Man, I totally LOVE learning Japanese!
Showing posts with label nihongo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nihongo. Show all posts
Monday, 29 November 2010
Monday, 8 November 2010
Months and Dates
Wow! These are tough. I thought that the numbers were hard, but the dates and months are full of irregularities. Repeating them at the start of the lesson will help, I'm sure.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Our third lesson, and katakana were on the menu again. We practiced by trying to work out which pictures of foods went with which strings of kana. The names of most of the foods were relatively anglicised, and so it was quite straightforward to connect the images to the words once the first couple of syllables were in place: “su – pe – ge… was probably going to be spaghetti, for example.
I felt a bit disappointed in myself when I heard how well some of my classmates knew the kana. I’d only learned a handful of lines. “They’ve probably done some before,” said Laura, “don’t beat yourself up about it.”
To finish, we learned about numbers from 1 to 99. Next week, BINGO!
I felt a bit disappointed in myself when I heard how well some of my classmates knew the kana. I’d only learned a handful of lines. “They’ve probably done some before,” said Laura, “don’t beat yourself up about it.”
To finish, we learned about numbers from 1 to 99. Next week, BINGO!
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Crisis!
MMU are out of parchment paper! Laura can’t get her degree reprint!
Kath didn’t know she needed an academic transcript!
My referees haven’t got back to me to say “yes” yet!
Disaster! Disaster! Disaster!
Well, not exactly a disaster, but a good warning to us all nonetheless. How much of our individual application have we each sorted out? And how much more do we have to do? The application form hasn’t been released yet, but that’s no excuse for slacking.
We met, as normal, for our Tuesday night study group. We started with writing exercises, using some Post-it notes to practice our katakana. We then moved on to the Collins Easy Learning Japanese Audiobook for some speaking and listening practice. We covered:
Lastly, so went the plan at least, was a session on the personal statement of the application. Unfortunately, that was when the crisis became apparent. And that was when the panic started! Well, not panic exactly… but we were quite concerned.
Kath didn’t know she needed an academic transcript!
My referees haven’t got back to me to say “yes” yet!
Disaster! Disaster! Disaster!
Well, not exactly a disaster, but a good warning to us all nonetheless. How much of our individual application have we each sorted out? And how much more do we have to do? The application form hasn’t been released yet, but that’s no excuse for slacking.
We met, as normal, for our Tuesday night study group. We started with writing exercises, using some Post-it notes to practice our katakana. We then moved on to the Collins Easy Learning Japanese Audiobook for some speaking and listening practice. We covered:
watashi wa igirisujin desu - I am a British person
Brown-san wa, nujirandojin desu ka? - Mr Brown, are you a New Zealander?
hai, so desu - yes, that’s right
iie, chigiimasu - no, that’s incorrect
Lastly, so went the plan at least, was a session on the personal statement of the application. Unfortunately, that was when the crisis became apparent. And that was when the panic started! Well, not panic exactly… but we were quite concerned.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Hajimemashite Katakana!
The lesson today was partly fun, and partly terrifying.
The fun part came first. We learned hajimemashite! and we learned douzo youroshku! and then we practiced them by introducing ourselves to every single other member of the class. All nineteen of them. It felt like being in a room with a colossal echo, hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! We started to learn bowing too. I wonder how long it will take to be able to do it solemnly, and without wanting to giggle.
The terrifying part came when we wrote out the forty-six katakana characters that make up the basic – basic only – katakana syllablery. Overwhelming? Yes. Humbling? Yes. Challenging? Undoubtedly, yes. Impossible? No. Not much is.
The fun part came first. We learned hajimemashite! and we learned douzo youroshku! and then we practiced them by introducing ourselves to every single other member of the class. All nineteen of them. It felt like being in a room with a colossal echo, hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! We started to learn bowing too. I wonder how long it will take to be able to do it solemnly, and without wanting to giggle.
The terrifying part came when we wrote out the forty-six katakana characters that make up the basic – basic only – katakana syllablery. Overwhelming? Yes. Humbling? Yes. Challenging? Undoubtedly, yes. Impossible? No. Not much is.
Monday, 27 September 2010
Emi-san! Konbanwa!
Our first Japanese lesson was today. Our teacher, Emi, is very good: lively, enthusiastic, smiley. Is this what Seb meant when he said that most of all we need to be genki? We covered the aims of the course, and learned some phrases - konnichiwa; konbanwa; ohiyo gozaimasu; arigato - and a little bit about grammar - introduction to particles o; wa; ka.
We were given our names in katakana, and asked to learn numbers one to ten as our homework: ichi, ni, san, yon, go, rocku, nana, hachi, cu, jui. Laura's colleague Kris came with us. That makes yon of us. How exciting!
