Tips on how to begin learning Japanese

I know its different for everyone, but here are some tips i think might help you if your just beggining to learn Japanese:

1. Before even learning how to say Hello, you should atleast know what sounds are in the Japanese alphabet. That is; learn hiragana first, or if your impatient and want to learn words before learning how to write the letters then atleast know what sounds there are. (Don't do what i did, i started out with words and phrases, and although a native japanese speaker taught me i would write down the pronunciation however i liked so i didnt distinguish between, for example, ku and ko. Later on when i learnt hiragana, i had already been pronouncing the words wrong so i had to change that and it was hard.)
2. Listen to japanese nursurey rhymes. That way you nail the pronounciation and the words are all simple and easy. For example, i started out with "Zou-san" the elephant song which is 3 lines long. You'll find lots of kids songs online if you look, if you can't find any let me know and i'll help you.
3. Then move on to some set phrases such as "my name is..", "i'm ... years old" and the lot. (actually in Japanese you wouldnt really say my name is, you'd say i'm....)
4. Learn some words.
5. learn basic grammer patterns and then use the vocab you know with them.

(i'll add more to the list later, cant think of anything at the moment

Silly phobia and my sister's prank

Without sounding conceited, i think im a fairly intelligent logical person. BUT i have a silly completely illogical phobia-- fear of turtles and tourtises. Simply writing that down makes the hair on my body stand! Why? Why do i fear something i know isn't harmful, that can't do anything to me, why do i lose all common sense when it comes to these little animals? I have no idea why, all i know is when i was little i was once playing on the floor and a tourtise we had walked over my leg from behind and it surprised me somehow and freaked me out and although i was ok with touritises before, something changed that day and i became afarid of them.

Now i can't even look at pictures of turtles or even cartoon charachters of turtules and stuff.. If i see a turtule when im changing channels, for example, on TV or something then i know i'll have a nightmare at night and will wake up terrified..

I hate this, being afraid, not being in control.. especially when i know how illogical this is but i just can't change, i want to but i can't. I was thinking of going to a skrink or to do hypnotherapy so i won't be afarid of turtles anymore, but im so scared of being cured of this. that i might touch a turtle after therapy 'cause im not afraid of it, just knowing that makes me not want to go and fix this.

I guess i can live with this phobia since i hardly encounter any turtles in real life but i know i'd be much happier if i could get rid of this fear. I feel sorry for people with other phobias where the thing is all around them and they can't avoid it and live a normal life. like being afraid of birds or feathers or cats..etc.

This reminds me of a very unpleasant memory of 4 years ago when i was a senior in high school and my sister was a junior. my sister's friend had brought a little turtle to school in a little see-though gift box kind of thing and so my sis told her to come say hi to me and hand me the turtle and say its a present. I can't believe my sister did that! The girl came up and was like "hi, i have a gift for you" and she put out her hands and at first i couldnt see what was in so i took the little box and the turtle started moving inside and i just screamed bloody murder and threw the box across the school yard. I was almost in tears and couldn't concentrate the whole day, and i was looking over my shoulder every few minutes.

Anyway, thats it. I can't go any further with this, as it is i might have a nightmare today.
Jya ne!

Cooling down this summer with "Aisu Kouhii"

So i'm beating the summer heat with this easy low-calorie totally refreshing drink, and in an attempt fit in some Japanese in my daily life im calling it "aisu kouhii" with "miruku" (Iced Coffee with Milk, doesnt sound as fabulous in English now, does it?)

Heres my super duper secret recipe.. and i'll upload a photo as soon as i make my next glass of it. (*this is not my photo, i found this online)Makes 1 serving. Time: 10 minutes. Calories: 60

you'll need:

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee


• 1/2 cup cold water


• 1/2 cup low-fat milk


• 2 teaspoons Splenda (or any artificial sweetner, to taste)


• 1 pinch cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


• ice cubes (crushed if you like)

1. Add the coffee to the cold water and let it sit for a while, around 5 minutes (because theres no heat to transfer the flavour to the water, it needs time to mix).


