Time flies! (Third Cycle Goal Statement)

It's already the end of the Second Cycle??　速かった！速すぎる！ I didn't see time go at all...?

Reflection on the Second Cycle of Pronunciation Exercises:

I went to the Japanese language table at least once a week every week, except this week (I've been busy for several reasons – actually I don't think I ate dinner in the dining hall more than once this week). I also watched some anime but not much. However, I watched a lot of Japanese movies instead. I also completely failed at doing "official" shadowing. Overall, this cycle hasn't been as successful as the last in terms of doing what I planned to do. But I got a lot of practice during Thanksgiving break because I hung out with my roommate and other JSA members (EASの大学院生とJSAのメンバーとカラオケにいって六時間ぐらい歌って初めでしりとりをしました)。I think I improved a lot, especially in terms of fulfilling my goal – speaking faster and more naturally.

Third Cycle of Pronunciation Exercises:

My goal for the rest of the semester will be to stop randomly changing from one level of speech to another. I want to reduce the (very frequent) awkward moments when I realize I've been using informal speech with a teacher or formal speech with my friends. Because this is also relevant to Korean, it is a very important exercise. What I do all the time, especially, is answering うん instead of はい or いいえ. (Although at least it seems that's not that bad in Japanese. It seems to be a bit weird in Korean.)

In terms of concrete activities, I think I will repeat my goals from last time: shadowing (hopefully I will have more time to do it this time), going to Japanese language table and talking more there, and using Japanese with my friends. I will try to watch more anime/movies because those are very useful to understand when to use formal/informal speech.