I am very excited that am learning Japanese にほんご,日本語 !
I have wanted to study にほんごsince freshman year, but scheduling conflicts prevented me from getting the class... until now, in my senior year! I had to jump through some hoops, but I'm in the class now and the first week has been great! :)
I have experienced some amount of traditional Japanese culture second hand - here in the United States, as my mom and her extended family is Japanese (but she knows virtually no日本語 ). Her maiden name is Mitsunaga – みつなが。It would have been easier to adopt a Japanese name for class if I had inherited her family name!
I chose to make my last name「ブルネット」“Burnett” although baa-ne-tto may have been an choice thats easier to say. Perhaps I should ask my dad how his business counterparts in にほん address him. Actually, I remember now, he goes by his first name, "Scott-san"「スカトサん」!
I spent some time learning hiragana and katakana characters over summer. It was very helpful to practice reading the characters on signs and posters around where I live in California - at Marukai まるかい and Mitsuwa みつわJapanese stores and such. I attended a few Japanese おぼん festivals with my family as well as an event called “Nisei Week” in the Little Tokyo District of Los Angeles. I got the chance to recognize some more Japanese characters in Japantown S.F. during a visit to San Francisco. But when it comes to kanji, わかりません。I like that the computer converts words to kanji : )
I hope that this year in Japanese language will give me a good foundation that I can build after I graduate this spring. From the way はなぶさせんせいhas conducted the first week, it looks like I will definitely learn a lot! I am fascinated with the Japanese way of life, particularly the quality of just about everything the Japanese do. I feel that much attention and care is put into Japanese work and products.
On a different note, I recently started listening to Jpop about 6 months ago after I first heard a J-electropop group called 「パフューム」(Perfume). There is a clip of one of their singles below.
Also, it's fun to watch bits of modern Japanese culture via Japanese television clips on Youtube. I greatly enjoy these things even though I do not know what they are saying! Studying にほんごwill help me with this.
じゃあ また。
