P.E. End of Phase 1

大変です〜忘れました　(￣ロ￣|||)

P.E. Phase 1: Reflections

Evaluating my P.E. related activities: 

1. Go to Japanese language table regularly: I've realized that I'm not really free on Monday and Tuesday nights – I've only made it to one Japanese table thus far...
2. Speak to a friend only in Japanese for at least twenty minutes once a week: Key word "only"... I've talked to friends in Japanese more and more throughout the semester though, so this is not a total failure. It's just hard not to switch to Korean, which is much more comfortable for me, and the language we're used to speaking to each other. A major achievement though: last time we spoke, I naturally went into Japanese half-way through the conversation several time. Had to switch back every time there was something I couldn't say though.
3. Take the P.E. exercises seriously and do more than the minimum exercises: This has gone quite well so far.
4. Do some singing shadowing: That was mostly for fun... and it was fun. May or may not try it again.

Evaluating my P.E. goals:

1. To get used to speaking Japanese: I guess this is going well. I want to keep improving my speaking, though.
2. To be able to speak more naturally (without foreign-sounding pauses, using Japanese placeholders): Yep, going well. I'm definitely using a lot of Japanese placeholders nowadays. Next step, use less placeholders in general?
3. To improve my intonation: I guess there was improvement there. The problem is, I really can't tell unless I'm listening to myself, and even then, my mistakes are usually linked to word intonation – so my problem is mostly that I need to learn the correct intonation of words when I learn them and practice saying them a lot.

P.E. Phase 2:

Goal:

To become more comfortable with a broader range of vocabulary in terms of intonation and use in regular conversation. This is really the only concrete goal I have right now (or in broader terms: become more fluent).

Setting Activities:

1. Watch at least one episode of Japanese anime/drama a week. I might start going to anime club again, or just watch drama in my room. This is to get used to hearing new words in context and trying to learn the intonation of new words.

2. Speaking with friends in Japanese whenever possible – even when it's just random sentences in Japanese in the middle of an English conversation. I should be good at that, I used to do that with English all the time.

3. When learning new vocabulary words, practice saying them out loud, and practice saying them in a sentence.

みなさんおやすみ〜　Have some emoji:

(http://kaomojiya.com)

└((´э｀))┘

(o･д･)尸~~おやすみ～♪

（◡ฺ ω◡ฺ）

P.E. Goal and Activities Statement

It's been a while since I have practiced speaking Japanese, although in the past year I have continuously been exposed to it since a lot of my friends, both in Seoul and in Princeton, are Japanese or speak the language. I would say that although my listening skills have improved, my speaking skills have not, and in fact they have probably gone down.

Therefore, my goals for the first part of the semester are:
• To practice speaking a lot in order to get used to speaking Japanese again
• To be able to speak more naturally (without foreign-sounding pauses, using Japanese placeholders)
• To improve my intonation

I will try to do the following activities:
• Go to Japanese language table regularly
• Speak to a friend only in Japanese for at least twenty minutes once a week
• Take the P.E. exercises seriously and do more than the minimum exercises
• Do some singing shadowing (because doing karaoke for a class is pretty amazing, even though I don't really like recording my own voice)

Wrapping It Up (Third Cycle Reflection Statement)

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.

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.

Second Cycle Goal Statement

Goal:
Besides avoiding the ingrained habit of changing the intonation in questions, which I think I can do as long as I consciously think about it for a while, I can't think of specific things that I want to improve about my Japanese pronunciation. That is not to say that my pronunciation is perfect, far from it, but I can't pinpoint any specific problem that I could work on. However, there is something that I can work on improving for my speaking. My Korean teacher has pointed out to me that my problem is often that I speak too slowly because I am always trying to make perfect sentences. As he says, when speaking, I don't always need to use complete, grammatically perfect and complex sentences. It is more important to get used to speaking at a "normal" speed (a speed close to what would be normal for a native speaker) and to be able to sound natural – even when hesitating or not knowing what to say. Although this is harder in Japanese because I don't have as much vocab yet, my goal will be to increase the speed at which I speak, not just the words but sentences in general. This should help with the problem I have of completely forgetting intonations when I am hesitating.


Activities:
I will keep going to language table at least once a week and watching anime, and doing some shadowing of the anime. I will also try to do some "official" shadowing so I can get more feedback on my pronunciation – let's set a goal of one shadowing exercise per week. I will try to speak more at the language tables, and to use more Japanese when talking to my Japanese friends.

たいへん！忘れた！（PE Reflection Statement)

I was supposed to write my PE reflection statement by midnight last Friday, but I forgot to do it! I planned to write it between my oral exam in the morning and leaving for fall break at noon, but I underestimated the time I'd need to pack, and I couldn't write it before leaving. I went on a backpacking trip to Mexico so I didn't bring my computer, and I didn't have access to Internet... Well, I did once in a hostel, but I had completely forgotten about it. ほんとにすみません！

Anyway, more on my trip to Mexico later, let me write this reflection statement now.

Bilan du Premier Cycle
During this cycle, I did go to the Japanese Language table at least once a week, and I watched anime most weeks (not two episodes every week, but something equivalent to that in average, since I sometimes went to anime club and watched three or four episodes in a row). All in all, I did a lot of listening, and I think my listening improved.
Speaking-wise, I got a little practice, but not as much (sometimes I could only go to the Monday table in Forbes, and my level was not high enough to actively participate in the conversation). I didn't do as much shadowing as I planned to, but when watching anime with my roommate, I would sometimes repeat random (short) sentences, and ask her to tell me if they sounded wrong. I think I tried to avoid shadowing properly because it is very time-consuming – I'd have to listen to something several times, and record myself to make sure I'm saying it right... – and I hate listening to my own voice! (>_<) However, I think my speed increased for simple sentences, and I am less likely to use wrong intonation for words and phrases that I am familiar with.

Oral Exam
Unfortunately, I don't remember my exam that clearly, but I'll comment on what I remember. I think リウ-さん and I practiced enough to be comfortable with each other. We didn't write a script for the oral, which meant that during the second section, we would sometimes have small pauses in the conversation while we were looking for something to ask about, but it also meant that we practiced not only pronunciation, but also grammar and vocabulary every time we practiced together, so that was good. Thanks to that, the spontaneous conversation with Suzuki-san went quite well (except that sometimes we couldn't figure out who should answer Suzuki-san's questions...)
The main problem I had was hesitating during the third section, especially while trying to conjugate adjectives, and sometimes when trying to find the vocabulary. I think that might have affected my intonation. (To be honest, I did not pay too much attention to intonation during the exam, because I was so focused on forming proper sentences and saying the right words.)


Signing off now, because I have a lot of other work to catch up on... Sorry for the wall of text, and I hope you all had a great fall break (or a great week, either way)! Look forward to more posts with pictures of Mexico!

First Cycle Goal Statement

The first cycle of Pronunciation Exercise (shortened, funnily enough, as PE) is starting. For the next three weeks or so, my goal is to be able to pronounce Japanese vowels, especially long vowels, more naturally. I also want to be able to speak faster and more naturally without losing the right intonation of words.

Activities: I will go to Japanese Language table at least once a week (either the one in Forbes on Monday, or the one in Matthey on Tuesday), I will try to practice with a native speaker (thankfully, my roommate counts), and I will watch at least two episodes of anime per week, shadowing for at least twenty minutes a week.

It looks daunting... Especially the shadowing, actually. I always find it awkward to speak out loud to myself (incidentally, that's why I hate phone calls especially when I don't know the person at the other end very well or at all...) But I'll do my best!!