For me, learning new vocabulary has always been the hardest part of learning a language. Usually, I have to use the words a lot and often, in order to remember them in the long-term. But when there is no one on your level to practice with, that's really hard to do. A lot of people like to use flash-cards – I've never had the courage to start that endeavor. I tend to write a list of the words I don't know very well and then copy that list over and over again. But I've always wanted to try flashcards, or a computer software that would work like that.
Yesterday, I was introduced to a new website for memorizing new vocabulary. The name is Memrise, and it's amazing. Not only does it work as a flash-card software where you can build your own database of vocab words, it also gives you access to other people's public databases so you can randomly start learning new words and/or new languages. On top of that, it has a very cute system of "growing" your vocabulary like a garden, and each word starts off as a seed and grows up into a flower when you have proven that you know it by answering the randomly generated questions.
It seems that this time I wasn't able to do many of the activities I planned to do. Well, there have only been two weeks of school in this third cycle of PE, so I haven't been able to go to the language table or to talk to my friends in Japanese much. However, I watched quite a lot of Japanese movies (gotta love Continental Airlines' movie selection for flights to Asia), and I feel a lot more confident about my listening ability and even my speaking ability in Japanese.
The more I listened to Japanese in movies, the more I felt like the speed wasn't as intimidating anymore. I also took the opportunity to shadow some sentences as I watched the movies. I think I got more of a feeling for Japanese sentence intonations. Although I didn't see it as a learning activity and didn't do it with a very serious mindset, I think that I learned a lot while enjoying myself, so I think this third cycle was a success.
This is one of the movies I watched on the plane. It's a thirteen hour and a half ride, so that's usually enough time for three or four movies. (Although I do sometimes sleep on the plane, too. =P)
"僕たちは世界を変えることができない。 But, we wanna build a school in Cambodia."
"We can't change the world. But we wanna build a school in Cambodia."
That's the name of the movie. It's a long name... xD
This movie is about a group of university students raising money to build a school in Cambodia. I really liked it, mainly for its theme, but also because it just seemed very "real" – both the story, the acting and the filming.
