Question words and Moving

I'm going to be moving to Idaho soon, so with this blog post I'm beginning to fall behind, as I've been so busy...

Today at iKnow I got a little done - nothing special.

The new-ish words were:

駅 - eki - railway station
おいしい(oishii) - tasty
大きい - ookii - big
男 - otoko - man,male
大人 - otona - adult

I picked a few good ones out of the sentences, though.
野球 - yakyuu - baseball
昼過ぎ - hirusugi - lunch
バラ - rose

要る and 空く (iru and suku) are the two that I've had trouble with of late.
The first is "to need/require", and the latter is "to be empty".
They're so short they feel generic and are hard to assign a way to be remembered

Today I've seen a lot of question/object words, and I need them sorted out.
So I'll make a list.

誰 - dare - who
何 - nan(i) - what
どこ (doko) - where
いつ (itsu) - when
どうして (doushite) - why

ここ (koko) - here
そこ (soko) - there
あそこ (asoko) - over there

この (kono) - this
その (sono) - that

More Family Member Forms

Today at iKnow I covered another of the o___san words.
I believe it's the last.
I looked for more and there aren't any i want missing.
So...

Informal/plain:
兄 - ani - older brother
姉 - ane - older sister
弟 - otouto - younger brother
妹 - imouto - younger sister
母 - haha - mother
父 - chichi - father

Formal, Respectful:
お兄さん - oniisan - older brother
お姉さん - oneesan - older sister
お母さん - okaasan - mother
お父さん - otousan - father

Seems clear to me, if I got it right.

Today's interesting words:
そば - soba - side, vicinity ( a noun equivalent of 'near')

よう - way, like, kind (like "kind of", sorta, rather, etc. I think)

閉じる - tojiru - to close (another one!, tho a review... this is close a book)
閉める - shimeru - to close (this is to close a door)
締める - shimeru - this is to fasten, tighten (like a seatbelt)

辛い - karai - spicy, salty
三日- mikka - three days, third of month
来る - kuru - come

前 - mae - front, before ('前で/mae de' is 'in front of')

Here's a little one I picked out of a sentence... I'm sure of it.
りんご(ringo) - apple
Guess I ought to go learn my fruit... That's for later...

peace!

Homophones and Kanji... Yuck

Today I sat down at iKnow... it still wanted me to do 40... so I did.

I've got this nightmarish conundrum I'm trying to sort out.
If I'm saying them correctly...

締める - shimeru - tighten, fasten
閉める - shimeru - close
閉まる - shimaru - be closed
開く - hiraku - open

They're all so similar it's hard to come up with ways to memorize! ugh...

I've also got
きれい(kirei) - clean, pretty
嫌い - kirai - hated, disliked

single vowel differences are a pain for me.
You'd think it'd be easier... like clean v. clone in English... but nope.

Two notable things I learned...
六日 - muika - 6 days, 6th of month
六つ - muttsu - six (things)
I need to learn the whole list of these...

I learned this too.
晴れる - hareru - to be sunny(weather)
It's easy, because it sounds close to "haru", which is 春, spring (season


I've been a little slow at responding to answers... I need to work on focusing better.

My other interesting misc were:
直る - naoru - be repaired, return to normal
お姉さん - older sister (another form... i need to go look up lists and differences. I think this is formal)
辺 - hen - vicinity, area, part
易しい - yasashii - easy, simple


The sentence I'm studying for the day is this:
私はパンよりご飯が好きだ。
I prefer rice over bread (or the other way around, i can't remember)
I'm trying to figure out how comparisons work.

Going on to Grade 2... And Multitasking

Actually, I have two cases of multitasking.
One happened, and the other is a long term plan.

Tonight I watched TV for a few hours, and during that time I had my 日本語 out on my lap.

I decided to write out the grade 2 kanji. It's helped me tremendously already.
As laborious as writing them can be, it allows me to see them in my mind.

That's necessary if I'm ever going to be able to write Japanese - also, it improves recognition dramatically.

The second case is my long-term plan. I plan to sit down and work at Smart.fm / iKnow as weel as writing. After I get done with grade 2, I'll probably write the iKnow vocab Kanji.

My vocabulary should begin to increase considerably.
That's provided I don't give up and slack off...

