Dictionary (じしょ）

A note about online dictionaries: I’ve noticed the www.minnatonihongo2011.blogspot.com site has a online dictionary (I haven’t checked it out yet), but also there’s another one I’ve encountered: Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC (the url is http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C).  I’ve only used it a handful of times, but it seems quite useful and I have friends who have been studying Japanese for a long time and really like it.

And a bonus for those of us who know Chinese is that you can look words up by kanji!  So I tried putting in 文化 and it told me the pronunciation is ぶんか and it means exactly what I thought it should (culture, civilization).

しゅくだい＆ようび（曜日）

I was looking over the lesson 4 written assignment and I found a couple sentences I thought rather odd.  The first one is:

きのうのばん（晩）はちじ（八時）からじゅうじ（十時）までべんきょうしました。

Nothing wrong with the grammar; I just think it’s a bit odd to only have to study two hours a day.  And for them to be so late in the day.  Maybe the student is in high school and has after-school activities (or routinely procrastinates)?  Or maybe it’s a Japanese high schooler and s/he is giving the cram school hours?  Except I didn’t think cram schools ran quite that late.  Certainly in college or grad school, studying doesn’t come in such nice, neat only-two-hour windows.

Actually, this one reminds me of teaching English in China and the lessons discussing American vs Chinese school life (always popular lessons).  The students were green with envy that American high schoolers get done with classes by 3:00 or even earlier, and they were horrified that American high schoolers only get half an hour for lunch and 3-5 minutes between classes.

さくらびょういん（病院）はくじはん（九時半）からはちじはん（八時半）までです。やすみはにちようび（日曜日）です。

This sentence has me worried for Sakura.  I hope this isn’t their only hospital!  What happens when people get sick at night or on a Sunday?

Speaking of days of the week, I am highly amused by the Japanese days of the week: にちようび（日曜日）、げつようび（月曜日）、かようび（火曜日）、すいようび（水曜日）、もくようび（木曜日）、きんようび（金曜日）、どようび（土曜日）。

にほんご（日本語）のようび（曜日）のなまえがすきです。It’s the elements!  Still, I suppose naming them after the planets works too…  And has anyone else noticed just how many languages call Sunday “sun day”?

Studying Japanese

I am studying Japanese language for two reasons: interest in Japan as another Asian country (China being the first), and as a way to further my studies of Chinese history.  China and Japan have a very long history, and many studies have been done in Japan about Chinese history.

I actually took a Japanese class a number of years ago, but was unable at that time to continue Japanese language studies.  So I am excited to finally get back to studying Japanese.  Because I have some previous experience with Japanese language, I have not had much difficulty thus far.  Probably what I am struggling with most is fine-tuning my handwriting; I am very used to writing characters from my years studying Chinese and so sometimes it is hard for me to write a few of the hiragana correctly (for example, I frequently want to write かlike the left hand side of the Chinese character加).

みんなさん、初めまして！

はじめまして。わたしはトマスです。アメリカじんです。アメリカのオハイオからきました。コロンビアだいがくのだいがくいんせいです。ちゅうごくご（中国語）とにほんご（日本語）べんきょうします。どうぞよろしく！