow first year, I would like to say good luck in your studies!
DeleteHi, Nathaniel! I am grad to hear that! I will do my best, but English is difficult for me, especially grammer and vocabulary.
DeleteHave you been to Japan before? What Japanese food do you like?
Thank you.
Hi, Yuki! English really is a weird language when it comes to grammar rules, but I believe that as long as you practice, you should be able to improve greatly. Vocabulary is also something that you can learn as you talk to more people who speak in different ways.
DeleteI have only been to Japan briefly, so I do not have too much experience with the country. I would like to go there again for a longer period of time as a student at some point. In terms of food, I especially like カレーライス and とんかつ.
Have you ever traveled outside of Japan? Are you thinking of working in another country or staying in Japan after university?
I'm looking forward to your response!
Hey Nathaniel! It was interesting that you decided to learn Japanese because it seemed fun. I thought you learned Japanese before due to your fluent talking. Yeah totally agreed that there will be pain in the next few weeks lol, but you will do fine cause if you know Chinese, kanji is easier than hiragana (I think🤔 ).
ReplyDeleteHello, Tom! I never actually learned to properly read and write in Chinese, so hiragana is actually easier in my opinion. Although, I'm sure we'll all figure out the kanji throughout the year.
DeleteHello Nathaniel! I think you are so proficient in Japanese already because you have a huge vocabulary and you speak so fluently. I agree with Tom and I think once we move into Kanji, the vocabs will start to be less burdensome. However, I do agree it is a lot of work memorizing the grammatical structure and the new vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteHope these few weeks of classes have been fun for you!!
Hello, Cynthia! I honestly have no idea how learning the kanji will influence the difficulty of the vocab, so I hope you are correct. Anyway, the classes have been fun so far, so everything will probably be fine!
DeleteThis is so funny. I genuinely enjoyed reading this.
ReplyDeleteI also decided to take Japanese not because it seemed practical, but because it seemed fun. Similar to what you were saying, I considered pursuing something more practical like Spanish or taking more Chinese, but Japanese just fascinated me—partially because it was so different, but partially because of the cultural aspect of it. So I definitely relate to a lot of what you said.
Also, I really admire your pronunciation and ability to speak Japanese.
Hello, Justin! I'm glad that it was at least not boring to read this post, since it is a bit long-winded. At any rate, fun is fun, but Japan is also a rather large economy at the moment, so maybe it is useful after all. Regardless, I suppose we will just have to see what comes of it, right?
DeleteYou should never feel the need to apologize for studying something for its own sake. I think that the beauty of the liberal arts is that it encourages academic curiosity rather than vocational specialization, and that should especially extend to the study of languages. I'm also looking forward to learning more about Japanese history and customs, but think that you're right in saying that we likely won't get very involved with this until we take more advanced classes. Until then, we'll have to make do with the introductory coursework--it will most certainly be a time.
ReplyDeleteHello, Henry! I agree with you regarding the liberal arts; part of the reason one even goes to college is to expand one's scope of knowledge in a variety of fields. Honestly, I'm sort of glad that Columbia decided to enforce a language requirement, since it gives me a "proper" reason to study Japanese. It's nice, I think.
DeleteHi, Nathaniel! Thank you for your advices. I will try it!
ReplyDeleteI have been to Canada and Ireland to study English, and been to Seattle, the US as school trip when I was a high school student.
I would like to work in another country in the future, but I plan on working in Japan after university.
Thank you.
Hi, Yuki! It sounds like you're well-traveled when it comes to your studies. It must have been a little difficult to understand everyone in different parts of the world because of the accents--especially Ireland. I think it's interesting how you've been able to sample the language on all sorts of different continents.
DeleteI know that I am not in a position to correct your English, but I thought I would point out a very small error you had made: we typically treat "advice" as uncountable in day-to-day English. This means a person would say, "Thank you for your advice," even if someone gave that person multiple pieces of advice. I hope you find this helpful!
Hi, Nathaniel!
ReplyDeleteI felt Irish accent is a bit difficult for me to understand because I usually listen American or British English in my dairy life. But it was a good chance to improve my listning skill.
Thank you for correcting my error! I got it that 'advice' is uncountable word. If possible, please inform me when my English is not correct.
Thank you.
Hi Yuki! My name is John Michael, I am in Nathaniel's class。I was reading through your’s and Nathaniel's comments and I couldn't help but think of something a friend of mine told me about how they learned to speak English so well. She said "I used to listen to a lot of American Music and sing along to the songs, even if I didn't know the words"; I just wanted to pass along this advice in hopes that it can help you with pronunciation and understanding accents.
DeleteI personally find different accents to be very difficult to understand, but very pleasant and interesting to listen to! One of my favorite songs by an Irishman is called "Sir Arthur McBride and the Sargent" by Paul Brady. I'm still not sure if I understand every word in the song, hahaha!
がんばっれ！
Hi, John! I'm Yuki. I think listing to different accent is quite interesting, too. Thank you for telling your favourite song, but unfortunately, I haven't heard that song. So, I would like to try to listen to 'Sir Arthur McBride and the Sargent'. Do you have any English song, drama, or movie recommendations? If you have, I would like you to recommend to me.
ReplyDeleteThank you.