If you're curious, I just did the first 16.
They're:

引く - hi(ku) - (to) pull, draw
羽 - ha; hane - counter for birds&rabbits; wing, blade, feather
雲 - cumo - cloud
園 - en,sono - suffix for place, farm, garden, park
遠い - too(i) - far, distant
何 - nan, nani - what
科 - ka - dept., section, family (taxonomy)
夏 - natsu - summer
家 -　ie/uchi - house/home
歌う - uta(u) -(to) sing
画 - kaku - stroke, element (of art, kanji, etc)
回 - kai - occurences, innings(baseball)
会う - a(u) - (to) meet
海 - umi - sea,beach
絵 - e - picture, drawing, painting, sketch
外 - soto - outside

Finishing iKnow Backup

I've been meaning to go over some stuff I covered the 12th at smart.fm/iKnow.
It was the last time I put real work in.

Those of you with short attention spans can skip ahead to the highlights.
I like to put this list down for my own sake.

大好き - daisuki - loved (adj)
晴れる - hareru - to be sunny, clear up
汚い - kitanai - dirty
空く - suku - be empty
上る - noboru - to go up
髪の毛 - kaminoke - hair
茶色 - chairo - light brown
ご飯 - gohan - rice
つける - tsukeru - switch on
日 - nichi - day

月曜日 - getsuyoubi - Monday
今週 - konshuu - this week
開く - hiraku - to open
あれ - are - that(over there)
二 - ni - two
閉まる - shimaru - shut, be closed
締める - shimeru - fasten, tighten
水 - mizu - water
入る - hairu - enter
片仮名 - katakana

まずい - mazui - bad tasting, bad
ひらがな - hiragana
曇る - kumoru - become cloudy
触る - sawaru - touch, feel
駄目 - dame - no good
書き直す - kakinaosu - rewrite
飲み物 - nomimono - drink, beverage
木曜日 - mokuyoubi - thursday
曜日 - youbi - day of week
そば - soba - side, vicinity



Okay, now that's out of the way...

The Highlights

Things I take note of:

days of the week = cliché. See Here if you really gotta know.
Numbers = also cliché. See Here for numbers.

I did see the connection that:
taberu = to eat, tabemono=food
nomu= to drink, nomimono=beverage

So what's "mono" mean? I went and found out, of course.
物 - mono - thing, object

So now we know 食べ物 = "food thing", and 飲み物 = "drink thing".
Huh.

Aside a lot of basic words that day, I spotted:

汚い - kitanai - dirty
まずい (mazui) - bad-tasting, bad

髪の毛 - kaminoke - hair(on head)
and this 毛 for hair, coat, covering looks TOO MUCH like 手 for hand.
Poo. Oh well... I'll get over it.

Smart.fm History 1 - Meals

I haven't spoken much about the stuff I've done at iKnow.
I do work there.
I need to get back more recently, but the 10th and 12th I was actually there getting things done.

Here's what I pulled from that day's practice and learning.

For those less interested, skip to the end, the more interesting part.


土曜日 - doyoubi - Saturday
金曜日 - kinyoubi - Friday

神 - kami - god, spirit (important in scripture!)

晩 - ban - evening, night

お父さん - otousan - father (i know お母さん - okaasan - mother, too)

太い - futoi - thick, fat
痛い - itai - painful
多分 - tabun - probably
時計 - tokei - clock, watch
どうして - doushit - why
掛ける - kakeru - hang, put on
曲がる - magaru - turn
泊まる - tomaru - stay overnight

おなか - onaka - stomach
閉める - shimeru - close, shut
嫌い - kirai - dislike
要る - iru - need, require
無い - nai - to not be
黄色い - kiiroi - yellow (a color!)
風邪 - kaze - cold (illness) (kaze means wind, too)
優しい - yasashii - gentle, kindhearted
ミーティング - mi-teingu - meeting (an english steal, obviously)


the interesting part

There are three (well, four) words I've picked up that apparently are used for meal words.
朝 - asa - morning
昼 - hiru - afternoon
晩 - ban - evening (same one seen today)
ご飯 - gohan - rice

Add them and you get:

朝ご飯 - asagohan - breakfast
昼ご飯 - hirugohan - lunch
晩ご飯 - bangohan - dinner

I guess all they eat is rice... lol...

iKnow Is Now A Part Of Smart.fm

Today sucks. iKnow is GONE.
By gone I mean they removed the iKnow website.
iKnow was a learning application that the iKnow site provided. Now it's Smart.fm.
The iKnow application is still there, but iKnow's website that held my items in progress, etc. appears to be gone. I had to create a new username for Smart.fm.
the iKnow address redirects to Smart.fm now.
well... it's not all bad.
I'll just move on to the Part 2 of the Core 2000 series I had been in.

