さくぶん

先ちゃん、あとちゃん、おばさん、おじさん、

こんにちは！みゆきです。みなおげんきですか。私はげんきて、うれしです。でも、いつも四年生です。私のせんこうはせいじがくです。　それから、えんげきもべんきょします。でも、らい年日本にいくので、今日本語をべんきょします。でもおもしろくて、たのしいです。それから、プリンストンで毎週うたうのグループとえんげきのグループのリハーサールがあるので、いつもいそがしです。でも、げんきです。

あのう、あとちゃんは今何年 生ですか。先ちゃんは大学はおわりましたか。しごとがありますか。まだダンスをしますか。とにかく、らい年は日本にいきますよ。よろしくおねがいします。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　美由紀

PE: Cycle 3

すみません！ This post is two days late! I completely forgot to post after 金曜日’s class.

As for my progress during this second Cycle, I think my pronunciation actually improved substantially though unfortunately not via the strategies I had planned. Highlighting steps on my list appears to not make me pay more attention to them L. But I did speak with my father in Japanese much more than I did during the first cycle. In addition to speaking with him on the phone in Japanese, I spoke with him in Japanese over much of Thanksgiving break. I was surprised with how well I was able to communicate with him! As was he! He told me (in Japanese and I was able to understand him!) that he is very happy that I am able to speak to him in Japanese FINALLY.　I notice his accent less and less actually, but I think his intonation etc. is pretty close to my own actually, which is good. I guess that makes sense since my pronunciation instincts are based on the Japanese I heard him speaking when I was growing up.

I did the shadowing exercise that was required of our class and was surprised by how natural I sounded, actually. I was pretty good at speaking at a natural pace with good intonation and pitch. There were a few things that I need to improve on (still opening my mouth more, and not distorting a couple of vowels) but actually what I realized is that I need to work on listening as much as speaking. The pace of the exercise took me off guard and I would like to be more comfortable with it next time around. I did not do any extra shadowing exercises.

I listened to NHK podcasts but not as many as I had planned and didn’t usually had a chance to do it while in my room. I will try to follow through on this during Cycle 3. I did listen to a number of Japanese songs… I have not yet downloaded any because I realized I’m not sure how, short of purchasing them, which I can’t do. So I’m going to continue listening on YouTube and to an old 80s JPop CD that I have in my room already.

Cycle 3 Pronunciation Goals:

1.     Continue working on not being timid with pitch and intonation (fluctuate!)

2.     Continue improving vowel length (open mouth more, don’t swallow sounds), particularly when speaking fast

3.    Continue noticing and incorporate pitch/intonation to connote meaning (subtleties of expression/connotation)

4.   Improve ability to listen and understand fast-paced speaking so that you can imitate this speed in your own speech.

Strategies:

1.    Continue speaking with my father in Japanese once a week. Try to use my new vocabulary/grammatical structures when doing so and pick up the pace of conversation. Ask him to speak to me in Japanese exclusively so that I get a sense of how fast he speaks and learn from it.

2.    DO THE EXTRA SHADOWING EXCERCISES ONLINE.

3.    Listen to at least one NHK podcast in your room each week so that you can practice speaking and imitating out loud.

4.    Keep listening to Japanese songs on YouTube and off of your 80s CD.

5.    *New Tactic: Add these strategies to your weekly to-do list instead of posting above your desk! 

PE Cycle 2: Goals and Strategies

Pronunciation Goals:

1.     Stop being timid with pitch and intonation (fluctuate!)

2.     Continue improving vowel length (open mouth more, don’t swallow sounds), particularly when speaking fast

3.     Notice and incorporate pitch/intonation to connote meaning (subtleties of expression/connotation)

Strategies:

1.     Continue calling my father at least once a week and having a conversation in Japanese. Note his accent and subtleties of intonation/expression. Compare with that of my teachers/other native speakers.  Make an attempt to not be timid with pitch while talking to my dad on the phone.

