さんしゅうかん - Three Weeks

こんにちは、がっこう　の　だいさんしゅう　です。にほんご　は　はど　です。

Hello, it's the third week of school. Japanese is hard.

It's been three weeks since classes started. School has been alright, same old same old. The most interesting parts of my week are probably the times when I have Japanese. So far, Japanese has been pretty frustrating at times. It is definitely harder (for me) than learning Chinese, and the work probably takes up as much time as all my other classes combined. I think the hardest part of it is retaining all the vocabulary that we learn every day. Although we have quizes on about 20 words everyday, I would be lying to say I still remember all those words by the time a week has passed after the quiz. Recalling words that we have learned a couple of days ago takes a long time, and sometimes I would find myself flipping through the textbook in class to look up words. That being said, I have to admit I am learning an enormous amount of Japanese in the process. I feel like I am slowly beginning to be able to form sentences more easily. I still can't believe I had learned an entirely new alphabet in about a week's time (excited about Katakana).

So in short, Japanese has been very frustrating yet fun. As expected.

-Simon

にほんご の のうと (Japanese Notebook):
いまは ごごしちじ にです。きょう　は　かようび　です。わたし　は　さんじからごじ　ねました。ばんごう　は　なんばん　ですか。
It is seven P.M. Today is Tuesday. I slept from four to six. What's your number?

.

こんにちわ

わたし　は　さいもん　です。　ころんびあ　だいがく　の　さんなんせい　がくせい　です。　これ　は　わたし　の　にほんご　ぶろぐ。　どぞよろしく。

-さいもん

Hi, my name is Simon. I am a third-year student at Columbia. This is my Japanese blog. Nice to meet you.

That's (hopefully) what the Japanese up there says.  Why am I taking Japanese?  I am taking Japanese because Japan is one of those places I can realistically see myself visiting a lot in the future. I am interested in East Asian languages and cultures and have already taken two years-worth of Chinese in the past (Elementary I in my freshman year and Intermediate II at Beijing the summer after that).  From my experiences in taking Chinese, I found that the feeling I first got from being able to hold my own in a conversation with native speakers in China was one of the most satisfying feelings in my life.  By taking Japanese, I hope to be able to reexperience those times of excitement and adventure in the process of learning a new language.  So far, the first two weeks have been pretty intense with all the quizzing and hiragana sheets, but I know that the results at the end of the year will be more than worth it.

-Simon