I can read Hiragana quite well, Katakana almost as well. But when I have to write Katakana, I sometimes have to think hard about a character, to the point of having to look it up.
I want to replace these posters soon with posters of the 30-something kanji I should have learned up to now.
I have been doing Japanese lessons once a week since end of last summer. Prior to that, I used Rosetta Stone (language learning software), which I think is quite good :)
Our sensei gave us a lot of shukudai (homework) over the Christmas break. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do it all. When the lessons resumed, I told my sensei that I didn't have enough time to do all the homework because I had been cooking so many Japanese dishes.
She said: "Really? What did you cook?" and when I said "Kiriboshi daikon... hijiki no nimono...", she made a face and shook herself ;)
(to be continued)
You are quite a learner! I must say that these sheets of paper on the wall and the shelves almost bring tears to my eyes!
ReplyDeleteSo, what is your purpose of studying Japanese??? (Again, I hope this question is not too personal.)
I don't quite understand what is so touching about my humble efforts to master Hiragana and Katakana...
DeleteAgain, the question is not too personal. I have started learning Japanese using Rosetta Stone in preparation for a journey through Japan last summer. We were told beforehand that it is not so common for Japanese people to speak English.
It was a guided trip, so I didn't have to speak much with the locals, but my Japanese was sufficient for an ordinary tourist's needs.
Just to see waiter's faces light up when I said "gochiso sama deshita" to them was worth the effort to try speaking Japanese :)
At the moment, the purpose of learning Japanese is mainly to stay mentally agile.
A dream of mine is to live in Japan after our daughter has left the house, but that is still a long way to go ;) she is 11 (soon 12) now.