The review over section 1 was getting old, anyways.


Today I worked some, but the site keeps going up and down, so I am not sure it saved...

Here's what I have to cope with for now:
時 - toki - time
閉じる - tojiru - close
切る - kiru - to cut
米 - kome - rice
線 - sen - line
決まる - kimaru - to be decided (I know i've used this kanji somewhere before... hmm...)
楽しい - tanoshii - fun, enjoyable
服 - fuku - clothes
後ろ - ushiro - back, behind
嬉しい - happy, glad

日曜日 - Nichiyoubi - Sunday (redundant... i know this)
開ける - akeru - to open, unlock (scarily close to makeru-to lose)
腰 - koshi - hip, lower back
昼 - hiru - daytime, midday
お母さん - okaasan - mother (huh... a form i didn't know)
留学生 - ryuugakusei - student studying abroad (i.e. foreign exchange student)
大学生 - daigakusei - college student (thought i did this... must remember 大学校 (college))
終わり - owari - end, conclusion (the noun form of owaru-to end I suppose)
背 - se - height
手伝う - tetsudau - help, assist

鼻- hana - nose
起きる - okiru - to occur (this is from last time! I knew 大学生 looked familiar!)
熱い - atsui - hot (something actually useful... finally.)
載せる - noseru - to place, put on (apparently you can use either kanji - 載 or 乗 )
悲しい - kanashii - sad
愛する - aisuru - to love, care for (i already know this kanji)
近く - chikaku - vicinity, nearby (another I already knew)
しゃべる(shaberu) - to chat, talk (doesn't have a kanji, oddly)
甘い - amai - sweet (food)
テーブル (teeburu) - table (an English steal)

now I have to deal with English homophones... close/clothes... lol...
well, they're not really homophones, but close enough to be disorienting.
Oh, and "sen" is also 千 - 1000. So yeah, homophones, anyone?

Anyone watch Naruto? Enough to know the character Gaara? The kanji on his forehead is love.


愛

And now for some naughty/immature humor just because I can:
彼女 は お母さん が 熱い です。
kanojo wa okaasan ga atsui desu.
ever heard that weird/dumb song stacy's mom? lol...

well... I can say more things now with my better vocab... like
昨日 私 は 新しい 服 が 買いました。
kinou watashi wa atarashii fuku ga kaimashita.
Yesterday I bought new clothes.

Well... lets keep the vocab rolling I guess... lol... I hope iKnow or Smart.fm or whatever saved my work.

Putting Off Today

I got my wisdom teeth out today.
I'm writing this retroactively, i.e. I wasn't conscious enough to write this today.

So unfortunately, my Japanese practice didn't get done. I'll work on it tomorrow.
I'm getting my kanji together with my vocab to see what i do and don't know still.

Back at iKnow recently, they've started giving me the last problem, where you have to spell it, twice. The first time they give me the English, like always, but now they want me to know it just looking at the kanji. It's not been so bad... yet.

It should help with my kanji recognition, I suppose. That's always a plus.

I'm to 81% with this section now. I hope to move on to number 2 soon.
I got 13 more passed off, all really old ones that beginners would know.
I think 彼女-kanojo-girl(friend) was among them. Yeah - dumb stuff.

Well, nothing else new besides that. I'm in a lot of pain right now.

Peeking at Unit Two

At iKnow I did all my practice today.
I'm at 70%, and I have 20 completed.
I've said before, I'm finished "starting" all the words.

I started a new section, even though my first one isn't finished.
I did this just to see what lies ahead.

I'm doing the Core 2000 series, and there are 10-200 blocks.
I started "step 2" just to preview what's next, even though I'm still on the first one.

It gave me ten new ones... I really wasn't ready, but oh well.
閉じる - tojiru - to close
楽しい - pleasure, fun
時 - toki - time
米 - kome - rice
後ろ - ushiro - behind
嬉しい - ureshii - happy
切る - kiru - to cut
決まる - kimaru - to be decided
線 - sen - line
服 - fuku

The last three I'd forgotten and had to go find. I managed to remember the rest, though. That's good- it means I'm retaining most of what I'm learning.

Nothing New! Yay! - Issues Resolved and Electricity

I've officially handled all of the vocabulary words...
I had wondered why it only gave me one new one instead of two.

So it will all be review now.
腕 - ude - arm
That's it for now.

