Feel This Love, Feel This Love

Well its that time of year again everyone. The time when all the students of Japanese gather at various campuses around the world to take the dreaded JLPT. ( See this post ) For everyone reading this blog that is doing the test, GOOD LUCK! 頑張って下さい！

I'll be doing my best too!


SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!
~Lala~

Higher Than the Dark Sky

So for those who don't know. Access has a new single coming out!!! You can get it at HMV and Tower Records online (they ship overseas) Links to come later.

I was talking to my friend and she asked how I felt about the new single and I answered 「ドキドキ」(doki doki) Many people know this statement. Its the sound of a heartbeat and it usually means the person is excited (in a positive way). These kinds of words are called "Onomatopeia" The Onomatopoeia is a "sound word" In English we have words like "tick tock" which is the sound of a clock and "click" However the English language doesn't use these words as much as the Japanese do.

How does the Japanese onomatopoeia work?

Usually there will be two sounds that will be repeated it. Such is the case in "ドキドキ" Some words the second sound will change. The sound of a clock in Japan can be described as "チクタク" (chiku taku) Most of the word will be four sounds.

How important are they to learn?

In Japanese the onomatopoeia is REALLY important. Some words you use even if its not related to a sound. Example: To say you want "separate checks" at a restaurant one person might say "べつべつ" (betsu betsu) When at a doctor's office one might describe their arm pain as ズキズキ (zuki zuki) which is a throbbing pain. One of my favorites to use is "ボロボロ" It is the sound of something crumbling. I use this to describe my Japanese. Meaning I haven't studied so it has crumbled.

Animal sounds are knows for being onomatopoeia as well. ワンワン (wan wan) being a dog's bark. ニャーニャー (nyaa nyaa) being a cat's meow. One I learned and haven't been able to forget is "バラバラ" It is the sound of things being scattered. I learned it in reference to AXS! During the Binary Engine pamphlet there were no pictures of them together and my friend said: 「バラバラなアクセスはさびしいいいい」(BARA BARA na AKUSESU wa sabishiiii) Meaning "Its lonely when access are separated" I couldn't for the life of me figure out bara bara. My dictionary said "scattered" Another friend said "Its like the petals of a flower. They should be together but fall apart." So to remember バラバラ I think of a rose (ばら bara in Japanese) and see it scattered everywhere. ばらばら！

Well that's all the time have for now. Link at the bottom.

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!

~Lala~

HIGHER THAN THE DARK SKY (LINKS)

HMV - http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3841459, http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3841460

Tower - http://tower.jp/item/2727996/Higher-Than-Dark-Sky-%28A%E7%9B%A4%29, http://tower.jp/item/2727997/Higher-Than-Dark-Sky-%28B%E7%9B%A4%29

Don't forget if you order both versions you get special pre-order goods!

turn it up and feel me first

オハヨ〜みんなさん、元気？
Hello everyone, how are you?

Its been a while since I posted. I've been busy with stuff. ;_; My friend went to Japan so I've been communicating with her a lot. It makes me 懐かしい！（なつかしい）「nostalgic」

I've been working secretly on a system to help people learn kanji, verbs, and adjectives all at the same time. Its harder than I thought but also easier than I feared. Some kanji have verbs and many don't. I want my system to be as easy as can be. I want a beginner to be able to look at it and go "Oh that makes sense"

TEST:
I'm sure I've mentioned "radicals" before. If I haven't here is a quick rundown. A radical is a part of a kanji. These radicals make up the kanji and each has a meaning. Learning the radicals helps you understand the kanji a little bit better. (NOTE: unlike Chinese, the radical does not determine the sound of the kanji, only the meaning) Example: the word rain is ame あめ the kanji for it is 雨 if you think hard the kanji looks like rain. Water drops falling from the sky. Anyways this kanji is a radical and appears in other kanj. Almost all of them having weather related terms! Here is a list of some of the kanji they appear in.

