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