Watashi wa nihongo o benkyō shite imasu

Thank God for that 50% sale of living language books. They came in handy especially now..


I'm studying by myself. It's been a while that I'm studying again by myself. Although I did study basic SAP, I don't consider that self study because we did have a trainer.
But reading a chapter a day and then memorize or speak loud what I read, that's like a decade I've done that. Way back hmmm college perhaps? I'm surprised that I'm going to finish one of the 3 books that this bundle has. Of course, I can't gauge yet how my nihongo sounds. While studying, I've discovered a lot in nihongo that spark my interest.


First, surprisingly difficult yet fun! I mean, 3 types of writing won't give interest to the learner but come to think of it, their writing style looks great. Especially katakana which looks perfect but sad to say, they are used sparingly.. They are only used for foreign words. hehe I know hiragana now, but I'm almost done with katakana. No prepositions, pronouns or even passive voice or past tense. You can correct me on that as I haven't went there yet. But I can say, that no preposition part kinda made my learning a bit easy. I just hate prepositions. hehe A lot of things as well but I'll just put it here later.


Second, damn everything how you speak will change. One great example, the r and l sound. How they speak R/L letters it's like they are into one sound. But when you write it, it's R. Damn. hahahaha Then how to construct sentence, way too different. S-V agreement I think don't apply here. What I love in this language, no stress in the sound. Normal conversation in japanese it's like reading a paragraph with no stress intonation. There is no even or required high tone when asking question. You read or speak syllables according to it's character, not the word itself. If I got it right. So, yeah.. Very weird but kinda love it.


Third, I'm kinda wondered this even before I start studying, that some words sounds better than the english word. Like one example I just read last night. The word economics in japanese is keezaigaku. I kinda like that word. It's sounds, hmmm it's hard to put into words, sounds tough but fun to say. I don't know that feeling I can describe it, but anyway, some words don't forget, english words way better than japanese. One great example, to study, when you translate, benkyooshimasu! What the hell, that's a lot! hahaha Then there are phrases that it's like you are tongue twisting. Weird but it has. I'll write some of them later.




As I'm studying this language, I wonder now why Japanese are polite, smart and cool. Polite because even they say bad or not good, the normal way is no rising tone unless really needed. You say it normal, no like change of tone or pace. Smart people because come on, 3 writing systems, then Kanji is like, what a dictionary itself then the language itself, totally and drastically different from english.. That's hard to learn especially if you are a kid. Geez.. Cool, because of some words are said better than english, weird right?


That's it for now. I'll finish the first book in a few days then a week of rest then proceed in the second book. But of course, I need like a partner or a japanese friend to check how I do. I thought of how to have one, but let's say, nothing happening yet. Nobody is looking at my profile I guess. hahaha But if I have funds in the future, why not going to a school. For now, that's my budget, doing self help.


Watashi wa benkyō ganbattemasu!




Dewa, mata ne.