雨 - あめ Rain
雪 - ゆき Snow
雲 - くも Cloud
電 - でん Lightning
雷 - かみなり Thunder
震 - ふえる Quake
霜 - しも Frost
霧 - きり Fog

So the sounds I have given you are all "kun yomi" (SEE POST "Get Ready! So Crazy!)
Lets make some compounds and phrases using these words! (You'll see on yomi)

Starting with 雨

1.雨のち雪 あめ のち ゆき (ame nochi yuki) Rain then snow (used in weather forecasts)
2.雨雲 あめ ぐも (ame gumo) raincloud
3.雨がふる あめ が ふる (ame ga furu) To rain (to say "its raining" or "it will rain" "it will snow" uses the same word)

Next 雪

1.雪まじり雨 ゆき まじり あめ (yuki majiri ame) Snow mixed with rain. (used in weather forecasts)
2.雪山 ゆきやま (yuki yama) Snowy mountain
3.雪でおおわれる ゆき で おおわれる (yuki de oowareru) To be covered in snow.

Next 雲

1.Cloudy*
2.雲形 くもがた (kumo gata) Cloud shaped
3.雲があつめる くも が あつめる (kumo ga atsumeru) Clouds gathering
The kanji 曇りis used to describe cloudy weather. It also reads as くも but its on yomi is どん

Next 電 while it means "lightning" it mostly means "electric"

1.電車は止まりました　でんしゃ は とまりました(densha wa tomarimarimashita) Trains are stopped
2.電話 でんわ (denwa) telephone
3.電気を消して下さい でんき を けして ください (denki wo keshite kudasai) turn off the electricity.

How does this work for you? I hope for input! Its still a work in progress.

See you next round!

~Lala~

EVERYONE! LOOKING FOR PARTY TIME!

travel times and prices

Concert 1: Fussa
From: Shinjuku to Fussa
Price: 620 yen
Time: 47 minutes
Round Trip: 1240 yen

Concert 2-3: Nakano (2 days)
From: Shinjuku to Nakano
Price: 150 yen
Time: 7 minutes
Round Trip: (2 Days) 600 yen

Concert 4: Nagoya
From: Tokyo to Nagoya:
Route 1: Bullet Train
Price: 10,070 yen (non reserved)
Time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Route 2: Night Bus
Price: 6420 yen
Time: 7 hours
Both Routes end up at Nagoya station.

Nagoya station to Kanayama (where hall is)
Price: 160 yen
Time: three minutes (include another 5 - 10 for walking from station)
Round trip: 320 yen

Concert 5: Kobe
From: Nagoya to ShinKobe
Price: 7650 yen
Time: 1 hour seven minutes
(ALTERNATE ROUTE)
Bus:
From: Nagoya (meitetsu Bus Center) to Kobe (JR Sannomiya Station)
price: 3300 yen
time: 3 hours 13 minutes

Shin-Kobe to Sannomiya Station (where hall is)
price: 200 yen
time: 2 minutes (include another 10 - 15 walking from station)

TRAVEL PLANS:
Where we stay is up to how people are coming. If you need to be cost efficient there are a few ways.

1. Stay in Kanto. You can fly into Narita and only attend the concerts in Kanto. Fussa and Tokyo (Nakano) This is the cheapest route. No far travel and cheap places to stay are easy to find.

2. Chuubu or Kansai
If you don't want to fly in Narita you can fly into Nagoya or Osaka. (Chuubu or Kansai airports) The travel from Nagoya to Kobe isn't far. (Kobe is only on the other side of the bay from Osaka.) Very close from Kansai Airport. These concerts are also only a day apart. So this option is also very cheap.

Railpass:
If you are a foreign traveler to Japan you can purchase a JR railpass. This allows you to ride ANY JR line unlimited for the time allotment. You can even ride the JR buses with them. A two week railpass is 45,100 yen. If you add the price of the trains from Tokyo to Nagoya and Kobe and back it would basically pay for its self. Plus it gives you unlimited rides between concerts in Tokyo and Nagoya/Kobe.