I've studied to write - it's just 書く - kaku.
That had been bugging me for a while.
I'm glad to have something authoritative finally clarify.

My latest blunders and wonders are:
電話 - denwa - telephone (not iKnow vocab)
電車 - densha - train
電気 - denki - light or electricity(not iKnow vocab)
自転車 - jitensha - bicycle

In case you haven't noticed my pattern, I've discovered a new common kanji.
It's electricity - 電. the typical pronunciation is den-____.
It isn't a word by itself - electricity is 電気(denki)

A couple more fun words with it:

電子 - denshi - electron
電池 - denchi - battery
停電 - teiden - power outage/blackout
電圧 - denatsu - voltage
電光 - denkou - lightning
電動 - dendou - electric
電卓 - dentaku - calculator
電線 - densen - power line(s)
電撃 - dengeki - electric shock

your calculator's battery was shocked by lightning!
私の電卓の電池は電光で電撃だった！

lol... sorry. I couldn't resist. lol... No pun intended either.

Up All Night...

Late at night is probably not the best time to practice my Japanese... especially when I have other garbage to deal with.
I'll finish up and note not to do this again... but seriously -
私は寝るが欲しい。

I ran into something rather irritating today:
hayai.
it's not new, but it's still annoying. I thought it meant early/fast.
it kinda does. but it doesn't. it means each of them separately.
It's another freaking homophone.
早い - hayai - early
速い - hayai - fast
That is retarded.

Words for the day:
全部 - zenbu - all, whole
去年 - kyonen - last year
図書館 - toshokan - library
引く - hiku - draw, pull
緑 - midori - green, foliage
上げる - ageru - to raise, to improve

I have a new kana-only word:
たくさん(takusan) - many, much

sorry for ending on a low note.
But my heart's empty. I might smile tomorrow.

Japanese Resource

I have a new blog I'm using as a website for teaching/learning Japanese. I am planning on making it an excellent place full of well-sorted and organized information.

The layout is and will be nothing like a blog - far less so than this one. I hope to build it up over the next few weeks, and I'll start communicating with the rest of the 日本語+English community. I might even look into making money with Google advertising, if it goes anywhere.

It's up and active if you want to look at it...
Japanese Resource

Today at iKnow I came across these :
来年 - rainen - next year
バラ(bara) - rose
レベル(reberu) - level

Along with the usual new:
肩 - kata - shoulder
飲む - nomu - to drink (already knew this)
寝る - neru - to sleep/go to sleep
消す - kesu - to turn off/switch off
元気 - genki - healthy/energetic (common word - knew this)
負ける - makeru - to lose (a game)

Finally! I've been waiting for "to sleep" forever! I've covered "wake up", "get up", "morning", but no evening words!?! And now I have it.

今私は寝る。
I am able to sleep now.

電気を消してください。(ください/kudasai means please)
please turn the light out.

元気/Genki is used all the time...

Genki desu ka?
How are you?(lit. are you well?)

Genki (desu).
(I'm) fine.

Noticing The Little Stuff

Another day, another practice session at iKnow.
I'm halfway through the course (52%)... supposedly.
The words today are:
首 - kubi - neck
速い - hayai - fast
一緒に - isshyoni - together, at the same time
日記 - nikki - diary
遊ぶ - asobu - to play
今月 - kongetsu - this month

great... another homophone. don't we love those?
はやい - hayai - can be 早い or 速い - "early" or "fast".

I've notice a few little things along the way, though.

For example, とても - totemo - which means "very".
Also, the を (o) vs. に (ni) particles - and when to use them.

i'm a little thrown off by the formal vs. informal speech.
I need to go learn about the -masu and -shou endings, and what they mean.
the whole "shou" thing is a little confusing...

I learned that the -tachi pluralizing suffix can be added to many things.
not only does it make I -> We and You(s) -> You(p) and He/She/It -> Them, but
It makes Child -> Children.

I have picked up a few misc unintentional vocabulary words...
鳥 - tori - bird
キリン - kirin - giraffe
公園 - kouen - (public) park
忙しい - busy - actually i think this was vocab at some point... but I can't remember.

several are reoccuring-I-think vocab, like 寒い - samui - cold.
That one's used it the 冬/fuyu(winter) practice sentence.

I think my comprehension is getting a little better... I'm trying to help it along.
I still don't care for the dictation thing, even if it is helping.

Obsessed with iKnow...

iKnow's website has helped me incredibly in learning - it seems to be all I do with Japanese these days... I need to go work on learning how to write.