2. Add the milk, sweetner, cinnamon, and vanilla extract to the coffee and stir.


3. Add ice cubes before serving. Pour into a tall glass. Stick a straw in & Enjoy.

Pretty basic, huh? but its quite low in calories so its good if you're trying to watch your figure (i would if i had one, LOL, kidding)

I want to learn how to cook something, i think i'll look for some recipes. Thats it for now, take care!

Funky Hotel

I found this website of a hotel in Germany in which every room is differnt than the other. Each room has been decorated by a different famous artist and no two rooms are alike. The rooms range from normal fancy-hotel-kinda-room to rooms with rather eccentric designs such as the one with half a horse coming through the wall, and another made to look like a 2-D comic (really hurts your eyes coz it looks so real) and other extremely weird stuff.

What do you think? I'd love to go there but it would take forever to choose a room, they're all so cool! and plus i'd probably stay up all night looking around the room rather than sleeping. Here are a couple of photos that i got from their website, theres about 50 rooms or so, so go check them out yourself here.

I'd feel so disoriented in this room

and this oneand this one too.. looks like the runny paint..

If i ever go to Germany, very unlikely, i'll just have to go there and check it out myself ^^ what an experince that would be..
ta-ra! (as in bye not your best friend Tara ^^ )

Amazing Art..Pink Prank Project

I came upon this recently. Its called the PPP (Pink Prank Project), some guys decided to play a prank on their friend while he was away and wrapped everything in his apartment with pink wrapping paper, and i mean EVERYTHING, even the bed!!

Take a look

I wonder what their friend thought of their little piece of art when he came back..

What would you do?? after all the effort it took them, would you still be angry? i don't think i'd be able to be angry, all that wrapping is punishment enough for them, or i might make them unwrap it all, no way im unwrapping all that by myself!

Why i study japanese..

People often ask me why is it that im learning Japanese and I never really have an answer to that. I’m not sure why I chose Japanese or how it started, I think my fascination with the Japanese language started a year into university when I watched a Japanese series (drama as they call them) with some of the girls and I couldn’t really concentrate on what was happening ‘cause I was trying to listen to every word they said. After that I somehow decided to start learning Japanese and one of my friends joined me.

To me, learning Japanese is fun because being bilingual, I never really had to learn a second language, by default, I already had two first languages. And since both the languages I speak are the 1st and 2nd languages taught in schools here, I missed out on learning a new language. So I have never had that challenge and the fact that im always up for a good challenge just made me want to attempt to learn a new language.

When I was around 14 or 15 years old, I tried to learn French but I wasn’t really into it. Maybe because French is very close to English and my other language. I think that just made it less appealing. So Japanese is perfect for me ‘cause it’s a challenge and is completely different than both English and my other langauge. Although its hard not really having anyone to practice with, I really love learning Japanese and I just hope I keep up with it and not get bored.

So far learning Japanese has been going quite good. All the resources I need I either have (books and stuff) or are online (videos, audio, music..etc). Plus there are a lot of people out there learning Japanese so its quite easy to find answers to my questions online ‘cause someone asked them before me. I also have 2 japanese “real life” friends. They’re both older than me and married with kids so not really friends but im quite close to both of them, and they help me with conversing in Japanese and stuff.

My hiragana & Katakana workbooks are kawaii ne?

One thing I need more of is discipline. Its getting harder to stick to a schedule where I study certain things for a certain period of time. Lately, I’ve been spending so much time on the internet watching Japanese dramas,listening to Japanese music, basically anything Japanese but most of the time its nothing to do with my studies. I know once the next semester begins I’ll be quite busy so I want to concentrate on studying a bit more for now.

Anyways, that’s all for now. Mata ne!

Holding your pen, the japanese way!

I stumbled upon this article a couple of weeks ago about how to hold your pen when writing in japanese! I would have never thought that there is more than one way to hold your pen, but it seems when writing japanese its easier to hold your pen at a 90-degree angle. I tried it and its so much easier to write my hiragana and katakana like this. These are the photos from the article (not mine). Notice how we usually hold the pen to write in English and the second is how you should hold your pen for japanese.

