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Mar. 9th, 2011
Weeaboo post!
Mar. 9th, 2011 06:54 am
For some reason, I got a jumpstart into practicing Japanese again. I think it had to do with the fact that after we got Black/White, Steve and I got into a discussion of the required mechanics to play the games.
On the back of the games, there's a rather long explanation of the requirements in order to be able to play Pokemon, and the rules about transferring Pokemon between games, and other generational topics relevant. This then led to a discussion of how old one must be in order to play Pokemon. It says "Basic Reading Ability." Was that true? I mean, I started the Pokemon games at like age 10 or something, which would then make Bethany 6, and she also started the games then. Adam started younger I'm sure. I don't know if a kindergartener/1st grader qualifies as being able to read whole conversations, or at least, understand them. With the original games especially, I think that you can get through without having to ACTUALLY be told where to go, though it obviously helps.
Children are incredibly determined, and haven't developed that impatience and adult sense of instant gratification. I remember playing Yellow without Flash, every time. Fuck flash! I can get through the cave ON MY OWN! XD When we were waiting in line to pick up our pre-ordered copies, a teenage boy between 13 and 15 struck up a conversation with me about Pokemon. Steve and I had brought our DSes so we could get Celebi via wireless. This boy had brought his DS too. Now, a normal teenage boy, with a fair amount of acne and a slightly deep voice would usually have a hard time striking up a conversation with a strange female, especially one who's standing next to a much more approachable-looking boy. After showing me his game time (211 hours), Pokemon caught (246), his current levels (At least 3 were level 100), and telling me a step-by-step approach to his battle system and how he likes to complete as much as possible when he plays games, I determined he HAD to be autistic. Which of course made him welcome kin instead of weird kid (I am sooo socially awkward and I hate small talk), and I enjoyed his lack of social cues until we left. The funny part was that I didn't say ANYTHING or make faces or any sort of hints to Steve - normally when strange people talk to me I'll give him "looks", whether exasperated or uncomfortable or awwwwkwarrrrd - and he went, "That kid? SOOOOO autistic!" XD He reminded me A LOT of one of my former students.
Aaaanyway, after our discussion of the level of reading skill required from Pokemon, Steve was like, "Why didn't we just import your version? That would have been so cool and you'd have been able to read SOME of it!" Which is true! Not a lot, though... I can't remember kanji for CRAP but I've started sentence structure and particles, as well as some vocab. I ordered a few cheap books (seriously, shipping was more than the cost of the books) off of Amazon, and I'm super excited to use them. I'll post what they are when I get them.
I'm starting to get subject-object-verb down okay, but it's hard when I don't even remember how English sentence structure goes. At least, not formally. Obviously I know how to write, but I feel like we can write however the hell we want. Some ways make less sense than others but fucking context helps you figure it out. Context in Japanese is like whaaaaaaat? Wait, in the sentence たろがりんごをたべた, if you think that the context in implied, you only have to write "ate"?! Omguhhhhh. So confusing. XD I know I'm ahead of myself here, but it's still mind-boggling.
I'm thinking about that email Athena wrote me where she included a small bit of talk in Japanese, and I pretty much died from being lost.
Okay! Far improved from last time - I could at least decipher/read the whole thing (only needing to double-check the katakana, and I have never encountered the phonetic spelling before but I remembered from last time about "mail." I still have no idea how it works), but I only was able to get the gist of "some sort of greeting! Something is something...something" and I've worked a little on isn't, but only as an actual negative, as in, "That isn't red," not "isn't it?" Now that I know what the sentence reads, and after staring at it a bit, I got a blip of inferring that last part of "isn't it", like in the Giver with seeing Red. XD Sooo, progress I guess, but I'm far from understanding sentences!
Still, I'm super determined. I ALMOST got into the lesson plan the U of MN teaches for the Japanese major, but all I was able to access is that they use the Genki books at least for the first year, and study chapters 1-6 in the first semester and work on learning 58 kanji. But I was thwarted from viewing the actual lesson plan (or which kanji they teach), even though I can still get into my U of MN account from going to school in Duluth like 4 years ago XD I considered buying the Genki books in place of the three I just bought in order to self-teach, but the books I bought got way higher ratings than Genki. I might buy them or another teaching tool book/workbook set (like Irasshai, but I can only find volume 2 on Amazon, and I can't remember what an internet search yielded) in a month or two. I like the idea of the instruction a workbook provides. But I'm happy with my purchase at the moment.