Night Bus:
The reason I listed night buses is because not only is it cheap, It knocks off a place to sleep for the night. If you get on the night bus at 11:00 pm you end up in Nagoya 7 hours later. From Nagoya to Kobe its not really an option because the bus is three hours long but it is a lot cheaper.

Biggest question: LODGING!!!!
There are SO many options I don't even know where to start. My firm belief is that cheap isn't always so bad. (I'm a broke college student) So as far as lodging is concerned I'm always ok with "roughing it" which means staying in a Manga (internet) cafe. These are places where you pay between 1000 to 2000 yen for unlimited internet, free drinks, a mat to sleep on and sometimes free food. (only sometimes) If I'm going SUPER cheap I will get the five hour pack for 800 yen then ride Yamanote sen for a few hours. I don't suggest that though. Manga kissa also offer showers which are usually about 500 yen but they provide you with shampoo and soap and brushes and towels.

Super Hotel
Usually if I have two concerts back to back I like to kick back at a super hotel. Its a cheap hotel that you can stay at. Greater Tokyo ones have been kicked up to 6000 + a night. Still they are convenient and cheeper then a lot of hotels. If there is a two person room and the cost is split its about 4700 yen a night which isn't bad. They also offer a free all you can eat breakfast. Which is always a plus.

Youth Hostel
They are great places to stay and are cheap. My favorite is the "Tokyo International Youth Hostel" In IIdabashi. (Tokyo) Its about 3000 yen a night. Check out time is really early but, its a place to sleep and it has an amazing view. (18th floor of an office building) There are many that can be as cheep as 1500 yen a night.

In short. A trip to Japan can be as cheep or as expensive as you want it to be. You have to wonder how much of a comfort level you want. If you want to sleep in a hotel room every night its going to be expensive but if you don't mind manga kissa or sharing a room with 12 other people you don't know. You can really cut corners and make budget it well.

I look forward to helping as many of you as possible and if you have any questions PLEASE feel free to e-mail me.

~Lala~

Get Ready So Crazy!

Hello everyone! みんな元気？

So I'm going to make another post about kanji. This time I've put it in FAQ format.

Kanji part two

I realized last post that I didn't get too deep into important stuff about kanji. Like what makes it hard and some things to keep in mind

Why is kanji hard?
I've always had the same theory about kanji. Knowing kanji makes life all the more simple. Studying it is the real bitch. The hardest part about studying kanji is trying to remember all a kanji's readings.

Kanji have more then one reading?
For all intensive purposes lets assume that there are two readings for every kanji. They are "on-yomi" and "kun-yomi" the "on-yomi" is the "sound" reading. When the Japanese first adapted kanji from the Chinese they took some of the pronunciations of some kanji. Characters such as 三 and 字 have the same "on-yomi" reading in Japanese and Chinese. さんand じ Not all kanji are this way. The on-yomi is called The next type is the "kun-yomi" The kun yomi is the meaning reading or the "Japanese Reading" This reading usually stands alone and can mean a word. For example the kanji for car 車 is read as "しゃ" in its Chinese reading. But, しゃby itself doesn't mean anything. For it to be a word it must use it's Japanese reading くるま.

So when do you use the on-yomi?
The on-yomi is usually used in compound words. Example. The word "Train" is a compound kanji word. "でんしゃ" in kanji its read as "電車" meaning "electric car" (keep in mind this was before automobiles in Japan that this word was used) One teacher told me "When reading a compound kanji word treat the second or last kanji as the on-yomi reading" This isn't always true but it occurs quite often.

