てがみ

サンクスギビングの休みとおかし

みなさん、こんばんは！みなさんのサンクスギビングの休みはよかったですか。私のサンクスギビングの休みはやすらくて、たのしかったです。うちにかえりました。くるまでりょうしんはプリンストンにきました。くるまでプリンストンからマサズビンヤード）（MV）までいきました。プリンストンから私のまちまでごじかんぐらいかかります。MVでともだちとあいました。えいがをみて、ゲームをして、たべものをたべました。サンクスギビングのごはんがかぞくとたべました。にくやくだものややさいをたべました。おいしいです！

今日日本のおかしをたべました。おかあさんはおかしかいました。

ラムネおかしーーーーーーーーーーー＞

あきやすみ

 こんばんはみなさん、げんきですか。

せんしゅうはあきやすみでした。どようびとにちようびにボートチームレースがありました。そして、げつようびにうちでかえりました。M.V.にともだちとファミリーガリマス。






私のボートチーム    ==============>

にちようびに〝Princeton Chase" がありました。これは私のボートチーム。













私のいぬです。”Wynnie"です。＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＞












　　　　　　　　　　　　

　




私のめいごです。Halloweenパーティがありました。

アーキオロジーのプロジェクト

7 Weeks in Retrospect

こんばんは！

I cannot believe that 7 weeks of Japanese study have already gone by. It has been challenging at times, but extremely rewarding and I am loving this class! Looking back on my speaking exercises, I realize that I have made a lot of progress towards achieving some of my goals while others still need work. Earlier in this blog I stated that I wanted to improve my speaking in four ways (pronunciation, accuracy, speed, and comfort/confidence) in order to sound like a native speaker. While I am still a LONG ways off from that, I do believe that my pronunciation has become marginally better, my differentiation between mora has improved, and my speed and comfort speaking have risen immensely from my first week. Confidence has been one of my biggest obstacles in language classes. Speaking a foreign language, I have always struggled to quickly compose my thoughts in a way that I like and think is worth other people hearing, and as a result hesitate or jumble my phrases. I think that Japanese has made me accept my mistakes and learn from them. In the past 7 weeks, the PE exercises have helped me with this confidence as well as how I actually sound.

While many of the activities and goals that I planned to do have been worked on, some of them slipped through the cracks. I haven't been able to make it to as many office hours or language tables as I'd like due to my extracurriculars, and I haven't been able to spend 10-30 minutes listening to Japanese dialogues/music each day. This is something I'm going to try to emphasize as I enter the second half of the semester.

On that note, here is a new and improved goal statement:

GOALS:

-Pronunciation: To further clarify my pitches and mora in order to sound like authentic Japanese.

-Speed: To continue to talk/shadow at a regular speed WITHOUT missing particles or jumbling my pronunciations, and to improve regular conversational speed.

PLAN:

-Go to Japanese Language tables as often as possible.

-Go to Office Hours whenever I have questions or a topic that is giving me a particular amount of trouble.

-Listen to 10-30 mins of Japanese music/dialogue each day.

-Shadow at least once per week.

-Attempt to learn more vocabulary on my own, through friends, websites, media, etc...

Well, that's all for now.

じゃあ、また！ 

メイヒュー

私のしゅうまつ！

みなさん、こんにちは！こんしゅうまつにとてもべんきょうします！そして、きょうに私ともにR20をうたうでした。きょうにR20のためにがくふをかきました。

私のソング！

私はまたにちようびにうたった。

R20です！

あしたにれきしの本をよみます。べんきょうします、そしてあにめをみます。ちゅうかんしけんはとてもむずかしいですね？

みなさん、がんばってください！

メイヒュー

あかめがきる

ぼくわあかめがきるがすきです！I have recently started watching this new anime, and it is quite good. The characters are quite original. Some are funny, some cute, and some are terrifyingly disturbing. The story follows たすみ after he meets a band of assassins known as ナイトライド。I'd definitely recommend it!

Goal Statement for PE

こんばんはみなさん！

I have already stated that my long-term goal for this class is to achieve fluency in the Japanese language. To meet that high goal, however, I need to set a few more realistic and short-term goals.

GOALS:

I hope to improve the following:

-Pronunciation: Sounding more authentically "Japanese" to a native speaker and less like an American student.
-Speed: To be able to listen to and speak Japanese at a high speed, in order to sound and feel more natural with the language.
-Accuracy: Making sure to differentiate between special mora (long vowels, double consonants, etc..).
-Comfort/Confidence: Speaking confidently and without hesitation, and without having to pause to gather my thoughts.


PLAN:

To achieve these goals I will do the following:

-Go to the Japanese language table as often as possible! The only exceptions would be when crew practice runs its regularly scheduled time or if I had a major exam/paper at that exact time.
-Do at LEAST one, if not more, anime shadowing exercises per week.
-Listen to Japanese music, dialogues, etc... multiple times per week, for around 10-30 minutes.
-Go to office hours when possible or otherwise seek out help from せんせい in order to correct past mistakes.


じゃあ、また！

Introductions

Who Am I?

こんばんはみなさん！

はじめまして。Mayhewです。ぷりんすとんだいがくのいちねんせいです。マサチューセッツのマーサーズ·ビィンヤードからきました。私のたんじょうびはくがつのにじゅうくにち。あめりかじんです。私はれきしのせんこうです。

じゃあ、また！

Why Japanese?

こにちは！

はじめまして。Mayhewです。いちねんせです。よろしくおねがいします。

So that about sums up what I can say in Japanese, besides a few numbers. I am excited to begin learning Japanese at Princeton and (hopefully) work towards fluency.

I chose to study Japanese for a variety of reasons. At an early age my older brother exposed me to stories about samurai and Japanese martial arts such as aikido and I think the interest in Japan stuck, hiding somewhere in my subconscious. Around sophomore year of high school I became more interested in Japan and began thinking about learning the language. I enjoy Japanese history, culture, traditional arts, anime and manga, and its music. I hope to study abroad with the Princeton in Ishikawa program this upcoming summer, and possibly for a semester in the years ahead.

I am excited to learn Japanese. I have never been fluent in a second language and am determined to do so with Japanese. So far class has been fun and I hope it stays that way! My first three days at Princeton have been extremely busy, but I enjoy (so far) all of my classes. I am nervous to see how the academic workload turns out, paired with my desire to participate in extracurriculars.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB_Chikanobu-Protecting_his_master_Tsugunobu.jpg

どうぞよろしく！
Mayhew