2.     ACTUALLY DO SHADOWING EXERCISES! I won’t ever know how I’m doing if I don’t listen to myself speak.

3.     Since attending the Japanese language table is usually not possible because of my various rehearsal schedules, I will attempt to go whenever possible and talk to my father/listen to an NHK podcast in lieu.  I will listen to at least two NHK podcasts a week. One of these listenings I will do in my room so I can practice imitating Japanese out loud.

4.     I will continue listening to and downloading Japanese songs!

5.     I will not only post this above my desk, but I will HIGHLIGHT the important steps so that I actually read this and follow through with my strategies. 

Here's to being more diligent this cycle! 

がんばります！

りっぱなせんしゅう！

こんにちは！

せんしゅうは　プリンストン大学の　バケーション。わたしと　わたしの　アカペラ　 グルプは　パリーに　いきました。ぱりは　とても　きれなまちね！　はくぶつかんと　こうえんに　いきました。たくさんたべました！　ウランスの　ぱんは　とてもおいしい！　いま　 ダイエートしますよ！　

みんな

Memory locks on one of the bridges on the Seine

Now to transition to english for a bit...writing that in Japanese was probably one of the hardest exercises I have had にほんごの　じゅうぎょ  yet! I think that's mainly because of the week off from Japanese that I just took, but I think it's also because of the fact that I have been speaking フランスご　for a week. At first it was hard for me to transition back to French since it has been about a year and a half since I've really spoken the language regularly. Quite frustratingly, at first it felt like I had forgotten most of the language. Whereas before I would often end up accidentally saying french words when trying to speak japanese (I once said "comment dit-on" in にほんごの　じゅうぎょ　when trying to say ___て　にほんごは　なんといますか) this time I found it hard to switch from Japanese to French! At dinner the first night, when one of my non-french-speaking friends asked me how to say "where is the metro?", I replied (I kid you not), "Le métro, c'est　どこ?" After processing for a few awkward seconds how incorrect (and bizarre!) that was, I laughed it off, told my friends what I had just done, and corrected myself. It was indeed quite surprising--even a bit disturbing--that at least for a few minutes that first night, japanese felt more natural than french for once. While it made me regret how little I had been practicing my french over the past two years, I guess that incident bodes well for my japanese!

Of course now I'm back to having the opposite problem again and it feels like my french is blocking out my japanese. Hopefully after I get to にほんごの　じゅうぎょ　こんひる、that will go away a bit and transitioning between my two foreign languages will get a little easier.

Since this blog post is getting a little long, I'll save my reflections on traveling abroad for another post. Until then, I'll leave you with these two songs sung by an Okinawan singer that my friend referred me to. They're currently helping me transition from my enthusiasm for french culture (how I long to go back!) to excitement for Okinawan/japanese culture. Time to look forward to the next trip abroad--りゅきゅ and にほん!

Unai Island by Rimi Natsukawa

Nada Sou Sou by Rimi Natsukawa

Cycle 1 Reflections

こんばんは！

すみません、it has been quite a while since my last blog post! Let's hope I do a better job during cycle 2 of posting more interest-related posts and less boring evaluations! That said, it's time for another one.

