ふゆやすみ

冬やすみにカリフォルニアのロスアンゲルスへかぞくをあいにかえりました。カリフォルニアがきれいで、天気がとてもよくて、あたたかったです。ビーチへともだちとよくいきました、そしてパーティをたくさんしました。とてもたのしかったです。ロスアンゲルスにすんでいますのともだちとあいました。

じゃまった、
ブライアン

さくぶん

やまださんへ、
はじめまして！ブライアンです。わたしはコロンビア大学のにねんせいです。アメリカのロスアンジェルスからきました。わたしのせんこうはコンピターサイエンスです。はたちです。
わたしの大学の生活はとてもたのしいですが、とてもいそがしいです。わたしは日本語と中国語とコンピターサイエンスをべんきょうします。とてもおもしろいですが、すこしむずかしいです。
としょかんではたらきます。あそこで学生にほんをかします。あまりおもしろくじゃありますえん。
コロンビア大学がすきです。あまり大きくじゃないですが、とてもいい大学です。そしてすこし有名。
六月二十日に、日本へいきます。あそこで日本語をべんきょします。わたしはしあわせです。
よろしくおねがいします。

ブライアン

にほんごは ちゅうごくご じゃありません

If I had to make a pie chart for the amount of time I spend working on each of my classes' homework, the slice that represents Chinese and Japanese together typically accounts for anywhere between 50-80%, with Chinese still taking up the bulk of that slice. The point is though that I spend a good amount of time each day thinking and speaking in one or the other language... and now I've begun to confuse them at inopportune moments. Probably the worst instance of this is during Chinese class, where I constantly respond to my teacher's comments by saying "Hai". I can get on board with that though, since even before I started taking Japanese I would respond to statements by saying "Hai", but it's been getting worse. Recently my teacher asked me what time I typically go to sleep every night, and I very nearly said にじはん instead of the proper response in Chinese. When I realized what I was about to say, I just stared blankfaced at her for three whole seconds while I tried to think of the words in Chinese, which I learned in my first year but suddenly could not for the life of me remember. Then the other day in Japanese, when さとうせんせい said we were going to learn new grammar, I said something along the lines of "ah, 新(xin, which means new in Chinese)のgrammar". I guess さとうせんせい heard me, since he looked at me and said "あたらしい". I hadn't even realized I had switched them! Turns out that あたらしい can be written as 新しい, with the kanji having the same meaning, which leads me into my second point. Kanji are becoming more and more present in our homeworks and lessons, and I'm excited to find out that I can understand the written forms in kanji before I learn how they are spoken in Japanese. Granted, the Chinese characters that I know are "traditional", and thus slightly more complicated than the kanji, but it's such a cool feeling the be able to apply my knowledge of Chinese to learning Japanese.
Alright, that's enough self obsessed ranting for now. I plan for my next post to either be about cool Japanese music or cool Japanese anime, and 神さま willing, it'll be up soon.

じゃまった、
ブライアン

ちょっと...

おもしろい　ですね。

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/world/asia/20japan.html?ex=1350619200&en=052c0d849fa3663c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Introduction...again.

はじめまして。ブライアンです。わたしはコロンビアだいがくのにねんせいです。アメリカじんです。ロスアンジェルスからきました。わたしのせんこうわコンプタサイェンスです。じゅきゅさいです。どうぞよろしく。

ロスアンジェルス　＝　Los Angeles (lo su a n je lu su)
コンプタサイェンス　＝　computer science (ko n pu ta sa ye n su)
アメリカ　＝　America (a me ri ka)

What is a good blog?

I suppose a good blog is one that provides interesting, useful information pertaining to a certain topic. Blogs that meet these criteria actually provide a service instead of simply being a personal endeavor that one chooses to make public without good reason. It's probably for this reason that widely read blogs deal with one or only a few related topics, such as politics, news, or even computers.

On that note...I'll try to make this blog more than a requirement for a course, but something that might be of interest and use to others.

More soon,
じゃまった

Japan in American culture/media

One of the very few big network shows I've watched diligently in recent memory is NBC's show "Heroes", actually largely due to the fact that one of the main characters is a time-traveling, badass, にほんのかいしゃいん. Apparently I'm not the only one who sees the appeal, since both the show and the particular character I'm talking about, 中村(なかむら) ひろ, are very popular. Truth be told, listening to the Japanese that's spoken in the show made me even more excited to learn the language.

So why bring this up?

There's a link on the Heroes website that leads to The Yamagato Fellowship, an apparently fictional center for the study of historical heroes (The founder is 中村かいと, Hiro's father in the show). The site is worth a look for any fans of the show, especially the message from the founder (entirely in Japanese), and the 5 documentaries (pretty sure these are fictional too) about the legendary hero Takezo Kensei, whose story is referred to several times in the first season and who appears to be a main character in the second season.

Check it out:
http://yamagatofellowship.org/index.shtml

Japan's fascination with American culture is well known, but it's awesome to see that the reverse is true as well.

More later,
じゃまった