Western Way

Japanese Way

Another thing i noticed is that its easier to write with a thicker-tip pencil or a marker than a fine pencil or pen. It makes it easier to draw those ANNOYING squiggly curvy bits-you know like when writing "i"in hiragana "い".

Its 3:30 AM, i guess i should go to sleep before everyone wakes up..LOL..

Ja, oyasumi.

Interactive Candy Mosaic

I came across this site in my search for candy photos, you have to see it. Its this mosaic of candy photos, hundereds of little photos, and its interactive,if you click on a photo you get its name and stuff.. Really cool.. must've taken a lot of time to make.. i guess the guy who did it had a lot of time on his hands..

heres a screenshot for those too lazy to open up the page.. (click to enlarge)

I will post more today but i dont want all the entries to be long so i'll do it in a seperate entry. If you are lerking behind there, reading my posts.. please leave a comment and let me know.. if noones reading, thats ok too since the blog is just to kind of serve as a scrapbook/journal thingy..

Cheers!

Japanese Lunch

Konbanwa! (Good Evening)

I went to sleep late yesterday so i gotup around 11:15 today.. half of the day gone, as my mum keeps reminding me.. I went out for lunch with my mum, her 2nd best friend, and my japanese sensei/friend to a japanese resturant. I'd already been there before with my sensei but it was the first time my mum and her firend had japanese food.. they loved the atmosphere and the food.. I tried to take some photos of the food but we were all so hungry we couldnt wait to gobble it down..

My mum's food..

My oishii kara-age! The potato salad was esp. yummy!

My sensei's soba noodles and some kind of beef..

some complementory yakitori.. i think thats what it is..

and last, Matcha aisu kurīmu.. yumm..

kyou wa tanoshikatta! Today was fun.. i enjoyed the food.. and we sat there chatting for ages.. it was cool.. although it seems weird going out with my mum and her friend too..

My mum's having a get-together on Sunday with her friends at our house, my sensei will be coming, and im going to invite my other japanese friend over..so it should be fun.. we'll see..

Jya ne!

Happy Birthday to me!!

So it’s the eve of yet another birthday.. wow, how fast this past year has been.. the fastest year to date, it felt more like 4 or 5 months.. I don’t know how it escaped my attention but somehow it slipped away unnoticed.. I can’t even remember what kept me so busy this past year.. and so I’ve decided that I’ll start a blog.. something I have always wanted to do but never went through with.. i want to record my feelings, and just everyday happenings so that on my next birthday I can see how I spent my year.. and wether I made good use of it or not.. I’ll also try to include articles about interesting things I come across (which will usually have to do with japan, one way or another).. I might also talk about about being biracial/multiracial/mixed (whatever you want to call it) and being bilingual.. and I will try to record my journey in learning Japanese.

When I think about it, on my last birthday I would have never guessed where I would’ve been today.. this year has been so different than recent years.. so many changes..

On the eve of my 21st birthday, I am a somewhat different person than I was last year.. my interest changed, my home life changed, my family is one person short.. so many changes happened that I can’t even begin to list them,,

I wanted to write a bit about myself in my first blog entry but I don’t want it to be too long so for today I’ll just tell you a bit about my 21 year old me..

Main Interests:
The Japanese language
Japanese Rock Music
Reading

I will try to include as much photos as I can in my entries but I’ll have to take them with my mobile, as I don’t carry a camera on me at all time, unlike so many other people I know..

So.. heres my birthday feast..

LOL I know, how can I ever finish all that b-day cake and all the other goodies.. kiddin.. I don’t really celebrate birthdays and im supposed to be on a diet so im celebrating with some orange and peach flavoured water ;P and my fav honey butter popcorn..

Bai bai! (im turning Japanese)

PS im callin myself ima-chan since my name ends with ima and I don’t want to use my real name, but to those of you who don’t know, ima is a Japanese name, it actually means now/present..