On the back of the games, there's a rather long explanation of the requirements in order to be able to play Pokemon, and the rules about transferring Pokemon between games, and other generational topics relevant. This then led to a discussion of how old one must be in order to play Pokemon. It says "Basic Reading Ability." Was that true? I mean, I started the Pokemon games at like age 10 or something, which would then make Bethany 6, and she also started the games then. Adam started younger I'm sure. I don't know if a kindergartener/1st grader qualifies as being able to read whole conversations, or at least, understand them. With the original games especially, I think that you can get through without having to ACTUALLY be told where to go, though it obviously helps.
Children are incredibly determined, and haven't developed that impatience and adult sense of instant gratification. I remember playing Yellow without Flash, every time. Fuck flash! I can get through the cave ON MY OWN! XD When we were waiting in line to pick up our pre-ordered copies, a teenage boy between 13 and 15 struck up a conversation with me about Pokemon. Steve and I had brought our DSes so we could get Celebi via wireless. This boy had brought his DS too. Now, a normal teenage boy, with a fair amount of acne and a slightly deep voice would usually have a hard time striking up a conversation with a strange female, especially one who's standing next to a much more approachable-looking boy. After showing me his game time (211 hours), Pokemon caught (246), his current levels (At least 3 were level 100), and telling me a step-by-step approach to his battle system and how he likes to complete as much as possible when he plays games, I determined he HAD to be autistic. Which of course made him welcome kin instead of weird kid (I am sooo socially awkward and I hate small talk), and I enjoyed his lack of social cues until we left. The funny part was that I didn't say ANYTHING or make faces or any sort of hints to Steve - normally when strange people talk to me I'll give him "looks", whether exasperated or uncomfortable or awwwwkwarrrrd - and he went, "That kid? SOOOOO autistic!" XD He reminded me A LOT of one of my former students.
Aaaanyway, after our discussion of the level of reading skill required from Pokemon, Steve was like, "Why didn't we just import your version? That would have been so cool and you'd have been able to read SOME of it!" Which is true! Not a lot, though... I can't remember kanji for CRAP but I've started sentence structure and particles, as well as some vocab. I ordered a few cheap books (seriously, shipping was more than the cost of the books) off of Amazon, and I'm super excited to use them. I'll post what they are when I get them.
I'm starting to get subject-object-verb down okay, but it's hard when I don't even remember how English sentence structure goes. At least, not formally. Obviously I know how to write, but I feel like we can write however the hell we want. Some ways make less sense than others but fucking context helps you figure it out. Context in Japanese is like whaaaaaaat? Wait, in the sentence たろがりんごをたべた, if you think that the context in implied, you only have to write "ate"?! Omguhhhhh. So confusing. XD I know I'm ahead of myself here, but it's still mind-boggling.
I'm thinking about that email Athena wrote me where she included a small bit of talk in Japanese, and I pretty much died from being lost.
じゃまたね！メールはちょっとながいですけど、いいんですね。＾。＾
Okay! Far improved from last time - I could at least decipher/read the whole thing (only needing to double-check the katakana, and I have never encountered the phonetic spelling before but I remembered from last time about "mail." I still have no idea how it works), but I only was able to get the gist of "some sort of greeting! Something is something...something" and I've worked a little on isn't, but only as an actual negative, as in, "That isn't red," not "isn't it?" Now that I know what the sentence reads, and after staring at it a bit, I got a blip of inferring that last part of "isn't it", like in the Giver with seeing Red. XD Sooo, progress I guess, but I'm far from understanding sentences!
Still, I'm super determined. I ALMOST got into the lesson plan the U of MN teaches for the Japanese major, but all I was able to access is that they use the Genki books at least for the first year, and study chapters 1-6 in the first semester and work on learning 58 kanji. But I was thwarted from viewing the actual lesson plan (or which kanji they teach), even though I can still get into my U of MN account from going to school in Duluth like 4 years ago XD I considered buying the Genki books in place of the three I just bought in order to self-teach, but the books I bought got way higher ratings than Genki. I might buy them or another teaching tool book/workbook set (like Irasshai, but I can only find volume 2 on Amazon, and I can't remember what an internet search yielded) in a month or two. I like the idea of the instruction a workbook provides. But I'm happy with my purchase at the moment.
