Just What Does This Say?
 

October 1998 Views  Just what does this kitty's sign say? One day I'm hoping to find out! But for now, your guess is as good as mine. Everyday, all day long, we encounter written messages that just don't mean anything to us! We walk to the subway in the morning & see the same signs over and over again & don't know what they say. We go to eat in a restaurant & if the menu contains Kanji characters, we are lost. We look through the manual for the telephone we just bought and we learn how it works by the pictures alone! The number of different characters in use on a daily basis is just over2,000. Therefore, it's not a surprise that we can't read alot of what we see.

December 1999 Update
Well, I still can't read what the cat's sign says, BUT, I'm not totally illiterate anymore when it comes to menu items and advertisements. For menus, if the restaurant is of a type I'm used to. For example, in ramen or a tonkatsu shop, I can find what I like on the menu. And in the subway on the way to and from work I'm able to read more seemingly everyday. I especially nootice that if I've recently studied a bunch of new kanji, I often see a kanji on the subway that I know I've studied, but I just can't remember what it means. That's where my brithday present from Seth comes in handy. I have an amazing little personal organizer that has better handwriting recognition than the Pilot by, oh, about 1,000 times! I draw the character that I'm looking at and the organizer's dictionary feature tells me how to pronounce it and what it's english meaning is. Amazing little gadget!
December 2000 Update
My amazing little gadget has been with me ever since we left Japan in June. All through Europe, I used to to translate Kanji and refresh my memory - especially during long train rides. It has seen a bit of wear by now. The hardest knock came in Murnau, Germany when it fell off a shelf and the lid closure broke off. No worries though, a rubberband keeps it securely closed between uses. Now that I'm not working, I've had time to actually play with alot of the features. I'm constantly amazed at how good it is at decifering my written Kanji (it puts the Palm Pilot's special writing system to shame!). However, recently, it has a harder time with my writing -- probably since I don't write Japanese as often.  Even so, I haven't forgotten all my Japanese and I don't plan to.

My Favorite Characters
As of October, 1998, I can write all of my hiragana & katakana, plus approximately 50 kanji. If you know nothing about Japanese, here's a simple introduction. I enjoy practicing writing some of the characters because I think they are beautiful. I enjoy writing other characters just because I am able to write them! Here are some of my all time favorite characters:
 

	This character is pronounced "ji" or "toki" and it means time. I've always liked this character. I can even remember it from 1991 when Seth and I studied Japanese for two years at Oakton Community College.
	This character took me a LONG time to learn how to write correctly. It takes 18 different strokes of your pen to draw this one! And, it's used in every day of the week, so if you want to write "Friday", you must use this!

These characters below are simple ones, but I always find that the character I write has something wrong with it and does not closely resemble these example printed characters.
 

	This character is pronounced "ki" and it means tree. For some reason, I cannot duplicate it and my two lines angling down are either too straight or too curvey or go down at the wrong angle. It shouldn't be this hard!
	This character is pronounced "on'na" and it means woman. This one also drives me craxy when I try to draw a nicely proportioned copy of it!

 
I'm so proud. As of September, 1999 (one year and 4 months after we moved to Japan) --- I can write my addess! So, use this the next time you write us a letter!

 
 
 

This page still not very developed as of December1999.
But, that's because I spend most of my free time studying Japanese since I'm taking the Level 3 Japanese Proficiency Test soon.
 
 

Kanji-a-Day Practice Pad

Java Kanji Flashcards 500

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I think the web page http://www.nuthatch.com/kanjicards/ has a great on-line drilling feature for the 500 Kanji listed here including stroke order. The Home page www.nuthatch.com also has interesting information about the programer and his studies of Japanese. I especially liked his list of Kanji on the Yamanote line since that was the very first Kanji I wanted to learn when we moved to Japan.

Many thanks to all my teachers!

• Oakton Community College, Japanese Year One during 1991 & 1992

Seth and I took the same course two years in a row since the more advanced course was offered too early in the evening. We had an older Japanese lady teaching us the first year and a young American woman the second.
• Saori Ford, London, England
• 1st teacher at SBC
• Shiozaki sensei from December 1998 to June 2000

Since I was so far behind the other two students in my class at work, I decided to take one week off of work to prepare for the Level 4 proficiency test in December of 1998. I planned to study Japanese for a full week. I went to the Imperial Hotel and they had two brochures of Japanese schools. Berlitz and Yokoyama System. Berlitz was way too expensive, so I ended up spending a very enjoyable week with Shiozaki sensei. I believe that the only reason I passsed both Level 4 and Level 3 of the Japanese Proficiency Test (Nihongo Noryoku Shiken) was because I started studying the Kanji months in advance and studied grammar intensively with Shiozaki sensei the week before the test.
Go to http://www.netpassport.or.jp/~wnoyokoy/index.htm for more information on the YDM (Yokoyama Direct Method)
• Berlitz
• OOyama sensei at the OLJ Acadamy http://www.olj-academy.com
• Natsuyoo sensei

 

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3 Vocabulary

Nouns
Verbs (very large list)
Suru Verbs
Adverbs
I Adjectives
Na Adjectives
Kanji
 
York University Lecture Notes