Monday, December 18, 2006
updates!!
Ok, so I haven't written in a while. I guess I've just been waay too busy this semester, mostly due to TA'ing 6.002, which basically left me with almost no time to do research (bad since I'm trying to graduate next semester!). Plus I was also taking a class myself (6.774) and trying to study for the Japanese Proficiency Test. So some general updates:
~WEDDING~
So the week of thanxgiving Joe & I went to San Antonio to visit his family, and take care of some wedding stuff. We got a lot done...we booked our florist, decorator, and baker (we even got to do some cake tasting!). We also got our engagement pictures taken! We just got them in the mail the other day, and out of the 250+ photos (in color, black and white, and sepia!) We picked about 50 of the ones we really liked to put online here.
~漢字(KANJI)
So on November 18, I FINALLY finished the Heisig kanji book, thereby making the number of kanji characters I memorized to 2,042. WOOOOO!!
I'm sure most of you are like, yeah, whatever, but this is a big deal for me...I was pretty impressed that I could memorize THE WRITING of over 2,000 Sino-Japanese characters in about SIX MONTHS! I had always struggled with the kanji for YEARS while taking Japanese classes, until I discovered James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" book (Vol 1). Let me just say that this book made me love kanji, where I had once *hated* them. :) Any non-Chinese foreigner studying Japanese surely understands the feeling of frustration when trying to memorize all these characters, some of which have like over 20 strokes and look quite similar to various other kanji with completely different meanings.
Anyway, I'm really glad I finished the book, much thanks to the help of a kanji flashcard website created by Denis Fabrice. To this day I have reviewed the 2,042 a total of 15,774 times!
~日本語能力試験(JAPANESE PROFICIENCY TEST)~
On December 3rd, I went to New York to take the Japanese Proficiency Test. Well, the trip to New York was really fun, but the testing part....eek. To sum up, I did terribly...I'm guessing I got a 15-20%. :( The thing is, I wasn't prepared enough. For 2kyuu (Level 2), which is what I took, you have to know approx 1,000 kanji and 6,000 words, plus a high level of grammar. Well I know all ~2000 of the general-use kanji (see previous paragraph), so I was way ahead there, but I didn't know enough vocabulary (I estimate I only knew about 3500 words). Plus my grammar wasn't good enough..I had only made it little over 1/2 way thru the Unicom 2kyuu Grammar book. Those two things really screwed me over, especially on the reading comprehension section (I was a really slow reader).
Oh well...I'm determined to pass it next year. 来年こそ試験を合格するぞ！Sure I'll be busy with my thesis and the wedding (and the following honeymoon, and some sort of employment following that)....But now that I don't have to spend time learning new kanji (or TAing, or taking classes) I should have time to just concentrate on learning vocab and grammar. Right now I'm studying vocabulary and kanji compound words from the Kanji Drill volume of the Unicom books (bought them at Kinokuniya in Rockefeller Center when we were in NYC).
~THESIS/GRADUATION~
Oh yeah, and I guess this is important, too.... :) Well, as I mentioned earlier, not much research work done this year, as I've been so busy with TA'ing and taking classes. But I did have a committee meeting in October, and it looks like I should be able to graduate in June. That's exciting but it's also kinda freaky...that means I'll have to have a thesis defense by April, and I'll have to have my thesis by May. EEK. That is so freaky!
~WEDDING~
So the week of thanxgiving Joe & I went to San Antonio to visit his family, and take care of some wedding stuff. We got a lot done...we booked our florist, decorator, and baker (we even got to do some cake tasting!). We also got our engagement pictures taken! We just got them in the mail the other day, and out of the 250+ photos (in color, black and white, and sepia!) We picked about 50 of the ones we really liked to put online here.
~漢字(KANJI)
So on November 18, I FINALLY finished the Heisig kanji book, thereby making the number of kanji characters I memorized to 2,042. WOOOOO!!
I'm sure most of you are like, yeah, whatever, but this is a big deal for me...I was pretty impressed that I could memorize THE WRITING of over 2,000 Sino-Japanese characters in about SIX MONTHS! I had always struggled with the kanji for YEARS while taking Japanese classes, until I discovered James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" book (Vol 1). Let me just say that this book made me love kanji, where I had once *hated* them. :) Any non-Chinese foreigner studying Japanese surely understands the feeling of frustration when trying to memorize all these characters, some of which have like over 20 strokes and look quite similar to various other kanji with completely different meanings.
Anyway, I'm really glad I finished the book, much thanks to the help of a kanji flashcard website created by Denis Fabrice. To this day I have reviewed the 2,042 a total of 15,774 times!
~日本語能力試験(JAPANESE PROFICIENCY TEST)~
On December 3rd, I went to New York to take the Japanese Proficiency Test. Well, the trip to New York was really fun, but the testing part....eek. To sum up, I did terribly...I'm guessing I got a 15-20%. :( The thing is, I wasn't prepared enough. For 2kyuu (Level 2), which is what I took, you have to know approx 1,000 kanji and 6,000 words, plus a high level of grammar. Well I know all ~2000 of the general-use kanji (see previous paragraph), so I was way ahead there, but I didn't know enough vocabulary (I estimate I only knew about 3500 words). Plus my grammar wasn't good enough..I had only made it little over 1/2 way thru the Unicom 2kyuu Grammar book. Those two things really screwed me over, especially on the reading comprehension section (I was a really slow reader).
Oh well...I'm determined to pass it next year. 来年こそ試験を合格するぞ！Sure I'll be busy with my thesis and the wedding (and the following honeymoon, and some sort of employment following that)....But now that I don't have to spend time learning new kanji (or TAing, or taking classes) I should have time to just concentrate on learning vocab and grammar. Right now I'm studying vocabulary and kanji compound words from the Kanji Drill volume of the Unicom books (bought them at Kinokuniya in Rockefeller Center when we were in NYC).
~THESIS/GRADUATION~
Oh yeah, and I guess this is important, too.... :) Well, as I mentioned earlier, not much research work done this year, as I've been so busy with TA'ing and taking classes. But I did have a committee meeting in October, and it looks like I should be able to graduate in June. That's exciting but it's also kinda freaky...that means I'll have to have a thesis defense by April, and I'll have to have my thesis by May. EEK. That is so freaky!