Weeaboo post!
Mar. 9th, 2011 06:54 amFor some reason, I got a jumpstart into practicing Japanese again. I think it had to do with the fact that after we got Black/White, Steve and I got into a discussion of the required mechanics to play the games.
On the back of the games, there's a rather long explanation of the requirements in order to be able to play Pokemon, and the rules about transferring Pokemon between games, and other generational topics relevant. This then led to a discussion of how old one must be in order to play Pokemon. It says "Basic Reading Ability." Was that true? I mean, I started the Pokemon games at like age 10 or something, which would then make Bethany 6, and she also started the games then. Adam started younger I'm sure. I don't know if a kindergartener/1st grader qualifies as being able to read whole conversations, or at least, understand them. With the original games especially, I think that you can get through without having to ACTUALLY be told where to go, though it obviously helps.
Children are incredibly determined, and haven't developed that impatience and adult sense of instant gratification. I remember playing Yellow without Flash, every time. Fuck flash! I can get through the cave ON MY OWN! XD When we were waiting in line to pick up our pre-ordered copies, a teenage boy between 13 and 15 struck up a conversation with me about Pokemon. Steve and I had brought our DSes so we could get Celebi via wireless. This boy had brought his DS too. Now, a normal teenage boy, with a fair amount of acne and a slightly deep voice would usually have a hard time striking up a conversation with a strange female, especially one who's standing next to a much more approachable-looking boy. After showing me his game time (211 hours), Pokemon caught (246), his current levels (At least 3 were level 100), and telling me a step-by-step approach to his battle system and how he likes to complete as much as possible when he plays games, I determined he HAD to be autistic. Which of course made him welcome kin instead of weird kid (I am sooo socially awkward and I hate small talk), and I enjoyed his lack of social cues until we left. The funny part was that I didn't say ANYTHING or make faces or any sort of hints to Steve - normally when strange people talk to me I'll give him "looks", whether exasperated or uncomfortable or awwwwkwarrrrd - and he went, "That kid? SOOOOO autistic!" XD He reminded me A LOT of one of my former students.
Aaaanyway, after our discussion of the level of reading skill required from Pokemon, Steve was like, "Why didn't we just import your version? That would have been so cool and you'd have been able to read SOME of it!" Which is true! Not a lot, though... I can't remember kanji for CRAP but I've started sentence structure and particles, as well as some vocab. I ordered a few cheap books (seriously, shipping was more than the cost of the books) off of Amazon, and I'm super excited to use them. I'll post what they are when I get them.
I'm starting to get subject-object-verb down okay, but it's hard when I don't even remember how English sentence structure goes. At least, not formally. Obviously I know how to write, but I feel like we can write however the hell we want. Some ways make less sense than others but fucking context helps you figure it out. Context in Japanese is like whaaaaaaat? Wait, in the sentence たろがりんごをたべた, if you think that the context in implied, you only have to write "ate"?! Omguhhhhh. So confusing. XD I know I'm ahead of myself here, but it's still mind-boggling.
I'm thinking about that email Athena wrote me where she included a small bit of talk in Japanese, and I pretty much died from being lost.
Okay! Far improved from last time - I could at least decipher/read the whole thing (only needing to double-check the katakana, and I have never encountered the phonetic spelling before but I remembered from last time about "mail." I still have no idea how it works), but I only was able to get the gist of "some sort of greeting! Something is something...something" and I've worked a little on isn't, but only as an actual negative, as in, "That isn't red," not "isn't it?" Now that I know what the sentence reads, and after staring at it a bit, I got a blip of inferring that last part of "isn't it", like in the Giver with seeing Red. XD Sooo, progress I guess, but I'm far from understanding sentences!
Still, I'm super determined. I ALMOST got into the lesson plan the U of MN teaches for the Japanese major, but all I was able to access is that they use the Genki books at least for the first year, and study chapters 1-6 in the first semester and work on learning 58 kanji. But I was thwarted from viewing the actual lesson plan (or which kanji they teach), even though I can still get into my U of MN account from going to school in Duluth like 4 years ago XD I considered buying the Genki books in place of the three I just bought in order to self-teach, but the books I bought got way higher ratings than Genki. I might buy them or another teaching tool book/workbook set (like Irasshai, but I can only find volume 2 on Amazon, and I can't remember what an internet search yielded) in a month or two. I like the idea of the instruction a workbook provides. But I'm happy with my purchase at the moment.