Just because you recognize a kanji doesn't mean you can draw it on a napkin, for example. They can get relatively similar also, and are easy to confuse if you don't take the time to sort out differences.

Anyways, I only have a few new things lately, nothing special...

I do have a new pair of opposites...
軽い - karui - light
重い - omoi - heavy

to pay is 払う - harau

and I already knew to read, 読む - yomu

Vocab... Once Again.

I need to go out and do something original with my japanese.
It has become a hum-drum boring-ness. I need to learn to use it better.

Anyways... today I worked on more vocabulary.

Some more familiar words, and some totally new ones.

Amid the mainly review ones was:
kaeru - to return, to go back
It's marked at 80% competion. It may be one of the first ones I completely pass off!

The new ones were:
冬 - fuyu - winter
胸 - mune - chest
重い - omoi - heavy
払う - harau - to pay
読む - yomu - to read

yomu I already kinda knew. good to have it practiced, though.

They covered 年 - toshi - year, one I already know fully.

Also, I spotted 寒い - samui - cold in one of the example sentences.
That's helped un-confuse me - I get it and 暑い - atsui - hot/warm(weather) mixed up.

New vs. Review

I did a whole bunch online this evening at iKnow. Unfortunately, it was all old news.
The "new" material had several things I already knew.

The only reason I did so much was because of that.
They are getting into old garbage I figured out at the very beginning.
So... lots of time for review. There will be a few new things, but there's nothing wrong with reviewing what you know.

Today's new words are:

体 - karada - body,health
待つ - matsu - to wait (for)
低い - short, low
名前 - namae - name
夫 - otto - husband
起こす - okosu - to wake up
次 - tsugi -next
美しい - utsukushii - beautiful
結婚 - kekkon - marriage

Japanese for the Day

No - I didn't leave out my regular post.

This evening was crazy, but I did study earlier in the day, for a little bit.
I was cleaning my room all day - and good thing, too - I didn't think anyone would end up going in there. But I was wrong.

Anyways, the words of the day are a little odd. Some of them are old.
死ぬ - shinu - to die
乗る - noru - to ride, take (taxi,car,bus, etc.)
書く - to write (already knew this one)
安い - cheap (inexpensive)
頭 - atama - head
話す - hanasu - to say,tell (knew this one, too)

I must say, the whole "my dog got sick and died" example (with pic) was rather... I dunno... politically incorrect? slightly disturbing, at the very least. Not that it bothered me, but still...

hanasu and kaku I already knew. Technically, kaku is new. I knew the kanji by itself as the noun "sho", or "writings."

Expanding My Vocabulary

I've learned a lot of new words recently.

This is all thanks to using that iKnow website's application. It's been very handy.
I have several study cards laid out, with what is approaching a hundred words.

A couple I know off the top of my head -

始める - hajimeru - to start
買う - kau - to buy
売る - uru - to sell
分かる - wakaru - to understand
若い - wakai - young (got these two mixed up at first)
少ない - sukunai - few, little
高い - takai - tall, expensive (building, price)
帰る - kaeru - to return, to go back
変える - kaeru - to change (I still confuse these)
家 - uchi/ie - house/home
作る - tsukuru - to make, to create
置く - oku - to put
聞く - kiku - to hear/listen, to ask
飛ぶ - tobu - to fly
住む - sumu - to live

and a few more I had to look at that I knew but couldn't remember...

時間 - jikan - hour, time
知る - shiru - to know
近く - chikaku - near, close to
近い - chikai - near, soon
顔 - kao -face
言う - iu - to speak/say
続く - tsuduku - to continue/follow
思う - omou - to think
走る - hashiru - to run
立つ - tatsu - to stand, rise
戻る - modoru - to return, turn back

I'm not perfect, but it's helping me a lot! I'm excited!

now, I know and can use more Japanese!
今、私はもう日本語に知る使う！

Starting Cards

I finally have my cards begun, and though I don't have much, I have a plan that has been put in place. I put the kanji and pronunciation on one side, and the definition on the other.

It should help me to get the things I don't have memorized, and the things I do attached to the new material.

My current words are:

教会 - kyoukai - church
天気 - tenki - angel
聖徒 - seito - disciple

名誉 - meiyo - honor
責任 - sekinin - responsibility

音楽 - ongaku - music

私は音楽が大好きです。
watashi wa ongaku daisuki desu.
I like music.