The Indifferent Hour

Today, after not posting... anything; for an extremely loong time, I decided to do a string of helpful posts! All I ask is that if you liked the post, leave me an email or a comment so I know whether or not to continue the series! If not,.. sit tight like a duck. Which coincidentally means 'chicken' in Korean...
Don't be a Dak.

How I learns me some Japanese!!

When studying Japanese, it's important to keep these words in mind: Organization, Creativity, Color, Limitation, and Consistency. When I took Japanese classes waay back in Hawaii, my sensei was absolutely nuts on organization (to the point where a boy in the back was frequently beat with a ruler..), but because of her--I have beautifully arranged notes I frequently flip through during my study. Now, I know what you may be thinking... "Oh noes! Did poor Aya-chan get beat by the ruler too..?" Yes. Poor Aya-chan had bad penmanship back then, and she once made the mistake of writing down her homework in the wrong book during class. I have the scars to prove it. (I still get shivers when I hear this lady's name! We called her the Dragon-Lady...)

Well, that's good and all, but where do I go from here..?
Learn your Kana, foo!

I learned my Kana in 2-3 days (which is quite average in Japan), but I'm also an obsessive oddball. More commonly here, I see Kana mastered in around 1-2 months. HOWEVER; I CHALLENGE YOU TO IMPROVE THESE NUMBERS!! Why? Because you can't move on to learning the right way without getting these little pains out of the way! Romaji, (or simply the sinfully lazy way of learning Japanese through our English alphabet), is NO way to learn Japanese. Just like learning English though the Katakana writing system is just as sinful!!

Now, let's move onto looking through Aya's mes...AHEM. clean desk! Learning Japanese, you'll soon find yourself in possession of several beaten, soggy notebooks, grand-smacking old unused books, books literally crumbling apart due to complete overuse and brutality, broken pencils, and a few headaches. This is where my HighFive rules comes in.

New notebook! I have yet to beat it like the caveman I is..

HighFive rules #2-3! Creativity and Color!!

Sexy grad. cap, I know.. 彼氏ｗｗ

I usually organize my notebooks in what I like to call "series," and my new one is no exception. My new notie has four series at the moment. Random Words, Slang, Trannies (or simply 'translations,' lol), and Rewind. Every page is labeled with one of the four, and follows where the last one left off.

Random Words　｜　ランダムな言葉
Within this series is a collection of words and phrases I hear out on the streets, in my dramas, through friends and penpals, and anywhere else I hear or see something useful. I usually keep a midget notebook in my purse at all times, and write down bits and pieces of conversations I hear or take part in. When it comes to studying, I take out the little midget, and copy everything down into my notebook. I'm a person who learns through writing everything down, again and again, so this saves me the effort doing things the Dragon-Lady way! (That being the "write this word 100 times, and move onto the next word" way..) ..with Kanji, I still haven't shaken off my Dragon-Lady ways...

Slang　｜　スラング始めましょう！
Slang is important, believe it or not. If you ask any JETs, or any of Japan's English teachers, they'll almost always say that one of the challenges of teaching is explaining English slang to their Japanese students. Japanese slang is just as confusing, but soo rewarding once you get it out of the way! English and Japanese slang is VERY different though. Don't just pick up a "Dirty Japanese" book, and enjoy speaking the rough edge of translated English slang. That edge bites back. Hard. I have an unbelievably tough time explaining a Japanese comedian on youtube, or a hilarious conversation with my friends. Slang takes a bit of work, but I can't tell you how rewarding it is to even know a little of it!

（ソラログの）　Trannies
The most stressful, headache-causing, pain I inflict on myself throughout everything I do towards achieving fluency... Translation SUCKS, to put it lightly. And I translate a manga, with the English version right there online! However, I continue to do it because I know how much these pages of pain are helping me... Unfortunately, I really encourage you to do the same! Buy a manga (great for starting off) online or at your local China Town/bookstore, and find the English/Japanese version of the same book online. Then, translate one bubble--line by line, one page a day. I've done four pages a day, and I had to take a Japanese-free holiday for a few days... When doing this, get ALL your resources out. When I translate, I have google translator tabbed (bad habit, but it's good for comparing), my dictionary and electronic translator on hand, and a few of my text books spread across the table. Lastly, don't just grab a book for the sake of trannies. I have a manga I actually love wholeheartedly, and finding out what happens at the end of the story inspires me to continue to painfully translate the damn thing.

Lastly, Rewind is a series where I take past information out of older notebooks and textbooks, and rewrite them into a new book. With Japanese, you want to try not to forget as much as possible. Forgetting is inevitable when learning a new language, but if you rewrite what you can--the information will flood back to you in conversation.

Hopefully, this gives you some ideas on how to study Japanese... If it did, don't forget to let me know! My next post, in continuation of this series, will be on the books I use! I'll also include a few reviews of the ones I particularly love and HATE. So (again), if you want to read more, you'll have to send me an email or comment down below on this post! I really hope this helped!

～絢♪