On the back of the games, there's a rather long explanation of the requirements in order to be able to play Pokemon, and the rules about transferring Pokemon between games, and other generational topics relevant. This then led to a discussion of how old one must be in order to play Pokemon. It says "Basic Reading Ability." Was that true? I mean, I started the Pokemon games at like age 10 or something, which would then make Bethany 6, and she also started the games then. Adam started younger I'm sure. I don't know if a kindergartener/1st grader qualifies as being able to read whole conversations, or at least, understand them. With the original games especially, I think that you can get through without having to ACTUALLY be told where to go, though it obviously helps.
Children are incredibly determined, and haven't developed that impatience and adult sense of instant gratification. I remember playing Yellow without Flash, every time. Fuck flash! I can get through the cave ON MY OWN! XD When we were waiting in line to pick up our pre-ordered copies, a teenage boy between 13 and 15 struck up a conversation with me about Pokemon. Steve and I had brought our DSes so we could get Celebi via wireless. This boy had brought his DS too. Now, a normal teenage boy, with a fair amount of acne and a slightly deep voice would usually have a hard time striking up a conversation with a strange female, especially one who's standing next to a much more approachable-looking boy. After showing me his game time (211 hours), Pokemon caught (246), his current levels (At least 3 were level 100), and telling me a step-by-step approach to his battle system and how he likes to complete as much as possible when he plays games, I determined he HAD to be autistic. Which of course made him welcome kin instead of weird kid (I am sooo socially awkward and I hate small talk), and I enjoyed his lack of social cues until we left. The funny part was that I didn't say ANYTHING or make faces or any sort of hints to Steve - normally when strange people talk to me I'll give him "looks", whether exasperated or uncomfortable or awwwwkwarrrrd - and he went, "That kid? SOOOOO autistic!" XD He reminded me A LOT of one of my former students.
Aaaanyway, after our discussion of the level of reading skill required from Pokemon, Steve was like, "Why didn't we just import your version? That would have been so cool and you'd have been able to read SOME of it!" Which is true! Not a lot, though... I can't remember kanji for CRAP but I've started sentence structure and particles, as well as some vocab. I ordered a few cheap books (seriously, shipping was more than the cost of the books) off of Amazon, and I'm super excited to use them. I'll post what they are when I get them.
I'm starting to get subject-object-verb down okay, but it's hard when I don't even remember how English sentence structure goes. At least, not formally. Obviously I know how to write, but I feel like we can write however the hell we want. Some ways make less sense than others but fucking context helps you figure it out. Context in Japanese is like whaaaaaaat? Wait, in the sentence たろがりんごをたべた, if you think that the context in implied, you only have to write "ate"?! Omguhhhhh. So confusing. XD I know I'm ahead of myself here, but it's still mind-boggling.
I'm thinking about that email Athena wrote me where she included a small bit of talk in Japanese, and I pretty much died from being lost.
じゃまたね！メールはちょっとながいですけど、いいんですね。＾。＾
Okay! Far improved from last time - I could at least decipher/read the whole thing (only needing to double-check the katakana, and I have never encountered the phonetic spelling before but I remembered from last time about "mail." I still have no idea how it works), but I only was able to get the gist of "some sort of greeting! Something is something...something" and I've worked a little on isn't, but only as an actual negative, as in, "That isn't red," not "isn't it?" Now that I know what the sentence reads, and after staring at it a bit, I got a blip of inferring that last part of "isn't it", like in the Giver with seeing Red. XD Sooo, progress I guess, but I'm far from understanding sentences!
Still, I'm super determined. I ALMOST got into the lesson plan the U of MN teaches for the Japanese major, but all I was able to access is that they use the Genki books at least for the first year, and study chapters 1-6 in the first semester and work on learning 58 kanji. But I was thwarted from viewing the actual lesson plan (or which kanji they teach), even though I can still get into my U of MN account from going to school in Duluth like 4 years ago XD I considered buying the Genki books in place of the three I just bought in order to self-teach, but the books I bought got way higher ratings than Genki. I might buy them or another teaching tool book/workbook set (like Irasshai, but I can only find volume 2 on Amazon, and I can't remember what an internet search yielded) in a month or two. I like the idea of the instruction a workbook provides. But I'm happy with my purchase at the moment.