You said "For all intensive purposes …." What does that mean?
This is where kanji gets complicated. While there are the on yomi and kun yomi not all of these have one way of reading them. Some kanji only have an on-yomi, some only have a kun-yomi, and some have multiple on or kun yomi. For example. The kanji "下" has many different readings. "ka, ge, shita, shin, moto, sage(ge)ru, kuda, oresu, oriru, aka, and shito" For those familiar with internet terms, SAGE uses this kanji. It doesn't end there either. Many times a kanji will have a "voiced" sound that isn't listed as a reading.

Ok, I'm scared. What's a "voiced sound"?
Don't be too scared. LOL a voiced sound is when a kanji is in a compound and its reading is slightly altered. An example is to say sometimes you use 時々 the word is repeated so the sound become "tokidoki" (NOT DOKI DOKI) Other kanji have the same issue not only with repeaters but other sounds. There are no rules for when this will happen so you have to learn as you go. Sometimes ka becomes ga.

You said the word 時々is the same sound repeated why are the kanji different?
々 is a kanji made up by the Japanese. It lets you know that the kanji before it is repeated. It doesn't have a sound on its own. Other examples are 人々 (hito bito)[each person]、日々(hi bi)[each day]、examples where the second sound doesn't change are 年々(nen nen)[year by year]、代々(daidai)[generation after generation]、徐々に(jo jo in)[little by little] and so fourth and so on.

Well I think that's all for now. As always you can e-mail me at summernightbreezer@gmail.com with question

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!
~Lala~

Don't forget to sing your heart, in place of me your song forever

みんな！元気！？

Hello there! How are you?

Today's topic is about something I get a lot of questions about. The evil that is known as KANJI DUN DUN DUN!!!!! For those of you that are new to studying and don't know anything about Kanji let me teach you about it. Kanji (漢字) is the Japanese word for "Chinese Characters" What Kanji literally means is "Han Characters" as Kanji was introduced to Japan from China during the Han Dynasty. Because the Japanese didn't have a writing system they adapted the Chinese way of writing for hundreds of years. A question that I get asked often is "Can Japanese people read Chinese?" Keep in mind that the Chinese writing system has gone through many changes over thousands of years but to some extent they can. Its much like if a native English speaker is looking at a Spanish or French document. You might recognize a few words because they look very similar to English because of their Latin roots.

Because the Chinese simplified their characters many Japanese can't read them in their simple form. Example: 車 is car in Japanese "kuruma" When the Chinese simplified the kanji it turned into this 车 Which is very different. Some characters where simplified by the Japanese but not Chinese. 佛 means Buddha in Chinese but in Japanese its 仏. Some characters were simplified in both languages but not the same. 氣 use to mean air in simplified Chinese it is 气 but in Japanese 気 its the ki in "genki". Some kanji simplified both ways and created lots of cognates 國 use to be country but it has been simplified to 国 (read as "kuni" in Japanese) in both Chinese and Japanese. Click here to see a better explanation on the differences and similarities of Chinese and Japanese characters

Another question I get a lot is "How important is it for me to learn Kanji?" The answer is "VERY!!!" I've met people that have said "I'm not going to worry about learning Kanji until I'm better at speaking." I can't say this point enough. "DO NOT BLOW OFF KANJI!" After you master Hiragana and Katakana I suggest that you immediately work on learning Kanji. The truth is that Kanji is part of the everyday language and I think that a lot of foreign classrooms ignore it until upper levels. Which I feel is a mistake.

What rate you learn Kanji is up to you but what I find is best for me is to learn 5 a week. One a day more or less then giving you the weekend to review them. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T LEARN HIRAGANA OR KATAKANA!!!! You can learn one sound a week. "a i u e o" "ka ki ku ke ko" "sa shi su se so" and so on. If you use this method you can learn up to 250 kanji a year!

