新しいセメスター

このセメスターは, it's time to start taking pitch more seriously. Now that I don't struggle (as much!) at fluency, comprehension, and grammar, I need to learn proper pitch to minimize 私のアメリカのアクセント. I can improve it in a number of ways:

(1) 今、when  I learn 新しいボキャブラリー (or review 古いの), I will practice out loud using the pitch pattern in なかまきょうか書。
(2) Pay more attention to pitch when シャドーイングをします。So far, I mostly pay attention to speed, but it's time to push myself more.
(3) Get as much exposure to listening to natives as I can. This means オフィスアワーや CDを聞きます。I also found a handy site that has good listening practice. ウェブサイトのなまえは「http://mykikitori.com/lesson1.html」です。

このセメスターはたくさんかんじがあります！I have found that studying radicals is immensely helpful in learning to write the かんじ (though it doesn't really help with 読む them.) たとえば、新　＝　立　＋　木　＋　斤。　そして、　語　＝　言　＋　五　＋　口。　When writing, it's much easier for me to remember three radicals than trying to remember over a dozen individual strokes. Many radicals are かんじ themselves too, so it really helps. So, before the セメスター ends I want to learn all the bushu radicals, except the obscure ones. <http://www.jisho.org/kanji/radicals/> gives you all theじょうよう かんじ for each radical, so I can ignore the radicals that only appear in a few kanji. If I learn (meaning I learn how 書く it and the えいご definition, not the 日本語 reading) then it should be a manageable goal since I've already learned many dozen. Most radicals are only a few strokes, though exceptions like 鼻(えいごで "nose", 14 strokes) exist. Still, I find the radicals very useful and おもしろい.

My primary semester goal is to improve pitch while continuing work on grammar, speaking fluency, etc. As a bonus goal I will try to learn the radicals too, which will make future classes much easier (I hear you have to learn something like かんじ十五つ、毎日　in PII!)