So...I have also been less than superb at following my pronunciation goals plans during cycle 1. I completed about half of my pronunciation goals. ざねんだですね! I did indeed call my father more than once a week (surpassing my goal!) and spoke to him in Japanese for quite sometime. Since my dad also just learned how to text (かわいそう）I have been texting with him in Japanese too! A pleasant surprise! In speaking with my father on the phone in Japanese, I was impressed that--for the first time--I noticed that he has a strong accent I am not used to! I assume this is an Okinawan accent, since that is where he is from. Anyway, it was cool to realize that I was familiar enough with the sounds I had been hearing in class that I noticed the difference between わたしの　せんせえの　にほんご　and わたしの　ちちの　にほんご. I also did follow through with asking あたしの　ともだち who speaks Japanese for Japanese song suggestions! He gave met a few, but I have yet to post them to this blog! I will try to do that in the next few days. I also have to add them to my iTunes so I can listen to them on my iPod--I'll be traveling to Paris for this fall vacation, so I'll have lots of hours on the airplane to listen to Japanese. I also followed through in downloading the NHK news podcast. That said, I have yet to upload it to my iPod. Again, however, I now have a bunch of episodes to listen to on the plane! I'll be uploading those after I complete this post. Finally, I think I have been doing a good job of listening to わたしの　せんせえ's pitch and intonation. I have noticed that mine has improved and my facility with pitch has improved as well. I think that this showed today during my oral exam. Speaking にほんご while sounding にほんじん was much easier than it has ever been! I think that while I did not succeed in following my other pronunciation goal steps (all of the japanese language tables have unfortunately conflicted with my schedule so far and I have not yet gone to do any more shadowing...), I think that I actually did perform well today in the oral exam. I felt impressively fluent with the sentences that my partner and I had practiced as well as typical Japanese active listening phrases. Using the appropriate pitch and intonation felt easier today, as well. What I do need to improve upon, however, is my vocab/grammar itself! I was not prepared for many of the questions that しばた　せんせえ asked me and as a result I used some improper grammar (wrong particles, I think) and couldn't find the appropriate vocal word (whether or not I learned it).

Here's to doing a better job of following my plan (and posting on my blog!) during Cycle 2!

がんばります！

せんしゅうまつ

こんにちわ！

すみません、ブログ　レダズ。It has been little while since my last entry. きよう、I'm going to try to write in full japanese sentences, so please excuse the rather childlike post. The amount of things I can communicate in full japanese sentences is still extremely limited. 

せんしゅまつ　リハーサルに　いきました。まいにち　リハーサルに　いきました。から　いちじ　ろくじまず　リハーサルが　あります。だから、まいばんとまいあさ　じゅくだいしました。だて、にちよびに　ともだちが　スカイプーしました。そのともだちの　せんきょうは　アジアけんきゅうでした。ユーツーブのにほんごのビデオが　みせって。そして、つぎ　ブログは　おんがっくの　ブログです。

じゃ、また！

わたしは アメリカじんです。

My name may be Miyuki Miyagi. I may have dark brown hair and eyes, short stubby asian legs, and get incredibly red when I drink any form of alcohol. But, as my father's friends used to joke when I was a kid, I am 100% american. I hadn't realized that until today. Much to my surprise (and horror) I sounded like a typical american person trying to speak japanese. The people I used to if not look down on at least laugh at when I was a kid. The people who pronounced kyoto keeeyoooto during the kyoto olympics. It seems that, yet again, I have realized that I have farther to come than I thought.

So here are my Pronunciation goals:

1. Improve my pitch and intonation
2. Improve my vowel length and pronunciation (open my mouth more!)
3. Improve articulation when speaking fast

Here are my strategies for tackling these goals:

1. I will call my father (native speaker) up at least once a week to have a 5-10 minute conversation with him in Japanese. I will listen closely to his pitch and intonation and try to imitate it.
2. When I skype with my Japanese-speaking friend (who is not afraid to be critical) I will say a few new sentences for him and ask him to correct my intonation/pitch/vowels.
3. I will attend the Japanese language table at least once a month (more than that will probably hard given rehearsal conflicts)
4. I will do listening and speaking exercises (shadowing) whenever they are made available online.
5. I will ask my Japanese-speaking friend for songs in Japanese to download so I can listen to them and eventually sing along. I will put them on my ipod and listen to them while walking around campus at least once a day.
6. I will always focus on pitch and intonation (listening and imitating) when in class and lecture.
7. I will subscribe to a free daily NHK podcast and listen to it three times a week. One of these times will be in my room so I can practice imitating the Japanese out loud.

Now to print this blog post and tape it above my desk so I stick to the plan!