Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

VonPeterhof’s log - 旅立ち’14, Yürükler’15+

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
158 messages over 20 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 19 20
vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4782 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 153 of 158
30 August 2015 at 6:28pm | IP Logged 
My second month in Japan is soon coming to an end, and since this has been a rare week where I managed to complete all my planned language learning activities I might as well write a quick update here. The presentation I gave in class went fairly well - the only criticisms I got were that I speak too quietly and monotonously, which probably means that my speech was okay in terms of content and grammatical correctness. On Friday I also wrote the final test for the elective subject of international commerce. For it we had to write between 1000 and 1600 characters about the present state and major issues in our respective countries' external trade within two hours. Mostly I just had to expand my text for a presentation on the same subject I had given earlier, so the biggest challenge was to write it all down within the time limit. While my speed of writing in purely mechanical terms is pretty good right now, I got really slowed down by having to look up words and how to write them every other sentence. Still, I think I did fairly well.

My exploration of Japan has also been going well. The trip to Tokyo was a bit of a logistical challenge, since we went there using the Seishun 18-kippu pass, which only works for local trains (so no Shinkansen, night trains or other express trains with fixed seating). Departing from Osaka at 9:30 AM we passed through eight prefectures, made six transfers and reached Akihabara station around 8:00 PM. At least we got some good views out the train windows, even if Mount Fuji wasn't visible due to the cloudiness. We spent the next day visiting the Comiket, walking on the Odaiba and singing karaoke in Akihabara, while the next day we explored the areas around several other Yamanote line stations (Shinjuku, Shin-Ōkubo, Ikebukuro, Harajuku and Shibuya) before going back to Osaka on a night bus. Other places I've visited in the past month include Hyogo prefecture (Kobe, Himeji, Takarazuka and Nishinomiya), Shiga prefecture (Hikone and Toyosato) and Osaka's neighbouring cities of Sakai and Kadoma, plus I couldn't resist a second visit to Kyoto and Uji. Places I've visited include both traditional tourist spots like temples and castles, and more unconventional attractions, like an old school building in Toyosato that was used as the model for the school in the anime K-On!, or a bar in Kyoto famous for having 200 brands of vodka and endearing signs in broken Russian. I probably won't be able to afford any more distant trips, but I've still got some places I'd like to see in Osaka that I can visit with my handy all-city bus pass.

As for other language learning activities, my travels haven't left me much time for them, but I did try to fit in at least three Uzbek GLOSS lessons per week, and I've also managed to complete two additional units of TY Gulf Arabic (although I only kinda skimmed through the exercises, instead focusing on shadowing the dialogues and mining example sentences). I've completed Syromyatnikov's Classical Japanese grammar and Melioransky's old "Kazak-Kirghiz" grammar, so now their places in my weekly routine have been taken by 百人一首 and advanced Kazakh lessons on til.gov.kz. The novel that I'm reading in Japanese right now is 響け! ユーフォニアム (about 3/4 of the way though the first book in the series). While I think that the recent anime adaptation of the first book is written better in nearly every way, the book is pretty entertaining light reading with most of the challenging vocabulary being music-related. Although I'd probably rank it as upper-intermediate in terms of overall difficulty level, due to the fact that aside from the protagonist nearly all characters speak the Kyoto dialect (not the stereotypical どす/やす/はる kind, but the real modern thing, which has only a few subtle differences from the Osaka dialect), so the dialogues might be harder to follow without prior exposure to Kansai dialects.

I've now got three weeks left here, during which I'll need to make another long presentation and take tests in the rest of the classes. Gotta keep on making the most of my stay here!
3 persons have voted this message useful



Monox D. I-Fly
Senior Member
Indonesia
monoxdifly.iopc.us
Joined 5145 days ago

762 posts - 664 votes 
Speaks: Indonesian*

 
 Message 154 of 158
26 September 2016 at 3:41pm | IP Logged 
vonPeterhof wrote:
I've completed Syromyatnikov's Classical Japanese grammar and Melioransky's old "Kazak-Kirghiz" grammar, so now their places in my weekly routine have been taken by 百人一首 and advanced Kazakh lessons on til.gov.kz.


Hyakujin Ichiguchi? 100 people 1 neck? What is that?
1 person has voted this message useful



vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4782 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 155 of 158
27 September 2016 at 6:57am | IP Logged 
Hyakunin Isshu.
1 person has voted this message useful



Monox D. I-Fly
Senior Member
Indonesia
monoxdifly.iopc.us
Joined 5145 days ago

762 posts - 664 votes 
Speaks: Indonesian*

 
 Message 156 of 158
27 September 2016 at 2:56pm | IP Logged 
I... didn't know that the Kanji for "neck" can mean "poem"...
1 person has voted this message useful



vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4782 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 157 of 158
28 September 2016 at 7:26am | IP Logged 
It's used as a counter for poems and songs in both Chinese and Japanese. There's probably a story behind that, but I don't know what it is.
1 person has voted this message useful



Monox D. I-Fly
Senior Member
Indonesia
monoxdifly.iopc.us
Joined 5145 days ago

762 posts - 664 votes 
Speaks: Indonesian*

 
 Message 158 of 158
28 September 2016 at 4:27pm | IP Logged 
So, if I want to say "I have written some millions of poetries", will it be "Watashi wa hyakujuumanshu wo kita" in Japanese?


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 158 messages over 20 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 19.2030 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.