We were given our names in katakana, and asked to learn numbers one to ten as our homework: ichi, ni, san, yon, go, rocku, nana, hachi, cu, jui. Laura's colleague Kris came with us. That makes yon of us. How exciting!
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Sushi-making lesson
Laura was given a sushi-making lesson as part of her birthday gift from work. The course was at Samsi, in Spinningfields, a new branch in the family of the best Japanese restaurant chain in Manchester. We arrived, and were sat in front of My Neighbour Totoro until ate our starter arrived: miso soup; vegetable gyoza; chicken yakitori. Lovely!
The lesson began with a description of how sushi rice is prepared and cooked. The properties that this imbues the rice with – stickiness most of all – are essential for making sushi. Sushi rice is short and fat, like pudding rice, or risotto rice. We learned how to wet our hands when handling the rice: enough that the rice wouldn’t stick too much, not so much that the rice balls would fall apart.
We started with cucumber maki, spreading rice over the seaweed, adding the filling, and then rolling it up using a mat (maybe made of bamboo?). Next up were avocado and salmon California rolls, inside out maki with more rice, and more filling. Much the same process as the maki, but for some reason – my own clumsiness? – I managed to leave a big piece of salmon hanging out of one end. Oops! Laura’s California roll was much neater. Clearly she had the hang of it far better than me!
The size of the rice blocks for our nigiri also caused me a few issues – I kept making them far too big. That’s my greedy guts getting me into trouble again! We made a pair of salmon nigiri each, and then one with tuna. I struggled with getting the salmon to stick to the top of the rice. “If you hold the fish too long, the temperature of your hand starts to cook it,” said the instructor. Blimey!
We finished with two cone-shaped temaki, one with avocado and salmon, and one with cucumber. The wrapping for this was all done in hand, rather than with a mat. We smeared rice on part of the nori, added the fillings diagonally, then tucked in and rolled up the cone, sealing it with a little sticky rice. The avocado and salmon temaki looked like a bouquet of pink flowers.
To wrap up, we chopped and prepared the maki and California rolls, and laid them on the plate. The finishing touch was to sculpt a leaf from wasabi paste to decorate the plate. I was terrible at this, and ended up settling for a quasi-diamond-ish lump. Laura’s leaf was much better.
“How do you say ‘Thank you’ in Japanese?” Laura asked me.
“I think it’s arigato gozaimasu, but I’m not sure of the pronounciation, nor of the etiquette around bowing.”
“Okay. We’ll just say it in English then,”
As for the taste? I loved it. And Laura? “I liked making it, but I don’t really like eating sushi.”
The lesson began with a description of how sushi rice is prepared and cooked. The properties that this imbues the rice with – stickiness most of all – are essential for making sushi. Sushi rice is short and fat, like pudding rice, or risotto rice. We learned how to wet our hands when handling the rice: enough that the rice wouldn’t stick too much, not so much that the rice balls would fall apart.
We started with cucumber maki, spreading rice over the seaweed, adding the filling, and then rolling it up using a mat (maybe made of bamboo?). Next up were avocado and salmon California rolls, inside out maki with more rice, and more filling. Much the same process as the maki, but for some reason – my own clumsiness? – I managed to leave a big piece of salmon hanging out of one end. Oops! Laura’s California roll was much neater. Clearly she had the hang of it far better than me!
The size of the rice blocks for our nigiri also caused me a few issues – I kept making them far too big. That’s my greedy guts getting me into trouble again! We made a pair of salmon nigiri each, and then one with tuna. I struggled with getting the salmon to stick to the top of the rice. “If you hold the fish too long, the temperature of your hand starts to cook it,” said the instructor. Blimey!
We finished with two cone-shaped temaki, one with avocado and salmon, and one with cucumber. The wrapping for this was all done in hand, rather than with a mat. We smeared rice on part of the nori, added the fillings diagonally, then tucked in and rolled up the cone, sealing it with a little sticky rice. The avocado and salmon temaki looked like a bouquet of pink flowers.
To wrap up, we chopped and prepared the maki and California rolls, and laid them on the plate. The finishing touch was to sculpt a leaf from wasabi paste to decorate the plate. I was terrible at this, and ended up settling for a quasi-diamond-ish lump. Laura’s leaf was much better.
“How do you say ‘Thank you’ in Japanese?” Laura asked me.
“I think it’s arigato gozaimasu, but I’m not sure of the pronounciation, nor of the etiquette around bowing.”
“Okay. We’ll just say it in English then,”
As for the taste? I loved it. And Laura? “I liked making it, but I don’t really like eating sushi.”
Monday, 16 August 2010
Registration
Laura, Kath and I have registered for the Beginners Japanese course at Aquinas College Stockport. We start on Monday 27th of September. This is in addition to the work we’ve been putting into the Collins Easy Learning Japanese audiobook. That’s quite exciting!
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