How many Kanji do I need to learn? There are three lists and I don't want to go into TOO much detail about them so here are the lists and explanations of them. Kyouiku, Jouyou, and Jinmeiyou

Tools: Here are some good kanji tools for you.
Online:
http://japanese-kanji.com/ - You can drill yourself on the kanji (allows for different lists to be selected)
DS: If you have a DS and understand hiragana I suggest getting the game なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習(nazotte oboeru otona no kanji renshuu) There are three versions and it teaches you how to write the on-yomi and the kun-yomi as well as stroke order. Each version adds another mini-game as well as updates the list of kanji.

Well this was a long post. I'll make another one about on-yomi and kun-yomi and talk about Kanji (without references to Chinese) at another time.

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!

~Lala~

back and alive

おひさしぶり！みんなげんき？

Hello everyone! Its been a while! How are you all? I've been busy with a lot of things so I haven't really had time to update this blog. I think about it more then I actually blog >_<. Anyways I wanted to bring up some topics for discussion. I get a lot of questions about how people can "rate" their Japanese skills. The truth is there are tests that can help you. Today I'm going to talk about them.

JLPT
The first test is one that many people have heard of. Its called the "Japanese Language Proficiency Test" or JLPT for short. Its Japanese name is 日本語能力試験 (nihongo nouryoku shiken) which translates to "Japanese Ability Test" This test is give twice a year in Japan and soon to be twice in the US. Originally the format was there were four levels and they go backwards. Level 4 being the easiest and level 1 being the hardest. Until this year. The levels have been renamed and split apart. They also added a new level. The format now is levels N5 to N1. N3 being the new level. This is a standardized test and multiple choice. You are graded on your ability to read kanji, understand basic vocabulary, reading, conjugating, and listening comprehension. The JLPT is administered in over 50 countries. The new N5 level is for those who have completed at least 1 year of Japanese language learning. Applicants for Japanese citizenship are screened based on JLPT achievements. Until 2003 the JLPT was the standard test given to students who wished to study in Japan
To find out more about the JLPT please visit http://www.jlpt.jp/e/ or http://www.jflalc.org/

Japanese Kanji Aptitude Test. Its Japanese name is 日本漢字能力検定試験, (nihongo kanji nouryoku kentei shiken) thankfully it has a short name "kanji kentei" This test is given to students starting from the 1st grade up. Like the JLPT the levels go backwards. Level 10 being the easiest and level 1 being the hardest. There are "pre-levels" for 2 and 1. The kanji kenti is not as well known as the JLPT and doesn't really have an value as far as work and school go. It does however give you an idea of how much kanji one knows and studying for it is the greatest benefit you can get. You are graded on the on-yomi and kun-yomi (Japanese and Chinese readings) stroke order, and voiced sounds. For more information contact a Japanese teacher who can help you find the nearest test center. http://www.kanken.or.jp/index.php (Japanese only)

BJT
For those who want to enter the Japanese work force, the JLPT is not enough. Many business require that a person take the BJT or Business Japanese Proficiency Test. Known in Japan as "ビジネス日本語能力テスト" (BIZUNESU nihongo nouryoku TESUTO) Offered in only a few countries the BJT is split in to two sections. The first in multiple choice and the second is an oral interview. You are placed in a mock business scenario and must interact as if you were interacting with a customer. The test is given completely in Japanese so having passed at least JLPT N2 would be a pre-requisite.
For more information: http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/english/index.html

Last but not least - EJU
The EJU is the "Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students" Which that long of an English name are you scared to see the Japanese name? 日本留学試験 (nihon ryugaku shiken) LOL shortest one yet! Depending on your major you are given certain tests. If you are studying Japanese you have to the the JFL Test. (Think ESL but in Japanese) Others include Maths, Sciences, and Arts. The test is offered in English and Japanese unless you are taking the JFT test. Then its only in Japanese. In Japan you have to take a test before you are allowed into a university. This is for foreign students looking to attend any higher education facility.
For more information: http://www.jasso.go.jp/eju/index_e.html

Well that's all for tonight. I've got US history II homework to finish tomorrow as well as keeping up with Japanese studies of course!

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!
~Lala~